After cultivating a cutthroat sound of electronic and alternative pop for the last five years, Roy Blair returns with a brilliant follow-up to his indie classic Cat Heaven.
The 2010s saw the emergence of a rapidly moving pathway in and out of the public eye in terms of music taste. Trends came and went, and the growing popularity of digital spaces in streaming platforms made it easier to get your music noticed. L.A based singer and producer Roy Blair made his mark at the peak of this stage, releasing a successful debut project and instantly connecting with other momentous acts such as Brockhampton. But as his music career was bustling as ever, he vanished after his 2019 EP GRAFFITI. Now, Blair is back and it’s evident that his sense of style and creating never really left.
Chasing Moving Trains is not only Blair’s triumphant return to the public eye but also sets the precedence moving forward. It sees Blair improving on all the elements that made his music stand out, adding quality-of-life improvements to every aspect on a technical level. The songwriting is sharpened, with Blair focusing more on references and the hooks. The production, is incredibly more ambitious, with the producer paying more attention to technical orchestration. But despite all the changes, his love for the art is still ever present.
EARMILK caught up with the L.A to New York creative on where Roy Blair went and what we can expect to see moving forward.
So I guess my first thing I really just gotta ask you is how are you feeling? It's like, how are you? This is your first project in a few years. Are you feeling more anxious or excited?
I feel good. I worked on this record for so long that I'm just kind of like, ‘hey, it's gonna do what it's gonna do,’ you know? I'm just taking it all in, this record that I've been working on is finally coming out.
For sure, for sure, man. I've been running through this record so many times now. I'm very excited for people to listen to this. I think it's just a very well executed treat that people are gonna understand that this had to take years to finish. But I think the real question on everyone's mind is, where have you been and what have you been up to?
Man…good question. Honestly, I've just been doing this for like five years straight. Just been working on this like day in, day out. I moved to New York, so I've just been living in a new city and just like, getting to know it, just existing. Yeah.
Okay, so you're in New York right now?
Yeah.
How did it feel moving all the way to the other side of the country?
In some ways it was like a big change, but in other ways, I mean, you know, it's still America. Like, I think there is a different tone here. There's a cool element to how everyone moves and postures here that does not exist in L.A. I kind of had to refine my friend group a little bit. So the first year and a half was kind of funny. I was just alone. But, I would say it's not too much different other than there's just more to do here, to be honest with you. And I found more things that I'm personally into. I found more spaces for them.
What year did you move out there? You have this line that dates back the project, where you mentioned CVS running out of mask, alluding to the pandemic. Did you move right before or after?
Actually, very funny. That line actually isn't about the pandemic, even though it clearly, really sounds like it is. I was in San Francisco, December 2018, November 2018, and there was a huge fire that I reference right before that on the song or right after where I say “campfire in our lungs” because it was it was called the campfire and the smoke from it had traveled to San Francisco and it actually kind of hurt walking around and breathing the air. And so we were looking for masks and couldn't find them anywhere. And then Covid happened and obviously that recontextualizes the line a little bit.
But, you know, I just wanted to keep it in because it felt valid. But no, the beginning of this album, I made the first song on December 2018. So the album had been being worked on for five years, basically.
Going back to you moving to New York. Did you feel like your music for this new arc or era was highly impacted by that change or the music scene that was surrounding you in New York?
No, because there was nothing like in New York that, in terms of a scene that I connected with or I was in. It was just really me and my friends who all my friends make music. But I think we're diverse in terms of the type of music we make and I think that's kind of why all of our friendships work.
We all have similar tastes, but we all kind of are like different artists. But no, I can't really say that. I personally don't really feel that. Like I was flying to New York working on this in 2019 and that affected me more. I think the music I was making had more of an effect than me actually moving here. Nothing musically here was influencing what I was making. Generally even in 2021, there wasn't a lot of a music scene here. Obviously there is a little bit more these days. But yeah, no, it was kind of just me and my friends.
"I now know the things that make me intrinsically me. And I think there's room to add to that and everything but when I see Cat Heaven, I see Graffiti, I see Chasing Moving Trains. I know what connects it all and I know what I want to keep connecting to that going forward."
There's this quote from the press email, actually, that I can't stop marinating on where you said, ‘I think this will be the blueprint for the rest of my career from here on out. It might be the first time I've really captured what I think Roy Blair is aesthetically and emotionally.’ What were your intentions going into this album and what was the image you had to make sure you got across, if not the idea you had to get across?
