About Gus

Gus's Writing

Aug 15, 2022

So, as a little kid, Gus got to experience the pleasure of writing freely. I have all of his written work from the first grade, as well as his early writing from Pre-K and Kindergarten. It is interesting to analyze Gus’s early written work with all his other writing to think about as well. I see patterns in his writing. From the moment he began writing, as a child, until the day he died, Gus mixed reality with make-believe to express his feelings whether they were playful or sad.

What stands out the most to me when I read Gus’s early stories is how so many of them are evocative in the same way that his lyrics are.

Songs We Used to Sing, Listen to, and Read

Jul 11, 2022

Gus was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania. We lived at 2625 Liberty St. which was right across the street from Muhlenberg College where Gus’s father worked. The house was owned by the College. The rent was cheap because we contracted to entertain students monthly with a movie night and discussion.

We had one car. It was a 1992 Nissan Sentra that my mother had bought for us brand new. Johan could walk to work, while I had the car for errands and the kids.

Gus and School: for the Record

Jan 17, 2022

This is written to set the record straight. The Wikipedia page sites interviews. Unfortunately--for the record--not all of Gus's published interviews were historically accurate. He did not complete high school on-line. He completed a semester of college on-line. This entry is to set the record straight about his schooling. There will be other posts to set the record straight about other inaccurately detailed parts of Gus's life. Perhaps the Wikipedia authors will read this.

Gus's Shoes

Apr 30, 2020

Gus loved shoes. He began to show an interest in “cool shoes” around fourth or fifth grade. One of the first observable instances of Gus’s keen fascination with shoes was the moment he commented on his grandmother’s black Converse All-Stars. They were high-tops. He told her he liked them. She gave them to him. And so it began.

Gus's Friend and Tattoo Artist--Dana Vargas

Mar 22, 2020

Gus and Dana had fun working on tattoo ideas together. He enjoyed having little images filled in here and there, in between the bigger images. He loved getting tattoos. For some reason, Gus had Emma photograph nearly every tattoo he had—up until he left to begin performing with Schemaposse in February, 2016. For that reason, I can show you Gus’s tattoos in detail here.

Gus and His Hair

Jan 02, 2020

You can see so many photos of Gus in his many hairstyles. He clearly had fun playing with his style, and fearlessly decorating his body the way he felt like. There had been a moment when Gus decided he would no longer care about the dirty looks—or at least no longer allow the dirty looks define who he could and could not be.

The Original Lil Peep T Shirt

Dec 03, 2019

Some time in October of 2015, Gus realized he should or could start to sell t-shirts. He worked with a couple of people and decided to use the skeleton design, and the spooky the Lil Peep logo. Then he got permission to use the Schemaposse logo from JGrxxn. Gus was excited to be joining Schemaposse.

Gus and his dog Taz

Nov 22, 2019

Gus convinced his father and me to bring Taz into our home in the winter of 2008. Gus had met Taz at his friend Matt’s mother’s doggy daycare. Gus loved animals and had started to go with Matt after school and on the weekends sometimes when Matt went to his mom’s shop. She groomed dogs and also took care of them in a little storefront in Oceanside New York. Taz was one of six puppies who had been shipped in to the shop around holiday time, I guess to be sold as Christmas presents.

Gus and SoundCloud

Nov 06, 2019

Gus began making and recording music, and even videos, in 2013. In 2015 he discovered SoundCloud. That year he began posting his music on SoundCloud, and started gaining followers. The positive feedback he got from posting his music on SoundCloud inspired Gus to keep making and releasing his music.

November 1 & The Day of the Dead

Nov 01, 2019

All Saints Day, also called The Day of the Dead in Spanish-speaking countries, was Gus’s actual birthday. Its happy skeleton images also interested and inspired Gus as he grew older. It was this image, the skeleton, that Gus chose as his first symbol when he began to call himself Lil Peep and make himself visible to his SoundCloud listeners.

Diamonds

Sep 08, 2023

From July 27 to August 10, Gus and Makonnen had completed the first fifteen of what would be twenty-one songs and would later be known as the “Diamonds” project. They had completed these songs in Los Angeles. Makonnen had invited Gus, Smokeasac, Fish Narc, and Yung One Era to the Electric Feel studio on Sunset Boulevard. The studio had been new to Gus, and the music was a very new style for him to “hop on.” He had loved every minute of it.

Live Forever

Dec 02, 2022

Gus was feeling good when he released Live Forever. He dropped the mixtape just before midnight on December 2, 2015--pretty soon after Thanksgiving.

Feelz

May 20, 2022

We know that Gus deleted the garage band (original) versions of many of his first songs, so for those songs all we have are the bounces. As he developed fluency with the equipment and his process, he “bounced” a song pretty much as soon as he composed it. But, in the beginning, he likely did not. We know this because we can hear him playing a song on his iPhone fully one month before our first documented record of the song on his computer—the “bounce.”

HIGH FASHION - Harry Fraud x LiL PEEP

Dec 03, 2021

Two nights. Two songs. It was a wonderful experience for Gus, one that he expressed such pride about. He really was so proud to be able to make music with Harry Fraud.

Castles/CASTLES 2

Jul 02, 2021

Gus had come home to New York in the end of May, completed the second half of crybaby, and then someone paid for his plane ticket to return to Los Angeles on June 8. The next day, Gus dropped crybaby. Gus’s living situation plans fell through. So, he stayed for a while with a friend named Elias. Gus was busy trying to make music with a multitude of collaborators while he was staying at Elias’s house.

California Girls

Jan 28, 2021

Gus made California Girls when he was living in Long Beach, during the winter of 2015-2016. He made every one of the six tracks on California Girls with a friend he had never met in person-- @nedarbnagrom. He wrote and recorded these songs at night, and made videos during the day, while I was at work.

Hellboy

Sep 25, 2020

Gus made Hellboy in LA. Some people say Hellboy was Gus’s “breakthrough” mixtape. And certainly many of Gus’s fans became fans because of Hellboy. Hellboy is a gritty, raw, and very intense piece of work in which Gus expresses feelings of anger, sorrow, loneliness, and determination. It is passionate. It is daring. And it kicks. It showcases Gus’s love for the guitar. The songs Gus chose to make Hellboy arose from his work with a small group of producers. These young men sampled some great, classic guitar riffs and combined them with the signature 808s for Gus to lay his vocal on and really wobble your rear view mirror.

Crybaby

Jun 10, 2020

Gus left Denver in April 2016 and went back to LA. He ended up staying with his friend and old house-mate, Brennan Savage, in the house they had first moved into in September 2014—When Gus was hoping to go to Glendale Community College with Brennan. Now, nearly two years later, Lederrick and Yung Goth were there, too, as were several other young men. The place was full of people and creative energy. During all that time, Gus began to make the tracks for the Crybaby mixtape.

Vertigo, January 18 2016

Jan 18, 2020

After Christmas, Gus worked with a budding, local, Long Island director named Jon Francois—who goes by the name of Legacy—to make videos for two of the tracks that he decided to release on a four-track EP called Vertigo. All four of those tracks were produced by John Mello (and one was co-produced with Hector Vae).

Hellboy 2023 Fan Art

Sep 25, 2023

In honor of its seven year anniversary, we are proud to present a fresh batch of “Hellboy” fan art.

COWYS 2023 Art

Aug 15, 2023

Gus released his debut album, “Come Over When You’re Sober, Pt. 1”, on this day six years ago and, to celebrate, the amazing artists in the Lil Peep community have created some beautiful fan art.