When it comes to musical careers, you can hardly accuse Porter Robinson of walking the beaten path. After his debut at the tender age of 18, Porter caught the rapt attention of the EDM world with both his electrifying DJ sets and infectious original tracks, even filling co-production and background vocal rolls on his friend Zedd’s megahit “Clarity.” However, following his sold-out Language tour, Porter had a change of heart and moved in a different direction. Retreating from live shows for nearly a year, he forged a new musical identity, drawing on the fictional influences of his youth to assemble a genre-defying debut album. That album, Worlds, is one of the most buzzed-about of the year, and with good reason. Integrating many of the sounds of EDM into more of a synthpop aesthetic, it is both sentimental without being sickly and dance-worthy without being repetitive.
On the heels of Worlds’ critical acclaim, Porter is touring an immersive and inventive live set which will see him balancing clip-launching, key work and vocals. AP caught up with him before his Oct. 9 set at the House of Blues to talk about abandoned and upcoming projects, storytelling and video games.
Allston Pudding: You’ve made one of the more dramatic musical shifts in recent history. Did that process feel daunting or a more natural progression?
Porter Robinson: I think it was very natural because it was a shift towards sincerity. I don’t see it as this rebranding or something because I don’t think it was effortful. It was a move towards making the music that I had wanted to make for some time. I think that once I started writing music the way I felt I should, I fell in love with it and I could never go back. That’s not to say that all of my older music was insincere, but this was more personal for me in a way that was liberating from a songwriting perspective.
AP: You’ve said one of the inspirations of the album is the sprawling MMORPGS you played when you were younger. Could you describe one of the characters you played as in an MMO?
PR: I guess I’ll talk about my first one. His name was Kirin, which I didn’t know that was the name of the beer at the time. He was a Zabrak Teras Kasi master in Star Wars: Galaxies. Zabrak was the same species as Darth Maul, for the Star Wars uninitiated, and he was kind of boring. I did a lot of role playing as I started getting older. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen MUDs or anything; it’s like text-based collaborative writing where you literally assume the role of your character. I generally tended to play weaker characters, which I think is rich from a storytelling perspective. So many players in these games were so occupied with being a god and trying to write their character as the most powerful- we called that God-moding- but I thought there was this need for people who assumed more clansman roles and such, so I was often playing those. More adding to the story and not being the focus.
AP: A lot of the lyrics allude to some epic and romantic stories. Have you imagined what those stories might be?
PR: I’d say that Worlds to me is less of a story in and of itself and more an appreciation of stories. I think that a lot of stuff alludes to a loose narrative, but I never fleshed them out, and that was intentional. That’s why it’s Worlds and not World– it’s meant to be taken as this appreciation of fiction as a whole. So that’s why there’s some sci-fi elements and elements that allude to other genres. And I think that in my own mind I have ideas for what some of them would be about.
To be honest there was a point where I was attempting to make a short film to accompany the album. It was actually really expensive and I ended up throwing it away. It was an animated thing. I realized, I think, that the reason that didn’t work is because it didn’t leave enough to the imagination. I think that if I was to go out and tell people “this is what this is all about,” it better be something that lives up to the music. Otherwise, I think what people imagine for themselves will be better and probably dearer to them as well. But there’s definitely loose narrative elements, for sure.
AP: Throughout the press cycle, a lot of focus has been put on how your change of direction will affect the EDM scene rather than simply the music. Has this bothered you at all?
PR: It’s funny, I just answered a question like that. Somebody asked me “why is it that you want to change the EDM genre,” and I would say that I’m actually not interested in changing EDM. I don’t see this music as strictly being EDM at all. I think that party music can and will and should exist, and there will always be a place for it. I don’t see Worlds as a replacement for party music. I don’t see this as the next step in party music. That’s what EDM is to me. EDM is just fun, unpretentious party music.
I see this as being something totally separate from that. While sonically it may take on some of the same ideas- the loudness, the big climaxes and stuff- I see it as working towards a totally different end. They’re emotional climaxes to me. I guess I was so over it with EDM that I didn’t want to be seen as a representative for that. and I certainly don’t want to have the responsibility of trying to revolutionize it or change it at all. I think I can only be responsible for my own music, and not this whole other cultural movement that I never took part in. I was never going to festivals. I was never wearing neon tank tops. That has nothing to do with me.
AP: Has playing the album out and seeing how people respond live changed your opinion of the songs at all?
PR: Well, for the show, a lot of the songs are pretty reworked. Often times they’re made to be longer and more expansive and prettier . It wasn’t this effort to turn the songs into ready-to-go party jams. It’s weird, even though they’re mostly the same, it feels really different to me listening to them in the context of the album rather than playing them out. Honestly, once I start playing a song out, I think it begins to lose a bit of emotional resonance for me. I start to associate it with the stress and anxiety of performing live, and it doesn’t feel the same as listening to the song, obviously. But then if I’m ever just by myself and I go back and listen to songs I can usually get that feeling back.
It’s definitely been informative to me to see which songs have the biggest reaction. The opening song of the album, “Divinity,” whenever anyone hears that riff there’s this big scream, and people recognize and know that song more than I expected, which is cool. But I don’t know that it’s really changed my opinions of any of the songs. I think that there’s one live version, the live version I made of “Fresh Static Snow,” that I think is just strictly better than the Worlds album version. That’s actually kind of unfortunate! But for the most part I don’t think it’s changed my perspective on the actual album songs too much.
AP: The album is very video game-inspired. Would you consider scoring a game?
PR: It’s definitely not off the table. I want to have my music in No Man’s Sky, this game which has been in development for some time now. It’s literally about discovering planets that are procedurally generated. It’s a super, super beautiful game. I’ve been talking to Hello Games, which are the people who make it. However, I’m also interested in contributing in some way to the art direction of every product I’m involved with. I think that’s why I wanted to at least attempt a short film thing. The people I was working with on that, it was just clearly not a good fit. It was not the right people. I’m definitely open to more non-music projects.
AP: Is there any new material on the horizon, or are you just focusing on touring Worlds?
PR: It’s pretty hard for me to write music on the road. I’ve been trying, despite that, but I definitely don’t have anything imminently coming out. I’m definitely focusing on getting my live show game right. But making music is why I do this, and it’s my favorite part of any of this. I’m really looking forward to getting some new music out there.
Photos by Rachel Epstein (Local Wolves)