Formula Indie Sessions _ Interview with ABYSSELL

What is your earliest memory connected to music?

My parents had CD’s of Nu-Metal and grunge bands from the 90’s and early 2000’s, and growing up listening to them helped shape my perception of the music I enjoyed and wanted to create.

How did your passion for creating music begin?

I started writing music as a form of diary since I didn’t grow up having friends. I used it to voice what I wanted to convey and eventually it evolved into recording those songs. I wrote for 4 years, from 2018 to 2021, and I started recording all of the songs that I had written in 2022. 

Once I caught up recording everything that I made while younger, I started writing and recording newer stuff. Once I determined my music was ‘good enough’ to me, I started releasing it on all streaming platforms. This is when I rebranded to ABYSSELL, from being KnownByAlex.

What’s the story behind your current music project?

My upcoming album Stitchpunk is a collection of some of the best songs I’ve made across all of 2025, with 7 of the 21 tracks being older songs that I recreated from when I was a kid in my modern style. All of my projects I try to split evenly between slow and aggressive songs. 

The slow songs detail topics like relationships, existential crisis’, growing up, and learning how the real world operates. The harder songs on the project tend to be about topics of interest of mine, such as video games I’ve grown up playing.

How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music

before?

I struggle with labels and genres of my own music. When submitting my music, I tend to put the primary genre as Alternative and the secondary genre as Hip-Hop/Rap. I make all kinds of music though, and especially with what I have unreleased; I am a very versatile artist. I have made everything from Dance, to Trap-Metal, to Indie-Rock, and even Shoegaze & Grunge. 

What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?

Layering my vocals completely changed the sound and direction my music career ended up heading. If I never learned how to do that, I would have probably never released music at all because I don’t like my voice alone.

I record between 5 to 10 layers a song, and sometimes more. This is just me recording the same line of my songs multiple times, usually in different pitches, tones, or using different voice effects to make them pop in their own individual way without everything sounding all the same.

I also do something called hardpanning. This is where I take all the layers I record and lock their position of sound to a specific part of the headphones I record with. This means that whenever the project is exported, my vocals sound wide in range and not center-panned or mono.

What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?

I only record vocals over my instrumentals and affix the volumes with basic mixing strategies. This means the only DAW I’ve ever needed to use over my course of making music has been BandLab. My microphone is also a $30 Walmart microphone (SMM2097), so I have always believed that if I can do anything I’ve been able to do; I know that anyone else out there who wants to do the same can as well.

Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?

My favorite artist right now is probably Kxllswxtch. Me and him make very similar styles, and I would absolutely love to work with him. I also have been listening to 2 artists named Ronen, and Seph Nomad. Me and them are also pretty similar and I’ve reached out to both of them in the past about working together.

How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?

Growing up and having nobody to befriend or talk to comfortably definitely shaped why all of my earlier songs sounded so deeply personal. For the most part, every slow song I’ve ever made has all been true stories from my life. At the same time, all of the aggressive songs I make tend to just be fun songs to make. I love the genres, and I love genre-blending the rock I grew up listening to with these newer trap influenced instrumentals.

What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?

Since I started making music for me, any fanbase or attention I’ve gotten has been a surprise to me. If anyone can listen to me and actively tell me they were affected by my music in any way, then I love to hear that. I don’t go out of my way or strive to make anyone feel anything about my art, but hearing it from people from time to time has meant the world.

What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?

I’ve watched friends and artists I’ve followed for years be taken down creatively and drained musically by record labels. If there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s to be very cautious about offers from big names, and to not be influenced by the dollar sign amounts they throw in my face. If I get signed to anyone, or work with anyone, I want our work to be purely free and creative to our own ears and mind. I do not want to be controlled, and I believe the biggest thing that puts me at risk of that is falling into the trap of record labels. Keep music free. Keep music creative.

What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?

Any performance is a dream come true to me. I’ve only performed once, and while it was amazing, I don’t completely feel I was ready or took full advantage of the opportunity. I would love to perform a Rolling Loud set. Somewhere I can put full effort into my performance to really make the crowd feel my energy. I would love a set that I can feed my energy off into or vice-versa, like those stages that have pyrotechnics that blow out the sides and crazy lighting.

If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?

There are so many artists I could list off. 

Seshspawn came from a lot of mutual friends I had when coming up in my scene. I followed him for a few years up until his passing a few months ago.

Poorstacy was a very influential person to me and the type of music I make now. A lot of the indie stuff I make I started doing because of finding his music, and his ‘type beats’ from producers on YouTube. I absolutely loved his style as well. He also passed away 2 weeks ago now.

Kxllswxtch would absolutely be my #1 right now that I would love to work with. I feel like me and him are so compatible and could go hand and hand on any type of song. We are so incredibly similar I feel that if I got the opportunity, I would jump the gun and do it in a heart beat. I’ve watched his growth for many years.

Where can our listeners follow and support your music? (Website,Spotify, IG, links)

I am on all platforms as ABYSSELL. This includes Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, YouTube Music, everything. Even little streaming services like Deezer, Amazon Music, iTunes, and so many more.

My Instagram is @abyssell.flac. I post polls, snippets, and information about all of my music on there. I am very impressionable and give a lot of opportunities for my fans to dictate which direction my projects go in. I keep track of all of my snippets and commonly ask what songs people want, what genres they want, and what all they want to hear more or less of.

Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical

journey?

I am so excited for 2026 and I believe I am up a steady rising hill right now. Though I never intended to get listeners or anything, I am in love with having a community that I get to be a kind of provider for. My dream for 2026 is growing with my listeners. I believe we are all one, and we only grow together.

What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?

I hope that my listeners discover that I am also listening to them. I want to release the best work that I can for who listens to me, and everyone’s input matters a lot to me.