William Carey is ready to leave the past behind.

The Detroit producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist feels relieved after recovering from a recent bout of Crohn’s disease.

“When you’re finally out of it, it feels so incredibly freeing, and that’s where this EP came from,” said Carey, who performs and records as Arct1c—pronounced Arctic—about Blip in Time.

“It feels freeing to create and freeing to write, knowing that I’m on the other side of this and that everything’s gonna be good. I’m gonna be good for a while, and it felt good to write like that.”

On Blip in Time, Carey provides a cathartic and spiritual electronic journey about experiencing a temporary setback and acquiring newfound strength for the future.

“Because a year ago, I was in a hospital, and I had to get a blood transfusion,” he said. “I finally got past that little final portion, and I’m not gonna let those last couple of years hold me back from anything now.”

The EP’s five electronic instrumentals sonically reflect Carey’s shifting mindset during his health struggle. While going through the tracks, he quickly trades disappointment and self-doubt for hope and resilience.

“All that is just a blip in time,” he said. “It’s in the past, and now I have to transfer all of my energy towards the present and the future.”

To learn more, I spoke with Carey about his background and latest release.

Q: How did your musical journey start in Southfield, Michigan?

A: At Southfield Christian School, I saw my sister play flute and perform in the band. I thought, “Oh, this is really interesting and fun playing in the band.” I wanted to play in the band and find an instrument that I liked, but I didn’t know what instrument I wanted to play until fourth grade. Then I landed on the drum set. It was because two guys in high school were the first guys that I got to see play the drums who looked like me—they were Black. I thought that was amazing, and so I wanted to play the drums.

I started playing [the drums] in fourth grade, and then from there, I started being in my school band in fifth grade. From fifth grade up to 12th grade, I was in my school’s band, and then I went to Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in [Twin Lake, Michigan] from seventh grade to 10th grade. In 2019, I did the Blue Lake International Exchange Program. I toured with the Blue Lake Wind Ensemble, which was amazing. In my junior year, I was a part of the Civic Youth Ensembles with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. I loved that so much, and I still occasionally work with them now on staffing over there.

Q: You became a producer in 2019. How did that start for you?

A: That’s when I had a friend from high school who said, “You’re really talented musically. I see you play the drum set, and you have great rhythm. I think you would be [good] at producing music.” And I said, “I have no idea what producing music is,” and so I did a bunch of research on the internet about what I would need [to do]. My band teacher [put] me in contact with an [alumnus] from my school—Lance Shipp—who won a Grammy a couple of years ago.

I reached out to him, and he got me started [by] telling me the equipment I would need. From there, I started producing music. I took an internship my senior year of high school with Assemble Sound. I was at Assemble Sound for a month with Thibault [Ruellan]—he’s a great producer. I decided to go to college for music, and that lasted about a year and a half before I had some health complications. I was going for the music technology program at Wayne State University.

Q: How did your role as a producer evolve after that?

A: I used to do the traditional producer thing of selling beats and sound packs online and trying to be a producer content creator. I just ended up hating it. It didn’t make music fun for me. I’m at a point now where [there are] a good number of people I mesh with and they mesh with me. They enjoy what I make, I enjoy what they make, and I enjoy being around them and talking to them. We just collaborate in that sense. [With] producing other people, I’m very selective about who I decide to produce for.

Caleb Michaels has been a good friend of mine for five or six years now. He and I talk music all the time, and we went to the Tyler, The Creator concert together [in July]. We work on stuff all the time. He gives me feedback, I give him feedback. It’s a great relationship there. With Passing Thought, Joe Corless and I were pretty close in college, and he would say, “We should really work on something together.” And I said, “I’m down,” and I didn’t know what it was going to be. It turned into a metal synthwave track, and I thought, “This is sick!” When you have a good rapport with people, it makes it easy to work with them.

It’s the same thing with short films. Some of the short films I did, especially the ones for competitions a couple of years ago, I had a good rapport with the directors. They were interviewing me over Zoom, and we talked about the ideas for the films. It made working a lot easier, and it made me feel more comfortable about working for and with them.

Q: What inspired your artist name, Arct1c, and the way it’s spelled?

A: I’m a big gamer, and I always have been. A big part of that is L33TSpeak, [prounced leetspeak], or combining letters with numbers. It was between Arct1c and River with an extra “r” at the end. I said [to my family], “I really do not want to be called Riverr, and I feel like I’m going to regret that name down the line.” I felt really good about Arct1c. It’s also because I’m a huge fan of penguins. As a kid, I was obsessed with penguins, and I’m still obsessed with penguins. I feel like Arct1c is fitting, being from Michigan, where it’s cold most of the year. It’s a name that I don’t regret and don’t think I would actually change.

