C.Y. Lee

Peace Peace, First & Foremost, If you copped any physical merch or were subscribed from/to my bandcamp (2020-present) - please please, send me your current/updated shipping address. Ok, so a lot of people already know the up’s & unprecedented downs of what my life became post (2020 world event) you know the reason this USB began & why I was willing to give everyone full access to my entire released and unreleased discography at the time. You know about two hard drive losses since, that initially delayed it, and my hard pivot into new technology that was marketed as permanent compared the quickly decaying proof of culture as big tech breaks search engines, sunsets or fundamentally alters websites/platforms/apps we have shared work while connecting organically via shared interests. 2021-2023 that pivot while frowned upon by a larger portion of the population than not, that pivot began with improved systems in contrast to an algo driven internet, and because of that. My relentless documentation, and uncharacteristically over transparent backstories attached to music, actually saved my life. Not hyperbolic or metaphorically.. literally led to events that kept me breathing & sharing the same air as you all. The purpose & scope of the usb evolved, but a usb is still limited in storage & my legacy weighs a ton, so the workaround was leveraging the permanence & organizational control of the technology, to link out to in the master vault manual/biography…. I moved across the country in 2024, got the biggest blessing of my life which you all expressed so much joy about then…. 2 events slowly unraveled in parallel that broke the final chapter of the usb. The technology wasn’t so permanent, so 5 years of data can’t be linked to anymore and that blessing in 2024, turned out to be the ultimate traumatic nightmare still ongoing so I can’t talk about it. That being said, @cxy (executive producer) of this vault really wants this imperfect but still impressive version of what we hope it will become after I stop hoarding this version into your hands and out of my very heavy unresolved priority cobweb mind asap. So… INCOMING! Hold tight.

Loving the culture is one thing. Building infrastructure for it is another. C.Y. chose both. Watch the full conversation on YouTube. Link in bio.

Finishing this album and living all the lives I have to live. Surfing thru shapeshifting timelines 🏄🏾‍♀️🏄🏽💃🏽 First album in 7 years 🙃🥰😏! Fourth album #HouseCat in process 🥰🤲🏾 Many thanks to my executive producer @cxy for funding the vision and supporting my experimental sonic approach 🙌🏾🙏🏾

the irony is that I would have to fly over OK to attend some of these… our baby is in not 1 but 6 festivals this spring!!! congrats to the whole team ✈️ Director & Editor @classicnelson Executive Producer @cxy Producer @samgfriske DP & Color @damn.gramn Still Photos @ericwdanielss Gaffer Michael Rodgers Key Grip @thomas.larson03 Key PA @lili_conway Location Mngr Roland Canamar Pamphlet Graphics @plaintarajayn Cast: Matt Morrison - window seat @itsfionavioleta - aisle seat @bwanz - first class @charlottejaneeee - wife 1 @ktsmallz - wife 2 @plaintarajayn - flight attendant Passengers: Gene Bishop @jaislynb @lili_conway Boss Hasley Ray Hernandez @thenataliakane @thomas.larson03 Jason Nguyen Aung Paing Phyo Patrick Rahill @gio_roams Song: ✍️ me + @barryfowlervi producer me + @barryfowlervi band @salonendavid @jefflivingstonemusic @paullshill mix @lawrencerothman master @plyman Screening dates: March 2​1 & 22 - ​Lake County April ​1 - 5 - Desertscape April 11 - Poppy Jasper April 9 - 12 - New Bedford April 14 - Portland Panorama April 15 & 18 - ​P​hoenix

Music philanthropy is destined to be about so much more than just the symphony. It was an honor to curate Table Turn #002 in Los Angeles last week—a one-of-a-kind dinner experience from the heads and hearts behind House of Paper, a new endeavor pulling artists and philanthropists together in a powerful counterforce to the deepening algorithmic grooves that increasingly shape the music we all hear. We designed the night around a single song, ‘The Apple Orchard in Saghmosavanq’ by contemporary Armenian jazz pianist Tigran Hamasyan, and its impressionistic images of loss, hope, growth, and possibility. So grateful to be a small part of something that I wish had existed back when I was making music out in the long tail of that early algorithmic promise. 📸 @bymaximiliano 🙏

Where do I start .. this year has been amazing, from the conclusion of the SCENES album, to my debut London show.. but the most important thing for me has been connecting with you the listeners (special shout out to those who helped fund scenes and those in my Instagram chat group) and building out my world around my music.. as you can see from these slides I’ve been working really hard on who I am around the music. 1. Scenes video: I grew up watching my fav bands collaborate with inspiring directors, and I was lucky that when I pitched the idea to @cxy that he agreed to come on as executive producer to fund the project and make it a reality. Directed by @helena.ausgang produced by @hiersoir.tv 2. Go subscribe to my @substack ! Getting a subscription is the most sustainable way for you to support my work as it’s a small monthly amount. It’s become my way of processing the world and turning my ideas into something others might inspired by. 3. Keep an eye out for more of these and that’s to the companies like @story_protocol @encodeclub that have partnered with me to make them happen and all those that took part 4. Much love to everyone that came down to this, the @thunderboomrecords team, and for @jackalackalack helping run the event. 5. Thanks to everyone that played the game! It was fun giving away the free merch and seeing who had downloaded the song for free x 6. Thanks to everyone who has supported my work by collecting one of the artefacts! 7. This was a special one, thanks to everyone who was there, @marymmaguire for curating the experience and @cxy for making it happened 8. I loved working on this with @vividfeverdreams he’s really going all in to see what artists can get out of ai tools. Executive produced by @cxy 9. Of course music is what matters to me most.. honestly January seems like a life time ago! This year was about introducing more people to my debut album SCENES, getting to remix the amazing @mildminds_ , collaborations with @blvrd_uk @whitehouseremix @hauptaupt … and the first 2 songs off my forthcoming coming EP ‘Alone Together’ #2025 #electronicmusicproducer #creator

