If we interviewed Ryan DeRobertis a year and a half ago, we might have pinned him down as “vaporwave,” “anonymous” or “mysterious.” Now, it's a totally different story.
Describing Saint Pepsi is describing a trajectory from the cool, glistening groove of “Isaac Washington“ to an insanely funky Mariah Carey remix to his new single “Fiona Coyne,” a poppy jam of summers' past featuring his vocals for the first time. Saint Pepsi is indescribable, but DeRobertis seems to like it that way. It's the music he wants to make.
WSUM spoke to DeRobertis before his first Chicago show about making perfect pop music, touring for the first time and being yourself, buddy.
Natalie Amend: How did you get started in music and producing?
Ryan DeRobertis: I got started in music pretty much simultaneously with how I got started in producing. I learned how to play instruments by downloading a bunch of MIDI programs on my old computer. I had one called Anvil Studio, which made the computer keyboard into a two-octave keyboard, so I learned how to play just by knowing the computer keyboard. A couple years later, I figured out that you could make real music and not computer music, so I downloaded FL Studio. This was like seventh grade. I made an album that was really bad, but it was an album. Eventually I taught myself guitar and my skills increased as a whole. I was writing songs as I was producing and recording them, so the more familiar I got with them, it just became secondhand nature.
NA: How did Saint Pepsi start?
RD: Saint Pepsi started about a year and a half ago. I was home for Christmas break and didn't have any of my recording equipment with me because I left it at school. So I was like all right, I'll make a vaporwave project. That's how the first couple Saint Pepsi mixtapes happened. It was just me messing around in Ableton and then I kind of figured out where I wanted to go with it and took it in more of an artsy fartsy, cinematic direction.
NA: What album began that?
RD: World Tour was the first one where I felt like I had a concept with it. It was actually so stupid. I was thinking about “Saint Pepsi and the new generation” and this would be the biggest music in the world. But it doesn't sound like anything—maybe in an alternate reality in the ‘80s where everything sounds kind of fucked up. That's where it would have been popular. I did one called Empire Building after that. That one was like I was trying to make a straight-up movie soundtrack, like opening scene to closing scene.
NA: What was the movie like?
RD: It was about going to Disney with your high school sweetheart in select chorus and chamber orchestra.
NA: You were saying that World Tour was your artsy, cinematic phase. What phase is Saint Pepsi in now?
RD: Now I'm trying to have fun and be smart about it. I grew up listening to a lot of ‘80s music, and I think that pop music in the ‘80s was deceptively complicated. A song like “Head Over Heels” by Tears for Fears is so catchy but then when you sit down and play the chords, it's in another language. It's not like what you hear on the radio now. It's not like they're the only band, either. I'm really big into this band called Scritti Politti who did an album based on what they thought perfect pop music would sound like. It's this really synthesized, saccharine, crazy album. The people that do PC Music and SOPHIE and stuff they always cite Scritti as an influence. I want to follow in their footsteps and, with any luck, usher in a new era where pop songwriting is not to be feared and can go alongside the production. It doesn't need to be a one-way street as far as I'm concerned.
NA: You mentioned that you're into a lot of ‘80s stuff when you were growing up. Were those albums influential in starting Saint Pepsi?
RD: In a funny way it was sort of influential. The vaporwave scene had already started and people were pulling nostalgia out of things that I never really had a connection to. The stuff that I was reminiscing over was stuff that I had secondhand experience with because I grew up listening to a lot of it. It was almost like it's you know a part of my music history. The early stuff was just me seeing what vibes out of music I grew up listening to and then from there I just tried to do my own thing.
NA: Any specific albums? Not just limited to ‘80s stuff.
RD: The biggest influence in my production is Causers of This by Toro y Moi. That was a landmark album for me. Daft Punk's Discovery was one of the first albums that I bought. I have that album memorized. Rio by Duran Duran was another huge one for me. I think it's perfectly structured. They're a lot smarter of a pop band than they're given credit for these days.
