Behind The Curtain: Episode 2 with kid wolf
WELCOME BACK TO BEHIND THE CURTAIN - this month we’re speaking to last month’s feature star Jason Schmidt’s friend and fellow multi-hyphenate actor and musician Andy LeBuhn, AKA Kid Wolf, who stated to be living his albeit basic, “brat summer.” With hopes of scoring CharliXCX tickets still, he is biding his time listening to Doechii’s newest album, Aligator Bites Never Heal and waiting for the anticipated release of Jason Schmidt’s “Growing Up” and of course his singles for his upcoming album Magic Trick Rap Show.
Self-described as melodic, nerdy, conscious rap, hailing from the Bay Area, Kid Wolf makes music for those who don’t take themselves too seriously and like having fun with their art. It reminds me of kids playing with their food in the best way, not to make a mess of their meal but to discover what else can come from this supposedly established ideal. Especially fun is Kid Wolf’s upcoming single “Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia” which I couldn’t even mutter correctly when we spoke. Birthed from the idea of wanting to include the 5 longest words in the English language in one song, it makes you squint a little and tilt your head to ensure you don’t miss any clever quips.
The first single from Magic Trick Rap Show, “Snakecharmer,” will be out Tuesday, Sept. 24th.
This song immediately transfers me to the opening scene of a coming of age film where the protagonist is on their bike riding through their hometown headed elsewhere. This song is an embodiment of Wolf’s dream of combining orchestral components with rap music. The strings call you in and keep you like a siren to fishermen. I can see a crowd fully entranced and chanting the bridge back to Wolf.
After swapping food-related interview recommendations and discussing how comfort food breaks the barrier between interviewer and interviewee, LeBuhn pulled out a tin of Altoids and we got to it.
The name Kid Wolf comes from LeBuhn’s middle name being Wolf. Kid is a homage to the wholesome childlike identity he has created for himself as an artist. “Something I have always found fun with my music is that I can be childish. I can be the immature version of myself and act like a kid,” LeBuhn shares. “Kid Wolf has always been everchanging to me, which is what I want from my music. I never want someone to expect what they will hear from me next.”
LeBuhn says he’s hopping all around the board of genres. His last album, The Wolf Who Cried Wolf, was a heartbreak album while his upcoming album, Magic Trick Rap Show, is coined as 90’s West Coast G funk with classical orchestra features. Buhn, Jason Schmidt and friend Nuala Cleary are also collectively working on a project that blends all of their styles and abilities together into an acoustic folk sound. Wolf’s music is always going to be a reflection of where he is and what he is feeling in that moment while also pursuing something that feels new to him.
New Kid Wolf listeners should dance around their room to “Mundane” and lay on the floor staring at the ceiling fan to “Higher.”
“I always want the projects I’m working on to make me stress out a little bit,” he quips. The external stressor of excitement and pressure to make something better than before is a feeling felt across mediums of art including poets, whom Wolf has found a great deal of inspiration from. “My sister will often send me books in the mail or text me her favorite poems that she’s reading at the time.” His sisters have heavily influenced the improvement of his lyricism, as avid consumers of poetry and prose and constructive critics of his work. “They really make sure I stay on the ball,” he says. “If I do something that is a little ‘too party’ they’re like ‘dial it back buddy, here’s a poetry book to read.’”
Jason Schmidt also serves as a writing sounding board for Wolf. The two met as freshmen at Carnegie Mellon studying acting and musical theater. Wolf had started his music-making journey a few years before college but in their sophomore years they became roommates and Jason’s interest in music-making was piqued. Wolf was able to extend a listening ear to a new musician figuring out his sound while having someone to equally respect and critique his craft. During that year the two ended up writing a song that got left behind when Jason left school for an acting gig. Although time was spent apart, the passion and determination to collaborate prevailed and eventually the song was recorded resulting in “Sunday Morning Love.”
The two now both live in New York and are constantly sending mixes and lyrics back and forth for their own projects including a few songs being written together alongside Nuala Cleary, a friend and fellow actor-musician. The ability to be vulnerable between creatives is not taken for granted even if the uncensored notes are too critical, “Sometimes we have to ask each other to be nicer.” (laughs)
Most creatives wouldn’t be where they are today without the support of those closest to them. The stories our families most often choose to tell about us are usually embarrassing but hopefully encouraging. Wolf shares a story about his grandma passing around more than one dinner table. “When I was in kindergarten, there was this Halloween pageant happening at the school. The kind where each class gets to make a little loop around the stage in their costumes in front of the whole school. There was lots of cheering which is important. So it was my turn to go up with my class and I was dressed as a lion I think. I was at the very back of the line so I got to hear the cheering the longest, which I just loved so much that when my class walked off I did three more loops by myself.” As someone who also loved attention as a child, this had us both laughing before he continued, “My grandma will say I was always an attention whore and love being clapped for.”
