Robert DeLong

Given his wildly innovative, inventive, and inimitable approach to indie dance, it wouldn’t be a surprise if singer/songwriter/producer/performer Robert DeLong actually hailed from a different universe. Encoded in his DNA, you’ll find strands of not only electronic, drum & bass, techno, house, moombahton, rock, and pop, but also the hard science fiction of writers such as Neal Stephenson and Greg Egan as well as the gonzo vision of David Lynch. In the span of a few seconds on stage, he’ll jump from orchestrating musical bliss via joystick to belting out a stadium-size hook on the mic.

“I call what I do ‘hyper indie future pop’,” he smiles. “I’m a big proponent of furthering the fusion of technology and music, which goes hand-in-hand with the live show and how I produce.”

That ambition has cemented him as an outlier in the studio and in front of a crowd. Most recently, his 2015 sophomore album, In The Cards, yielded a string of fan favorite singles such as “Don’t Wait Up” and the smash “Long Way Down”—which peaked at #3 on the Alternative Chart, clocked over 30 million Spotify streams in addition to 3 million YouTube/VEVO views and counting. The record garnered acclaim from Billboard, Baeble Music, iHeart.com, and more.

In support of the release, he headlined countless shows. Along the way, he delivered standout sets at Coachella 2016. At the latter, he was joined by none other than Kamasi Washington, while Firefly 2016 was his biggest audience to date, nearly 40,000. Along the way, the legendary Tears For Fears handpicked him to open a sold-out show at the hallowed Colorado venue Red Rocks.

Emerging from this whirlwind, DeLong sought out a much-needed reprieve. So, he relocated from Los Angeles to Denver for the duration of 2016.

“I had been on the road constantly since 2012,” he recalls. “I was touring throughout the entire composition of In The Cards. I had no chance to reflect, so I took some time off. For me, I needed to collect myself and figure out where I wanted to go, what I wanted to write about, and what I wanted to do next. In the middle of this period, I started flying back out to L.A. for writing sessions. I quickly realized that’s where my life is. I’m more creatively connected in Los Angeles.  I have more friends who work on music. It’s the nexus of the industry. I felt the draw. It pulled me back in 2017. Immediately, all of these songs came together.”

Challenging himself, he switched up the process. Whereas 2013’s Just Movement would be a traditional solo effort and In The Cards featured a handful of collaborators, he fully welcomed fellow writers and producers into his creative orbit for what became new music for 2018 on Glassnote Records.

“The process was really different,” he affirms. “As I’ve gotten older, it’s more interesting for me to work with other musicians and artists. You get a perspective on things. The other voice strengthens the final product. It’s an important part of the creation.”

Co-written with and featuring K. Flay and produced by Robert, the first single “Favorite Color Is Blue” marches forward on a stomping beat, glitch-y bass, resounding handclaps, and a rich harmony before spinning into the sticky chant, “And now my favorite color is blue.”

“I’ve always been a fan of K. Flay, and we ran into each other at a local neighborhood haunt,” he says. “We decided to get together in the studio. In true collaborative fashion, you hear certain things I would never typically think of doing and certain things she would never think of doing. As far as the meaning goes, it’s a person’s reaction to the world crumbling. There are a lot of ways you can react. I think of it like somebody losing his or her mind in Echo Park.”

In the end, it’s clear there’s nobody quite like DeLong. He’s the rare talent who can ignite a sea of bodies in motion from the stage or lyrically explore a philosophical quandary.

There’s a good chance he’s not of this world.