Exclusive Interview: Vinyl Williams Embraces the Otherwordly
Updated: Sep 15, 2021
Celestial pop artist, Vinyl Williams has been making gravity waves throughout the ether of psychedelia since 2013. After spending three years writing and recording new music, Lionel is ready to unveil his newest album titled Azure, which is set to release on June 5th.
Based in LA, Vinyl Williams is the brainchild of Lionel Williams, a celebrated visionary artist among the worldwide psychedelic sphere. Working with artists like Toro y Moi, Morgan Delt, and Spaceface, Lionel has gained acclaim for his otherworldly musical and visual abilities. The man has synesthesia, so it's no surprise that he can cleverly craft virtual realities that compliment his acid-washed, angelic soundscapes.
Vinyl Williams continues to gain recognition with each release and has created tight bonds with art collectives like Non Plus Ultra and the highly anticipated experimental festival known as Desert Daze. His earlier projects like Into and Trance Zen Dental Spa paved the way toward reaching the transcendental moment of auditory bliss that he captures in his recent albums Brunei and Opal. So far, Azure is a bit of a mystery in terms of how it'll sound as a whole, but nothing less than exceptional is expected from this sound wave sorcerer. A few weeks ago, Vinyl Willams released the single "LA Egypt" to quench your musical taste buds. Prepare your mind and start salivating.
We had the chance to have a chat with Lionel on Instagram live last week.
Here's what he had to say:
Q: (Both) How’s it going?
A: Good, I have a lot of stuff I have to set up since I’m doing a set for UMS which stands for Underground Music Showcase. It’s this Denver festival we usually play every year. It’s an actual festival, but now they’re just streaming so I’m going to be doing my set on their Facebook.
Q: (Danny) Is this show with UMS your first streamed concert?
A: I did a few so far during this quarantine at Non Plus Ultra’s Instagram and Twitch as well as the Vinyl Williams one. I haven't really done any concerts though. It’s mainly just me and Craig, my roommate and best friend. We have a new band called The Emerald Isle. We’ve just been messing around, singing over things we’ve already recorded. It’s not really a show, but this one will be the first real one I’ve done.
I’ve been producing a bunch of other live performances on the Non Plus streaming platform with a bunch of different artists. It’s been fun, but not a lot of people know about it outside of LA. On weekends it’s super awesome, we use our VHS camcorders and a visual synthesizer and we run it all to digital so it looks like an old broadcast TV show. It’s super wacky.
Q: (Spenser) So you’ve recently released a single from Azure called “LA Egypt”, is there any sort of concept behind that song?
A: Well, I was listening to Arthur Verocai a lot and I made it before I saw him perform at the Lodge Room here in Highland Park. His music just resonated with me more than anything. I didn’t really let the Spotify algorithm show me any music that I didn’t select for over two years, so I di