Exclusive Interview with P.E.PETROV

“Ch 4 The Roadwork” is P.E.Petrov’s debut EP, published on 11/16/2022. It continues one of the tales of Sadboi, the character on the cover image, which began in the first song “Dbl Yllw Lines.” This is the first of a series of EPs that will be published prior to the full-length album about Sadboi. The EP is pop, with rock and trap/hip hop instrumentation as background influences. This EP was influenced by Lauv, Ariana Grande, Tate Mcrae, Olivia Rodrigo, and Conan Gray, among others.
It begins with “Dbl Yllw Lines,” in which Sadboi discusses not allowing others to transgress his own limits. The answer of the people that Sadboi is refusing to admit is “Bridges.” Lastly, “Roadkill” is the ballad in which Sadboi puts these individuals in their place and reveals how toxic they truly are. Check out the EP and the Exclusive Interview with P.E.PETROV below:

1. Can you tell us a bit about where you come from and how it all got started?

P.E.PETROV: I am based in Southern New Jersey, born and raised. I have loved music and singing ever since I was 5 years old. In my kindergarten show and tell, I actually tried to sing a song from one of those straight to VHS movies, but I got scared and couldn’t finish the song. My sister was the first person to introduce me to music and singing and instruments. She passed away when I was 16 so from that point on music was my way of grieving in a sense.

2. Did you have any formal training or are you self-taught?

P.E.PETROV: I am mostly self taught. In 6th grade, I tried learning drums because my sister wanted to start a band, but I learned later that it just wasn’t my thing. However, it did help me to understand rhythm and timing. Then in 7th grade, I joined the choir in my school once I discovered that I love to sing. I learned a lot of the basics and how to listening for the right part in choir. Eventually, that choir teacher left when I was in high school, so from then on I have just been listening and practicing at home.

3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences and why the name ‘P.E.PETROV’?

P.E.PETROV: My sister is my biggest influence. She listened to a lot of Pop Punk artists, like Avril Lavigne, Blink 182, and Good Charlotte. Those artists have definitely influenced me. However, when my sister passed away, I started listening to more soulful, emotional popsters like Christina Aguilera & Lady Gaga and R&B influenced artists like Rihanna & Beyonce. It felt like these artists had music that I could actually relate to with my emotions because they understood what is was like to lose someone. Rihanna released Rated R right after the incident with Chris Brown. This was a little bit of time after I lost my sister and that album is still my all time favorite. She had songs of loss, grief, anger, frustration, and even the danceable songs where she was trying to hide or escape pain.

The name P.E.Petrov came from the initials of my first and middle name along with my last name. I learned from an actress being interviewed on the talk show The Real that she did this with her name to help add mystery to when she would get jobs because no one could tell if she was male or female from just the resume. I wanted that mystery of who is this person and where are they from as well.

4. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?

P.E.PETROV: The most important elements to a song for me is the emotion and lyrics. If I can’t feel your pain or your joy, then its not usually that good. This EP is specifically more towards pain, which technically I would call Sad Pop. Its written with a pop songwriter mindset in regards to like structure and repetitiveness. However, the instruments and sounds in Ch 4 The Roadwork are supposed to be more of like a Lauv, Conan Gray, Olivia Rodrigo vibe. There’s trap drum moments through out all the songs to make it modern, but each song has its own unique background sound that evokes a sadness and solemness for the listener to understand what I am saying in the lyrics. Dbl Yllw Lines has an organ and a reverse firecracker sound. Bridges has this guitar and piano that makes it sound like a rainy day in some parts. Roadkill has a clock and strings that make you feel like its a sad scene in a movie.

5. For most artists, originality is first preceded by a phase of learning and, often, emulating others. What was this like for you? How would you describe your own development as an artist and music maker, and the transition towards your own style, which is known as POP?

