The State Of Synth gets a ride with Driver405, also known as Roy LaCroix, also known as Ryan Roth, as we explore the various lanes of his career.

From remixes to original productions, he’s shown that LA is still the heart of the synthwave scene.

Key In The Ignition

TSOS: What’s in a name? Why Driver405 and who’s this Roy LaCroix dude?

In short – Driver405 is my synthwave alias. Roy LaCroix is my tech house alias.

So it’s funny, but a lot of people don’t know my real name is Ryan Roth. Roy LaCroix was a nickname my roommates called me when I first moved to Los Angeles, CA from St. Louis, MO in 2017 because of all the seltzer waters I would drink in the studio. Since I was DJing tech house / open format under the Roy alias, I wanted a separate, unique brand for my more cinematic sadboy 80s stuff and explore the music I grew up with – my mom’s old synth-pop and Italo disco mixtapes of bands like Alphaville, Erasure, Yaz, and Baltimora. I also perform a Driver405 live-hybrid DJ set with synths, my custom PowerGlove FX, and live vocals.

I came up with Driver405 as a parallel to my own personal journey. I also loved the synthwave-adjacent music from the movie Drive (2011) and the meaning behind the story – a nameless guy in a big city, searching for identity and purpose. To go one deeper, other than being a famous LA highway (and the apartment number in the movie Drive), the 405 in Driver405 symbolizes chasing my dreams and moving out to LA to pursue music. It could also symbolize the complicated emotions of driving in LA haha – the duality of both beauty and frustration. I play around with duality, love, and spirituality alot in my music.

Since I love anime and sci-fi, the world that I’m building with Driver405 is sort of more retrofuturistic – what might LA look like in 200 years? What if the character was in an alternate cyberpunk version of LA with flying cars? Stuff like that.

Start Your Engines

TSOS: When did you get the bug to produce retro electronic music? How long before that had you been producing?

I started writing music in 2005. I had played piano and guitar and trumpet beforehand but really connected with the creation of electronic music when we got our first family Macintosh with GarageBand. I have a massive appreciation for live music, but something about computer music just clicked for me. I remember asking my mom for the “GarageBand JamPack Remix Tools” (image for reference) after she brought home a Vengaboys CD in 2005. It was then that I decided I was going to start writing hard trance.

It wasn’t until 2019 that I created the Driver405 project. I think after writing so many different genres under various aliases (from hard trance to dubstep to trap to tech house), I did some soul searching and decided to finally go back to my roots.

Car Pooling

TSOS: Italo Overdrive. You are part of a spectacular team of LA artists creating events and a label. How did that all come about? Who’s involved? Does this mean Brad will get you into the Oscars?

Brad and I came up with Italo Overdrive on a train in Germany during a 30-day euro trip back in the summer of 2024. We visited Portugal, Germany, and France together and checked out parties like Toy Tonics in Berlin, Djedjotronic in Paris, and more. We realized we need more of that vibe here in LA – there just sadly aren’t a ton of synthwave or italo events, so we wanted to be a part of making that happen. We wanted to reimagine 80s italo disco and adjacent euro genres for modern dance floors, while also still celebrating our love for cinematic synthwave. The flying car spaceship heart logo was designed by Colin Knighton and symbolizes the retrofuturistic rhythm, romance, and grit of Italo Overdrive. ‘Where Do I Belong’ was written over some time, vocals recorded with John Kunkel at Sound Factory Hollywood, and our first release on the label – I think that is the initial sonic direction for the label – post-punk, cinematic, italo, EBM, trance, dancey, and beyond.

So many friends have came out and supported the events, bought the music etc. – as of now Italo Overdrive is still super new, but behind the scenes has consisted of myself, SLACKMACHINE, Parallels, Guthrie, Colin Knighton, Kevin De Nicolo, Danxiety (FL), and more – we’re always looking to bring talent into the fold for DJ sets, hybrid sets, photo/video, or releases!

Gotta shout out our entire crew of synthwave homies here in LA – they’re all killing it and it’s just such an incredible group of musicians and humans.

Shift Gears

TSOS: Remixes. Tell us about them. Your Runaways remix is included in The Midnight’s new Syndicate remixes album.

I think over half of my Driver405 releases are remixes haha. I really enjoy working on them. The Droid Bishop remix, Parallels remix, Coleurs remix, New Division remix, etc.

When I got the stems for ‘Runaways’, I caught a vibe on Tim’s synth arp, pitched it up an octave and made it a key element. Thought it’d be cool to sort of layer Bonnie’s vocals with a pitched down harmony of Tyler’s and give the track a dark disco kind of vibe – heavy synth riffs, italo drums, etc. I was just so shocked to wake up and find out I won the contest. It’s been an absolute whirlwind in the last week or so, the Deluxe Album hit #1 on the US iTunes Electronic charts, reached 40K streams on Spotify in a week, and I’m just so grateful and blessed for all of the support and thankful to The Midnight for the opportunity.

Under The Hood

TSOS: Tools of the trade. Many of our listeners are fellow producers, and they need to know what tools you use. DAW, VSTs, synths, hammers, drills, lock picks, whatever.

PowerGlove, Minilogue, Mininova, Deepmind, SP16, Push 3, Serum, Soundtoys, ARC Studio, and alot of Roland stuff. I’m a VST hoarder, so I have a bit of everything.

Pit Stop

TSOS: To Live And Dine In LA. What’s your breakfast routine like? Favourite place to eat in LA?

My pandemic hobby was coffee. So every morning it’s a single origin V60 pour over in the 405 kitchen – usually a light roast Ethiopia or Kenya. Plus eggs or oatmeal (health).

There is so much good food in LA. Gotta give a shout out to Jus’ Poké in Redondo. I’m probably there a few times a week haha.

Signage

TSOS: What inspires your music? Any particular movies or TV (old and new)? Directors, composers?

Movies: Blade Runner (1982 & 2049), The Matrix 1-3, Spirited Away, Drive (2011), Interstella 5555, Akira, Tron.

Music: Vince Clarke, Giorgio Moroder, Boy Harsher, Justice, Culture Beat, Vengaboys, Oneohtrix Point Never, Michael Stein, the list goes on…

Finish Line

TSOS: What have you got cooking for us fans?

I’ve got a ton of music just collecting dust on my hard drive so hopefully releasing an album down the road. I have a handful of Italo singles ready to go – for Italo Overdrive and more – in the same ballpark as my Runaways Remix. Cooking a remix for a dope synthwave artist / homie on Outland Recordings (wink). I also have some stuff in the works with the band When In Rome. Stay tuned!

Find Driver405 music here:

Spotify
Bandcamp
Youtube