“This is something that I made because I love it” : Rich Brian on WHERE IS MY HEAD?, cultural identity and embracing collaboration

Rich Brian.

Interview by Kade Homa

With the release of his latest album WHERE IS MY HEAD? , Rich Brian reflects on the years of self-discovery, doubt, and experimentation that shaped its creation. “I think it came from just showing up every day to my home studio, my room, and just really getting into the gritty details of everything, which is something that I haven't done as much in the past,” he says.

What began as a way to move past imposter syndrome evolved into Brian’s most hands-on project yet. “I think that’s when I realised, oh, I’m a real producer,” he explains. “Because before I had a lot of imposter syndrome when it came to that, even though I've produced since 2016.”

Anchored by themes of vulnerability, identity, and home, WHERE IS MY HEAD? blends raw honesty with expansive production, Indonesian influences, and vivid visual storytelling. “This is something that I made because I love it and not for anything else,” Brian says.

In our recent chat, he talks about trusting himself as a producer, weaving personal confessions into his songwriting, and the inspirations that pushed him to create his most personal work to date.

★

Kade: First of all, thanks so much for taking the time to chat today. I really appreciate it. 

Brian: Thank you for having me.

Kade: Where am I catching you from this afternoon? And now that your album WHERE IS MY HEAD? is finally out in the world. How are you feeling about it? 

Brian: I’m currently in Indonesia with my family in my bedroom. It's been amazing! The past few days have been full of looking at what everyone's saying responding to tweets and Instagram stories and whatnot and just watching a lot of album reviews with family and it's been a great reception. I'm really happy about it.

Kade: Yeah it’s an amazing album. It's been great to see just how much positive feedback there's been.

Brian: It’s been unexpected [laughs].

Kade: On the new record, a vast majority of it, you said, was self written and self produced. With most of it coming from your own brain, was there ever a moment where you felt stuck?

Brian: Yeah, I think there were a lot of moments like that. There were many moments where, you know, when you're making an album, you're listening to these songs so many times over and over. I always go back and forth. There's always phases of like, this is the best thing I've ever made and then, this is not that good [laughs]. And also just kind of like, what else is missing from this project? I think there's definitely times like that, but I just kept it going. I think what helped the most to get out of it was to… whenever like my favorite artists release new projects, listening to that, you know, that brings the motivation back immediately. Playing the album for my friends as well, and just seeing their fresh perspective on it, just really lights that fire back. 

Kade: You’ve mentioned that whenever some of your favourite artists would release music, that would act as motivation for you. Are there any specific artists or albums that you can point to that especially motivated you? 

Brian: Jean Dawson was one of them. That's someone that I met when I was making this project, and also one of the friends that I played the album for. He also invited me to his listening session for his album before it came out, and it was just incredible. He's also another artist that's very, very hands on when it comes to production, and I think, there's always just that motivation of just like, this is amazing, I need to work harder. Another artist that never fails to motivate me is Tyler, the Creator. I remember him putting out the first visual snippet of Chromakopia and I was just like, oh my god, I have to have to step my visual game up. I went to the listening event for that one too and I was just like, I'm missing some things on this album and I’ve got to make sure to check off those boxes. 

Kade: While we're on the topic of self producing the album, in an interview recently with Zach Sang you described it as almost talking to an AI chatbot, like giving them prompts, and just not really getting back what you were expecting. So what was that experience like when you finally decided, okay, I'm just going to take the reins for this project?

Brian: It was a very, I'd say liberating experience. I think realising that this is actually something that I can do… and I only found that out by actually doing it. Because I'm just kind of like, well, if I'm not getting the results that I want through other people, then you know, I have all this time, you know, the album's not out yet, so let's just try. I think it just came from just showing up every day to my home studio, my room, and just really getting into the gritty details of everything, which is something that I haven't done as much in the past. Just really like, adding a transition here and adding the most minor texture here, and realising if I just spend the time and just really do it, this is something that I'm able to do. I think that's when I realised, oh, I'm a real producer. Because before I had a lot of imposter syndrome when it came to that, even though I've produced since 2016. I think I've always felt like, in order for a song to be at a certain level quality wise, I would need to work with, you know, real producers. And I think that's when I realised like, I can do it. You know, I can do this. 

Kade: And then for the production of the album, you described it as being a lot more hands-on, especially with the synths and the keyboards. Was there anything in particular that drew you to more of that hands-on sound? 

Brian: I think it was just like, wanting to, again, have more of those textures that, you know… because my album, The Sailor, was produced by a lot of other people. And I remember in the studio seeing that they had all these keyboards and I just know that that's just like, to get those sounds is really hard to just get it on the computer. Outside of just the actual sounds, the process is just so much more fun when you're actually touching these things, real instruments, the inspiration and the approach is just completely different and it feels more inspiring. 

Kade: One of the songs that I wanted to talk to you about was ‘Ma’, and the reason being because of the things that are covered from heartbreak to family relationships and identity. You went as far as describing yourself as a deadbeat uncle and you were especially vulnerable on the hook of the song. So I wanted to ask you what the writing process was like for ‘Ma’ and how it felt confronting your emotions?

Brian: It started with the beat first and it was at a point in the album where I was just checking off boxes of what I was missing and I felt like I was missing a song that was telling a story about something really vulnerable, but also not having it be, you know, six minutes because I already have that with ‘Timezones’. So I wanted to have something that is still listenable and has a pretty hook. So I made the beat first and I just remember, you know, the verse part of it was so dark. It sounded really kind of dark and I, and I just remember, you know, the first line of it was just ‘sorry’. And I think the things that followed that was, it just started becoming like a confessional booth type thing. It made me want to be as honest as possible. And I think also compared to ‘The Sailor’, ‘The Sailor’ was very, you know, the themes of that album were very inspirational and it was very much like anyone could do what they want to do and chase their dreams. But I felt like it was lacking a vulnerability and it was trying too much to be like, I'm a role model and like I'm this perfect kind of being. And I think I just wanted to be like, nah, let's just, you know, let's be more honest and actually highlight the imperfections and actually say that I'm a deadbeat uncle because that is how I feel. Just, yeah, just really lay it all down. 

Kade: Another thing that is more prevalent on the new record is a lot more singing, especially on tracks like ‘Little Ray of Light’ and ‘She’. Your singing voice really comes forward a lot more. I wanted to ask you how it's changed your approach to making each track?

Brian: I'd say I've always loved making melodic songs and ideas from even from early on in my career. I think there are even times where I felt like it was more fun to make melodic stuff than to rap because there's just less limitations as to what you can talk about on a singing song, I feel like. And this one, I was just like, when I was making ‘The Sailor’, the stuff that I was listening to was all rap. It was all like old school lyrical rap, Kendrick and stuff like that. This one, I would try to listen to more rap, but I just kept finding myself listening to more old school singing stuff like Phil Collins, Stevie Wonder. Even when it came to the rap stuff, the stuff that I was listening to was like Outkast and stuff that has more production and can be melodic at times. So I really just leaned in on it. And, you know, Frank Ocean, Steve Lacey and Thundercat, those are big inspirations as well. These are people that I really look up to and I really studied their melodic choices and their songwriting. Another thing with singing, I always felt like my lyrics could be better and I've always wanted my lyrics to be more poetic when I'm singing, and I tried really hard to achieve that with this one. 

Kade: Apart from the singing, something else you've been leaning really heavily into with the release of the new album is the visual side of it with there being a lot of music videos so far, including Bumpy Road, which just released a couple of hours ago. Personally, ‘She’ is my favourite, I just really love the style of that one. I wanted to ask you how important the visual storytelling is for you alongside the music?

Brian: I think it's very important. That was something that has been such a process with this one. These days, people don't really make music videos as much anymore and it's more about, you know, clips on social media. I just really wanted to make sure, especially because I haven't dropped in six years and, you know, visual storytelling has been such a big part of my earlier music that I wanted this one to still feel like a step up from my last one somehow. I think there's also something really cool about making a world so when people listen to the album, they're not just hearing the music, but they have something to kind of picture in their minds. I remember feeling that when I was listening to ‘Because the Internet’ by Childish Gambino, he made a whole short film and the universe within it, and I think that's something that I really wanted to do here as well. 