Well, to be honest with you, I think the album I originally set out to make was. It's captured here, like on a song or two. But I didn't make the record I originally set out to make. One of the big influences on this record is Post by Bjork, which I started really falling in love with around February or March of 2018. So right after Cat Heaven, I started watching all of Michel Gondry's music videos and just got introduced to a bunch of music because of that. The original point of, okay, I kind of want to do this, I kind of want to do that. But by the end of the year I had kind of had a very specific sound in mind.
I wanted to go for across the whole record, which was, you know, kind of like. I would say arguably it's was “Garden,”parts of “Garden,” parts of-I think I wanted to make a record that was much more green and nature-like, but still electronic like. I didn't end up making, but only kind of touched on because I had more I wanted to say. And obviously over five years you're going to change up elements. Or maybe you just write a great song and you're like, well, that deserves to be on the record. That would happen a lot where I'd make a song and I'd be like, ‘well, that's a great song, don’t not put it out because it's not the vibe or something,’ you know. But I think one of the big things I [knew] even from, you know, March 2018 was like, I want to make electronic record. I want to do something electronic. I don't know what that is. My reference for that at the time was like Daft Punk or something and I guess like Bjork. But I didn't have a really good frame of reference for what that was. And I think a lot of 2018 was me learning and meeting the right players for the record. I think that was the one of the most important things. I knew it, I wanted it to be at its core electronic. And maybe over time, you know, the electronic music I was pulling from or what parts of it were electronic changed, but that was a big part of it.
The Bjork influence is very, very present. It's very enjoyable. Thank you for sharing that with me.
Yeah, yeah. Maybe sometimes a little shamelessly, but you know what? Like, you know, fuck it.
There was like a three, two to three year period where everyone was doing like the same house core, like in the early 2020s. So I'm okay with like a little shameless Bjork plug once in a while. I think it's really interesting too because you were super young when you stepped into the spotlight and your career was picking up steam. How old were you in that phase? What you said?
Yeah, I was like 22.
Yeah, like, like, I think it's just really interesting that you had your influences on Lock but you're at least confident in what you were exploring. I still don't know the difference between Acid House and footwork. So the fact that you were confident in what you knew at a young age is impressive.
Yeah. Well, I think the thing was, I didn't know, but I just loved the idea of it. I was hearing those Bjork records and falling in love with those Bjork records, which, I had heard in the past, like my parents listen to Bjork and stuff, but like being a adult and getting that experience, that music as an adult for the first time is just such a different thing and where you're at in life.
I want to do that. And then I think the reason why I said that quote in the press release was I now know the things that make me intrinsically me. And I think there's room to add to that and everything.But I. And when I see Cat Heaven, I see Graffiti, I see Chasing Moving Trains. I know what connects it all and I know what I want to keep connecting to that going forward. So that's why I felt like for the first time, I really kind of got it down.
Some of my influences or references, you know, even stuff I was referencing on Cat Heaven, I referenced again on here, but I just actually allude to in a way that you can hear, you know, it's in, you know, stands relatively next to certain things that I'm into. I think that's what it's about. I actually didn't know what the fuck I was doing in 2018. I didn't know at all. It was just kind of like, ego. I think one of the reasons that makes me, me is that I have a very blind confidence with things sometimes where I just go ahead into something because I'm like, ‘why not?’ You know, So I didn't know what the fuck I was doing. And yeah, I didn't know the difference between Acid House or, you know, juke or footwork. I didn't know shit for years. Until maybe the past two years that I really kind of learned quite a bit about, you know, a lot of stuff, to be honest with you. I think I was still about myself even. So I think I'm just a little bit fearless when it comes to the music thing. A little bit.
On that note of Bjork, I gotta ask you, what's your favorite Bjork video? Is it the one of her beating up the journalists or is the one of her looking at the inside of a tv?
The journalist one is so funny, man. It's got to be the journalist one. That shit is crazy. I'm trying to think if there's any other. Obviously, you know, talking about the music video. I think my favorite music video by her is either “Hyperballad” or "Army of Me,” which are both Michel and both come from Post.
There's like an interview she does for Homogenic, that's pretty sick. I don't know. I'm a Stan. I have so much stuff. I kind of have a shrine, a little bit of stuff. I have these, like, fan club magazines that she sent out in the 90s. Yeah it's kind of embarrassing.
Which video was it where she's dating the cat and the cat grows to her size.
“Triumph of a Heart!” Yeah that one's sick. That's Spike [Spike Lee], I think who did that? But maybe I'm lying, but I think it's Spike.
