No summer can be considered complete without a fun boat ride. We’ll leave the looking for a boat part to you, and we’ll provide the perfect soundtrack, deal?

“Harbor” is a collaboration between Los Angeles-based producer Kap Slap (moniker of Jared Lucas) and singer from Nashville Jake Etheridge, and it carries all of the necessary traits of a late-summer banger: it’s dancey but not too in-your-face; it’s romantic but not too syrupy and finally, it’s just a great track to nod your head to while sitting at work or school and dreaming about your next big adventure in the sea.

We chatted with Kap Slap about his background and the new single.

What's your story so far?

I wrote and recorded my first song in my basement when I was 16 or so with a high school friend of mine but never really pursued the traditional music route. I then went to Lehigh University for college, where I was accepted into the Honors Integrated Business and Engineering program but still needed an outlet for my creative side.  

After seeing another mashup artist perform at my school, I made my first three mashups in 2010 using GarageBand, then switched to Ableton after learning that Skrillex and Deadmau5 were using it. Soon the name Kap Slap became synonymous with college party music due to the success of my mixes like the Spring Break Mix and bootleg packs like the Bootie Bundles.

Once I graduated I moved to the NYC area and locked myself in my room for two years perfecting my original productions.  In January 2015 I released my first completely original work "Let It All Out," which debuted at #17 on iTunes Dance, following that up with a collaboration with my good friend Gazzo called "Rewind" and finally my last single "Felt This Good," which you may have heard on SiriusXM as the BPM Breaker!

What should we know about your new single? How did you meet Jake?

This single is the first pop crossover that I've made that doesn't have elements of a progressive house structure.  It has one of my favorite vocals and it’s got an awesome theme.  It’s a super pop friendly vocal that reminds me of something the band Fun would have released, so I had a little fun myself putting the Kap Slap sound to it. As far as Jake goes, to tell you the truth, I haven't even met Jake yet!  We received the topline (which basically just means vocals and a barebones arrangement) from our A&R at our record label and loved it so much that we decided to take the vocals as is and build the track around that. After going back and forth a few times, we both agreed on the version you hear today, and the rest is history.

Talking about harbors, who would you invite and what would you take on a month-long boat ride?

I'd invite all of my producer / DJ buddies and have them invite all of their DJ friends, get a massive sound system, some CDJ's, and stop at every beach along the coast and turn it into a dance party.

What's the craziest thing that happened to you this summer?

I stepped into an Uber last week and my song was already playing on the radio, pretty cool feeling.