Q: How did the single, “Cherry Blossom,” help set the tone for your music?

A: I’ve switched genres so much. I have very different-sounding stuff, and it all does vary in quality. People have told me, “One project does not sound the same as this project.” In terms of “Cherry Blossom” being a good introductory track, maybe. It all depends on what you’re looking for or what your expectations are.

“Cherry Blossom” is a good track if you want to be introduced to some of my more chill stuff. I [also] have a lot more intense-sounding tracks and a lot of stuff that’s [uses] distortion. It depends on the mood, too, because maybe one day, “Cherry Blossom” is the perfect mood. Or another day, my track, “Manic,” might completely subvert your expectations, depending on the first thing that you listen to of mine.

My earlier stuff was a lot of lo-fi, and at that point, I was still making a lot of the trap and hip-hop beats. When I got into college, I was experimenting a lot more with different sounds. That’s when you’d start to notice a lot of variation in sound from 2021 to 2023. There’s still a little bit of hip-hop and trap in there, but then you hear a house track randomly or a chill Afrobeat sound with a track like “Tonight.”

From 2023 to 2025, it’s a little bit more of a consistent sound. It’s like when you’re trying to narrow down and pinpoint stuff. At the beginning, it’s very scattered, and then as time goes on, the scope becomes narrower. Now, I’m getting to the point where it’s starting to hone in a little bit more. I’m still venturing out, and there may be one track that’s totally outside the scope, but it’s starting to narrow down.

Q: How did working on Metamorphosis eventually lead to doing Blip in Time?

A: It all starts back with my other album, Metamorphosis. I started writing that when I first had to drop out of college because of my illness. I had to go to the hospital for the first time because of my Crohn’s disease. And after that, my doctors didn’t know what was going on; I didn’t know what was going on. I finally got myself on a medicine that worked at that time. I was able to get a job, and I was able to have a relationship, and I thought, “Hey, things are starting to go well for me, and I’m starting to feel well.” And then, I went back to college, and then I had a setback, and I had to drop out of college again.

Metamorphosis was me starting that journey of saying, “Hey, I’m finding myself mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. I’m discovering things about myself and working through things, but I’m not on the other side of it. Blip in Time is saying, “I’m on the other side of it now.” This was the last step of the journey, where I had to leave college again, and I couldn’t do anything for seven months. After that, I thought, “Now, I’m actually finally able to breathe.”

Q: The title track features atmospheric and booming synths and pulsating drums mixed with infectious elements of chiptune and hyperpop. What inspired these soundscapes for the song?

A: It was a melody that I couldn’t get out of my head. The little arpeggiation and the melody in there felt to me like, “Hey, I’m still here. I’m going to get on the other side of it.” The music video ties into that where you feel like there are two versions of yourself, and you’re trapped in the middle. You don’t know where you want to go. One side is saying, “There’s so much stuff I need to get done,” and the other side is a part of you that just wants to be free. The other part of yourself is trapped and just sitting in that moment. For me, “Blip in Time” is a song where you feel like you’re sitting in that moment and thinking, “What is your next move? What are you waiting to do? What are you waiting for?”

Q: “Mind Trap” includes contemplative, industrial-sounding synths and tapping drums. How does this track capture a sonic exploration of the mind?

A: “Mind Trap” came from a point in time where I was doubting myself, and I was very down. Sometimes, life isn’t going your way, and I was thinking, “How do I get out of that and have a more positive mindset?” I forgot where I read this, but having a more positive mindset significantly boosts your health and overall makes you a more pleasant person.

It was a point in time when I was considering just quitting music. Life wasn’t going my way, music wasn’t going my way. I wanted to pack it up and start giving some of my gear away or selling some of my gear, and help out someone who wants to make music and doesn’t have the equipment. I had a couple of friends I met through the internet, and none of them has physically met me.

And when I told them I wanted to quit music, they said, “Dude, shut up! You’re a great musician.” They cared so much about me … and that’s where this track came from. It was like, “I feel trapped in this, but I now have the inspiration to keep on carrying on, keep on going, and keep on pushing myself and pushing through.”

Q: “Create Your Own Luck” has hopeful and futuristic-sounding synths and pounding drums. How did this track become a late addition to the EP?

A: That was the one I created last, and that one ended up being really special. There was originally a different track that was supposed to be on the album that I felt a little iffy about. The way I determine what tracks go on what album is by thinking, “What songs really speak to me? And what songs do I find myself going back to and listening to?”

