THAYERPERIOD. - Interview

ETHEREAL.PRESS

Tell us about thayerperiod.

THAYERPERIOD

Simply put, thayerperiod is me!

My art has always reflected my feelings and identity, so naming the project after myself only felt right. My actual name is Thayer, so the alias is a bit of wordplay, “thayer, period”.

I started producing dubstep in 2015 under the moniker “Jasher”, but in 2018, I started dipping my toes into vocal work. I felt this new artistic foray should be under a different name since this new music felt more personal than my old work, thus “thayerperiod” was born.

Fun fact, I actually used to go by “thayer.”, but that wasn’t nearly as search engine optimized as thayerperiod, so the “.” became “period”.

ETHEREAL.PRESS

Much of your YouTube content is educational, showing how to recreate popular sounds with striking accuracy. The vast majority of other YouTube channels of this sort lack the ability to create such high-quality production.

(Below are popular uploads from Thayer’s channel.)

(001) MONEY SO BIG YEAT - 400K VIEWS

(002) MISS THE RAGE - 311K VIEWS

(003) “PEPE LORE” VIDEO 1.5 MILLION VIEWS

(004) POLAND VOICE EFFECT - 400K VIEWS

ETHEREAL.PRESS

As an educational tool, these resources are super valuable; with that said, can you speak on why having your own self-identity as an artist is so important?

THAYERPERIOD

I've been in the game a long time, and if I've learned one thing in these last eight years, it's that you should make whatever art makes you happy!

There's no wrong way to make art.

Don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean that everyone is going to like what you make, and even I'm not super keen on musical clones, but drawing inspiration is a key part of everyone's artistic journey.

No art is made in a vacuum, no matter what some people might want you to believe. But you can be inspired without being a carbon copy.

The best work is made when beautiful art is consumed by creative people, then processed through their worldview, meshed with a bunch of other different inspirations, and spit out into something completely unique.

Inspiration is so important, but most people don't want to hear an exact copy of something that's been done before.

ETHEREAL.PRESS

What do you like about having an audience on social media?

(LINK TO CHANNEL)

THAYERPERIOD

Having an audience is great!

It's brought new attention to my art and provided me with financial stability. I really can't thank everyone who's supported me and the channel enough.

The best part is the messages though. A couple of times a week, I'll get messages from people talking about how I inspired them to start producing and take music seriously.

Nothing makes me happier than that.

Getting the honor of inspiring the next generation really is the coolest thing I can think of.

ETHEREAL.PRESS

Talk to us a bit about your recent album release titled, 'Would You Trade Your Hands for Wings?

THAYERPERIOD

“Would You Trade Your Hands For Wings?”

That’s really the question isn’t it, would you?

The album's name was inspired by a fairy tale my grandmother told me in the Summer of 2021. You can actually hear more detail about that fairy tale in the final track of the album, where I recorded a conversation with her about it.

Stylistically, this project is actually really significant for me.

In all honesty, it’s the first project where I really doubled down on following my artistic vision, no matter how messy, distorted & non-consumer-friendly that vision was.

I know it’s a bold claim, but I truly don’t think any album created before sounds like this, and there’s something kind of beautiful about that to me.

ETHEREAL.PRESS

How did the track 'Have Faith' come to be?

THAYERPERIOD

Besides the epilogue, "Have Faith" was actually the last track I made for the project. I felt like the album needed one more banger, and I had just finished making "What's Eating Me?", and was really geeked with how that track turned out, so I wanted to make something else in that realm of hyper pop/dubstep fusion.

I actually did a video on it, but one of the main drop elements in "Have Faith" is actually me resampling the whole track being played through my studio monitors, back into a microphone, then processed and chopped up into a weird drop synth.

In terms of lyrical subject matter, I was really meditating on the joy that traditional "success" could bring. This was around the time I was just starting to see my first bit of success with youtube and TikTok, and subsequently, I was learning that sometimes in fact, reaching the goals you set in your mind will not actually erase all your problems and magically make you happy.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't have faith in yourself. You're your own strongest asset, and you really can make your dreams come true if you work hard enough at it.

It's a motivational, but also depressing reflection on capitalism, but at least it's a banger.

ETHEREAL.PRESS

Can you tell us about the significance of the 'your art is stupid' merch drop? (great shirt btw).

THE SHIRT READS, “MY ART IS STUPID AND POINTLESS AND SHALLOW AND HOW I FEEL AND IF THAT MAKES YOU MAD OR UPSET I WOULD HATE TO BE YOU :)”

THAYERPERIOD

The shirt itself is actually pretty self-explanatory.

For a long time, I had this idea in my head that art had to be deep or profound to be meaningful. If I discussed "silly" or "shallow" song topics, that would mean that my art was less valuable or worthy of existing.

In the last year, I've really been trying to dismantle this thought process.

It's okay to make music about being lonely. It's okay to make songs about breakups. Just because you're not breaking any new philosophical ground with your lyrics doesn't mean that your story doesn't deserve to be told.

True reflections of the human experience are actually some of the most interesting pieces of art to consume. So yeah, sometimes my art is shallow and stupid, but that doesn't mean it doesn't deserve to exist.

ETHEREAL.PRESS

What's next for thayerperiod?

THAYERPERIOD

Got lots more planned currently!

Just dropped merch for the new album, and we're currently working on editing two music videos for songs off "Would You Trade Your Hands For Wings?".

For the next year, I've got two albums slated for release, one vocal project, and one full-on dubstep project.

2023 is going to be a diverse year for thayerperiod.

Thanks to everyone who's stuck around for the ride so far!

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