Mod Sun

Singer, songwriter, rapper, and musician Derek Ryan Smith—born on 10 March 1987 in Bloomington, Minnesota—is better known by his stage name Mod Sun. His music is a mix of genres that has been described as ‘hippy hop’. His parents divorced when he was young so he spent part of his young life living with his father in Long Beach, California and his mother in Minnesota (Bloomington and Corcoran). In 2004, he began his musical career as the drummer for post-hardcore band Four Letter Lie. In 2009, he left that band and joined Scary Kids Scaring Kids for their short one year lifespan. He then decided to pursue a solo career. He released three mix tapes in 2009—I’ll Buy Myself, Let Ya Teeth Show, and How to Make a MOD SUN—before issuing his first EP, The Hippy Hop EP, in January 2010. He followed that with two more EPS—In MOD We Trust (2011) and Happy as Fuck (2012)—plus three more mixtapes before releasing his debut album, Look Up, in 2015. The album reached Number 1 on Billboard’s Top Heatseekers chart and the Top 10 on the Alternative and Independent charts. His next two albums, Movie and BB, were both released in 2017. Between 2018 and 2020, he released over a dozen singles, none of which charted. In early 2021, he released the single “Flames”, which was a collaboration with Canadian pop star Avril Lavigne. The single entered the Top 50 in the UK and New Zealand. He leaned into pop-punk for his fifth studio album God Save the Teen (2023), which features his then-fiancée Avril Lavigne. He scored his first charting single in three years with 2024 hit "Hotel Lights," which went to number 37 on the US Alternative Airplay chart.

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