User:Cyberprick/sandbox

Chara Reyna is an American record producer and visual artist. She is the founder of Toy Box, an internet-based collective devoted to the progression of music and visual art, spotlighting the work of young artists with unique styles and varied backgrounds. Throughout 2020 and 2021, Chara recorded a multitude of psychedelic, sample-based, ambient-influenced tracks. Chara describes these early works as "subversive and personal collages of my headspace at the time", "meaningless and unimportant" to anyone but her. Inspired by the deep web and artificial intelligence, Chara began producing progressive, satire-infused electronic music as Nuke Mount Zion. Over the course of 2022, she would gain recognition in several underground music communities for her work as Nuke Mount Zion. Later that year, Chara formed Archaic Sunn with childhood friend Anthony LeTang.

In addition to making music, Reyna also creates visual art, dabbling in photography and filmmaking. Reyna’s art explores subjects such as mental health, societal collapse and dream logic. Her artistic work incorporates a wide variety of styles, and has been described as abstract and eccentric.

Early life
Chara was born on 29 October 2005 in Richmond, Texas. She grew up in Fort Bend County, Texas, living in a small house at Canyon Gate at The Brazos, along the Brazos River. In 2010, she would begin attending Saint Theresa Catholic School in Sugar Land, where she would befriend future musical collaborator, Anthony LeTang. Due to her family's money strains, Chara would switch from private to public school, and began attending Polly Ryon Middle School, a feeder school of Reading Junior High School and George Ranch High School, in 2017. Chara stated that "the one class of thirty students from Saint Theresa was in stark contrast to the hundreds of kids and multiple classrooms of Polly Ryon," and she found it difficult to talk to anyone in this new environment. Her childhood dream of making electronic music was reignited in 2018 when she began exploring new music tastes. Chara began producing music at the age of 13, using the free digital audio workstation, LMMS. She would later purchase and switch to the Intro version of Ableton Live in October of 2019, before purchasing the "Suite" version in January of 2020. In May of 2020, she released the first single under her real name, My First Car Melting, on her Bandcamp page. Regarding this release, Chara stated, "In hindsight, I'm surprised. My own track inspired me. I inspired myself. The sound of the song itself was inspired by the intro track to Deathconsciousness, but after hearing the finished song, I was given a glimpse of what I could be in the future. I realized this song was the rough, first incarnation of what would, later on, evolve into my signature style of music."

Over her school break, which was lengthened due to the 2020 outbreak of COVID-19, Reyna states her personality and view of the world changed drastically. Although the pandemic had multiple negative effects on her, Reyna says it increased her mental fortitude and positively impacted her creative output. Throughout high school Reyna began taking many fine arts classes.

2019–2022: Early career
In 2019, under the alias 'Kuddelmuddel,' she would begin to create Vaporwave music using LMMS, releasing an album, an extended play, and two singles in quick succession, before taking a brief hiatus to work on her next album, RIPSTAR. RIPSTAR's release on streaming platforms was delayed due to problems with DistroKid, the service she used to distribute her music digitally.

Musical style and influences
deadmau5, Skrillex, Tyler, the Creator, Death Grips, Aphex Twin, Burial, Kanye West, Lil Ugly Mane, Drain Gang Oneohtrix Point Never, James Ferraro, Tim Hecker, William Basinski, Bandcamp

"I don't particularly know why I wanted to make ambient music. I don't mainly listen to ambient artists; I just think the production of ambient music comes more naturally to me than that of any other genre."

Personal life
In 2018, Chara came out as bisexual. Later on, in 2020, Chara came out as non-binary and androgynous, adding that she goes by she/her and they/them pronouns.

Extended plays

 * SECONDARY SUCCESSION HD (2021)
 * 5G (2022)

Singles

 * My First Car Melting (2020)
 * 21st Century Humor (2020)
 * Antifreeze (2021)
 * Better Off Alone (2021)
 * Last Friday Night (2021)
 * I’ll Fly With You (2022)
 * Alone Star (2022)

Collaborative albums

 * Powered By Meltism (2022)