After going viral for his certified platinum hit “Fast”, Sueco, a rapper and singer-songwriter from Los Angeles is making big moves in his musical career. After signing with Atlantic Records, his first album, Miscreant, was released in 2019. His unique pop-punk sound has captured the attention of other artists, and led to his long list of collaborations with artists such as Trippie Redd, A Boogie Wit da Hoodie, and Travis Barker.
Sueco has continued to release many single hits and released his newest album in 2021 named, It Was Fun While It Lasted. Sueco has toured the United States and Europe, and continues to perform at music festivals. You can hear his newest single featuring Bea Miller, “Yours”, on your favorite streaming platform today.
We caught up with Sueco at Louder Than Life, a hard rock and metal music festival in Louisville, Kentucky to talk about his song creation process, his favorite pizza place in LA, and his crazy story about ending up in Serbia.
You’ve collaborated with a ton of artists, A Boogie Wit da Hoodie, Travis Barker. Are there any future collabs you dream of? Who’s your dream collab?
Kendrick Lamar, Kanye, Billie Joe Armstrong, Gerard Way, and The Weeknd.
You also did a country collab with Warren Zeiders, who I love. How did that come about?
He’s the man, I love Warren. He originally hit me up and I don’t listen to that much country, to be honest, so I didn’t really know who he was. I was up in Oregon with some of my family, and they’re like the real die-hards.
They’re out there in their F-150s blowing sh*t up in the woods. So, I was talking to my cousin and I was like, yo, do you know who this guy Warren Zeiders is? And he’s like, no f***ing way, dude, you got to do the collab. I was like, oh, sure, guess we’re doing it. So, I just hit him back and we made it happen. He’s a super cool guy.
What’s the story behind your song “POS”?
I made it with Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park and it was funny, the hook I had originally sung was almost like a different song. It was a demo for a different song. One of us just started playing with the keys, and they were like, oh sh*t, that was fire.
And then we just pulled up the session from a completely different song in a completely different key, loaded in those vocals and just pitched it way up just to hear like, does this work? And it sounded so fire we’re just like, I’m not even going to re-sing this sh*t. I’m just going to keep it like this.
What’s your process to make the beats? Is it like trial and error?
It’s all about the emotion. You know, I want to feel like this, what does that sound like? How does that sound, the feeling that I want to portray? How does that manifest itself sonically? Then what’s the melody to do it or what’s the lyrics that say the same thing? Sometimes I’ll start with lyrics, but most of the time it’s with the beat.
Do your songs usually come together pretty fast?
It can come together in five minutes or it can take weeks. It just completely depends. That doesn’t mean that one is better than the other. Sometimes the five minute one is the best. Sometimes the one that takes three weeks is the best.
What’s your perfect day in LA?
I’m from LA. Honestly, when I don’t have sh*t to do, I just wake up and go to Santa Monica Pier. It just sounds like that’s the most basic thing ever. Growing up, that’s where I would go with my homies. We skate around there all the time, and it’s just kind of a place I go when I have some time to almost feel like I’m a kid again.
Are there any hidden spots you like to eat in LA?
There’s so many. There’s this one restaurant, it’s really good. It’s called Pablito’s Pizza. It’s in the parking lot of Circus Liquor in North Hollywood. There’s a food tent outside. It’s like a Mexican, Peruvian-like food stand that a little while ago got a pizza oven and they’re making Mexican Peruvian pizzas now. Oh my God, dude, it’s so good. It’s like Birria Pizza or Al Pastor Pizza. It’s so f***ing good and it’s not that expensive. I think it’s like a late-night kind of spot, right after the bar.
What are your must pack travel items for the road?
It’s funny, a lot of my suitcase, like I wouldn’t say half, but a big portion of it is just books. Right now I’m reading The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. I brought a copy of The Tao Te Ching. That’s my favorite book of all time. I can’t read when I’m on my phone or a Kindle. I get distracted. It’s hard for me to focus and I have noise canceling headphones, so I’ll just put my headphones on and read.
What’s your craziest travel story?
Serbia. Serbia is the best f***ing place, it’s the sh*t. I love Serbia. A few months ago, something like that. We finished a Europe tour and then we went to Greece for a little vacation. We were in Mykonos. One of my friends who works with Annita, a big Brazilian artist, told us to pull up. They were in Croatia. Then our connecting flight was canceled so we were stuck in Belgrade, Serbia.
I’ve never been to Serbia. I have no idea what the f*ck is even there. They get us a hotel in the city. Everything’s gothic and medieval. It feels older than most of the cities I’ve been to in Europe. Everything was so cheap and everybody was so nice. We met a couple of girls that took us to underground warehouse parties and factories. So, then the next day, we went to Croatia. It was super cool. I was trying to film a music video out in Europe to work with a director in Germany, but they canceled.
One of the girls we met, I looked at her Instagram and she’d been in music videos, so I hit her up. I was like, yo, do you know any directors? She’s like, yeah, this guy. I looked him up, and he’s like the biggest director in the Balkan region. He did music videos with hundreds of millions of views on YouTube. I was like, all right, I guess we have a director. So, we flew back to Serbia and we were there for like five days and we shot a music video. Serbia is the sh*t.