CITIZEN The Artist: Rare Interview with Phineas Peters & Grace Bennett - Building a Viral Independent Music Empire (From SLO) | Up+Adam

About this episode

Adam Montiel interviews Phineas Peters and Grace Bennett about building a viral independent music empire.

Sponsored by The Mountain Air | Sponsored by Benny’s Pizza | SLOFreeParking Independent artist. Viral filmmaker. Social media strategist. Modern-day storyteller. On this episode of Up+Adam, Adam sits down with CITIZEN The Artist, also known as Phineas Peters, alongside creative collaborator and partner Grace Bennett, for a fascinating conversation about what it really takes to build a music career independently in 2026. From the viral success of “TIME” and the now-iconic reverse-edit trend flooding social media, to the psychology behind audience engagement, visual storytelling, filmmaking, music production, and life without a label, this conversation goes deep into the creative machine behind one of the internet’s fastest-growing independent artist brands. Adam and CITIZEN talk about: • Building a loyal audience organically • Why “No label, just me” became a philosophy • The intentional rejection of AI-generated content • The strategy behind creating trends fans actually WANT to recreate • Balancing music, filmmaking, editing, touring, and branding • The emotional reality of visibility and internet fame • Why storytelling matters more than ever in music • The relationship dynamic…

People in this episode

Host: Adam Montiel

Guests: Phineas Peters, Grace Bennett

Topics covered

• independent music
• social media strategy
• audience engagement
• visual storytelling
• music production
• internet fame
• creative collaboration

Keywords

• independent artist
• viral success
• music career
• storytelling
• audience
• trends
• filmmaking
• branding

Sponsors

The Mountain Air, Benny’s Pizza

Mentioned in this episode

Places: SLO

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