Wylie Hopkins prefers to keep a low profile. The 26-year old, East Coast based artist debuted their indie-pop and electronic influenced moniker in 2020 with a series of singles that eventually culminated in their debut EP, On the Way Out in early 2022. Now, nearly three years later, Hopkins is gearing up to release his second project, Desire Path, which comes backed by a new sound rich with ideas influenced by his real life experiences. Hopkins sat down with i love life for an interview back in December to talk the new EP, his career thus far, and plans for the future.

“I was born and raised on Rock n Rock like Led Zeppelin type shit, but in middle school I found Skrillex and that sent me down a whole rabbit hole. I started to try to produce dubstep on – I think it's called Mixcraft – it’s a horrible DAW but it’s what was free at the time on my school laptop. And then in high school, I kind of deep dove into production in general for EDM and future bass.”

While the wylie hopkins project only began a couple of years ago, Hopkins first musical endeavor, gate 문, dates back to 2014 and showcased his skills as a future bass and trance producer.

“There's one song that's super popular, has like 6 million plays on Spotify, because some people started making anime music videos and BTS edits to the song. There's also another that has three mil’. It's a lo-fi one on SoundCloud, it's a Howl's Moving Castle remix, but it's so poorly done, it's really funny.”

Listening back to old gate 문 tracks, it’s hard to believe that a single producer, nonetheless a teenager, could shift so drastically between styles of music. It’s almost dismissive to call it a trend, but rather a major skill of this new generation of producers is to be versatile. Increased access to music production software, online tutorials, and bustling communities of other young musicians has made it easier than ever to try new things musically. Hopkins is no different.

“After high school I kind of pivoted towards more acoustic pop focused music, just 'cause it seemed more fun to me – but that's not to say that it's still not fun as hell to make electronic music, you know – they're both very difficult to master. So I'd say I've been producing for maybe like 20 years, 16 years or something, I can't even keep track.”

The Wylie Hopkins project signaled a new start for Hopkins sonically and publicly. Gone were the days of anime edits and in was a new sound – lush and intimate. Hopkins’ first eight tracks under the moniker came together on the On the Way Out EP in early 2022. The music, released over the span of two years, was evocative of spring time and remained consistent to the sound present on debut single, “Honey, I Just.”

“I just felt like I wanted to start fresh, especially with a new archetype of music. I felt like it was better to not just try to convert fans and instead start fresh and have a new name behind it. I feel like it gives it more marketability as well. If there's this new artist that's popping off or whatever, or has some traction, I think that's more sellable, or more interesting to stumble upon than some old head producer that has a few highly streamed tracks and then their newer stuff is just not streamed at all.”

Being no stranger to change, how do you feel about On the Way Out now that all that time has passed?

“Some songs I definitely have a love/hate relationship with. I still really like the title track “On the Way Out,” I think that's a great song. I like “Cut,” sonically. I think there's some things I would have changed if I redid it. And then “Must Be Dreaming,” I really like still. I'm really waiting for it to blow up 'cause I feel like it's really catchy. I feel like it deserves a little more. I think now my new stuff is produced better and I think it just sounds better sonically. I don't know how I would read it in terms of songwriting, but I think it's a strong body at work that's coming out. I feel like I've been kinda trying to chase a certain sonic tone for it. On the Way Out had sort of this sunny kind of vibe, like sunny flowers, and you can see it in the EP cover. But I think this new one is more fall and winter focused, so I'm excited to see how people react to that.”

That's cool, 'cause I definitely noticed that the On the Way Out cover is very spring time. You're sitting in a field of green grass, and Desire Path is not that so much.

“Yeah, I wanted it to also be a continuation of the On the Way Out EP cover. I wanted it to be the character kinda just journeying, going through the seasons. There's a lot of references to seasons in my music.”

Do you see yourself doing a continuation of that seasons mantra, or do you kinda just see yourself just going wherever the music takes you?

“I think both. I wanna create a kind of design language and kind of a character language, or just a story at some point. However, I don't have the capital to like, justify my vision. And that's kinda cope from me to say, 'cause I could obviously pour my heart and soul out and it would turn out fine, but I just don't really feel like I have the energy to do that or the time, 'cause I mean, I still have to go to school, I gotta work. But I will. There's definitely stuff I've got in my head, I have ideas.”

Crafted over the course of the last two years, Hopkins’ new EP, Desire Path, is the most fully realized version of his vision for his second project. With 18 scrapped tracks and an entire scrapped alternate version, the project takes influence from all around. Pulling sounds from the worlds of shoegaze, Daft Punk, and Radiohead, and notes from the writing styles of Adrianne Lenker and Porches, Hopkins’ six track package is their best and most creatively fulfilling offering since On the Way Out.

“Desire Path is really about trying to figure out where you're going – where I'm going with my life – and finding and reckoning with certain events that happened within my life during this period of time. Old memories that get brought up due to ruminating or just having too much time to myself.”

