Salvador Navarrete is the Glasgow-raised pop disruptor better known as Sega Bodega. As Sega, he’s spent the past decade-plus making waves via exquisite solo releases, such as 2021’s Romeo, and studio work for the likes of Shygirl, Caroline Polachek, Oklou, Eartheater and Zebra Katz. With his third album Dennis, he’s distilling his heart-on-sleeve songwriting impulses and knack for mind-warping electronic production into a single, potent concoction. The result? A surreal dreamscape where the familiar collides with the uncanny to enthralling effect. Here, Navarrete dials in from Paris, where he now resides, for a mid-fashion-week chat.
What does a typical day in Paris look like for you?
I stay at home and work on music.
I read that your first two records – Salvador and Romeo – are “you” and “kind of you”. With this in mind, who is Dennis and where does it fit into the Sega soundworld?
Dennis is like that thing when you’re in a dream and everybody is who they say they are, but also they look completely different. That feeling of being you, but not you.
Ideas of sleeplessness, out-of-body experiences and euphoria permeate the album. What made you decide to fish from this thematic pool?
I talk so much about biblical things – heaven and hell, and sin and stuff – and I always liked the fact that ‘Dennis’ backwards is ‘sinned’, which kind of ties into what I talk about.
Is it correct that a lot of Dennis came to life via live streams on Twitch?
Yeah, there are like five [tracks] that ended up being like that. I found myself having to make more things that were quite upbeat and fun because I felt like I had to be entertaining at the same time.
Did you have a number one fan on the platform?
There were definitely regulars. Every single stream they would be there, no matter what time of day I went on. Some of them were in America, so they were up at like 6am.
The last couple of years have seen some amazing Sega collabs, like ‘Sunset’ with Caroline Polachek, and ‘Arena!’ with Safety Trance. What do you most enjoy about working with people who have distinctive visions?
They’re all such smart artists; they know what they want and they know what they’re doing. And I feel like I know what I want, and I know what I’m doing. So we put that together. I mean, me and Eartheater have made so much music. She came to Paris for a week and every day was just something new. There’s no fucking around.
Do you keep that same pace when you’re working solo?
I do, but I second-guess myself a lot more. I love having someone else to bounce ideas off.
Let’s talk fish. More specifically, salmon. How did ‘Oral’, with Björk and Rosalía, come about?
Björk texted me, all excited because she’d found this song which she’d lost for like 25 years. She was like, “Do you want to try something on the production?” I was like… yeah. So I just tried some drums and fucked around with some vocal effects. She liked it, so she used it. It was fucking crazy.
Did you learn anything from her during that process?
I know how she likes to do her vocals a bit more now. But I want to make more stuff; I want to get into that properly and actually do sessions with her in real life. Everything we’ve done has been over the phone.
Is there really a Shrek sample on ‘Arena!’? I saw your tweet.
No, I like to lie [about] stuff to get the people to stream the song again.
That’s one way of doing it. What’s the last lie you told?
When I put out my single ‘Deer Teeth’, I said that I changed the song [from an earlier version] – I hadn’t. It backfired because people started hitting me up like, “I preferred it before.”
The title of your new song ‘Adulter8’ made me think of Altern-8, the 1990s UK rave duo.
Exactly. That was a reference. The song is kind of about this stupid idea in my head of making… did you ever see Sausage Party?
Erm, yes.
I just liked this idea that fruit and food is alive – and [what if it was] a sexy juicing song about making juice in a smoothie machine? That was kind of how it started. The way I wrote the song was I opened up a thesaurus to look at the different words for dilute; the lyrics are: “Dilute, adulterate, diminish, seduce.” And then these words just popped up, and I was like, “Oh, they’re the lyrics.”
I love the melody. It sounds like something from a fantastical video game.
I made that song on Twitch. When the album drops, I’m going to post that session because I was watching it again like, “Wow, it came quite quickly.” Throughout the hour-and-a-half session, I ended up making three different beats within the same thing – and that one ended up being the last one. But it was just me jamming and fucking around with every possible variation of what that melody could be like. It’s how it always happens. I always start with one idea, that idea becomes something else, and then that idea becomes something else until I’m like, “OK, this is strong.”
Did you do that across the record, just following your ideas until you got to a result that felt right?
Yeah. There’s a song called ‘True’ and I made like 20 different versions; in the end, I ended up incorporating five of those completely different ideas. It was so hard to make that song. I have to hear all the ways a song can be before I’m like, “OK, this is the song” – which takes so much fucking time.
What’s your favourite lyric you’ve ever written?
I was so happy with the lyrics on ‘Tears & Sighs’. There’s a line that’s like, “What happens in the dark when all the birds stop speaking / [...] A light for the blind is equally as self-seeking” – I felt proud of that one. Later in the song, it goes, “Seven days from mourning / And another six to yearn / Burn a candle for the friends / who suffer most and never learn,” which hit home for me. Because it’s just like, get your shit together.
Happy belated birthday by the way, from one Aquarius-Pisces cusper to another.
Thank you. When was yours?
19 February.
Oh wow, we’re really close.
What are your hopes for your next trip around the sun?
I want to tour and I want to enjoy it.
Has this not always been the case?
I struggle with it, honestly. I need to get over some blocks I have with that. But I’m going to. I know I’m going to.
CREDITS:
Photographer’s Assistant: Etienne Oliveau
