Michael Witt’s Music Is Evolving in Tandem With a New Personal Identity

For years, non-binary artist Michael Witt sought to make music on their own terms. From their childhood in Waco, making music with their classmates, to stints in Dallas as solo artist and instrumentalist — and as drummer for Sarah Johnson’s band — to today, taking their fluid and poignant audio stylings to the next level in Nashville, Witt isn’t interested in following the rules of the game.

Rather than shell out thousands of dollars toward marketing, Witt would prefer to record some tracks, play them live, use the money to buy more instruments and production tools, then go about doing little things that make them happy. We catch up with Witt during a Zoom call, as they are expecting visitors to their Nashville home over the weekend and planning to go to a tree planting and a gardening festival over the weekend.

As a child, Witt grew up listening to the sounds of the Beatles and Fleetwood Mac, having been introduced to those sounds by their mother.

"The song ‘Landslide’ and the song ‘Yesterday’ are real dramatic and melancholic,” Witt says. “But it’s beautiful music. and that feels like a through line, because I fell in love again with music when I found Radiohead — talk about dramatic and beautiful music.”

By high school, Witt found a friend in fellow musician Tyler Putnam, with whom they played Sublime and Bob Marley songs in their school’s band hall.

“I was just bold enough to talk back to teachers and I’d be willing to be late to class,” says Witt. “Like, ‘We're playing music, we'll be in class when we're ready.’ That was really fun, just being able to be around people who were just as weird as me.”

When Witt started pursuing music as a career, they found community online. Their music took off during the pandemic, by frequently sharing clips of songs and offering instrumental tutorials via TikTok.

Witt would later livestream the recording process of their EP, Rose Smoking Flower Boy, through the video-sharing platform.

The artist has always used musical performance to accompany pivotal life moments. Music became a coping mechanism during the COVID-19 pandemic. As shows started picking back up again, Witt played instruments in local bands before making the move to Nashville. Back in March, they came out as trans and non-binary via social media, using their song “Whistle in the Holler” as a “soft-launch to [their] girlhood.” In the song’s accompanying video, Witt performs the song live, hair pushed back in pink barrettes, dressed in a burgundy velvet coat and wearing make-up.

“She's the light and now I know it / She's the little diamond dancer on the water gently floating down the line / Let's get to moving / Rolling down the road beneath the moonlight,” they sing over a calming, breezy guitar loop.

Witt explains that on Rose Smoking Flower Boy, they were toying with a “sweet boy fairy elf persona.” But as they kick off this new chapter, they are ready to introduce their feminine side, which they had spent years repressing.

“‘Whistle in the Holler' just has a more cosmic, gratitude element to it,” says Witt. “Now, more and more layers of the mask are shedding off, and it's revealing this part of me that is like wanting to be outwardly femme and ‘Whistle in the Holler’ melds to that perfectly.”

On another song, “Sweet Jane,” Witt is captivated by a female archetype that represents their ideal self. Over a beachy, percussion-and-guitar-driven groove, Witt creates a fun, hot-girl anthem for those uncovering those parts of their identities.

Witt says “Sweet Jane” was inspired by the Grateful Dead, with whom they became obsessed upon moving to Nashville.

“That period consisted of listening to something that was very heavy, dramatic and larger than life, but also didn't feel super heavy,” says Witt. “It didn't make me feel heavy, I guess. Or it didn't make me feel like I was burdened with a heaviness upon my shoulders. So I wanted my own song to capture and reflect that. Like, I wanted to have my own original song to add to the setlist that's upbeat and fun. … Having ‘Sweet Jane’ helps me add a different color to the live music palette.”

Later this summer, Witt will release a new EP called Born at the Funeral. The project was recorded at Nashville’s famed Garden Groove Studio, which Witt says “feels like a cathedral.”

As an independent artist, Witt prioritizes camaraderie among fellow musicians. TikTok and Facebook algorithms are ever-evolving, making it hard for Witt to replicate the pandemic-era virality that helped them grow their platform.

But at the end of the day, Witt feels they have made it. They are making music with the people they love. And that’s what Witt has always wanted.

“I feel like pressure can manifest in different ways for people,” the artist says. “I just think that we're being sold a dream so that we will fight over it. And I feel like there are a lot of people who aren't fighting, and don't want to fight, and don't have anything to do with any of that. And they just want to be able to create and share, to be seen and heard, and be loved for it.”