Rusty Santos

Artist / Producer / Mixer Rusty Santos is a producer and artist based in LA. As a producer, mixer, and engineer, he’s been an indie music force of nature.

He has also worked in footwork, hip-hop, electronica, and global music. As an artist, he plays multiple instruments and writes psychedelic pop songs. His new solo album, High Reality, was released on the London independent label Lo Recordings in July of 2022. He first came to prominence with Animal Collective when he produced their celebrated Sung Tongs album and then collaborated again with Panda

Bear on his landmark album Person Pitch and the more recent album Buoys. He spent formative time in NYC immersed in the electronic psychedelia scene along with other artists in their orbit working with Dirty Projectors, Born Ruffians, Black Dice, and many more. Soon after he formed the group The Present with Jesse Lee and Mina Ohashi. Prior to living in New York, Rusty sang and played guitar in West Coast art-punk bands from his hometown of Fresno, California, and later became enamored with the possibilities of electronic music once attending his first rave. His fascination with new sounds has led him to experiment across many genres. He co-wrote Dino d’Santiago’s Afro-pop hit Nos Funana, engineered and mastered DJ Rashad’s groundbreaking dance album Welcome to the Chi, and mixed modernist classics like Dawn of Midi’s Dysnomia and Owen Pallet’s Heartland

02/13/2025

My mix airs today 6 - 7pm pst on www.hydefm.com. It’s an hour of psychepop through a cosmic filter. HydeFM is a community-based multi-genre online radio station broadcasting out of San Francisco, CA.

01/10/2025

This came out this week and I want to thank the people who helped me make it. LA I love you.

When writing this song I was seeking positive vibes to counter all the negativity out there. This tune is about focusing on the good things and not the bad.

- Synth Bass, Tom Drums, Claps
- Electric Guitarnoah - Electric Guitar

Vocals, Programmed Drums, Xylophone, Synth, Produced and Mixed by Rusty Santos
Mastered by

Cover photo by
Layout by

I made the cut art logo. If you want a sticker of this logo just DM me your shipping info and I’ll send it.

11/27/2024

Electric new profile shot by

10/16/2024

[ your latest mistake / join the club ] Two songs go out into this world.

your latest mistake (Side A) I started writing this one day before the past became the present. Then it disappeared into the future. Just like the words predicted, I was writing about something that could happen. Then it really did. Music played on my Korg Wavestate.

join the club (Side B) This is a nocturnal lament about finding beauty at the seams of society. Played with a full band with , , .key on drums, bass, and synth.

Produced, mixed, and cover art by myself. Thank you everyone who’s tuning in. It means the world to me.

06/24/2024

I uploaded a new song to Spotify today. This is the artwork: a picture taken of me as a child. The song is an ode to the scene I came up in. The main lyric recalls a musician I admired as a teenager who had a band named after a character in the movie Chinatown. The band was called Ida Sessions.

I see Ida Sessions as that character who is in every plot and only seems to play a bit part but without them the rest of the story would not have happened.

That’s why it’s the title of my new song. I saw myself like that as a kid, interloping into the music scene impersonating someone who had the right to be there but I was in the right place. We made a lot of noise that will echo into the future.

On this song:
Rusty Santos - vocals, bass, lead guitar, synths, electronic drums
- Rhythm Guitar
Written by Rusty Santos & Jesse Lee
Produced, Mixed, & Mastered by Rusty Santos

06/23/2024

Favorite photos from roadtrip

06/14/2024

35mm photos taken by .noah

05/31/2024

I had so much fun working on this! ‘Besos y Café’ on produced by me and

05/30/2024

Made it to the coast .noah

05/10/2024

A good thing about Facebook is you can still upload full length music videos here. Short form video has become relentless. This content is long form. The ideas in this are long form. I’d say it’s “life” form. If you think it’s cringe to be yourself then you’re false. If you think an app can make you famous then you missed the point. But I doubt anyone who’s reading this thinks that way given how niche my reach is here. Maybe we’re friends in real life or you know of my music in some other capacity. Thank you for listening. Thank you for checking out this video. We’re all doing our best to understand the meaning of our connection to each other. Inward into yourself. To The Unknown

05/08/2024

MICROWORLDS all vinyl set on tonight 8p - 10p analog will never die

04/29/2024

photo dump

04/24/2024

New solo jam Activated Life out today!

Vocals, synths - Rusty Santos
Drums, bass -
Guitar -
Piano - .noah

Self-produced, mixed, and mastered

04/10/2024

MICROWORLDS 7 The Avant Garde Episode

Last week I made my first solo album ‘The Heavens’ available to stream for the first time. To commemorate this I focus on the Avant Garde and weirdness in music, I play a couple songs from ‘The Heavens’ but also new works by artists such as Olivia O, Claire Rousay, sign crushes motorist, and classic works by stars of art and music like Björk and Aphex Twin. I also discuss the “concept of concepts” in music.

Tune in on 8pm - 10pm PST

04/06/2024

My first official solo album is available to stream for the first time ever. Thank you to those who let me know this music means something to them. I made this when I was in my early 20s, some of the material I even wrote when I was a teenager. It says a lot about who I am and it also says a little about who I was in the music scene. I would really appreciate if you give it a spin so the algorithm doesn’t gatekeep this sonic prayer from 2004. The Heavens

04/04/2024

The musicians/producers get into the relationship between philosophy and music, subconsciousness and improvisation, and more.

Address

Los Angeles, CA

Website

https://www.rustysantos.com/

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Videos

Hope you are having a good day 🎸🎹

Making a song on guitar then mixing and mastering it diy

antiseptic solar beauty #experimentalmusic #ambient

Sun set to synths #ambient #scenery

Performing my latest release in a forest of giant mushrooms #psychedelicpop #livemusic #indierock

This song that plays inside my head sometimes Master Zodiac

What makes you smile? Smile Song is out now :)

Smile Song with @kittinger.noah drops at midnight EST 🎭 video by @brett5d_ Full album New Wave In California out July 14

Mirror acoustic 🪞

Mirror is one week in. Grateful for @pandabearofficial appearing on this. Thank you @spotify @tidal @amazonmusic for the playlists @kcrwmusic & @siriusxmu for the airplay

Mirror (Feat. @pandabearofficial) is out on Thursday! From my album ‘New Wave In California’ coming July 14. Video by @brett5d_