Brent de la Cruz’s newest project, “NOIR,” ushers in a new era for the musician. Following his 2021 debut EP, “Finding Boo,” “NOIR” introduces an increasingly cinematic sound for the musician, heightened by the forward-thinking release visuals created by de la Cruz himself. Growing up in San Diego, de la Cruz pioneered his musical education by learning from friends and artists around him –– both musical and otherwise. “NOIR” embraces personal narrative through immersive production, never losing its resonance with the listener. The musician spoke to WSN about how his artistry has evolved since he began making music, especially with the influences of live production — where an artist records with a live band — and other collaborators.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
WSN: “NOIR” is one of the first projects you’ve done that relies on live instrumentation. How did you get into making music before you learned how to play the guitar? How has switching to using live instruments impacted the music?
De la Cruz: When I initially started out, my next-door neighbor that I grew up with showed me some ropes in FL Studio. I got in a habit of kind of punching things in on the computer pretty quickly. I got my first guitar and that was kind of when everything changed. It was going from being confined to a computer to then being able to go write songs in my living room. When you’re working on your laptop, you’ve got all these wires coming in, you’re kind of confined to the room you’re in. Incorporating live instruments, specifically guitar, has just kind of taught me to write music altogether.
WSN: There was a dichotomy between the beginning and end of the EP. How do you know how much to produce a song when a work is finished?
De la Cruz: It varies so much because oftentimes what I’ll do is overproduce everything I’m working on, and then it’s just a matter of pulling things away. I think [producer] Rick Rubin talked about this a couple times too … The idea of finding the fundamental things that really make the song true to what it is and, if you can sparse it down to those things and that still feels great, then maybe you don’t need to add more. I usually have my hands in every single piece of the production, so I’m convincing myself that everything needs to be there. When I feel like I’ve exhausted all my resources and left every stone unturned, that’s usually when I’m like, ‘alright, it’s time to move on.’
WSN: The EP discusses themes of transportation and nostalgia. Did you think of those specifically when you were writing, or did you kind of naturally realize that was where the album was going?
De la Cruz: It kind of came after the fact. The music tends to be a compilation of lived experiences or stories. Outside of the music, you look at the experiences that you had that inspired it in the first place. It’s really tough to build these things conceptually before it’s happened, but once the music’s done, the aesthetic that I’m trying to bring together starts to unfold.
WSN: How do you approach conceptualizing the visuals for your projects, with the album cover, single covers and music videos?
De la Cruz: Well, each song is different. I’ll just listen to [the songs] throughout my day and through different settings. I’m trying to dissect sonically what it looks like and if there’s a narrative that can be told adjacently. Then, who has been helping me out a lot with the visuals is my good pal Tyler Eastlick — who I went to middle school and high school with — and now we both live out here [in Los Angeles]. He’s been a big help and helped conceptualize and write the narrative of what this world-building is kind of coming out to be. Having somebody that you can bounce ideas back and forth with, whether it’s music or visuals or whatever … It’s so helpful. It’s okay to lean on other people for help in certain things. It’s a skill I’ve taken longer to learn than I would have liked.
Contact Ellie Miller at [email protected].