Drugdealer

Drugdealer is the project of Los Angeles musician Michael Collins, who previously played in bands including Run DMT and Salvia Plath before launching Drugdealer as a vehicle for lush, retro-leaning pop songwriting. Rather than a fixed band, Drugdealer functions as a rotating collective, with Collins acting as bandleader and curator, bringing in a shifting cast of vocalists and musicians to realize each song, an approach reminiscent of loose 1970s studio-collective pop.

The project’s sound draws heavily on soft rock, AM radio pop, and singer-songwriter traditions of the 1970s, filtered through a warm, slightly hazy production style that has drawn comparisons to acts like Fleetwood Mac and Harry Nilsson while still feeling distinctly contemporary. Collins has described the project’s aesthetic as informed by ideas around media saturation and constructed identity, giving Drugdealer’s breezy surface an undercurrent of irony and self-awareness about nostalgia itself.

Over a series of albums, Drugdealer has featured collaborations with a range of guest vocalists, reinforcing the sense of the project as an evolving ensemble built around Collins’ songwriting and arranging rather than a conventional band, and establishing Drugdealer as a distinctive voice within the Los Angeles indie and psych-pop scene.