Social Repose

Social Repose is the stage name of Richard McLean Giese (born February 9, 1990 in Cabin John, MD), an American singer-songwriter, musician, and social media content creator.

Giese attended American University in Washington, D.C. and majored in film production.

Giese began making music in high school and college. Giese has named influences including Modest Mouse, My Chemical Romance, Death Cab for Cutie, Imogen Heap and Twenty One Pilots.

Early career and YouTube beginnings: 2011-2014

The Social Repose YouTube channel launched April 22, 2011, with a single and video, "Helium House". Paradise, the inaugural Social Repose EP, was announced on Facebook and debuted on Bandcamp May 2, 2011. Additional tracks from the album were posted to YouTube in the following days. Giese posted his first vlog July 9 of that year, introducing himself. Paradise was followed shortly by several additional releases also in the electronic synth pop music style. To support his music, Social Repose played live shows at indie clubs in and around the D.C area. Giese also handed out demos at popular alternative band shows, and posted all of his music online.

Early Social Repose YouTube offerings consisted of original music, vlogs, music videos, and cover songs. He gained some traction and was able to perform locally as an opening act for better known bands, but Giese wasn't finding music to be a self-sustaining career. Drawing inspiration from World of Warcraft characters, Giese decided to create a compelling visual identity, including a feathered headpiece and makeup. Giese posted vlogs detailing the increasingly intricate aesthetic: outfits, makeup, accessories, and even wings.

After upgrading the look, Social Repose began posting covers of songs by Warped Tour-style bands, favoring short samples so that he could easily experiment with several styles. He landed a tour spot opening for Blood on the Dance Floor and some dates on the Grow Wild tour.

Yalta and Empress : 2015-2019

Social Repose released Yalta in the fall of 2015, choosing the name to signal a new beginning. Giese wanted to make emotionally meaningful music, thus the shift from electronic dance music to experimental indie. He wrote and produced this transitional album, citing Imogen Heap and Twenty One Pilots as big influences. Themes touched on identity and relationships, with softer piano replacing aggressive synth and with melodic, often poetic, vocals.

Social Repose is primarily a solo artist, so touring to support Yalta reduced the time available to upload new musical content. Giese apologized in a tour vlog for the delay, explaining that he managed his own travel, stage load in/load out, and merch, and didn't realize how little free time he would have.

In the fall of 2016, Social Repose released trailers that contained glimpses of an upcoming work, and on Halloween the "Filthy Pride" song and video dropped. The melancholy lyrics touched on relationship and mental health struggles and the accompanying video was a striking monochromatic piece. The following fall, two more video trailers appeared, each followed shortly by the music video debuts for "Villain" and "Empress" respectively. The Empress EP released on the same date as the video, and Social Repose toured to support "Empress" across the US and Europe through late 2019. Continuing Social Repose's shift to alternative music that began with Yalta, Empress featured a dark, atmospheric sound. Giese wrote Empress around the themes in the "Filthy Pride" single because he felt they needed to be talked about.

During this period, Giese was open about struggling with depression and burnout. He spoke about how the pressure to constantly upload and maintain relevance made it difficult to focus on time-intensive creative work like songwriting. Giese shifted Social Repose uploads more towards skits and satire.

Calamity and beyond: 2020-Present

On January 1, 2020, Social Repose posted a video, fading away, which featured Giese reciting the poem "Before the Past Happened" by V. B. Price. Calamity', a word in the poem, was also the name of the new Social Repose album. "Me" debuted the next day, a spoken word piece with accompanying concept video. "Malevolent" dropped at the end of the month and the rest ofCalamitybecame available towards the end of March.Calamitys tracks contained existential reflection and contemplated relationships, with some songs being nearly autobiographical in nature. Giese's lyrics drew heavily from both personal experiences, and from the ongoing professional struggle to balance artistic expression with personal well-being.

Cinematography

Examples of Giese's work include the "Nothing Matters" art video series which features simply silence and ambient music, and a spoken word piece titled "These are my pills". Behind-the-scenes videos let viewers understand the depth of preparation and the technical process of creating Social Repose concept videos. Giese lost significant weight for the "Mercy Kill" video, spent 13 hours in and out of acrylic paint-filled bathtubs for "Filthy Pride", and submerged himself in a swimming pool in January for the "Me" spoken word video.

Singles Discography and Videography

Cover Songs Discography

Albums and EPs

Guest Appearances

2021: appeared in videos for Sadboy2005, a Trisha Paytas project.

2021: Lent vocals to "Villains", a K-popK/DA cover by MasterAndross also ft. Kuraiinu, Hyurno, & Will Stetson

2023: Performed on the hook of "My Way" from the Tom MacDonald and Adam Calhoun album The Brave 2 (2023).

2024: Guested onstage for "The Kill" with 30 Seconds to Mars at the iHeartRadio ALTerEGO concert on January 24 in Anaheim.

Concert Tours

• Reckoning Tour (2014)
• Grow Wild Tour (2015)
• Yalta Tour (2016)
• Somewhere Before Christmas Tour (2016)
• Empress Tour (2017–2018)
• Twenty-Ninescene Tour (2019)

Filmography

• Shane and Friends (2017)
• The Skeptic's Guide to Wellness (2017)
• The Andy Show (2017)

External links

• on YouTube