Riley of Shrimpnose Talks Musical Inspiration, Touring, and Vaping
Shrimpnose is a Minnesotan born electronic/hip-hop DJ and producer based out of Los Angeles, California. OFM sat down with Shrimpnose aka Riley Smithson on the night of his tour kickoff in Denver, Colorado.
Thank you, Riley, for sitting down with us. To start off, could you give us a quick background on you and your style of music?
Shrimpnose (Riley): Yeah, absolutely. So I grew up playing drums. My dad got me a drum kit when I was, like, 4 years old. And I took lessons for a couple years, but I kind of, like, got more into video games for a couple years. And then I came back into it in, like, middle school. I got really obsessed with, like, Metallica, oddly enough. It was like the thing that kind of, like, sucked me back into it. But um, yeah, I just got really obsessed with learning how to play songs I liked, and that eventually that led to electronic music.
You said that Metallica got you into drums and making music. Who or what inspired you to get into electronic dance music?
It’s a pretty funny story. So, I honestly don’t even know if my mom and dad know this part of the story. So if they find this, it’ll be kind of funny. But so, like, in my senior year of high school, 13 of my friends and I all took shrooms at my house. And my friend played the song ‘About You’ by XXYYXX. I know it’s kind of an older song, but I had never heard, like, melodic electronic stuff. I’d only been familiar with, like, big heavy bass. And yeah, shrooms made me susceptible I guess.
Are you familiar with OFM?
Yeah, love it!
We are Colorado’s LGBTQ+ publication and media, here to amplify queer voices and help connect folks to the community. I’d like to ask: In your life, how do you like to support the community, or do you have anyone in your life that’s a part of it?
Yeah, one of my best friends is bisexual, I talk to him every day on the phone. We FaceTime for, like, six hours, literally every day. There are plenty of friends of mine I’ve worked with and collaborated with and have always supported their journeys. But yeah, I mean, just being like, basically, a straight white man, you know there’s only so much I feel I can do myself, but I have a good handful of friends within the community. I worked on an album with K.Raydio years ago. She’s a really great R&B singer. We did a kind of like, electronic, R&B album, …And the World Weeps. We came up in Minneapolis together.
Jumping into your new album a little bit, what was your message to go behind it while creating it? And now that it’s live, what’s been some of the feedback you’ve gotten?
Well, so I made that album just last year or two, and I got really big into Alex G and like Elliott Smith, and I tried to make that kind of an album through the lens of electronic music. That hadn’t really been done. So I started singing. I’d never really sung before, or writen my own lyrics. I got more into guitar. I’ve always played, but I got really sort of obsessed with it this last year and just learning cool chord shapes, you know.
Anything to kind of help develop your game and improve on it. It’s really cool to see what instruments you use.
Yeah, absolutely.
Going off of that, for your new album, with this being your first stop of your tour, what are some goals you have or anything specific you’re excited for on the tour?
The one thing that’s really cool is, I get to tour on a handful of these dates with Gold Panda, and I grew up listening to him. It’s, like, such a personal like, fanboy gratifying thing for me
Any fun hobbies or like side jobs as a DJ?
I love boxing. I like to train and watch boxing. I play VR boxing. I’m, like, kind of obsessed.
What flavor is your vape? I feel like that tells a lot about a person (laughs)
Watermelon ice.
I love that one, definitely respect the ice.
Riley: The funny thing is I didn’t even start vaping until like a month ago. Trying to smoke less spliffs – I’m trying to temper my habits a little.
You mentioned some artists; what are some big artists or even small artists that you would love to work with in the future? Or possibly in the works with that we can maybe get a sneak peek on?
On my new album, I had a lot of, like, personally really gratifying collaborations. Like, I got collaborations with Blockhead, Ryan Hemsworth, Blu. I grew up listening to those three. And I put some of my friends that I worked with these days on it. So it felt like a really cool way to bridge, like, what I came up listening to, to where I am now just, like, felt very authentic.
From what I’m gathering, this album has been very reminiscent in a way on how you can connect your past with your present. Very much a closing and opening of some chapters in life. That’s really awesome to see!
Yeah. It’s a very, like, personal, self-reflective thing. I hope it doesn’t come off as so self important. Just writing about my life.
Yeah, definitely not. I feel like, at least as a fan, I love seeing an artist connecting with their audience by showing their personality and what they listened to growing up. All those correlations and seeing how it molds them and shapes their music. So I feel like with you, especially working on this album, it just shows a lot of that! It’s something I commend you for!
How long have you been DJing? Do you like being on the road?
So I’ve been producing for about 10 years, and I kind of just did, like, local shows for a long time. Until honestly, after the pandemic is when I started to like, get some national opportunities. So yeah, I’ve been touring now for–I think the first tour I did was with Blockhead in 2021. So it’s been about two years now. And it’s truly just, like, every year it keeps getting better.
Thank you so much Riley for taking the time with us. Where are your next shows?
We have December 7 in Dallas, Deep Ellum; December 22, Fargo at The Aquarium; December 28 in Minneapolis, First Avenue; and January 12 in D.C., Union Stage. I am so thankful I am having an opportunity to play music to people. It feels very gratifying.
Photos by Austin Salls
