Ossien & ALiV Mix Funk, Jazz and Heavy Bass on “FBL”

What eventually became “FBL” began years before Ossien and ALiV finished the track together. Released on October 7 via Gridlock Music Group, the collaboration brings together future funk, experimental bass, dubstep and reggae while carrying a story shaped by major changes in both artists’ lives.

The first version of the track came from a songwriting assignment ALiV started while studying music production at ICON Collective in Los Angeles. At the time, she had recently ended nearly nine years of active-duty military service, packed what she could into her truck and drove across the country with her dachshund, Luna, to pursue music.

That plan took an unexpected turn when ICON Collective permanently closed in May 2025, just three weeks before ALiV’s class was scheduled to graduate. The unfinished track, originally titled “Funky Bassline & My Friends Pt. I,” went through several different drops before eventually being shelved.

During that period, ALiV became close friends with Ossien, connecting through nights spent headbanging at Seven Stars and a shared appreciation for saxophone and jazz. When she eventually played him the vocal from the unfinished song, he immediately saw an opportunity to collaborate.

Their different musical backgrounds ultimately helped shape “FBL” into its final form. For ALiV, the song became her first vocally driven release, giving her the opportunity to dive deeper into recording and vocal processing.

Ossien brought another perspective to the production. Before moving into electronic music, his musical background included writing for orchestra and solo piano. On “FBL,” he took the second drop away from the mid-tempo feel of the first, shifting into half-time and adding another layer to the track’s genre-blending identity.

The result is a record that moves between future funk, experimental bass, dubstep and reggae influences, while still leaving space for the jazz-inspired elements that helped connect the two artists in the first place.

The personalities behind the collaboration are just as different as their musical backgrounds. Before pursuing music, ALiV served as a combat engineer and paratrooper in the U.S. Army, an experience she describes in characteristically direct fashion.

“I used to blow sh*t up and jump out of planes for a living. Weeee!”

Ossien, meanwhile, shared another detail about his musical abilities: he has perfect pitch. When asked to describe their respective sounds in three words, ALiV chose “funky, psychedelic, hard-hitting,” while Ossien went with “riveting, wonky, jazzy.”

Those identities also show up in where each artist hopes to eventually take their music. For ALiV, the dream is Lost Lands, a festival she attended with her best friend in 2023.

“I can only imagine how insane it’ll be to stand on that stage and have that holy sh— moment, realizing everything’s come full circle.”

For Ossien, that destination is Electric Forest, where he believes the combination of live instrumentation, bass music and the jazz and jam-band influences behind his project would naturally come together.

“I think this is the one festival where all the pieces of OSSIEN make sense all at once.”

Beyond the production itself, the meaning behind “FBL” comes back to something much simpler: music, friendship and the freedom to be yourself.

ALiV hopes the track makes listeners feel as though they are surrounded by friends regardless of where they are. Ossien shares a similar perspective, describing the song as a reminder of what he believes matters most in life.

“What matters in life is pursuing what we're passionate about and sharing that pursuit with people around us that we love, and spending time with those people.”

That sense of community also extends to anyone discovering either artist for the first time. ALiV wants her project to be a space where listeners feel “welcome, loved, and seen,” without the pressure to look, act or live a certain way.

Ossien’s introduction is a little more straightforward:

“Buckle up LOL, I'm gonna take you on a journey, and you're gonna see how crazy (in a good way) my mind is :)”

With “FBL” now out via Gridlock Music Group, the collaboration captures exactly what happens when two very different musical paths meet in the same place: funk and jazz collide with heavy bass, while friendship sits at the center of it all.