re6ce (Reece Downes) is a 16-year-old artist from Liverpool, UK. Despite only making music for a year, he has quickly established himself among up-and-coming artists such as Nimstarr and Overpade, who he collaborated with on his recent single used2go. re6ce draws inspiration from online-adjacent pop artists like ericdoa and Pink Pantheress to create his own blend of drum & bass-influenced pop music. Check out the exclusive interview below:
1. Can you tell us a bit about where you come from and how you got started?
re6ce: yeah so I’m from a city in northwest England called Liverpool, and I started making music around 10 months ago in my bedroom as a way to release negative emotions and let people know it’s normal to feel those ways, y’know?
2. Did you have any formal training or are you self-taught?
re6ce: self-taught! I have a lot of artist friends who I look to for advice every now and then, and I’ll ask my manager Chris about stuff but other than that, it’s all self-taught.
3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences and why the name ‘re6ce’?
re6ce: when I was a lot younger (like 5–7), I used to listen to generic pop stuff on the radio like Bruno Mars, Pink, Lady Gaga, etc. But when I was like 12, I started to find a bunch of cool music online from a variety of genres, such as Daft Punk, Arctic Monkeys, juice wrld, Kanye West, Kid Cudi, Tyler the Creator, the Beatles, and so many more. Then, around early 2020, I found a bunch of kids online making music, which came to be the hyper pop scene that really shaped my current sound and the selection of music that I release.
My name re6ce comes from my real name which is reece, in the early 2020 hyper pop scene a lot of people online would put a number in their name as the cool thing to do, so I did that when I was like fourteen, and Idk it’s just always stuck.
4. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners? How would you personally describe your sound?
re6ce: hm, I would say my strongest suit is probably my lyrics? I’m not the craziest singer, but I think my lyrics are pretty relatable in ways a lot of artists aren’t really covering right now. I kinda just say how I feel in songs, and it resonates with a lot of people because most artists don’t express those same emotions. I also have really wild ideas that I talk about to my friend/producer Alex Ross, we made cabin fever by combining indie and EDM, which is such a weird mashup but it worked out pretty well.
5. For most artists, originality is first preceded by a phase of learning and, often, emulating others. What was this like for you? How would you describe your own development as an artist and music maker, and the transition towards your own style, which is known as INDIE?
re6ce: most definitely, I tried out a bunch of genres before being confident in my indie sound, but I listened to so many types of music it’s hard for me to pick just one, I would say my development has been pretty fast compared to others, and I feel like that’s because of the people I surround myself with and because of my mindset on things, I believe that if you surround yourself with the right people you can do anything with enough effort.
re6ce: I think it’s sick, music has always been a way to spread the word about situations and current world events, and it’s an amazing tool that has been used again and again for good!
but yes my newest song “vampire” is about UK drug culture and I really saw a lot of that growing up and how people are willing to throw their life away in chase of a temporary high, a wide majority of people close to me have been affected by it and i like to talk about issues like this to address them and bring more light and attention to them.
7. Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfilment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?
re6ce: right now? Yeah music is going really well, i try and make around 2-3 songs a week and I’m constantly thinking of new ideas and sounds. As for the future, I’d like to venture out into other creative outlets such as fashion and physical art whenever the time is right.
8. Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?
re6ce: so usually I will get an idea and go straight to my friend/producer Alex Ross, who did a majority of the production on cabin fever and Collision Course, and basically just throw ideas out there (such as a melody, bassline, or drum pattern) until one stick and kinda build upon that back and forth until we get a rough demo, I’ll go write and record lyrics to that demo, and then Alex does a lot of the vocal processing and extra production, which is where the song goes from demo form to full song.
9. What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your music career so far?
re6ce: hm July – October 2021 got pretty stressful at times, I released my first song in July and all throughout the summer I stayed in my bedroom just constantly working on music and trying to improve.
10. On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?
re6ce: I left school one month into college at sixteen on a kinda “musical gap year” as a way for me to put way more time into music and progress a lot faster. I remember telling my mum like “hi can I take a chance on music and leave college?” and she was obviously very confused and surprised about it but she came around and said I have until a year from now until I have to go back to school to do the triple science course i was supposed to be doing, that was October 2021 and with the growth, I’m experiencing right now, I hopefully won’t have to go back ;-;
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