A lot of time, whenever I have a demo or something—while I’m brushing my teeth or washing my face—I just play it. I find myself going back to it. The one track that I had that was originally supposed to be on [the EP], I never found myself going back to it. But “Create Your Own Luck,” I found myself going back to that constantly, working on it, and listening to it all the time. I thought, “At this point, I really need to put this on this album because I keep coming back to it and sitting in it and reveling in it.”

Q: You’ve released videos for “Blip in Time” and “Create Your Own Luck.” What was it like to work with director-photographer-videographer Brandon Russell, photography-lighting assistant Kayla Stotts, and video editor Steven Visualz on the videos?

A: Brandon’s a good friend of mine, and he’s been the photographer for the last two years. He did all the photos for Metamorphosis. With this project, I said, “I want to do something different; I want to make some music videos.” He’s a great videographer, and he knows how to get the angles and everything like that. He said, “I don’t know how to edit a video,” and I said, “I don’t know how to edit either.”

But he told me that he knows an editor, and I said, “Cool. Give it to the editor and he’ll figure it out.” If you ask Brandon what it’s like to get a music video or photoshoot pitch from me, it’s the most unhinged combination of words in existence. It’s like a college paper full of text about ideas that I have and what I want it to look like. Somehow, Brandon translates it and gets it right every single time, and somehow it works.

I gave the ideas to Brandon, and then he gave them to Steven Visualz, and then he took care of all the editing. He edited it really well, and I’m so thankful to him and our photo and lighting assistant, Kayla. I’m so thankful for both of them. They were able to help me on this and help me create the visuals for this [EP]. I’m also thankful for Brandon because he’s an amazing and creative friend, and he’s so willing to help me with my music and stuff.

Q: You used the Arturia MicroFreak synthesizer and the Roland Aira T-8 beat machine while recording Blip in Time. How did those instruments help shape the EP’s sound?

A: When I was working at Guitar Center in 2023, that’s when I picked them up and I bought them. The T-8 was one of the more recent ones, and the MicroFreak, I had it for a couple of months. I was messing with it, and I was using it pretty sparingly in the other tracks I was working on. Some of the stuff on Metamorphosis has it, and I was using it occasionally.

For some reason, that synthesizer is very freeing to me. It’s not like your traditional synthesizer, which has keys. It has touch pads, and touch pads feel so freeing. I’m using it in my live performances, too, and it feels so freeing because it’s so easy to improvise. Pressing down the physical keys, you’re able to get so much expression from it or feel like you’re getting expression from it, even if you’re not getting expression. With the MicroFreak, I’m able to get so much expression, and it has so many great things inside of it. I built out a pedal board that I run the MicroFreak into, and the effects add so much to it.

The T-8 was a more recent pickup. I remember seeing my good friend Diego [Perez-Cuellar]; he was performing at Tec-Troit in 2023. He was using multiple Roland Aira models and a couple of the Korg Volca models. He showed me the T-8 and showed me how he was using [it]. I thought, “This is sick, and I really like this!” I picked up the T-8 myself, and I was diving into some of Waajeed’s [music], diving into some other random techno tracks, and listening to Aphex Twin as well. I’m hearing the Roland [Aira] T-8 in here a lot, and I just really like that. I like the sound that it gives off, and it was something that I was trying to use a lot more. I told myself, “Hey, every single track for this next project, I just want to use this T-8 because I want to get used to it more and I want to use it more.” It ended up fitting so well with the overall soundscape.

Q: You’re currently working on a new album. How is that coming along?

A: I’m slowly trying to work on another album, which will probably be about eight to 12 tracks. Hopefully, I get to a position or good point where I’m able to work on a [longer] full-length album, so I’m thinking like 20 tracks.

Q: What other projects do you have coming up?

A: Right now, I’m working on a project that’s going to be all collaborations. [They’re] mainly collaborations that are [with] friends and people that I’ve met on the internet. A lot of these collaborations came about because we have a really good rapport. I’m in the process of cleaning up some of the tracks, getting all the clearance stuff, getting everyone’s [publishing] information, and getting all the back-end [stuff] taken care of, along with finishing the tracks. On that album, I’m gonna have a remix of “Blip in Time.” If anyone buys the CD of Blip in Time, they can listen to it because I put it on the CD.

I [also] plan on having this hip-hop beat collab with a producer called Lowkea. And there’s a beat collab I’ve been teasing for months with this amazing and well-respected producer from Texas named Baredex. That one’s just really fun; I’ve been looking forward to releasing that one. Hopefully, I’ll have some tracks with lyrics on this project—it’s all gonna be beat collabs. I have a couple of tracks with one of my good friends, Leo. He’s a great producer and a great artist. He has an amazing voice, and he’s a really good talent. [We] have a couple of songs together, which hopefully go beyond the project as well.