Interview: Rich Brian On His New Album, Representing Indonesia, What Fans Can Expect From His NZ Show, & More
Rich Brian is back with the release of his second studio album, The Sailor, only over a year after he released his debut album Amen.
The 19 year old rapper, singer, songwriter and producer moved to Los Angeles from Jakarta, Indonesia in 2016 and he has rapidly built a name for himself since blowing up with his viral song, Dat $tick. With the release of The Sailor, Rich Brian is hungry to show he is more than just that kid in a pink polo and a fanny pack.
Inspired by his home country, his dad, writer’s block and his experiences of travelling (I mean, it’s called The Sailor, c’mon), Rich Brian lets us know who Brian Imanuel really is as he shows the world a different side to him. By focusing on the type of music Rich Brian loves to make, he has crafted something close to his heart and something that speaks to his truth. Like he rapped in Kids, “Tell these Asian kids they could do what they want/ Might steal the mic at the GRAMMYs just to say we won/ That everyone can make it, don't matter where you from”, Rich Brian is not here to play around.
Breaking barriers, Rich Brian is pushing forward a culture that will no longer sit idly by as they continue to be marginalized and under-represented in Western society. Rich Brian paints a picture with the mic as he illustrates his experiences as a member of the Southeast Asian diaspora and he is not holding back.
Rich Brian will be heading to New Zealand and Australia this August and September and is excited to see his down-under fans. Wildly ambitious but humble at heart, Rich Brian sat down to have a chat with us as he opens up about the making of the album, what it’s been like since it’s release, the music video Yellow, meeting the Indonesian president, 88rising and being able to represent his home country.
Hey Brian, how are you? Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us and congrats on your album release.
Hey, how are doing, it’s nice to meet you and I’m good! Thank you for having me.
How do you feel so far with the release of the album, does it feel great to finally show it to the world?
I feel so amazing. I’ve just been like looking at Twitter the past few days and just kind of, like, I actually keep forgetting that the album is out for some reason. I’ve just been working on it for so long and like, we’ve been planning this whole release for so long, just like, planning the video acts, little teasers and stuff like that. I keep thinking, shit, when’s the next teaser I gotta drop. It’s crazy to think that what I’ve been working on for the past year is currently being consumed by everybody right now.
Yeah, that’s crazy. I know you took a bit of a different stance with this album in terms of it being more personal and trying to be more melodic, how has it felt seeing the reaction from your fans? Because literally I’ve only seen good things
Yeah, me too. It’s been great. It’s like, it’s the best thing ever to just kind of like… when you make some sort of change in your art and stuff like that, it’s usually pretty scary and this is something that I have to get over and be like you know what, I’m gonna make what I like to make, you know, I feel like making melodic stuff so I’m gonna make melodic stuff. I’m just tryna make stuff that I like making and the fact that everybody has been rewarding me for that, it’s just crazy. Yeah, I’ve still been in disbelief with how much everybody likes the album.
How did RZA end up getting on the album?
We were in New York at the time and it was me, Bekon and The Donuts and we were all working on the album together and Sean was also in New York. Then Sean got to talking with RZA at the time about some other stuff and he was like “yo, should we get RZA on the album?” and we’re like “yeah!” so then we asked RZA and he ended up being down. The day that he came to the studio, he didn’t even get in the booth. It was me, Bekon and the guys and we were having this jam session ‘cause that’s the way Bekon and stuff worked, it’s like 6 people and somebody would be on guitar, somebody would be on the keyboard and all these different instruments kind of connected with the computer together and there was like a mic in the middle of the room for the artists. RZA just came in with his manager and his daughter and she got on the mic and she pulled out a song and I saw the notes app, and she had written, like, this long paragraph and she just started talking. Then, she started talking about, some like, some very philosophical stuff, about how Wu-Tang came together and about how Asian culture, you know, inspired him and at one point he started talking about, basically, he was basically complimenting me and that was like, the craziest thing ever to me. We had all like, just met each other in the room and it was wild.
What inspired the visuals for the Yellow music video? ‘Cause like that video was crazy, it gave me goosebumps watching it.
