Inside the Experience of an Emerging Artist: A Conversation with Berklee Student and Indie-Pop Artist Jaxyn Lethe

Graphic by Monika Krueger

By Rachel Charles

Jaxyn Lethe (she/her), a first-year Berklee student and emerging indie-pop artist released her first single last November, “What Do You Do With No One?” A heartfelt ode to the loneliness of feeling unloved and all the self-loathing feelings that come from it, Lethe reflects on the anxieties and doubts that came with releasing her first single.

“I expected it to fail really hard because there’s always an amount of risk that's involved when releasing music,” she said. “Getting people to pay attention to what you release is hard especially because I hadn't released anything before.”

To Lethe’s surprise, her first single did better than anticipated, garnering thousands of streams in the first two months of release and gaining traction on various sites like Spotify and Apple Music. The artist attributes some of the single’s success to her promotion work surrounding the song.

“I did some playlisting on a couple of online sites and they really worked for me,” Lethe said. “ I think playlisting is something a lot of people take for granted.”

Reflecting on her time as a student, Lethe describes the complex but enriching experience of an environment like Berklee as “a great place for a lot of people. There’s a lot of noise.” 

Lethe admits that while the environment can be overwhelming, she has grown and learned immensely as a musician and person. “I’m grateful, I’ve learned a lot and found a lot of good musicians through it,” she said.

Before Berklee, Lethe was playing music before she could even speak, learning piano at age 3. 

“My dad was a touring pianist and artist for a while before I was born, and he was always incredibly persistent that I play piano and write music from a young age. I’m very grateful for him.”

The artist studied both Blues and Classical piano, attending Baltimore School for the Arts and Peabody Preparatory School for composition. Throughout her music career, she was awarded the Achievement Award in Composition in 2021 and the Louis Cheslock Prize in 2022 from Peabody Conservatory. Lethe also placed first in two Classical piano competitions, awarding her the opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall twice. 

“Succeeding in the Classical world really showed me how I wasn’t called to be a Classical pianist. I love expressing myself in the way I dress and how I play, but I didn’t have that freedom in that environment. When I write and produce my own songs, I have all of the creative control and freedom.”

Lethe has self-produced all of the music she’s released, having gained the skill out of boredom during the height of the pandemic.

“Over COVID, I got really bored and started listening to a lot of music. I completely fell in love with albums like XO by Elliott Smith, Getz/Gilberto, Starfucker by STRFKR, and would listen to them on repeat analyzing what made the songs good and getting inspired by that to produce my own music,” Lethe explains. 

Lethe’s new single, “It Was Just A Dream," will be released April 7 and is completely self-produced. The song highlights some of the artist’s best work as a producer.

“It Was Just A Dream” is a track that came to the artist through a dream that follows the dazy and disjointed experience of romanticizing and falling in love with someone out of reach. Lethe described the song's essence and lyricism as, “silly in the way that rom-com love is silly.”

The song’s catchy and rhythmic melody with its dreamy evocative vocals makes it a tune that won’t leave your head.

“It Was Just A Dream,” along with an accompanying music video, will be released on Friday, April 7 and is now available for pre-save on all platforms.