Baatchoy's debut album, "SIMULATION & SIMULACRA," takes listeners on a remarkable musical journey that showcases the artist's unique vision and creative essence. From start to finish, the album captivates with its distinct and captivating sonic experience. With influences spanning experimental-pop, alternative-rock, electronic, and post-ambient genres, Baatchoy incorporates innovative elements, techniques, and approaches to create a truly captivating sound. Each track on the album is a testament to their fearless experimentation and willingness to push boundaries, resulting in a diverse and engaging musical landscape.

One of the standout features of "SIMULATION & SIMULACRA" is Baatchoy's ability to create a cohesive listening experience. The songs seamlessly flow into each other, weaving a story that can be felt emotionally from different angles. The album's chaotic unpredictability adds to its allure, keeping the listener engaged and intrigued throughout the entire journey. Baatchoy's lyrics and melodies evoke a range of emotions, inviting listeners to explore their own personal experiences and reflections. From nostalgic melodies to thought-provoking lyrics, the album creates a profound and introspective atmosphere that resonates with the audience.

The production process behind "SIMULATION & SIMULACRA" is a testament to Baatchoy's artistic growth and evolution. Their willingness to experiment with different sounds, textures, and production techniques shines through in the album. By playing with pre-existing expectations and taking influences from various musical idols, Baatchoy creates a distinct and captivating sonic landscape that is uniquely their own. The album's title, "SIMULATION & SIMULACRA," holds deeper meanings and metaphors that intertwine with the broader artistic concept and vision. Baatchoy explores the notion of authenticity in the digital age, questioning the boundaries between reality and imitation. The project invites listeners to reflect on their own experiences of existing both online and offline, and how technology shapes our perception of humanity, providing a thought-provoking and introspective journey.

"SIMULATION & SIMULACRA" is not only a culmination of Baatchoy's artistic journey and personal growth but also a testament to their commitment to staying true to themselves while exploring new creative territories. With this debut album, Baatchoy establishes themselves as an artist who fearlessly pushes boundaries and creates music that leaves a lasting impact. As a listener, "SIMULATION & SIMULACRA" offers an immersive experience that demands attention and invites introspection. Baatchoy's ability to create a distinct and captivating sonic landscape sets them apart from their peers. With their debut album, Baatchoy proves that they are an artist to watch out for, and their future projects are bound to further evolve and expand their artistic boundaries, promising an exciting and dynamic artistic journey ahead. Read our full interview with Baatchoy below.

Can you elaborate on your musical background, including any formal training, significant milestones, or influential experiences that have shaped your artistic journey thus far?

Where do I begin? It all started in my childhood. My family had moved from the Philippines to live in Baltimore City, Maryland, where my sibling and I grew up. It was me, my sibling, my ma, my lola (grandma), my lolo (grandpa), and tito (uncle) all cramped living together in a Baltimore rowhouse.

My grandma played piano a lot; almost everyday actually. I remember the days I would sit next to her on the piano bench just watching and listening to her play. It didn’t take long for her to take initiative and started personally teaching me how to play piano; and to be completely honest with you: I don’t think I really wanted to play piano like that. As a 7 year old kid, who just wanted to play Playstation all the time, I did not like learning how to read music. So the years I was being taught how to play I would just lie and pretend to practice. For years I was so adamant against learning how to read sheet music, that I would just watch my lola’s hands and listen to how she played it and just replicate what she did by what I saw and heard. After years of trying to play the piano, I gave it up. Piano was never really the instrument for me. It wasn’t until highschool when I realized I wanted to play the guitar.

It took convincing my ma and lola for them to commit to me wanting to learn. We’ve never had a lot of money ever so the idea of buying a guitar was an investment. They didn’t think I was serious because I had given up all those years of piano and felt that wanting to play guitar was just a teenage fascination that would pass. However; that was not the case and I kept bugging them for almost a month until they caved in to help me buy my first guitar.

On one condition: that I had to figure out how to play all on my own.

When I started to play guitar, I fell in-love with it instantly. It was a completely different experience than piano. I started with learning how to play my favorite songs by my favorite bands at the time. I would sit down to listen to the music and just play what I heard and what I saw. It took me a couple years but I got to a point where I felt comfortable to want to be in a band.

For years I was in a band called, “Yugennui”. It was originally formed by really close friends I had made in highschool and early college. We were together for maybe 5 years? We were post-rock/math-rock trying to write music and emulate some of our favorite bands at the time: The Mars Volta, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Tera Melos, Piglet, Tool, etc.

