In his brand new single “Malibu,” Virginia To Vegas pines for a “perfect” girl with “scuffed up Chucks” and “sky blue eyes” with whom he shared memorable moments in a BMW.
“Malibu” follows the release of “betterman” – in which he sings about leaving Los Angeles – and “Palm Springs (The Way You Make Me Feel).”
In a Zoom chat with iHeartRadio.ca from his Toronto home, Virginia To Vegas (aka 31-year-old Derik Baker) laughs when asked if he’s simply working his way through the cities of southern California.
“I’ve had so many concerns! I wondered if people are going to be so sick of me talking about California,” he admits. “But, you know, I had such a wild experience there. I had a relationship that didn’t work out and I had to grow a lot in that process and I had a traumatic experience where I was robbed and I had to find my way back to Canada without ID… and it was so insane.
“It was such a short period of time for me but so much happened so quickly … and I wanted to tell those stories. I feel like we’re just finishing telling those stories now with ‘Malibu.’”
Wait, Baker got robbed? “It was a pretty traumatic experience." And one he seems uncomfortable reliving. “I was on my way home," he starts, then stops himself. "I don’t really want to jump in too much on the details.”
The robbery was part of what Baker describes as a low point in his life. “I had just had a break-up that was really bad, this had happened, and I felt so isolated in Los Angeles,” he shares. “Really what that was, it was just such a big turning point to want to be closer to community. I just wasn’t living properly. I was drinking too much. I was careless. I was making decisions that were careless.”
In “betterman” he sings: “L.A. in the rear view / My heart is barely what it used to be … Back to Toronto / I’m hopin' I can find what's left of me / That city got the best of me.”
“Malibu” is decidedly more upbeat. The track is a collaboration with Swedish production duo NOTD (aka Tobias Danielsson and Samuel Brandt).
“I thought ‘Malibu’ was more of a chill song," says Baker. "Before NOTD had jumped on, it was more of kind of like a mid-tempo Tame Impala kind of vibe.
"We just sent it to them pretty organically and we heard back quickly and they sent us a version quickly. It’s been about 12 months that we’ve been sending versions back and forth."
Baker has no regrets about sharing the song with NOTD. “I thought that all of the creative decisions they made were classy decisions. I thought they were good decisions production wise, sonically,” he says. “What they do in the electronic music sphere is pretty classy anyway. They are great, really talented producers. We didn’t really have any conflicts. It was pretty seamless.”
Baker says he has been a fan of NOTD’s work since their single “I Wanna Know” ft. Bea Miller in 2018. Around the same time, DVBBS and Blackbear released “IDWK” [I Don’t Wanna Know], which Baker co-wrote.
“I remember hearing theirs and being like, ‘Oh they did it better than us," he says. "I love that concept. I think they nailed it.”
(In a release, NOTD returns the love. “We've been fans of his stuff for a while.")
Like most Virginia To Vegas songs, “Malibu” balances an infectious melody with a personal story. Why does Baker turn his own experiences into pure, unapologetic pop?
“When you tell a story that’s so personal and so pinpointed, for some reason that becomes more broad,” he explains. “But when you try to overgeneralize, someone can’t put themselves in those shoes.”
He likens it to his passion for reading science fiction. “Obviously, I’ve never been to space. I’d love to, that would be really cool. But when I read the book I’m always there and you try to identity."
With his songs, he says, “I just try to describe these moments as detailed as possible.”
In his hit “betterman,” Baker boasts: “I got pretty lucky, made a whole bunch of money.” It’s a lyric he admits he second-guessed.
“That one actually tore me up because I really didn’t want it to come across as braggadocios or something like that,” he says, adding that it is meant more as an expression of the feeling of having accomplished something.
“I worked every job under the sun before I was able to quit my jobs and make music,” says Baker. “I remember on a Friday night leaving a factory job with my best friend and him and I going for a 20-for-20 deal – $20 for a pitcher of beer and 20 wings – and we just finished a week at the factory and I felt like I just made a whole bunch of money.”
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For anyone unfamiliar with the backstory, Baker created Virginia To Vegas while in college and struggling to get noticed in the Canadian music industry. The name is a combination of his birthplace (Richmond, Virginia) and the name of his musical partner at the time (“a guy whose name was Vegas”).
His big breakthrough was 2016's "Lights Out," which sampled Rockwell's 1984 hit "Somebody's Watching Me."
Baker has spent some of the lockdown fixing up the 1840s house he recently bought in Toronto and staying creative.
“I’m really lucky in the sense that I’ve got a great group of friends that I make music with. To me, it’s always kind of felt like a band because I’ve got the same guys that I produce the records with and the same guys that I write the records with and it’s just a small team of my friends,” he explained. “So, the fact that the pandemic hit and we weren’t able to play shows or tour or travel or anything… for me the biggest difference was I just had more time to work on the creative stuff.
“As much as I do love playing shows, I really love being in the studio and creating songs. I feel like I’ve been able to stay motivated.”
Does he think he will be back performing live anytime soon?
“I can’t even imagine being on stage,” admits Baker. “I’m so far removed from it. I wonder if it’s going to be like learning a new skill again or like riding a bike and that part of my personality will just come back.”
Watch 5 Questions With... Virginia To Vegas below: