Swiss producer Samuel Riot lives a nomadic life. Based in New York, he also travels to LA regularly and maintains close ties to Switzerland and Europe. This mobility also informs his artistic practice. In recent years, he has produced for renown pop musicians while also realizing a number of installations as well as publishing his own music. The latter profits from the interdisciplinary ambit of his work. Music offers him a platform to combine his desire for experimentation with a keen sense for the specificities of altogether different genres and niches. On his new EP Ballads, Riot brings together his penchant for challenging pop with a sensitivity to the blurring lines between specific genres and distinctions. Setting up an installation in an empty store serving as the site for the release event of Ballads, the producer set aside some time to answer a few questions.

Marc Schwegler After Patterns in 2016 and Anima in 2017, Ballads is your third release on Mixpak. What has changed over the course of these releases? Are they connected to each other?

Samuel Riot I would hope that I’ve developed as an artist and composer, that my musical vocabulary and expression have become more precise. The three EPs have the same thematic focus: they all explore the idea of liminal zones. Patterns draws on the sound palette of contemporary club music without necessarily aiming at being played on the dancefloor. Anima no longer had that orientation, neither in terms of its aesthetic nor its tempo. I wanted to break through the dystopian mood, which often characterizes my music, and allow more light in, put the focus on more refined gestures. On Ballads I’m playing with the tensions between pop music and the avant-garde, and to combine elements of contemporary pop with the compositional and processing techniques of experimental electronic music. I’m interested in in-between spaces and overlaps—whenever two artistic worlds collide, and seem to be mutually unintelligible, then there’s always the potential for exciting work.

MS Did your own work profit from the experience of producing for other artists?

SR Thematically, I’ve been working at the intersection of art and pop culture for quite some time now. In the past few years, new points of contact with the pop world emerged in my role as a producer. Ballads is a direct result of this process. It was a conscious decision to pour my experiences with pop into the production of the EP, that is, to make these experiences part of its central theme.

MS The track  “Don’t Lie” seems only one layer of distortion removed from becoming a straight-forward pop-crooner…

SR That’s exactly what I wanted to play with! But “Don’t Lie” also covers one extreme end of the spectrum—as you said, it’s very close to being pure pop. “Everywhere Pt. 2” stands at the other end of this: the basic units of a pop song are completely deconstructed. Structurally, the song collapses in on itself.

MS You collaborate with others on the EP—Ian Isiah appears on “Frontline (If I’m Gonna Make It)” and Gaika on the last track, “IX.” What was this process like? Did it happen organically or was it planned in advance?

SR For me, it was clear from the beginning that there would be vocals. At first, I mostly used sampled voices. Then, later in the writing process, I met Ian and Gaika through other projects, and from then on it happened pretty organically. I think both Ian Isiah, not just in his collaboration with Blood Orange, and Gaika (see zweikommasieben #19) move in the zone between pop and experimental music. In that sense, working with them felt right from the get-go.

MS You recently completed a Master in Contemporary Arts Practice (Sound Arts) and, aside from your own music and producing for others, you also work on installations. Do these activities run in parallel or are they separate from each other? And what does it mean for your work day? What does that look like?

SR As a rule, it’s all interconnected. It doesn’t make a difference to me whether I’m working for another musician, on my own stuff, or on a composition for an installation. I work in the same studios or use the same mobile set-up. That means my days are similar, regardless of where and what I work on. I try to let the different perspectives and approaches inform my artistic and compositional practice. Ballads, for example, is not only a digital release, but will also be an installation. This has been the case with previous releases that were translated into a spatial or performative piece.

MS What is your relationship to Switzerland? How closely connected do you still feel to the country? And do you visit frequently?

SR I have a close bond with Switzerland and regularly work with Swiss artists. The Genevan musician Vincent Ruiz (ex-Plaistow) plays upright base and Rhodes on Ballads, for example. Generally, I try to spend as much time in Switzerland as possible since an important part of my peers still live there. Since my move to the US, however, my life is no longer tethered to one place. There are multiple locations that are equally important. In the past two years, I spent the better part of six months in New York, about a quarter year in LA, and the remaining time in Switzerland and Europe. I see this semi-nomadic lifestyle as a privilege, and I appreciate it a lot.

MS What do you like the most about New York, and what do you find difficult?

SR I spend the winter in LA, so there’s little I don’t like about New York. I appreciate the fact that everything is constantly moving. That affects my creative work in the city. Everything is in perpetual flux. Everything changes all the time. That can also be sad, as when a place you love because it offered you a home in a particular scene just disappears. But at the same time something new always takes its place. I love how quickly and without much planning you can do things in this environment. Take the installation for Ballads: the past few weeks I’ve been hunting for a warehouse or an off-space for it; one week before the release date I get a call from someone offering me a huge abandoned warehouse in the middle of Manhattan’s financial district. The painters went in the following day. On Monday the installation went up. The release was on Thursday. These moments, which for me are typical of life in New York, keep happening, and I love this spontaneity and unpredictability—even if goes against my natural inclination as a Swiss person who grew up clinging to structures and plans.

Wildlife! – Ballads is out now on Mixpak.