Los Angeles producer and multi-instrumentalist Pachyman chats with KGNU’s DJ Umo 1 about his music career and influences, including his latest album Switched On. Originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, Pachyman describes how his music blends various genres with his personal flair (Interview date: 5/16/2024)
DJ Umo 1: DJ Umo 1 for KGNU. My guest today is Los Angeles producer, multi instrumentalist, singer songwriter, Pachyman. How’s it going, man?
Pachyman: I’m good. How are you? Thanks for having me.
DJ Umo 1: We’re sitting on the rooftop here in the Five Points in Denver, Colorado, an hour or two before his show at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom. You had a show last night. How was that?
Pachyman: It was so good. I love the Denver audience, everybody’s into it for the music and all the right things. The vibe was just really amazing.
DJ Umo 1: And that was a great show, I was able to catch that. Can you tell the people of KGNU: who is Pachyman?
Pachyman: Pachyman is me. It’s a pseudonym of myself, I’m Pachy. I’ve been called that for many years of my life – since like sixth grade. I produce my own music. I write my own stuff. I’m mostly an instrumentalist that writes everything in my little basement in Los Angeles. I’m originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico. I was born and raised there, that’s where my interest in music started. I played in a bunch of different bands growing up, from reggae bands to experimental bands, to kinda kraut rock-adjacent bands, psych rock bands, ambient stuff.
But I was always doing reggae a lot. I started this project four years ago in Los Angeles. I’ve been in Los Angeles for a while now. This was me rehatching some of my old influences and wanting to find a way to record records that sounded like the 70’s golden era of Jamaican Reggae, but with my flair in it. And I’ve evolved a lot from that foundation – very purist to that original sound.
It’s becoming more me as the records progress. I’m on my fourth record now, called Switched On. It’s a little window into all my different influences that have been a part of me and that are now shining in this latest record.
DJ Umo 1: How many instruments do you play?
Pachyman: I play four. I play mostly keyboards, but I’m also a drummer and a bassist. I play guitar as well. I’m not that well versed on guitar, but I could finagle my way around and I could record good guitar takes, that’s for sure. But I feel like bass is the instrument that I’ve always fallen in love with, the easiest one for me to play at least. I also studied piano in college. So yeah, those four instruments are my main instruments.
DJ Umo 1: Let’s talk about the album release party you had at Goldline. How was that? That’s starting to become an institution in the LA bar scene. Shout out to Peanut Butter Wolf over there at Stone’s Throw.
Pachyman: Yeah, definitely. Shoutout to Goldline, shoutout to Chris, Peanut Butter Wolf. I did a little listening party when the record came out.Goldline’s obviously affiliated to Stone’s Throw Records. And most of the artists in Stone’s Throw have listening parties there. And I bartend there. So I’ve worked a lot of those listening parties. I asked Chris, “Hey, can I just do my listening party here?” And he’s like, “Yeah”, anyone’s welcome to do a listening party there. If you’re connected to that extended family, you could do a listening party there.
So I did mine and it was amazing because a lot of my friends showed up and a lot of people that I haven’t seen in a long time. Listening parties in a high fidelity listening bar is definitely its own breed, its own kind of vibe, and it’s a very special thing.
So yeah, that was a fun time.
DJ Umo 1: So let’s go back to your newest album release, Switched On. You have some songs on there where you’re singing in Spanish. This song called “Toyota Nuevo” I really enjoyed, and last night you performed a couple of these songs live for the audience and with great reception.
Let’s talk about that album.
Pachyman: Yeah. This record’s the first time that I actually sing on a record. I’ve sang in different bands before, but this project was kind of a strictly dubwise thing. And this is the first time that I’m singing, and I wrote a lot of the songs in Spanish, cause that’s my first language.
“Toyota Nuevo” was this extension of when I used to produce a lot of vaporwave beats back in the day. And I wanted to reinterpret that love that I have for that genre into this different project. I started screwing around with some synths and that came really authentically.
I wrote the synth parts first and then I laid that foundation beat where it’s a really slow one drop kind of Jamaican style. The flow of the vocals just came with it, it was one of those songs that you can figure out fast. That lyrical content was dedicated to me and my wife living in the mountains of Puerto Rico for years when we first started dating. We used to live in this beautiful house.
And that’s where that whole vibe figured itself together: that idea from back in the past with that vaporwave stuff and with the drums. A lot of this record, Switched On, is me finding different influences. There’s the track “Mi Sala”, which is this kind of early German experimental electronic kind of track. There’s “Goldline”, where it’s like a disco, lover’s rock, but UK, reggae thing.
There’s “Trago Coqueto”, which is also in Spanish, and it’s a song about a drink – I’m a bartender, ultimately. And it does have that kind of – people say it’s like a cumbia reggae thing. I never noticed it until people started mentioning it. I’m like, oh, I guess it does make sense that it does have that sonidito cumbia organ thing. “Switched On”, the title track of the record, is very synth heavy and like Rhodes with these ethereal chords. I create these arrangements around all the music, and kind of have an ethereal, beautiful experience listening to the music.
So yeah, that’s where Switched On came about. And the name Switched On is paying homage to the Switched On movement from back in the day when people started developing synthesizers and electronic music and trying to replicate classical music with new modern technology. People would call that “switched on”.
DJ Umo 1: Do you have any releases with Stone Stroke coming up? Are you going to release anything with them?
Pachyman: No, all my releases are through ATO Records. They’re based out of New York, shout out to ATO. But we’re all friends and, since I work at that bar, it’s all a friend group, it’s like an extended family as well. But no, no releases planned with Stone Stroke.
DJ Umo 1: Oh, okay. I’ve been to Goldline before, have you been working there for a long time?
Pachyman: I’ve been working there since 2021.
DJ Umo 1: Okay, yeah, I have definitely been there after that. What artists inspired you throughout your music career?
Pachyman: The stuff that I listened to when I was young was a lot of King Tubby scientists and Reggae bands from Puerto Rico. They were a big inspiration factor. I got into Krautrock and Cannes was like a big thing that I used to listen to a lot. I’m a huge Stereolab fan. Stereolab is one of my favorite bands. Boards of Canada- I’m a big Boards of Canada obsessive. What else? Miles Davis’s whole electric era was a big part of my upbringing for sure, musically. I was playing in punk bands when I was younger.
When I moved to LA, I started playing drums and we created this band called Prettiest Eyes that we toured for a long time with me as lead singer. And the original inspiration for that band was Suicide, that Martin Rev and Alan Vega duo.
That first record’s a phenomenal record. That was a big obsession for me. There’s so much incredible music out there.
DJ Umo 1: Awesome. What’s your favorite color?
Pachyman: I think green.
DJ Umo 1: Right on. All right. Thank you to my guest Pachyman for his interview here in the Five Points in Denver, Colorado. Any shoutouts you wanna give to anybody? You already gave a shoutout to your label, but anything else?
Pachyman: Yeah, I gotta shoutout to all the people in Denver for keeping it real and being so open to different music and showing up to the shows and just vibing out.
You’re one of the more special audiences out there, y’all.
DJ Umo 1: That’s what’s up, man.
Pachyman: Thank you so much, Umo1.
DJ Umo 1: Right on, man. Alright, peace.
