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Having grown up in an period when film star charmers like Hugh Grant and Matthew McConaughey performed the main man in iconic romantic-comedies, Aidan Bissett knew the ins-and-outs of being in love at an early age — and you may hear it in his music.
Launching his profession on TikTok, 20-year-old Bissett is among the many ranks of younger musicians which can be redefining what it means to be a heartthrob in 2022. The LA-based artist gained a fierce following of younger followers with the discharge of his single “Extra Than Buddies” in late 2020, and has continued to seize hearts by dropping extra tracks about unrequited and unconventional love within the two years since.
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His new EP, I’m Alright If You’re Okay, which arrived in October 2022, finds the younger singer-songwriter navigating varied relationships over instrumentals which can be paying homage to mid-2010s Bleachers — vibrant and upbeat with layered vocals and lightweight electronica parts. With lyrics like, “I fall in love like each night time / A bit of salt within the minimize,” Bissett channels the quintessential 2000s rom-com lead as he explores the energy behind being a hopeless romantic. Bissett joined AltPress to debate the significance of embracing nostalgia together with his tracks and Freaks and Geeks-inspired music video, Sugar Ray, rising as a lyricist, and extra.
The final time you talked to AltPress two years in the past, you had been a senior in highschool. Wanting again, what are your ideas on the progress you have made with this challenge, lyrically and emotionally?
With each music we put out, it’s like taking one child step ahead with determining how I wish to set up my sound and my place within the scene. I knew that once I put out the primary EP, I wished to know precisely what my sound was, and I really feel like we actually did that. We took the time to get it proper. I attempted a bunch of various sounds with totally different singles to determine what’s working.
Because the starting, your music has at all times form of had this by means of line about craving and being in love, and you’ve got this connection to very early 2000s rom-com nostalgia. Are you able to discuss your expertise with love as an adolescent?
I’ve had a little bit of a crapshoot relating to love. I’ve solely been in a single actually severe relationship, and I realized loads all through that have. Now that I stay in LA, I’ve tried to discover issues and get again on the market. I really feel like with every person who I have been concerned with, I continually study myself. If I do have slightly fling and it does not work out, I attempt to write about it as a result of I really feel like that is the one approach I can course of it. Writing permits me to take the time to know what is going on on in my head. I really feel like I transfer so quick, and having the ability to sit down and be pressured to discover your emotions in a session for hours helps me determine issues out.
You accompany this early 2000s vibe with a visible aesthetic, like along with your Freaks and Geeks-inspired music video for “Twenty One thing.” Are you able to discuss your relationship with that type of nostalgia?
With this challenge, we wished to take a step ahead into maturity, and present that I am not only a highschool child anymore. I really feel like that Freaks and Geeks video was the final chapter in that period, and it was like closing that e-book.
With the remainder of the EP, it was [like] coming into a brand new visible period of maturity, however with roots of that traditionally rock ‘n’ roll heartthrob character. It was like discovering a pleasant mix of fascinating and funky, but additionally nostalgic, and younger and enjoyable.
Songs like “All That I am Craving” and “I Cannot Be Your Pal” additionally faucet into nostalgia, by way of their actually melodic synth sound that seems like one thing you may hear in a montage in a film. What was it like working with producers like Chase Lawrence of the band COIN and Andrew Wells on these tracks?
COIN is such an inspiration for me, so working with Chase was a dream come true. When he hit me up on Instagram, I freaked out. He would Zoom into classes [while on tour] and he had such a transparent imaginative and prescient when engaged on issues, which was so inspiring. Generally you’re simply enjoying round with stuff till it really works — however after we’re working with Chase, he is aware of precisely what he desires and he brings it out of you. It may be difficult as a result of I’ve by no means labored like that, however it brings the perfect out of you. We wrote “All That I am Craving” in our first session with Andrew, which is nuts since you do not simply write a music that you just each actually love the primary day. With the ability to write with individuals like Andrew and Chase, it creates totally different dynamics and permits you to not field your self into one particular approach of writing.
You have talked about being a fan of indie-rock bands, however had been there any particular teams that you just gravitated towards in your formative music years?
I did not undergo a full emo part, as a result of I did not develop up through the peak [’00s] emo scene. I used to be in all probability like three or 4 years behind that, which is so unhappy as a result of I really like Paramore and [all of the bands that were on] the When We Have been Younger pageant lineup. I want I had grown up with it.
I grew up on loads of traditional rock as a result of that is what my dad appreciated — loads of ’70s and ’80s music — after which I began venturing into the ’90s. I really like the Pixies, and individuals are gonna hate me for this, however Sugar Ray. Individuals hate Sugar Ray, however I really like them! [It also] sounds just like the Pink Scorching Chili Peppers actually influenced the way in which I play guitar.
Leaping ahead, what are you listening to proper now?
I’m actually everywhere in the board. There’s not one particular style that I really feel like I hearken to essentially the most. I like listening to all the pieces to get a agency grasp of what is going on on and what individuals like. I needed to hearken to the brand new Taylor Swift album, [I’ve been listening to] the brand new 1975 album, which was fairly fireplace, and Joe Keery’s new album [as Djo] is my album of the 12 months. These are the three that I have been rotating.
You have labored with GROUPLOVE, you have labored with COIN. What would you say is a dream collab shifting ahead?
I actually wish to work with any person who’s a real singer-songwriter as a result of I want to construct upon my lyricism and be capable to inform tales higher with a much bigger vocabulary. As an alternative of being direct and to-the-point, I wish to use similes and metaphors and alliteration. Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift are so nice at telling tales with out being so direct, and in such an attractive approach. I might like to work with somebody like them to strengthen that facet of my music.
Does that imply the long run is trying extra poetic? Softer, extra romantic? How do you see the following step?
I’m undoubtedly not straying away from the route I am heading in proper now, however I feel discovering these singer-songwriter moments are essential to develop. I would like individuals to know I’ve vary and it is not simply the identical songs time and again. I am actually making an attempt arduous to discover a mix of loopy, upbeat singles and having the ability to inform tales in a approach that is extra coherent and delightful.