I want to believe that those years were so formative for all of us. We had gone on like 3 tours that we did all through the  D.I.Y. underground circuit. One tour we were out for 2 weeks and went as far north as Montreal, Canada; while hitting most of the major states and cities in between. We played in basements, attics, garages, house parties, college parties, even at a college radio station. We all rented a house and lived together so we could practice almost everyday, listen to music, and even throw house shows. It was really like that. Of course, nothing ever lasts forever and the band split up due to personal reasons. Eventually everyone in the band moved out of the house except for me.

This is where another pivot happened for me. Since the dissolution of the band, I admit that I was pretty lost at the time. After doing all that we did together for that long, I didn’t know where to go from there and I didn’t want to start all over again. This is when I started to get into learning how to use a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), more specifically: Ableton. It was like learning a whole new instrument. Learning how to navigate and create music in this way was completely new to me.

So I just started making beats. I started the journey to learn how to produce and engineer music on my own, right then and there, while living in that same house. My new roommates and I started hosting weekly jam sessions where a lot of my friends would come and bring new friends over and we would just set up and play for hours. People would come over to sing, rap, play piano, bass, guitar, drums. People would bring their own instruments over. It was a whole thing. It’s also how I met most of my friends in Baltimore. Thinking back at it, it was kind of perfect. We had a jam space on the first floor, and then my little bedroom recording studio upstairs in my room. I ended up learning the basics of recording and mixing from those years while meeting so many people who I’m humbled to still know to this day. We would jam sometimes and then go upstairs and record verses and make beats sometimes all night long. Almost everyday! It was crazy. Those were the Grindon years (Grindon is the name of the street the house is on).

Everything I mentioned before leads up to today where nowadays I am more interested in composing and writing more intentionally than how I did back in those days.

In the past year, I’ve assisted and written soundscapes for art exhibitions in the city. I’ve composed and created sound design for a 2 hour original play called, “Lyra & The Ferocious Beast”.  Something I was so proud to be a part of. Besides all that, I have finished up an album with my very great friend Dyyo under our duo name, “G.O.L.D” that is called “LIGHT MY FIRE!!!” Another project I am very proud of. What I am especially proud of is my own personal album, “SIMULATION & SIMULACRA” because it is a culmination of everything I’ve said and done into one single project.

As an underground artist, what strategies do you employ to establish and maintain your unique identity within a competitive music industry, and how do you navigate the balance between artistic integrity and commercial success?

To be completely honest with you, I have always held space for that D.I.Y. artist in my core being. I make music because I simply love the act of creating it. I love art. I am still doing what I have been doing for years, which is making music and art because I love it. I love being around it. It makes me feel sane in this world and gives me a sense of purpose and belonging when I do it and when I’m near it.

I do recognize that, in the music industry, it is a competition to a lot of artists. But I personally don’t like thinking of it that way. What I am learning is that I want to find authenticity, autonomy and artistic integrity for myself; and in-order to seriously be a part of any major competitive music industry, you cannot have all three all the time and I am uninterested in that.

In your collaborative project with G.O.LD. How did you and Dyyo come together and what was the creative process like in terms of merging your individual styles, visions, and musical contributions?

I originally met Dyyo through Threeeyedmouse. Mouse & I have been friends together for a very long time and we had planned to hangout one night. The day of, he had asked me if Dyyo could also come over to hang. Of course, I was down and that night we played music together, shared music, and just chilled.

Ever since that night, Dyyo and I became friends and I offered him my practice space for his band to practice. At the time he was doing Dyyo Live, which was him performing live renditions of his own music. Long story short, I ended up joining the band playing synth and keys on my OP-1. After practices Dyyo would sometimes stay over and we would be in my studio creating new music. At the time, we really had no intention with it, we were just writing songs just to hang and have fun.

I’d start with a simple beat, he’d write lyrics to it, we’d record it, and then I’d go back and rework the instrumental and create new sections, and then Dyyo would go back and add more lyrics. It was really a natural flow. It wasn’t long until we realized that we had written enough songs to eventually create, “LIGHT MY FIRE!!!”

Within the experimental-pop, alternative-rock, electronic, post-ambient genres, can you highlight specific elements, techniques, or innovative approaches that you incorporate into your music to create a distinct and captivating sonic experience?

When I am producing I really try to play on a lot of ideas and sometimes juxtapose pre-existing expectations in some genres or styles of music. Sometimes they work and a lot of times they don’t work, but that’s the fun of it! I often-times take the road less traveled when coming up with an idea within a song. It’s like for example, “Yeah, I know that stylistically, it makes sense for the drums to be or sound THIS specific way… BUT what if they sounded this way?” Another small example would be like, with my guitar. I know what a guitar sounds like or should sound like, but I often take influence from a few of my idols and contemporaries and try to push my instrument into a sonic space that makes it sound less like what it actually is.

