| Step by Step | |
| Type: | single |
| Ep: | Step by Step |
| A-Side: | Creative Source |
| Genre: | French touch |
| Label: | Domino Recording Company |
| Chronology: | Braxe + Falcon |
| Next Title: | Elevation |
| Next Year: | 2022 |
"Step by Step" is a song by the French touch duo Braxe + Falcon. Produced by Alan Braxe and DJ Falcon, it was released as a double A-side single with the duo's track "Creative Source" on 29 March 2022, and as part of the extended play of the same name released on 24 June that year. It features lyrics and vocals by the American musician Noah "Panda Bear" Lennox.
Braxe and Falcon began work on music demos together around the same time Falcon produced the Daft Punk track "Contact" (2013), not knowing each other beyond family gatherings but bonding over their shared careers in the electronic genre. These demos were left untouched for years until the manager of Domino Records, Peter Bernard, encouraged the duo to finish them. Braxe and Falcon sent the first of these demos, an instrumental, to Animal Collective member Panda Bear, who came up with the lyrics while cooking and sang vocals, sending his work to the duo around 48 hours later.
"Step by Step" received acclaim from critics, with praise for Lennox's vocals and lyrics, Braxe and Falcon's production, and its message. A music video directed by Toru Tokikawa and starring skater Ginwoo Onodera was released on 25 August 2022. A remix by Axel Boman was released in January 2023, and Braxe + Falcon performed the song live for the first time with Lennox that July at Knockdown Center in Queens.
The producers Alan Braxe and DJ Falcon worked on electronic music in the late 1990s and 2000s on Thomas Bangalter's label Roulé. Braxe released the single "Vertigo" (1997) and with Stardust, produced "Music Sounds Better with You" (1998); Falcon produced the extended play Hello My Name is DJ Falcon (1999) and created two tracks with Bangalter as Together, the namesake track in 2000 and "So Much Love to Give" in 2002. From then on, Falcon remained largely inactive with music production, taking up hobbies like surfing and DJing, with Braxe continuing to produce music.
In 2013, Falcon co-produced the Daft Punk track "Contact", at which point he and Braxe began recording demos together. Prior to this, Braxe and Falcon had only met "maybe ten times at family parties", and had no knowledge of each other's careers in electronic music, something that brought them close. The demos they made together were left untouched for years until the two spoke with Domino Records manager Peter Berard around 2020, who convinced them to finish them.
"Step by Step" was the first of these demos to be completed, crucial to the duo since it was a "downtempo ballad with acoustic drums", a departure from the traditional French house 125 beats per minute format which they wanted to avoid for their return. The demo that became "Step by Step" was originally an instrumental, and at some point during the duo's process of finishing their work, they thought to send it to Panda Bear, who wrote a song to go with it. The duo sent Lennox the instrumental without any comments, only references of the musician's material that they liked, telling him "you're free to do whatever you want to do". They described the instrumental as "a downtempo variation of the Roulé era club tracks".
Lennox came up with the title while he was cooking, and remarked the song is a reflection of how much he had been inspired by the duo's sampling work; he said the repetition of the title phrase in the verses, chorus, bridge, and coda reinforces it as a "hopeful mantra". Falcon believes it took Lennox 48 hours to send back his work on the track.
The music video for "Step by Step" was written, directed, and produced by Toru Tokikawa, and stars Ginwoo Onodera, a professional skateboarder. Filmed in Tokyo, the video features footage from Onodera's early days practising the sport as well as shots of him winning awards and performing tricks. A friend of Braxe's, Tokikawa had the idea of showing the growth of a child from a young age through the practice of skateboarding, which was a concept that the duo accepted instantly since they had skateboarded from their youth. The video was released on 25 August 2022.
"Step by Step" was released as a double A-side single on 29 March 2022. It was digitally released as part of the duo's Step by Step extended play on 24 June, and in vinyl record format on 26 August on Domino Recording Company's Smugglers Way label. Swedish DJ Axel Boman released a remix of the song in January 2023. Panda Bear and Braxe + Falcon debuted "Step by Step" live during a show at Knockdown Center in Queens, New York, on 21 July 2023.
Pitchforks Evan Minsker said that Panda Bear "gives the duo's subtle glow a narrative framework", and that "the synths suddenly come alive, acoustic drums breathe momentum into the song's sails". He felt Panda Bear's performance was his finest of 2022, and said that his multi-tracked vocals in "copious" repetition transformed "an old self-help chestnut into a life-changing belief system". Stereogum said the duo "welcome the future and imbue that theme into a breezy track", calling it "a comforting reminder that change can be a positive thing — and if you're feeling overwhelmed, just break it down into little pieces".
KCRW's Travis Holcombe said Braxe and Falcon's instrumental "emanates warmth and is almost like a slowed-down version" of the four-on-the-floor tracks that originally brought them acclaim, and said Lennox's "incredible knack for melody and optimistic lyrics fit perfectly to produce an all-time great track". Pitchforks Philip Sherburne said it was "a song so good that the rest of the EP pales in comparison", and hailed it as "a languid yacht-rock-disco number that features a chord progression for the ages". He felt the song's best part was Lennox's, who "delivers one of his most stirring performances", praising the relatability of his part, which Sherburne found uncommon in most dance music.
The staff of KCRW named it among the best songs of 2022, and Pitchfork named it one of the best electronic songs of that year.