Some people look to others or themselves to find the philosophical answers to life’s questions. However, rising artist AIRØSPACE looked to the stars.

REVOLT chatted with the Maryland-born artist to discover how he found influence within our very universe to express the rawness and realness surrounding pain and creativity.

What was the inspiration behind your project?

You want the honest truth? My mother dying. Getting hit by a truck. Life realizations. Horrible relationships due to me just existing. Moving to Hollywood. A lot. And also I tried to be pretty straightforward. I’m just kind of writing about what I’m currently going through and have gone through. Namely, my perception of what I think I’m going through. I just try to be in other people’s shoes sometimes; it helps me actually consider situations versus invalidate them. I’ve been through a lot, most people have also been through a lot. I just try to…get it. Most times the problem is me but, it’s a hit or miss either way. Not everyone is comfortable with being that open. But it’s cool. I’m obsessed with snickerdoodles and the band TesseracT. Everyone has their thing.

Why did you use star system references for your EP?

‘The analogues’ are the stars, similar to the sun. I’m a sun and everything else is in my solar system—as perception though because, to everyone, they are the sun which makes it so that they have their own solar systems, etc. It’s translated here as the sun being the ego and the song titles being references to anamolies or areas within it that correlate with something that has happened. Like Kuiper belt. Look it up, it’s pretty cool.

It seems like you are very much into space and spirituality.

I grew up more into space and spirituality than I am now. No, I take that back. I’m into both space and spirituality very deeply, but it’s changed form. When I was a kid, I would just wonder; now I do research through any means. It’s some interesting stuff. And I would like to say that the name and project title are completely on purpose. For some time, I said I would do something like this, so I split it into a Side A and Side B. Sun and Moon. Not a Pokemon reference, something deeper.

You’ve referred to your audience as “defective humans and obsolete robots.” Did your tough upbringing mold your raw, witty, and expressive artistry?

Definitely. I grew up in South East D.C. Part of MoCo [Montgomery County] and all around Prince George’s County in Maryland. I’ve seen and experienced some crazy shit. Plus, my stepmother and anime raised me. I’m a weird kid. As far as the tagline, the more robotic we become to maintain our sanity and our respective livelihood in this society, the less human and more jaded we are. Defective. I’ve seen and experienced love on insane levels, as well as the opposite. Introspectively, being a human is not easy. I think too much.

Lastly, what would you like people to take away from this project after listening to it?

I’m not sure, really. I mean, I write as a means of attaining some sense of emotional safety and solace, as well as pinning a landmark of sorts so I always know where I’ve been and where I want to go. But if I were to step back a bit from myself, I just want everyone to know that it’s okay to not know how you feel, to be sad, or feel shitty. It’s okay to be a human. We all get caught up in our own lives that we forget that we are our own universe and there are neighboring dimensions that we have to effectively co-exist with. At least be real with yourself if nothing else.