GLENN DEVAR TALKS SUNSET SEROTONIN

Interviewed by Culture Coast Talks editor Daniel John. Interview transcripts might have been edited for length and clarity.

‘Sunset Serotonin’ is pretty much exactly what it sets out and promises to be, a bit of sunshine. People listening will end up in a good, sunny, mood. When did you write this song?

I started writing 'Sunset Serotonin' during the Covid-19 lockdown in the U.S. It was winter–time and I was living in a small town in Illinois which gets very cold and stays very cold. I’ve always had seasonal affective disorder, a disorder where the sufferer becomes depressed in the winter and started to wonder how long it would be until I would be able to sit out in the warmth on the beach again and feel happy. I have also always been a romantic, and had the thought, "I bet I would be able to handle the winter, if I just had someone to spend it with". And it was from that sort of romantic fantasy that the idea of the song came to me.

What are songs that make you feel the sun?

I’ve spent a lot of time lately listening to dream-pop, which is a kind of fusion between psychedelic soft rock and synthpop. Songs like 'Blue Arcade' by Caroline Loveglow, 'Can I Call You Tonight' by Dayglow, and so on. There’s something patently "westcoast" about the genre. And being relatively new to California, it’s served as a perfect summer backdrop.

Your last song was fully produced in your bedroom, what is the recording situation these days, did you at least get to open the blinds to let some sunshine in?

It’s so much better than it has been! I recently moved into an apartment that is far larger than my last. I have ample space for my home studio, and feel like I’m actually able to work efficiently and comfortably. It’s been a long time coming, since I started my journey producing music from a tiny little hallway-room in New York City where I lived for five years before the pandemic hit. Also, I have two floor-to-ceiling windows flanking my bed, so there’s quite a bit more sunlight than I’ve been used to in the past.

When did you first move out to Los Angeles?

It was a very crazy journey, one that took nearly an entire year. Before Covid, I was living in New York and I was working full time as a stage actor, when the pandemic hit and my industry was shut down, I decided it was time to go to California. However, I made a quick little pit stop, exactly one year long, at my family’s house in Illinois where I wrote this song and where I saved up enough money to make the pilgrimage out to Los Angeles. I look back on the entire experience as necessary but it was filled with lots of existential dread. Glad to be here now.

You did many things early on, creatively. Playing the piano. Dancing. Musical-theatre. And even some miming?

Oh wow you did your research! Well, I was born into a family of actors, who both worked in the Chicago area. My parents were very musical and urged my sister and I to sing with them essentially at all times. They were also extensively trained in movement-theatre, specifically mime, which I tried my hand at myself, as you have somehow discovered. It didn’t stick, fortunately. But when I graduated high school I studied musical theatre and ended up working as a stage actor for five years. I toured internationally in stage shows, got flown out to different american cities for musicals. It was amazing. But that entire industry came to a screeching halt in 2020 and I was already tired of the constant traveling for work. So I made the decision that I was going to take a break from acting, hone my skills as a music producer. And head to California in order to pursue music. Needless to stay, it has been a wild ride.

‘Chaos Energy’, last year, was the beginning of your solo career, having previously been part of the Redlight Drive duo, as well as producing songs for others. Did your own solo project coincide with you moving?

It does coincide with moving. When I was living in New York City, I was predominantly focused on Redlight Drive which was a passion project I started with my then roommate. We both left New York for different cities, and that’s what sparked my decision to start producing music for myself. I've also been doing a lot of commercial work and ghost producing in the interim, but recently I decided to go full-out with my own work.

How did Redlight Drive come about?

My aforementioned roommate rapper Colly KiLLit, I owe everything I’ve done creatively to him. He was a random guy that my friend found online to take over her room when she moved out of our apartment, and he just happened to be a hip hop artist and awesome person. After a few months of living together, we jokingly wrote a song over a bottle of Old Grandad whiskey, one that was apparently good enough for him to purchase a $400 audio workstation so I could learn to produce. We slowly formed Redlight Drive as I got better at production, and we eventually started doing commercial work on the side for corporate advertising. We currently still have a jingle on the radio with a nationally operating law firm, which is hilarious to me. But hey, it made that $400 purchase back in 2017 worth it. We’re still close friends to this day. And we have another Redlight Drive single coming in the fall.

Do you got lots of new music coming?

I have so much more! In the time between my first and second releases, I have written a grotesque number of demos and a handful nearly finished tracks. Those tracks will be released periodically in the next few months and I’m so stoked the share them with the world.