Zomb: So let’s start super basic, who is lil wet wet? Where are you from and how old are you? 

lil wet wet: I was born in las cruces new mexico, but i was raised in bellingham, washington which is like a medium small city north of seattle. i did a year of college in montreal at mcgill but when the pandemic hit i went back to bellingham to stay with my parents, and started taking music and video seriously. at the beginning of 2021 i moved to portland to keep pursuing art. today i am 21 years old. lil wet wet is the title i wear within the overarching project, it’s who i am underneath the gloss and underneath patternsxx. that’s why for example my youtube channel is patternsxx but all my videos are directed by lil wet wet. lil wet wet is like me and what i do and patternsxx and the gloss are the larger vision, it’s bigger than just me

Zomb: Well said, I feel like this is a very important breakdown so let’s talk about patternsxx and lil wet wet. When you decided to start taking music seriously, how did this split come about? Did you always have this vision for two names or did this come later on? 

lil wet wet: I started writing raps in late elementary school and middle school and I started recording when I was like 15/16, i thought I was taking music seriously in high school because of the attention I was getting in like the social pool I was in, but I was coasting. I think of my career starting in June of 2020 right after I turned 19, when I directed my first video. That was when I started really working at it everyday and expressing myself in more mediums than just songwriting, that was when I actually learned how to work hard. That was when I changed my @s to patternsxx and started my youtube channel. I don't see it as a split as much as an addition to lil wet wet, a contextualization of lil wet wet. I was sort of inspired by other people who had other monikers besides their rap names like ski mask, having the slump god and stokely but it kind of grew into something different with me I think.

Zomb: That’s truly such an important lore explanation and provides so much context to your platform I’m very glad we got a chance to touch on that. I feel like that’s very important to lil wet wet. While I’d like to continue forward, before we do so I wanna discuss your early years in Washington and what it was like growing up in a city like Bellingham. Tell us a little bit about what it was like growing up on the west coast and what some of the early years were like for you.

lil wet wet: Growing up in bellingham was interesting..  a lot of ppl in bellingham and a lot of the kids i grew up around have like deep roots in the pacific northwest, but my parents were both from other parts of the country and only ended up there for work. That sort of gave me a different perspective, made me move like an outsider a little bit. There was a really strong regional pride in that part of Washington, especially in the clothing brands and the side of the seattle music scene that I was following when I was kid. I latched onto a lot of that shit because I wanted to feel like I belonged, that I was part of it. but as i got older and got more into internet culture and shit i let go of a lot of that, started being more into being different, started doing my own thing. 

Zomb: I love that explanation, I know a lot of artists can relate to feeling like an outsider but eventually crafting their own lane. What was music like back then for you? Who were some of your favorite artists growing up? 

lil wet wet: i was into a lot of pop music when i was really young, and the seeds of what i do are very much rooted in that, artists like kesha, flo rida, nicki minaj & 3OH!3. I got 808s and heartbreaks for my birthday in 1st grade and that kinda changed everything for me. and Then when I got into middle school I got pretentious and started only listening to underground rap music. and eventually in highschool i got into quote unquote soundcloud rap and felt like that was the sound i had to emulate and be solely about that that was the cutting edge and that’s what i had to be on. When I was 17 I met bedhead and she taught me a lot about how to pull influence from all the music I had ever been inspired by while still moving in the genre that we were cultivating at the time. i wanna shout out lil kunai shawty too, that was who i started rapping with in like the very beginning and he was always pushing me to be on some other shit and to pull from eclectic places.

Zomb: Wow that’s such a stacked list oh my, 808s and heartbreaks kinda seals the deal honestly. When it comes to creating I feel like pulling influences while maintaining original output isn’t spoken about enough so I’m very glad you brought that up. Ultimately what inspired you to start creating your own music? You mentioned you thought you were taking things seriously but it wasn’t until 2020 you really started expressing yourself properly and creating consistently. Do you remember there being a pivotal moment or was this always a natural journey for you? 

lil wet wet: it sounds conceited but like i always knew i was special type shit, i knew i was destined to make something, to leave my mark. it was just about finding the self realization to do it and put it out in the world. and I owe a lot of that to being validated by my peers and other artists who I respected. The pivotal moments have always been when I would do something I had been conceptualizing and dreaming about doing and then suddenly everything would feel possible. like i always wanted to make music videos, but it felt unattainable until i made my first one, and then it was like oh shit i can really do this i’m bout to go full tilt. 

