Q&A: Finding Your Lane With Sam Ritchie
RIGHT PERSON, WRONG TIME — Top level talent, bad fit. Right person for the job, but doesn’t work well with others. There are plenty of cases in which you fixate on a particular ideal without considering the context or environment. Indie-pop artist Sam Ritchie hasn’t settled for “good enough” his entire life, and his new single, “Blur,” is his latest example.
From a quick genre hop to rerouting the entire concept of a song, Ritchie doesn’t rest until a track feels perfect. It’s easy to triple-guess yourself in the developmental stages of your career, but deviation does not equal backtracking. “Blur” is a leisurely levitation through clouds of libations that’s been nearly five years in the making. It may characterize Ritchie as the musical embodiment of Goldilocks’ taste buds, but the end product was well worth the wait. The porridge has to simmer for its strongest flavors to settle in.
Ritchie fought his way through the musical doldrums of the pandemic, only to come out stronger and more self-assured than ever. Read the interview below to learn more about Ritchie’s journey.
LUNA: How did your interest in music begin?
RITCHIE: When my dad would take me to his workplace, Belly Up in San Diego, I was intrigued by the music I heard. He shot the music video for Blink-182’s “Man Overboard” there — that was technically my first show. Seeing all the cameras, lights, and those three guys running around and being funny influenced me as a kid. It made me put down the video games and pick up the CDs.
LUNA: That’s quite the introduction. How did that change as you grew older?
RITCHIE: At first, I wanted to do all the fun cool rockstar stuff and go to Warped Tours. My dad would also introduce me to the old hip-hop he listened to in high school, and I would steal my sister’s pop-punk CDs. But personally, my first album was Coming Home by New Found Glory. It had all these love ballads, completely opposite from everything else they did before. I love writing hopeless romantic love songs. That album was a really big influence on me when I was about 10 or 11.
LUNA: Did that steer you in the musical direction you’re in now?
RITCHIE: Yeah. I started playing music when I was 16, but that album led me to this whole Sam Ritchie project. I then dove into Passion Pit, Toro y Moi, and MGMT. Indie pop felt more mature than the pop-punk or high-energy rock that I was dabbling in. Singing and writing this kind of music felt much more natural to me.
LUNA: How has your music career gone since then?
RITCHIE: A lot of my work was going well until the pandemic halted the progress. My access was really limited but it also allowed me to reflect and shift my music. My earlier tracks were brighter and poppier, whereas recent releases like "Magnolia" and "Blur" have a slower, more mature sound. It changes the tone enough to make it stand out for me.
LUNA: Speaking of "Blur," could you expand on the song and its creation process?
RITCHIE: I wrote it in 2018 and it ended up being one of those songs stuck in the vault. My producer at the time, Alan Vega, helped me write it and everything. This year, I went in with another friend, Enrique Vega (no relation), until we finished it. The original concept was based [on] drinking too much. We started with the word “intoxicated” and it became more of a love ballad in the final product.
LUNA: Why the dramatic shift?
RITCHIE: It was a good reflection on self-awareness at the time. When I revisited the song and reread the lyrics, I decided to go another route. The double meaning of being drunk and love-drunk felt interesting.
LUNA: How has the instrumentation changed since its prototype version?
RITCHIE: The original version had a lo-fi, raw feel to it. We added more production to it to make it feel bigger and more cinematic. We worked to make it feel full without overwhelming the listener.
LUNA: I know that you’re planning on playing “Blur” live at Coin-Op Game Room this Thursday. Have you ever performed the old version?
RITCHIE: I was super relieved because everyone enjoyed it. It’s what I want out of a soundscape, and it’s meant to be a part of the set. People would come up and ask me, “Hey, what’s that one song?” and more often than not it’d be “Blur.” I’m even more excited to play the updated version.
