Contrary to his Riverdale counterpart, KJ Apa's latest musical endeavor is a raging success — but longtime fans shouldn't be surprised. Turns out, the actor, whose collab with Matt Olo-Whaanga just dropped, first made waves as a musician back in 2012 when he was just fourteen years old. Described as "the Guitar Prodigy from Down Under," Apa previously released nine songs for his debut album The Third Room, which contains guitar-only tracks with titles like "Happy Daze" and "Beefy T."
According to the album description, Apa's talent was discovered when he was 13 and won Westfield Style Pasifika’s "Five Minutes of Fame," resulting in a performance in front of 6,000 people at the Vector Arena in Auckland.
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"It all started three years ago when I heard a mate playing 'Hotel California,'" he writes in the album description. "I immediately knew that I wanted to be the best guitarist in the world. I still do!"
He also provided valuable commentary alongside each track. For instance, of "Lost Dawn," he writes that he "once had a vision that showed lots of people heading towards certain destruction but in the end they were saved." There's also "Stuck In The Moment," which he says he wrote after hearing that his dog Furby could be going blind.
This same time and care cannot be said for Archie's guitar ability.
"I don’t know how to say it, but we’re not at the same level, you know what I mean?" Apa previously told The Last Magazine about his character. "Somehow I have to say that not in a cocky way, but he’s a beginner. Also, the songs that he writes, I don’t think I would listen to them. I do not have the same taste in music as him."
I don't know...I'd love to see Archie perform "Beefy T" on the next episode of Riverdale.