We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Eric Thompson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Eric, appreciate you joining us today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

I’m not sure I have a specific story about being misunderstood, but I might have a lifetime of understanding. Am I wrong if I say that all of us at some point in their life has felt taken advantage of, looked at weird, or straight up disrespected simply because of expressing themself?
I feel like often times that is the daily life of a dedicated artist.

Growing up I’ve always struggled with a variety of mental struggles, including OCD. I’ve been perceived by my peers and teachers from things like an asshole, to simply not caring at all. I’ve always been made fun of because I always took longer than others to get ready. …Little do they know that if they realized what was really going through my head they would probably write an apology letter.

At one point my own PSYCHOLOGY teacher called me out in front of the whole class for being consistently late to his class, obviously not aware that I had severe OCD, social anxiety, and also had gym class prior to his class.
Ironically we studied OCD a couple weeks following that.
Should he still be teaching psychology? I don’t know lol…

This is also a big reason why I see the world differently. Often I realize it’s super easy to observe or interact with someone and immediately make a conclusion about them based off of that ONE interaction. In the end, we don’t know ANYTHING about that person: Who they are what they’ve been through, what medical problems they’ve had, or simply what kind of day they’ve had. I’m guilty as much as anyone else too.
For example: someone with severe social anxiety or trauma might act differently in a public setting than someone who’s never struggled with any kind of anxiety of any sort. Therefore, people who have never understood this challenge will not understand what the person with anxiety or trauma is doing or why they are acting this way. It wasn’t too far in the past when people who acted in such different ways or were misunderstood because of their mental illnesses that were accounted for as evil and literally tortured until they acted “correctly” – but were basically vegetables.
Knowing that we can never truly understand being in the shoes of another person, why would we act like it?

I’m not throwing a pity party for those with mental struggles or disabilities at all, no. haha.
I’m rather asking for people to be EMPATHETIC of each other.
I don’t care if the person is a paraplegic, looks weird, or simply IS just a mean person.
Rather than snapping back at someone or making an assumption about them, maybe think first about what that person might be going through…
Exactly, you probably have no idea. So why assume?
I’ve realized that this really isn’t too far away from artists when they express themselves in any avenue of their art (genuine artists, that is aha).

One of the hardest things for me to do is put down my guard and share my most vulnerable self with the world. Ultimately setting myself up for judgement in every way possible: whether it be social posts, music, or overall branding. But at the same time, I know that I won’t truly connect with those who feel the same as me if I have a wall up. I always find art and music a lot more enjoyable if I try putting myself in the perspective of the creator. Every single day SO many artists put their music, projects, and art out to world that take tens if not hundreds of hours – just to create – to the general public to be judged by the world in hopes to connect with their designated audience.
If that’s not courageous, I don’t know what is.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is ETHOS XCIX, and I’m a emo/electronic producer, artist, and musician from Minnesota. From emo artists like Lil Peep, Guccihighwaters, and nothing,nowhere., to complex EDM sound design like Kaivon, Illenium, and YDG, I love to tie the emo/punk and bass genres together in the most vulnerable way. I’ve played support for multiple larger artists at shows in the Midwest including Dabin, Nurko, Crystal Skies, Chime, Ace Aura, and Yetep.
As I’ve struggled with a lot of mental health issues and varieties of heartbreak (like many others), I love to connecting and being vulnerable as possible in a world that lacks authenticity.

I first got into making my music in a very unorthodox kind of way.
I experienced music more first hand through piano lessons sometime during elementary school. I had weekly lessons, annual recitals, and somehow my parents enjoyed the amateur playing (almost daily). But, once I reached middle school/high school, I transferred all my focus to basketball.

My dad and I were always playing ball ever since I could stand basically, aha.
Throughout high school and early college it was my main focus actually, and at one point I was seriously considering playing overseas. I transferred high schools multiple times, trained each summer during my high school years with a collegiate head coach, played AAU (summer league ball), and attended countless camps – all for basketball.
Although, life came to a turning point following my freshman year in college after the coach I trained with each summer of my high school year resigned from the college I was enrolled at. (This also happened with my high school head coach AFTER I transferred and moved to a different state for my senior year haha.) Exhausting…
The final kicker for me didn’t have to do with any resignations though, it was a long term vision.

I was getting tired of putting in all the training in order to simply compete with the athletes that I would be playing ball with. Not to mention I was a 5’10” point guard playing with 6’+ monsters. I was never one to half ass things (and still am not), so I didn’t want to just go through the motions like I noticed so many other college athletes already doing.
So that idea really stunned me, since all I wanted to do up to that point was play ball…

Literally sitting in my dorm room contemplating life lol, I came to the realization that music helped me push through a ton of challenging events, workouts, and times in my life. And after a LOT of thinking, I cold turkey committed myself to life as an artist.
I borrowed my mom’s computer, and started learning music with the same ambition and effort that I used in my workouts. Eventually I started missing so many classes simply out of disinterest and being involved in learning Ableton, I dropped out and spent all my time that I wasn’t working, sleeping, or eating – learning production.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

When I first started creating music and experimenting with production, I never had a true goal or mission for my music. I simply just believed it’s where I belonged. But looking back, I think that was for a good reason. I experimented with different genres, beats, sound design, you name it. I think that’s really important in a lot of aspects of occupations, creatives, and life in general. In my opinion, we should never tunnel vision ourselves. Ever. The only consistency (especially in the 21st century) is change. I feel like I unfortunately learned that the hard way aha.

It was only after I really started investing in myself, observing what I enjoyed from those experiences of production, learning from different creatives, reflecting on myself, and being present in the industry that I realized my mission.

It’s personally hard for me to connect with people who haven’t had any major mental health issues or struggles. It’s like they’re living a different life – and there’s nothing wrong with that! I would be too if I didn’t have the struggles I did throughout my life…
But with all that being said, what gives me the most reward or satisfaction as an artist is reading others’ minds through music.
It made the most impact on me as a listener when I was able to listen to music that emotionally and lyrically expressed what I exactly was feeling. I think that’s SO powerful.
I love having someone listen to my music, and experiencing them realize that they ultimately aren’t the only individual thinking or experiencing those thoughts, feelings, or actions. Connecting with someone on the most vulnerable level. I feel like a lot of that intimacy through music has been lost in the club bangers, hype, and social proof/peer pressure of whatever your friends are listening to.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ethosxcixmusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ethosxcixmusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ethosxcixmusic/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ethosxcixmusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNXdlEUhO6tzQjxA_XeT6lg

Image Credits
Josh Xiong, Eric Burling