Baird avoids quick success at all costs. A musical chameleon playing guitar to 30,000 people at Lolapalooza with Euphoria star Dominic Fike and then playing to 300 people with bizarro guitar hero David Longstreth, or a packed Terminal 5 with his brother wearing literal chameleon masks and singing in three-part harmony over synth cacophony. A writer in the morning, a beat maker for Maxo in the afternoon, hand-painting merch at night.

Baird grew up in a music-loving family and community in Baltimore. He still thinks fondly of the city’s art scene and DIY ethos, the early encouragement from his older brother Gabe, a musician who remains Baird’s closest collaborator, and his eclectic parents. He points to his mother’s CD collection of Brazilian compilations, Zap Mama, and Angelique Kidjo as a vital early influence, as well as the folk-jazz of composer Arthur Verocai. Other formative touchstones include the “anti-song” songwriting of Frank Ocean’s Blonde, the grab-bag chaos of The Beatles’s White Album, and Joni Mitchell’s Blue, how it finds poetry in the pedestrian of every day. He also received an unexpected musical education at the Park School of Baltimore, where his father taught and counted Animal Collective and Yeasayer members as alumni. It was inspiring for him to see bands like Animal Collective craft such outlandish and experimental music and still find an audience.

“I think of the creative force inside me as a four-year-old,” says Baird. Immature and reckless at times, but raw and unfiltered, not dampened by everyday rules and strictures of adulthood. “If something starts to become predictable, I have to push against it. The creative urge comes from a rebellion against expectations and defiance of what ‘should work.’” Baird’s eventual move to Mexico City to further his musical education is another example, keeping his senses alive with new experiences.

But what is Baird’s mission statement?

“My recent mantra is to balance the three P’s,” says Baird. “Play: childlike, have no end goal. Practice: explore and improve technique. And Production: focusing on finishing what we started.” It’s all about balance in the name of finding joy in creating music. It’s fun simply to play. True words from a groundbreaking artist with the creative soul of a four-year-old chameleon.