Atwater was born in
Downers Grove, Illinois, and as a child learnt classical piano and clarinet; he also taught himself the guitar. Running a TikTok account that achieved popularity in the gay sub-community on the platform, he posted
fan edits including "
Nicki Minaj and
Ariana Grande ordering
McDonald's from
Doja Cat and
Lana Del Ray". In 2023, Atwater released a second EP,
Downers Grove and a year later, he collaborated with other artists to create a "reimagined" version of the record;
August Ponthier is featured on the rerelease of "star tripping", and
Ella Jane on "KEEP IT COOL!". On 7 March 2025, Atwater released his debut album,
Achilles, featuring songs written over a period of several years. The album's first single, "the cage" was published a month before the entire release. With
Achilles, Atwater performed a month-long headlining tour across the US, with subsequences in Canada and the United Kingdom. In a 2022 interview with IntoMore, Atwater described his music as "folk with a queer twist", and mentioned
Sufjan Stevens,
Phoebe Bridgers, and
Nick Drake's album
Pink Moon as musical inspirations. Elsewhere, he has named
Joni Mitchell,
Adrianne Lenker, and
Lomelda as influences. Atwater has been praised for his consistent clear diction and "flexible range", In particular, Atwater's lyrics writing has been commended: Noah Wade described it as "impressively concise, abbreviated, and illustrative."; . Atwater has been noted to use
alternative guitar tunings, and writing songs in
quintuple meter. ==Discography==