Sonically and lyrically, the work exudes a certain ethos one may associate with recent “right here, right now, what’s next?” internet culture, but DeLong is unpretentiously documenting his anxiety and elation in relation to one another.
Although he grew up in a Seattle suburb in the 1990s, the 38-year-old musician was far from influenced by the grunge movement in a way one might expect.
“I feel like I was five to ten years too late for grunge to be a direct influence on me,” DeLong says. “But the indie stuff that came on the coattails of that, like Modest Mouse, Pedro the Lion, Minus the Bear and Death Cab for Cutie was. I feel that was almost a direct reaction to the post-grunge era, the jangly indie thing. I also just like writing sad pop songs.”
Starting off as a drummer of indie bands early in college, DeLong built up his musical chops early by participating in several projects. After his six-piece indie outfit, The Denouement, was offered a modest record deal, the band abandoned the project, so DeLong decided to go on his own.
“My trajectory was, I was a drummer, but always writing my own songs, even as a kid,” DeLong says. “I was really into computers and always messing around with something, which eventually led me to be a multi-instrumentalist performer. With The Denouement, we toured with that band and there were six people. That was a lot. Everybody had their own thing too, so we eventually put it on the backburner. That band was really important in me cutting my teeth. We did a lot of crazy stuff."
Going solo with his own material, DeLong signed to Glassnote Records in 2012 after doing a showcase for the label at The Viper Room in Los Angeles. The artist’s first album spawned the singles, “Global Concepts” and “Long Way Down,” starting a relationship with Glassnote that would see Delong release two more albums with the influential label.
“I had a great time on Glassnote, and we worked together for 12 years,” DeLong says. “They did such a great job of shepherding me pretty early in my career and now I’ve got a lot of time doing this under my belt.”
DeLong’s newest release, Playlist of Doom, will be his first for Round Hill Records. The album reinforces DeLong's identity as a genre-bending and experimental electronic artist.
“I think of myself as pretty genre-fluid,” DeLong says. “There’s a lot of electronic elements in Playlist of Doom, but they’re all alternative songs on some level. I make everything on the computer, so I’d say I’m an electronic-leaning songwriter.”
DeLong’s new album explores different societal concepts associated with internet culture and is named after the title track, a song DeLong wrote with friend and co-writer Tom Peyton.
“Him and I have written a bunch of songs together over the years,” DeLong says. “At the time we were working on it, we were listening to a lot of experimental jazz stuff. The title came from the idea of showing up to a party and ruining it by playing the playlist of doom. It spans genres in some ways, and the song ‘Fatal Flaw’ could be a Tom Petty song.”
DeLong Way to the Top
DeLong says that among the inspiration and concepts he explored on the new album is his love of sci-fi literature.“I read a lot of sci-fi books,” he says. “I recently read the whole Children in Time series [by British sci-fi author Adrian Czajkowski] and I’m always listening to things like Radiohead, Talking Heads and David Bowie. Other inspirations on the album have been jungle drum and bass music, but it’s not like you hear the stuff directly, there’s little effects that seep in here and there.”
Making Dallas an essential stop in the tour was a priority for the now LA-based Delong. He says he's enjoyed much success with the city’s crowd for over a decade, usually performing in Deep Ellum.
“I’ve always had good shows in Dallas and playing at Trees is always an interesting thing because of the giant support beam in the middle of the stage,” he says. “On another occasion, I did a wedding in Deep Ellum and that was crazy. A couple of my fans got married and had me out, so the city has really always been a blast for me.”
Considering how much the music business has changed since DeLong was first signed to Glassnote over a decade ago is bewildering to the artist.
“It’s so drastically different than it was when I first started,” DeLong says. “That was when Instagram was just a year old. Now bands don’t get signed unless they have a hit TikTok video. I got started the old-fashioned way, out hustling in Los Angeles, playing shows and making them special and it all just grew organically. I don’t really know if it works like that anymore, but regardless, your shit’s still got to be tight.”
DeLong is planning a highly interactive and entertaining show for his first time at The Kessler Theater.
“I think the live show is going to be a really exciting one this time around,” DeLong says. “I’m running a laser harp, guitars, keyboards, drums, MIDI controllers and it’s a whole thing. It’s going to be a party of a show, a real spectacle for the fans.”
Robert DeLong plays with Atlas Genius and special guest Normal Behaviour on Saturday, Oct. 5, at The Kessler Theater, 1230 W. Davis St. Tickets are available at prekindle.com.
