The 18-year-old artist shares his journey from making instrumentals in GarageBand to crafting every aspect of his own hits
As he wanders his eyes across our FaceTime call, wstdyth leans back, pondering his thoughts. Pushing aside his ash-blond hair, the 18-year-old singer-songwriter wstdyth stiffens his otherwise electrified tone. “I don’t think I would change a thing. I don’t know, I don’t really like holding on to regrets to change the past.”
Spending his youth in the vastly green pastures of Northern California, wstdyth grew up enjoying time outdoors and discovering new music online. Before he developed his affinity for Bladee and Oliver Francis, he discovered bands like Three Days Grace and My Chemical Romance from classmates, in addition to EDM artists such as Porter Robinson and Madeon. wstdyth’s tastes were influenced by his surroundings, but he lights up when explaining his one secret source of inspiration. “Growing up, I listened to mostly indie rock type shit,” he chuckles. “It was mostly stuff my parents would play, like Coldplay and The Fray.”
After downloading GarageBand on his father’s computer at the age of 13, wstdyth began making instrumentals, which led to the creation of several fully fleshed out songs. “When I first started making music I remember Logic had these stock loops, and I’d just drag shit together and be like ‘oh damn I just made a song,’ but it was, like, real horrible [laughs].” He elaborates on these early days: “The loops are like blue and the midi tracks are green and I remember I was so terrified of having green in my project cause I don’t know what to even put in these. I just kept making music and over the course of years I kind of figured out how to translate the notes from my head. I watched a lot of YouTube tutorials and I don’t know, lots of practice.”
While wstdyth describes his first songs as “absolute ass,” his eyes invigorate in delight as he recalls some of his earliest attempts at songwriting. “I remember when I was probably eight or something my sister and I would go to my grandma’s house and she had this old electric keyboard type thing,” he recalls. “It had these little drum loops or whatever they were programmed into it, and we would play those and then play little things on the keyboard and write songs to it. So, I feel like I’ve been making songs for a long ass time. I just didn’t really think it was something worth pursuing.” But as he gained his footing in music, wstdyth continued to push the boundaries of musical possibility, which earned him a growing following on Instagram. While his career steadily blossomed, wstdyth reminisces about discovering: SoundCloud. “I had a friend show me nothing, nowhere. and I had a different friend show me Barren…that was a little after I found Peep.”
Wanting to move on from the perils of high school to pursue the budding scene around him, wstdyth completed his California High School Proficiency Exam (CHISPE) in order to graduate early. “People knew that I made music or whatever, but it wasn’t anything where people were like ‘damn,’” he explains. “I was just not into any of the classes I was taking and I was just kind of in a weird spot you know? That kind of late puberty era. I burned a lot of bridges with people in my high school…I don’t know, I just didn’t enjoy being there.” While he has fully invested himself in music, he is still pursuing his education on his own terms. “I’m going to the junior college that’s in my city and I’m only taking a couple of classes, but I’m not trying to get a diploma necessarily. I’m just learning stuff and it’s really cool [and] I’m really enjoying it,” he says. “I’m taking a handful of recording classes and Eastern philosophy.”
Today, wstdyth’s caters to his creativity when the mood strikes. “I usually write at like 2 or 3 a.m. when there is nothing else around me and I have no time constraints,” he says. “I can get into the zone and let the words come out.” The crooning singer’s impressive range continues to float along tracks just as they did on fan favorites “on my mind” and “remember im sorry.” Glistening bells, acoustic guitars, and shimmering pads highlight only a portion of the backbone found in his signature up-tempo songs. Capitalizing off of the buzz he has earned on YouTube and SoundCloud, wstdyth joined a collective of underground artists known as Burnout. He stresses that they share a familial culture: “It’s just like a bunch of the homies. They’re the day ones.”
In his time as an artist, wstdyth has released two commercial projects. He cites one as an EP and the other as something “closer to an album,” but both showcase his genuine emotional display. Hurt and anguish can be found on “by the end of the summer,” in which wstdyth sings: “And I know that you’ll be gone by the end of the summer // I’m still hurting, longing for you, from your spell that I’ve been under.” Although his success in music can be seen as a whirlwind flash for the up and coming artist, wstdyth has had to face many issues concerning his own mental wellbeing. Having openly struggled with depression and anxiety, wstdyth notes he is grateful for the experiences he has gone through. “I definitely went through a period of my life where I was pretty depressed, and it sucked, but I definitely made my way out of that. It was a bad time, but like I said with like the ‘no regrets,’ it’s like every past experience has added up to this current moment. He pauses to collect his thoughts and smiles. “So, if the past wasn’t the same right now wouldn’t be the same, and I’m pretty happy right now, so I think that that’s okay.”
In the year of COVID-19, designing cover art, watching Alice in Wonderland, and playing Minecraft have been wstdyth’s main escapes, but he has stayed committed to recording and consistently dropping music despite the global quarantine. His consistency is especially noteworthy considering he produces, engineers, mixes, and masters all of his own songs. “There’s so many artists that do this, but I really make it [all],” he states. “I enjoy making my own beats and singing on them and having creative control of all my projects. I can make exactly what I am trying to get across or what I am trying to say. I feel like that might [account for] part of the genuineness in [my music].” When asked what the rest of 2020 holds, wstdyth says he “kind of wants to do another project” before the end of the year. “It might just be a bunch of singles…I haven’t thought about it that much yet. I just want to keep doing what I’m doing and stay consistent.”
As the young artist sways in his chair, a vivacious smile crosses his face as our conversation comes to a close. It is clear that wstdyth is not searching for something greater than himself; he is simply doing what he loves. By speaking to so many, his music—sparkling dance rhythms and hypnotic trap patterns—is an everlasting achievement in itself. “I love all of my fans,” wstdyth proclaims. “I would not sacrifice that for anything, because there are people that are really hearing what I’m saying and actually care about it, and that’s all that really matters.”