You mentioned being like, at such a young age and musically just not knowing what the fuck you were doing but I think that message translates to the sentiment of looking back at your early career and being like, I don't know what I was doing. Now I want to dive deeper into this concept that you introduced right off the bat with “Panavision” about your distaste with the music industry. “I signed my first album Away Forever, and I even had no idea.”What inspired that sentiment?
Well, I think that the industry’s set up in a very sort of unfortunate way, especially the independent industry, and just also, I was in the music industry at a time where independent players had a lot of say, and I think that's shifted a little bit towards majors, and I think that's kind of unfortunate. And it goes back and forth right now, just because there's no answers. I think managers and team players work kind of for free a little bit, and then they wait for a payday off something you sign. So there are things that are things I shouldn't have done, that I should have also had protection on that I didn't. And you don't even find out about those things until years later or something, and then you're like, well, ‘that's insane.’ It’s kind of predatory.
There's so much that was frustrating. So much that was frustrating in the first couple years of me being an artist that I never fully got right. It can be depressing. You know, it really can, because you want to create. You have so many ideas and you want to create something for people to enjoy. I didn't have an OG or someone in my corner and say, ‘hey, don't do this. You should do that, because this is what you should do.’ You know, someone I look up to who could give me that advice. It was kind of just me figuring it out in real time. That's virtually what the song's About. I think it's about realizing you’re realizing before it's too late, that things are up, you know, that you're sinking.
Do you feel like that experience at such a young age pushed you away from the limelight?
Well, to be honest with you, I think I just started to grow into this person. It had less to do with the industry and more about expectations and also just my life. When I was younger, I wanted to be so external, and that's just who I was and, like, promote this thing, just running down the street screaming, like, you know, my album just came out.
My album just came out. I think I had nothing left for myself at the end of the day. When I went home, I didn't really have a life. I didn't have anything to think about or feel other than just working on this thing. And that's hard to be around.
It's hard to be close with someone who's “on” all the time, who's in this thing. In 2019, I started to realize, ‘you know what? I can't go, and make the best music I can unless I have time,’ you know? I was really frustrated. People in 2019 were like, ‘okay, where's the follow up to Cat Heaven now?’
Everything moves at such a rapid pace these days. When do we go and have the life experiences or when do we go and sit down and actually go ‘oh, this is what I want to talk about.’ ‘Oh, I found some new music.’ Such a part of it was like ‘well, I need to actually take a second, take a seat and figure out what it is that I want to say and what I want to be in the future.’ That’s really where it came from, rather than, you know, ‘oh the industry's fucking me over,’ or ‘I signed some bad deals, so I want to go away forever.’
It's less that and more ‘I can't always be this external social media influencer thing.’ I can't do that because I can't make great art that way. And I just want to make great art, it's what I really care about. That's why I do what I do, so.
Or an attempt to make great art, if you will. That's really where my distance from being so online is. It’s just existing in the real world and just like wanting to have a peace of mind and not always be in the machine and the cycle of everything going on.
Thank you for clarifying that. I really appreciate that.
Yeah, definitely.
Going back to the Bjork inspiration, the influences are all over the place with this project. What were some of your main sources of inspiration Going into it.
Going into it, it was so much different. But just overall during the process of it. Post by Bjork, Amplified Heart by Everything But The Girl had a huge impact on me. I think that record says what this record says way better or like in a funny way, I feel like that's like the other person's response or something to my record or something. Going into it, Devotion by Tirzah was a huge layer for me. That was such a cool-I still listen to that record all the time. I think it's amazing, but that really like fucked me up. I just wanted to make that record honestly. I'm a Huge fan of Jim O'Rourke, he mixed Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco. He plays with Eiko Ishibashi. He did the score for Drive My Car. He played in Stereolab and Sonic Youth. He's in so much music that I'm into.
He was a big influence going into this record. I don't know if it really ended up sounding much like stuff he does, but he's someone I honestly wanted to get [on the record, but] It didn't work out, but I wanted him to executive produce the record just because of how foundational he is to the things I'm into. I mean, most of the music I'm into and that inspired this record is from the 90s or like very early 2000s. So just a lot of that stuff.
You mentioned how this was a different record going into it than what you ended with. So was there a significant moment where you just felt like, this is not the same project I want to do now and was there any song that you made where you wanted to go in a different direction than where you started?
