“I’ve been interested in movie soundtracks for a while. I took a class in New York for film scoring.” I didn’t know this about RL Grime, but it comes as no surprise. Like a lot of his friends in LA’s Wedidit collective, the producer’s talents in visual branding are almost as gripping as his beatmaking skills. (Load up the gleaming techno-fetishism of his ‘Core’ video if you’re looking for proof.) Ultimately, the product that RL Grime is selling isn’t just a clever reconstitution of trap – it’s the whole package.
The way your music and visuals fit together, is it a synaesthetic thing for you?
Totally. I went into the Void album with a visual concept – just like overarching themes. That definitely allowed the music to flow quicker and more organically.
How did you come across the directors – David Rudnick and Daniel Swan – to create the music videos for the singles?
David’s done some work for Evian Christ and some UK and Scottish acts who I’m a big fan of. Their whole aesthetic and everything was really intriguing to me. So I looked into them a little more and we flew them out to LA and we really vibed. So since then we’ve been working pretty closely together.
I feel like the aesthetic gels with what someone like [visual artist] SuS BoY is doing with the Wedidit crew. Is having visual consistency across the whole Wedidit collective important to you?
Yeah, totally. It’s cool seeing SuS BoY and David work together on this project and it totally inspired a lot of the music.
They’ve worked together on my live show. David’s done everything for the album rollout, but they’ve both been coordinating on the live visuals because we’re trying to do some of the older stuff and combine with a lot of the Void stuff.
SuS Boy’s always been a huge part of the live sets because his visuals are so left-field and strong. They just really stand out. Especially in a festival setting, where you have big guys who have pretty much the same visuals over and over. Not everyone has a skeleton dancing on top of a burning cop car.
You got Boys Noize on a track on Void. What does the jacked-up indie-electro of the nu-rave era mean to you?
I was listening to that in high school, and it’s what got me into electronic music. MSTRKRFT’s The Looks and [Justice’s] Cross and [Boys Noize’s] Oi Oi Oi and all those records were hugely influential in my music career.
The general trend in electronic music is that it’s getting more and more turnt up. Do you think we’ll eventually reach peak turnup?
There’s always gonna be room for more intense music. I was listening to The Bloody Beetroots’ ‘Warp’ and stuff when I was in high school and thought it was as crazy as it can get. But, y’know, people find a way to make it crazier.
I think there’s room for everything right now. There’s so much crazy music being made, even if it’s not, like, turn-up music.
There’s a range of sounds within the Wedidit crew. Do you think that there’s one thing that ties it all together?
I think it’s that we started out as friends, so we’re all very like-minded when it comes to producing and listening to music. We just all have very similar taste in music and visual branding. We’re just a circle of best friends making music, pretty much.
Are there any plans for joint projects with all of Wedidit on the horizon?
I dunno – I’ve been really interested in a tour, even if it’s just a West Coast, North American tour. Even beyond that, I think it’d be really cool to do some kind of tour with everyone together. It’s a great vibe every time we come together.
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