[MUSIC - Luscious Jackson: Citysong]

David Furst: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm David Furst in for Alison Stewart. Coming up on today's show, the band Keane joins us for a live in studio performance ahead of their show tonight at Radio City Music Hall. We'll hear about the first ever major museum exhibit devoted to dancer/choreographer Alvin Ailey. And we'll continue our full bio conversation with author Sonia Purnell about her book, Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman's Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue. That's the plan, so let's get into it with a little Loop Daddy.

[intro music]

David Furst: Electronic musician Marc Rebillet has been making music for most of his life. Around 2016, he started live streaming his sets comprised mostly of improvised keyboard, percussion, and vocal loops, earning him the moniker Loop Daddy. His songs can range from sexy, to aspirational and affirmational, to character-driven, as in Summertime, in which Loop Daddy evokes the energy of a dad at a pool party. Let's listen to a little bit.

[MUSIC - Marc Rebillet: Summertime]

Hey, Greg, Bob, John, how are you guys?

Oh, Rebecca, good to see you, come on in

Everybody, come on in, grab a drink

Get those clothes off, let's get in the pool

Get in the pool

Have to get in the pool

It's summertime

Have to get in the pool

Everybody, come in

Get up in the pool

David Furst: It is time to get in the pool. Well, maybe you recognize him from that track, or from his signature look, a bathrobe and boxer briefs. We'll get to all of that. We're also going to be talking about his residency this week at the Blue Note, but first, I want to welcome him to the room here and to the conversation. Fresh off a European summer tour, Marc Rebillet, welcome back to WNYC.

Marc Rebillet: Hey, David, thank you for having me, man. It's good to be back.

David Furst: So much fun, and the music sounds so cool.

Marc Rebillet: [chuckles] Thank you. It sounds as ridiculous as ever.

David Furst: Well, you're back in New York after this long European leg of the tour. Tell us about the tour. How has the crowd energy been?

Marc Rebillet: Oh, man, so good. Europe is a special, wonderful place to play. It feels much easier to get people excited over there for some reason, than generally, I would say by and large, it does here. They're much more eager to scream at you, throw things at you in a loving way.

David Furst: Is there a way to throw things in a loving way?

Marc Rebillet: 100%.

David Furst: Okay.

Marc Rebillet: Yes, you'd be surprised. A lot of loving throwing, and yes, just a lot of vocal enthusiasm and chanting, things that make you feel validated and encouraged as a performer. It's one of the reasons I really love playing over there. There's a lot more of that on a consistent basis, I would say.

David Furst: Things you can feed off of, and kind of helps fuel your set.

Marc Rebillet: Yes, 100%.

David Furst: Now, you have a couple of days off, right? Before you start this eight-set residency at the Blue Note.

Marc Rebillet: Yes.

David Furst: How do you spend your downtime when you're back in New York City?

Marc Rebillet: Oh, man. Well, I like to--

David Furst: Doing things like this, obviously?

Marc Rebillet: [laughs] Yes, I like to do radio interviews, press junkets. No, I ride my-- I have an electric unicycle. It's like a very nerdy kind of scooter that rests on a giant tire. I take that all around the city. I'm reading a lot these days. I'm reading The Count of Monte Cristo right now, really great book. I know, it's obvious, but it's a classic. It's very good, highly recommend it. I shoot photography as a hobby as well, so just riding around, reading, shooting, having fun.

David Furst: Very cool. Now, you're originally from Dallas--

Marc Rebillet: Yes.

David Furst: And you once told The Dallas Observer ahead of a homecoming show in 2019 that you were a little frustrated about having to leave Dallas in order to become successful. Now that you've been living in New York City for a while and back from this European tour, how much does playing in New York now feel like a homecoming to you?

Marc Rebillet: It definitely does. I mean, I've been here long enough that coming back in any respect feels like just coming home, and-- Yes, it's hard to imagine being anywhere else. You know, Dallas was-- I don't like to poo-poo Dallas because it really was so integral to my success. The people there gave me my first jobs doing this ever and supported me for the first time. Without that, I wouldn't have been able to cut my teeth, I wouldn't have been able to play over and over again for unsuspecting audiences who often didn't want to see me. Those restaurant and bar owners gave me my first shots, you know what I mean? It's just kind of the venues over there that weren't willing to give me a shot at ticketed shows, so that's why I left.

