Universally known as Prince of Eden, Aaron Tebay, based in Fullerton, CA, has been steadily gaining attention for his unique blend of atmospheric production, emotional lyrics, and genre-blurring sound. Drawing from a range of influences and experiences, his music invites listeners into a reflective poetic world where they’ll find themselves absent-mindedly tapping their feet to his upbeat tunes. In this interview, I sit down with Aaron to talk about his creative process, the inspirations behind his work, and what’s next for him as an artist.
Lyrical Influences
Prince of Eden’s collection of albums and singles is laden with stories ranging in depth and specificity. The feared drug overdose of a friend, a dragon warrior, and an 8-bit cowboy are not typical subject matters in music. So what inspires his lyrical content?
“Perspective and meeting people with specific problems that maybe I don’t necessarily have or merge with…And then in the same light, just the opposite side of the spectrum, it’s seeing what lights people up. Seeing somebody who really enjoys Christmas, and then seeing another person who’s in an insane amount of debt, and the last thing they want to do is buy their family gifts because they can’t afford it. There are so many different ways to see emotion. So that’s another thing– I try to keep my songs relatively broad so that whoever’s listening can apply it. I’m also influenced by whatever I’m going through and I’m going to hope that somebody enjoys it or somebody meshes with it too and it applies to them.”
Video Games
Aaron Tebay is a self-proclaimed video game lover.
“First-person shooters, Call of Duty, FIFA, you name it. I just love games in general. Board games, card games, drinking games, yard games – everything.”
This love of video games translates directly to producing music for Tebay. Not only is it a form of artistic expression, but music-making is like playing a video game to him.
“You just kind of go, click click click click click click. And like ‘Oh, shoot, I just made a sick guitar lick.’”
He views the process of developing different aspects of the song like leveling up your character in a video game.
“Instead of getting new swords and stuff, you’re getting new sounds or new drum loops.”
This video game-playing approach to music-making is epitomized in the song “8 Bit Cowboy”. This track in “Berlin” shifts away from the deep-cutting emotion in the rest of
the album with hootin’ and hollerin’.
Tebay was just having fun and implementing that video-game-loving, leveling-up approach in this track, playing around with sounds and seeing where they went. He ended up with something that sounded, to him, like the music in an old video game.
“I came up with a piano lick for it and it sounded like a carnival– like some cheesy ‘come on down’, like that ‘Ra da da da da da da da’ just goofy.”
“I was showing a friend of mine, and he was like, ‘Dude, you can’t release this. This is ridiculous.’ And so I was like, Okay, this is the first time someone wasn’t 100% supportive of something, so I tucked it away and started writing other stuff. But then…I got into a goofy mood and thought, Let me open that song back up…I added a banjo to it and I was like, Wait, hold on…”
The subject, the 8-bit cowboy, was inspired by a list of quotes Aaron’s mom sent him called the Bible for Cowboys.
“It had like, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it;’ ‘If it ain’t yours, don’t take it.’ That kind of thing.”
The song is so auditorily stimulating that I played it on repeat for everyone who got into my car one year, getting them all addicted to it and getting the track to be my most played song of the year.
Audible Texture
If you’ve ever heard a Prince of Eden song, you know his sonical style somehow hangs in the perfect purgatory between toe-tapping dance music and haunting melodies.
Listening to Prince of Eden should be done with good-quality headphones on. One of his songs can be played over and over, and the listener will still discover new sounds they hadn’t noticed before. Aaron’s work is incredibly textured – soul-aching vocals glide through frantic strumming of multiple instruments backed by a chorus of echoes. One can’t help but wonder just how many layers of audio are folded into each of his songs.
“That’s the best question I’ve ever been asked. Upwards of like 70 channels minimum.”
Tebay plays almost all of the instruments you hear in Prince of Eden’s songs, aside from the drums, which are played by his brother, Jesse. He grew up in a very musical family, and his dad taught him and his siblings all how to play a little bit of piano. But most of his family are vocalists, not necessarily musicians. He’s learned to play most instruments through trial and error, learning as he goes.
“Like I said, it’s like a video game– like, let me level up my guitar real quick so that I can make this song better; Let me level up my fiddle-playing abilities.“
Tebay takes this trial-and-error approach to another level by experimenting with playing instruments the “wrong” way.
“I got a violin donated to me. I got this really crummy bow for it, too, and I’m starting to sample putting a bow on a banjo.”
Self-Production and Isolation
“Berlin” is Prince of Eden’s first self-written and completely self-produced album.
Tebay made a studio by putting burlap everywhere to “make it like a cardboard box, essentially.”
He describes the process of writing and producing the entire album by himself as a very lonely experience.
“I love my alone time, but there are a lot of things that I could have taken to other people that would go so much faster, that would have such a better understanding of what I was struggling with. And I almost just made it a point to myself like, No, let’s just — let’s just finish this.”
