Young artist Victor Internet has a new album ‘BLUE 2000′ — and is still in Chicago and working it out

CHICAGO — Victor Cervantes, who performs as Victor Internet, had everything sorted out in the months before March 2020. Years before, Cervantes (who uses they/them pronouns) found indie success with the release of their debut, "Victor’s Debut," at only 17 years old. They were even profiled as a wunderkind in the pages of this paper. But a lot can change in a few years, or even just a few months.

As an adult, Cervantes was eager to embark on a new musical journey across the country in Los Angeles. The cross-country move is not an unfamiliar one for young artists looking to gain more success and opportunities that can’t be found in the Second City.

“I think I was looking for some peace and quiet after living in Chicago for so long,” Cervantes said.

But no one (at least not a young artist) could have predicted the unprecedented cultural and social changes of the COVID-19 pandemic. For Cervantes, this prompted them to move back to Chicago, which they did late this summer, but not before eventually finding time to return to the one thing they’ve always loved: making music. The results of this work is “BLUE 2000,” Victor Internet’s sophomore project, out now.

Many of Cervantes’s plans — including working with a variety of producers — fell through during those early days of the pandemic. Stuck at home during rolling quarantine orders, Cervantes, like many artists, found it difficult to “get creative.”

“At the beginning of the pandemic, I was shying away from calling my friends,” Cervantes recalled. “I kind of distanced myself from everyone, just kind of going through a really bad depressive episode.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has, among many things, solidified the fragility of life and the swiftness of death. Life can radically transform in an instant; what we once knew can never be the same. Much of that weighed on Cervantes’s mind.

“I’m like, ‘What if this last time we talked?’ What if one of them gets sick? So yeah, there was also this really big fear of just, ‘what if this is our last goodbye?’” added Cervantes. “That made me kind of keep my distance and I just wanted to hide. I was really scared.”

Growing up in Chicago with a single mother and multiple siblings, Cervantes was comfortable caring for others. They solidified their independence at an early age. But that self-reliant attitude can only go so far, especially during a time like the present.

Among the many things Cervantes learned during the pandemic (including how to make pasta), reaching out to others became a focal point.

“I learned the importance of caring for yourself and taking care of your mental health and your physical health,” said Cervantes. And talking to loved ones was a perfect remedy to not only heal emotionally, but reconnect to their creativity.

“I (couldn’t) keep doing this so I started calling all my friends, my band, and it was so good to just talk to them again and see their faces. That’s what helped me start working again because I saw them actively working on themselves and I’m like, ‘Why should I stop working on myself? Let me continue to do the work even if I have to stay home,’” Cervantes said.

It was other people’s stories that served as the inspiration for Cervantes’s new work. It is a practice they adopted from an early age. If other artists rely on pulling from their personal lives, Cervantes likes to piece together their friends’ experiences. These memories become what Cervantes described as “living songs,” new artifacts inspired by the specificities of their community.

“I love to tell stories, even if they’re not really about me,” explained Cervantes. “I’m like, ‘What would I do if I was in a situation like (that)? What are some things that I’d be saying to myself, or some things that I would want to say to the other party involved?’ So I put myself in their shoes and I really like to just navigate what they would feel like in that moment.”

Despite the earlier delay of the pandemic, Cervantes did eventually get to work with new producers. Used to writing and creating alone, working with new producers allowed them to experiment in structure and sound. Many of their new songs maintain the “raw and unstructured” sound that made Victor Internet instantly popular. Vocals are layered and Cervantes still enjoys playing around with the pitch. But while their old tracks were largely produced on the computer, some of the new songs on “BLUE 2000″ were made more “traditionally,” using analog synths and techniques.

The result is a seven-song collection that creatively pushed Cervantes in all the ways they had anticipated before the world turned upside down. “I still have some of that indie pop sound. I have a little more experimental punk sound sometimes and [on] my latest single, “Forever,” I have like a Prince/Stevie Wonder influence, which is really fun,” they said. “I think I want to keep doing that ... just kind of exploring all these different production styles and just seeing what works best.”

The route to this moment may have been uncomfortable, but it also led Cervantes to some of their dreamiest, most satisfying music yet. “Whatever I make, it’s still gonna have that Victor touch,” they added. “No matter what I make, it’s still going to have that flavor.”

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