Following the announcement of his debut album Teenage Heartbreak (due to drop 17th September via Polydor Records), breakout star LILHUDDY covers FAULT Magazine! Growing up in Northern California in a very musical household, the now 19-year-old realised the power of his voice when he found his way to TikTok, generating over 1.6 billion likes to date as one of the biggest faces on the platform.
Since the start of 2021, LILHUDDY (aka Chase Hudson) has been releasing music, with a signature style cultivated by the raw and restless angst of post-internet era adolescence. LILHUDDY has received lots of love from both the music industry and his cult following alike, with releases such as ‘21st Century Vampire’, ‘The Eulogy of You and Me’, ‘America’s Sweetheart’ and most recently ‘Don’t Freak Out’ (featuring Iann Dior, Tyson Ritter and Travis Barker) encompassing the perfect hybrid of pop, punk, and alternative with an underlying message encouraging authenticity and self-acceptance. In the accompanying interview, LILHUDDY gets candid about the new challenges he’s faced since his shift to the music industry, protecting his mental health as a young person in the limelight, and proving himself to those who have doubted him. Plus much more in the full feature available here.
On proving himself to those who doubted him…
“There’s of course people that really want me to succeed, but there’s also a lot of people that really want me to fail… I’ve really been working hard to try prove myself each and every day with each and every song that I put out, and take so much more time on my music, and that’s really what I did coming into this. I saw the pressure at stake and I made sure that I worked extra hard to execute everything that I have here.”
“I think people always try to dish on people that started somewhere else, or did something different before they started music, and I think I’ve seen that with a lot of Disney stars and obviously also with a lot of people that have done social media before… People always get shit at first and everything kind of comes with you really proving yourself and really showing the world that you can do it. Nothing happens overnight. I think that I have shown so much already, but I still have a lot to prove to show the world that I can do it – that I can really have a lot of fun *and* have a lot of passion for what I do.”
On protecting his mental health as a young person on social media…
“I’ve tuned out the negativity and have learned to be in tune with myself; I remind myself how far I’ve come and how strong I am and remind myself who I am and what i’m doing and why I’m here each and every day. Otherwise you can get lost in the comments, you can get lost in people’s negativity towards you… Once you stop focussing on what everyone else has to say, once you make peace with your own self, all the noise will stop affecting you so much.”
“I’ve been working out a lot. I’ve been hanging around a very tight circle of people and keeping all of my closest friends closer. I’ve been trying to eat healthier, I think that’s been a big thing that’s helped my mental health a lot. I’ve been trying to worry less and trying to do things that I enjoy a lot more.”
On new-found challenges in the music industry…
“People like to take every little piece of a song and put you on a scale of 1-10 on how good they think it is or how good they think you are as an artist… people need to lay back and just enjoy the music and not be so tough or challenging on artists, especially new artists that are just starting off or just starting to grow. Enjoy and watch them develop and feel glad that you’re watching and experiencing the journey that every artist is on.”
You can view the original article HERE.
