THE CODY WHITELEATHER INTERVIEW

Today's interview will stab deep to your core, stirring a mix of feelings long dormant within. Cody WhiteLeather's story appears to be new, but you are in for a ride to know the past. Behind the veil of his present persona lies the enigmatic tale of "Cotes," a figure who once danced in the spotlight, adorned with the trappings of success - the adoration of fans, the embrace of family, and the pulsating rhythm of ambition. Yet, amidst the crescendo of his achievements, there lingered a dissonance, a discord between the facade and the true essence within. In a moment of profound reckoning, he made a daring leap into the abyss of reinvention, shedding his former self like a snake discards its worn-out skin. It was a rebirth fueled by an unyielding resolve to honor the silent voice echoing within his heart. Through the trial and error of training his voice, he gravitates listeners into his world. His music possesses the uncanny ability to ensnare the senses and ignite a fervent longing for connection. With every song released, Cody Whiteleather has one goal, to leave an indelible mark on the world before his final curtain call.

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RIPDAYDREAM: I have so much I want to uncover about your story, but first congrats on the new single 'No Dopamine'. Only a few people understand artists give a part of themselves and their soul every time they release a song. If anyone still needs to ask you, how are you feeling and what does this song mean to you?

Cody Whiteleather: I made this song when I was going through a rock bottom. It also helped me get through that tough time. I had worked extremely hard to create a life for myself and it felt like it all fell apart in front of me. The family I created fell apart, the friends I made, and the music started falling off. I felt lost and confused. This song helped me understand how I was feeling and helped me work through those emotions. I hope that it can help other people through their hard times as well.

RIPDAYDREAM: Let's take a trip down memory lane. I realized I met you briefly years ago, but at the time your artist name was Cotes. As artists, we are constantly evolving and shedding layers. Tell us your music story from the beginning and how it has transformed into the present day.

Cody Whiteleather: This is going to be a lot but it’s all important to me. I’ve been singing my entire life. I wrote my first song when I was in about third grade, but I didn’t really think anything of it and it was just kind of for fun here and there, and I never took it seriously. then I first started making music about 14 years ago with my friends. My friends were messing around making a remix to 'Rich As Fuck' by Lil Wayne. They asked me to hop on the track and so I wrote a verse and I got on it and all of them told me that it was actually pretty good and that if I stuck to it, I could actually be pretty good at making music. I don’t know why, but that made music click in my head and made me realize that it’s what I wanted to do with my life and it’s what I was the most passionate about. Shortly after I got GarageBand, started making my own beats and creating my own songs. I’ve always understood that practice makes perfect so for the next five years, it was straight repetition. During those five years, I filled roughly 20 notebooks filled with songs. Every single day I wrote anywhere between 2 to 10 songs a day. Then I had finally gotten to a point where I felt comfortable in my ability to create songs. That’s when I upgraded my equipment, and started using Ableton. I stopped only releasing music to SoundCloud, and started distributing my music to all platforms because I knew that I was finally at a point where my music was good. This is where I had my first breakthrough as an artist. I released a song called 'Daffodils and Daisies' and it went viral amassing over 3 million streams on Spotify. This is when I decided to start taking performing seriously and once again it was back to repetition. Over the next 5 years, I had Hundreds of shows all throughout Utah. Literally hundreds. I performed anywhere and everywhere. I had shows that I got booed off of stage in front of thousands of people and I had shows opening up for big artists that were the best shows in my life. It felt like I was finally on my way to a successful music career. I was making a living off of music alone. During all this time, besides creating music with a couple of friends here, and there, I was doing all this alone, and not only that, but I was helping my friends create their music careers as well. It felt like everybody was always coming to me for the answers, and I never had anybody else to lean on. I had to figure it out for myself. I did all the research for myself. This is when things started getting monotonous and lonely, and I wanted to be more than just an artist, but I wanted to help other people become successful artists as well. I was making good money and a living off of my music, but wanted more out of it. I didn’t feel fulfilled 10 years deep into my music career. I decided I wanted to try and create a music label. Between fans and other artists that I found I had brought roughly 20 people together that were all passionate about music, and we started working together. We would meet up every weekend and just create music together at my friend's house where we had built a studio. When we started getting serious about creating a label, it had been decided that I would become the man with the plan. I did everything I could to create success for all of our artists for myself and for the label. I spent a year creating an entire cheat sheet for how to become successful as an independent artist for my group and for anyone else who needed it. During this time I had created my own little family as well. I was in a relationship and we had a daughter. She also had a son that I started taking care of as my stepson. At this point in my life, I was completely overworked extremely stressed out, trying to raise a baby and trying to do everything I could to create a successful label. Then I had a very important show that happened in my life. It was in my hometown, and it was one of the worst performances of my life. Everyone walked away during my headlining set. There was no support. It felt like all of the other artists, the crowd, and even the person who invited me to have the show left me hanging. It broke my heart. It was around this time that I started feeling empty. I felt like I wasn’t in the right place and I wasn’t doing what I was meant to be doing. It felt like the people that I was creating a label with weren’t as motivated as I was. It felt like I was constantly doing all the work. I love all of these people to death, and it was no harm no foul, but I could just tell things were not working out, I just didn’t feel like it was right and I didn’t feel like I was in the right place with the right people so after three years creating this label, I decided to back out and I left it all behind. It was one of the hardest decisions of my life, but I felt like I needed to do this if I was going to grow and move forward as a person and as an artist. Shortly after this, my relationship ended and my girlfriend left me. not only did I lose my friends from the label but I had also lost the love of my life and I can only see my kids 50% of the time. during this time I could see that my music was going downhill, I didn’t have the energy to keep up with what I was doing. My monthly listeners dropped from 100,000 monthly listeners a month to 30,000 monthly listeners a month. I started looking back at all the music I was making and realized it wasn’t resonating with me anymore, I truly felt like I was at rock bottom. This brings us closer to the present time. Over the next two years, I poured my heart into creating music. Getting all these emotions out of me through my art. I’ve never been one to give up, but I knew I couldn’t pick up where I left off. Deep down I knew that I had to restart. This is when I decided to drop Cotes and then I wanted to start with a new artist name. I decided to just use my real name Cody Whiteleather. It felt authentic. It felt right it felt like I was finally finding the true artist I was meant to be. The beginning of this year marked the beginning of a new journey as a new artist when I released my first song in January. To new fans, it may seem like I just started but I have over a decade of experience and now I’m coming for everything. This was messy storytelling but hope it made sense. Sorry, I'm talking to text while holding my daughter.

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RIPDAYDREAM: Coming back to your music I just have to say I love your voice. That is something I really look for in music and you have such a unique vocal range. Talk about your music process and how you found that sound.

Cody Whiteleather: I’ve always wanted to create a genreless sound. so through trial and error, I just made song after song after song, singing, rapping to soft beats to hard beats, and everything in between. I’ve made at least a song a day every single day for the past 14 years. So I’ve experimented with my voice a lot going as high as I can as low as I can, and just plain out having fun making music. My sound comes from the pure joy of making music.

RIPDAYDREAM: One thing I love about you is you are genuinely so funny. I watched a lot of your videos on social media and you always keep it light hearted, but at the same time can tap into deep emotions. Where does that come from for you and what aesthetic do you hope to showcase to people?

Cody Whiteleather: I feel like making content and making music comes hand-in-hand, and not only have I been making a song a day I’ve been making a video to five videos every single day to promote my music. When you start making videos over and over and over again, you get pretty good at editing. you also have to get pretty creative with how you promote your music because you don’t want to be boring. I just try to bring myself into my content. I’m a funny motherfucker, but I am also a real motherfucker. I understand what it’s like to be human through the good times and through the bad times and I just try to be a brutally honest person and I try to let go of the fact that what I’m doing can be cringe. I’ve made a lot of cringe videos, and content, but truthfully, I love making videos just as much as I love making music now because it’s an extension of my art. It’s another way to express who I am. I’ve gotten pretty used to people making fun of me throughout my career, and I’ve finally just let go of the fear of being myself. I’m confident in who I am and what I am doing. I know that one day I have the potential to change the world. My end goal isn’t to become a famous artist. Music and videos are just the tools for my actual goal. My real goal is to make a difference in this world, and to help people that have gone through the struggles that I’ve gone through. I just wanna die, leaving the world a better place than when I found it, and I know that I can do that with my voice, and just being my authentic self. I’m no genius and I’m no Jesus but I know that I can help and I know that I can make a change. Aesthetically I just want to show people that they can be themselves. A goofy, funny, cringey, honest, real presence for people to look up to whether they are old or young. I want to be the face that inspires people to live.

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RIPDAYDREAM: Can you give us a sneak peek into any upcoming projects or collaborations you're working on?

Cody Whiteleather: I don’t want any of this to come off the wrong way. I’m not trying to brag at all when I speak about the work that I’ve put in. I’m just confident in myself and want to give it straight. I have made so much music and I haven’t been releasing any of it. all of my best songs and my favorite songs I’ve been holding onto for a long time. I have enough singles that I can drop a song a day for the next year plus some. Now that I restarted as Cody Whiteleather, I intend to just keep dropping my music. I’m just looking through the songs I’ve made and whatever song feels right for that time I just drop it. I’m kind of just going off of my intuition. I’ve always been someone who listens to his heart and that little voice inside my head. I have no intention to drop an album until I’m on a worldwide level. I haven’t stopped creating music either. I grind every day still and I know that some of the best songs I’ve ever made haven’t been made yet.