I try to push certain sounds, textures and the use of them outside their normal uses; sometimes to my own detriment because I know it is not for everyone. I'll try it anyway!

Can you provide deeper insights into the overarching themes and concepts explored in "SIMULATION & SIMULACRA," and how they reflect your personal experiences, emotions, or observations about the world around you?

SIMULATION & SIMULACRA is an album that I wanted to create that, as a whole, is really how I see people trying to experience human experiences within the internet. In an era where the pace of technology relentlessly pushes the boundaries of perception, what defines our reality?

Is this the reality we know, or rather an imitation striving to emulate it? These are questions that I really wanted to emotionally convey in the project.

The album doesn't really ask or answer these questions at all actually, the project as a whole is kind of emotionally my experience as another person who is chronically online. I think experiencing people existing inside the internet vs. outside are two totally different things.

Apart from musical influences, are there any other artistic mediums, literary works, philosophical ideas, or cultural movements that have significantly influenced your creative process and contributed to the depth and complexity of your music?

So my sibling, Kat, is a visual artist. Growing up they have always been drawing, painting, and watching movies. They actually went through the whole art academia route. They had gone to art highschool, art college and recently got their masters in art.

That being said, growing up with them, I remember them teaching and showing me illustrators, painters and really breaking it down to me at times. I am no painter or visual artist, but I am very influenced by visual art.

I hear music very visually and describe and understand music visually. I don’t believe that I have synesthesia, but as I am creating, I try to draw my own parallels to the way visual artists describe their medium, to the way I take in and understand music on the most fundamental levels. I think there are extreme similarities to techniques on how visual artists create compositions in their works to how musicians compose music.

How do you approach the production process in terms of experimenting with different sounds, textures, and production techniques, and how do you ensure that these elements align cohesively to enhance the overall listening experience of your audience?

For me it’s just having fun with it. I am not thinking too deeply about functions other than the basic fundamentals or usage of a specific sound, texture, rhythm, etc. Let me say that  I don’t know everything about music and I am always trying to learn something new. I try to stay informed about the usage of certain techniques the best I can and I respect a lot of techniques when it's needed. When I do feel like I can deviate from a certain technique or melodic or rhythmic usage I do try to push it and I’ll admit that I don't nail it most of the time.

A lot of my experimenting is respecting ideas that came before by making informed deviations from them in order to create something new while retaining, juxtaposing, or playing on the original idea. All of this is in the back of my mind while not trying to think about it too deeply at the same time.

Can you share more specific anecdotes or behind-the-scenes stories about the recording or production of certain tracks on "SIMULATION & SIMULACRA" that shed light on your artistic vision, growth, or the evolution of the album as a whole?

SIMULATION & SIMULACRA is a project I started working on from top to bottom for a couple years. I’ve done things on this album that I’ve never done before. I’ve written every song except for the vocal production and lyrics of “In Love With God and Chaos”. That is all by the great Abdu Ali!

Everything else though. I did it by myself. I recorded everything myself, and mixed and mastered it myself. To me this project is a culmination of everything I’ve felt and done up to this point.

As an artist, what specific emotions, messages, or experiences do you aim to communicate or evoke in your listeners through your music, and how do you strategically utilize lyrics, melodies, or sonic choices to convey these elements effectively?

For me I try to really hone in on the emotional push and pull within music. I’ve always been drawn to the music that made me feel goosebumps or feel a shift in myself. I feel like my own music can have a nostalgic feel. At times, I try to do what some of my favorite old pop songs did and create simple melodies or lyrics that can feel like a memory or something that has happened to you or someone you know.

I remember, years ago, my old band used to sit in the living room together and listen to albums together like we were all watching a movie. We would just sit there in silence, listening and taking the music in. When the album ended, that's when we talked about it.

I feel like I created SIMULATION & SIMULACRA for that type of experience. My aim was to give someone or even my younger self, a project that they can just sit and feel through like how I used to do to my favorite albums.

How has your personal growth, artistic development, and experiences shaped the sound, direction, and overall creative approach of your debut album, and how do you envision further evolving and expanding your artistic boundaries in future projects?

What I wanted to do with this project is combine all my previous experiences as someone who was in a D.I.Y. band for years; as someone who afterwards explored digital music; as someone who helped produce and engineer so many other people’s music; as someone who also loves so many different kinds of music; as someone who is also chronically on the internet. I wanted to put it all chaotically into one project. Maybe I did it as a personal milestone for myself. Something that represents me at this point in my life.

