Live Review: Porter Robinson returns with new single, 'Get Your Wish'

Porter Robinson has announced a return under his own name in 2020 with a brand new single and a new album on the way. After exploding as a kind of wunderkind back when EDM was at its peak, then shifting lanes into an electronic fantasy world with his debut album Worlds, Robinson has garnered a wide and loyal following over the years. Even after his hiatus due to his mental illness, and his return under the moniker Virtual Self, the impact of Porter Robinson's work throughout his back catalogue is still felt today. Now, in 2020, he's back under his own name and is picking right back where he left off.

Titled 'Get Your Wish', this new single is the first off his forthcoming record, Nuture, and is a twinkling, exploding, expansive cut of electronic fantasy we've come to love from Robinson. Tinged in melancholy, the song is all about "finding a reason to keep going, even if it's not for your own sake," according to the YouTube description. On first listen, you might be wondering who he tapped for the vocals, but after taking to Twitter to communicate with fans about the song, he confirmed it's actually him as he sings through effects that "artificially make my voice much much higher. At first, I did it because it made it easier to talk about painful subjects directly, and then slowly I grew really attached to the sound of that voice."

To accompany the release, Robinson also shared some more information on his socials, explaining the struggles he has been through over the last few years. Detailing how it felt impossible for him to create music over throughout the years 2015-2017, and how dark things had become for him, Robinson revealed that despite this struggle, he had a "life-definingly strong urge to keep doing creative work," and that eventually he came to realise what the point was all along.

"You know how every once in a while, when you're driving or something, the music you're listening to just moves you in this amazing, transcendent way? Its this sublime experience that can't really be described but for me its like this: I feel like the world is beautiful and filled with possibility, and that I want to cherish every second that I have to be alive."

He goes onto explain a breakthrough he had about this very feeling, and the moment he realised he shouldn't be making music with the "expectation that productivity or achievement will fix my problems, but instead with the hope that my honest expression will move people the way music moves me...'Get Your Wish' is about that breakthrough, which was one of the many that helped me through those years. Making music started to make me happy again."

It's so rare for artists to be so frank and candid with their personal circumstances, especially one that was truly at the forefront of a movement just a few years ago. With 'Get Your Wish', Robinson steps back into the anime fantasy world he once created, full of colour and swirling with life. We're so glad you're back, Porter.

about 'get your wish' pic.twitter.com/LKq2RXiayS

— porter robinson (@porterrobinson) January 29, 2020

Words by Emma Jones

Image: Rukes via DJ Times