Desire Path is deeply personal to Hopkins. Lyrics on track two, “Always (Think of You),” are inspired by the death of two close friends, while the whole project was influenced by Hopkins meeting his partner and generally experiencing life. Track three, “Sport,” draws a parallel between sports entertainment and the ways in which the music industry and fans treat artists. The opener, “See,” is a dense dreamlike shoegaze track that sees Hopkins in a melancholic state, setting the tone for the EP. Serving as the lead single for the project, “See” was a major stylistic departure from the indie pop sound that Hopkins had become accustomed to.

“There's a lot of shoegaze that's just balls to the wall and I feel like I wanted to create a shoegaze song that was a little more – I hate the word – but vibey, you know? Like you’ve got this sea of noise just kinda carrying you. This is something I love to do – I just love to make genres that I'm not really comfortable with because I feel like when you keep trying to do stuff that you're not used to, you learn a lot and you can take that and funnel it into an actual good piece of work. I feel like “See” is the culmination of me trying to make a bunch of shoegaze songs or a bunch of heavy guitar songs. “Cut” was kind of the OG attempt, but I felt like it was a little too digital, and “See” is a little more analog, I would say.”

The second single for Desire Path, “All Up,” Hopkins described as “a little freaky.” With lyrics about obsession, the track maintains a sense of uncanny happiness despite the lyrical content. Hopkins returns to his electronic roots on the song and it sits directly in the middle of the tracklist, serving as a tonal break between two sonically and lyrically dense front and back halves.

“Track five [Nice Dream] is sort of about the past. It has to do with a lot of past issues that I've had and viewing it through the scope of, “oh, it was a dream.” There's a little bit underneath the surface of the lyrics – I don't think anyone would pull it out – but it's about my experience in the psych ward at some points in the song; which I thought was interesting 'cause when I write lyrics a lot of times, it’s just like a flow state, like it just comes out and I'm like, “oh, okay, that's sick.” So in terms of how to write lyrics, I feel like I think about certain moods and try to reference points in my life about that mood. That's just how it comes out. The last song is number six [At the World’s End], that's my favorite song, I feel like. It’s kind of about coming off break up, and the feeling of, “what do I do?” which I think is very much On the Way Out coded since On the Way Out was sort of about break up. I think this one's more about my life throughout that specific year and coping with that.”

For an artist of Hopkins’ size, one would assume they’d prefer to take a more prolific route, continuously releasing music until something stuck. Desire Path is not only their first new project in over two years, but their official return to music since their last single “Best Friend (Best I’ve Ever Had)” in July 2022. That’s not to say they haven’t been creating since then.

“I feel like Desire Path is the result of multiple experimentations to get to a certain point where I'm content with both the lyrics, the sonic quality, and everything surrounding it. But even then there's still quips I have where it's like, “oh, I wish I could finish this song that I scrapped 'cause I think it's beautiful.” But I have a mentality now to kind of save me from myself where it's like, if you can't figure it out, you can just give up on it and move onto the next thing. And just take what you learned in that track – producing it and writing it – and funnel it into the next track. A lot of times what I'll do is recycle lyrics from old songs 'cause I'll have a banger two line lyric, and then I'm like, “oh, that's sick,” and I'm like, “ah shit, I just scrapped this.” But then I'm like, “I can steal this and kind of reframe it to fit the bill.”

Hopkins says he’s not ready to make an album yet. He’s got three more semesters of college and would prefer to wait until he has access to a real studio – he’s made all of his recent music on a Macbook and a broken audio interface with just two inputs. Still, he maintains a methodical attention to detail within his music, always seeking personal satisfaction from his songs and learning from the experiences of creating each track and project.

What was different about crafting Desire Path compared to On the Way Out?

“So I rushed the release of “Honey, I Just,” which was a bad decision in terms of marketing,

but a good decision in terms of what I felt like I wanted to do. But it was basically built around that – like trying to put out a body of work that could pair well with “Honey, I Just.” I will say there's a few tracks that I feel stand above trying to do that. I feel like for me, “Must Be Dreaming,” “Cut,” and “On the Way Out,” were all produced just for the sake of it rather than for the production of an accompanying track. With Desire Path, I think each track was individually crafted and handpicked without any influence on each other, which I think is better for the overall project. I think I sat on each of these songs and would play test them for myself for like hundreds and hundreds of plays, and if it didn't stick after the 500th play, after three months of just rinsing it, I would just trash it. I think all these tracks that I didn't trash are the ones I kept coming back to and I thought were very much appealing to me and what I wanted to put out. So I think Desire Path is really more of a reflection of what type of music I really like to listen to and would like to make.”

From what you've talked about, it seems like Desire Path is sonically and lyrically a little bit darker and more focused on certain things than On the Way Out; would you say that you're in a better place from when you started this project?

