Throughout the year, Atwood Magazine invites members of the music industry to participate in a series of essays reflecting on art, identity, culture, inclusion, and more.
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Today, Kind Villain’s EV Frederick reflects on how years of feeling “a little off” became the foundation for his music and identity in a personal essay about finding strength in difference and making honest songs for outsiders.
“I spent years believing something was wrong with me before discovering I was autistic and had OCD, and that journey ultimately inspired me to create honest music that helps anyone who’s ever felt like they didn’t belong realize they’re not alone,” Frederick shares.
Kind Villain is the next-gen pop-rock project of singer, songwriter, actor, and performer EV Frederick. The 21-year-old founded Kind Villain as a teenager after early experiences singing with local cover bands in Tampa, channeling influences ranging from Linkin Park, Green Day, Panic! At The Disco, and Yungblud to Joan Jett, Prince, and Taylor Swift into an anthemic sound rooted in emotional honesty, theatrical energy, and outsider spirit.
Kind Villain’s recent singles “I’m A Little Off” and “Bedroom Genius” have sparked conversations around neurodivergence, social anxiety, creativity, self-doubt, and belonging. Co-written with multi-platinum producer Paul Trust, “Bedroom Genius” captures the turbulent emotional maze of chasing a breakthrough in the modern music world, pushing Kind Villain’s pop-rock foundation into a visceral mix of pop-punk guitars, post-hardcore screams, and alt-pop synths.
“‘Bedroom Genius’ is a song that describes the highs and lows and the turbulent journey of chasing one’s goals in the modern social media world,” Frederick says. “No matter what you do, you often feel like you are trapped in a room with no exit, so you have to punch your way out. It’s a mental health warzone. The song was inspired by Bring Me The Horizon, Brakence, and modern-day emo hip-hop. Paul and I wanted to create a song that was truly unpredictable and felt like a theme park attraction gone off the rails.”
Still early in his rise, Frederick has earned recognition from Creative Loafing’s Best of the Bay awards, including Best Vocalist and Best Song, while building a project devoted to underdogs and anyone who has ever felt a little off.
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I SPENT MY LIFE FEELING ‘A LITTLE OFF’
by Kind Villain
There was something off about me since I was young.
I walked funny. I got obsessed with certain topics. I had rituals I couldn’t explain, like having to turn a light switch on and off multiple times before I could move on. I was socially awkward, and that just scratches the surface. I found it hard to connect with the kids around me, so I escaped into video games. They became a way to cope with feeling like I didn’t fit anywhere.
It wasn’t until I was 24 that I finally learned I was neurodivergent and on the autism spectrum. Suddenly everything started to make sense. I also finally had a name for the rituals I’d dealt with my entire life: OCD. Those answers seem obvious now, but they weren’t then.
In fact, this is the first time I’ve shared most of these details publicly. I got really good at masking in middle school and high school. I learned how to blend in just enough that people wouldn’t ask questions, even though I constantly felt like I was pretending to be someone else. Then, when I was 11 years old, I discovered Linkin Park, and everything changed.
Chester Bennington’s lyrics and passion spoke to me in a way nothing else ever had. Mike Shinoda’s creativity and musicianship made me want to sing. As crazy as it sounds, I’d watch rock performances or hear songs on the radio and think, I could do that. I had absolutely no reason to believe it.
Sure, I knew I could sing a little from playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band, but I had no real experience.
Something just clicked inside me, and I decided I was going to perform. I auditioned for my middle school Glee Club and got in as a background singer performing pop songs. One day, our instructor pulled me aside and said, “Ev, have you ever thought about singing rock? You have the voice for it.”
That was it. I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
The only problem was that nobody my age wanted to start a serious rock band in 2011. So instead, I taught myself acoustic guitar and started opening for local metal bands playing covers. By the time I was 13, I was invited to front a hard rock band made up of adults in their 30s. We were covering Three Days Grace, Linkin Park, The Offspring, and other bands that shaped who I was becoming.
That’s when my journey in music really began. At 16, I entered my first serious relationship. She became the first person outside my family that I didn’t feel like I had to mask around. During those six years together, I learned to love and accept myself in ways I never had before. Between that relationship and performing in bands, my confidence slowly started growing. For the first time, songwriting became a place where I could actually speak my mind.
Looking back, I realize that feeling like an outsider became my greatest creative advantage. For years, whenever I stepped on stage, I pulled from that feeling of isolation because it was all I knew. Eventually I met producer and collaborator Paul Trust, and one day we found ourselves talking on the phone about everything I’d experienced growing up. Paul shared stories from his own perspective, including his experiences with a neurodivergent family member, and somewhere in that conversation the idea for “I’m A Little Off” was born.
At first, I thought I was writing about my own experience. What I didn’t expect was how many people would see themselves in it.
In 2025, I was performing as Audrey II in a production of Little Shop of Horrors. Almost everyone in that cast was neurodivergent, part of the LGBTQ+ community, or someone who had spent their life feeling different in one way or another. Before the song was even finished, I started telling some of them about it, and I watched their faces light up.
That’s when I realized this song wasn’t just for me. Rock music has always done an incredible job of telling honest stories about the human experience, but I felt like there still wasn’t an anthem for the people who spent their lives believing something was wrong with them. Paul and I wanted to change that.
What surprised me most after releasing “I’m A Little Off” wasn’t just how positive the response was; it was who responded. People I never would’ve guessed felt like outsiders reached out to tell me the song described exactly how they’d felt their whole lives. Some were autistic. Some had ADHD or OCD. Some were gay. Others simply never felt like they fit into the boxes society expected them to.
The truth is, feeling a little off is something almost everyone experiences.
Whether you’re neurodivergent or not, we’ve all questioned where we belong. More people than ever are discovering they’re autistic, neurodivergent, or embracing identities they’ve spent years hiding. We need more artists willing to write honestly about those experiences, because every honest song gives someone else permission to stop pretending.
That realization completely changed how I approached songwriting. Early on, I wrote about what other artists were writing about because I thought that’s what I was supposed to do. It left me feeling empty. Over time, I started writing things I would think but probably never say out loud.
Paul encouraged me to come out of my shell even more. He told me to stop worrying about songwriting formulas and treat every song like a diary. Instead of asking myself what sounded cool, I started asking, What am I actually feeling right now? Everything changed.
Kind Villain became a project with no rules. Queen has always been one of our biggest influences because they could jump between genres without losing who they were. We wanted to create a modern version of that mindset: no rules, no genre limits; just Kind Villain. The moment we stopped caring about what everyone else was doing was the moment songs like “I’m A Little Off,” “Bedroom Genius,” and “Downward Spiral” came to life.
Today, in 2026, I front Kind Villain, a project that makes music for the underdogs; for the people who’ve always felt a little off.
I’m also a theater and film actor, vocal coach, songwriter, producer, and, for the first time in my life, someone who has found a community that truly feels like home. My journey of self-discovery is still ongoing. But if there’s one thing music has taught me, it’s this: Music isn’t just sound. It’s the human condition set to melody.
Some of the greatest songs ever written started as intrusive thoughts, fears, insecurities, or emotions people would never normally say out loud. Yet somehow, when those feelings become music, they become connections. If you feel like you don’t belong, chances are someone else feels exactly the same way.
And maybe that’s why we create. Because every honest song reminds someone they’re not alone. We’re all in this together. – EV Frederick, Kind Villain
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