2004–2010: Career beginnings Smith's first band was the
pop punk band Sideline Heroes. He then began playing drums for local
pop punk band the Semester in his sophomore year of high school. He spent the following four years in the band, before being kicked out three months after his graduation. In 2009, he left the band to pursue his passion in rap and Mod Sun endeavours. He went on to be a drum tech for
Scary Kids Scaring Kids. He was eventually asked to be the drummer for Scary Kids Scaring Kids, which he accepted under the condition that he could open for the band on tour as a solo artist.
2011–2019: Solo career and Look Up, Movie and BB Mod Sun has released five mixtapes and three EPs throughout his solo career. His style of music has been described as "hippy hop". Mod Sun's debut album,
Look Up, was released on March 10, 2015, through
Rostrum Records. On March 10, 2017, his second studio album,
Movie, was released, also through Rostrum Records. It peaked at #16 on the
Billboard Top Heatseekers chart. His third studio album
BB was released on November 10, 2017, and spawned the single "#noshirton".
2020–2022: Switch to pop punk and Internet Killed the Rockstar In early 2020, Mod Sun announced he had started working on his forthcoming fourth studio album. Its lead single "Karma" was released on October 30, 2020. The accompanying music video was released three weeks later on November 16, 2020, and was directed by
Machine Gun Kelly. The song "Bones" was released as the album's second single on November 27, 2020. The music video for "Bones" was released on December 21, 2020, via Mod Sun's official
YouTube channel and was directed by Charlie Zwick. The album's third single, "
Flames", was a collaboration with
Avril Lavigne. On January 18, 2021,
Downfalls High, a film Smith co-directed with Machine Gun Kelly was released. On 25 January, 2021 Mod Sun officially announced the album title,
Internet Killed the Rockstar, and its release date, February 12, 2021. On March 12, 2021, he released the single "Heavy" featuring
blackbear. The same month he signed a long-term deal with
Big Noise. On August 26, 2021, it was announced that he would star in and co–direct the film
Good Mourning With A U, alongside Machine Gun Kelly,
Dove Cameron,
Megan Fox and
Becky G. The film was later retitled to simply
Good Mourning, and was released on April 20, 2022. On May 7, 2021, a deluxe version of Internet Killed the Rockstar was released. It features five new tracks as well as acoustic versions of "Karma" and "Flames" and a piano version of "Bones".
2022–present: God Save the Teen On February 18, 2022, Mod Sun released a documentary about his life entitled
Remember Me Just Like This on his
YouTube channel. The documentary included a teaser for his next single "Rich Kids Ruin Everything", which was released on March 11, 2022. On February 25, 2022, Avril Lavigne's seventh studio album
Love Sux was released. Mod Sun produced, provided drums for, and cowrote every song on the album (with the exception of "Dare to Love Me" and "Break of a Heartache", which Lavigne wrote alone). On June 10, 2022, he released the single "Perfectly Imperfect". On August 19, 2022, he released the single "Battle Scars". In November 2022, Mod Sun announced the title for his upcoming fifth studio album:
God Save the Teen. The album was revealed to be released in early 2023, though an exact release date was yet to be announced. On December 9, 2022, he released the single "Sexoxo" featuring Charlotte Sands. On January 17, 2023, he revealed the album artwork and tracklist for his fifth studio album
God Save the Teen, and announced that it would be released on February 3. The tracklist contained twelve new songs, including a cover of the song "
Iris" by
The Goo Goo Dolls. On February 3, 2023,
God Save the Teen was released. == Personal life ==