This 👇🏻 Not the idea of being “multi-hyphen” for the sake of it, but being agnostic across media. Not seeing music, visuals, writing, tech, platforms as separate lanes, but as materials you can move between. I’ve felt this tension for years. Starting out as “a musician” but then developing to now when the work never really fit inside one container. Making music, yes, but also building worlds around it. Systems. Context. Ways for people to step inside the work rather than just consume it. What @cxy articulates here feels important right now. Not chasing tools because they’re new, but staying curious about what becomes possible when you let technology be part of the medium, not just the delivery. Less about output. More about how you think, how you experiment, how you stay open. This is from my conversation with @cxy for New Forms a new interview series, you can watch the full interview on Substack or YouTube #independentartist #creativecareers #musicbusiness #musicmarketing #creator

Most music funding still assumes value lives at the end of the process. Finished recordings. Measurable reach. Clear ROI. But a lot of the work I’m interested in doesn’t work like that. This carousel pulls from a long conversation I had with @cxy about patronage, process, and what it actually takes to make space for work that’s trying to find new answers rather than optimise for existing platforms. SCENES, the game, Memory Atlas, Alone Together… none of those started with a clear outcome. They started with a question. The only reason they could exist at all was because there was room to explore without needing to defend the work in advance. This isn’t about replacing streaming, teaching, grants, or “doing it properly”. Those things still matter. It’s about recognising that some work sits outside platform incentives by design, and needs a different kind of support to happen. If artists are already trying to build beyond the terms set by platforms, the unresolved question is who steps in to fund that work before it makes sense. Not answers here. Just trying to name the gap. Make sure too# check out some of the other artists who’s photos feature in the last slide if you are interested in artist pushing the boundaries @verite @callmelatasha @blackdave.mk2 @xcelencia @jameecornelia @vividfeverdreams @voyce.box @tom_vek @forrestmortifee @tkthelegend @camfromthecoast @p3t3rango @peacepeacegawd @producedbydav - break downs of their full projects are available in the @networkarchives digital zine #musicbusiness #independentartists #independentartist #funding

Let’s run it back then! My documentary “WICKET” will screen for the 2nd time in San Francisco @sfdancefilmfest on Nov.7th at @bravatheater !!! Not only will we have the q&a following the documentary, but we will have a special breaking performance 🔥🔥🔥👟👟 Get your tickets now, and I’ll see yall soon! Special thanks to: @partnersinkindprod @cxy @lplotkin @ryhormel @strike_mvmnt

Scenes is out! Go watch the full video on @youtube now. Much love to everyone that worked on this ❤️ directed by the amazing @helena.ausgang produced by @heirsoir and executive producer of the whole SCENES project @cxy I always dreamed of making music videos that are collaborations with amazing directors and Scenes is the latest in a run of videos I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of. Thanks to everyone that was involved in making this happen and all those who worked hard on it 👇🏻❤️ Full video credits: Directed by @helena.ausgang Production @hiersoir.tv Executive Producer @yoel_servadio Line Producer @babar_au_mic Production Coordinator @le_gaffric Producers @annececile_jemin @caroline_helaine 1st AD @q_dub_dub VFX @wu_boi Casting @marielevycast Cast @syrineverroust @bikkesoukka @cazhauge @hexerington Director of Photography @edlegrelle Editor @florian__julia Colorist @nico_gautier_colorist Stylist @morgan_r_s_ Make Up @donia_bna Art Director @gastonportejoie 1st AC @hugo_bottin 2nd AC @claraguizard Gaffer @gaetan.vote Spark @aurelient_hnr Key Grip @j_laguill Grip @noahvlm Stead Operator @gregoire_lobut Location Manager _azemri Location Manager Assistant @foucauldbayle Audio Mastering @emre_ram Special thanks to Casper Louis, @rvzparis , Madison César Roussel, @transperfect , @bbcarparis.officiel , @heroes_studios_paris

This Friday the official video for ‘Scenes’ the final song from my debut album its coming out, and I wanted to share some of the journey with you, in the same way I experienced it. The idea was born from instagram chats and calls with director @helena.ausgang when he reached out to connect and tell the story about how he would love to direct a video for the song the Scenes. We shared a love of 90s and 2000s music and the music videos of the time , directors such as Michele Gondry, Chris Cunningham and Spike Jonze, and spoke at length initially just as fans of music and art. Of course my initial reaction was; I would love to do this, but how can I justify the spend in the current climate? where lets face it music videos have lost a lot of their appeal due to how people consume music … but we keep talking and the more we talked the more I wanted to make it happen. Over time a treatment was sent to me and I share this with CY.Lee who has been a patron and executive producer of my projects over the last 3 years, and in the unique way he often does, after me explaining that videos like this just don’t get to happen these days, that honesty ended up being the exact impetus needed for him to offer to come on board as Executive Producer (and give me the confidence to fund the rest): That there is no model to fund great art around and in music, just for the arts sake. That is best reason possible to make it happen, that it couldn’t exist any other way. We were very lucky to have the support from @heirsoir the production company Helena works with and between all these connections, and communal love for cinematic nature of the song, the video started went into production. It was the first time in a while I was not creatively involved in every detail of my output, so for me, like you my connection came through messages and photos.. just like these, as the video came together 👆🏻 The fact that this happened, it was shot on film and the ambition that the team brought to create this piece of art… just mind blowing. I cant wait to share it!