The 19-year-old shares the secrets behind creating heart-wrenching hits.
Skele is a singer-songwriter whose mysterious online persona is alluring as it is enigmatic. Known for his soft vocals and diary-level honesty, the 19-year-old tackles issues ranging from relationship angst to mental health through wrenching melodies. Although the young artist tends to hide his face in photos, his music has few reservations. On his track track “Medicine,” he wrestles with the conflicting emotions of loneliness and fear of being abandoned, demonstrated with the lines, “I don’t wanna fall in love / fall apart again / I don’t know if I’m ok enough so I keep on taking medicine.” Being genuine can be a daunting task for many artists who often take on a facade to mask their internalized emotions, but “Medicine” is an example of how Skele’s vulnerability has earned him an invested audience.
While transparency in music can prove rare, Skele goes above and beyond when it comes to sharing his point of view. In an industry in which songs traditionally reflect heteronormative relationships, Skele has recently made his mark by describing the lover for whom he intensely longs as a “he.” It is through this paradox of anonymity and truth that he teaches important lessons in being yourself for yourself—no more, no less. As Skele’s art continues to bloom, his vision captivatingly unfolds with the release of i wouldn’t wanna miss this and a steady stream of singles. Underground Underdogs had the opportunity to catch up with this up and coming artist to speak about the inspiration behind his songs, where his future is headed, and much more.
What inspires you to wake up everyday and make music as Skele?
I think that now that I’ve gotten to a point where I have a lot of people expecting me to put out good songs every month it drives me to make sure that I get those songs to them. It’s amazing to me that so many people relate to what I write and consistently listen, so I want to make sure that I don’t disappoint them.
Do you prefer to write about actual experiences you face or are your tracks merely an expression of a certain feeling that you have?
Pretty much all of my songs are about things that happened to me. I’m not very good at storytelling, so I usually just write down how I feel about things and build lyrics based on that. Recently most of my songs are about a breakup that happened to me over the winter that I didn’t really ever get over. I have some songs, however, like “Confidence” and “Walk It Out” that are just lyrics I wrote for fun to try something different.
You used he/him pronouns when describing the love interest in your latest track “Medicine” for the first time. What encouraged you to do so?
I usually avoid pronouns in general so more people can relate to the song, but I wanted the lyrics in “Medicine” to be as transparent to how I’m feeling as they could be. I just very recently came out so I wasn’t really sure how it would be received, but so far I haven’t received much negativity over it. I’m very thankful to have a good group of friends who accept and support me no matter what. There’s also not too many other gay artists in the alternative scene that I know of so I think it’s cool that I can write songs that other LGBTQ+ folk can relate to.
What is your experience like being gay and making music in this community? Do you think you’re more accepted in the community than you would be in the mainstream?
It’s not really that different than before I came out in all honesty. I get some mean comments about it sometimes but I don’t really let it bother me. As far as the underground versus the mainstream, I feel like it’s probably better since I don’t have close to as many eyes on me as a mainstream artist does. I think the majority of alternative folk are very accepting of LGBTQ+ people so I think the scene is a relatively safe place for me.
How do you cope with the increased number of people wanting something from you, whether it be some of your time, a collab, or for you to listen to their music?
I usually don’t answer DMs when all they want is for me to listen to their music. I’m not a fan of self promo and I get way too many DMs of people just dropping SoundCloud links and nothing else to have the time to go through everyone’s songs and give feedback. As far as collabs go I tend to mostly work only with people I’m close with. I’m not very good at meeting new people or talking to people so it’s easier for me to work with my friends. I’m getting ready to go to college and trying to figure out moving and everything with the virus still going crazy. With all that going on I’m still figuring out time management with that and music and everything else I have going on in my life. It’s a bit stressful but hopefully I’ll have more time to work on new collabs.
What do the collectives you’re a part of, Biteki and Burnout, mean to you and why do you choose to create with these individuals?
Biteki and Burnout are my family. I didn’t have really any music friends at all when I joined Biteki and had never really worked with other artists before. Getting to know everyone and working on the early volumes was probably the most fun I’ve ever had since I’ve been making music. Burnout has the kindest people you’ll ever meet; all of us just click so well and it’s really amazing how everyone supports each other. I’ve known Seejayxo for around two years now and he’s introduced me to so many good friends of mine now. I’m so thankful to him for allowing me to be a part of Burnout and putting me on to so many cool people.
How did you end up working with Powfu on “Fall in Love?”
Powfu asked me if I wanted to work on something and I wasn’t sure if he’d want to work on something super sad so I decided on a melancholy love song kinda vibe. Remghost and I were working a lot at the time so he made a really nice not too sad beat and I made the opening for him and he snapped on it.
If you could travel back in time and speak to your 13-year-old self what do you think they would say about who you are today and all you have accomplished?
I think 13-year-old me would think 19-year-old me is sick [laughs]. I’ve always dreamed of being a musician since I was a kid so I think I’d be hyped to see what I’m able to actually do now. I was a complete dork when I was younger so it would’ve been good to know I figured out my appearance a little.
What was the concept behind your EP i wouldn’t wanna miss this and how do you feel like it turned out?
So the title is supposed to be a little ironic in the sense that while I was writing the EP I was in a pretty bad place mentally and all I wanted was to get out of it. I thought i wouldn’t wanna miss this was fitting since it was the opposite of how I was feeling. I’m really happy with the EP. I think it turned out a lot better than I expected it to and it was received a lot better than I was expecting as well. Putting out EPs is a bit risky since it can kill your plays, but it didn’t end up doing that so I’m happy. Huge thank you to everyone involved in making it with me.
You have music coming out on vinyl via Ratgirl Records. How did this come about and when will this be available to the public?
So at first Ratgirl asked me to be a part of a project they were working on with some other underground artists, but we started talking about putting something out solo first and I proposed the idea of putting out the EP on vinyl. They were super down with the idea and now I’m finally getting my first physical project, which is super wild to me. We’re still sorting out the release date but once I know I’ll make sure to announce it on my socials.
What was the idea behind the three installations of your “Standing at Your Doormat” series?
I was working with Axstn a lot at that time and came up with the hook when I was bored waiting in a parking lot going through beats on my phone. I recorded it when I got home and sent it over to him just as a regular collab. I never had the intention of doing three of them, but part one did super well so we decided to do another one. I originally didn’t want to do another one [after that] but people kept asking for it so we ended up doing the third one and dropped it on the same day we dropped part one the year before. There’s no way we are doing a fourth one. I’m running out of words that rhyme with ‘doormat.’
Do you think that you’ll ever dabble in different genres other than the ones you utilize at this current point in time?
Honestly, I don’t really plan on it. I would like to do more stuff with live drums, but I can’t see myself doing anything too different, at least not as Skele. I just really like guitars and emotional music so I don’t really want to branch too far from that.
What was the turning point in your career so far where you began thinking, I could actually be successful in this?
I think once I started to hit 10,000 [plays] on every song I dropped I started to think that I could be successful. I used to get psyched just hitting 1,000 plays on a song, so once it got to that point it was really crazy to me. That was around the time “i’ll be ok this time” came out I think.
What’s the story behind the tear-jerker that is “i keep staring at photos?”
I was going through my ex’s stuff and putting it away after we broke up and I found a picture we took laying on my desk. I wrote the song right after that. All the lyrics were just about how bad I was taking the breakup and how sentimental I am.
Is there anything you want to tell the fans of your music?
Thank you for everything. I wouldn’t be anything without the people who support me and it means the world that people listen to the songs I write in my bedroom.