Meet WEST OF EDEN, A Giant Group Much Larger Than it’s Four Artists

The Seattle-based group succeeds because of their strong friendship and an extremely creative team of designers, producers, videographers, photographers and artists.

From left: riensu, keanu., jun.e, and slone

Likely the most exciting group to emerge from Seattle’s music scene this year is WEST OF EDEN. Fronted by four artists, jun.e, keanu., slone and riensu, the group have released, in rapid succession, several singles that have caught fire on streaming beginning with “LIKE THAT” in 2024. But behind the artists is a team of graphic designers, producers, artist managers, videographers and photographers, all of who make the group an innovative concept in music. “WEST OF EDEN is not only for the artists,” says Halle, the group’s manager. “It’s for all of us because we all want each other to succeed.” 

Jun.e, who founded the group, likens the structure of WEST OF EDEN to Brockhampton, the groundbreaking boy band led by Kevin Abstract. Like Brockhampton, it isn’t accurate to call WEST OF EDEN  a collective or record label; their roles are too fluid and each member is also pursuing their own dreams. But the point, he tells me, is that Brockhampton was so much bigger than simply the artists. 

“Every day I learn something different,” Halle, the group’s manager, tells me. For Halle, who got their start marketing for WEST OF EDEN, the move has led them to understand the music industry from the inside out. “You live off your phone and computer, talking to eighteen people,” they add. Naturally, she adds, “your communication skills improve a lot.” 

The hard work has paid off: This year, WEST OF EDEN passed 100k monthly listeners on Spotify. Booth “LIKE THAT” and “my heart” are more than halfway to a million streams. And the group has continued to build upon a visually fierce, free flowing image that pushes for exciting, experimental music. 

The fun of WEST OF EDEN is that they are incredibly hard to pin down, something that attracts riensu to the group. “I think WEST OF EDEN is unique in the fact that we've shown our versatility individually and also as a group,” he says. Just when you think you understand them, they will pivot. Sometimes their music is a throwback to classic 2000s R&B (“LATER”), their new collaboration with pryme!, other times the beats are harder or indie pop, like “lights”. 

“We’re trying to not let the number of streams get in our head,” jun.e says. “But it makes me feel proud that we’re getting to a level where people are paying attention to us now.”

The members agree that their accomplishment is the space they’re carving out for themselves in music. “We’ve been honing in on our sound and it’s really nice to see these accomplishments,” slone adds. 

The group has increasingly shifted their focus to marketing, hitting TikTok and Instagram reels forcefully to find a fanbase. “We don’t want to create for other people,” explains Byul, who is the creative director. “We want to create for ourselves.” 

The beginnings of WEST OF EDEN can be traced back to jun.e’s sophomore year of college. Eager to find friends to make music with, jun.e went to several clubs at his university, “but the vibe wasn’t right,” he remembers. “I was trying to find people who make indie and R&B music.” 

Eventually, he linked with slone, who remembers a time when the group was small but nimble. “We started connecting to producers,” he explains. “We didn’t have management back then but as time went on, our team grew more and more.” But the key, slone says, is that “we all had an important role.”

Keanu. was connected to the group through a mutual friend while he was getting his hair cut. When he was first approached about joining, keanu. rejected the idea. “But then I saw jun.e’s cover of keshi’s ‘bandaid’,” he remembers, “and I really liked it.”
Riensu joined with keanu. and, as he tells me, “at that time, I didn't have any music friends. The idea of having a set group of people to create was very interesting and seemed really fun.

This structure is the culmination of a lifelong dream for jun.e, who originally wanted to be a K-Pop trainee. 

“I always wanted to be in a group. The reason I wanted to be a K-Pop trainee is that I was so fascinated by the idea of group chemistry,” he tells me. “Like, doing something with friends who all have the same passion and goals, which led me to create WEST OF EDEN and find all these people.

But as he found other artists like DEAN and keshi, jun.e realized that he could make music on his own. “I learned that you can produce your own tracks,” he recalls. “I didn't realize you could make tracks of your own in your room.”

That realization opened up a new realm of possibilities for jun.e, and is what gave the genesis of WEST OF EDEN.

