“I’m so nervous.”
Less than an hour after performing a high-energy set to a packed crowd on Coachella’s main stage on Sunday night, Porter Robinson was still feeling the adrenaline rush. Sitting on a plush couch outside his trailer located behind the stage, he finally cooled down in the shade after switching out his performance wardrobe for something more comfortable (he needed something dry after all threw water on himself during the set, after all) . As the other musicians mingled around him, he simultaneously relaxed as his eyes darted around, taking in the organized chaos as music from distant sets continued to play in the background. He’s still processing what just happened, but for now, he feels good about how his set turned out – he’ll never forget how bad the nerves got to him on stage. “I always feel like a new artist every time I play at Coachella,” he told EW.
Frazer Harrison/Getty Porter Robinson performs at Coachella on April 16, 2023
This isn’t the first time the electronic wunderkind has performed at the big festival in Indio, Calif. — this is his fourth appearance in the lineup in the last 10 years — but this set marks an end and a new beginning for him. As the final US show of his long run Nurturing tour, Robinson, 30, wants to change things. “It’s the debut of this band, and I’m playing more guitar than I’ve ever played before,” he said. “And I just want to take on a different role, not being behind the decks anymore. These are my songs, this is my music, I want to be involved in that and take over the whole stage.”
It’s an interesting dichotomy of how he feels about his career now. It’s been two years since he released something so personal Nurturing — the long-awaited follow-up album to his genre-bending 2014 project Worlds — and he’s been very candid about his struggles with depression and how that has kept him from making new music. “My lowest points of creativity are when I feel the most, ‘This is about me, this is about proving myself, this is about my own abilities, this is about how good I am, ‘” Robinson recalled. “I have a pretty high, creative low point – it’s not like I just lie down and smoke a joint and then great music comes to me. I have to work hard. It’s not like trying to set a high score. trying to win a game. It’s like this act of total surrender and openness and readiness. In such a vulnerable way, it’s very personal, and sharing every little detail about my life is something that, I feel like this is the end of that for me for a while.”
Kirby Gladstein Porter Robinson performs at Coachella on April 16, 2023
Throughout his Nurturing shows, including his Coachella shows (he’ll return to the festival for another set on Sunday, April 23), Robinson projected phrases on multiple screens behind him about how “saved music. [his] life.” He’s never shied away from letting fans in on his thoughts and sharing his struggles, but now he’s reached a point where he doesn’t know if it’s good to continue doing that at the same level.
“That’s the spirit of this album, a sense of intimacy and a sense of closeness and closeness,” he explained. “I want people to really see the beauty in every day, small things that don’t seem important. That’s why all visuals are about nature. The relationship between artists and their audience makes it so there’s like a wall. People talk about this idea of para-social relationships as if it’s a friendship, and I think I just feel some of the dangers of that.”
Robinson is ready to start a new era in his career where he will approach it all differently. “That’s the evolution: I’ll always be myself, but Nurturing doing that at the level of my greatest willingness to share,” he said. “It’s very addictive, seeking approval and excitement and recognition and all those things. But you don’t want to lose your own space and your own time. I think about things a lot.”
As for what that means for his music and movies going forward, he’s not sure yet. “It’s a little idea I have now,” he said. “There’s this funny cliché that pop fans talk about: The joke is that every new artist’s album is promoted as their most personal work. I really value my happiness and clarity so it’s just about protecting myself. We’ll see how it affects the art.”
Frazer Harrison/Getty Madeon joins Porter Robinson for his 2023 Coachella set
Right now, he’s just enjoying this last chapter of the Nurturing tour, as well as celebrating another previous project of his: “Shelter,” his Grammy-nominated hit collaboration with DJ/producer Madeon. During his set on Sunday, Robinson brought out Madeon as a surprise guest to perform the song together as an encore to their 2017 Coachella main stage performance (watch a video of that moment above) .
“We always said ‘Shelter’ was a one-time thing: ‘Let’s do an epic song and a big tour and leave it at that,'” Robinson said with a laugh. “We’ve done so much with that song. We’re closing that chapter. But I asked him like a week ago, ‘Would you be interested in coming out to sing this song with me? Are you in town?’ And he was like, ‘Oh my God. Yes. I love it.’ It’s a real honor to host him on stage.”
As longtime friends, Robinson loved reuniting with Madeon for that fan-favorite moment. But he also wants to be careful with how he uses nostalgia in his shows, so don’t expect to see surprises like this in all his future shows. “I try not to do too much to tickle the nostalgia bone — nostalgia can be fleeting, but it’s fleeting,” he said. “I always want to do new things, but that one was like, ‘That’s a freebie. He’s here. I’m here. We have to do this.’ But it’s never enough. Nostalgia never scratches the itch. Your memories of it are always better than the reality, so sometimes it’s better to let it live in people’s memories, than try to show it.”
He thought for a moment, then added, “It’s like hanging out with an ex or something. Sometimes it’s better to leave things in the past.”
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