Richard Shelest Interview

Conducted by Bethany M

About Richard

I'm 21 and from Belgium. I study electronic music production in college.

What is your goal?

Make a living out of my music and maybe win a grammy.

Why do you make music?

There is no other reason why I exist on this planet. My thoughts are only about music and it's the only thing I do.

What artists inspire you?

Imogen Heap, Lorde, Billie Eilish

What is your creative process?

It changes a lot but mostly I have a melody in my head and start writing or searching for chords. Then I make a little fast demo on logic pro. It depends on how I feel and stuff. It just happens.

Who or what inspired you to start releasing music

Probably just the people I listened to, like, back in the days, I listened to Ariana Grande and Meghan Trainor. But writing music, Billie Eilish, probably, because I was a big fan in 2018. And I never liked writing a lot of stuff when I was little, so that's probably why. Now my biggest inspirations are like Imagine Heap and Lorde. Those would be my biggest inspirations.

On your newest album Sunny Season is Over what is the song that you most feel represents you as a person, not just as an artist?

I feel like as a person probably "At Your Own Risk," because it's like a silly song, I guess. And it's my current mental state now. Because when I made the album, I was going through a lot of stuff. And I feel like "At Your Own Risk" represents me now. Like just laughing about everything that happened, because the song is basically about it. The lyrics are kind of about how I'm actually laughing about the trauma that happened. Because I was done making sad songs, so I was like, I need to make something silly but still about everything that happened. And about the story, because it has a little story.

How did visual elements contribute to your newest album?

This album is the first time I'm actually more focused on the visual stuff. I'm probably going to do a little music video soon, but now I'm more focused on the concept I have with the sun, the sun. Everything I post or make little references to the album. And so that people feel that there is a little era or something. My previous album didn't have a whole visual concept. It had some pictures and stuff. But I was not focused on it. And now it's my goal to make sure that when people see the sun they think about me or the album at least. I'm probably gonna keep the concept for my next project and build on it

What's like one of the most surprising things that you've learned about yourself either through songwriting or like releasing music

That I can do more than I think, I guess. Because there is one song I'm really proud of, "Son of Your Dreams." I never thought I could make a song like that. I always think that my songs are never good enough. That's normal for an artist. But it's the first time in this album that I'm pretty confident about the production and the lyrics. Music gave me more confidence. When I'm walking the dog, I'm actually 50% always listening to my songs, because they just give me a confidence boost, because I'm reminded that I made those and I'm really proud of those. I think confidence in myself, what I make, and what I stand for.

Do you face any challenges as a small singer-songwriter, either in the industry or internally too? 

Yeah, probably just promoting my stuff, of course. It's difficult to find people. But now I'm like sitting in a music college. I have made some new connections and stuff, but I feel like it's difficult to build something from zero when you have zero connections and zero musical friends. That's what's hard because you're kind of alone in it, so when you release something it's like pretty lonely sometimes if you didn't have a release party or something, so you sit there in your room. It's kind of a struggle when deciding if something is good when I didn't have any musical friends. It was difficult to decide if something is good or bad, so I sent it to my sister or my friends but they didn't like understanding some stuff like mixing or producing, so it was difficult to base on their feedback. That's probably the most difficult one.

What's your favorite part about being like a smaller singer-songwriter?

To really connect with the people I have now. Because last year, I finally liked making a little community and I think it's so fun to hear their thoughts about something or how they feel about a song or just how they feel. It's interesting, because one time someone told me how they thought the lyrics meant and I said I wrote it about something else. But music is, for me, lyrics is something you can interpret. It is like you can understand the lyrics on your own. They gave the lyrics another meaning than I did and I think it's beautiful, because my songs don't make sense sometimes to others, but to me they make sense. I actually like that people don't get what I say, because sometimes it's kind of personal. I feel like when people listen to it and give their own meaning to it, it's beautiful.

If you had any pieces of advice for your younger self or like other people that want to start putting out music, what would it be?

Don't think about it too long and just do it. Just keep making and keep sharing, because I'm really glad that I put out old songs in the past because now I can see, and others can see, the progress I made and I think I really like that actually. I don't like the songs because I'm kind of cringed by them, but when I look at them and I see how much I grew, It's kind of satisfying, so keep sharing and making.