Getting Candid with aldrch
We’re getting candid in our interview with aldrch.
We talk to Sam Richman, known by his artist name aldrch, on finding inspiration in the flourishing pop/rock scene in NYC, bringing a new life to his music to through visuals and live performance, and drawing influence from the 1975 as a producer and navigating the parasocial relationship with Matty Healy as a controversial figure.
Aldrch is an NYC artist, producer, and DJ, blending hyper pop and indie rock – which you can hear more on his new Would You Like To Go Out? out on February 9. Aldrch has worked as a producer and collaborator with artists like Sophie Powers, poptropicaslutz!, Billy Martin of Good Charlotte, and more.
Listen to the full interview with aldrch on Name 3 Songs podcast and find a transcribed excerpt below.
Name 3 Songs: Getting into your music, you draw from so many different elements and sounds – these categories being both hyper pop and indie rock. And I think hyper pop is quite an interesting thing, because, if you look at the Warped Tour era, we had bands doing neon emo. But now hyper pop has also evolved into being an Internet movement. And then at the same time, you’re also pulling from MGMT in 1975. How did you come about finding your sound through all of this?
That’s a good question. Honestly, I’m not really sure. I kind of just stumbled around. I started in that very PC music, hyper pop lane, like super, super auto-tuned, huge 808s and like your like 100 gecs snare. And then since I was little I wanted to be a rock star and play in a rock band. It’s just sort of like the dream.
So I had this idea for this rock album, Industry Standard, and I had so much fun making it, producing it, recording it. It came out really fast. I was doing a song a day, just banging them out in the summer. And it really helped me find my voice, especially my lyrical voice, because I was a producer to start. So I never felt like I had much to say in words.
That album helped me find my voice lyrically and also how to sound. If you go back through my discography, there’s some older stuff with my vocals on it that’s very different. So it helped me hone in and gather inspiration from other stuff.
Name 3 Songs: With Industry Standard, were you specifically setting out to make something that was more rock leaning than what you had done previously?
aldrch: Totally. And I think it served its purpose for me a lot and I’m really glad that I did it. But I feel like in the grand scheme of things, I sort of pushed to the side where I came from with electronic music. So that’s what this new EP is. It’s taking what I found in how I make music and like what my voice is from Industry Standard and applying that to my older production style and making something new.
Name 3 Songs: Sometimes artists use a persona either to step into a different version of themselves or to just step into a larger-than-life version of themselves that aligns with their artistry. So do you feel like you have a persona that you put on when you’re becoming aldrch?
aldrch: Yeah, definitely. I mean, it’s only really apparent when I’m doing live shows. I just immerse myself in the most heightened version of myself – like doesn’t really care. But it’s really fun.
I don’t think I’ve really played enough shows to figure out if there’s actually like a persona that I put myself into. But I really felt it on my first ever show. It was months and months before Industry Standard actually came out. I had finished all the demos in like a week, and I did a show on my birthday on May 3, last year. I finally made the music that actually coincides with my voice as an artist. And it was really freeing interacting with the crowd and just like rolling around on stage and, you know, kicking shit over.
Listen to the full interview with aldrch on Name 3 Songs podcast available on your favorite podcast platforms.
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