Q&A: aldrch Releases Debut Album ‘industry standard,’ a Frankenstein Project Encapsulating the Most Exciting Voices of the Year
NOTHING SOUNDS LIKE — aldrch right now. To be fair, Sam Richman, better known as his artist alias, aldrch, is notoriously blessed and boosted by his stellar collaborations with the coolest names from New York to Los Angeles, but nothing eclipses aldrch’s boundless production and mind-numbingly catchy melodies. While most of his songs are short and sweet bangers that work their own standalone wonders, to have a body of work as cohesive and expansive as his new album, industry standard, certainly feels like a wonderful and surprising treat.
From the indie-rock prodigy child Curtis Waters to poptropicaslutz!, the absolute crown jewel of next-gen punk, industry standard is simply too studded to be called “the standard.” No words can capture the absolute high you’ll experience listening to this record, so just trust that you are in good hands (perhaps the best hands) of tomorrow’s rock wonderland.
Read the interview with aldrch below as Luna explores the making of industry standard with the genius himself.
LUNA: What is one song that you're currently obsessed with?
ALDRCH: Oh, I am really into bloghouse right now — if you know Justice, MGMT, Soulwax, that sort of early 2000s club music. So probably the Justice remix of “Electric Feel” by MGMT — I’ve been listening to that a lot lately. I’ve been DJing a ton so I’m always crate-digging on SoundCloud and stuff.
LUNA: Are you based in New York? Are there any particular venues or events you’ve been DJing at?
ALDRCH: Well, I've sort of developed a residency at this club in Alphabet City. It's called Heaven Can Wait — it's been the spot for the last few months.
LUNA: That's so cool. What’s your favorite song off the album?
ALDRCH: That's really hard. I don't know, I would say either “i want to be alone with you,” or probably “COMEDOWN.”
LUNA: I made a note for “i want to be alone with you.” That's the one that is slightly different from the discography so far, almost a little bit like The Strokes, which is really cool.
ALDRCH: Yeah, the more indie-rock cuts off the album are very The Strokes inspired.
LUNA: Your discography is clearly filled with a lot of collaborations with artists who are literally the coolest people right now. What have been your favorite collab tracks so far?
ALDRCH: That's a hard one. I don't know. From industry standard, I would say probably [the one with] Curtis. Working with Curtis was really awesome. We also just get along really well. He's a good friend of mine now. But in general, definitely the EP with poptropicaslutz! — those are my best friends in the world, and we just always have so much fun making music together.
LUNA: That EP was mind-blowing!
ALDRCH: Thank you!
LUNA: Genuinely so mind-blowing. I feel like everything else that came out this year … has been cool, but I've kind of heard it all before. But that was the EP that was like, “What is this? What am I supposed to do [with] this?”
ALDRCH: It was a little stressful trying to Frankenstein that together because it was really just a lot going on. It was hard trying not to over-produce stuff because it's all just such an amalgam of styles and genres and sounds.
LUNA: When it's a collab track, do you usually produce it [yourself], or is it collaborative?
ALDRCH: Yeah, I don't really do a lot of production collaboration. The only song that has actual proper production from someone else is “gl4mour,” which is an old one that I had a friend of mine, Gabby Start [produce] — he's another New York artist. I had him [produce] the second verse for that song.
LUNA: Got it. I don't actually understand plug-ins, but I like to ask about them when there's a lot of feedback in production. So what is your favorite plug-in?
ALDRCH: I mean, gotta say serum. That's the multi synth that I use on every song I've ever made.
LUNA: Any favorite memory from making this album?
ALDRCH: I mean, the process of the album was just getting drunk in my room and screaming. It definitely came from somewhat of a painful place, but it also felt really freeing because I have wanted to make rock music for my whole life. My parents actually just sent me a picture of this little thing from when I was in preschool that says, “What do I want to be when I grow up?” And I said, “I want to be a rockstar.”
LUNA: Would you ever want to get a band together?
ALDRCH: Oh, yeah. My show on Sept. 21 — the album release show — is with a live band. It’s at Berlin Under A in Lower East Side.
LUNA: Anything else you can tell us about the show?
ALDRCH: I'm planning some visual stuff. I've been really into old CRT TVs. I want to get a few of those and just have them on stage playing some shit. And I just got a bunch of these crazy weird synths that look like little keyboards made by some dude on Etsy. So I'm gonna be playing those live all around on the floor.
