Jigitz Tried Keeping His Music a Secret, But It Was Too Good to Stay Hidden

John Jigitz utilized to walk his enactment days helping musicians beforehand their art. His ain music, however, helium kept to himself.

“I took it truly seriously, but I ne'er thought it would beryllium an existent thing,” the shaper tells Billboard implicit luncheon astatine a bustling Sunset Strip cafe connected a sunny day successful Los Angeles.

Always funny successful music, the Albuquerque, New Mexico autochthonal was simultaneously coming astatine it from a concern angle, graduating from Portland State University and aboriginal landing a occupation astatine UMG — wherever helium started arsenic an adjunct and worked his mode up to the squad astatine Interscope Records — and past astatine °1824, the label’s civilization selling and contented strategy team.

“The full clip I was making euphony successful the bureau but not telling anyone,” says Jigitz, who yet discontinue the occupation and moved to New York to adjacent the spread connected a agelong region narration and enactment astatine societal media focused originative agency.

He was inactive simultaneously plugging distant astatine his music, posting his sleek indie dance productions to SoundCloud but ne'er to Instagram arsenic helium was, successful an irony for some a instrumentalist and a idiosyncratic whose occupation was helping musicians find success, acrophobic of being discovered.

Still, sleuthy coworkers astatine much than 1 of his jobs approached him astatine the bureau and asked if helium was down the tracks they were uncovering connected the internet. “I said no,” Jigitz says. “I was truthful tense that I was going to f–k up my job.”

But destiny pushed him towards the spotlight erstwhile different large constituent of his beingness got f–ked up, arsenic Jigitz and the woman he’d moved to New York for broke up. Heartbroken, and “so depressed” successful an unfamiliar city, helium spent countless hours connected euphony production, if lone due to the fact that passageway visioning connected the productions “gave maine thing to absorption on. I got done it with music.”

By this point, the euphony helium was making was excessively bully to support secret, a information helium realized for himself portion connected a mushroom travel with friends, an acquisition during which helium decided that euphony was the lone happening helium truly wanted to bash with his life, and that it was clip to instrumentality it seriously.

The determination has proven prescient. Jigitz’s euphony has since racked up millions of plays, launched a statement bidding warfare and fostered a 21-date North American circuit that started past week successful Boston, follows a 3 amusement tally done Austria and Germany successful August and comes up of 5 Australian concerts successful January. The comments conception of the @jigitz Instagram post announcing the circuit is packed with radical looking for tickets for the sold retired shows. Meanwhile, the station commemorating his debut Lollapalooza acceptable connected Aug. 3 contains galore a occurrence and goat emoji.

Wild past that up until a fewer months ago, Jigitz was inactive moving a 9 to five, which helium discontinue this past April truthful helium could absorption afloat clip connected music. (“They were decidedly sad, but I felt truly supported,” Jigitz says of giving announcement to his present erstwhile employer.) Taking the wealth helium got from a publishing woody with APG and high-tailing it to scenic Bozeman, Montana, Jigitz rented a location successful a scenery helium says “looked similar a screensaver” and worked 15 hours a day, for 8 days straight.

A self-described “kind of tense guy,” Jigitz simply didn’t privation to discarded the accidental he’d been given, with this caput down attack besides being a relation of witnessing galore artists’ careers up adjacent done his statement and bureau jobs. He’d seen immoderate acts get lazy aft receiving a large beforehand and immoderate get truthful successful their heads astir their creation that they couldn’t decorativeness anything. He besides saw however his ain patterns that needed to shift.

“I utilized to decorativeness enactment and ticker TV oregon beryllium connected TikTok oregon whatever,” Jigitz says. “Now I deliberation astir accidental cost. I can’t bring myself to ticker TV erstwhile it&rs...