GLASYS
GLASYS Hunter Paye

Last month, Portland musician Gil Assayas (AKA GLASYS) posted one of his "solo jam videos" to Reddit. "This is the most multitasking I've ever done," he wrote. "Would love feedback!" He didn't expect this feedback would come from one of hip-hop's most legendary performers.

"HO. LY. SHIT!" commented T-Pain from his alternative Reddit account. "I've never seen anything like this in my life. Man. PM me if you wanna work together, bro. This is amazing!"

"It was very exciting, and I was skeptical that it was really him at first," Assayas says. "How many celebrities comment on Reddit using their own names? Can you imagine seeing a comment from 'ThomYorke57' or 'TaylorSwift805' on your post?"

He decided to test-drive this collaboration by jamming over T-Pain's 2014 NPR Tiny Desk Concert, and the result is pretty phenomenal:

It's been a whirlwind month for Assayas, who's been posting videos to YouTube for about six years. In late 2015 he and his wife relocated to Portland from Israel, and last September he released his debut EP as GLASYS, The Pressure. Its five keyboard compositions draw from spacey electro-pop and his classical/jazz background.

T-Pain is a man of his word—his manager has already reached out to Assayas, who's looking forward to working with the icon. Meanwhile, he hopes to spend the next few months recording his next GLASYS record here in Portland.

If you want to see T-Pain's future collaborator perform live, he's opening for Chris Margolin and the Dead Bird Collection tomorrow night at the Doug Fir.