A Conversation With Rembraandt

The seasoned underground producer sheds light on his work with Lil Peep, his disappearance from music and all the juicy details of the underground

Getting his start at age 17, Rembraandt began producing heavily, working and collaborating with artists from Peep to Ecco2k. Through close connection to other producers and do-it-yourself outreach to artists, he got his big break. After the death of Lil Peep, his friend and collaborator, he disappeared from music to travel the world. Now he returns for a long-due emergence from the shadows to share his past and future with Under The Rug.

Under the Rug: How did you get started in the world of music production?

Rembraandt : I got involved in production by way of I guess always a fascination with music. I started playing instruments as a kid and was in choir and always signed up for the band but they never let me join it.. so by way of a love for music and being fans of artists when I was like 14/15. Back in 2011 I heard about fruity loops and saw it was super simple. I fucked around and never tried but then I discovered Clams Casino through Lil b and Robb banks and rocky, and it took me to another level of curiosity. I started learning how to produce Clams Casino style shit through busyworksbeats tutorials. After 2013 I took it seriously and would learn to produce like 16 hours out of the day and my life changed forever. I was hooked. I met Hector Vae in like 2014 and he was good. I was determined to be better, my rivalry and friendship with him and the others in that group chat we had where we helped each other really drove me to become a good producer.

Starting there, how did you end up producing for considerably popular artists like Lil Peep?

That particular one was just like the rest I would say. We had a small tight knit community where they’d also love sesh / sad boys influenced music. Through our little producer group chat we’d all find artists we like, follow them and ask them to work. Just the other day I randomly went through my SoundCloud dm and I was talking to nothing, nowhere in 2015 and he said he was a huge fan and we were gonna work. We were all nobodies who liked the same sound, we’d find each other more so or less.

Gotta love the diy ethos, is there a favorite artist you produced for or track you worked on?

Easily my favorite artist I produced for would have to be Peep. Our shit we did was legendary. But outside of that one which is obvious I’d say my collab with Hector Vae the beat ascending. Nobody could rap on my shit and somehow Ed Jones and Prohibeo found a way to get off on it. It’s a small track from like 2015, but it’s still so tight. It’s hard to choose but I had a Ecco2K produced track that never came out in 2015, that was amazing.

That’s awesome, you were really hustling. An obvious point of interest is the aftermath of your work with Peep when he passed away. What’s the story there?

Whewwww oh boy where to begin? Basically I had made a couple songs with Peep/ He didn’t like them, told me we could do way better and to just erase them. Obviously I kept them. But yeah in November I fell on hard times. Almost homeless and decided to hop on the Peep reddit because I was going to be homeless. I made a post asking if anyone would like to purchase them because I didn’t want to give them to a label so they can profit off my dead friend. The whiny fans who wanted to impress peeps estate snitched on me. I got offered $2,500 for each song by the labels and said fuck no. They would’ve generated hundreds of thousands in revenue.. That’s when I got sent a potential defamation of character threat by the label. Through a mutual producer friend, Peep’s mom sent him a text saying “oh that’s cool if he wants to release the songs there will be legal consequences” after that I just changed my mind and decided to respect my friends wishes and honor him by deleting the songs out of respect to him and to also make sure they aren’t used for profit. I refused what used to be my legacy. That I sold out for money to profit off the deceased like all of my old producer friends. Besides that drama with me and peep’s friendship, there’s also this mysticphonk dilemma.

A wild ride, to be sure. What’s the story behind the mysticphonk dilemma?

I was good friends with him. We had a group chat with another producer and a blogger and peep. It was super common for us to say what’s good to sample or help each other out. He got to a point where he would harass me 8 times a day for like 30 minutes to commit suicide and I blocked him because he knew of my depression and my situation. I gave him lots of samples for songs he did with Peep such as a plan to kill myself, goth queen, angel dust etc. I gave him the samples he never credited me. Some I gave him the shit already chopped he just had to lay drums. He can’t even work a DAW. The kid is a fraud. Nobody has been on his beats since either. Recently these kids from the Peep discord learned my story and confronted him about it. He didn’t even deny it,but they changed the credits on genius for the songs I co-produced and within 3 hours mysticphonk changed them back immediately. He knows his time is almost up. He’s made hundreds of thousands off my work. He’s bought a car and a house, and I just barely get by. It’s fucked, but I’m happy and I believe in karma.