While being the little lion may have been the initial introduction to stage work, Wolf’s experience with his high school’s theater program sparked his interest in a career in the arts. It was there he learned that seniors were auditioning for acting schools. “It was the first I heard of people actually going to college for acting and I was like, ‘oh my god, I’m so into this.’” I joke that it was a sure way to secure a future of clapping audiences.
While the passion for acting and performing brought him to Carnegie, it is the second nature instinct of creating music that kept Wolf progressing as a musician.
Again with high school being the backdrop of formative experiences, 2014 Forest Hills Drive and To Pimp a Butterfly came out in the same year bringing Wolf out of a ‘yes man’ era and into the realization of his own interests. “There is a song on the upcoming album about this time where I didn’t have a lot of my own opinions and I didn't really know what I did and didn’t like. But these albums were a reckoning of personal identity,” he shares. Upon this realization of time spent giving into the social crowds around him, Wolf decided to get a goldfish, named him Frank Out-of-the-Ocean, and intentionally isolated himself with his new friend. “I would go home and talk to my goldfish, ya know, as normal people do,” he smirks. “I would play music for us and he would actually come to the surface when I would play J. Cole. I did this for three months or so, and during this period I started writing my own raps and doing little concerts for my goldfish. And poor guy, he had to suffer through the worst lyrics I’ve ever written.” Content warning: animal death. Unfortunately, one day Wolf woke up and the little guy was a goner.
Wolf took it on the chin and rallied, “I decided, ‘okay, time to do a Viking funeral and then move on with the next phase of writing and show my work to people.’” The main note he got from his friends was, “This isn’t great but it isn’t awful; and there is something to work with if you keep working at it.” That is exactly what he did. After high school while at community college, Wolf continued to write and eventually started to release music, enlisting his younger sister for vocal help. “If I needed someone to sing a hook I would have my little sister sing sections on it.” This proved to be fundamental to Wolf’s growth as an artist. His sister, Mackenzie, ended up at a summer camp where her counselor, named Panda Raps, was vocal about his musicianship, and being the supportive sister that she is, decided to share her brother's music with him. Cut to a couple Instagram DM’s later, Panda took Wolf under his wing and started recording, gradually improving in Panda’s makeshift recording studio in his garage.
Wolf learned everything he could from Panda and eventually Soda, an engineer from the East Bay, including the depth of mixing and the important craft of mastering. These mentors served as an additional sounding board and offered constructive criticism of Wolf’s work. Wolf experienced what every young creative longs for getting not one but two attentive and invested mentors who were capable of teaching and critiquing his work, for free no less!
With all this new knowledge Wolf ended up at Carnegie where music got shelved for a little bit while he was focusing on acting. Until, as it happens, Wolf experienced a heartbreak. “I got my heart broken and I decided I would make a heartbreak album. I think it did start out as a revenge album, but as time went on and I finished the album it turned into something bigger than that.”
Wolf’s most recent release of “I Win” has two versions. His ex’s response to said revenge/heartbreak album inspired this latest song. The two versions toy with the idea of getting what you ultimately desire for yourself but hurting someone in the process, which is never in the original plan.
Wolf’s version leans into the childish side of gloating in your victory, “It was called the happy version at first because I was trying to pump myself up because I still successfully released my album.” LeBuhn’s version bleeds honesty with a slower melody and an additional verse that resembles an apology, “the happy version didn’t feel right because I didn’t feel fully happy about the entirety of the project.” This is a testament to Wolf’s ability to write from a first-hand experience while also making adjustments to realize idealized alternative truths.
Wolf explains that his collaborations are a direct result of all the artists that helped him become who he is today, “I don’t bring everything to the table, and I know that. So if I can bring people in the room and they put their own spin on it that’s even better.” He jokes about Jason changing the lyrics and making them better than his own and friend Michael having a better verse on “The Wolf.” His love for collaboration stems from his time with Panda, “It’s some of the best moments of my work.” Wolf’s goal for the Magic Trick Rap Show was to have as many voices as possible, “I don’t want my album to be about me or my verses but rather to highlight these other musicians.”
Inspired by Tyler The Creator’s Flower Boy album, Wolf set out to give his listeners a full experience. This next album is focused on letting the instruments shine throughout. Quoting J. Cole when he spoke in a past interview, “The best thing you can do is letting your instrumentals breathe, and if they aren’t good enough to breathe you probably shouldn’t be using them.”
