Robert DeLong: TAS In Session
Face paint aficionado Robert DeLong is determined to bring a one-man party to the stage, but the Los Angeles-based dance artist isn't interested in churning out the dull brand of roaring EDM as proselytized by Deadmau5 or Skrillex.
Adroitly juggling electronic gadgetry, MIDI interfaces, drums, supple pop chops and insightful lyrics, Robert DeLong's music harkens back to a more sophisticated era of dance music. Bolstered by his breakout single, "Global Concepts," he's also booked an array of festivals — including Coachella, Sasquatch!, and New York's Governor's Ball in June. A UK and European tour begins in May.
Watch the videos from Robert DeLong's TAS session below and listen to the entire session when it airs this Friday, March 29, on TAS on 91.5 WNYE at 11 a.m. ET, also streaming online.
Robert DeLong's Just Movement is out now on Glassnote Records.
Eric Holland: How did [Just Movement] begin to come together? You were a drummer first?
Robert DeLong: I was. I grew up as a drummer, my dad was a drummer, so the kit was around the house. I took lessons early on. I always played piano and guitar a little bit. I was always writing songs, but I drummed mostly jazz and then in rock and indie bands through high school and college. As I was writing songs, I realized I had this backlog of material. I went to school for audio engineering, so I’d recorded all of these songs. I tried how to figure out how to play them live and it sort of evolved into what it is.
Eric: Are you one of these guys where I could give you an instrument and in an hour you could fake it that you could play it?
Robert: Some things. I don’t know. I probably couldn’t do it with a saxophone.
Eric: You are creating a reputation as a guy who plays remote controls.
Robert: A Wii remote. It sends the information to my computer, via Bluetooth, and I have software that converts it to Midi and it’s whatever I want it to be in my computer.
Eric: What are you starting off with today?
Robert: A combination of two songs: “Where We’re Going” which transitions into “Religious Views.” “Where We’re Going” is a song that didn’t make it on the album, but elements of the song are on the element. So it’s got the chorus of “Just Movement” and it’s definitely connected to everything. “Religious Views” is on the album.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGp6NmtekP4]
Eric: You’re Seattle-born and LA based?
Robert: Been in LA almost nine years now.
Eric: What is the primary inspiration for you to become a musician? Was there a record or an artist that you can point to?
Robert: It’s funny. It’s hard to pinpoint anything specific. I definitely know that it was probably around my senior year of high school that I realized it was going to be my career. Up to then I thought I’d probably go into the sciences, you know. Physics. I realized I was better at music. Growing up I listened to a lot of Pat Metheny and that was my jam (laughs).
Eric: Last time you were in the city, you played a Moby song. How old were you when [his album] Play came out?
Robert: I think I was about 12 but Play was a pretty big thing for me. It was one of the first times that I started acknowledging the existence of electronic music. That was definitely a big influence.
Eric: You studied jazz?
Robert: Yeah, I played drums in jazz bands and combos all through junior high and high school. Studied it more formally in college.
Eric: Does that sensiblitiy inform what you do on your debut?
Robert: Definitely everything affects everything in the way you play music. Certainly there are some harmonic things I do, more on the composing end, that I’ve taken from jazz. Beyond that, certainly in the way I perform, it comes across. A lot of times the drums become the lead instrument in my performance, as I play them, and that’s all because of my jazz training. I don’t know!
Eric: When you perform live, do you like having supplemental musicans with you?
Robert: I pretty much always do it solo. I occasionally have had guest vocalists join on a couple of tunes. But pretty much just me on stage, jumping around!
Eric: Continuous flow?
Robert: The only real transition that happens is that I have a robot voice that tells everyone about my CDs and stuff, while I’m getting the next session up. It’s a pretty physical experience. A lot of running around.
Eric: Do you just crumble when you get offstage?
Robert: Usually I’m pretty pumped up! All the adrenaline. Got to stay in shape to do it.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrKbm7UqKIk]
Eric: As far as dance music, a lot in that genre gets to lyrics last. But that’s clearly not how you’re approaching things. A lot of metaphyscial themes. Please speak to the lyrical themes.
Robert: Yeah, I grew up in Seattle and came out of the Seattle indie singer/songwriter scene, in high school especially. I think about people like Dave Bazan of Pedro The Lion who were exploring not just relationship songs or songs about partying. Getting into philosophy and digging it. Right after college, when I was writing a lot of these songs, is a big transition period. I think these songs are all born of that. It traces my own philosophical development from the moment I left college until the album came out.
Eric: Did you study philosophy in school?
Robert: Not really. I almost minored in philosophy, but I didn’t finish it. Like anybody my age who was in a sort of hipster world, we all hang out and spend most of our nights talking about philosophy and the universe until it was 6 a.m. (laughs).
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V83nVyTnH5I]
