Written By: Oliver Heffron
18-year-old Liverpool singer/multi-instrumentalist re6ce (pronounced “Reese”) epitomizes contemporary pop music’s DIY, alt direction with his saturated, summery beats and catchy, emotive vocal melodies. Combining throwback indie rock leanings with the instrumental flare of the underground hip-hop and bedroom pop they grew up on, re6ce has quickly gone from a kid testing out songs in his bedroom to one of Atlantic’s most promising recent signings (in a joint venture with Good Luck Have Fun) with viral songs like “Teeth (You),” “Cabin Fever,” and “Vampire.”
Self-taught and still only a few years into making music, each new re6ce release sees him explore a new sound with impressive results, revealing a remarkable ability to experiment with different sounds while retaining a cohesive vision. Fresh off his first major-label release, “LUVsick!” featuring friend and fellow alt-pop phenom ThoxSoMuch, re6ce returns today with an upbeat, textured new single, “eyebags.”
Sitting down with NUANCE for a recent interview, re6ce shares how he got into making music when he knew it was more than a hobby and where he plans to take his sound from here.
Growing up in Liverpool, re6ce didn’t quite fit in with his classmates: “There weren’t really many people who we into the same things that I am. I was always more into American music and stuff..while they were playing football, I wanted to do more music or photography and stuff like that.” After being put on by his older siblings to iconic bands like Oasis and The Arctic Monkeys, re6ce remembers first falling in love with alt-leaning music when he found Tyler, the Creator’s Cherry Bomb on YouTube at 9-year old: “I was like, ‘What the fuck, this is awesome.’”
Looking back on when they first got interested in making music, re6ce pinpoints an ordinary day scrolling through TikTok in February 2021 that stands out in retrospect: “I was 15, and I was just scrolling and tiktok, and I found this kid about the same age as me making like bedroom pop who I really liked. So I texted them on Instagram like, ‘Yo, this song’s really cool. I didn’t know you could make music like that…’”
“...Because my only exposure to music was people making rap songs in the bedroom so to see somebody doing bedroom pop was like, damn, you can do that. I didn’t even know you could do pop. I thought that was cringe. But he was doing it in like a really cool way dnd I was like this is awesome. So, I texted them and we became friends and he gave me kind of a rundown on the recording process for me on Audacity with a Blue Yeti microphone–it was the worst setup ever–but it was dope because then I was making more pop music and stuff. But yeah, my introductory introduction was probably through this kid called nimstarr in Georgia.”
Photo Courtesy of Gabby Reese
From his earliest release, it was clear that Re6ce had a talent for vocals--singing, songwriting, and mixing his voice to create a soothing dynamic with stripped-down, melodic beats. “At first, it was all about like the songwriting and the vocals. Or, like, putting auto-tune on it. Even at the start, when I feel like it’s excessive, it’s cool because it’sit sounds different. But then I started getting more into the production side of it, starting getting more into guitar and bass. That opened a new door for me.”
Asked when re6ce realized their bedroom hobby could become a full-fledged career, they discuss the unexpected viral success of “Teeth (You)” as the critical moment:
“I think it was “teeth.”... I was dropping a song a month for all of 2022. When it got to June, I released a song called September, and I didn’t release anything in January or July. I didn’t release anything in August, and the numbers started to plateau. It was really getting to me, and I was just in my room like damn, like everything was going good, and now the numbers are dropping and stuff. I was really stressed about it…
“…But then I went out skating one night, listening to the artist Ecstasy, and when I got back home, we made the song in like 20 minutes called “Teeth,” and I was like, this is cool. The chorus is kind of cool on it, but I didn’t think it was too crazy. And I put it on TikTok and go to bed or whatever, don’t think anything of it. And then I wake up, and it’s like 50,000 views, and I’m just like, What the fuck/ I didn’t know because that was just like another song to me. I never expected that. Sometimes you put stuff out, and you’re like, this is a really good one, and you think people are going to engage with it, and then they don’t engage with it at all. You can never really guess with these things…But yeah, it was like around that time or on teed September 2021 or 2022 that I was like, this could like maybe like be like an actual thing I could do.”
Describing his relationship with fellow ascending alt-pop artist ThxSoMuch, re6ce recounts the two first connecting around the time that “Teeth” blew up: “He had a song called “spin my face” that was blowing up, and he texted me like, ‘Yo, we have this song and like, it’s like going crazy.’ So I was supposed to be on spin on my face. But then we just decided it wasn’t the best thing, but we were like, ‘Yo, we should do a song in the future.’
So then, time passed, and I didn’t think anything of it. I made this song called ‘LUVsick!’ and I did all the guitar and stuff, and he posted about one beat, and I was like, ‘Oh, I can send you some beats of mine.’ And he was like, ‘Oh, I didn’t even know you made beats like that.’.. So then I send them a couple of guitar tracks, and I think nothing of it, and then he sends back this verse on ‘LUVsick,’ and I was like, ‘What the fuck?’ Because I already had vocals on that, but there was like an empty section that I like forgot about, and you just sat back his verse, and I was like, What the fuck? This is awesome.”
Preparing to open for ThxSoMuch on a Spring Tour through the US, where re6ce reveals his audience is three times larger than in his native UK, he looks forward to performing live for his American fans for the first time, especially the places most foreigners don’t usually see: “I’m excited to be in like the middle of nowhere, though. Because I know a lot of people only want to be in the cities, but my only experience with the US has been in like the biggest city, so I can’t wait to be in a small town in like Ohio or something.”