Q: Hey, can you tell us a bit about where you come from, and what made you want to start a career in music?
A: I live in South Texas enjoying the lovely weather here, but I grew up on the north side of the US which is where I plan to return to soon. The change of scenery is nice for stimulating creative energy. I began to take on the challenge of music because of my lifelong creative itch. Music just happened to be the thing I latched onto and developed a skill for. In hindsight, I could have chosen any creative outlet, but I am happy I chose music.
Q: Did you have any formal training, or are you self-taught?
A: I’m a part of this new wave of YouTube-learned producers that are hitting the underground scenes and beyond. As a teen I was in school choir, which likely influenced my ongoing obsession with harmonies, but I won’t consider that as “training” since my production-style is far from what is taught in school choir. A music-production tutorial I learn a skill from will often have hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, which means all of these people are all likely to be doing the same thing in production, but our upbringings and unique experiences in life prior to taking on the task of creating art is what separates us, and in my example, it would be my school choir, and of course my unique tastes.
Q: Who were your first and strongest musical influences?
A: My number one influence is James Blake, and from there I continuously branch out to adjacents. There is just something about his dark and haunting musical style that I connect with, and the same descriptors can be used for my own work. Adjacents that give me influence would be Bon Iver for harmonies, Holly Herndon for innovation, Tame Impala for synth-production, Madison Beer for sonic-presentation, and Oklou for song-writing.
Q: You have just released your new album, ‘Our Conclusion Is in Arizona’. Is there a story behind it?
A: I’ve been intrigued by the idea of concept albums for some time, but my first two albums were closer to being “theme” albums rather than concept albums. Never in my life have I foreseen myself making something as cliché as a break-up album for my first concept album, but when I found myself on what became a mutual “break-up-vacation” with my long-term girlfriend of six years, experiencing the weirdness of all of the associated emotions, I knew in that exact moment, standing by the poolside with the beautiful Arizona palm-trees all around us, I knew that this was going to be my next album.
Q: Can we expect a new EP or even another album from you in the near future?
A: I’ve got a few album ideas in my head, some more out-of-reach than others. Originally, I had planned to grow my hair out and make some sort of wild psychedelic techno album, but I’ve decided to put this plan on hold for something more calm to allow myself to find peace after this intense break-up album I put out. The psychedelic techno album will eventually come, but first I will release an album with chilling sounds to soothe the bones in a mysterious but cool manner.
Q: What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
A: I’m not background music. This likely hurts my potential commercial value. I don’t blend in. A lot of existing music can be turned on in your car with your friends on a long drive while you have a full conversation over it. My music isn’t like that. I play with too many distracting elements to respect your split-attention: not sorry. My music is constructed rather to be turned on in your car with your friends on a long drive the same way you would turn on a podcast or an audiobook. Rather than being the background-music soundtrack for your conversation, I am there in the car with you participating in this conversation.
Q: Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more?
A: Almost. Do I feel at all fulfilled by the fact that on the brink of releasing my third album I have a total of 2 monthly listeners on Spotify? No. I am more serious about this than many artists that are much more successful than I am, so of course this bothers me. However, the lack of fulfillment for how poorly my work has been received these past years does not out-weigh the actual fulfillment I get from going on the journey of creating the art. Every chord, every melody, all steps of the way feel like a journey to me. The mental adventure I endeavor with all of its discoveries included seems to always give me satisfaction to the highest degree.
Q: Could you describe your creative processes? How do you usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song?
A: This will sound crazy, but lately I’ve been receiving my new songs in dreams. When it happens, I’m usually half-asleep after dreaming, the song from my dream replays in my head, and then the thought hits me like lightning: “this song doesn’t exist yet.” This moment is extremely crucial because I have only around 60 seconds before my groggy, half-awake brain can no longer retain the memory of the song that has been given to me while I sleep as I scramble to start the voice-memo app and attempt to archive it. It feels like cheating, but the source for any original idea will always be mysterious, as they seem to come out of mid-air anyway.
Q: What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?
A: I suffer from a chronic condition of thinking differently. This has been a great tool for my creativity and especially my originality, but at the same time I run the risk of alienating the majority of people who would rather not consume differentness. Realizing this has motivated me away from producing yet another passion project, the psychedelic techno album I previously mentioned, and instead towards something more samely rather than different. Music is about connection, and I plan to accomplish more of that in the near future.
Q: On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?
A: My “portfolio” of music is far from complete, but with my most recent addition, Our Conclusion Is in Arizona, I am now closer to pointing at my body of work to say with confidence, “Look, this is me.”
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