“Yeah, 100%. I feel like I'm more content with my life than I ever was. I am also very goal oriented right now, which is why I feel like it's also helping me. On the Way Out was definitely a struggle where this one's more just like – I don't know how it works out – but I'm happier and I was happier while creating Desire Path than I was On the Way Out, and I feel like On the Way Out is a lot brighter and happier than Desire Path, which is a little weird. But definitely, yeah, I'm super content with my life right now and I'm kind of just chilling.”

Despite focusing most of their energy into their personal life and keeping a relatively low profile, Hopkins has attracted the attention of some big names. Their debut single, “Honey, I Just” appeared on Porter Robinson’s Cherished Music playlist in 2020, quickly sparking the track’s popularity, with it now boasting over a million streams on Spotify. The streams weren’t the only result of this cosign either. After hearing “Honey, I Just,” electronic power trio Wavedash enlisted Hopkins to perform vocals on their 2021 track, “Don’t Fight It,” and a year later, Hopkins lent production to pop group 5 Seconds of Summer on their song, “Bleach.”

“After the whole Porter interaction, Porter was like, “oh yeah, you know, I have the same manager as this one dude who's in Five Seconds of Summer, let me hook you up with him cause I think you guys could make some cool stuff,” and that's how I met Michael Clifford from 5SOS, and he's super, super awesome. We worked on a few things together – played games a lot – which was really fun. And then he was like, “Oh, you should work on this full song cause we're making the album.” And I was like, “Okay.” That's how it worked. It was fun, but it was really all because of Porter.”

Arguably more important than Hopkins’ mainstream cosigns are the connections he still has within the vibrant world of underground producers; many of which he’s known for over a decade.

“I've been in this music scene, or the music business since Skype was a thing. A lot of times what would happen during back in the SoundCloud/Skype era is we'd have group chats that had a shit ton of upcoming producers – people that I know that blown up now – I would just happen to be in a group chat with one day and then not the next day. It was a really small, niche community. And some of my friends are still around. Like I knew Gabby Start when they were Knapsack. I knew of them and they knew of me back then. Chet [Porter] I know through my friend Rishi – they live out in LA and they're buddies – like, you know, the whole San Holo group. But it's really just like, I have friends that somehow know people and sometimes I get introduced to them. And sometimes people discover me, just out of the blue.”

With so much time in the music industry and experience watching people grow and blow up off of music, Hopkins has found a sense of normalcy in interactions and connections like these – normalcy the average music fan might spin into something greater.

“At the end of the day, there's no difference in just having friends or knowing people – like other acquaintances – cause we're all in the same industry and at the same point, at the same time – they're just people and there's nothing crazy about them other than their abilities to do music. Like they're just normal people at the end of the day. And it’s cool that I get to interact with them, but also like, I'm gonna go hang out with my wife, you know what I'm saying? Cause at the end of the day, they're just a person and they don't want you to be super parasocial, they just want you to be chill. So I just love natural interactions now. If someone likes my stuff, that's great! If someone talks to me, that's great, you know?”

Even in an industry that’s become substantially more connected through the internet, Hopkins still feels like he’s in his own little world on the East Coast. Most of his musician friends live on the other side of the country, and even with a bustling community up in New York, Hopkins says he feels little connection to the scene out there. Desire Path is as far out as he’s thought logistically. While he’d love to pursue music as a career long term, that’s not where his priorities lie currently. For now he’s just seeing where life takes him.

“It's a little sad that I think this way, but I've been doing music for so long and there's been minimal return financially that it's proven to not be sustainable – at least in the form that it is now for me. So something has to change in terms of that – like if I move out to the West Coast or something – then maybe I'll go full front, just like producing music for a living. But I mean, I'm pretty content with just working and settling down as well. So I don't know. Maybe I'll just be behind the scenes. But that's not to say I'm giving up – I'm just saying I might take a break, I might keep releasing music, I might make an album – I have no clue.”

I guess if you had to shout out any other musicians, like big or small, who would they be?

“I feel like I should shout out the whole New Zealand scene. They're kind of killing it right now with Tom Verberne as their header, and there's a small artist I found, Eveline Breaker, I think, that's sort of in their crowd. That's really good. Lucian Rice is really good right now too. They're all New Zealanders, which is kind of crazy. That scene is insane. Oh yeah, Chanel Beads, Armlock as well. Armlock's really cool. Oh man, this really small artist named Tom Quigley that I found somehow. They make some pretty funky little electronic stuff. Shout out Mike Orno. Shout out Rishi, shout out Jaron. Jaron's the goat. Astrale's cool.”

With Desire Path, what do you want people to know about you as Wylie Hopkins the person and the Wylie Hopkins project in general?

“I don't want anyone to know anything about me, honestly. But I do want the music to just hit and I wish people would listen to the music and recognize themselves in some parts of it, or you know, just form a nice attachment. But yeah, I don't really think I want people to know too much about me.”

Wylie Hopkins’ new EP, Desire Path, is out soon on Modern Art. Thank you Wylie for speaking with me. You can find them on Instagram @wyliehopkins and on Twitter @wyliehopkins_

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