glaive

From being crowned the “hyperpop king” to making a risky switch to folk-pop, Ash Blue Gutierrez (born January 20, 2005) would be quick to make a name for himself following the release of his breakthrough single “astrid” in June 2020. In taking over the underground and revolutionizing the hyperpop genre, glaive became best known for his colorful hooks, passionate lyrics, and the sugary background instrumentals that accompany him.

Despite claiming that he started music in 2020, the North Carolina based artist had begun in 2018, releasing “Romantic Things” under the hellgoose alias. Setting the bases for his career in 2019, glaive would rebrand to his more recognizable name—which he confirmed had came from Dark Souls III in an interview with Lyrical Lemonade.

Although glaive attempts to hide his older music, it played a major part in his growth, notably having connections to hyperpop artist, songwriter, and producer ​kurtains before his career truly began. With kurtains, glaive would start and grow in 2019, which would carry on into 2020. Throughout 2020, glaive would begin to transition more into hyperpop, tackling more invested features, cyphers and of course, his own releases. Collaborations with ​ericdoa would also begin, and would not stop until 2021’s collaboration EP, then i’ll be happy, marking some notable songs within the two’s combined discographies. The iconic “petrolman” stands as the oldest (officially) available song, but many future deleted releases had pushed glaive farther into the underground scene. In June 2020, glaive got his first glimpse at success as “astrid” went viral. Following its release, glaive would slow down on releases before directing his focus on his first project, November 2020’s cypress grove.

Despite being one of the most known artists to emerge from the thriving hyperpop community on SoundCloud, glaive would be quick to show his distaste for the hyperpop genre, attempting to stir away from the label—stated in an interview with the New York Times—blaming those around him rather than his own music:

I feel like hyperpop is not a genre, I’ve made straight-up pop songs, nothing hyper about them, but they’ll still get put in the hyperpop label because I’m friends with all the people that make ‘hyperpop.’

Throughout 2021, glaive would begin to move out of the hyperpop genre with August’s all dogs go to heaven and its iconic singles and unreleased tracks. The deluxe, released in January 2022, would be glaive’s final set of songs under the genre; however, “icarus,” an experimental folk-pop track, would stand out as a fan-favorite, followed by glaive claiming this was the style of music he wanted to pursue for his next project. In February 2022, glaive would go on his first headlining tour for old dog, new tricks, bringing frequent collaborators ​midwxst and ​aldn along as support.

In March 2022, glaive would begin production for his debut album, i care so much that i dont care at all, a personal diary recorded over the course of 10 months. The project would showcase glaive’s skills as a songwriter, revealing his deepest and darkest thoughts about his late teenage years. Following many delays, leaks, and changes leading towards the July 2023 release, the era would symbolize many changes in glaive’s life and music, which he elaborated on in an interview with Vulture. During this time, glaive would go on two headlining tours: america is a place that exists in September and October 2022, and i care so much that i dont care at all in August 2023. Prior to the release of the album, glaive began ovine hall in May 2023, bringing back a hyperpop-adjacent style of music.

a bit of a mad one, a musical embodiment of glaive’s thoughts leading towards an autumn trip to Hope, Alaska, would release in February 2024 as his fourth extended play. During this era, glaive would find himself in his first public relationship since mid-2021, inspiring a hint of true romance throughout the songs, despite an unfortunate break-up in December 2023. Although there was not a proper tour for this era, glaive performed the full EP on January 27, 2024, in Los Angeles. Following the project’s release, glaive would also become more engaging with his community, occasionally live streaming on Twitch.

Later that year, glaive would visit Iceland with a bit of a mad one’s producers and photographer Tommy Pointer. Within the two weeks, they would record an album’s worth of tracks before visiting kurtains in Wales, where May It Never Falter’s lead single would be completed. The album would be periodically worked on until late summer, where the snippet rollout would begin. After going on to preview nearly the entire album, opening for Toro y Moi, and lying about a lead single, the album released on October 11, 2024.