Meet Garrett Rahn | Artist & Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Garrett Rahn and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Garrett, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
an important lesson for me to learn about work/life balance was to do my best not to turn everything I love doing into a source of income.

a couple years back, I quit my day job and started to pursue artistic endeavors as a full time job. what I found was that it became almost instantly harder to force myself to want to make art.

for myself (and for many artists I believe), our art is how we escape from the pressures of the world, and how we process the emotions that it elicits; it IS our life. when you offer all of your creative hobbies up to the ever-grinding wheel of capitalism, you eventually pervert the act of creation, suffocating its nature of spontaneity and lawlessness.

in my case, I found myself burnt out from the very thing I once loved and defined myself by. as a consequence, the boundary between time spent working and time spent living faded away completely.

on the long road to reclaiming my art and finding joy in it once again, I had to remind myself that my life’s work is not economic work. artistic expression at its core is a flat rejection of the modern concept of work.

these days, I work in the music industry, but I have hard boundaries around how my time is spent. I refuse to let my art, which is my life, become my job again. I refuse to let my work become something that I cannot escape. finally, I refuse to let my art stress me out the way my job sometimes does.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
the primary vehicle for my artistic expression these days is my alternative folk/singer songwriter project “underexposed”.

underexposed began during a two week stint that I was living out of my car in the summer of 2021. without a home to go home to and distract myself in, I found myself passing the time in public parks, observing the world and thinking about my own life situation. I wrote a number of songs in that time, eventually releasing the aptly named “car song” as the new project’s first single.

from there, songwriting in the somber, lo-fi influenced, introspective style that I had developed consumed me, and became a processing technique for the twists and turns of life many young people find themselves entrenched in: love and loss, instability, mental illness.

as I have changed and grown in the years since then, so too has the sonic nature of the project, now spanning many genres everywhere from slowcore to country to bedroom pop. looking back at my discography is like vivid trip down memory lane, each release more saturated with memory and emotion than a photograph or video could ever hope to contain.

I am most proud of my ability to remain relatable even as the project grows. the compliment I hear the most from listeners is that I brought them into my world for a moment, and reminded them of their own life.

currently, I am most excited about an album I am chipping away at. over the last year, I have been pushing myself to get out of my own brain and collaborate more with other artists, and I couldn’t be happier with the results. It can be really difficult to let new people in on your creative process, especially when you are working with emotionally dense topics; there is a much higher degree of trust and self acceptance that you need to achieve in order to open up. however, if you can get past the discomfort and learn how the other person works, the results are so beautiful and fulfilling.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
my favorite place to hang out in the city is the river walk in frog town. there is a wonderful vegan bakery called Just What I Kneaded there with incredible cinnamon rolls, a cute bike cafe called Spoke with crispy potatoes to die for, and a little park with a small field and a skate park just off the path! I have spent an enormous amount of time plodding back and forth, listening to music or podcasts, talking with friends, or just sitting by the river and meditating to the sound of the running water and honking geese.

if we are going further west, I would be sure to stop by Con Amor Cafe in pico union for some good food and good vibes before going out to the culver steps.

if we just wanted to sit down and people watch, I would have to stop by Millies Cafe in silverlake for some vegan chilaquiles and maybe even a donut from Creamo next door.

other than that, I would have to drag them to both MOCA’s to see whatever is on display, because it never fails to wow me!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to dedicate my shoutout to my two siblings, wilson and bennett. I am the youngest in my family, and I have always had two incredible role models to looks up to. through direct conversation, endless encouragement, or just observation on how they interact with the world, they have helped me learn many vital lessons, from practical knowledge, like how to use use a digital audio workstation, to esoteric truths of life, like how to love myself and to stay afloat in a harsh world. being the youngest sibling means that I get to learn from their mistakes, and also it means I get support and understanding when I make mistakes of my own.

Website: https://linktr.ee/garrettrahn

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ndr_xpsd

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iso.too.low

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIyKNHowc3bsw92-XkXbT2g

Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4gm9JC2dn3B2LX2EDhDNkq?si=iXAmhLyJTW-wSVKf7YrrRA

Image Credits
Ecstasy Plant, Kyle Tubbs