The Glow of Streetlights
Anonymity can add a lot to a musician’s persona, with major anonymous artists including Daft Punk or Slip Knot. One Florida artist follows this gimmick for his own music. Not using his real name or showing his face, The Glow of Streetlights appears as a plague doctor to his audience.
Making music since 2008, The Glow of Streetlights describes his music as “Post-Apocalyptic Hip-Hop/Vapor-Trap.” In the past 13 years, he’s produced six total albums – four solos and two with his old band.
Desiring to “leave something behind” after he’s gone, the inspiration to make music came to him. This, as an artifact for the future to discover.
He shared that his inspiration comes from friends, family, other artists, and, most importantly, nature. This results in the themes and topics his music explores to include “the apocalypse, witchcraft, animal rights, politics, and aesthetics.”
Making Music
He uses an OP-1 synthesizer keyboard, effects by DigDugDiy, Korg Gear, Fruity Loops software when making music. He occasionally even uses a fully-live band. It usually takes about two weeks in total for him to write and create a song.
The Glow of Streetlights just released his latest album, “The Future Remains Undetermined…”, available on his Bandcamp. He is currently saving up to release this album on CD and cassette tape.
Speaking on his experience of putting himself out there, he reports mixed results.
“Live shows always go good for me!” he said, mentioning they’re his favorite part about creating music. “It’s a total adrenaline rush every time!”
In contrast, he said that “[Online], it’s somewhat difficult because there are so many artists out there that it is like an ocean!”
A major challenge he overcame in his music career includes losing several years of music due to his computer crashing back in 2014.
“It was [challenging] to motivate myself to continue after that,” he said. This impacted him greatly, and for some time, he stopped creating music altogether.
“In the years afterward, a bunch of my friends encouraged me often. Eventually, it just felt right to get back into creating.”
Collaborations & Getting Personal
Collaborating with other artists over the years, he shared a bit about one such collaboration.
While visiting his best friend and fellow artist “Crickets Make Math” in North Carolina, they produced a track together titled “GeoCache.”
“This track was made early in the pandemic, during a period of great uncertainty,” he said. “It is important to me aesthetically and content-wise.”
Speaking about his personal favorite song, he chose “Remove All Status Debuffs” – (Produced by ‘For Beat’s Sake’).
“This is my favorite track I’ve ever done because I don’t think I’ve ever been so honest through lyrics,” he explained. “I wrote this track at a challenging time, and I feel as though, aesthetically, it is a good reflection of where I was at.”
#GetinMotion with The Glow of Streetlights
Listen to all of The Glow of Streetlights’ music on Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Matter Online, and ReverbNation.
“Any purchases of merch or digital downloads from my Bandcamp page go directly to me getting groceries and other essentials,” he added.
The Glow of Streetlights concluded by saying, “To all the independent artists and musicians out there [presently] undiscovered: keep creating! Build a network, search out like-minded artists and work together!”
“Just because you haven’t found your audience, it doesn’t mean your work isn’t quality. The art and music worlds are just very saturated, so it can be tough to be seen. But don’t give up! Networking is key!”
On February 5, 2021, The Glow of Streetlights surpassed his all-time daily record for sales on Bandcamp.
Support The Glow of Streetlights and keep up to date on his music on Soundcloud and Bandcamp. Follow him on Twitter for news and updates about his music.
