In this interview feature, we get to know the most radicalist up and coming stars on the planet.

This time we spoke with Los Angeles-based Belgian-American polymath musician Speelburg. 

Every so often, an artist makes their way into the hearts and minds of the TMR team and then we simply can’t bear to part ways. Noah Sacré, aka Speelburg, is one such talent. Going through our archives, you’ll find ‘Kline’, ‘Lay It Right’, ‘Gleason’, ‘Sauvage’ and ‘Pulse Of A Million’. Recently, we heard the intoxicating sounds of ‘Oxy Cotton Candy’; a vibrant alt-pop tune with surfy undertones, psychedelic sweeps, theatrical melodies and Speelburg’s unique perspective permeating the lyrics. Safe to say, ‘Oxy Cotton Candy’ is another winner in our books. What’s more, this track adds to the imminent excitement for Sacré's upcoming album release, Character Actor. The record feature tracks you can go wrap your ears around right now - ‘Screener Season’, ‘Headlights’ and ‘Lizarz’. 

Introductions aside, have a notepad and pen at the ready because, as you’ll discover, Sacré is bursting with recommendations from tracks to films to movie soundtracks to other miscellaneous goodies for your attention. 

TMR: Hey Noah, so we hear you’ve spent the last two years making “pop music for important people.” Who are these people and how have they inspired you? 

Hey there! At the risk of sounding too mysterious, I’m not gonna tell you who they are as a lot of it is about to come out. BUT I will say that these important people are, for the most part, excellent human beings with way too much talent. It’s been incredible learning how to write quickly. When I started writing for other people, I kinda sucked. I was way too tunnel-vision-y about songs, too much of a solo act. The artist and I would talk at great lengths and get nothing done and I was maybe too obsessed on making a good impression as someone who knows what they’re doing. About two and a half years ago, that changed and it’s been a joy ever since. I think if, like me, you’re a producer, performer and songwriter, people expect different things from you and you can get confused about what it is you actually want to contribute to the song, but now, I’m actually happy to wear all three hats and jump in. Most sessions I do now last about 4 or 5 hours - we get in, talk a little, then start writing. Normally, the singer or artist is working on vocal melodies and some lyrics. In the meantime, I basically split my brain in two whereby I’ll start producing the track, often starting with drums and, at the same time, adding vocal and lyric ideas. Ddmittedly, you’re pretty tired at the end, but you come out with a near finished track, and that’s the coolest feeling. I really can’t wait to tell you all about them. 

TMR: You’ve just released a new woozy number by the name of ‘Oxy Cotton Candy’. It’s full of vibrant synths and off-kilter imagery, like the movies playing backwards, for example. What’s this song about? 

Well, it’s about a few things. A lot of my songs tend to have two parallel themes swimming in tandem, and occasionally, I get to cross the streams. I also think it’s super important to let people interpret the track for themselves before you get too deep. Like, I can give you my version of the directions, but it’s probably more fun if you make the trip yourself. I will say this: I am proud of that title, and I find it funny that I managed to mention one of my other songs ‘Kline’. That was weird and fun. This whole song is very weird and very fun… to me anyway! 

TMR: It sounds like it was a fun song to make, do you enjoy the song-making process or do you hit that writer’s block from time to time? 

Yeah, this was such a blast to write! I often write and produce songs at the same time, but on this album, I did most of the writing on my little nylon acoustic in my living room, often in my underwear. A lot of these songs were just written kind of carelessly, just to make myself laugh. That’s not to say they’re joke songs or anything, it’s just that, because I wrote it while finishing my big shiny debut - which is actually coming out after this one - I was less precious. After I wrote it, I hit up Laurie and recorded drums in his studio, which probably took 25 minutes. We must have done like 3 or 4 takes, which I comped together later at my studio, where I then did all the guitars, bass, synths and vocals. I really like that synth sound during the solo. Kind of spacey, like same vibe as the solo in ‘Rosanna’ by Toto. That song rules. I love the chord progression in ‘Oxy Cotton Candy’. On this album, there’s a lot of weirder, jazzier delicious chord progressions, that will even change key from verse to chorus. Man, I really hope it doesn’t suck! It’s very possible I’ve made a weird pop record just for me.

In terms of writer’s block, I think I may have had a stretch while writing the debut where I was having trouble writing vocals and just producing a lot of music, so even though you’re still being productive, it feels like no songs are getting done and feels like you’re going nowhere. But i’m over that now. I think writing completely different styles helps put you in that less precious frame of mind. Be it for “important people” or commercials. I’ve written for a lot of commercials now, and though it can be a competitive business, it’s also super fun to explore new sounds and production styles that you might not have thought to explore yet. You pick up a ton of new tricks. Also, and it sounds super obvious, but listening to music - really works. It’s real easy to forget there’s a whole treasure trove of recorded music at your fingertips when you’re so focused on yourself, but honestly, listening to other people really, really helps with getting motivated to make something of your own. I used to watch skate videos, get so hyped up, I’d head right out and spend all day trying to nail a new trick. I still get that feeling when I watch skate clips online, except I don’t really skate anymore. I would really hate to bust my wrists. 

TMR: ‘Oxy Cotton Candy’ is more psychedelic than what we’ve heard from you before, have you been listening to more music of that genre lately? 

Yes and no. Probably. I’m constantly shazaming stuff, old or new stuff just ends up in this season’s playlist. But the record wasn’t born from trying to sound like anyone else but me. That probably sounds like a really pretentious interview answer and I don’t mean it that way. I just mean, there are songs I’ve written where I go “oh that’s this person or that person”, some songs I can trace a direct family tree of my influences, but on this one, even though that may still be possible at times, I feel like it’s exactly my voice. 

