SAINT PEPSI

With a new EP dropping later this month, a slot at Italy’s Spring Attitude Festival alongside such heavyweights as Four Tet and Com Truise, and major labels like Stones Throw and Carpark knocking at his door, 21-year-old musician and Long Island native Ryan DeRobertis, better known as SAINT PEPSI, is poised for success. Do415 had the chance to chat with the young producer as he readied for his first trip to the Golden State and his West Coast debut in San Francisco on February 15th.

Do415: First things first: We’re crazy excited you’re coming to San Francisco.

Saint Pepsi: I’m so excited too! I’ve only been to New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Florida. I never, ever travel. I haven’t been so excited for something since I don’t know when. It’s like all I think about.

Do415: That’s the best. You must be counting down the days.

SP: Half of me is, the other half is rushing to finish as many new edits/new tracks to premiere at the show. I never get the opportunity to do things like this so I want to make it super special.

Do415: The momentum you’ve picked up since the release of Hit Vibes this past summer has been incredible to watch. We can only imagine what it’s been like on your end.

SP: It’s been unbelievable, but to be honest, my life was literally about to crumble into pieces before Hit Vibes came out. I was still at Boston College and I had worked myself into this really bad depression. I had stopped attending classes and warped my mind and I was just a mess because I thought I didn’t have control over my life. I was a political science major. It was STUPID. I made Hit Vibes the first month I was home from BC. And Long Island’s sort of like a cultural wasteland in itself. Growing up my parents sheltered me so I never went to Brooklyn or anything for fun. So it took all the positive energy I had in my body to make ‘a unifying dance record’ in spite of all the bullshit, the academic inconsistency, the lashing out at my upbringing. Just wanting to be something different.

Do415: It’s pretty remarkable that an album that just absolutely radiates joy came out of a time that was so dark for you. Has music always been a part of your life?

SP: My dad took me to see Duran Duran and Depeche Mode, which were amazing experiences in themselves, but I was also like 5 years old haha. My first ‘real’ concert was Toro y Moi when I was 18. But I started writing my own songs when I was 14. They were really weird because they weren’t GOOD, but they were a lot different from what everyone else did at the time. Then I put this shitty song on iTunes when I was 16 and everyone at my school thought I was famous hahaha.

Do415: You’re singing! SAINT PEPSI sings?!

SP: Yes! I can’t wait to start singing again on the new SP record that will be coming out later this year. It’ll be an official release and my proper label debut.

Do415: Big things! Is this where you always saw SAINT PEPSI going?

SP: Hahaha not in the slightest. It’s kind of a funny story. In November of 2012, I did a whole album called Adversaries under the name The Cold Napoleons. Wrote and recorded it in 2 weeks. And then over winter break I started SAINT PEPSI as sort of an art project, but it was very tongue-in-cheek. The running joke was ‘imagine SP becoming the biggest project out of anything you’ve ever done.’

Do415: And now here you are. And here you’ll be in no time at all! What’s at the top of your to-do list while in San Francisco?

SP: …Is it bad that I don’t have an agenda?

Do415: Not at all. Cheers to that.

Get refreshed when Do415 and HGMNY bring you Saint Pepsi live at F8 | 1192 Folsom this Friday September 15th

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