What I do know is that the next music I do want to write is going to be very different. I want to go backwards into my instrumentalist roots. I want to combine what I know now and go back and respect where I started from musically.

In relation to "SIMULATION & SIMULACRA," can you delve deeper into the symbolism, metaphors, or deeper meanings behind the album title, and how these concepts intertwine with the broader artistic concept and vision you wanted to convey?

I sometimes think to myself, as we become more accustomed to holding space for a version of ourselves in the internet space, which persona is the real authentic you? The version of you who exists in reality? Or the version that you allow to exist on the internet? How much of our humanity remains a part of us as we rely more and more heavily into AI and the internet? I don’t know.

Each song is like a memory or experience that I have felt in my life while feeling they are being downloaded, uploaded into you or deleted from you. I wanted the experience to feel as jarring as scrolling through the internet can feel sometimes.

SIMULATION & SIMULACRA, if I had to explain it narratively, weaves a story that can be felt emotionally from two angles - one of a human grappling to retain their essence in a digital age, and, another perhaps more enigmatic, of a cyborg on a quest to rekindle what they perceive as human emotions and consciousness.

Are there any specific tracks on the album that you feel particularly encapsulate your artistic vision and creative essence, and if so, what specific elements, themes, or sonic choices make them stand out in your perspective?

In my opinion, I feel like every song in this project is like a cog wheel in the overall machine. If I had to be specific, the way the songs weave into each other is what I think will stand out in my artistic vision, creative essence and ultimately encapsulates the themes of the album. I wanted it to be chaotically unpredictable. I made it intentionally that all these chaotic parts make up one homogenous thing. I feel like I’m Dr. Frankenstein and this album is my monster.

How has the collaborative process with G.O.LD influenced your artistic growth and pushed you to explore new creative territories, and what valuable lessons or insights have you gained from collaborating with fellow artists?

Every creative project I am a part of, I try to find ways to create an opportunity for me to explore something new musically and philosophically. For example, “LIGHT MY FIRE!!!” was me trying to leave behind a maximalist, or my, “fixing by adding” mentality.

I was trying to practice my version of a “less is more” kind of approach which was very uncomfortable to me in the beginning. When Dyyo and I faced a production or songwriting problem, I always tried to ask the question, “What can we remove, or replace?” instead of “What can we add?”

There was no way for me to be truly minimalist in this project, but it was my first step into practicing writing with more intention and reason.

The very next project I worked on right afterwards was writing the music score and sound design for “Lyra & The Ferocious Beast” for Truepenny Productions. I took the philosophies I practiced while creating, “LIGHT MY FIRE!!!” and applied to the creating process for the play but I did so with even MORE intention. I had to consider the characters’ personalities for their themes, the overall settings, and specific moments that happened. It was an opportunity for me to learn what was musically “just enough” or “needed” at any specific moment.

Regarding your singles "Say So," "Dimmer," "Pyro," and "Hold Me," can you provide more in-depth explanations about the stories, emotions, or personal experiences that inspired these songs, and how they contribute to the overall narrative and trajectory of your musical journey?

When Dyyo and I were working on G.O.L.D we really were honing in on the idea of relationships, love and lost love. All of those songs you mentioned started with me and Dyyo meeting up, I got on my computer and just started writing a loop on how I felt that day. Dyyo would then reciprocate what I created and respond with lyrics on how he’s been feeling but in a zoomed out lens that he tries to write so that way anyone can really relate to what he’s saying. After I get a feel for what he’s trying to convey, I would go deeper in the production so that way the instrumental can match the energy of the lyrics and feelings he is trying to say.

But we tried to keep it within the same narrative of a relationship that is found, that is then eventually lost and all the feelings in between.

I believe “LIGHT MY FIRE!!!” was a moment for me to really attempt something completely different for myself. Dyyo and I learned so many insights and skills from each other while working on that album.

Matter of fact, I was still working on and editing “SIMULATION & SIMULACRA” while working on “LIGHT MY FIRE!!!” at the same time. I always felt that production-wise they are two sides of the same coin stylistically for me.

Looking towards the future, what are your long-term aspirations and goals as an underground artist, and how do you envision pushing boundaries, leaving a lasting impact, and continually evolving your artistry within the ever-changing music industry, beyond the release of "SIMULATION & SIMULACRA"?

I can only aim to be more real and honest in my own artistry; as I am learning to be to myself, and to others. I think the next evolution of myself will happen when I really make the connection to my past, my roots, and culture and find a way to respect and honor those things today. In a world where things just don’t feel real anymore, I just want to be more authentic and only hope that it will translate the same way into my art.