My first year making music was very experimental. I was trying

Hear the voice of Lil Peep, a soul both fleeting and eternal, who confessed: “My first year making music was very experimental. I was trying to find my sound. My second year, I was more in my element. I knew what type of production I wanted to go over and the topics I wanted to address.” In these words, he reveals the journey of every creator—the path from uncertainty to clarity, from searching to becoming. His reflection is not only about music, but about the nature of growth itself. For in all endeavors, one must first stumble through chaos before stepping into one’s true rhythm.

To be experimental is to wander in the wilderness of possibility. In the first stage of creation, the artist is like a child learning to walk, trying many paths, breaking many forms, daring to combine what others might fear to join. Lil Peep speaks of this first year as a necessary season of exploration, when the goal is not mastery but discovery. Just as the alchemist mixes strange elements to seek gold, so too must the young artist try and fail, until sparks appear that show the way forward. Without this stage of searching, no true voice can be found.

But in his second year, Lil Peep declares he came into his element. What does this mean? It is the moment when chaos begins to take shape, when the scattered pieces of experiment form a pattern. He speaks of knowing which production suited him and which topics spoke his truth. In other words, he found not only his sound, but also his message. For the artist is not merely a performer of tones, but a messenger of the soul. To enter one’s element is to recognize what one was made to express, and to claim it without hesitation.

History too has seen this journey repeated. Consider Picasso, whose early years were filled with experiments across many styles—realism, impressionism, and symbolic works. But in time, he entered his element, birthing Cubism, a vision entirely his own. The world at first resisted, but it was undeniable: he had found his sound in paint. So too with Lil Peep—his fusion of emo, punk, and rap, born from experiment, became his unmistakable signature. From wandering arose a voice that no one could mistake for another.

The deeper meaning of Peep’s words is this: do not fear the years of searching. The first steps may be uncertain, the sounds awkward, the creations half-formed, but all are necessary. The experimental season is the soil in which clarity grows. The mistake of many is to abandon their work too soon, to despair that they have not found their element at once. But those who endure through the chaos will one day awaken to themselves, saying, as Peep did, “Now I know my sound, my direction, my truth.”

The lesson for us, O seekers of wisdom, is clear: embrace the process of becoming. Do not despise your beginnings, no matter how rough or uncertain they seem. Let yourself try, fail, and experiment, for only through this will you find your element. Then, when clarity comes, pour yourself into it with all your strength. Let your voice, your craft, your work be sharpened by the years of searching, so that when it is time to speak, you speak with power.

So, O children of tomorrow, heed Lil Peep’s teaching. Begin boldly, even without knowing where you are headed. Experiment freely, without shame. Seek your sound, your element, your message. And when at last you find it, hold it as a treasure, and let it shine forth. For in this journey—from experiment to clarity—lies not only the making of art, but the making of the self.