How would you describe the sound and spirit of your music?

The spirit of Cults, and everything beyond Cults that I am involved in, is purely based off of a DIY attitude. When I started out doing electronic music, there weren't a lot of tutorials and how-to's readily available. I had to go in and learn everything by myself. And through that, I got everything wrong for the first 8 years of my music career. But in getting things wrong, I found out who I was as an artist and what was important to me. The thing that was the most important fact I learned is this: rules are dumb. How things are perceived as "correct" may not be what you are going for. And that is okay. Rules are meant to be broken, and as an artist, individuality is so important. The spirit of what I do is that of a no-good rule breaker who doesn't care about the rights and wrongs. Happy Accident's are extremely cool as an artist.

Sound wise, this follows suit. I may make a pop song, but it's going to be a pop song like you have never heard before. Same goes with all sorts of genres. The best way to describe the sound of my music is to not describe it at all. What may be electro-pop one day could be southern beatdown and slam the next. Ambient turns into country, and that turns to drum and bass. There are no rules. Create cool stuff you like, the rest will come.

How did you first fall in love playing music?

I was accidentally given an unedited version of a Blink 182 CD called Enema of the State as a young child for Christmas. Through juvenile humor, feelings that I hadn't felt yet in life, and incredible southern California accent's, I was inspired to pick up my first guitar at age 11. Being able to convey emotion through a medium you could give it your all in was important to me at the time, and grew even more important as I grew older. Weirdly enough, there is no Cults without Tom Delonge and his alien theories.

What is one album, one book, and one movie that has influenced you as an artist?

You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To by Knocked Loose; Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky; The Cell by Tarsem

What is a habit that you'd recommend to a high schooler interested in pursuing a creative life?

Create every day. Whether it is a long project, or a 10 minute exercise, try to create every day. I set creation challenges for myself that I do every day. These can include "try to make a song in 30 minutes", "take 10 minutes and try to make a song in a distinct style or genre", "spend 30 minutes doing sound design from scratch or from samples", and the list can go on. Often times when I am done, I'll listen to it once or twice, and then delete them. The purpose is not to make something to save, although I have saved and released a few songs that started out like this, but to engage in your skills. Always be using them, whether learning a new skill or trying out something new, you will see substantial progress from a daily exercise for a few minutes every day than one big project once or twice a month. This has helped me more than anything.

What is something special about playing music and creating art in Auburn/Opelika?

The people are the most special thing about it, and my favorite. I've made a ton of friends and got hooked into projects and groups that I wouldn't have been involved in otherwise. Meeting other passionate people and sharing your creations with them is one of the best things about being a creative in this area. Not only do you get good critical feedback, but you also get to be exposed to more creatives, people you can learn from and people you can teach to. These friendships are some of the longest friendships I've had, and they are the ones that mean the most to me.