The Opener: aeter won’t wait to live his dreams

The Opener is The FADER’s short-form profile series of casual conversations with exciting new artists.

North Carolina artist aeter might be young, but the almost-18-year-old puts his own spin on indie music. No, not indie rock, nor independently released — SoundCloud indie, a burgeoning scene where bedroom guitarists and former MCs hop on BandLab to reinvigorate their emo rock inspirations with hip-hop rhythms and production flourishes before baring their rawest feelings on the mic. Major figures include wifiskeleton (now deceased) and jaydes (recently released from jail); rising stars include bunii, crayon, and yiru.

Among his indie peers, aeter stands out for his broader sonic range. His albums fold together the aforementioned guitar-forward tunes with more traditional rap cuts and moodier, piano-driven songs. That sonic variance helped keep last year’s clown feeling lively, even if aeter was still finessing exactly how he wanted to shape his altrock songs. But now the young singer has found his own flair.

Contemplative and cutting, the lyrics on last month’s SKIN TURNS RED can be morbid and nonchalant, but aeter is anything but stoic. The music meets his maelstrom of emotions with tranquil soundscapes and riotous riffs, alternating between letting his lyrics soak into your psyche and sticking them to your subconscious with an undeniable hook. aeter’s worldbuilding has always been a cornerstone of his appeal — check out this flash game where you beat up Charlie Kirk — but his latest shows his raw musical skill growing to match his evocative thematics.

Painted red for the cover of SKIN TURNS RED (and its music videos), aeter unintentionally reminds me of Geryon, the sensitive crimson protagonist of Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red. Geryon is “a monster” who lives in an all-red world, but his terrifying countenance hides his yearning for intimacy. Likewise, even when aeter gestures toward the gory and graphic, you can hear his bleeding heart beating hard in the background. Sometimes love is scary.

The FADER caught up with aeter to chat about getting his covers taken down for copyright infringement, making music about his girlfriend, and why he had more fun seeing OsamaSon live than Playboi Carti.

Tell us about the first album you bought.
I’ve never bought an album, but if I were to buy one I'd buy Square One Here I Come by the Hives. It’s probably the first album I’ve ever downloaded I think, I had it on my shitty Android when I was way younger.

What was the last movie you watched?
The last movie I watched was Girl, Interrupted. I watched it with my girlfriend Makalynn. It’s about a girl who spends time inside a mental institution. Really good movie, I recommend it.

When you’re not making music, how do you spend your free time?
If I’m not making music I’m watching cartoons or 2000s horror movies. Cartoons is my life, I’ve seen just about every single one, even ones that nobody knows of. At the moment American Dad, Dan Vs., and Fugget About It has been on rewatch.

Tell us about your favorite tattoo or accessory.
Even though I only have two tattoos right now my favorite out of the two is my “2007” wrist tattoo. 2007 is my birthday year and also the name of one of my alternate soundcloud accounts where I post distorted 2007 sounding rock songs. My favorite accessory is the bracelet my girlfriend got me.

Describe the last meme you saved to your phone.
Last meme saved to my phone is a picture of a ugly ass sad puppy and the caption is “When u see her story and she got badder and u still buns at the game and your doordash got cancelled”. Me and my homie Lewis was crying at this shit for a good minute.

Explain a lyric of yours that people misunderstand.
On the song “SAVIOR/NOT A SAVIOR,” I say “I’mma kill your idol like my cousin”. I’ve seen niggas say that’s a diss towards my cousin when it’s not. My cousin’s rap name is Ripidols, so it’s a reference to his name. Shoutout to that nigga he been running it up, mad proud of him.

What’s something you’re looking forward to?
Something I’m looking forward to is doing my first show and touring with my homies. Feel like that’s the last thing I'm missing in terms of my career, the shows. Would be cool to see my fans in person even though them niggas be slick harassing me on the internet.

Tell us about the best concert you’ve attended.
I’ve only been to 2 concerts in my life unfortunately, definitely trying to go to more but most of the artists I fuck with be having shows across the state from me. The two shows I've been to is Playboi Carti in 2021 and OsamaSon in 2025. Not gonna lie, I’m choosing the OsamaSon show. I had more fun, that nigga Carti was hiding behind the smoke the whole time and I was at a seat rather than on the floor like at Osama’s show.

What’s the best thing you’ve bought for $100 or less?
Best thing I've bought for $100 or less was a PS3 and the game Facebreaker for PS3. It’s one of my favorite games of all time and I lost my original disk in a house fire. So being able to rebuy it and play it was sick.

What’s the coolest thing to do in your hometown?
Honestly nothing that cool to do in my hometown. Majority of the time I find fun being in my own backyard. My town is slick boring.

What’s a motto you think everyone should live by?
A motto I think everyone should live by is you only live once so do whatever you want. Stop caring about what other niggas think of you cause at the end of the day they usually don’t have shit going on.

What’s the ideal level of fame?
My ideal level is fame is Frank Ocean kinda fame. He’s at the perfect spot. He’s able to have his privacy, eating good off of his past music, and STILL til this day have people anticipating his next release. I don’t ever wanna be too famous to where people watch my every move, dissect every little thing I say or treat me like I'm not human.

What’s the last thing you wrote in your notes app?
The last thing I wrote in my notes was my Valentine’s day plans with my girlfriend. In case you haven’t noticed I love my girlfriend, half the songs on SKIN TURNS RED are about her.

What’s a song you’d want to remix and why?
This is a good question cause I've done a lot of covers of songs that I love. I once did a remix/cover of “Girl Next Door” by Copperpot and it got so popular that Copperpot got it taken down lol. Anyways there’s many songs I’d like to remix, I think the song at the top of my list is “I don’t wanna wait” by Paula Cole. I just can’t hit those notes though, she got that shit for now.

Worst advice you’ve gotten
I don’t think I’ve ever gotten any bad advice really. I have a pretty wise family and they’ve only ever gave me good advice on whatever the matter is.

Best advice you’ve gotten
Best advice I’ve ever gotten is from my dad. Ever since a kid he’s always told me you don’t have to wait til you’re older to live out your dreams.

Describe your perfect afternoon.
My perfect afternoon would be chillin with my girl eating food and watching Instagram reels together.