P.E.PETROV:

I feel like I spent most of my time when I was younger emulating other artists and singers after my sister died in order to process how I felt through them. I knew which genre and artist to go to in order to convey an emotion that I was feeling. It wasn’t until the COVID shutdown that I had time to just learn about myself and how I actually feel about things and how to communicate that in my life. This is what lead me to do more songwriting and start this EP. I started going to therapy after the quarantine part of COVID was over. At the same time, I injured my hip and was forced to be on crutches and out of work for almost 4 months. During that time, I was already working with a friend to produce songs for other people, but I decided that I was going to start writing my songs. My friend was super helpful and supportive so we started the songs for Ch 4 The Roadwork. So the combo of forced time off of work, time working on my mental health, and the honesty of what I want and how I feel is what lead me towards this music.

6. Do you think is it important for fans of your music to understand the real story and message driving each of your songs, or do you think everyone should be free to interpret your songs in their own personal way?

P.E.PETROV:

I want my listeners to know exactly what is going on in each song because the types of relationships I am talking about and what I went through in each one has helped me to be better. I want people to resonate with the scenarios of each song because they can happen to anyone or is happening to someone else right now. I want to help the ones in these scenarios and warn those who are not there yet. Dbl Yllw Lines is there for those who have let people in too much before. Bridges is there for those who shut people out. While Roadkill is for those who feel hurt and stuck in a toxic relationship. I want the listeners to hear what I have been through and feel like they are not alone.

7. Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?

P.E.PETROV:

I believe I am getting fulfillment from my music because these songs were very cathartic for me. I was able to process the relationships I was in and everything I learned about them in therapy, so that I could move forward and be a better me. My hope for the future is that other people are helped and comforted through my music and are able to process their relationships and emotions so that they can be a better person. What would be the ultimate fulfillment for me is that people’s lives are changed by my music.

8. Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?

P.E.PETROV:

I usually start with a lyric and melody of a song that I record in a voice memo. If I can remember the melody without the voice memo at least a day later, I usually stick with it because that’s how you know others will get it stuck in their heads too. I typically have the general concept of what a song is going to be about beforehand. Then, I usually schedule time with a producer friend where we add the instrumentals and figure the complete vocal melodies of a song. I’ll go home with a track and think about the lyrics and probably re-do them about 2 or 3 times. I am such a perfectionist when it comes to lyrics because with this EP and other ones to come, they are more conceptual so its always this juggle of how poetic and clever the lyrics can be all while still actually delivering what its supposed to be about. Then once I have the lyrics set. I go back in the studio to record main vocals and harmonies with the lyrics. The main studio I used for recording vocals is TRIBL studios that my friend Tyler owns. This method was how Bridges and Roadkill came along. Dbl Yllw Lines was actually the opposite. One of my producer friends Zach, who is also the main producer on all the songs, sent me an instrumental of just the beginning on a loop and I came up with the melodies on the way home from a therapy session.

9. What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?

P.E.PETROV: My sister’s death is the hardest thing I ever faced. She was literally my best friend forever. She understood me and loved me. One her goals was to be on stage with me in a band. However, she was a drug addict and a lot of the time the drugs were her priority or getting sober was her priority. She died from her 3rd overdose in 2010. The months and years leading up to then were brutal. She was in and out of rehabs while I’m in school trying to learn about how to be an adult and what I want to do in life and then everything just comes to a halt when she died. For the next 7 years, I had no real drive for music. I was just numb. I thought maybe I wanted to go into fashion. I was just going through the motions of just basic living, but not having any real goals or desires. In 2016-17, my grandmother passed away too, which kind of woke me up from my numbness in order to start singing again. I tried out for my church’s worship team and that is where I met all my producer and musician friends that have helped me along the way to write and make music.

10. On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?

P.E.PETROV: My most significant point in my life was actually my first weekend singing on the worship team at my church, Fresh Start Church. I had been going for weeks & months to see what happens behind the scenes and learn what goes down. Then one weekend, I got the courage to tell the leader that I was ready to go out there, minutes before the service. I didn’t lead any songs, but I was out there with a microphone. I will never forget though, during that service that as I was singing and praising I saw a quick glimpse of what I though was my sister in the aisle lifting her hands and applauding me. I looked again and no one was in the aisle, but I like to think that she actually got to see me doing the one thing that we never got to do together. That moment is when I knew that music was important to me and that this is what I had to keep doing.