Zomb: I love that, personally I definitely don’t see it as conceited just because your pure passion for the art has always been extremely clear since the first time we’ve been exposed to your creativity. You’re very in tune with your projects and have been putting a lot of effort into everything you’ve put out until present day. What is your creative process like? How long does it take for you to create a song in 2023? Walk us through your process on how you create a song in 2023. 

lil wet wet: Songs can take anywhere from 5 minutes to hours and days and weeks, whatever it takes to get it off. sometimes a project is really reliant on the feeling, the in the moment-ness of it and i don’t wanna do too much to it after the fact and taint what i tapped into in the initial recording of it, and sometimes it’s about the larger vision of it and i’ll sit with it for multiple session and it build it into what it’s meant to be over time. the path of gloss we fear not walk, for example, i spent about a year working on, finished recording it about 6 months in and spent the rest of the time mixing, mastering, doing art direction and working on videos for it. 

Zomb: Yeah it really is a case by case basis but for the most part I totally agree both ends should be natural. It’s great you mentioned it because you’re coming off of your recent project the path of gloss we fear not walk, tell us a little bit about this project and how creating this project has been for you? 

lil wet wet: This project was really a labor of love to make happen in and see my vision for it through. I had so many aspects of it fall through and had to pivot hella times to keep its construction moving. I first conceived of it in January of 2021 and the title was sort of a guiding star in my process of making it. at first it was easy because my life was going really smoothly, but then my life got kind of fucked up and difficult, which made it really easy to record because i always had something to channel into it, but it made it hard to listen to because it was reflective of the traumatic shit i was experiencing, but like it was for that reason that i knew i had to see it through, because i knew i had never more raw, more real and true to my story. If people take anything from this project I hope it’s tenacity. to keep walking the path because though it is treacherous, there’s gloss to guide you. ppl around me were getting worried that it wasn’t going to drop and were telling me like "this has to come out, this is so you." I'm really happy with it and happy that it’s out, the reception has been heartwarming, It means a lot when people dm me about it. 

Zomb: I’m really so happy for you, I knew this project was legendary when I first started to see everything roll out. Truly truly such a great message. We’re currently in March of 2023, you’re coming off of a wonderful project release. What are your plans for Spring and the rest of 2023? 

lil wet wet: I've been working on a lot, i have so much in my vault right now. I'm excited to put out what I was recording after I finished recording the album. I have a project called gloss arc 2 that I'm gonna start rolling out when the time is right. me and bedhead @bedhead.2001 are putting out a video I directed for them on the 22nd that I'm really into. I've been recording hella with azie bug @aziebugx and I'm excited for those songs to start coming out, me and her are also about to start working on videos. I have a couple shows booked in Portland in the next few months. If you follow me, I'd be on the lookout for singles, features, smaller projects, videos, both for my music and for other peoples’, and shows if you’re in Portland. 

Zomb: So we’ve got an absolutely stacked 2023! That’s very very exciting, we'll definitely be keeping our eyes peeled. You mentioned a lot of video content, and that’s definitely such a pillar for lil wet wet so tell us a little bit about your inspiration for visuals and overall motivation for your frequent visual uploads. What is the process behind most of your visuals? 

lil wet wet: Thank you for asking about that. with videos, i’ve really just gotta see it and have the vision guide me. The most important aspects for the videos I've been making as of recently are quality footage and precision editing, i’m not super effect heavy anymore. i used to view my videos like painting where it was about layering footage onto canvas to create sort of a collage, but now i see it more like sculpting, and the footage i collect for a video is what makes for the marble block: there’s a story in there, and it on me in the editing process to carve it out. It's really important for me to make videos for lil wet wet songs too because I know that it can be difficult to understand my music at face value and the videos help illuminate the darker parts of my vision, show what I'm really getting at.