LUNA: This album is definitely a little bit more rock. But I thought it was really interesting — I remember Stevie Bill [who’s featured on the record] put out an EP last year, and I happened to review it. It was still a lot more pop-leaning. Even Curtis — Curtis is probably the most rock out of all the features on the album, but still everyone else is very pop-leaning. It's really interesting that when you guys collaborate it somehow turns into a more rock sound for all parties involved. Was that a conversation that happened? How did you reach out to each person?
ALDRCH: For this, everyone who's featured is a friend of mine. So it wasn't a super crazy process of reaching out about it — it was just sending them the song and saying, “You should get on this.” But yeah, that's a thing that I sort of pride myself in, taking somebody and just putting them on a song that they would never make themselves.
LUNA: Oh, that’s really interesting!
ALDRCH: Who knows? Might not be the best for engagement because I don't know if a fan of a pop girl is gonna want to listen to an intense indie rock song, but it's there.
LUNA: I think everyone is still very interconnected. Even though I know that every single person has a different sound, somehow I still picture the same kind of New York indie scene in my mind when I see those names pop up. This is a very broad question, but it's kind of the same topic: not exactly how did you get started as a musician or get into music, but how did you find a footing in this particular community? How did you decide that this is the kind of sound to make, and that it makes sense to be friends or end up being friends with people? How was that process? When did you start realizing you were going into that trajectory?
ALDRCH: Well, I moved to New York for fashion — I went to FIT. I always was producing and making beats, but when I moved to New York, going to FIT sort of just made me not want to do fashion anymore. And while that was happening, I met poptropicaslutz! from a video shoot — my roommate is a videographer. And he came out to New York to shoot the video for poptropicaslutz! and I just tagged along and met them. That year we would hang out every day and make a song every day, so that was the start of getting into that community.
Also, I don't know if you're familiar with Ryan Leahan; I have a couple songs with him. I met him on the internet. And he came over and stayed at my apartment a couple years ago for a week and we made four songs. He had this new group of music friends that went to Clive Davis at NYU, and he introduced me all these people that sort of became my network of friends and people in this scene. We've just been cultivating it ever since then.
LUNA: You know how journalists sometimes like to come up with these three word phrases like “indie-sleaze-something”? Have you ever tried to come up with something for yourself? Something that might be a little bit sarcastic, but it kind of makes sense?
ALDRCH: Something like, “slutty indie rock” — I think that’s the vibe I’m on right now.
LUNA: I think that makes sense, actually.
ALDRCH: Like, sort of loose… Not vapid, but not taking life too seriously.
LUNA: That somehow reminded me of Current Joys’ new album, which is also a bunch of collabs, and it sounded like nothing Current Joys.
ALDRCH: Yeah, a lot of my friends who are Current Joys fans are upset about that album, but I think it's dope.
LUNA: Any particular favorite musical moments on industry standard that you want to highlight?
ALDRCH: Yeah, the last song. It's very somber and sad about struggling relationships. It builds and builds into this really cathartic moment … It just feels like closure.
The whole album is about this girl that I'm in love with and trying to navigate a relationship, about not being in the same place. It's just a lot of longing. But it ends the words “You're not alone” repeated over and over again. That just feels like catharsis to me. That's definitely my favorite moment of the album.
LUNA: That's so cool. I also thought it was really cool that even though there's a lot of collab tracks, they still fade into one another. That’s just not something that I expected.
ALDRCH: Right, all of them go read into each other. I spent a lot of time producing outros, taking it out of the next song and putting it into the end of the last song and fad[ing] it somehow. So yeah, if you listen all the way through, it's a good listen from front to back. It feels good.
I've never done a body of work that's as cohesive as this before. We did the EP with poptropicaslutz!, but there were old songs on it and there were new songs. It was a lot more thrown together than this album.
LUNA: Why is it called industry standard?
ALDRCH: I don't even really know. I just wanted it to be tongue in cheek and reflecting the sarcasm of the songs. And I don't know, I'm trying to be the “industry standard,” and I'm trying to make this standard, you know — stupid and slutty rock music.
LUNA: The irony is that it's not really the industry standard, but it totally can be the industry standard. That's so cool.
ALDRCH: I think it might just be.
