Seppa & Frequent Talk St. Pete Co-Headliner Presented by neuro.studio 

Written by: Sterfrii

Photos by: Mark Walsh

For starters, I want to say that I’m extremely humbled and honored to be writing my first article for The Synapse. The artists, ideals and collaborative spirit involved at neuro.studio have reignited and magnified my creative spark!

This peaked last month when the neuro.studio crew took over St. Pete for a weekend of forward-thinking art experiences and proper shenanigans. The main event was on July 5th when neuro.studio presented a night of high-octane audio/visual goodness. The night showed off an incredibly strong, innovative lineup – especially considering that it was only the company’s second time curating an event of this nature. Seppa and Frequent co-headlined the night at The Floridian along with an all-star cast of support from Audio Goblin, Mindwipe, Gill_yum, Phunk Bias & Nico The Alchemist.

Artwork by: Type_N

“That one was awesome. I've never played a venue like that, but I think that's the type of venues I would like to continue to play, other than festivals. It was just cool to have like the green rooms and marquee and everything set up, and it was just such a good team,” an eager Phunk Bias told me. Phunk Bias is the brainchild of Danny Suerth, who laughed while pointing out that The Floridian also “reminded [him] of a zombies map from Call of Duty.” 

When discussing the show itself, we got a little more serious. “It's a dream come true,” Suerth said of sharing the bill with Seppa, Frequent and others. He credits Seppa & Wonk#ay Records for being some of the first ones to put him on as a young artist. Aside from landing a track on neuro.studio’s first audio compilation, the Phunk Bias project has another thing going for it – a heavy focus and meticulous calibrations of the overall visual packaging, which is a charge led by industry powerhouse JonnaP. 

“I came up with the name, but Jonna birthed the brand and gave it imagery. I didn't really have a vision of what that could be or what a logo could be because all my ideas were dumb,” he said as he reminisced on the project. “He birthed the logos and the visuals. It's just been really great to work with him throughout the years, especially with us being as close as we are.” The two were slotted for their first highly-anticipated A/V set at Balance Music Festival this past weekend.

Taking it back to the St. Pete show, though, Nico The Alchemist got the night started off right. This was followed by Brett Williams aka Source Visuals providing an elaborate visual performance alongside Phunk Bias, with a few of those stylings provided from JonnaP.

As for the next three performances, it was a triple stack of talent with partners of neuro.studio: from the hypnotic trip-hop sounds of Gill_yum, to the insane sound design and energies of Mindwipe and the ever-impressive Audio Goblin. People continued to pour and pack in through these sets as the headliners Frequent and Seppa took the stage, ending with a bonkers, unforgettable b2b for the ages – one of those “you just had to be there” moments. Of course, each set having their own VJ or VJ’s slinging pixels helped each set feel more highly-curated than what might be considered “normal.”

“It was nice to be a part of something that was like a real team effort,” Sandy Finlayson aka Seppa recalled about the weekend in St Pete. “You know, everybody has their very clear kind of roles and what they're trying to do, but it's also like pushing towards, you know, a specific goal. Most of what I was involved in, until I started playing in the States a bit more was really kind of DIY stuff — kind of underground music — a group of people to all kind of pull their weight in their own way with the skills that they have.”

This was very much similar to neuro.studio’s approach to the entire weekend when you dissect the lineup of powerhouse audio and visual artists that were enlisted for the show. 

The VJ lineup for this show was stacked as if it were a musical festival, in true neuro.studio fashion. The visionaries included on that side of the lineup were: Glass Crane, Diethylamide, Type_n, Choreograft & Source Visuals. A few more icons, Arkitekt & The Nautilus Project, spiced things up by getting added to the bill closer to the show.

All of whom either catered specific set(s), or went b2b with other VJ’s on the lineup for collaborative visual efforts on the fly. It was an “all hands on deck” approach in St. Pete, but with all the reinforcements of talented, dedicated individuals, it made for an exhilarating weekend with little stress and lots of positive vibes. As a result, neuro.studio was able to flex our various collective muscles in multiple spaces around the city over the weekend. “I don't think music is supposed to be done isolated,” Sandy continued. “I think it's supposed to be like a community activity on some level. So, yeah, it just kind of reminded me of that a lot, which you know, felt like home.”

This was Seppa’s first show back in the states following his recent US tour promoting See It Through, his latest album. This was his third solo album, which was crafted with extremely careful intention. As we discussed his eventful past year and more, Sandy filled me in on his past and also shed light on the new project.

“I think there's only one track on the album that wasn't written specifically for the album. Everything else was written specifically for it. Like, I had a really clear idea of the sort of the range of styles and things that I wanted to kind of work with it. And then I was like, OK, I need to try and craft a journey with that.” He continued by saying that “it's quite a cool challenge to do these longer projects because I think you can say a lot more with it and you can kind of make an experience that is ultimately more meaningful for people. You know, like there's a lot more mileage in listening to an album over and over again, than there is just like one or two tracks … But with this one, I really wanted to try and make something that was just a little bit less intimidating for new listeners whilst keeping the same sort of like depth of composition and sound and everything still intact.” 

As Sandy further explained his approach with See It Through, a process which lasted about a year, we opened up a larger critique of albums, their playability in 2024 and their power (or lack thereof, considering what’s become en vogue with things like TikTok & singles etc.). 

“Everyone's maybe a little bit more easily distracted than they used to be. And that's actually a really fun, creative challenge of, ‘OK, we have to really take people in a few different directions.’ I kind of think about it a bit like how you would structure a novel or a movie or something, where you need to have a sort of shape to it … It has to start somewhere. It has to make you really kind of emotionally invested in what's happening. And then sort of, you know, ultimately deliver you at, like, an end point, but with a few twists in the middle and unexpected kind of peaks and troughs and all of these kinds of things,” Sandy said before pivoting back to his project. “I was very much thinking about it from the start as this is, like, an album. What does it need? What more stuff do I need to write for it to make it kind of make sense rather than it being like, ‘Oh, I've got like 20 tunes and I'm going to pick 12 to make an album. So, yeah, it was all like pretty intentional from the get go.”

Rewinding one more time to the neuro.studio throwdown at The Floridian. Nolan Petruska better known as Frequent is another artist and curator who has similar attention to detail in terms of being both an artist and a fellow label owner, which is called Upscale. 

”St. Pete was awesome because [Upscale] got to do the takeover there years ago and I haven't been back since then, so it was cool to see some familiar faces and check out a different venue. It was an awesome time,” Nolan said during our conversation on a variety of things, including how he views the visual arts movement that neuro.studio has been directly influenced by and have been a part of, as well as the ways that the artforms continue to progress.

“To see all of that evolve to people having complete control in real-time, and all of these laptops with insane GPUs and people running two computers at once, and having all the MIDI controllers and stuff – it's actually amazing to see how that entire art form has kind of materialized alongside the music, even in the time that I've been doing it … I respect the visual guys so much because I feel like they put up with so much shit to even be there. And then they have to do so much work. Like, they work all night in a lot of cases, and in general, it's super underappreciated,” Nolan said, being very straight-forward. In terms of the VJ’s themselves, we discussed how there’s often a disconnect between the audio and visual performers.

“It's just behind you and you kind of just hope it's good, but you always get the videos back later and you get a whole new context to what the set was like for everybody else because you don't really know necessarily how good of a ‘job’ the VJ was doing,” he admitted. When it came to his performance at The Floridian, however, he said, “I remember looking back at all the clips that Karl (Diethylamide) had gotten and just seeing all the videos from the set in Florida and being so happy with the way that they'd interact with my set in real time. And choosing the vibe based off of me. I felt like we were really on the same page, which is not always the case.”

