…is a Chicago-based music composer and artist. They are formally trained in classical arrangements and operatic singing, and, much like the team at Shoplifters, hellbent on world domination. They drop into a video call with us on a Monday night to discuss their latest work, upbringing, and artistic perspective.

This is Rivera’s first interview.

The three of us joke that every question will be answered with “gun to your head” sincerity. Rivera opens their interview with a simple but definitive statement:

If someone had a gun to my head, it would be the obvious power move. I take up my own gun, and I shoot myself before they can shoot me.

GRADY: Mad respect, because what else are you gonna do? Well, I could survive, but I think objectively, it'd be funnier if I didn't.

MAX: I'm not letting anybody kill me, because then I die with agency and dignity. And I think a lot of people that hold you at gunpoint…they don't want to actually shoot you. So I'm gonna traumatize them. I'm gonna change the course of their life. And then they'll never shoot anyone ever again!

MAX: I feel like that could be like the cover quote. “People who put guns to your head don't actually want to kill you.” And who knows? If I angle myself correctly, I could kill both of us.

MAX: That's 100% how we're opening this. Frida Rivera on guns. I think they're cool and fun. We got a recording. Hey, Max, have you ever shot a gun before? You don't seem like you have.

MAX: I have. I shot it at someone. The situation was dire. Kidding. But, yes, I shot a gun during Scouts. Really? It was not a very powerful gun, but we did shoot. Frida, did you ever do anything like Scouts? Rivera hesitates. No.

MAX: But you have shot a gun? I have. My life was just kind of like that.

Rivera is from rural Montana. They grew up on a Christmas tree farm that was isolated by dense woodlands and rocky mountains. The nearest town is a long, scenic car ride away. For this, among other reasons, survival skills became a core part of their education.

We were taught how to identify different animals' footprints and how to identify the animal by their scat and stuff like that.

Rivera described that at least once a year, people from nearby Native American reservations -- which make up roughly 10% of Montana's land and peoples, a far higher number than the vast majority of mainland states -- would visit their school to teach. Rivera's experience with Montana’s pastoralism and rusticity has always been a major component of their art, even so distant from it in Chicago.

I joined choir in middle school and, from the jump, I thought “I could do this.” So it was child-me being pretentious…being like “this doesn't seem that hard.”

MAX: Would you say that there was a specific moment where that happened, or was it a faint feeling in the back of your mind? After I started taking fiddle lessons when I was thirteen or fourteen. I started learning how to read music, and that got me more interested in it. 

By eighteen, Rivera was enrolled in what they initially referred to as a local music conservatory. Local. It was an hour away!

[After fiddle] I started taking voice lessons, and then I started taking classical violin lessons, too. So both of those really taught me how to read sheet music and the functions behind it. There's formulas. I wanted to learn what the formulas are, because once you learn all the rules, then you know how to break them…For example, you're not supposed to do any parallel fifths. Parallel fifths are bad. I love parallel fifths. Especially when you don't have the third, because then they sound hollow, and I love that. It's illegal, but I love it.

MAX: It sounds like you're acutely aware of that when you're doing it. Is it a sound you prefer, or are you thinking about making a bit of a statement? It's both. I love how it sounds, and in every single music theory class we were reminded that you can't do that. It's kind of out of spite.

GRADY: So when you start off in choir and play the fiddle, then enter more classical training, how did you handle the transition into what you're doing now? I was always interested in rearranging choir pieces and making my own choral arrangements. I never actually got an opportunity to [see them played] because I didn't have the resources. [In Chicago], I have all these people around me that know how to do it, and I'm here to be a sponge.

On other influences, Rivera names English musician Keaton Henson. They describe the imagery of Henson's classical album, Six Lethargies (2019), as ‘a very physical thing’. Strong, evocative imagery is central to Rivera's own work, which boasts vivid titles such as “dead birds, seven shadows,” and the more gentle “butterfly pea flower.” Naturally, the sonic atmosphere created by Rivera is equally vivid.

With “dead birds, seven shadows” I wanted something really sharp, messy, and visceral. For that one, I had more of an idea of what I wanted. 

The original instrumentation for [butterfly pea flower] was a piano, flute, clarinet, and cello, but my opportunity to record it came with a sax quartet. It's a very similar timbre, at least with the flute and clarinet. So, I was able to still get the sound that I wanted. I just had to rework some parts.

For their cover art, Rivera chose the European paintings “Gamepiece with a Dead Heron” (Weenix, 1695) and “Evening: Landscape with an Aqueduct” (Géricault, 1818). Pictured here, left to right.

Among Rivera’s favorite movies are Loving Vincent (2017), La La Land (2016), Frances Ha (2013), Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), and Corpse Bride (2005).

For the gallery component of their SHOPLIFTED interview, Rivera was kind enough to curate a diverse eight-song playlist that is available on Spotify right now.