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Presented by Goldenvoice: New Gold Standard

An Interview with Roy Blair

Janaury 13, 2026

We had the chance to catch up with Roy Blair ahead of his back-to-back shows at El Rey Theatre about how he finds new music, growing up in LA, and what he has in store for his upcoming sets on 1.30 + 1.31.


Favorite record in your collection?

Mark Hollis by Mark Hollis on CD. Perfect album.

How did growing up in Highland Park shape your sound? How do those influences compare to ones you picked up from the New York scene?

Well, I think growing up in Los Angeles had a big effect on it. My dad was an avid music listener and would read reviews in the LA Times and go out and buy the CDs. So I think for him he was pushing his musical boundaries by doing that and I got introduced to a lot more stuff by the time I was born than what was on his radar in the 80s. He also was an early fan of Beck and went to some of his first shows ever in the city so naturally I grew up listening to a lot of him. Sea Change is a great record and an influence on me now.

What’s your creative vision for making each performance night distinct?

I guess I didn’t want to make both shows two separate sides of a coin… but maybe just a few surprises in each that can mean something if you come to both. And there's a little room to play in that artistically!

Advice you would give to your younger self, writing songs after school on GarageBand?

If you care, other people will naturally care too. People want to care about things.

How do you discover new artists in the age of the algorithm?

The same way I’ve basically always done it. Who do you love? Ok who inspired them? Listen to everything those artists have ever done. Who's in their band? Who produced the album or track? You start to see it as a big web of connections of things you love. A lot of my favorite artists and albums have strange crossovers and connecting producers. Discovery is a beautiful rabbit hole that I could spend the rest of my life going down if I had to. It’s definitely a hobby of mine.

UPCOMING SHOWS