Ricochet, Lil Blizzard's Debut Album

Ricochet, Lil Blizzard’s Debut Album

BY: NICK MELEDANDRI | IMAGES BY: JOAQUIN BARTRA

Ricochet is Lil Blizzard's Debut Album

ice cold baby, ice cold.

Lil Blizzard is the moniker of 20 year old musician Patrick Perkins, who lives and makes his experimental, ambient sounds in New York. Patrick has a particularly great Instagram chronicling his innovative hair stylings, his life as a twin, and many cats (RIP his even better Vine). To celebrate the release of his debut album, Ricochet, we got WeDidIt cofounder Nick Melons to ask him a few questions.

You can find Ricochet on Apple Music.

Hello Patrick, how are you?

I’m feeling good! Just wrapping up a shoot in Palm Springs and back to NY tomorrow.

You’re originally from LA but you live in NY now – where did you make Ricochet?

Most of the tape was made in New York, since that’s where it’s kind of all been coming together. Honestly though, I think the tape draws more inspiration from the LA beat scene over the NY scene.

You have a twin brother named Adam, have you ever used that to your advantage? Like he goes to class for you, or y’all airdrop cheats to each other telepathically during a test? I don’t know why those are both school related.

This question falls among a pretty long list of standard twin questions [laughs], so I can answer it pretty honestly. We aren’t really able to feel each other’s pain or think each other’s thoughts, but we’re so similar that a lot of the time we arrive at the same thought, and express it in the same way.

A lot of people may know you from Vine, that’s where we initially met. What was the first video you did that popped off?

Sometimes I forget that the Vine thing even happened, since it seems so far in the past! The first video I made that got a bunch of loops was one of me on my SP404 playing a beat, and then layering Drake’s “Truss me Daddi” over it. The one that blew me up was the “Adam” vape trick one. Good times.

When you sent me your music initially I had no idea what it was going to sound like. I was hyped when I listened because it reminded me of the type of music Henry and I initially started the label to release. What were you listening to that got inspired to make music like this?

A lot of my inspiration comes from SoundCloud beat scene from a couple years ago. I really developed my sound and drum programming by trying to emulate guys like Dilla, Knx., and Ohbliv. More recently though I’ve been taking a bunch of inspiration from jungle and footwork guys like Goldie and DJ Rashad.

You made the cover art for “Ricochet”, tell me about that.

I’ve been making collages pretty much since I started making music, so they’ve kind of followed a similar trajectory in their development. My collages follow the same philosophy as my sample-based music – they both draw inspiration from something that already exists, but reinvent those elements into something completely new, whether it be a song or an album cover. There’s not really any particular meaning to the actual Ricochet art, it’s just more so the concept of collage in general that links it to the music on the tape.

You’re also working on a video with your girlfriend Cameron, what’s the video like? Do you guys work on stuff together often?

Yeah, the video is going to be really cool! Most of it is just footage I shot over this last summer in LA. I didn’t really intend on using it for a video for the tape, but the more she edits it together with the music, the more I realize that the two (music and video) were meant to be together.

Patrick Perkins designed his own album art for "Richochet"

You recently played a set in LA, what is your live show like? Are you planning on playing in NY?

It was a lot of fun! Adam and I decided to do half of a live set, where he was on bass, my friend Tyger was on guitar, and I was on the drums. It felt really good to play drums in a live setting, so Adam and I are definitely going to be doing more of that in NY/LA.

As a man of science, what’s your best advice for dealing with global warming?

Smoke big tree.

Thank you Patrick.

Ricochet, Lil Blizzard’s Debut Album