About Gus

Gus's Writing

Gus's Writing

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. 

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Songs We Used to Sing, Listen to, and Read

Songs We Used to Sing, Listen to, and Read

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.
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Gus and School: for the Record

Gus and School: for the Record

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.
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Gus's Shoes

Gus's Shoes

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.

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Gus's Friend and Tattoo Artist--Dana Vargas

Gus's Friend and Tattoo Artist--Dana Vargas

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.
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Gus dyes his hair February, 2016.

Gus and His Hair

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.
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The Original Lil Peep T Shirt

The Original Lil Peep T Shirt

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.

 

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Gus and his dog Taz

Gus and his dog Taz

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.
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Gus and SoundCloud

Gus and SoundCloud

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.
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November 1 & The Day of the Dead

November 1 & The Day of the Dead

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.

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Gus's Music

LIL PEEP; PART ONE

LIL PEEP; PART ONE

For those of us who know the words to “star shopping,” the line, “shoutout to everyone making my beats u helpin me preach/this music’s the only thing keeping the peace when I’m falling to pieces,” really captures the thread that ties together the songs of LIL PEEP; PART ONE.  The producers, and their beats sent via SoundCloud, Twitter, texts, and emails, sustained Gus during a low point in his relationship with his girlfriend, Emma. During that time he developed his skills as a creator of music and as a lyricist.  This intense work also helped him get through a time of estrangement from Emma.  Writing and singing his lyrics was cathartic for him.

 

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Teen Romance

Teen Romance

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. 
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Diamonds

Diamonds

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.

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Live Forever

Live Forever

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

Feelz

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.”
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HIGH FASHION  - Harry Fraud x LiL PEEP

HIGH FASHION - Harry Fraud x LiL PEEP

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.
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Castles/CASTLES 2

Castles/CASTLES 2

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.
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California Girls

California Girls

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. 

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Hellboy

Hellboy

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.
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Crybaby

Crybaby

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.
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Fan Art

Girls Fan Art

Girls Fan Art

In honour of the eight-year anniversary of the release of the Hellboy mixtape, we are proud to share some fan art inspired by one of its biggest hits.
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Awful Things Fan Art

Awful Things Fan Art

In honor of the seven year anniversary of "Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 1", Peep fans have been creating artwork inspired by one of the album's biggest hits, "Awful Things".
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July 2024 Fan Art

July 2024 Fan Art

July, 2024 has blessed us with a sea of beautiful fan art, including pencil and digital drawings, customized shoes and Lil Peep rugs.
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White Tee Fan Art

White Tee Fan Art

In honor of the eight year anniversary of the release of the “Crybaby” mixtape, the talented artists in the Lil Peep community have created a multitude of beautiful art based on the tape’s penultimate track, “white tee”.
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May 2024 Fan Art

May 2024 Fan Art

We are thrilled to present a fresh batch of fan art for the month of May, 2024.
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April 2024 Fan Art

April 2024 Fan Art

We are thrilled to present a fresh batch of fan art for the month of April, 2024.
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March 2024 Fan Art

March 2024 Fan Art

We are thrilled to present a fresh batch of fan art for the month of March, 2024.
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February 2024 Fan Art

February 2024 Fan Art

We are thrilled to share the freshest batch of fan art for the month of February, 2024.
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January 2024 Fan Art

January 2024 Fan Art

We are thrilled to welcome 2024 with a fresh batch of wonderful fan art.
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December 2023 Fan Art

December 2023 Fan Art

We are proud to present the final batch of fan art of 2023.
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