Then six-year-old August Hyde was watching Fred on his dad’s computer when his mom came into the kitchen, saying that he needed to watch Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” music video.
Hyde was fascinated by Swift’s lyric choice and white old-fashioned dress — which is why he recalls this as the moment he knew he wanted to do music. And now a sophomore, he released his first album, titled “South Ramp.”
“I really liked the theatrics of it,” Hyde said. “I liked the dress she was wearing and all the scenery in the video. I was obsessed with that video.”
Along with his sister Iris, who also became interested in music from that video, Hyde began singing along to Taylor Swift karaoke music videos and teaching himself to play piano.
When he was seven, Hyde wrote his first song called “Teardrops”, which was about his experiences constantly crying as a kid, whether it was over getting in a fight with his sister or losing something.
Songwriting quickly became a way for Hyde to express his feelings. He began learning the guitar and working with beats on GarageBand, singing about feeling out of place in his own body and the complexities of relationships — eventually writing over 100 songs.
“My dad has said to me before that he thinks that my music is good because I make it because I have to,” Hyde said. “It’s a mental necessity for me. It’s the best way to get things out and process certain emotions.”
Last summer, Hyde started his first huge project — creating his own album. A large majority of the seven songs on South Ramp are based on Hyde’s experience with mental illness. As someone who has struggled with gender dysphoria, anxiety and depression, Hyde turned to music to release the pressure and stress he felt.
The summer after his freshmen year, Hyde experienced a relapse in self-harm. Hyde turned it into inspiration for four of the seven songs on his album.
“The songs that are on the album are about feeling frustrated with myself but realizing I had to move forward from that,” Hyde said. “It’s about acknowledging that recovery isn’t linear and it didn’t make me a failure that I had messed up that one time.”
After writing all of the songs, Hyde recorded them using a refurbished iPad and microphone he’d purchased on Amazon. Utilizing his guitar and keyboard, he sang and produced his entire album using the app Garage Band.
Hyde’s dad, who started a record label called Lotuspool Records, connected him with his friend Chris Garibaldi who now owns the label. After listening to the album, Chris decided to release it under his label — meaning it could be published on Spotify.
After the delay between recording it and releasing it, where the songs were leveled and cleaned up, Hyde’s album was released on April 10.
“I felt a bit embarrassed,” Hyde said. “Since all the songs are so personal it was basically like a diary entry from a year ago being put into the public, which isn’t the greatest feeling at first. But as soon as I started to get some positive reception I felt better.”
Several people reached out to Hyde, saying they related to songs and liked the songs he was most self conscious after. Specifically, Eviction Notice — which was about Hyde experiences with gender dysphoria — received a lot of positivity from people going through the same thing.
To Hyde, the positive feedback was really validating. He believes it’s important to have representation in music, and the thought that it represented even a few people was meaningful for him.
Hyde has spent the last few months recording snippets of songs to upload to Instagram, but he’s also starting to work on his second album. With hopes to play with the layering of vocals and the background instruments, Hyde plans to write about things like quarantine and his relationships with his friends — with the goal of making this album different from his first.
“You don’t have to have the nicest equipment or the best instruments or even good ideas to make music,” Hyde said. “All that stuff can come with time and if you just try it’s fun. I’ve made a lot of stuff that sounds terrible, but I had fun doing it.”