Say Hello To… young friend

Sam Plascencia & Jenny Sorto

Get to know the artist that has been soundtracking our days: young friend. With comforting melodies, 21-year old Drew Tarves captivated our attention last year following his collaboration with ella jane in “ARIZONA”. We’ve been following along with his creative journey as he navigates through bedroom pop production with singles like “THERAPY” and his latest punchy release, “PINCH ME”. The Vancouver-based musician blends uniqueness and curiosity as a new artist beautifully while continuing to impress with his growing discography. 

We had the chance to chat with Drew ahead of his release of “PINCH ME”. We continued to learn more about his musical inspirations, essential advice for artists, and the fantasies of touring again.

BW: What sparked your interest in music? What was the first thing that made you realize “I want to do this”? When did you know what this was something you wanted to pursue?

Drew: My whole life I’ve known that I wanted to perform for people. When I was a kid I used to set up a performance for my whole street and invite all the neighbors. I would perform the entire soundtrack to Grease or Hairspray in the front lawn of my house. I’ve always wanted to entertain and perform but didn't really know I wanted to do music until I was 17. My closest friends in high school all played in bands and played in jazz band. Every time we’d hang out they'd always be playing songs and writing and jamming. I didn't really know how to do anything because I didn't sing or play any instruments at that time. They kinda taught me how to play a little bit of piano. I kind of learned how to sing by just singing along to my favorite songs like Frank Ocean and stuff like that. I just instantly fell in love and started writing my own songs and now I'm here.

BW: We know that you produce your music too. How did you get into that?

Drew: Well, I’ve come a long way with producing. I used to record all of my instruments and voice through like an apple headphone mic and import that into GarageBand. I just got used to GarageBand and recorded a lot in there. Then I upgraded my software, I got Logic and I bought an actual microphone, some monitors, and more instruments and gear as time has gone on. It was mostly just trial and error and going through each individual setting and plug in. It was just getting to know “Okay what does this do to my sound?” or “What does this do to my sound”, so mostly experimentation and YouTube.

BW: What is something you kind of wish to fulfill as a young rising artist especially from your upbringing? Do you have any specific goals or dreams? 

Drew: I mean there's definitely goals of performances or places I’d love to play and stuff like that. I think the overarching goal, since like the very start, is that I want to make young artists feel the way that I felt when I was just starting when I listened to my favorite artist at the time. Just know that just because it's the very beginning and nobody's listening doesn't mean that nobody cares and nobody's going to care forever. Looking back on those times when I was putting my songs on Soundcloud and getting like 10 plays I thought that that was so cool like, “Wow 10 people listened to my song”. I guess I just want to inspire young musicians to be themselves and experiment and try new stuff because that's all it really takes.  

BW: What's some advice that you've received that you think has helped you get to where you are or just a good piece of advice that you’ve gotten for music?

Drew: Don’t look at the numbers. I still do it and I know that I shouldn't. It's so easy to get caught up in how many streams you get or how many monthly listeners you have and stuff like that. I find every time I start focusing on that, I start to drift away from focusing on making good music. So, the best advice is to just focus on yourself and what you're making and what you want to say.

BW: Is there anyone that you're like heavily inspired by or that you'd like to work with in the future?

Drew: There’s a lot of people that I’m very inspired by. Obviously Frank Ocean is a huge one. Bon Iver, specifically Justin Vernon, has always been a huge inspiration to me. I love Phoebe Bridgers and Elliott Smith... I listen to a wide range of stuff but I’d say those are my top influences. And maybe even Rex Orange County, I think he’s so cool.

BW: What do you think inspired the message behind “THERAPY”?

DREW: Mostly my own experience with mental health. I mean it's still going on — I think the whole thing about therapy is that there's not an end destination. It's not like if you're not okay one day you're going to be okay. It's sort of like experiencing and finding comfort within all of those different feelings. So, it's mostly just inspired by the difficult time that I was in when I was writing it. Then, also the journey that I went through while I was finishing the song. If that makes sense.

BW: When you write music do you find it really easy to talk about personal things? What is your process when you’re writing?

Drew: Yeah, I find it pretty easy to be vulnerable in my writing mostly because when I write I’m usually just in my room at home. But my process usually starts with... I'll start with the music first and then I'll sort of build a soundscape and an instrumental and then I'll write the lyrics and figure out what I want to talk about. With “THERAPY”, I kind of went into it knowing, “okay I want to write about this specific subject”, but it definitely changes from song to song.

BW: Is there a certain way that you want people to feel like when they listen to your music?

Drew: I think more than anything I want them to interpret the songs and kind of put them into the context of their own life. That's what I do when I listen to music. I'm always going back to Frank Ocean — I know I’ve mentioned him like three times [laughs] — like every time I listen to his songs he can be talking about something that's so specific to him in his life and I'll still be like “Oh! That relates to this part of my life”. So, I think I just want people to feel comfortable and just feel whatever feels natural. 

BW: When it comes to the visual aspects of your music, what is your creative process? 

DREW: I work with a creative director, his name is Zachary Vague. He's one of my best friends in the world. We met at a Bon Iver concert in 2018, and just hit it off and worked together. He was like, “I wanna make a music video for you”. So he’s the brains and the muscle behind the music videos. So whenever I have a new song, I'll send it to him and he'll start brainstorming. Then we'll toss ideas back and forth off of each other until we come up with something. Then he films it at all and edits it all and does it all himself. Which is so unreal. I truly don't think that this project would be anywhere close to what it is if he wasn't involved.

BW: Do you draw any inspiration towards the creative part of it, do you have any say in that?

Drew: Yeah definitely. All of the ideas for how things look come from the both of us. We definitely do all of the brainstorming together. Especially if I have a song, like “THERAPY”. I had a bunch of ideas. Like this is kind of what I want the color palette to be. This is how I see the energy of the song be put into a visual. And then he takes that and makes it realistic, which is so cool. He puts his spin on it and adds his personality to it, which is the coolest. 

BW: We want to get into your new music! We know that you have some stuff coming out. What can you tell us about it?

Drew: Well, I have an EP coming this year. It should be coming around summer time. It’s five songs — I love every single song on it. The next single comes out next week, which is super soon. It's really fun, it sounds nothing like anything else that I’ve put out before. It's punchy and a bit sharper than the other stuff that I do. I feel like “THERAPY” is very soft. This one has a bit more grit to it which I'm really excited about because I think that that stuff is so fun. I love pop music and punk music. So, I’m super stoked to have that one out.

BW: After the pandemic, what excites you the most?

DREW: I’ve never toured, but playing shows is something I think about probably everyday. Seriously. I mean last March when everything shut down, I played a show with two of my best friends on the Saturday before. I think everything kind of started to hit on Tuesday, at least over here, so it was the craziest time. It was my favorite show that I've ever played. The band was so good and everybody was amazing, the crowd was so good. Then the next week everything shut down. And we were like, “Oh we’ll be able to play a show by summer time” and now we’re like, “Maybe… maybe late 2022”. 

BW: ...That lives in your head, I think for everyone — their last live show.

Drew: Your last show before COVID.

BW: Lastly, what’s something you want to say to your fans or anyone just discovering your music?

Drew: To the fans: thank you. Thanks for listening, you're the coolest. It means a lot to me that people take the time of their day to be a fan of anything because I’m like that with artists that I love. I get so involved in what they are up to, what they are working on, and it's the coolest thing that people do that to my music. And to people that haven’t heard it: I hope you like it! 

Listen to young friend here!