With his first release debuting just over a year ago, Asian-Canadian musician angst has already made waves in a music scene largely dominated by Americans. His name, which literally means “a feeling of deep anxiety,” encapsulates the internal dread often portrayed in his music.
In a large selection of his songs, angst’s voice is paired with distorted guitars and low-fidelity drums, as he wails about self hatred, drug addiction, and relationships. The artist, who originally started out as a producer, released various beats and remixes before making his vocal debut. Yet little is known about the enigmatic and anxiety-ridden angst.
Growing up in British Columbia was difficult for angst, since he “Never really fit in anywhere.” When talking about Vancouver, he said that, “The city isn’t very friendly at all. I don’t really hold myself as a local because I never really knew more people here than I did on the web, you know? As far as I know, the internet raised me.”
Surprisingly, angst was not very musical until he started making beats a little over a year ago. “I just thrusted myself into this music shit. I didn’t really know what to do, but after I went to my first concert a little over a year ago I was mesmerized.” It was at this concert angst met his manager Andishae, who has been developing a talented team of artists from Canada including Killy, Tommy Genesis, and others.
Perhaps not so coincidentally Tommy Genesis opened at this life changing concert, and not long after angst produced for the unique rapper on her track “Empty.” angst explained that “I just sent my manager a pack of beats just to listen to like I normally do. I never knew that Tommy was listening and wanted to hop on it.” After picking up producing, angst soon made his vocal debut, which he ironically never intended to do. He elaborated that what was originally meant to be a test to see how his voice sounded turned out to be what he is well known for today. “I started recording and I guess people liked it, so I did it more often to the point where I am now.”
Although he occasionally still produces for himself, angst has worked closely with producer gin$eng. With an impressive list of credits, gin$eng has racked up tens of millions of plays producing for artists like ThouxanbanFauni and Famous Dex, as well as releasing his own dark and aggressive singles. With gin$eng’s versatility and powerful production, the two have connected on singles “New Foreign” and “New Foreign Pt. 2,” amongst others.
However, angst’s closest collaborator is arguably the producer gosuto, who has been the musical mastermind behind some of angst’s most popular songs. gosuto, who has worked with UnoTheActivist, Swaghollywood and NOLANBEROLLIN, teamed up with angst after liking eachother’s tracks on SoundCloud back and forth and eventually DMing one another. Their first single “forever” helped project angst into the limelight, according to angst.
“Now that I think about it, “forever” pushed my music so much further. I think that was when people started taking me a little bit more seriously with all this.” Since then, the duo has cranked out over half a dozen tracks in just under 6 months, including noteworthy track “bite,” which cleverly samples the classic 2002 Sum 41 track “The Hell Song.” angst’s emotionally ridden voice glides over the slowed down guitar riff and distorted drum kick as he abrasively sings about a vampire in the city at night, desperately searching for his next bite.
Now that he is gaining considerable traction, the past couple months angst has been teasing his debut album Loser. Through a Twitter DM he wrote that “I’ve had depression and anxiety all my life. Loser is the amalgamation of my anxiety. The album is basically me speaking on how I can’t function properly without medications, and how I’ve ruined my relationships with anxiety.” Loser is currently set to have eight tracks and two bonus tracks, and features production by gin$eng, gosuto, and swvede, and others.
The anxiety riddled teen turned musician offers nothing but promise headed into 2018, and while we wait for his debut project to drop, listen to his music below or check out our previous article on angst here.