TMR: When you’re stuck for what to listen to, who are the bands and artists that you return to? 

I was just a wedding where they played four hours of Belgian happy hardstyle and one Good Charlotte song. That was wild. Also, I’ve been learning the soundtrack to West Side Story on the guitar to try and figure out cool new things to do with strings. Also, anything Blake Mills has ever touched is divine, especially his two first solo records. And Rostam too. Also, LCD Sound System and Foxygen and Andy Shauf and Unknown Mortal Orchestra and The Avalanches and BADBADNOTGOOD and Toro Y Moi and Randy Newman and Paul Simon all the time. Also, those new Julia Jacklin, Steve Lacy, bLAck pARty and Vulf albums are amazing. Also, Demis Roussos’ ‘Someday Somewhere’ is waiting to be covered. By me. Along with ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’ by Glen Campbell. I also wanna give a very special mention to the new Muunjuun album that deserves the entire world’s attention. He just set a new benchmark. 

TMR: ‘Oxy Cotton Candy’, along with tracks ‘Headlights’ and ‘Lizarz’, are set to feature on your new album, Character Actor. Are there any themes which run through the record? 

Yeah I’d say that the general theme for this record and a lot of my work is based around movies and television. Especially Character Actor. Whether it’s on ‘Rabbit’, a song about two kids watching Are You Afraid Of The Dark and Clueless while someone is watching them from the attic or ‘Toucan’ in which two actors are in a love scene and one is hoping it can keep going, so the bubble never has to burst. And of course, there’s the album opener ‘Screener Season’. I was flirting with the idea of a movie-based concept album a couple years ago, and I think I accidentally made a version of that. 

TMR: The album also explores your love for cinema, what attracts you to this artform? 

I think it’s just another way of telling a story. Plus, i really love IMDB trivia. There’s something about people’s attention span that means they’ll sometimes focus on a video more than they would if you just played them the audio. And yeah, I think getting into directing myself has obviously informed a lot of my interests. I love storyboarding, I love editing, and I love acting and just being on set, and seeing it all come together in the end is as satisfying as finishing and releasing a song. There’s a real feeling of the town coming together to build the barn, and then you get to celebrate. Having directed the last bunch of videos, the release of music and visuals is a symbiotic one. I feel like I’m always learning more. I graded the video for ‘Oxy Cotton Candy’ which comes out this week and I took what I learned from sitting in with my buddy Jeb on ‘Screener Season’ and rolled with it. I love just having a problem and figuring it out, even if there’s a few little kinks sometimes, who cares? You’ll just get better next time. 

TMR: Evidently the relationship between cinema and music is a long committed one, do you take inspiration from film soundtracks as well? 

Yeah, I’ve loved film soundtracks for as long as I can remember. One of my dreams is to be a music supervisor on a movie or tv show. I always really loved what David Holmes did with the Ocean movies. That kind of 60’s italian thing. So freaking coooool. I really wanna make a record with him one day. That new project he’s in ‘Unloved’, especially that track that was in the Apple commercial. Hot dang that sounded fun. Oh and recently, I thought the soundtrack to Booksmart was amazing. There’s some soundtracks where I like to be surprised by some beautiful little nuggets like The Darjeeling Limited, and there’s some where I’m like every track is a hit. Every track I was like shit! i love that song!” going from Anderson .Paak to Perfume Genius to LCD Soundsystem made an already amazing movie into an instant classic. Oh and Master Of None and Easy. I love both of those soundtracks. In terms of composition for movies, I’ve got a couple projects in the works but I’m going to be doing a lot more of that this year. Writing to picture is such a fun process. I’ve been on a sci-fi composition thing recently, some bigger budget stuff. It’s so fun. Obviously all synths are going to sound like Close Encounters now. 

TMR: We’re especially drawn to the pensive ‘Screener Season’, which holds the lyric “all the recognition doesn’t mean that you’ll feel better, / A good idea will keep you up.” Is this a mindset you’ve experienced or are you taking note from another? 

Aw thanks! I’m super proud of that song. Similarly to ‘Oxy Cotton Candy’, I wrote it in my living room, recorded drums at Laurie’s, did everything else at my studio. It was one that, when I played it to friends, I really got that reaction you look for. Like, sometimes you’ll play a song to someone and you’re trying your best to not show that you’re obviously gauging their reaction, but here it was great feelings from start to finish. It for sure informed a bunch of the production choices I made on the rest of the record. A lot of that tape vibe, a lot of the background noises, the strings and the mellotron stuff too. I can fall asleep so easily. I’m very lucky in that respect. That said, I’ve had some nights where my brain is whizzing around at 100 miles per hour thinking about video stuff, album stuff, lyric ideas - which you should ALWAYS write down when you think of them or else they will be gone by morning. Sometimes it’s good not to fight it or beat yourself up about your brain being on. Overflowing with ideas is a great feeling. 

TMR: While we’re waiting for the album, do you have any live dates or anything else fans should keep an eye out for?

Yeah! I got this nice show I’m going to be announcing in the next week or so, so keep your eyes peeled over at @speelburg, also a few commercials and TV soundtracks in the works. Just waiting for the green light. Oh and i’ve got TWO albums coming out. Yey! The second one is Character Actor and she comes out later this summer. The first one will be out shortly after that. Also the video for ‘Oxy Cotton Candy’ that I directed comes out this week. The next single will be out in early August. Oh and I’m finishing this cartoon I’ve been voicing and animating and I’ve got a monthly spotify playlist launching in a couple weeks. Oh and i’m heading out on tour in the fall! And i’m working on the next two EPs. 

This was fun. You guys rule!

Introduction and questions by Hannah Thacker