Pitchfork: When did you first become interested in rapping?

Lil Peep: When I found out about the L.A. underground rap scene and the whole online rap scene that was developing on YouTube and SoundCloud. It inspired me to start doing it myself. So I went to Guitar Center and spent $200 on a microphone, plugged it into my MacBook—I’ve been using the same MacBook since then. I recorded every song I’ve ever done in GarageBand myself, and it’s very homemade. After a couple of months, I noticed there were tens of thousands of plays on my shit, so I kept going. And it’s turned into this.

When did you first move out to L.A.?

I moved out here straight out of high school thinking I was going to pay rent with this SoundCloud rap career I had going on. But it turned out I couldn’t really do that yet. So I had to go back [to Long Island], but I started making more and more money and the fan base grew. Now I’m straight: make plenty, got plenty of fans, plenty of followers, plenty of people willing to support.

What was high school like for you when you were there?

I wasn’t there. I would go, sit there for 45 minutes, be like, I cannot take this. My high school was a closed campus, so we weren’t allowed to leave, so I had to hop a 20-foot fence to run away from these fucking fat security guards every fucking day. Literally. They’d be like, “You have in-school suspension tomorrow.” I was like, “Cool! I won’t come.” School was forced the whole time. Now it’s apparent that it was never very necessary.

Were you heavy into the emo scene?

I would listen to underground bands and shit, but I wouldn’t call [my music] the new emo necessarily. It’s just another wave of it, it’s a subgenre. I don’t think it replaces it or is even mimicking it. It’s a whole new thing, and it’s good for the emo genre as a whole and all the fans and all the people who ever liked it, because it’s going to keep it relevant. It’s just adapting to the new sounds that people want to listen to when they hop in the car and shit. We’re just giving it that emo spin.

Lil Peep: "OMFG" (via SoundCloud)

On the Hellboy track “OMFG,” you talk about wanting to kill yourself. Are you suicidal?

Yeah, it is serious. I suffer from depression and some days I wake up and I’m like, Fuck, I wish I didn’t wake up. That was part of why I moved to California, trying to get away from the place that was doing that to me, and the people I was around. I realized it was just myself—it’s a chemical imbalance in my brain. Some days I’ll be very down and out, but you won’t be able to tell, really, because I don’t express that side of myself on social media. That’s the side of myself that I express through music. That’s my channel for letting all that shit out.

Are you medicated for depression?

I’m not. Everyone always begged me to, but I don’t want to do it. I just like smoking weed and whatever other drug comes my way.

Most people usually have to set out to find drugs.

I don’t like to pay for it. I just like to get it for free.