I've been thinking about where my sound actually came from, and the honest answer is that it is not from one artist, one scene, or one clean timeline.
It is a bunch of random things that stuck with me at different points in my life, and somehow all of that turned into the way I make music now.
K-ON
The first big one was K-ON.
I watched it when it first came out, and I think that was the thing that made music feel less like something only professionals did and more like something people could just live inside of.
I know my music does not sound like a band from an anime, but the influence is still there. It is more about the feeling than the actual sound. The way music could be tied to friendship, routine, jokes, small moments, and just having something to care about probably shaped me more than I realized at the time.
Snail's House And Internet Music
Around 2017, I got into Snail's House and a lot of other artists in that world.
That sound had this bright, clean, internet feeling to it. It was cute, but also really detailed. It made me pay attention to texture, melodies, little ear candy, and how a song could feel colorful without needing to be complicated in an obvious way.
I think that era taught me that production itself can have personality.
Robloxcore And Learning By Doing
Then there was the robloxcore audio maker era from around 2017 to 2019.
That was probably when I got most obsessed with the creation side of music. It was not really about making something perfect. It was more about trying things, uploading things, hearing how sounds worked in weird spaces, and learning by doing.
That roughness is part of why it mattered. It felt like people were figuring things out in public.
Deko, Hella Sketchy, And PluggnB
Around that same time I was listening to artists like Deko, Hella Sketchy, and a lot of the early pluggnB scene.
Hella Sketchy passing away still feels heavy to think about, because that era had a lot of energy that felt young and internet-born, but also personal. PluggnB especially stuck with me because it had this emotional quality without always needing to be dramatic.
The melodies could be pretty, the drums could be simple, and the whole thing could still hit if the feeling was right.
Why I Keep Returning To 2020
I think that is why a lot of my music still feels stuck somewhere around 2020.
I do not mean that in a negative way. That was just the era where my taste, habits, and instincts started locking in. When I make something now, I still hear that version of myself in it.
The internet music I was around, the sounds I liked, the way people used autotune, the melodies, the softness, the rough mixes, the whole thing.
What I Listen To Now
Recently I have not been listening to as much music.
Part of it is because I do not want to get too inspired by whatever is happening right now. I do not want to accidentally chase what everyone else is doing. I would rather sit with the sounds that already mean something to me and see what I can make from that.
If I do listen to music now, it is usually OST stuff, like Mitsukiyo. Soundtracks are easier for me to listen to because they feel more like atmosphere than competition. They give me a mood without making me feel like I need to copy a structure or trend.
So my inspirations are kind of scattered.
K-ON, Snail's House, robloxcore, Deko, Hella Sketchy, pluggnB, game and anime OSTs, random internet scenes, old habits, and the version of myself that was learning how to make things without thinking too hard about whether they were good.
I do not think inspiration is always about finding something new.
Sometimes it is about realizing what never left.
— cav
TLDR
As someone who watched K-ON when it first came out, I think that I'm a pretty heavy music fanatic. K-ON was what basically got me into making music, it's a heavy influence on my style whether you see it or not.
Around 2017, I got into Snail's House and a variety of other artists.
From around 2017-2019 during the robloxcore audio maker era, I believe that was when I was super into the creation part of music. Around that time, I listened to mostly artist like Deko, Hella Sketchy (rip), and the new born pluggnB scene.
Recently I stopped listening to music because I don't want to be inspired as much, pretty much my music in stuck in that era of 2020. If I do listen to music, it's mostly OST stuff like stuff from Mitsukiyo
love, cavyion