"Although I didn't write this song, it spoke to me in a way that made me feel as if it was my own story,” Brandon said. “I found myself playing it over and over again in my bedroom, remembering situations that I've been through.”
Check out the video for yourself below.
The cover artwork is ablazed with two powerful women dripped in latex galore and heels that can pierce through your phone screen.
Check out the cover art above and mark your calendars for this upcoming Friday.
When he’s not making absolute bangers Reilly is always working towards shaping the foundations of his promising career — by means of exploring unfamiliar territory and finding inspiration in something as simple as a mattress on the side of the road.
Read our exclusive interview with LoveLeo below.
First of all, where are you at the moment and how is it there?
I'm in my studio space at home in Los Angeles! It's a beautiful overcast day, I just did some yoga with my girlfriend and we lit some Palo Santo wood, so the whole house smells really good and I’m feeling at peace, just good in general, I haven’t eaten anything yet but that's next on the to-do list!
We’re in the middle of a pandemic, yet you somehow managed to write, record and plan these brilliant releases. How did our current situation affect you as an artist?
At the beginning of quarantine there was a lot of uncertainty on whether it was going to last a whole year and if tours could happen. I was actually about to go on my first tour and I had been practicing for months, but then covid hit really hard. Which sucked because I love performing, I did a lot of plays when I was younger and I was also in orchestra so I have a real desire to get out there and perform. I know it’ll happen eventually and everything happens for a reason, but I had to recalibrate what I was going to do so I did a music video in my apartment which was really fun. Then I did some soul searching in the next few months and tried to figure out who I am, where I’m at in life, the kind of music that I wanna be making and then ease back into it and now I feel like I’m in the best position ever. I’m making the exact music that I wanna make that I’m incredibly excited about and I’ve found a great group of people to surround myself with. It sucks, I really wish that I could’ve gone on that tour but at the same time the tour will always happen and I learned some very valuable things about myself over the course of this pandemic.
Your new song “buzzcut” is a very radical style shift to a more hyperpop sound, what inspired this?
When I was first coming up and building a fan-base, I got very tied into the persona that I created with the crazy outfits, crazy edits, all sorts of photoshop stuff. I love doing that but I kind of set up a precedent for myself where everything had to meet that standard of; In your face wowness and I just found myself doing a lot of things for the sake of posting what I thought would needed to be posted, as opposed to doing something that would be reflective of who I am. Throughout my life I’ve developed a lot very quickly, like I’ll go for one look and then on to the next thing because I like to keep it interesting and explore different parts of myself and find different ways that I can represent myself. So this shift is just another evolution in who I am, I just didn’t wanna get tied to that one version of myself that I had shown to everyone over the internet. I’m grateful that everyone enjoys the crazy edits and the crazy outfits and everything but theirs different layers of myself so I wanted to strip back everything that I had built up persona wise and kind of just be like, this is me, this is what I’m doing now. As far as doing digital glitch core, like, fucked up kind of music, I always just wanna be making the music that excites me and for a while, Indie pop and bedroom pop was extremely cutting to me. The DIY aspect of it, everything about it I loved and as an artist I just wanted to open up and show that I have a very wide range of sounds that I can explore and genres I can make and so this kind of music is what’s exciting me right now and I’m so happy with it.
The narrative that surrounds your music and the lyrics you come up with are utterly relatable. What does your writing process look like?
It can be different from song to song, but recently I’ve been finding that lyrics and concepts have been coming to me rather than me seeking it out. I was actually just driving the other day and there was a mattress propped up on the side of the street and it had "kneel in the mud next to me" written on it and I thought that was so awesome, I had to write it down, it was almost as if it were there for a reason. Then I went into the studio and made this awesome song with that as part of the bridge. I’ve been picking up on things in life and exploring why I even picked up on it and what I connect with, I just make music that I like and music that is reflective of who I am and if it connects with people then that's always the best case scenario.
You’ve mentioned that what you do on social media is strictly for social media. What do you find yourself doing when you disconnect from all of that? Does it ever disrupt your creative process?
Yeah, anytime you’re putting something out on the internet there's always a bit of uncertainty and a bit of, for me, especially when I’m in the middle of a change or trying something new there's a little bit of a time period where you have to get comfortable with it and explore. Really just trying to get comfortable with who you are in that moment and I feel like I’m in a really good spot now and the internets a fucking scary place, but we all live there especially because of this past year. I feel like every body is very much on the internet and so now it’s just a test of seeing how people will adjust. Like, for me, figuring out how I wanna exist on the internet is something that I feel like everybody has to go through. Or you can just unplug your phone, delete your shit and live on a farm, that’s like the end goal for me atleast.
Do you feel close to your audience ? Have you found a way to keep the connection alive without live gigs or meetups ?
