The hip-hop project known as Wallpaper. is more than just a fly on the wall. Producer Ricky Reed started exaggerating AutoTune before the sound became mainstream. The song "STUPiDFACEDD," played in the movie 22 Jump Street, took him on tour with groups like Gym Class Heroes.
Reed produced hits for Jason Derulo with "Talk Dirty" and "Wiggle." He recently teamed up for Pitbull's huge single "Fireball," Jessie J's "Burning Up" and Fifth Harmony's "Boss."
The album Ricky Reed Is Real was released last year on Epic Records and we sat with frontman Ricky Reed before a recent concert at Beat Kitchen.
Windy City Times: Where did the name Wallpaper. come from?
Ricky Reed: The whole project started as a satirical play on what I felt was happening in popular music when I started the band. It was saying that popular music was like wallpaper or window dressing, the background noise of our lives, something we don't emotionally invest in. The project was to originally lampoon that and now it is trying to make music that is not wallpaper.
WCT: Where are you from?
Ricky Reed: Oakland, California.
WCT: Did you think about performing as Ricky Reed and not a band?
Ricky Reed: No, I think to be able to put on a compelling live show you have to be a band. It is like a circle of friends that know each other, and know what makes each other tick. When you have an emotional connection with people I think fans can see that.
WCT: You started with the whole AutoTune fad.
Ricky Reed: Yes, that was part of the satirical idea. We thought it would put us on the map but T-Pain blew up before we did. I thought we would be a household name if I just took this voice correction thing and crank it all the way up. I sounded robotic, but also like Zapp & Roger. I thought it was perfect and magic. No one knew what it was and then suddenly everyone knew what it was!
WCT: You must have been frustrated.
Ricky Reed: Totally. I made three EPs and an album with that.
WCT: With "Drunken Hearts," are you making a full video for it?
Ricky Reed: No, it got lost in the shuffle of being on a major label. When we were ramping that song up another song of ours "Hesher" built up an underground following so we made a video for that. We made it for $2,000, which is nothing, like a Costco liquor run. I think that was the last music video we did to fan the flames of that song.
WCT: Was it fun to make a self titled song like "RRiR?"
Ricky Reed: Before my music was about satire and this album was more about inclusion. It is preaching to middle class and blue collar working people that I come from saying that we all have degrees with no jobs.
WCT: It is a big party record.
Ricky Reed: Well, that is the thing that not a lot of people make party songs for broke people. We wanted it to be about everyone not just people that can drink expensive champagne in VIP sections.
WCT: How was producing Jason Derulo?
Ricky Reed: He's great. When I first started working with him I didn't realize how talented he is. When I got in the room with him not only is a talented singer but also very creative and funny. I've had success with him because he brings weird shit to the table and I was ready to work with it.
When I go on tour with him we are going to write his whole new record. We will be on a studio bus.
WCT: What is that?
Ricky Reed: It is a tour bus that only has a couple of bunks and then a full studio in it.
WCT: Sounds cutting-edge. Your song "Fireball," with Pitbull, is more popular than ever.
Ricky Reed: Yes, it has been amazing.
WCT: You worked well with Fifth Harmony for their song, "Boss."
Ricky Reed: Yes; all these things come about very serendipitously. There is no forcing of anyone's hand. It is writing music in the moment and it feels good. It just finding a home for it.
WCT: Your Twitter feed really helps to know you as a person and artist.
Ricky Reed: I think that is when Twitter is successful, to some degree it is unfiltered. It is letting people know where you really are sometimes or not being afraid to lambast a corporation that wrongs you or tweet drunkenly or just be silly. If you open up and interact with people that is the key to social media. It is just being yourself.
WCT: Twitter just showed you were in Colombia.
Ricky Reed: Yes; I was producing a group called Bomba Estereo.
WCT: They were at Lollapalooza this last year.
Ricky Reed: So were we and we crushed it. We saw them at Lollapalooza for the first time and went down to Bogota to work with them.
WCT: How do you get in contact with performers like Jessie J and Pitbull?
Ricky Reed: It is all a different story. Bomba Estereo didn't know I did any of the Derulo stuff but just knew the Wallpaper. album and reached out to us about it.
With Pitbull I met his manager at a party and he seemed like a chill dude. I went to a writer's retreat and returned with a song for him.
The Fifth Harmony song I thought I wrote for someone else but they heard it and loved it.
Some you develop personal relationships with and some you don't. Jason and Pitbull I am really close with. I never thought that would happen in a million years.
WCT: Far East Movement, who you worked with, are really nice guys.
Ricky Reed: Sweet dudes, but on the other hand I haven't met Jessie J yet. I can't wait though.
WCT: What's the gay angle to your story for our readers?
Ricky Reed: We started in San Francisco. When we were less popular than we are now there was a circuit of underground clubs that were both gay and straight that supported us. We played with the group Hottub who brought out a big lesbian crowd. Our roots for our live shows always had a gay following. Any party band in the Bay Area is going to bring in party rocking gay people!
WCT: What's next?
Ricky Reed: The most important thing is not letting down a single fan that comes to our live shows. We finish out the tour and will start working on a new Wallpaper. record, then spend some time with the family for the holidays.
Head over to thisiswallpaper.com to learn more about the group.