David Furst: Fascinating. Winning over those crowds, that must be a lesson, right? Going into a restaurant, they have no idea what to expect, and you have to win them over from zero.

Marc Rebillet: Yes, it's true. That's how you learn what the show is, kind of. It's like being able to be given this fresh canvas every day of between 5 and 10 people, you get to sort of play off of them. I'm there at a lunch shift, basically playing for three, four hours and having to make stuff up. It pushes your instincts and makes you think about just how to get to a creative place in as many different ways as possible, and how to draw people in and get them to pay attention to you. And it's really still what the show is today.

David Furst: What a training ground, though. Now, your performances are usually built live, improvised, and a lot of your viral recordings are recorded by yourself. Let's hear another example. This is a motivational song that went viral called You Gotta Show Up. And heads-up, there are a lot of profanities that we had to bleep out.

Marc Rebillet: [chuckles] Thank you.

[MUSIC - Marc Rebillet: You Gotta Show Up]

You gotta show up if you wanna get it done

If you wanna get it done, you gotta show up

If you don't show up, its not getting done

You gotta show up if you wanna get it done

You gotta show up if you wanna get it done

You gotta show up if you wanna get it done

If you wanna get something done, [bleep]

You gotta show right up and do that [beep]

You gotta show up to that [beep]

You gotta show up to that [beep]

You gotta show up to that [beep]

And if you don't show up, that [beep] ain't getting done

David Furst: [laughs] A lot of beeping.

Marc Rebillet: Yes, it's got kind of a percussive effect. It's not bad.

David Furst: Oh, maybe it's something you could use in the future.

Marc Rebillet: [chuckles] Yes.

David Furst: Well, Marc, you've just released your first studio-produced track. It's a new single called Vibes Alright.

Marc Rebillet: Yes.

David Furst: We're going to listen to some of that in just a bit, but first, this really is a step away from the live improvised looping that you're known for.

Marc Rebillet: Very much so, yes. It was an attempt to do a thing that I've wanted to do for a long time, and that I actually sort of started this whole thing attempting to do very unsuccessfully for many years, which was trying to just do traditional-style production in a DAW digital audio workstation, like Logic or Pro Tools, and trying to traditionally compose tracks. I attempted that for the better part of a decade before picking up a looper and switching it up, and so, yes, this was a way to sort of get back in the studio.

I worked with a really great producer, Jake Portrait. He's the bassist and one of the producers for Unknown Mortal Orchestra, incredible guy, and produces a lot of other really cool stuff. And, yes, he just sort of-- We got a few musicians in the room, I brought some ideas, we hammered them out to tape, and then we took the things that we had recorded live to tape and then chopped them up and sort of meticulously fuddled with them until they turned into longer recordings.

David Furst: That's fascinating. That sounds like it's bringing together those two ways of working.

Marc Rebillet: Totally, yes. His idea was, let's bang things out live that way. It has that feel, that spontaneous sort of imperfect feel to it that is harder to capture when everything is so premeditated, which is one of the things I don't like about traditional production, is all the time it takes, and you can overthink things that way. So we still kept it live, and then we really finessed it in the edit.

David Furst: Well, let's hear a little bit. This is a little bit of Vibes Alright.

[MUSIC - Marc Rebillet: Vibes Alright]

Vibes alright

When you’re lovin' me like I'm lovin' you

Vibes alright

And you can satisfy me (gotta satisfy ya)

Vibes alright

When you're lovin' me like I need ya to

Vibes alright

I can feel it gettin' better by the minute

I can feel it when I start to live in it

I can feel it gettin' better by the minute

I can feel a better love

I can feel it gettin' better by the minute

I can feel it when I start to live in it

I can feel it gettin' better by the minute

I can feel a better love

David Furst: Marc Rebillet in Vibes Alright, the new single. Great sound.

Marc Rebillet: Thanks, man. Appreciate it.

David Furst: Now, the producer on the track, Jacob Portrait, he said, "The only way to push Marc creatively was to bring my 8-track and a drummer to the studio. Marc is a master at capturing the universal vibe, but with this track, we wanted to explore what's brewing in his head when the live stream isn't on."