I mean the barrier that I’m still waiting to break through is doing live shows because then I can really meet people. Like, sometimes I’ll go through my dm’s and have conversations with people and that’s awesome, but it’s not the same as meeting someone and feeling what their energy is like and seeing their face. But that’s just something that I’m missing in general. My fanbase aside, I just wanna see peoples faces again and I know live shows will do that so that's the final frontier for me, is doing live shows and meeting people.
I absolutely adore your style. Does your music have an influence on the way that you present yourself or vice-versa?
100%! You know I feel like its more the vice versa, it’s more how I represent myself, and then that's translated into my music and yeah it’s fun, like when I’m putting together an outfit that I normally wouldn’t wear or like an outfit that feels like another person's outfit. It’s a really fun thing to do because it puts me in a different mind set! So whether I’m making a song or a video I can explore that from a slightly different perspective or just think like if I was a different person, how would I approach this or what would I do, so yeah, they’re definitely intertwined.
So, like an alter ego thing?
Yeah, but the thing with alter egos is that I feel like the way I do it is more so like characters or parts of myself, rather than it being a whole separate version of me. It’s more so little parts of myself that I then choose to expand on.
If COVID didn’t exist, would Buzzcut sound totally different?
Yeah, when covid started I had already put out my EP, the songs on that were songs that I had already recorded prior to covid and for the most part theirs a lot of different genres and sounds on that Ep but I would say the majority was that dream-pop and indie DIY kind of genre and I feel like covid, forming me to develop and take some time to figure out who I am, that definitely had something to do with me switching genres. So yeah, short answer is no without covid I don’t think I would’ve been making the music that I am now.
What are the next steps in you? And can you tell us more about the central themes of your upcoming project?
Yeah, so Buzz Cut is linked to Tung-tied, which is the next song that I have coming out. The buzzcut video is in essence, me getting ready, me getting prepared for the Tung-tied video so they’re linked in that way. I used to put a snippet of the next video at the end of whatever music video I had just put out but what I’m trying to do now is explore a narrative that can cross through the videos themselves as opposed to them just being tagged on at the end. I’m just exploring how social media has affected me as well as the journey that I’ve gone on in the last year and half to become who I am now and the ups and downs. There's a lot of low points but a lot of high points as well, so I’m just trying to figure out how i can take those and write them into music and then present them in a way that's true to me.
As one of the most visible remaining figures from the Soundcloud decade, Trippie Redd’s eyes light up when he speaks of creating and carrying on a legacy—one he says Juice helped inspire. And he’s doing it on his own terms. Communicating directly and testing new sounds with his 12-million followers on Instagram, the red-dreadlocked singer summons raw emotion as a canvas for any genre and any arrangement—offsetting synths with electric guitars and big beats, hopping from gritty to dreamy to melancholy, alternating between singing and rapping and growling. Not every experiment can be a successful one, but as a master of mood armed with an algorithmic vision of his tapped-in fan base, Trippie Redd isn’t just writing music—he’s absorbing and reflecting culture in real-time.
Now at just 21, Trippie’s become one of the most promising and prolific artists of the moment, with numerous singles, four mixtapes and three studio albums, all of which have garnered a place on the Billboard 200. The most recent—a star-studded 2020 release called Pegasus— marked a decisive return to the signature emo rap ethos first seen on “Love Scars,” with features from the likes of Future, PARTYNEXTDOOR and Lil Wayne. And just earlier this year, he dropped a deluxe cut of the album, NEON SHARK vs Pegasus, produced with help from the legendary pop punk drummer Travis Barker, plus appearances by Machine Gun Kelly and his personal inspiration, the Deftones lead vocalist Chino Moreno.
With yet more music and a merch line on the way, we checked in with Trippie Redd. Here, the singer-rapper shares his thoughts on the Grammys, his dream office/studio, and the impact he hopes to have on his fans.
DAN Q. DAO—What’s been the biggest highlight of this year for you?
TRIPPIE REDD—Right now, I feel like I’m still waiting for that moment.
DD—Right, that’s fair. Can you talk about the latest release with Travis Barker, NEON SHARK vs Pegasus. How did that come about?
TR—It was really just me showing [Travis] some of the stuff I used to listen to, like Green Day and [his band] Blink-182, of course. I just showed him a lot, and he sent over some stuff he knew I would like. And I ultimately did.
DD—Any favorites from the album? What have the fans been going for the hardest?
TR—“Pillbreaker,” ft. blackbear & Machine Gun Kelly and “SEA WORLD.” Those are like, my two favorites. A lot of people gravitated towards those two.
DD—The song with Chino Moreno, “Geronimo,” was also exciting, right?
TR—I actually didn’t know that he was getting on the song. Travis did that behind the scenes, and when I found out I was extremely happy. It means a lot to me because he’s one of my vocal inspirations when I do rock. Him and Kurt Cobain.
DD—You’ve really become known for that sound, combining different elements of different genres. What is it about rock that attracted you?
TR—Trippie Redd as a whole has always been versatile, so that’s kind of my thing. I do a lot of different genres, and sub-genres. Rock being a big genre, you know, I just had to put my foot into that—I knew I could do it.
DD—Did you go to a lot of rock concerts when you were younger?
TR—Not really, I was just seeing it on the internet. Honestly, I never really went to too many concerts. I’d only been to a Lil Wayne concert, and I went to a concert waiting on Young Thug one time. It took four hours for him to come. As far as rock music, I always just found videos on Youtube. KISS was amazing.
DD—Can you talk a little bit about your process in the studio? Is it straight to business right away, or do you keep it more relaxed?
TR—I don’t have a specific way, but I’ll probably have some blunts ready. That’s about it.
DD—Favorite songs to perform live?
TR—I would say: “Dark Knight Dummo ft. Travis Scott,” “The Grinch,” and “Who Needs Love?” Plus, I’ll give an honorable mention for “Taking a Walk.”
DD—Do you feel that your music influences your fans in a positive way? What is your message?
TR—My fans reach out and say that my music saves their lives. So I feel like I keep people happy. So, I’m going to keep continuing to do that. I like to make other people happy.
DD—When did you realize you had this kind of influence? At what point did you say, ‘I feel like I’ve made it?’
TR—One thing: I’ve always had the attitude that I made it already. But I also sat back and kept quiet and paid homage to a lot of other artists. I sat back and watched the process of other artists. But I realized that I made it when people started tapping into the producers I was working with, and just trying to create the same sounds. So, when I went and created “Love Scars”—when that blew up, I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I got it.’
DD—There’s definitely a lot of your influence in new music. What new artists are you impressed with right now?
TR—I’ve been listening to a lot of Soundcloud. I like Sofaygo—he’s pretty hard. There’s also this kid named ericdoa, his shit’s pretty tough. I’m also rockin’ with Poundside Pop. I love his music—and he’s from Philly.
DD—How do you think the music industry is changing with the internet? Do you think the Grammys are more relevant than what people are engaging with online?
TR—It should be about what people are engaging with themselves rather than what some people are trying to present to you. Secondly, I have no objections to the Grammys. I don’t feel they do anything wrong besides sometimes being unfair to artists that deserve certain things. Like, for example, someone had a song that was hot for two years and all over the charts for 50 weeks, then someone else released a song just two months ago, and the Grammy goes to that person. It doesn’t make sense to me. It doesn’t resonate.
DD—When I found out I was interviewing you, I asked some friends to tell me what songs they wanted to know the backstory for. A lot of people said “Topanga,” so I’d love to know what was going through your head when you made it.
TR—So, A Love Letter to You 3—the beat on that whole project was like, on some futuristic next level. Every beat just sounded big. But on “Topanga,” it was especially big. And the process? Well, I was smoking, you feel me? I was pretty hyper. I was turned up. This is back when I had sharp grills and stuff. So, I was just in a turned-up space. We’d have parties every day at the studio. No COVID so it was different. I did that song in like literally 20 minutes. I just went in there and freestyled and that’s what came out. We had a big sample at the beginning but they didn’t want me to use it because it was like, hella gospel—they said I can’t do that.
DD—Everyone also wanted to know about “Tell Me U Luv Me.”
TR—Me and Juice had been kicking it every day. I ended up pulling up to his house—we were trying to do a project together, and we cut up a couple records that day. But his girl Allie [Lotti] really loved this one. We were supposed to shoot a video together for it, but I ended up having to shoot it by myself. Two friends smoking, vibing, talking, laughing. The best of times.
DD—How would you say Juice changed you as an artist? As a person?
TR—Working with Juice was just like looking in the mirror, in my opinion. We were both on the go. We both did the same shit in the studio. He was just like my brother. I learned a lot from him, just him as a person and also things that he said. And he would always come to me for advice too. He taught me a lot about friendship and being together and creating this big legacy in this world that we could ultimately be at the top of. We definitely had me at high hopes.
DD—That’s the main goal, right? A legacy.
TR—Of course.
DD—How do you define success?
TR—I feel like I’m successful because I do my art. I finish it how I want to. I release it the way I want to. So, that’s why I feel like I’m successful. Money and materialistic things—it doesn’t really matter. It’s the fact that I can just do what I love and live my life. It’s amazing. And do what I want with my time. It’s a blessing.
DD—Where do you see yourself in the next 10 years?
TR—Somewhere rich as hell, owning a lot of land, making money in all types of ways. But still doing music somehow, some way.
DD—You have a clothing brand coming out, called Demons At Play. Tell me more.
TR—I don’t want to get too into it, but it’s going to be fire. High-end fashion hipster shit. Hipster high fashion.
DD—What do you do when you’re not working?
TR—Travel and go to theme parks. If it was open right now, I’d be at Six Flags.
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