Guest Blog: "Rock, Trap, and How I Developed My Sound as a Solo Artist" by Pvrception

Creator, producer, and performer Tristan Wilson, aka Pvrception, is taking trap to the next level in his new musical endeavor and we’re totally here for it.

As the founding member of Almost Famous Friends, Wilson spent five years writing and performing emotional alternative rock before recently moving on to a solo career.

Pvrception puts his own unique spin on modern urban music by blending trap and rock rhythms with electronic and traditional instrumentation. Through his lyrics, he explores subjects such as self realization and awareness, and the importance of real life relationships while fighting against the unhealthy dependence our society has formed on social media.

As he prepares to release his new EP Poison Tongue Boy on February 15, today Pvrception explores the collision of the two American-born genres and how the resulting sound has found its way into his new EP in a guest blog for Musical Notes Global. Check out his thoughts below.

Rock, Trap, and How I Developed My Sound as a Solo Artist

By Pvrception

Growing up I always joked that I lived underneath a “punk rock” because all I listened to was punk music. This seclusion within the rock genre stayed with me up until college because it was the most relatable music to me at the time. I never really listened to or liked much rap or hip-hop music, besides the occasional Eminem appreciation. I just never felt like that genre of music really spoke to me or what I was going through. I found much more comfort in bands such as Fall Out Boy, New Found Glory, and later more modern bands such as The Story So Far and PVRIS.

Since then, the blend of emotional rock and trap/hip-hop has really blown up for me, over the past year, honestly since the death of beloved Lil Peep. Obviously, its roots and foundation have been growing for many years in the underground scene, but over the past year this genre has really popped into the spotlight and changed the way that I think about creating music. Playing guitar and singing were my main musical passions for many years, and I wrote and performed in bands and projects all along the punk, rock, and alternative spectrum in Austin, TX. Towards the end of high school I became more emotionally invested in Electronic music thanks to a few local friends and their project Far & Few. Even though I had owned a lite version of Ableton since the beginning of high school, I never did much more than record basic demos so that I could share them with friends, bandmates, and develop my songwriting. However, I did learn to program basic rock drum grooves on my own in this way. Future Bass and EDM Trap was massively influential for the next two years, and it was during the beginning of my first year at CU Denver when I bought the full Ableton Suite and began to produce every single day after school.

That first year at CU was one of the most fun and wildest times of my life musically, because I truly had no idea what I was doing with this new creative tool. Everyday was just hours of experimentation until the creation of something brand new, that I had never experienced before emerged. After running with the name PRCPTN for a while and releasing a handful of electronic tracks, as well as learning to DJ and popping up at a few functions, I felt that there was still something missing from this newest chapter of my artistry. I had since grown a slightly larger appreciation for rap music, diving into a few artists such as Night Lovell and Kendrick Lamar, even producing a few rap tracks released under PRCPTN. Soon I began hearing Lil Peep’s name all over the internet, seeing my friends at his recent concert in Austin, and being personally shown some of his music; unfortunately it was not until after his passing and seeing the reactions of my friends to his death, that I really dove into his music. It honestly felt like I’d discovered exactly what I never even knew I was looking for. Rock guitar and bass instrumentation, with extremely dark and emotional lyrics, and trap style drums.

It was the introduction to Lil Lotus by a friend that wholeheartedly inspired me to take my first shot at this fusion of Pop Punk, Emo, and Trap. “Nightly” was the first real session where I used my own voice into Pvrception productions. This track was fully guitar driven in its instrumentation with a softer clean tone, and 808 bass with electronic drums. The fruition of this song was a massive spark for me. I immediately wanted more and also desired to be even more unique than the generic, chill guitar beat; which at that point had already become a commonality in the soundcloud scene. So I started to reach further, to play with different synth and keyboard sounds, and to mix those in with my productions as I experimented more with each style. This really resulted in my upcoming EP being loaded with all sorts of stylistic influence from Emo, Rock, Trap, Hip Hop, EDM, and more all in a single song. I can only say that the evolution of my style came to exist from a constant need to find a new sound and experiment endlessly with instrumentation; which is something I intend to continue.

For all of Pvrception’s latest news and updates, follow him on social media:

Facebook: facebook.com/pvrception

Instagram: @pvrceptionmusic

Twitter: @pvrceptionmusic

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