“Feelz” was released on this day ten years ago. A three-track extended play, it was created shortly after Gus got his first pieces of real recording equipment, and became the first set of songs he felt proud enough to upload to SoundCloud—and leave there. In the spring of 2015, at age 18, Gus began devoting more time and energy to music. He spent his days making videos to accompany the songs he recorded in his bedroom at night. Through SoundCloud and Twitter, he connected with friends and collaborators who helped him learn how to improve as a musician. It was during this pivotal and exciting period that “Feelz” was born. On February 1, 2015, Gus returned home to Long Beach from Pasadena, where he had moved in 2014 to attend Glendale Community College. That fall, he’d bought a GoPro to shoot videos for the songs he was starting to record—but he didn’t yet have a microphone. Shortly after moving back, he decided to invest in proper recording gear. On March 18, he ordered a mic, and then went with his mom to buy a pair of red Beats headphones. Using those, along with the MacBook she’d handed down to him the year before, he began making music. In his bedroom, he learned to mix vocals and set plug-ins in GarageBand with help from his online collaborators. In early April, he created the song “Feelz”, and on April 15, his friend Will Silberfeld used his camera to shoot a music video. That day, they filmed in and around Gus’s home, with Gus wearing his big brother’s shirt and a golf visor. The footage clearly shows how much he enjoyed the creative process, and how experimentation was helping him find his own style and sound. Four days later, Gus and Will teamed up again to shoot a video for the song “life”, this time in the garage—decorated with the little Christmas lights Gus loved. He wore the new prescription glasses he’d gotten in March. It was friends like Will, who believed in him and collaborated with him creatively, that helped Gus become fluent in the process of making music. By that spring, “Feelz” marked a turning point. It was the beginning of his commitment to writing lyrics and making music full time. Though he created and deleted many songs during this period, “Feelz” was the one he felt proud enough to share publicly on SoundCloud and Bandcamp. Ten years later, it’s clear: it was the start of something special. - @lilpeep