Artist Profile: thanks god

thanks god is, frankly, a musician that escapes definition. Primarily a sound artist, they utilize influences from noise/sound collage, post-industrial, and hypnagogic pop  among many other genres, to create tracks that simultaneously resound outwards and rest gently in the heart of the listener. 

Perhaps their newest project, Perfekt Person, is best equipped to provide a description of their sonic milieu. The finale of a three-part conceptual arc, Perfekt Person uniquely interweaves the eclectic vocal samples, harsh noise textures, and complimentary vocals that define their idiosyncratic sound.

Yet, it is their unlikely background that provides an appropriate glimpse into who they truly are as an artist.

Growing up, they listened to a lot of synth pop and, later, underground rap. While their love for these genres would shape their eventual formation as an artist, it was their early-founded fascination with surf and garage rock that would enable them to bridge the gap between noisiness and emotionally potent songwriting.

However, their odyssey into the depths of sound design began almost accidentally; while working as a video artist, they needed a sound collage for one of their pieces. With no formal musical training, this ultimately led down an infinitely-channeled rabbit hole that resulted in their first steps into making noise music.

“It's been an interesting journey, having gone from being a complete noise artist to [the music I make now], but, besides that, I don't really have any official music theory background or anything… I kind of use the spirit of punk through embracing my lack of knowledge to create things that are unorthodox-sounding.”

This embracing of the processes of the experimentation that are inherent to music-making go a long way towards defining thanks god’s meticulous craftsmanship. While their current sound design centers around the power of noise to evoke emotional responses that cannot be drawn forth through traditional songwriting, their songwriting process often revolves around a melody and a spontaneous spiraling-out from that central point.

“Once I [create] the first melody or something that gets me hyped, then I'll just let everything fall according to that, sort of collaborating with the spontaneity of how the first thing comes out that inspires me to take the song all the way to the final product.”

With seven projects released since 2020, thanks god is both a prolific and sensible artist. Each piece pulls from within itself to contribute to the unified whole of each project, and the embedded sonic dynamics vary greatly depending on the demands of each track.

As they continue to push their sound forward, they aim to continue evading the constricting hands of genre-labels, crafting deep and intricately arranged pieces that, while displaying a sizable amount of talent, put forth a definitively anti-establishment sentiment.

“I think that the way that music culture is going is that people are sort of rehashing older movements and rebranding them as newer movements. I think that it's important that people break down the walls instead of relabeling the walls, so I really just want to see how far I can go with [my sound]...”