NA: What's your process like for making music? Since you seem to sample and remix songs a lot, especially early on, what makes a sample turn into a song for you?
RD: It's got that x factor. I never really know what it is. I can't search for a sample that I”m looking for. It just sort of finds me. That sounds so… spiritual, but I spend a lot of time when I'm sampling searching. It's not like anything I find I'll just throw in there, but I try to exercise my versatility. If I find something that might be workable, I'll try my best to do it. Generally, if I find something, I'll know within the first 30 seconds and then I'll put it into Ableton. It just happens from there. I build blocks. I'll put a loop on and then just add things to that and then figure out a bridge or some other way I can chop the sample up. The stuff that I'm doing now is a lot less sample-oriented. It'll hopefully follow in the vein of the albums I was talking about earlier. Something that's accessible but not safe, catchy but not simple. It's my goal for being a pop songwriter.
NA: Is it weird to transition Saint Pepsi from something more production-oriented into something like that?
RD: I always wanted that to be the end result of whatever music that I did. I never had any expectation other than to get better at writing and to hopefully link up with people, like famous people, get them to sing on my songs, and pull something else out of them. I can write songs for different people.
NA: Are there any people you really want to write songs for?
RD: I really want to produce a beat for Cam'ron. I think that I could knock that out of the park if I was given the opportunity. As far as singers, I feel like I could do a really good Kylie Minouge track. Somebody who's fun. I couldn't do a Beyonce song. Not that she's not fun, but there's nothing I could pull out of Beyonce.
NA: When you make music for Saint Pepsi, how do you envision people listening to it? How do you see people putting Saint Pepsi into their lives?
RD: My relationship with music that I really like is that I could talk to you at length about where I was the first time I heard it and important things that happened when that music was playing. I would above all want my music to have that sort of place in somebody's life, whether it's finding solace after something shitty happened or just a soundtrack to a first crush. That's where I see my music. I want it to be something that makes people feel something rather than just background music. I'd like it to be more interactive.
NA: This is your first time touring. How's that going?
RD: It's really cool to be on tour, especially with Painted Palms. We've become really good friends over the past week. That'll happen when you're sharing a stuffed van across 10 different states and two countries. It was good to be with people who had done it before because touring was so unnerving to me that I need that sort of comfort. Someone who's like, “Oh, this is no big deal. We never missed a show. We were on time for all our load ins. And then we got to party afterwards.”
NA: How do your live sets differ from your recorded stuff?
RD: My live sets differ now in that they're a lot more accessible. I play a lot of my songs mashed up with top 40 stuff that I sort of hinted at when I did the Carly Rae and Bieber remixes. I like bringing that stuff into my set because people that aren't necessarily into electronic music can still get into it if they have that melody guiding them. Vice versa, people who are into electronic but don't get pop music will at least come out and say pop is a guilty pleasure. That's more than I could ask for because people are very stubborn when it comes to disliking what they dislike and not having a reason for it.
NA: What are some of your favorite songs to play live or songs that people seem to really dig?
RD: I do a really cool remix of “Worst Behavior” by Drake, and that's probably the centerpiece of my set right now. I'm starting to play a couple of new songs. I sang them twice, once in New York and once in Detroit.
NA: Singing!
RD: Yeah! It was exciting because I hadn't done that in forever. I generally like the songs that get the most reaction from the crowd. “Mr. Wonderful” is generally one of the first ones. By the end of “Worst Behavior,” people kind of go crazy because there's a false ending to it. They think it's all over, then I start into something else. Those are definitely my favorite parts of the set.
NA: The Internet's obviously been crucial in your rise to popularity. What platforms have really helped you in gaining popularity?
