Artists come and go, but this artist just keeps on coming at us with his unique style and passion. He goes by Bleach Boy or Bleach the Ripper. I had the wonderful opportunity speaking with Bleach the Ripper yesterday (May 26). "It's better to be the best YOU that you can be, even if what you're doing is authentically hideous," Bleach the Ripper stated to me during our discussion. This motto is carried on through Bleach the Ripper's music, and it is expressed in the interview that follows. 

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I know I’ve interviewed you a few times under the title “Bleach Boy.” Can you take me through the process of molding into “Bleach the Ripper?”

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BTR: Well, Bleach the Ripper is basically like a character that I’ve decided to take on so that I can step outside of my comfort zone, and be a lot more aggressive and abrasive in my delivery with my production and everything. I think that Bleach Boy was one thing, it was a certain brand-- and it was good. With Bleach the Ripper what I’m trying to do is more edgy and like dark web-type shit. 

 

Do you have a favorite persona you like to use when you’re delivering your music?

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BTR: I definitely like the Bleach the Ripper persona. It’s really fun to get in that headspace where you’re like “just murder everything, fuck everyone, fuck everything.” It’s great, so I really like that. But at the same time, I want to expand my writing abilities, so I don’t just write as Bleach the Ripper. A good example is when I make songs with some of my SoundCloud friends like DJ on Delay or Wade, I tend to stick to more of a Bleach Boy persona, with the more trappy lyrics and light-hearted attitude. 

 

I remember when I interviewed you last, and we covered a lot about Shitpost Part 3, you wanted to make music that was more family friendly. You even wanted to make music your mom could show off to her friends--

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BTR: Oh, yeah. That kind of went completely out the window. It was more of an artistic direction. I figured that I would much rather take risks and be as abrasive and out there as possible, because I think it’s better to take risks and see the rewards than to just play it safe and face getting lumped in with the hordes. ‘Cause, you know, there’s a lot of rappers out there. I feel like by going with the more heavier sound of music and darker subject matter, I’m appealing to a very specific demographic and niche. Like that’s who I can appeal to the most. Like, I am perfectly capable of making family friendly music. I am actually doing some work [not as Bleach the Ripper] with a Christian label called Chosen Music. They’re making family friendly music and they want to get the livestream concerts going and all that sort of stuff, so I am going to be writing some family friendly stuff for that. So, I can perform with them and not offend their target demographic. 

 

I’m excited to see how that turns out for you, because that will be very different from your music that I’ve listened to. 

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BTR: Yeah, I mean, it’s going to be great. Another thing that I’m doing with these people is there’s this artist called Word Spreader, and I’ve been looking to do a hip-hop version of “Devil Went Down to Georgia” for a long time. You know, with rapping instead of violins. So, I finally talked to Word Spreader and he said he’s willing to do it with me. So, I’m going to be the devil and he’s going to be the figurative Johnny. So, I’m excited to see how that turns out. 

 

I know that you have this presence on Youtube, SoundCloud, and Spotify now. Do you see a difference between those communities?

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BTR: Well, I mean, especially with YouTube. You know, YouTube has a very brutal community. I mean, people are much more prone to commenting on YouTube than they are on like SoundCloud. You can’t really comment or anything on Spotify or Apple Music. With YouTube, you get very strong feedback. Sometimes, it’s very good feedback. Like someone will be like, “wow, I love this so much.” On the other hand, you have the typical haters. You know, like some old bard just sitting behind their computers typing what they want. SoundCloud I feel like is dying off, in a way. I feel like most artists are trying to transition to platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and ones that tend to offer a bigger payout. 

 

When it comes to Offbrand Antichrist, which song do you always refer to people… why?

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BTR: So, I have two. One is “Offbrand Antichrist.” You know, the title track. I’m very proud of it and it’s probably my favorite track personally, off that album. I feel like it was executed perfectly for what I wanted it to be. The other one I would recommend is “Where’s My Juul?” I don’t know why it’s my most popular song off that album, but it is the one with the highest views on YouTube, Spotify, on everything. Honestly, it’s not the one that I thought would pop off. I literally made the beats and wrote the lyrics for that song the night before I was supposed to go into the studio and record an entire album. So, it was literally thrown together at the last moment. I’m surprised people liked it as much as they did. But I would definitely recommend that people check it out. 

 

Along with that album, you started making music videos. That’s different for your music. How was that experience? 

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BTR: Oh, yeah. It’s great. I feel like for the first two music videos that I did… The first one was for “Hoodoo.” That was very interesting. It was my first experience doing a music video where I was the focal point and it was very cold that day. I’m pretty sure people that were watching could tell I was kind of uncomfortable and unsure of myself the entire time. I feel like for “Where’s My Juul?,” we got a little bit better. For the music videos of my second EP, All My Friends Are Dead, we took a more home-style approach. My producer and my engineer, he filmed it himself and then we had our editor edit the video from the footage we took ourselves. So, it’s a lot lower budget, but it’s a very interesting aesthetic... I think I like it.

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Do you see the pandemic effecting making music or working on your music remotely?

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BTR: Well, I mean, it’s not really that fun being in a pandemic. Like, I can’t do shows or anything like that, which is really disappointing. Honestly, it hasn’t effected my music production that much. I still make music every single day. Even though the people that I typically work with aren’t interacting with me face-to-face, we can still report from separate studios and work together. That’s just one of the ways that I was able to work with people like DJ on Delay. He’s not from around here, I’ve never met the dude in real life, it’s just purely we thought we had chemistry when we made music together, so we keep making music. But if I wasn’t making music during this whole thing, I feel like I would be going insane. 

 

You mentioned DJ on Delay. I know you just released a track together a couple of days ago. Would you say that even during a pandemic, this process was still pretty easy?

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BTR: Absolutely. I didn’t even do most of the work. Shoutout to DJ on Delay, ‘cause he’s the one who makes the beats and mixes and masters… at least with the projects I do with him. We did the “420 Freestyle” off of Shitpost 3, and I really liked the way it came out and fit together. DJ on Delay hit me up this year and was like, “hey, wanna do a ‘420 Freestyle?’” Obviously, I’m always down to make music at any chance I get. But I was preoccupied with another EP [All My Friends Are Dead], and I was super busy during that time. So, the track ended up not getting released on 4/20. Instead, we were like, “we’re just going to do a ‘520 Freestyle,’” even though it was recorded on 4/20. We’re probably going to keep it going, too. Like we had the “420 Freestyle” last year, and this year we had the “520 Freestyle.” In ten years, we’re going to have a whole album. 

 

Have you ever considered doing a live show over social media like all of these other artists are doing right now?

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BTR: I have considered that. The only problem is that, you know, time constraints. I am working on my music. I’ve been out since October, and I only have two EPs out. I have another album in the works, which hopefully should be dropping soon. But between the work, day job, and mixing by night, I haven’t had much time to really consider it. The Christian label [Chosen Music] does want to start doing their live shows, but before I can start participating in those, I need to get my clean music in order enough to do a set.

 

You mentioned you have a day job, so you’re an essential worker?

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BTR: Yes, I am one of the most essential. I am a Papa John’s delivery driver. Honestly, the quarantine hasn’t effected this area as much as it’s effected other areas. I’m from Rome, GA. This entire town was built as a Tuberculosis town. So, the biggest industry here is the medical industry. We have the medical industry and we have a lot of food places. The places that are essential are the medical and food places. So, pretty much, life has carried on as normal. The only thing that’s different, is everyone is wearing masks.