No, it was just more like,yYou know, over five years, your taste changes. Or there were things that I got introduced to in 2018 where I was like, ‘this is the best thing ever,’ and then two years later I was like, not listening to it. I think the reason I say I kind of came into my own fully is because, by the time I was like 26, basically, I was like, ‘okay, these are the things I know I like because I've made three albums now and always go back to [them]. These are the totems for every time I make music and I don't think that'll ever change. Low key. Like, there's certain things now where I'm like, ‘okay, this is so me,’ and I’m still chasing doing something as good as this.
But yeah, there were just songs that got added to the pile where I was like, ‘oh, you know, there was a time where I was like, just having a crazy moment listening to R&B and soul.’ So I made Hummingbird, you know what I mean? And R&B stuff, I'm always listening to it, but there was just a specific couple months where it was like all I was listening to. I got really obsessed with SWV.
When you make an album for five years, it's kind of like, things just get added, It deserves being a part of it. And also, I wanted to make this sort of regional record where it's about travel and everything, so it felt very true to that.
I think when I started this record, I wanted to go in a room and because I love those records where someone goes into a room for a month and they come out with an album and it sounds just like they made it in that room. I think those records are amazing. I think it's some of the best music, but I just didn't end up doing that.
I went to Iceland for a month in June 2019, and I came out with a lot of stuff. I came out with something that sounded kind of like an album- everything that I made there had a very specific sound to it. But I only took a song or two from that and then went and did that again in London for a month. And I only got one song from that. It was just selectiveness, really making it count and making sure every song was pretty great. I cared about that, like the songs just being across the board, good.
You have this line in Amberwood where you say, “used to wake up dreaming of playing Coachella knew I was different. No one would listen.” Does that dream still hold, hold up? Or do you have different attitudes towards giant festivals?
That line is actually pretty literal where I had a dream of playing Coachella. I don't think Coachella was ever the goal, I know it reads like that, but, like, I literally just dreamed of it. It went awful actually. I feel like every artist has those where, like, they're on the big stage and then their mic doesn't work and they're trying to figure it out backstage while everyone walks away.
But, is performing live the goal with all this? No, but to me, it's a body of work. That's the thing that matters the most. I'll tell you what. Stage design and the ability to make something like the music, put it into a physical space and almost put on a play, to make a visual thing and bring it to real life, that's amazing. That part of world building is so inspiring to me. I think with the way things are now, I just hope for the best. Try to make the best music and hope it connects and that I'll sell shows and it'll keep getting bigger. But I think my biggest excitement about that is what you can do with the space you're performing in rather than doing some crazy stadium thing, what you can do with the performance itself. I think that it's pretty rewarding making an album. And then you go and see it and everyone's singing the words, and you're like, ‘this actually means something to someone other than me. Okay, that's pretty sick.’ But yeah, hopefully I play Coachella, right?
Now that you've had a proper reintroduction, your way, and you've been able to explicably show people this new side that perfectly captures who and what Roy Blair represents, what can fans Expect to see after this album drops?
To be honest with you, it's up to the fans. Like, [if] people like the record, then I can do whatever I fucking want. I have a million ideas, you know. Certain things can't come to life or I can't. I can't execute ideas unless there's an audience. It really comes down to if I made a record that is worth people's time, then they can expect to see literally, like, everything. But if people are like, ‘this album sucks,’ then well, back to the drawing board. I'm gonna go away forever again and try again.
See you guys another five years.
Yeah, see you guys in another five years, man. I think it does really come down, especially these days with the state of things, that it has to connect emotionally and it has to resonate. I don't have control, other than just making the best art I can make, you know?
What would you say is the most important thing you've Learned in the 5 years of you crafting this project?
The search for perfection is great, and it's beautiful, and trying to make the best art you can is amazing. But enjoy the moments on the way to that, you know, Enjoy today. Because you will not have today when you make the record you've always wanted to make, and you will look back and wish you had enjoyed it on the way there. That is the biggest thing I've learned, and that's basically what this whole record's about.
Beautiful, man. Are there any more lingering comments, concerns, anything you want to just shout for the world that you may think the world may want you to know, or anything you want the world to know after being in the hyperbolic time chamber for so long?
Yeah, yeah. I was gonna say the cryo chamber, now that I'm unfrozen. No, I hope the record speaks for itself. Hopefully the wait is worth it. I just hope that's what people feel. I think in a time where there's not a lot of records like these, genuine passion projects, I hope people just enjoy it for the next few years and keep digging through it and find new things as they listen to it. I always wanted to make those records that you [listen] on your walk home from school, you listen from front to back. I hope people rinse the fuck out of it. That was the plan.
Forsure and I will see you at Coachella next year.
Yeah, fingers just crossed. That'd be awesome.
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