RD: There's an online chatroom called SPF420. It's run by two of my best friends. It's basically a venue for producers and a worldwide audience to come and chill out. Joining SPF was super cool because they compile a lot of artists that didn't really share the same fanbase, but then the SPF420 fanbase became its own thing. I was really into it. I filled in for someone for an after party and it went super well, so I became best friends with them. In July, we had XXYXX perform. We've had Ryan Hemsworth, Anamanaguchi, and we did a SXSW show. It's really cool to see that there's people worldwide who get as excited about it as we do. Everybody is involved, which, with music that gets popular, is something that the audience misses, like a personal attachment to the artist. Everything happens behind a publicist or a label. It's kind of fun for me because I have both of those things now but I don't plan on sacrificing my Internet presence because I really like having that relationship with people who like my music. I could be up at two in the morning and be like, “Oh, I want to play a show for people,” and then chat a link and soon a hundred people worldwide are there. It's so cool to me. The Tinychat layout has it so that whoever is broadcasting is at the top and at the bottom is a chat. I actually premiered Hit Vibes at SPF420 and it was one of the most amazing moments of my life because I watched the flood of comments come in real time. It was the first time all these people were hearing music that was really personal to me. A lot of people had that same reaction, like they were touched by it instantly. I didn't think at that point that I had that power.
NA: What is it like seeing those comments come in real time?
RD: It's enough to make a grown man cry. I'll tell you that much. It's really cool. It's so different from concerts because you're not encouraged to discuss a concert during the concert, but when it's online, it's not a hinderance to anyone's enjoyment of the concert. What's cool is that once the artist is done performing, they usually hang out in the chat and watch the other artists perform. It's great to see a bunch of different musicians supporting each other in that way.
Chaz Allen (Ryan's friend and co-founder of SPF420): Our previous musicians come back and watch other people even if they're not playing. Hemsworth comes into the chat and just watches. That's what we do it for. Every producer is just a person that likes music, too.
RD: It gets rid of that cult of personality that comes with being a DJ. That mystique was what people wanted in music. When I started Saint Pepsi, it was an anonymous project and I was like screw this. I don't want to pretend that I'm some weird guy from like somewhere else when I'm a weird guy from Long Island. I feel like I can actually relate to people.
CA: Be yourself, buddy.
RD: Just be yourself. That's my advice.
NA: Along with being yourself, do you have any other advice for people?
RD: My piece of advice is to take in all the music you possibly can. It doesn't have to be whatever's out or whatever anyone's talking about. If you're having difficulty listening to a piece of music and not understanding what people get out of it, then keep listening to it. The more you sharpen your ear to what other people appreciate in music, the more versatile you become, and your fanbase will definitely grow because of that. I've done so many different styles of music, but nobody really tries to lock me down into one place because it's just what I do. I listen to some music, I like it, I'm inspired by it, and then whatever I make is the direct result of that. Music influences music, and it's a never-ending cycle where when you think that you can't innovate anymore, you just do it. You don't even have to try. It happens as long as you're a fan of music. Listen to a lot of music, and if you don't like it, keep listening until you understand why people like it. Not in a sarcastic way either. A genuine, “Okay, this isn't my cup of tea, but I understand why it sold millions of records.”
NA: What's next for you?
RD: There's a new single coming out. It's a double A-side, and it's my first release through Carpark Records. It'll be on vinyl, the first vinyl release I've ever done. I actually got the test pressing when I went to D.C. I got to hold it in my hands, and it was the most unreal experience ever. I bugged out. After that, I'm working on the album, which will be out in the fall. And then the sky's the limit, I guess. There's no concrete plans following that, but I'm just trying to stay busy and get my name so far out there that people can't turn a corner without seeing it.
NA: I don't really know how to frame this last question, but I follow you on Twitter.
RD: Oh no.
NA: And you tweet a lot about Tinder. So, for the ladies out there, is there a certain interest in common that seals the deal for you?
RD: What gets an automatic swipe right is when they like Saint Pepsi.
Catch Saint Pepsi headlining WSUM's Snake on the Lake Fest at The Sett on September 5.