Tebay recognizes that total self-production, especially in isolation, is a double-edged sword. It was a lonely experience, but he sees value in that loneliness. Like Thoreau going to Walden Pond, sometimes individuals need a quiet place to reflect in order to create something meaningful.
“I think being a hermit for a little bit is very healthy for a creative artist. When you have a perfect, clean room and you go get ready to go make music by yourself, like you’re combing your hair and putting on an outfit, I think you’re going to make some pretty vanilla stuff. You’re going to make some not very human-like stuff.”
But, in this hermit-like state, Tebay recognizes that artists are vulnerable to “demo-itis”.
“You’re like producing for too long and you’re genuinely going crazy and everything sounds like crap. Like, there’s a couple times where I’ll be mixing for like 4 hours and then I’ll turn on Spotify and I’ll go to somebody like Drake whose music is like pristine – like this dude’s perfect; he’s got millions of dollars backing his mixes – there’s nothing wrong with them. And I’m starting to hear stuff that’s not right. That’s when I think, I need to go home.”
He says that “Berlin” will serve as a time capsule of where his abilities were at the time. He looks back to “Purest Form” and “The Tree That Bears Fruit in the Freedom That Bears You” in the same way, looking back and seeing how his production quality has continued to improve.
Religious Influences
Many of Prince of Eden’s songs include subject matter derived from or inspired by biblical stories, like “Samson” and “Oh Delilah!”, both from “Purest Form,” each referencing the story of Samson and Delilah in the book of Judges.
Some songs include language and imagery that seem like they could be referencing biblical symbols and ideals, like the title of Prince of Eden’s first album, “The Tree That Bears Fruit in the Freedom That Bears You,” while others directly reference the Christian God. “Berlin”’s gut-wrenching ballad, “Healer Alone”, boasts conspicuous references to Christianity with lyrics like:
“Nicky found Jesus/But I don’t believe him/He says all the right things/But he lacks all the meaning,” and “Heavenly Father, I don’t ask for much but I swear I’ll do anything/I just can’t be her healer alone.”
Tebay grew up in a faith-centered family; his father was a choir director for 35 years and his mom was a touring Christian artist.
“I think growing up in the church, it’s like one of two ways: you’re either going to be completely devoted and you like love God from the get-go, or you’re gonna be the most curious, questioning, like, Is this even real?”
Aaron describes that it wasn’t just the facts and figures that made him question God.
“There were people [around me] that considered themselves Christians, but there are some things that they did that were terrible.”
He came to the conclusion that though these people claim God, they aren’t God, and that the people doing things that aren’t Christ-like are just people. Accepting that humans are poor reflections of the God they claim to follow has helped Aaron see God more clearly and given him a desire to follow in faith.
“I was like, no, let me just follow the man upstairs instead of following, like, the guy that preaches to me.”
Despite his faith being newfound, Tebay says growing up in Christian worship music culture is what has influenced the religious aspects of his otherwise secular music. He was fascinated by the stories he’d heard from the bible and enamored with the resounding sounds of worship music.
“Worship music is just very powerful… just a melody-driven song and no lyrics whatsoever is powerful in itself.”
What’s Next?
I asked Aaron who his dream artist to collaborate with is.
“Mk.gee– Michael Gordon. He’s ridiculous. Or Dijon or anybody in that friend group. They’re so insane they’re merging raw live sounds with studio-grade mixing ability and production ability.”
“Sometimes you lose a human aspect of things if you perfectly quantize drums so that they’re literally perfect. [Production software] can be insanely robotic, and they’re just the tip of the iceberg for humanizing effects. They’re going above and beyond, like ‘Yo, we’re in a living room and anything goes.’”
While a collaboration with Mk.gee might not be in the books yet for Prince of Eden (but very well could be if anyone knows Michael Gordon!), plenty of other things are in motion for Aaron Tebay and Prince of Eden.
He has a few other collaborative projects in music, including “209 Northwood” and “Wayne and the Way Things Go,” and a podcast with his best friend called “5ive Beers In.” He’s also got some other ideas bouncing around.
In terms of making music that reflects his newfound faith, “I might not dabble as Prince of Eden, but I might dabble with making legitimate worship music in the future.”
Oh, and he just released a full-length album.
Prince of Eden released his 10-track album, “Have You Seen Him?” on June 27th. He’s been waterfalling each track as singles since August of 2024, and each release has sent the anticipation for the next one skyrocketing. The release of this new album is huge for Prince of Eden fans who have been waiting patiently for a full-length album since the release of “Berlin” in 2022. I won’t tell you what to think about “Have You Seen Him,” but I will tell you to go figure out what you think for yourself. I think you’ll find it worth it.
Check Him Out
Aaron Tebay is always writing, always playing, always experimenting, and always releasing something addictive. And this is just the beginning.
Start listening to Prince of Eden now on whatever music streaming service you use.
Follow him on Instagram (@theprinceofeden), where you can find links to his other projects in his bio. And don’t forget to stream “Have You Seen Him?,” out now!
— Rachel Giles
