Ricky Eat Acid

Ricky Eat Acid serves as the solo electronic outlet for Sam Ray, a Baltimore resident who also fronts the indie pop outfit Julia Brown and the lo-fi emo unit Teen Suicide. Although those groups have occasionally woven electronic and experimental touches into their material, this project represents Ray’s complete dive into ethereal, abstract sonic worlds. As his most productive endeavor by far, it has generated a steady stream of digital files and cassette editions while standing as a central act on the Orchid Tapes label and collective alongside Foxes in Fiction and Elvis Depressedly. The project’s spectral, atmospheric pieces range from brief ambient sketches and fractured rhythms to delicate avant-pop constructions.

Ray spent several years composing material before launching Ricky Eat Acid in 2011 via the cassette Seeing Little Ghosts Everywhere together with assorted digital offerings. His affiliation with Orchid Tapes began in 2012 through the cassette You Get Sick; You Regret Things. Two years afterward came the vinyl LP Three Love Songs plus a separate cassette compiling B-sides and unused tracks from those sessions. The album received widespread critical praise and broadened Ray’s dedicated audience. In 2016, after Ray married rapper Kitty, Ricky Eat Acid joined the roster of Terrible Records and issued the album Talk to You Soon.