6 Things W/Rusty Santos

Over the years, Rusty Santos has gone back and forth between working on his own art and collaborating with influential artists including Animal Collective, Born Ruffians, and Panda Bear. In less than two weeks, the singer-songwriter and producer releases his latest album Psycho Horses. Out on Feb 19, the record is a collection of songs that transport us outside the bounds.

Psycho Horses is inter-dimensional. Santos captures dream memories and broadcasts them through the music. The set up may read typical: an acoustic guitar, synths, effect pedals and drums. The music, though—a combination of psychedelic and folk—edges toward hallucinatory. It also feels quite personal, in the most sincere way. Very much a result of his songwriting and recording techniques-sleeping, dreaming, jotting down ideas–offering a glimpse into Santos’ subconscious mind.

We spoke with Rusty about cycling through dreaming and writing, improvisational lyrics, meeting a rock star, and the meaning of success.

1/SONIC DIRECTION

At first, I'm just exploring, and a record can have any sonic direction. I start with a sound, a lyric, a melodic or rhythmic element that interests me and see where that leads. Occasionally, I need to explore one of these ideas in depth. That was the case with the new album. The first song, “Overlaps," was originally an outro to a longer and more complex work, and I thought, 'I could listen to a whole album of just this stuff." So I made that album. Many songs don't get released if I can't contextualize them, but they sometimes see the light of day in the future.

2/LYRICS

They spring from my subconscious, or perhaps, the collective unconscious. Lyrics are like mantras or prayers that help me make important choices. On the new album, more than half of the song lyrics came to me in dreams. I started sleeping with my phone nearby so I could record the lyrics and melodies directly when I awoke; otherwise, they would be lost forever. Some nights, I would wake up, make a voice memo, go back to sleep, wake back up, record the next part, and so on throughout the night. Each day, what I had captured would always work with the next instrumental. I would finish writing while awake if the song didn't come fully formed in a dream. One exception is the title track, “Psycho Horses.” That chorus was completely improvised, and my first attempt stands on the final album.

3/DEMOS

I make demos inside the multi-tracker, and those sessions often evolve into the final versions of songs. Most of the time, they begin with an improvisation that I segment into a song structure, or I just let the performance stand. I experiment with song structure a lot during the demo process, so it doesn't do much good for me to label things until that's finished. Anything could end up anywhere else. At the same time that I'm experimenting with structure, I'll capture scratch or improvised vocals, and these inform the process quite a bit. What was unique to this new album, as I mentioned above, was that I already had starter material for this step in the process, in my voice memos app from my dreams.

4/MUSICAL UPBRINGING

I had a musical upbringing, but it was informal. I was in youth choir, and there were piano, violin, and guitar lessons. One of my most formative experiences was when I was around 6 or 7 years old, my sister and I contributed a dialogue, a skit, to an actual pop album. The band was called Lushel, a hair metal synth pop group from Nagoya, Japan, who had the idea to include English-speaking children on their song “Utopia.” The album is called Across The Infancy. Our voices kicked off the second side of their LP. This was my first time setting foot inside a recording studio. I still remember walking in. The singer was in the booth, a real life rock star, singing his head off. Up until that point, to me at least, records were these fantasy creations, and it blew my mind that actual people could make them.

5/SUCCESS

Success is defined by lives changed or touched. That's how I see it. Sometimes, I'll cross paths with someone who's been affected as much, or even more, than I have by the music I've made, or helped make. This makes me think that there was a reason why I've been drawn to this path.

6/UNEXPECTED INFLUENCES

The Gita, cats, Nietzsche, and stars. I have a current of esotericism in my work. Were you to examine the songs in that way, you'll find layers of subliminal meaning. In every sense, these are transmissions, so is any work, but my subject matter can be traced to that underside of counterculture. I don't make music you go over with; these are songs that help you go under.

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Psycho Horses is out 2/19 and can be pre-ordered via Bandcamp. Catch Rusty Santos on tour:

Feb 13 - Fresno, CA - Sour Milk
Feb 19 - Los Angeles, CA - Non Plus Ultra
Feb 20 - San Diego, CA - Folk Arts Rare Records
Feb 21 - Phoenix, AZ - Myspace
Feb 22 - Flagstaff, AZ - The Hive
Feb 27 - Tucson, AZ - Poe’s Art House
Mar 4 - Denton, TX - Rubber Gloves
Mar 5 - Austin, TX - Mohawk

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