Jaeden Boyett Turns Heartbreak, Identity, and Growing Pains Into a Fearless Debut Album, WAVES

San Diego alternative-pop artist Jaeden Boyett makes a powerful introduction with WAVES, a deeply personal debut album that explores queer identity, complicated relationships, mental health, and the unpredictable realities of growing up. Created independently in a makeshift bedroom studio, the project introduces an ambitious young artist determined to turn difficult experiences into meaningful art.

Drawing inspiration from artists like Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande, as well as the commanding stage presence of drag performer Sasha Colby, Jaeden Boyett approaches music as a complete creative experience. Singing, dancing, filmmaking, and visual storytelling all contribute to an artistic identity that refuses to follow conventional expectations.

WAVES uses the ocean as a metaphor for life's emotional unpredictability, with each track representing another experience that threatens to pull its narrator underwater.

The opening track, “Paranorman,” draws inspiration from the animated film ParaNorman, using its themes of isolation and difference to explore queer identity and childhood experiences. Elsewhere, “TR0UB13SH00T” confronts emotional avoidance, while “grapes under the table” and “diving board” examine betrayal, heartbreak, and the darker consequences of emotional distress.

The album closes with “unsaid,” a melancholic yet empowering reflection on finally walking away from someone who has already given up on the relationship.

WAVES is particularly compelling because it embraces uncomfortable emotions without forcing an artificial happy ending.

“If WAVES teaches anyone anything, I hope it teaches people that it’s okay to be messy,” Jaeden Boyett shares.

Working with producers Renzo Torino and Michael Harrison, Jaeden Boyett recorded the project using DIY acoustic treatments, including blankets, pillows, and foam panels.

Following a sold-out debut headline performance and recognition from emerging-artist publications, Jaeden Boyett is preparing for a November 4 performance at Hotel Ziggy in Los Angeles.

With WAVES, Jaeden Boyett builds an artistic foundation rooted in vulnerability, individuality, and creative independence.

WAVES uses the ocean as a metaphor for life's unpredictable emotional highs and lows, ultimately ending with the narrator being overwhelmed rather than achieving a traditional happy ending. Why was it important to resist giving the album a neat resolution, and how does that ending reflect your understanding of personal growth?

It was important for me to highlight that your experiences don’t always end with a happily ever after. I have always loved movies and albums that don’t have happy endings. Ending WAVES on a melancholy yet fairly confident and fed-up closer allowed me to show people you can still show agency and understand the fault in your ways, while drowning in overwhelming emotions. Growth isn’t linear. The journey of personal growth doesn’t have to be cookie-cutter. It is okay to have slip-ups, and it’s okay to feel. It’s being human.

You've spoken about how discovering Sasha Colby transformed your understanding of performance and helped you recognize the connection between music, movement, and identity. What specific qualities of Sasha Colby's artistry have influenced your own stage presence, and how have you translated that inspiration into something distinctly yours?

Sasha Colby has been and will always be the biggest creative inspiration in my life. I’ve spent hours watching her performances on YouTube and studying her to learn how to own the stage and display that knowledge every time I perform.

She taught me how to find presence in the silence of music. She taught me how to slap the crowd awake with just the look in my eyes. She taught me how to whip my hair like there is no tomorrow. Sasha Colby taught me how to have fun, and that it’s okay to get gritty when you’re performing. She taught me how to let go.

I definitely have some signature dance moves like my jump splits, floor-ography, double pirouettes, and aerials, but they are all infused with the essence of Sasha Colby. My performance style is uniquely mine, but the entity that is Sasha Colby never leaves my body. Every time I’m about to perform, or I’m on stage, I ask myself, “What would Sasha Colby do?”

You recorded your debut album in a bedroom using pillows, blankets, and makeshift acoustic treatments. What were the biggest creative and technical challenges of producing such an emotionally ambitious project independently, and what did that experience teach you about trusting your own artistic instincts?

The creative challenges of creating in my bedroom were very small. I created my music in a place that was safe to me, my high school bedroom, surrounded by my posters, action figures, and knick-knacks. I felt safe and comfortable creating every time I sat on my bed to write and record a song.

Technically, I had to make sure the noise levels outside my room weren’t too loud, and the process of soundproofing my room was pretty annoying. I had to get creative. Clapping around my room, listening for that metallic ringing every time I clapped. I thumbtacked soundproof acoustic panels onto my walls and in the corners of my room by the ceiling. I thumbtacked mine and my mom’s blankets and pillows to my walls to really make sure the room was acoustically treated.

Out of my own pockets, this album cost me around $6,000. Creating this project 90% independently, I showed myself that I don’t need to wait for opportunity. I make opportunity. I don’t need to record in the fanciest studios known to man, or record on $10,000 microphones right away. When it clicked for me that I could create exceptional art that I was proud of, in a bedroom with only creativity, fire, and passion fueling me? I realized at that moment that I would be unstoppable.

Growing up between San Diego and Dallas, you experienced environments where expressing your identity wasn't always welcomed. How did those experiences influence the stories you chose to tell on WAVES, and was there a particular song that felt especially liberating or intimidating to release?

Growing up between San Diego and Dallas, there was a good amount of bullying I went through in both cities. I also had a lot of mental walls and turmoil built from things I was told and taught by the people around me, especially my family. From being called the F slur on the bus, to being pressed in the locker room, to being told that boys don’t play with girls' toys or act feminine, I never really let that truly suppress who I was. Although it did build toxic fortresses in my head that I later tore down as I grew older.

I have a song on my first EP that touches on the “boys don’t play with girl toys” concept, called “boys don’t play with barbies,” where I talk about my childhood and all of the scolding and “teachings” I underwent growing up and all of the weight that gives a young queer kid. It was very freeing to write about, acting almost as a time capsule in my life.

On WAVES, I wanted to touch more on the bullying and mental health side of things. So, “paranorman” was born.

“paranorman” is about how your experiences growing up can affect the way you handle situations and how you go through life in general. “paranorman” is an ode to LAIKA's film ParaNorman, which was one of my favorite movies growing up. The whole film is very queer-coded. I always saw myself in Norman. So it was important and fun to me to be able to explore that world and be able to take parts of the film and use them as queer metaphors.

The whole song is a statement about how being different is normal, so I was a bit intimidated to release it because I know a lot of people aren’t ready to hear the message of the song, but God, do people need to hear it.

From selling out your first headline show to preparing for your upcoming Los Angeles performance, you've already experienced significant milestones as an independent artist. How has your relationship with performing evolved, and what do you want audiences to understand about Jaeden Boyett when they experience your music live rather than through headphones?

I used to have horrible stage fright. Being a cheerleader my junior and senior year and discovering Sasha Colby really helped me develop, discover, and sharpen my identity as a performer. I’ve always loved performing in front of people, but there was always a voice in the back of my head that was telling me I looked stupid, or I was doing badly.

Now when I perform, that voice isn’t there anymore. I command my audiences, and I take advantage of the eyes watching me. I have fun. I let go.

When people hear my music live, I want them to feel it in their bones. I want them to feel my music the same way I do as I’m performing it. I always tell a story. I’m rarely the type of person to just stand still and sing. I always want to become one with the music and perform like there’s no one watching, in hopes that someone in the audience leaves the performance with something in them ignited. A spark. A passion. A realization.

Every time I leave a concert, I feel inspired and I feel hope that one day I’ll be on stage in front of an arena of 20,000 people. I feel hopeful. I feel like if I chase my dreams hard enough, I can achieve them. That’s what I want people to feel.