Kade: Another thing I wanted to ask you about was how you've navigated different cultures throughout your career. From Indonesia to being in the U.S. and then also being a part of a growing hip hop scene over the last decade or so, I wanted to ask how the new album represents your current place in your journey.

Brian: Yeah, I think, as you definitely hear on the album, there's a lot of Indonesian influences where I actually sampled some Indonesian music and then there are some where it's more subtle. And I'm influenced by like very like music, like music genres that are very specific to Indonesia and just kind of having it be having an effect, just like little rhythms in the production. So I think that was just all about how much I missed home. I think because the album is also very honest and vulnerable. I think it just fits so well with the themes of just returning back home and being more in touch with the stuff that I love growing up, and this is where I grew up. I was, you know, people sometimes think that I'm from the US, but I'm actually like, you know, I was here from, you know, until I was 17, so really my formative years were all here. So now I'm currently in Indonesia and when I had the album listening party, when it came out, I had it here and I've never had that. I've never done that before. And that was really cool actually seeing like a lot of, you know, Indonesian musicians come here that I've never met in person before. I've been just kind of putting down like more more roots back home and just kind of like trying to be more in touch with what's going on over here because I'm at a time, I think, in my life where I just have grown so much more appreciation for it. 

Kade: Do you think it's felt a little freeing with the writing and releasing of WHERE IS MY HEAD?

Brian: A hundred percent. I think this whole project was definitely a reflection of that mindset change. And that was the reason why I was like, you know what, let's just take this, you know, it's like, let's take my time on this. Let's really, really just like make sure I love every single moment of the album, every single production moment, and just make sure the whole thing is very polished to exactly how I want it. Let's put a six minute and a half song in there where I'm just talking in vivid detail about specific parts of my life, because that's always been the kind of rap that I love, just like the storytelling stuff. And I think just being a fan of everything that I actually make. So, yeah, I'd say it's like when people hear it, I think they can tell that it's like, OK, this is something that I made because I love it and not for anything else.

Kade: Is there anything that you'd like to work into your music in the future, whether that's genres, styles or certain influences that you have? 

Brian: I think it's hard to say. When I walk into the studio these days, I try to not be rigid and I just kind of let the creation process kind of take me wherever. Even if it's something that I feel like I know I'm never going to release, I still get the idea done anyway. I lay it down and I just save it for later and then I will come back to it. So there have been times where I go into the studio and I make, you know, like a very dancey record or something that sounds like Kaytranada would make or something just because I do enjoy listening to stuff like that sometimes. But maybe I'm not necessarily ready to put something out like that in my career now, but I would just make it anyway. So it's always different every day. So I kind of don't plan it until I go into the process of like making my next album. 

Kade: All right. And finally, one last question that I wanted to ask you was that if you could accomplish three things over the next year, whether that's musical or personal, what would they be? 

Brian: I really want to perform at Camp Flog Gnaw. I really want to…. I just want to have more music friends that I'm fans of that make the same type of music that I do and just be more in the space of collaborating with them. And I really like, you know, with this album process, we're working with Toro and Charlotte Day Wilson and Daisy World. My favourite part was actually being in the room with them. With Daisy, she helped me a lot with like background vocals and then she sang these lyrics that I actually wrote and melodies that I wrote and just having someone put that trust in me and take direction from me is an experience that I've never had the privilege to have before. It's really nice to actually have someone trust me that much and for the end product to actually be good. I think I just want to do more of that where I work with other artists at that level. Third thing, probably…maybe just… I do want to be in a movie. I want to be part of like, I don't even have to be the main character, but I just want it to be a really good movie because I love movies. And sometimes when I watch a really good movie, I'm always like, ah man, I wish I was in that.

Kade: Well, I really appreciate you giving me the time and giving such thoughtful answers really means a lot to me.

Brian: Thank you so much for having me. 

Listen to WHERE IS MY HEAD? below.