Marc Rebillet: Hmm, interesting.

David Furst: What is?

Marc Rebillet: Oh, God, who knows? [laughs] Who knows? I mean, honestly, they're all like little shots in the dark, and it's new territory for me. When I listen to that now, it's like, I do love it, but I can see all of these directions and little improvements I could make. I'd like to let myself shine a little bit more in terms of the sort of ridiculousness that I'm usually known for. I think there could be more of that present in terms of letting my vocals be a little freer, a little more. You know, this is-- It's very locked in, so when I listen to it back, I'm like, I have all these notes for myself.

David Furst: Well, you're so live, right?

Marc Rebillet: Yes.

David Furst: You're always tinkering when you're doing this. I don't know how to-- You could describe this better than me, but when you're performing live, these creations of yours, you're singing, you're speaking--

Marc Rebillet: Yes, screaming.

David Furst: You're creating all of the rhythms that we're hearing, all of the music that we're hearing. You're doing a lot.

Marc Rebillet: Correct. It's true. It's a lot of work, yes. I mean, the live show, and then a lot of the live streams and videos, it's all from scratch. I go on stage with absolutely nothing, really. No set list, no ideas. I might come on stage with the tiniest thought or phrase or whatever, but really, outside of that, that's it. And so you just have to trust that experience and instinct will lead you to an entertaining place, you know? And it usually does. Not always, but-- You know?

David Furst: I mean, I can hear you. You're still tinkering with the recording as we're listening to it.

Marc Rebillet: [chuckles] Yes.

David Furst: You're thinking about the things that you should be hitting and adding and playing. What did this process, though, of going into the studio with the drummer and working with a producer help you unlock musically? Anything different?

Marc Rebillet: I think, yes-- Well, definitely. I mean, it puts you in a very different state of flow in terms of-- Because when it comes down to it, even though the things I create live, they're put together very quickly, and so as a result of that, they tend to be somewhat basic from a compositional standpoint. I mean, there's only so much you can do in 90 seconds or whatever. Doing this in the studio, I realized that I really do enjoy tinkering, I really like fussing over the details. I have a very precise idea of what I'm looking for. When I hear something, I find that I can articulate very specifically what I want changed, how, when, where, et cetera. The studio environment really lets you do that to a much higher level. Like, bring this down, bring this in. Add horns here, take this out right here, mute it out. So it's just kind of an exploded version, much more intricate version of what I'm usually doing on stage. It's nice to work that way, but you can get bogged down too in the details.

David Furst: This song, Vibes Alright, does this song speak to the vibe between you and your crowds, the vibe that you generate together?

Marc Rebillet: [laughs] Yes. I mean, honestly, the Vibes Alright thing was-- it was like a voice note that I recorded on the piano at some point, and it's just like a phrase that sounds-- It's like the rhythm of, "Vibes Alright," just the rhythm of that phrase sounds good. It has no real meaning, like most of what I do. It's just-- it sounds good, and so it's like, you know-- But, yes, to me, if I'm thinking about why I'm saying, it's like, "Vibes Alright," like, "Hey, we're cruising. We're chilling. Hey--" We're on easy street, you know what I mean? That sort of thing. Summer vibe.

David Furst: We continue on easy street with Marc Rebillet in just a moment. You're listening to All Of It here on WNYC.

[music]

David Furst: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm David Furst, in for Alison Stewart. We're here with Marc Rebillet, electronic musician, talking about his new song, Vibes Alright, and talking about your tour. You're going to be at Blue Note. You have a residency at Blue Note starting this Thursday--

Marc Rebillet: Yes.

David Furst: Goes for four nights?

Marc Rebillet: Four nights, two shows a night. Yes, Thursday through Sunday. It's sold out, unfortunately, but, man, it's going to-- Well, not unfortunately, but--

David Furst: Very fortunately for you.

Marc Rebillet: Yes, exactly.

David Furst: Not fortunate if you're trying to still get a ticket.

Marc Rebillet: Precisely.

David Furst: We're talking about the energy that you create with your crowd in these live shows. Your stage energy is big--

Marc Rebillet: [laughs] Yes, that's the word for it.

David Furst: --animated. You could see the enthusiasm in your crowds. This is an audience that is game to participate--

Marc Rebillet: Very much so.

David Furst: --when a mic is shoved in their faces or when they're called up on stage. What kind of work does it take on your end to make all of this happen, to make sure that this vibe between you and your audience is indeed all right?

Marc Rebillet: That's a great question, David. Yes, I think you have to-- The most important thing, I think, in order for the show to be successful at a small, or especially a large scale, because it's harder to lasso people at a larger scale with this show, is you have to really leave everything at the door and go on stage very receptive, very present to whatever the audience happens to be giving you that night. That means that, it may be a quieter crowd, they may be very enthusiastic, they may be a little more withdrawn, but either way, it's your job to coax out of that the energy that you need to play properly. Sometimes I will use a more withdrawn crowd energy as a way to berate them, create an antagonistic relationship, and then--

David Furst: Get in the pool.

Marc Rebillet: Exactly. You feed off of that energy. You're screaming at them, and then that sort of wakes them up a little bit, it tends to. Or there's crowds that are much more participation-friendly, they want to get up on stage, and so you take that and you go down into the crowd and you bring people up. It's just a flexibility thing. The Blue Note shows, I'm particularly excited for because it's going to be a very different energy. We booked this room specifically because it's so small and seated, which is really not the way I usually play.

David Furst: Will it remain seated?

Marc Rebillet: It'll remain seated. Oh, yes.

David Furst: That's a very different situation for you, isn't it? What do you do?

Marc Rebillet: Well, I think I'm going to take it low, slow soul-- a lot more soul, grooves, R&B. I might sit down. I mean, I might sit down. I never thought I'd say this before, but I could take a seat. So, yes, I think it'll be more of an opportunity to experiment a little bit, do more singing, talking to the audience as opposed to like screaming with them, so it's going to be a very different set of shows. I'm excited about it.

David Furst: Does that almost bring you back to Dallas and some of the restaurants where you started having to win over a crowd that was seated?

Marc Rebillet: A little bit, yes. But, you know, the difference with that is that those-- I was still really exerting myself with those, overexerting myself, perhaps, with those crowds. The energy, I would say, in those early shows was a lot more like the energy at a big festival I'm playing these days, because you have to convince them to listen, you know what I mean? Here, I have a captive audience. They've bought tickets, so I feel permitted to--

David Furst: They're on your side.

Marc Rebillet: Exactly, so the energy is different. I can sit down, take my time.

David Furst: Marc, when you're not being that big character on stage, do you ever get to just switch off? I imagine there's a lot of pressure on you to always be this life of the party.

Marc Rebillet: Oh, yes. I would say I'm mostly quite a relaxed person offstage, I take it. I enjoy relaxing. I think I enjoy a lot less constantly working hard. I very much value my time off and my downtime, and with my friends. I mean, I'm very social and I can pull on that high energy, but I tend to be more relaxed, I would say, in my day to day life. I'm just a pretty chill dude.

David Furst: I think that's evident right now.

Marc Rebillet: Yes, exactly.

David Furst: For sure. Now, I wanted to-- You know, Vibes Alright , do you have more plans to produce studio tracks like that? Where do you think you're going to go with this?

Marc Rebillet: Well, yes, we do have a couple more, like half in the bag, me and Jake Portrait, and so we may continue to develop those and then release them. Otherwise, I might try and produce some more on my own. And then in general, there are other directions I've been thinking about going as well creatively outside of traditional performance. Getting back to live streams with guests, I think is a fun direction after tour. And then also, I was mentioning to you over the break that I have this idea of doing things with kids, because a lot of the things that have been the most successful for me in terms of clips recently have been stuff with kids. It makes me realize how incredibly creative they are and what a wonderful thing it is to like-- To convince a kid to go there creatively is such a joy for them, for you as a performer, and I can see this thing where I'm like helping kids unlock a creative side to them. It's just in the nascent stages in terms of my thinking about it, but I'm really feeling this idea of like a kid's show, or some sort of thing like that.

David Furst: I could see you totally doing things to encourage kids to just be free and be creative.