For slone, WEST OF EDEN let him tap into his versatility as a musician that began when he rapped in high school. “I had a lot of fun doing that but it wasn’t really me,” he says looking back now. “I started to discover new sounds, like indie pop, during Covid.” Riensu remembers a similar trajectory, discovering hyperpop and thinking “it was really cool that people were just making music that I've never heard before in their room.” But the group’s friendship brought a much needed support system to some artists like riensu. “I started making music as a coping mechanism for my anxiety and stress about just everyday life,” he explains. WEST OF EDEN offered a channel for those feelings. 

As the crew started to work together, they brought in new musicians, producers and artists. jahvi, a producer, was brought on board by slone, who reached out to him over Instagram. While he produces for other groups, “what I’m most passionate about is producing for this big group and creating songs from the ground up.” 

Today, the group creates most of their music on discord. Songs typically begin with producers making a beat, which is then passed around to the artists to hop on and add their own color to. Sometimes, though, the group will rent out an AirBnB and make music together in person. Those are the most fulfilling moments for the group.

“I really enjoy the retreats and I wish we could do them more often,” keanu. says.

Some of their most innovative efforts have come from these retreats. “‘butterfly’ was done in one of our first Airbnb sessions that we did together,” jun.e explains. “Slone and I spent the entire night recording that. We had a very ambitious concept and we were trying to rebrand ourselves.” 

Before WEST OF EDEN, jun.e struggled to find his own sound. “There were so many different genres I wanted to make,” he says, “and I never felt confident in trying to do them. After being part of WEST OF EDEN, I found my own voice. I feel like I’m ready.” 

This is a sentiment shared by nearly all of the members, and one that makes them prideful to be a part of the group. “Being around this group has helped me find the things about myself that I didn’t have confidence in as an artist,” keanu. says. WEST OF EDEN has shown him that it’s important to keep an open mind, especially as a young artist, and to let others help you in creating your identity. 

“When you’re in a group, the motivating factor is that you’re part of something that is bigger than yourself,” he says. “Everyone’s individual story is a motivating factor for doing this.” 

WEST OF EDEN’s team

Though WEST OF EDEN comprises a huge team, the group is still creating without any real budget. “What drew me to WEST OF EDEN is that we don’t have anything. We don’t have funding. We don’t have anything other than ourselves and that’s what makes it great,” Livy, a friend who has collaborated with WOE in the past, explains to me. “It is truly from the heart and it is our dream that we want to make something from nothing.”

For riensu, who sees the appeal of the group as being a “silly group of friends”, the power of WEST OF EDEN comes from their genuine friendship. ​​”Everyone is so authentic to themselves so it gives me confidence to try and be myself as much as I can, which is something I've always struggled with,” he adds, noting that he still struggles with his confidence. “But also because everyone is so different, it allows me to take inspiration from them and implement that into my own style and artistry.”

Halle recalls several times when they would meet other managers and the topic of budgets or funding would come up. Where other artists are pouring thousands into their art, WEST OF EDEN is largely making this scrappily. “We all just do this ourselves. We go to a park, hang out and shoot things,” they said. “We make music using discord. The accessibility of people doing music is changing and we hope to inspire others to follow that and pursue their dreams.” 

“I think what we keep coming back to,” cat naps, a producer and graphic designer for the group, tells me, “is that you can create with what you have. This shows that anyone can create something if they want to.” 

The group, they tell me, is most interested in showing how far you can go if you have a group of friends willing to help you achieve your dreams. 

“A big aspect of WEST OF EDEN is our relatability. We’re not trying to put on a cool guy persona. We have personalities. We’re normal people,” says jun.e. “We’re pretty genuine people. We’re really organic, even the way we met each other is really organic.”

The group is ambivalent about being branded as anything. “A brand is for a corporation, like if you’re trying to sell something at Target” says last night, a graphic designer for the team. That’s not WEST OF EDEN. “The goal,” he says, “is not to brand.”

“What you see is what we are. It’s so raw and real,” jun.e emphasizes. “We are just a group of friends following our dreams.”

For jun.e, who has seen several iterations of WEST OF EDEN, it’s the unpredictability of the group that makes this an exciting venture. 

“It’s like we’re a bunch of colors mixing constantly and you never know what color it will be,” he says. As the founder of the group, jun.e has watched as WEST OF EDEN has gone through different lineups. The people who thrived, he says, were those who were open to whatever direction the group decided to go in. 

“Over time the people who stuck by, the people who are here today,” he says in summation, “are the ones who are enjoying what we’re doing now.”