Gus made Teen Romance over the span of about a month.  He made it during an exciting and transitional time in his life—the spring of 2016.  Just months before, he had flown to Tucson to perform for the first time with Schemaposse, and then ended up staying in Denver for just about the entire month of March.  It was there that Gus met his good friends and collaborators, Yung Goth and LeDerrick.  When it was time to head back to California again, Gus brought these friends with him.  They all stayed at Gus’s old haunting ground, 1700 University Ave.—where Brennan Savage remained during these years as he attended Glendale Community College.  Gus and Brennan had hoped to move into a new place and share it with Craig Xen, but that did not materialize.  So, everyone remained at Brennan’s. 

Once Gus and his friends arrived, Brennan’s home now housed approximately a dozen people, most of them sleeping right up next to each other on the floor (Gus told me about this when he came home for a couple of weeks in mid-May). They were all living in very close quarters. 

It was during this time—May 8-- that Gus met Tracy and they filmed White Tee (shot by Killstation). The very next day, Gus and Nolan (Killstation) worked together to make the Gym Class video—working on the roof of 1700 University Ave.  Nolan recalled that Gus wrote the Gym Class title with a sharpie on a paper towel, because there was no paper in the house.  Below is an idea for gym class cover art. 

It was also during this time that Gus and Sherif (LeDerrick) created two of the three Teen Romance songs.  In fact, Gus and Sherif (LeDerrick) had spent a span of several days working on song after song, most of which ended up on the crybaby mixtape.  However, two songs made during that time--Regrets (April 29, 2016) and Suck My Blood (May 3, 2016)--ended up on the EP that would later be called Teen Romance.  Gus and I were in close contact during this time, but it was clear from his silence in the end of April and beginning of May that he was busy.  He had been very busy making music.

 

Gus and his friends were very productive that spring.  Gus printed his second t-shirt—the crybaby white-tee.  He began making songs with a variety of producers, Nedarb, Cold Hart, Charlie Shuffler, Smokeasac, and LeDerrick.  And he began performing in and around Los Angeles.  One of the things Nolan told me about that time was that Gus was very resourceful and always came up with a workable solution to a problem.  For example, when the two were working on the Gym Class video, and they wanted to include some graphics, they discovered there was no blank paper to be found anywhere at 1700 University Drive.  Unflappable, Gus found a sharpie and used a paper towel to create the graphics they wanted for the video.  Here are photos below.  You can see them if you watch the Gym Class video.

Gus was very excited, but he also grew tired of living under such cramped circumstances, so he messaged me on May 12 to ask if I would fly him home.  I was thrilled, and so was Oskar. Gus arrived home on May 22 and stayed through June 8.  He continued to work on music while he was at home, both working in his bedroom and at his friend Tyler’s house.  He made several of the crybaby songs in our home in Long Beach, as well as at his friend Tyler’s house.  On May 28, he created Teen Romance at his friend Tyler’s home in Island Park.  True to character, Gus used any resource he could find in order to create his music--below are photos of both sides of Tyler’s unopened bank statement on which Gus wrote the lyrics to Teen Romance.  Also pictured is a photo of some lyrics Gus wrote on a paper towel when he was working at Tyler’s house.  Nobody has figured out what song the lyrics are for.

For more about the time-period during which Teen Romance was created, read the essay about Crybaby.  These projects are interrelated and overlap chronologically as well as creatively.

Sherif Rashed (LeDerrick)

I met Gus when I was young and working at a restaurant. I was unsure about my future, but he convinced me to believe in myself and that I really did have a future in chasing my dreams. He convinced me to move to LA with him to work on music and even offered me a place to stay for free for 3 months until we figured out what to do next. We were living in a house with a plethora of other artists, so we didn’t always have the opportunity to use the microphone, but we got to work whenever we had the chance. There was a period of a few weeks where we recorded the tracks Crybaby, Ghost Girl, Suck my Blood, Downtown, Regrets, and Lil Angel. He would sit and watch me make the beats and by the time the beat was done he would have already completed writing to them. When he put together the album “Crybaby,” he realized that only Crybaby and Ghost Girl would fit with the sound he envisioned for the project. The tracks he chose to release for Teen Romance were “Regrets,” “Suck My Blood” and the title track “Teen Romance,” that he had recorded when visiting his family in New York. It meant the world to me that he wanted to help me and see me grow and I know this project meant a lot to his supporters, even though he considered these to be throwaway songs. It blows my mind how even after all these years this project still gets so much love, and I couldn’t say enough about what a selfless and amazing friend that Gus was. There will truly never be another Lil Peep!