In our interview, the LA-based artist and producer damon r. talked to us about his new single and told us about a childhood spent moving between seven different states. We also get into some of his favorite quotes and learn about a recent Australia tour with Suzy Sheer. The answers provide insight into an artist whose music’s crushed sheen is equally indebted to 2000s electro and the 2010s rap charts. That aforementioned new single, “say it back,” is a potent distillation of those impulses, an emotionally vulnerable electro-pop anthem that sounds ready to soundtrack the eternal big city night. Read our conversation below.

What is “say it back” about?

damon r.: I’ve always been a proponent of not explaining a song. Where the artist and audience meet—that interstice is fragile, perpetually changing … sentimentally entropic. I’ll bite today though o_o.

There’s a moment in the second verse—“and if you gave them a dollar for every time you lied and every time that you cried, every time you say hi”—followed by the refrain, “they’ll never say it back to you” that condenses the song nicely. Essentially, you could own up to every mistake or wrongdoing, come at your most vulnerable, try and be the first to say something—even a simple “hello”—and still never hear exactly what you’d want to hear back from people. There’s no dollar amount for the perfect response. External validation is a black hole that will never bring real satisfaction and you don’t need to waste your time chasing it. What you need to hear and when you need to hear it is inside you. The title’s basically a mantra on these points!

You grew up moving around a lot as a kid—briefly living in Florida too, right? Do you think you learned anything of value from that and has it bled into your work at all?

Before even finishing middle-school I found myself to have lived in seven different states and continued moving around even after such. This included Florida for a little over two years. My family and I basically squeezed into a rundown single bedroom trailer in Pensacola.

I was a big Eminem fan at that point in time—his album Recovery had just come out the first year I moved there actually—and I watched his movie 8 Mile a lot as a kid so I didn’t mind a trailer park. I have vivid memories of walking around the field behind me, listening to his music and suddenly hearing the sound of jets roaring up above me … surpassing my headphones in volume. It turned out that same field happened to be part of the practice route The Blue Angels would fly once a week. They’d be doing insane maneuvers and I got to watch for free like clockwork. Basically what I’m trying to say is ever since then I’ve had an obsession with jets and you can hear that in my music. Around a year and a half ago me and my friend 10cust started using the sound of their jets—F/A 18 Super Hornets—as a sort of producer tag on all the tracks we work on together. Listen closely and you won’t miss it. The album I’m working on right now is very aerial themed.

Your sound feels inspired by older electroclash and blog house music. What’s your pick from that era?

My earlier work, like my song “just obliterate,” I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t inspired by Justice and the Ed Banger roster. When I started heavily listening to that music in middle school I really liked anything I could find recommended to me on YouTube in that vein. Usually it came in the form of uploads of songs from the Kitsuné Maison Compilations. Neon Indian is probably my favorite from that time, always will be. At the end of the day though it’s those random future bass EDM remixes that you’d find on SoundCloud in 2015 and artists like Porter Robinson, Drake, Ye, etc. that mean the most to me. On my song “summer” I was basically trying to do a Thank Me Later-era Drake flow, haha.

What’s your favorite way to start a track?

It’s different every time. Recently I’ve been enjoying writing and recording on acoustic guitar, then stripping everything away but the vocals and building around that. I’m very consciously trying to shift more focus towards songwriting. In the past I’d try to hide my voice or a poorly structured song with the loudest saw wave I could find. There’s only so many times you can do that before you want to force eject you know? I’m aware of what the “damon” meta is—distortion, subdued vocals, a drop etc. I love it, but I also really want to start hearing myself go somewhere else. Also, it wouldn’t be fair to talk about making music without talking about my friends too. Suzy Sheer and 10cust are amazing musicians, and, when I’m stuck, I’m lucky as fuck that I can scroll up in the chat and find a random ANYTHING to jumpstart my brain. 10 also brings out the best side of me music wise, unbiased I promise he’s one of the best producers right now.

How was the Australia tour you went on with Suzy Sheer last fall?

It was insane—I’d also travel anywhere with Suzy and share most of my favorite moments of my music career so far with him. I don’t think I’ve played to a crazier crowd than the one we had in Melbourne. Great city, awesome Vietnamese food. Sydney felt like Los Angeles but to be fair I didn’t have enough time to explore. Beautiful place. The kids in Brisbane were really kind but that city feels like it never recovered from British colonization … Shout out Australia though.

Do you have any favorite quotes?

Penélope Cruz to Tom Cruse in Vanilla Sky: "Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around."

Hideo Kojima, MGS2: “You mustn't allow yourself to be chained to fate, to be ruled by your genes. Human beings can choose the kind of life that they want to live. What's important is that you choose life... and then live. Human life isn't this fixed plan that will last forever; it is a genetic accident that we can use to great effect if we have the courage.”

Ye being harassed by paparazzi: “DO YOU SEE THIS COAT?”

Are you optimistic about the future?

Nietzsche said the Olympian gods were created to conquer the world of titans and monsters. That out of that titanic order of terror, joy and beauty were created. I think beauty is always around the corner. Even when everything is rigged to blow there’s still gonna be a light show that follows. When has the future ever been easy? I can’t think of a single instant. It’s a choice to not give up on the world, yourself etc. no matter how easy they make it now. So yeah—I’m optimism maxxing.