Thank you! I think that was like, me, Sean and Dave Meyers, all of our ideas combined together. It was originally me and Sean, we came up with the idea of like, we wanted to come up with something with a cool, kind of, glowing yellow, like kind of sh*t, like visually. Also, we were thinking about, some sort of… all we knew that there was gonna be some crazy, beautiful but at the same time, dark. We knew we wanted it to be something, like, kind of manipulating the human body, with the hands coming out of my mouth. We didn’t have that idea just yet but we knew we wanted to do something like that. So, we pitched this idea to Dave Meyers as a joke (starts laughing) and we pushed it to a bunch of different directors and we were thinking he wasn’t gonna reply but then he did, and we were like oh sh*t. So, Dave Meyers sent us this treatment and it was just a drawn out sheet of like, the house and me and the plastic and then, the hand coming out of my mouth and I was like “oh my gosh, like, this is it”. I remember, like, he told us that when he saw our pitch that he had to do the video. We were like “oh, why?” and he said that from listening to the song, he knew, how big it was gonna be and how important it’s gonna be and he just wanted to be apart of it. It’s crazy, yeah.
How does it feel to be able to represent Indonesia on an international scale, especially in the hip hop and rap industry, where you don’t get to see much rappers from Asian backgrounds?
It’s definitely a weird experience, it’s like, I see it and I see everyone’s compliments and response to it and like, I see all the time, Indonesian people feeling represented and being proud. I’m just very not, like, registering it because it’s just like, I know what it feels like because to be in that position, back then when I was like 14 or something like that, I remember seeing this guy who was in a movie called Raid, it was an Indonesian movie that got famous internationally and then, he got a role on Fast & Furious as one of the bad guys. I remember seeing that and being like, I didn’t even know that this was a thing or that this was possible to see an Indonesian person in Hollywood. I was like, this is f*cking crazy, and it just made me so motivated and just pushed me at the time. That feeling, which is so… I feel like that was just a huge push for me back in the day. Just the fact that I’m doing that for other people now, it’s just insane. I’m definitely not really, like, registering it yet but it’s definitely crazy and wild man.
How did you get the chance to play ‘Kids’ for the President of Indonesia?
To be honest I don’t know. I only found out I’d be seeing the president like, 2 days before that. We knew some people, they were just like government, like organization, it’s a creative organization that’s like connected to the government in Indonesia and we knew those guys and they were like, do you want to meet the president and I was just like yeah (laughing). We just like went there and we just like, saw the president. It was definitely the most random day of my life but it was like, also the best day of my life (laughing).
That’s so awesome. So, how has 88rising helped you as a musician or even just as a person who’s trying to discover themselves?
88rising, I think the way they helped me was, it’s like, I don’t know. I feel like, working around so many people that have the same goal and like, the same dreams as you, it becomes a huge push because I feel like if I had never met 88 and kind of stayed by myself, I would be the same kid with the same dreams and I’m still gonna have heaps of talent but being around so many people that have that same goal as you, that are willing to work on their stuff and be as passionate as you are or even more passionate than you are, it’s such a crazy thing. It’s kind of like, I’m working with a lot of people around me in the 88 team that has been the business for awhile and they’re like professional, whether that be in management side, the creative side and like the video side, it’s like, I’m learning a lot. It’s basically like a lot of information.
I read somewhere that before you blew up, you either wanted to make it in music or in acting. Now that you’ve started making your mark in music, have you considered now doing something with acting?
Oh, absolutely. I’ve been focusing a lot more on showing more emotions in my face when I talk (laughing). It’s definitely something that’s been on my mind for quite awhile and I’ve been thinking about it a lot more recently and especially, like, this album came out and I feel like, I’m gonna be very busy with music because I’ve just put out this body of work and I’m still gonna have tours and so I still wanna make a lot more music but acting is something that I’ve definitely been paying more attention to recently.
You sold out 2 shows in New Zealand last year. You’re back in September. What can fans expect from you this time around, except for playing Drive Safe for an hour while there’s tears flowing?
(starts laughing) I would say, um, what can we expect… Honestly, I’m not sure what I’m expecting either because I haven’t performed in so long but at the same time I’m just like, excited and I’m so just like, I just wanna be much more involved in the production of my shows because I feel like that’s such an important thing. I’ve never been too involved in that ‘cause I haven’t really had the time. I just came out with an album that like I’ve paid a lot of attention to all of the videos and all the concepts of the songs and I should be paying attention to the production in my show.
Is there anything else you’d like to say or plug before we wrap this up?
I think all I have to say is definitely if you haven’t listened to the album, The Sailor, listen to it, take your time from front to back ‘cause that’s how I intended the album to be so yeah, go listen to the album!
Thank you so much Brian, we’ll see you in September!
Interviewed By: Breanna Tugaga-Rogers
@bretugs