Marc Rebillet: Exactly.

David Furst: I read something that you said, I read it online this week, I forget where it was. That your father was a big supporter, a big believer in you and your music. You also described him, and I love this description, as an aggressive enjoyer of life.

Marc Rebillet: [laughs] That's very true.

David Furst: Can you talk about his belief in you, that this is what you should be doing? You know, pursuing music, performing on stage, this is sometimes the opposite of what parents tell kids, right?

Marc Rebillet: That's very true, yes. He was supportive to almost an annoying degree. So much so that when I was still trying to figure things out, he was so dogged in his-- He was very relentless in his suggestions that I be on stage, be performing, be working towards success. He believed in that so hard that, at a time when I was just sort of trying to hang out and develop things on my own, it was not advice that I wanted, especially from a parent. I took it for granted, and it was not until later when I realized--

He passed away a few years ago, but he was so right, you know what I mean? He was so on the nose with everything he sort of thought about me and what I should be doing. He was just like many, many years ahead of me, and I needed to live a lot of life before I really took that to heart and started trying. But having that in there has been really instrumental in my ability to motivate myself, stay inspired, just this voice in there from him saying, "Go." It's a lot of what I say in my music, actually. "You got this. You got to keep going. Come on, you can do this. Blah, blah, blah." It's all like Gilbear style advice, and, yes, it's my way of sort of honoring him and keeping that alive.

David Furst: It's very interesting to hear, because a lot of times we hear about the motivation being rebelling against a parent's advice, right?

Marc Rebillet: Yes, true.

David Furst: But there still was some annoying aspect to it.

Marc Rebillet: Very much so. You know, you're a kid, it's like you can't really appreciate the thing of it until you arrive there, and then things just become so much clearer and-- Man, it's like, if I had listened to him earlier, whatever, but, yes, you just have to go through it sometimes.

David Furst: You have to go through it and get to it there yourself, but you can still hear those words motivating you now.

Marc Rebillet: Oh, 100%.

David Furst: Well, you found your first success live streaming your music online before COVID.

Marc Rebillet: Yes.

David Furst: You carried that through the pandemic. You improvised with collaborators, all kinds of collaborators, and now you're running around continents touring. It's incredible. But if money was no object at all, if someone said, "Marc, we've got unlimited resources to give you," what would you want to do in your wildest dreams? What would you want to do with your--

Marc Rebillet: You know, right now-- I'm sure that answer would change based on the season, my state of mind, but right now, I feel a very intense urge to do something really constructive and helpful with this small-- let's not exaggerate-- very small bit of influence I have. And so I think I would use resources to better people's lives in some way. That's why I'm thinking about the kids' thing. It's like, there's got to be a way for me to channel this thing and not just do the traditional performer thing of, "Oh, I have a new soda," or like, "Oh, I'm just playing a bunch of shows," which is great, I don't want to poo-poo that either. But like, we have this thing, this incredible privilege of like a platform, a little bit of influence, people listening, and I really would love to use that constructively to help people in some way. I don't know how that is.

David Furst: That improvisational spark is something that I think really connects with kids.

Marc Rebillet: For sure.

David Furst: You just got to dial down the cursing on those acts.

Marc Rebillet: [laughs] Exactly. Yes, it's like a very bizarre Mister Rogers. We can get there.

David Furst: All right. Well, next time we chat, I'm going to be listening to you talking about your new kid's project.

Marc Rebillet: I hope so.

David Furst: Marc Rebillet, thank you so much for joining us today.

Marc Rebillet: Thanks, David.

David Furst: You're going to be at the Blue Note at 131 West 3rd Street in Manhattan from Thursday to Sunday. A four-night residency, two shows per night--

Marc Rebillet: Yes.

David Furst: -- and your new song is Vibes Alright. Marc, thanks again for joining us. Let's hear a little bit more of that music.

[MUSIC - Marc Rebillet: Vibes Alright]

I can feel it gettin' better by the minute

I can feel it when I start to live in it

I can feel it gettin' better by the minute

I can feel a better love

I can feel it gettin' better by the minute

I can feel it when I start to live in it

I can feel it gettin' better by the minute

I can feel a better love

 

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