Q&A: Walter The Producer On The Release Of New Single, “Bad Bad Man”
YOU MAY KNOW HIM AS WALTER THE PRODUCER — but Luna is here to introduce you all to Reid, the 22-year-old multi-faceted artist and producer, of course. The LA-based artist has seen immense growth recently, some highlights being playing his very first festival performance at this year’s Lollapalooza, as well as opening for Tommy Newport at the iconic Troubadour venue in Los Angeles.
After gracing the BMI stage at this year’s Lollapalooza, music lovers have found their new favorite artist to latch onto with Walter The Producer, and his new single, “Bad Bad Man” has brought them in that much more. The upbeat track contains Western elements that tie in perfectly with the accompanying music video, and tells a classic story of a cowboy saving a damsel in distress from a “bad, bad man”.
Walter The Producer consistently proves to listeners in his music that his production is unique to him, making his mark in the producer and artist realm. Being inspired by a variety of decades, genres, and artists, he’s found a way to implement all of his musical influences into something new and refreshing.
Luna had the opportunity to chat with Walter The Producer and discuss his experience performing at his first festival, the origin of his pseudonym, the making of “Bad Bad Man”, and more. Read the full interview below.
LUNA: Just for a little bit of backstory, what inspired you to start your artist project?
WALTER THE PRODUCER: So, I’m from Boston, but I moved to Brooklyn after high school because I got a job as an engineer, but I really wanted to be a producer. I was super into production and all that, making beats and stuff. So, I would post my beats on BeatStars, but I didn't want people to know at my high school. I'm a really big Mac Miller fan, and his producer name was Larry Fisherman, so I was kind of like, “What's a name like Larry?” and Walter is kind of the same old man sounding name.
I was like, “What am I doing? I'm producing. So, Walter the producer.” That's how that came about. Then after high school, I took a “gap year”, and because I got this job engineering at a studio, I went and moved to Brooklyn. I did that for a couple of years, and I was just trying to be a producer and I was trying to get cuts, but I felt like it was taking too long. I felt too dependent. It's hard to get cuts as a producer if you don't really have anything to show for it, unless you're in the room with people, so I was kind of like, “Why don't I just make my own artist project and just show people what I can do, and then it became the main thing because I like it so much.
LUNA: You just released a new single, “Bad Bad Man”. Congrats on that by the way! Can you walk us through your creative process with that song?
WALTER THE PRODUCER: It's pretty boring. I just made the beat, and then I sat with it for a while, and then I remember I was playing a bunch of stuff to my sister, and she liked that beat. I was like, “Oh, yeah, how about that beat?” And then I just wrote over it, and it sounded kind of like a western style, so I wrote it in that style as well.
LUNA: So you could already envision the way the music video was going to turn out going into it?
WALTER THE PRODUCER: There's a scene in the music video, the horse scene with the green screen. And I saw that and said to Dylan [Budnieski] that I just wanted a rawhide, kind of just like an old man in a bowler hat tying a damsel in distress to a train track vibe. I just told that to Dylan and he made everything good.
LUNA: You also recruited fellow artist Chloe Lilac as your “damsel in distress”. How did that come about?
WALTER THE PRODUCER: Yeah! Chloe’s the homie. I've known her for a little bit and she's the best. She was a trooper that day for sure. We shot the video the week it was in the hundreds outside, and just oh my god, yeah. We only had five hours to shoot at this little location, and the green screen shots were done in my apartment. Dylan really took care of everything and the video wouldn’t have been good without him.
LUNA: Definitely a huge shoutout to Dylan Budnieski. Do you have any favorite parts of the song whether that’s lyrics or other elements?
WALTER THE PRODUCER: I really like the beginning of it because it reminds me of an opening to a movie. I also like the chorus now, because the chorus that was in there originally isn’t the current one. I just redid it and I think it's a lot more catchy. Just soothing to my ears.
LUNA: Who do you dream of collaborating with, whether that’s making a song for somebody else or for your own project?
WALTER THE PRODUCER: I want to produce for so many people, I just want to produce for everybody. I'm such a Steve Lacy fan, or Childish Gambino, literally everyone. They all produce by themselves, but that would be the dream though. Even Travis Scott or someone in the pop world, I just want to work with everyone.
LUNA: From a producer’s view, what song would you say deserves more appreciation?
WALTER THE PRODUCER: In high school, the thing that had the biggest impact on me and kind of rubbed off was The Life Of Pablo by Kanye. That was a huge one in terms of production that I think is so good. Something I’ve been listening to recently that’s really good is “Please Do Not Lean” by Daniel Caesar and BADBADNOTGOOD.
LUNA: Do you have any, maybe odd, pockets that you pull inspiration from?
WALTER THE PRODUCER: I’m a big seasonal listener. So, right now I'm super inspired just by being in fall. I don’t know if that makes any sense, I'm kind of a crazy person. (laughs) Seasons are super inspirational in a weird way for me. There's certain songs that are really attached to fall right now that I really only come back to in the fall.
LUNA: As your career continues to grow, what do you envision for yourself in the upcoming year?
WALTER THE PRODUCER: I really hope I get to go on tour in some capacity, that would be sick. We just played Lollapalooza, and that was really cool. In the upcoming year, we're rolling out this EP project that I'm super excited about and “Bad, Bad Man” is kind of the first of it.
LUNA: Speaking of Lollapalooza, which was your first festival you’ve played, what were the feelings that you were experiencing leading up to it and the day of?
WALTER THE PRODUCER: Well, I passed out right after my set because it was so hot. I said hi to people at the gate – I was up against Chappell Roan on the schedule, so I was grateful to the few people that came up. BMI does this post-show interview with each artist after their set, so they were ushering me to that and then, I said, “I think the ground looks really nice right now.” And then I remember people waking me up and fanning me. Then we played a show, like, five hours later, and that was the best show I played ever. So that was really fun.
As far as before that though, the week leading up to it I was having panic attacks. And on the actual day of, I was pretty calm for some reason. The performance was super fun regardless of the whole experience, and I love performing because I love attention. (laughs) It was really cool seeing people actually came out especially because of the Chappell thing, you know, with her breaking the record for all time attendance, so the fact that anyone came out and supported meant a lot.
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