Personally, I feel like everyone clicking and connecting on a deeper level and the reliance on each other’s artistic expressions over the weekend played a role in the magic and success. When it came to playing a one-off b2b with Seppa, Nolan said, “We've gotten to hang out quite a bit, but we haven't ever, like, written music together or do a back-to-back or anything like that. So, this was an actually really cool opportunity when we got the offer. I was super excited to do something with Sandy and actually get that chance to work together. I'm glad he's got his visa still and he's back out here touring.”

After the show on the 5th, the neuro.studio crew and artists from the show were all invited to the notorious Frick Frack Blackjack headquarters, where handfuls of us had no choice but to let loose to the utmost degree. Frick Frack doesn’t accept bets with money, instead you gamble things and stuff and trinkets and dinglehoppers and you name it. They won’t accept a deal? Try spicing up the offer with a sticker or a mint condition copy of MAD Magazine. 

The artists from the show were able to do an intimate b2b there and a few sets which included neuro.studio and Beetranch’s own Tsilli. The night ended with Frequent dj’ing until they were shutting down around 5 am – and believe it or not a bunch of us went back the next night for round 2! When I asked, he gave me the rundown:

“How am I feeling about Frick Frack Blackjack? Well, it's probably my new favorite thing. I've seen it at like every festival ever for the last several years … I've been meaning to do it for years and just never actually got the opportunity. And I had no idea they had, like, a permanent one set up. So, that is maybe my new favorite thing about St. Pete is just that it’s there every weekend. It's fucking insane–I hate real casinos. I think they're one of the lamest things ever. But Frick Frack Blackjack goes really hard and makes games. It's actually fun! It's just, like pretty wholesome but also really stupid. I mean we do have people out here in Denver that do it apparently, but God I wish we had a full-time Frick Frack warehouse. I'm so here for it. If someone wants to set that up, I will be there every weekend ... I'll play music. I will barter for that holographic Japanese Starmie. I will do what it takes,” Nolan insisted–and after a weekend with him in St. Pete, I know he’s not bluffing! 

Throughout the rest of the weekend, some of the artists and organizers hanging in town still were able to visit the Salvador Dalí museum followed by a priceless sunset while out on a pier. Aside from that eye-opening experience, one of neuro.studio’s own partners Reef Ty aka Sugarcube Labs was also included in a visionary art exhibit. The collective takeover that neuro.studio and our partners were able to pull off over the span of the weekend was one for the books (or in this case, one for The Synapse!). Hanging with that group of like-minded individuals will be a core memory for the rest of my life. 

The amount of creativity I felt oozing out of every person’s mind was jarring a bit, knowing how much talent and knowledge I was surrounded by. On a deeper level, just thinking about the potential of neuro.studio began to feel intimidating. Imagining what we could do if everyone simply communicates, further commits to the best of their ability and puts their brains together – it’s absolutely mind-boggling. 

I feel as if there’s a ton of newfound momentum at neuro.studio which is causing our longtime fans and likewise our partners to re-examine and rediscover their passion for the company. More and more people are being introduced to neuro at an exponential rate, while our purpose in the entertainment industry & beyond becomes more clear every day. 

As for Seppa and Frequent, they both have newly announced plans for the fall. Seppa will be playing Sub.mission’s huge Meow Wolf Denver event, “Danceportation: Bass Invasion Takeover.” This lineup has the likes of The Widdler, Sicaria, all:Lo Collective’s pheel., TF Marz & Alex Unger, along with even more respected talent on October 25th. Nolan will be hitting Australia in September for a run of shows with the notorious COPYCATT. I wonder what a Frequent x COPYCATT masterclass is like..?

Here at The Synapse, we aim to keep the audio/visual coverage & more coming at you hot n’ fresh! Make sure to stay locked in with neuro.studio for new music, visual packages, gift ideas, prints, different styles of merch and more.

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