Hey bestie! So… in a few words, tell us who Boy Sim is.
I started making music when I was eleven and I never stopped. I went through a lot of names before Boy Sim!
What were the names?
Oh, my God, so many. Oh, my God. Originally, I was like twelve. I went by City Stellar. And then I was in a band called H is for Hollywood. And then I was Christopher Skye for a long time.
After Christopher Skye we had Klub Kid. That's when I started making EDM in high school. After that I moved to LA and I became ghost.net. That was me exploring vaporwave and future bass. I made a lot of vaporwave stuff and then Boy Sim came after that. Right after I became Boy Sim - a bunch of fun stuff happened. I opened for Charli XCX and released my debut album Pink Noise.
I'm from Brownsville, Texas. I lived there till I was 16. I moved to Dallas when I was 16, went to a performing arts high school called Booker T. Washington in downtown Dallas. I didn't want to go to college. Well, I did…I went to Texas State for a semester and I hated it. I got really sick, so I just went home and my mom was like “you know, if you want to go to music school, I'll pay for it.”
So I moved to LA and I went to school for audio engineering in 2015. It was fun, but I partied too much. I moved to Austin since I received lots of bookings here.
Can you describe the evolution of your sound throughout these different personas over the years?
Pink Noise was super hyper pop! It was a pioneer hyperpop album, mid PC music craze, I was very inspired by hyperpop and “bubblegum pop”.
I wasn't really trying to be a pop star - I just wanted to make fun beats. I had other people sing on it. As I was writing Pink Noise in LA, I moved to Austin halfway through the whole writing process. Oh, my God. I feel like I just lost track. What are we? What was the original question?
Evolution of Boy Sim?
Yes!
So I was making hyperpop, right? Doing all that fun stuff - I released Pink Noise. It had features with Ayesha Erotica, Slayyyter, Moistbreezy, and Robokid. And Kitty - which was crazy as a huge fan of Kitty. She had a song with RiffRaff! After that, Pink Noise got popular. I think it was because of the song “Take Me” with Ayesha Erotica. Shortly after the release, not even two months after, is when I opened up for Charli XCX because Dorian Electra booked me.
I sent them my album via Instagram DMs, “hey, can I play this show?” and it turns out there was an open space and they wanted me to perform. Three friends and I traveled to Dallas and snuck my dog Charli into a suitcase.
You named your dog after Charli XCX?
Exactly. She was first named Prince - I thought she was a boy but I was listening to “Lipgloss” at the time I discovered she was a girl. No E at the end, just an I.
I was crazy back then in the hyperpop era… I was riding the LA high and literally went to jail for five days because I was two minutes late to court for spitting on a cop.
Whoa, what happened?
Oh my god, it’s a whole thing, this drama……
Ok, I was 21 on a layover from LA to Houston. I’m sitting at the airport bar drinking a vodka cranberry. My bags were on a table behind me. They were pink and I was wearing pink. Then this cop comes up to me and asks “are you the owner of a pink bag and pink jacket?”
I say yes and look behind me – it's gone. Someone had reported the bag stolen. They tell you not to leave your bag alone in the airport. Now I’m late for my flight and need to go out of security and head to lost and found. I ask where it is and she rolls her eyes at me, I follow her and continue to ask for help… and she pulls out a pair of handcuffs?
She says “I can just arrest you” But for what? All I did was ask a question.
To make a long story short, they arrested me for disorderly conduct. They threw me in the cop car and I just felt the need, like an alpaca, to spit at the male cop putting me in the car. The lady cop goes, “that's a felony.” They just slammed me in the car. I was fine. I went to jail that night.
Thankfully, I found a good attorney who knew this judge and they kept resetting my case. I was two minutes late to court because I used the restroom before they called the docket. I had no idea but assumed it was fine, even my lawyer said it would be fine.
I was held in contempt on, in the judge’s words, “the most important day of my life”. In the middle of making “Pink Noise”, getting featured artists and writing this album, I go to jail for 5 days. I wrote “Faded” partially in jail which featured Slayyyter.
How was it there?
I got along with people! As soon as I got out I wanted to release that fucking album as soon as possible.
That was fun… I didn’t release anything for a while after. Mainly singles and productions for other people. Then COVID hit and I felt very inspired by synth-driven music and 80s music. Also CHVRCHES and Dua Lipa.
