Photo Credit: Mark Urbina
Washington-born artist, producer and multi-instrumentalist Reo Cragun releases his 12-track album Diary Of A Loner. Co-produced by Clear Eyes [Jeremy Lloyd of Marian Hill], the project blends hip-hop and electro-pop sounds while Cragun survey’s life’s ups and downs, trials and tribulations, and losses and victories without filter or fear. After amassing hundreds of millions of streams, selling out shows, and inciting critical applause, he opens up like never before on his first independent full-length album.
“It resembles a collection of really personal notes,” Cragun reveals. “I tell my story about a lot of the events in my life. These are my journal entries. I’m such an introvert by nature. I always feel as if I’m on the journey by myself. However, I tried to express those feelings on the project. For the first time, I really talk about what happened growing up and what’s going on now.”
How did you develop this record?
The main theme is basically me having a conversation with myself. Just imagine sitting down at a coffee shop and start confessing stuff to your own self, you know? That’s mostly where the title Diary Of a Loner comes from.
What did you need to talk about then?
A lot of things! Especially stuff concerning my living in LA which kinda makes you feel like you live in the matrix. By the time I wrote the record I had been living in the city for so long that I realized I started to lose touch with my sense of self. I needed some isolation so I could recenter myself!
What do you think led you to lose touch with yourself?
It was a combination of things I suppose. I’ve been on the road since 2017 and when I wasn’t I was in the studio working on new music until 2019 when I went on a world tour with Flume and upon coming back I realized I needed a little break to recharge.
That’s when you started to come up with the idea for this record?
Pretty much! I just felt like I had to go back to my roots and make intimate and honest music that dealt with the issues I had been experiencing and struggling with. Most of the time people look at your social media and they think everything is fun and cool but a lot of times there’s not the whole picture.
Tell us more about how you developed your storyline and overall theme
Well a lot of things were going very well for me. My career was taking off and I was growing as an artist but there was a lot inside of me that wasn’t sitting well with me and I wanted (and needed) to put that on record.
You called yourself a ‘real bedroom artist.’ What do you mean?
I mean that I love creating in solitude. Especially these days. When I started off I was surrounded by producers, writers, musicians etc. which is great because you want to experiment, collaborate and search for your sound but for this record I wanted to be by myself as much as possible
Does the sound reflect that?
Definitely! I made this whole record by myself and I think you can tell. The sound is somewhat of a mix between R&B Hip Hop and electronic music which is exactly what I wanted to get out of this record sonically.
What’s the most representative track on the record and why?
Diary of a loner for sure! It’s such a loaded track! I touch on EVERYTHING I was going through at the time from my father being incarcerated for most of my life and in the process of being released before the pandemic to what it meant for my mom and aunt to fill in for him as father figures; getting married right before the pandemic and sharing a new chapter of my life with my wife, moving to the desert and more. There’s just so much in there that it just sets the tone perfectly and really authentically.
We must ask you this question. What was it like to tour with Billie Elish back in the day when she wasn’t the biggest pop sensation on the planet yet? What did you learn from that experience?
Oh man! I’ve learned to keep it tight! Those were the days when Billie had started to blow up but she wasn’t nearly as big as she is now so we were still playing small clubs and whatnot. Yet her show was so tight and flawless like you wouldn’t believe! Her and Finneas would roll up with all their gear sorted, mentally ready and ALWAYS full of energy no matter how many people were in the crowd. No wonder she became the massive star she is today!