Glad to hear it isn’t weighing you down too much. These producer group chats seem to be an important part of the story, what’s the context there?

Somehow all of the sesh producer fans united to create basically, on accident, our small scene. We used to help each other produce and just laugh, we were all really good friends. There are variations but the people in those, in all of 2015 and early 2016 included Me (Rembraandt ) Despair, Hector Vae (formerly Kaido) Goer, Prohibeo, Celly aka Verde, Paulie, Captaincrunch, Peep, Gertrude, Gizmo, Zandatsu (retired UK producer who was cool with Bladee and Xavier wulf back in 2014/2015… mysticphonk and a few others like a kid from that dude. All of us were unknown and just homies. We worked together and laughed. It was amazing. So many of us have done so many things. It used to be so tight hear hector vae be like “yo I can’t believe I got a night lovell collab, or be like yOOOO John mello liked my song.” All of us were always grinding and just so happy to see a producer or artist we idolized interact with our art. Everybody would lose it over little things, like Bones hearing my music. You get the idea hahaha. It was amazing! Nothing will ever duplicate it. That group chat is involved with so many legendary things. We helped build this scene. Everyone in there is connected to so many artists. Night Lovell, Sesh, Hollowsquad, most of us produced for Peep, gizmo is fucking huge now doing his thing. Nothing can ever recreate that time things were simple

Sounds like an incredible time. Going back, how did the post-Peep situation affect your music-making?

Entirely. I retired. We stayed in contact and hung out a few times after he blew up etc. even made a few more songs that never got finished. We stayed in contact up until summer of 2017, but after his passing I couldn’t stomach making music anymore. I travelled the world instead with my savings. I went to India and got arrested for accidentally disrespecting a religious place or some shit. Like 6 days! I don’t speak hindu so I don’t know. But yeah I just now finally found myself enough to come back. It’s taken me almost 3 exact years. How they handled his music after he passed and my other experiences working with labels and with Sony and shit just pushed me so far away from music. I hated music. I didn’t wanna make it anymore. But now the passion is back.

Now that you’re back in the game, are there any artists you plan to work with?

So many that I plan to work with. Me and killstation were acquaintances and I was an early fan of his. We were gonna collaborate in 2015 and it fell through. I reached out but I doubt I’ll hear back. I also plan to work with Boy Froot as well. I need those 2 on my album. Despair as well, me and him have done so much for the scene and got no recognition. We also don’t have a song together! I plan to work with him. However, I think I am going to sacrifice a goat or sell my soul to get this song with Yung Lean. Clams Casino and Night Lovell are dream collabs. I’d also love to work with drip-133. He’s complimented my music a bunch and inspired my sound. And of course the homie Curtis heron. It’s a must that we work, he’s someone I’ve looked up to in this scene and gave me lots of guidance. He’s a great guy who is under appreciated as well.

Lots of awesome artists. Is there a form you want your music to take going forward?

I need my music to encapsulate that feeling of bliss you got when you heard a new sound for the first time. That Yung Lean Kyoto vibe. That unique Fifty Grand vibe. I’m just going to experiment as always. I have a sporadic brain so my music has always been weird. I just need it to make people happy, to give someone a memory and have them feel bliss when they play my music. Sound wise I do plan to bring back the Clams Casino / old Robb Banks sound as well as experimenting with a punk / grunge / experimental band I’m trying to form.

Sounds awesome. What can we expect from you going forward, release wise?

I plan to do music with just random unknown artists. I mean the next big artist has 20 plays right now and is sending people his links. So I’m gonna take my little bit of buzz and try to find artists, as I also am trying my shot at managing (S/O El sesh forever appreciate the advice) as well as starting this label. Redheaven records. So I’m gonna collaborate with unknown artists. I am working on an actual studio album, too. Production, instruments, all that. It’s basically like detox who knows when it will come out. But it’s titled “Dead Since August” by Rembraandt and will be out on my own independent record label, redheaven records. I am no longer affiliated with Sony.

Any parting words for the readers?

Yeah man just add that I’d like to thank Elliot O’Connor, Mikey The Magician, Curtis Heron, my homies. Everyone who played a part in starting my career and thank them for it etc. Also Rest In Peace to Prohibeo. Wish artists like him get their love. Peace to the planet. Dead Since August coming soon with at least a few good features. Also my socials are @Rembraandt on Twitter. Dicklonglikecvsreceipts on IG.

Find Rembraandt ’s music stream below: