Today we’d like to introduce you to Unsecret.
Hi Unsecret, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’ve always admired artists who are unseen and unknown. Artists like Daft Punk and Marshmello, for example. I’ve been a producer and songwriter for a number of years, but I was interested in taking a step outside the studio and into the greater world. I got my first opportunity back in 2016, working with Sam Tinnesz, a fantastic Nashville-based rock/alternative/pop artist who I’d collaborated with in the past. We’d recorded a new song called “Point Of No Return”, but Sam wasn’t sure about how to release it. I mentioned that I’d been thinking about using the Unsecret moniker as an artist name. The pitch: The song could be an “Unsecret” song, with Sam as a “featured artist”, which gave him more flexibility for his own release schedule. Sam loved the idea, and it became the first Unsecret song. Slowly, more and more artists wanted to use this alternative release strategy, which was great, but only scratched the surface of what I wanted to do. A song called “The Reckoning”, done with another Nashville native, Matthew Perryman Jones, was the first song to reach a new level of exposure. It landed some notable sync placements, and suddenly artists were coming to me asking about doing “an Unsecret track”. What was originally just an alternative release strategy turned into something more: an actual artist project. Over the years, I got more and more ambitious with the types of songs and genres I wanted to tackle. Taking things even further, I collaborated with Ric Robbins, known as DJ Form, to create the Seven Dead Stars universe, a comic book project that took our characters literally into the stratosphere and beyond. Most recently, I released a disco album, taking things in a direction that most Unsecret fans would never have anticipated. And that’s the point: to always be surprising, to follow the muse, and to create as much bold and cinematic music as I can, all the while remaining a mysterious figure to the public. Who knows what I’ll do next!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I don’t think anyone would ever characterize being a professional musician as something “easy” or the road as very “smooth”. It’s a constant battle. And now, with the advent of AI, the challenges will only be greater moving forward. (As a small aside, even though I’m a robotic-appearing character, I use no AI in my music!) Despite the difficulties, and maybe even because of them, I find so much joy making music. The act of creating might be as close to the divine as we’ll ever experience, so I count every day in my studio as a gift. It’s not without headaches, and deadlines, and banging my helmeted head against my keyboard in frustration, but the act of making something from nothing and then sending it out into the world to live and breathe is nothing short of miraculous. The ancient Greeks believed that the gods sprang from Chaos, and maybe, on a far less grand scale, that’s what we’re trying to do in our humble little Hobbit-hole studios that are sprinkled across the city of Nashville.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Unsecret is known for being unpredictable. I might release a rap song one week, and then an orchestral song the next. This year, for example, will be dominated by two major musical themes. The first half of 2026 was all about disco. The second half of the year will be focused on a project called Unsecret String Quartet, where a variety of artists will be paired solely with a string quartet, performing extremely artistic, emotionally driven original material. It’s that type of juxtaposition that gets me excited. Zigging when others are zagging. I suppose the most important thread, if there is one, is that my music is always “cinematic”. It’s a broad word that can be interpreted in a variety of ways, but to me, it simply means that every piece of music is married to a bigger vision, something that digs deeper and looks further. It might be emotionally wrenching, or full of unbound glee, but in some way I want the music to reach beyond our humble daily existence toward the bigger Something that all of us strive to achieve. I’m a dreamer, and I want people to dream with me, musically!
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Risk-taking is central to the life of a truly creative person. If you’re creating for the world that exists now, in this very moment, then you’ll never create anything special. You have to create for a future You, and a future World, one you don’t even know, and doesn’t even exist yet. Why? Because the things that inspire us now came from the Past, so creating for Now will be old news in a matter of days, or even hours. And therein lies the risk: You’re making something for the Future, and there’s no telling whether the people of that Future will like what you’ve made. So you’ve just got to trust your gut, and your instincts, and your personal taste, and believe that someone will be there to receive it (gladly) when the time comes. In all honesty, so many stars have to align for something created to “pop”. I’m not talking about virality, which is fickle and fading, but something more lasting, which for some creatives doesn’t even happen within their lifetime. Confessionally, I can’t even say that I’ve created many things that deserve such future attention, but I’m trying, sometimes too hard, and sometimes too soon. And that’s why all the risk-taking is worth it, because maybe, just maybe, you end up creating something that endures a little longer than our brief existence on this planet.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.whoisunsecret.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whoisunsecret
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whoisunsecret/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/whoisunsecret
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/721Thvnq29Or9LXUyfF75c?si=hM3oKfMmQyK9Mpc3J-v1RA
