Under the gloomy atmosphere of Detroit lives Jasper Dean, a 19-year-old artist who has completely revolutionized the music game. With a sound harnessing the power of an orchestra, and creative consistency since a very young age, Jasper has so many things on the road ahead. Coming from making music for the past 6-7 years, to now finally being comfortable with their work, their story is not only inspiring but so important for many upcoming artists in this industry.
Jasper’s musical interests are backed by years of creating, and having an open mind. Their music taste is incredibly diverse, allowing for them to be a sponge and seek inspiration from many artists. With an appreciation for EDM, Jasper supports artists like Skrillex. But on the contrary, artists like Dijon or Daniel Johnston allow Jasper to feel inspired and connected with their feelings. When it came to inspirations for their latest song 'actor' they speak about their admiration for another artist referred to as Underscores. “Underscores opened my mind to mix digital-sounding music with elements of rock. I think she’s really important in the scene right now.” Daniel Johnston, a singer-songwriter from the 90’s is also a great inspiration to Jasper. Jasper expresses how unbelievably pure Daniel's songs are, and even has a tattoo from their album ‘Hi, How Are You.’
Although there was much accomplishment with their newest song ‘actor’ Jasper expresses their difficulties in creating their work. They talked about how they used to struggle with finding their sound. "I spent way too much of my career as an artist battling with how I wanted to sound and how I want to present myself to the world. Recently I’ve gotten better at trying not to be too judgemental.” It’s important to realize that this is a common struggle with plenty of creatives today. Our art forms are often very unique and we often try to find balance in conforming who we are to appeal to our audiences. Jasper stresses the aspect of loving your work regardless. “Be different. Make whatever makes you happy. Don’t listen to ANYONE else. If it sounds good to you, then it’s great. You should follow that until you can’t rip on that idea anymore.”
Relating to this, Jasper expresses an immense desire to continue to create. It provides an overwhelming amount of purpose and joy for them. They tend to find inspiration in real life and uses significant emotional events to channel that into their music. On the other hand, they agree with the benefits of taking time for yourself. They recommend therapy, and removing yourself from the internet to just go outside and exist. There are even times when they struggle with their work, especially when trying to finish songs. “I made a song every day for almost a whole year. 95% of that doesn’t get finished.” So even the talented artists have plateaued.
With plenty of successful songs, like ‘Midwest’ with 300,000 streams on Spotify and more recently ‘actor’ Jasper is nowhere near close to what the future holds for their creative talents. Jasper exclaims with this stating, “You thought ‘actor’ was good? Just wait, it’s barely scratching the surface. There’s so much cool shit and I can’t wait to show it to everybody.”
STREAM ACTOR
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