Class Actress

Having spent years performing her own material in coffeehouses, Elizabeth Harper shifted her focus to electronic music in 2009, working with producers Mark Richardson and Scott Rosenthal. Richardson, who grew up in Philadelphia, had first caught Harper’s attention several years earlier by remixing one of the tracks from her debut album. She favored his take over the original and later reunited with him in Brooklyn to blend her pop compositions with sampled drumbeats and synthesized instrumentation. Rosenthal soon joined the sessions as well, and the resulting project, Class Actress, issued its first recording in 2010 with the electro-pop EP Journal of Ardency. The set drew inspiration from Madonna, Depeche Mode, and the Brooklyn band Chairlift. After signing with Carpark Records, the group delivered its full-length debut, Rapprocher, in October 2011. Class Actress moved to Casablanca Records in 2013, prompting Harper’s relocation to Hollywood in pursuit of a more glamorous setting. The label arranged a meeting with Giorgio Moroder, who consented to serve as executive producer on the next project, yet scheduling conflicts pushed the sessions back without a firm timeline. Casablanca finally confirmed the June 2015 release of Movies, marking Class Actress’s first EP on the imprint.