I pivoted to synthpop and electronic-driven, disco-like music. My albums began to make more sense because “Pink Noise” is about getting fucked up and my ex-boyfriend from LA. My new album “Rowdy” is about my ex-boyfriend from Texas.
Where is your musical trajectory now and moving forward?
I have two projects I’m cooking up - one is an EP inspired by the club. Bimbo-y, stupid, fun club music. The other is an album I have worked on for years that’s influenced by pop punk and folk music, as well as mainstream pop. That one I hope to release this summer or next summer, it’s not a winter album.
Any Taylor Swift influence?
Yeah… I didn’t start making any folk inspired songs until I listened to “Folklore”. I dove into Splice to find folksy guitar samples and it worked for me. I am so used to hyperpop but I like the new sound.
What’s the biggest difference between your experience with music and creating in LA versus here in Texas?
That’s a question! Hmm…
In Texas, creativity isn’t rare but it’s not saturated. There’s fun in collaborating with unique people. But in LA, everyone knows a person and it’s easier to collaborate and find a person to work with. Austin is like purgatory sometimes.
Like an adult playground?
Yes! I’m tired of recess! I wanna go somewhere else and do my thing. I do feel like I missed lots of opportunities had I not been in LA for how long I haven’t been there. Whatever…
I did have a huge opportunity with a music videographer here in Austin but the files got lost.
I know that story, I was an extra. And that did not end well!
I was searching for the files and I knew they were on my laptop for a fact… Any videographer should keep backups but they got lost. As a producer, I keep all project files and stems from years past in case someone needs it. It’s fucked up to delete a project if it’s urgent.
This videographer cleans hard drives at the end of every year. I don’t always think it’s good practice to do that. They tried data recovery software and still nothing but I am getting them back if I can. That project has been in limbo.
When you’re not struggling with the loss of an epic music video, how is your studio setup for recording music?
It changes a lot, but I make music primarily in my bedroom.
I have a desk and two monitor speakers. Sometimes I use a MIDI keyboard and headphones, but mostly everything I do is in the box. This has been my home studio setup since I started making music at 11 years old. I love making music in bed. I love to lay in bed. Not even with the keyboard, just my laptop keyboard, dragging and dropping MIDI notes around in Logic Pro X.
I’ll have a session guitarist come over sometimes. I'll record some guitar myself, when I record vocals I use a walk-in closet as well. Otherwise - it’s always just been me, my laptop, and my headphones and a microphone.
What artists are inspiring the kind of sound that you're trying to cultivate right now?
When I sit down to make a song for my album, I want it to sound like Good Charlotte, Sugar Ray, or Blink-182… but mixed with Lorde, Pure Heroine era Lorde.
I also think about folklore, obviously, and Taylor Swift in general, and the whole Jack Antonoff production. The Jack Antonoff takeover of pop music is greatly inspiring. It makes me mad how other people get mad about it. He's a great producer, and he's produced Grammy winning tracks - that’s not nothing.
Plus, I feel like Taylor Swift has made me become way more of a songwriter than I was before. After Folklore came out, I was obsessed! I wondered why I never wrote meaningful lyrics like what I heard in Folklore. I’d rather write in that style moving forward than songs about partying or doing drugs or whatever, which is fun, considering that’s the direction my next EP is going. But now for the album, I'm also really inspired by dad rock from the late 90s to early 2000s.
If you had a piece of advice that you could give creatives and musicians in Texas, what would you tell them?
My advice is to think about what you're bringing to the table. No matter what, there's musicians everywhere, there's artists everywhere. What you need to focus on is what sets you apart, because what sets you apart from others is what gives you acclaim on a national level, to the international level, if that's what you want. But, if that's not what you want, then… just make the fucking music. I feel like I am not there now. I've had some moments like this where I thought “if didn't want music to be my career at all, I would still be making music because it's what I love”. I can’t not create.
Making art for yourself first?
Yes! Make it for yourself. Don’t think about if a certain audience will like it. I like the music I make, I like other artists, so someone will like it eventually!
Anything else you would like to plug?
My mouth at certain times!
I have a single called “One Night Stand” coming out! I’m getting the data recovered for the video pre-release! I have Pink Noise vinyl coming out on Diggers Factory, and a show opening for Breathe Carolina, one of my favorite bands in the world!
Thanks for the time today!
Follow Boy Sim on Instagram
Pre-order “Pink Noise” on Limited Edition Pink Vinyl
Buy Tickets for Breathe Carolina and Boy Sim