Magic Trick Rap Show is full of lively instrumentals and a remnant of a college-era project called Scratching Symphony where songwriters submitted their music to be transcribed. Wolf wanted to utilize the resources that Carnegie Mellon offered and made it to a final dress rehearsal of performance before COVID stopped him and his friends from performing an orchestra rap concert. Finally, senior year they were able to pull it off live and before an audience a week before graduation. His sisters even made ceramic merchandise to sell. One of their friends finessed their job at Skechers and made Kid Wolf T-shirts. It was also recorded, and bits of that original performance will make it embedded into the newly recorded and released version.
Wolf came upon a YouTube channel Trap Symphony that reflected music he already knew but in a new light. He wondered since these great songs' sound improved with the addition of orchestral tracks, what would rap music sound like over orchestra music that was written specifically for it? Composers J Baby Smooth and Tucker Helms, joined Wolf while locked in his Pittsburgh apartment for a week and a half to flesh out these songs alongside childhood best friend drummer and songwriter J.I. Gassen. As a group they are known as Kid Wolf and The Abracultabra.
As previously stated, Wolf and his friends set out to write and produce a song that had 5 of the longest words in the English language and they did just that, slapping on the wild title “Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.” Wolf tells me, “Ironically it's the fear of long words.” True to the album title, these songs are full of magic. Stemming from his childhood magician days, Wolf incorporated some musical magic to create the illustrious effect of surprise and awe for your ears. This whirlwind of a song was inspired by “Alphabet Aerobics” by Black Delicious, a sample of which can be heard in the beginning.
The joyous writing experience of Hippo is contrasted with the difficulties of writing “Tightrope.” “I hate this song,” Wolf jokes. “It's a story that goes along with the magic rap show plot and I’m climbing the tightrope, walking across it, and falling off. We were trying to sonically replicate that action.” Its lyrics tell of a musician questioning their identity as a creative and the quality of their craft. The neat part about falling off this tightrope is you fall through genres, reminiscent of the multiple dimensions from Into the Spiderverse. It was a great feat to pull off with all of the changes, but Kid was determined to fulfill this idea. It will surely be glorious to hear live.
Before a performance, Wolf likes to get pumped up by his ‘pump up’ playlist. Pretty straightforward, he jokes it’s the shortest answer he’s given me all day. “I put my headphones in and just dance my ass off, get totally sweaty and out of breath, and then just hop on stage and do my music.” His preparation for a theatrical performance doesn’t differ too much. Wolf finds that a solo dance break is all he needs.
The biggest impact musical theater has had on Wolf’s career is the impression of storytelling whether sonically or lyrically. He shares, “You gotta end up somewhere different than where you started.” This bleeds over into performative aspects too as collectively albums tell a story. The last album started with one emotion and evolved into another; there is always personal growth attached to the creative process which in turn gets embedded into the music.
Although an experienced musician, LeBuhn favors straight plays over musicals. “I might piss people off but I’ve always hated musical theater.” After I recovered from my pearl clutching he explained that he only associated musical theater with classics from the golden age, although classics for a reason aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. David Byrne’s American Utopia opened his eyes and changed his mind. Comedies like the Book of Mormon make you forget that people keep incessantly breaking into song to respond to simple questions. Although he will always prefer a straight play performance, he hopes he is less pretentious than he used to be.
LeBuhn shares his theory that “Napoleon is eventually going to make its way to Broadway and when it does, I want to be in it.” Now there aren’t many Napoleons walking around these days but Dynamite and Bonaparte are two very different Napoleons and would make two very different shows. LeBuhn expressed his interest in playing Napoleon himself to which I supportively nodded. After a moment of playing along, we realized the misunderstanding. I clarified that he did not give short king energy, I just was confused and that he could probably indeed play both Napoleons if he wanted. Who am I to judge dreams?!
He also wants to play the first Jewish Spider-Man. It seems we have almost all the others, so if anyone has a lead please reach out to him directly, info will be listed below.
Still active in the acting community, LeBuhn can be seen in the New York Theater Festival this October. Playing a fifteen-year-old at summer camp who struggles to understand his long-term girlfriend might be having her queer awakening in a funny queer comedy called “Ain’t that the way love’s supposed to be?” Next year he will be a guest star on Mythic Quest, so stay tuned for a fun new accent from him.
Magic Trick Rap Show will grace your ears this November. Until then, countdown the days for the release of “Snakecharmer.”
LeBuhn would like to nominate and spotlight two of his friends in the musician and acting scene: Preston Tholan, actor and rapper; Simone Joy Jones, a friend from CMU who can currently be seen on Peacock’s Bel Air.
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