Zeke Reed was somewhere on his mountain in Topanga when he found out he had a theme song.
Not the way artists usually get theme songs – no TV placement, no brand brief. There was a creator in Korea named Cream Park who made videos about sandwiches. Artisan sandwiches, each one meticulously prepared and plated, each one a small work of edible craft. And she had been opening every single one of her videos with his song “Sundial.”
He had never met her. He had never been to Korea. He had not written the song with sandwiches in mind.
She had found something in the song that fit what she was doing – and Zeke hadn’t planned for it.
“I’ve always wanted to write a theme song,” he says. “Little did I know I already had – for one of the most wholesome and mouthwatering series I’ve seen on the internet.”
Who Is Friends Of?
Zeke releases music as Friends Of. The sound in his own words: “desert disco with electronic and psychedelic elements and a cowboy aesthetic.” There is a lot packed into that phrase, and the catalog earns all of it.
His songs split into two modes. Some are built to make you smile or laugh – Flat Tire, Point Break, Ciao Baby, Mushroom Disco. Others pull you somewhere quieter – Sundial, Meant to Be, Tryna Figure Out, Ground Control. The emotional range is intentional.
“I think this mix of playfulness and earnestness reminds us to take our lives seriously but not take ourselves seriously,” he says. “And whether you’re in your feelings or in your joy, my music is going to make you bounce and sing along.”
He records most of his music in a converted tool shed on top of a mountain in Topanga, CA, with a 360-degree view of the surrounding canyon. He lives on the same property in a converted 1971 Airstream. He designed and built the whole setup himself.
“My music would not be the same without the grounding effects of nature and the rustic vibe of my workspace,” he says. Despite being just outside Los Angeles, it’s a different world. “My eyes can travel, and so can my mind.”
A Loss He Didn’t See Coming
After a gig, someone smashed the rear windows of his car and stole his cello – a $5,000 instrument he had played since he was 16, including at Disney Hall as part of the LA Junior Philharmonic in high school. Cello was the first instrument he ever played. The one that sent him down the path that led to everything else.
“The loss felt like a breakup,” he says. “It took me a long time, multiple dead end police reports and dozens of fruitless calls to pawn shops to finally accept the fact that it was gone.”
He is only now feeling ready to move on and start a relationship with a new cello. “Heartbreak takes time to heal,” he says, “but it’s a beautiful thing to feel this depth of connection to an instrument.”
Zeke recently found a new cello from the same string shop as his previous instrument. “It’s nice to be in love again,” he says.
Why Every Song Feels Like a Triumph
His position on what happens after releasing a song has been consistent for years.
“I’m a firm believer that you have to make art first and foremost for yourself,” he says. “I create what I want to hear. I dress how I want to express myself. My sense of humor is designed to make myself laugh.”
He applies the same principles to his music.
“Every song feels like a triumph. Like planting a flag. And if there are folks there to listen, all the better. But having an audience doesn’t define my relationship to my art.”
It is also, in practice, a sustainable way to keep releasing – because it decouples the act of finishing a song from the anxiety of what happens next. And for an artist whose music has been used in thousands of creator videos across dozens of countries, the songs that found the widest audiences are not always the ones he expected.
What Playlist Pitching and Going Viral Couldn’t Do Alone
Zeke tried all of the typical promotional outlets independent artists try. Playlist pitching has worked for him better than for most – his newest single “Delicious” landed a roughly 40% placement rate on Groover and SubmitHub – but he is clear-eyed about its limits.
“It’s not necessarily a strategy for growing real fans,” he says.
Social media is a constant presence, but a complicated one. Instagram connects him to his immediate community. TikTok is where the unexpected things have happened – more on that later – but his viral TikTok moments, he notes, “had little to nothing to do with my music.”
He heard about Thematic from a friend named Malachi who had his music on the platform.
“[Thematic is] probably the single best advice I’ve gotten for getting my music heard,” he says.
What made him take the recommendation seriously was less about platform mechanics and more about his own instincts. “I don’t want to hoard my music,” he says. “I want it to be experienced and loved by random people all over the world.”
How Sundial Became a Korean Creator’s Sandwich Theme Song
The Cream Park discovery hit differently because of what the song is actually about.
“Sundial was written about pursuing beauty and possibility in life while also embracing the simple pleasures of the here and now,” Zeke says. Artisan sandwiches made with care, plated like small works of art, each one a reason to slow down – it turned out to be a near-perfect embodiment of the same idea.
Cream Park makes sandwiches the way some people make films – slowly, with attention to every element, sharing the process and the result. Watching someone choose to open that series with his song, every time, without ever being asked to, is the kind of thing that is hard to plan for and impossible to manufacture.
“She’s making the sandwiches for herself while sharing the outcome with the world,” he says, “much like I do with my music.”
The geography is part of it, too. He has never been to Korea. They do not share a first language. And yet something in the song found its way into her creative vocabulary.
“I’ve never been to Korea, but I love that there’s a woman across the Pacific who found something in my music that connected with her and captures what she’s trying to do with her sandwich art. It’s both wholly unexpected and yet oddly fitting.”
(Creators: “Sundial” is available to license on Thematic.)
He Wrote a Satire of Italian Pop Stars. Italian TikTok Made It One of Their Own.
“Ciao Baby” has a character at its center: Chica Pizza, a fictional Italian pop star, a spoof of a certain breed of European prima donna. It is a song that is fundamentally not meant to be taken literally.
Italian TikTok disagreed.
Thematic pitched “Ciao Baby” to TikTok, where it ended up on the pop playlist for commercial music. It was used in an H&M ad and a Revolve ad. It has now been listened to over 10.5 million times across more than 31,000 videos on the app.
“I love that it’s doing so well on Italian TikTok,” Zeke says. “I’m glad the Italians appreciate the humor!”
YouTube has its own version of the story. A French creator named Lili Haulet uses “Ciao Baby” as the intro song on her monthly glamorous-life vlogs. She has used it across three consecutive videos. Zeke describes her content as “trendy, chic, upscale – it’s so Chica Pizza.” He wrote the song as satire. She made it the soundtrack to something real.
“She lives the life I imagine Chica Pizza would live,” he says. “Life imitating art.”
(Creators: “Ciao Baby” is available to license on Thematic.)
From 1,600 Creator Videos to a Recording Session With a Favorite Artist
“Tryna Figure Out” has been placed in roughly 1,600 creator videos. Without significant Spotify playlist pushing and with zero paid advertising, it now has over 26,000 streams. Zeke attributes that directly to creator placement.
Those are the numbers he can point to. What sits alongside them is harder to quantify but just as real.
A recording session came his way – with an artist he actually admires – because that artist had stumbled across “Tryna Figure Out” on their own. “I have no doubt the Thematic push behind that one helped them discover it,” he says.
He has also shifted how he thinks about platforms. The conversation in independent music circles is usually dominated by Instagram and TikTok. Zeke’s experience changed his framing.
“Thematic helped me see how YouTube can be a great vehicle for getting your music heard,” he says. “I think there’s a lot of talk about Instagram and TikTok, but YouTube gets as much if not more engagement. And creators need music.”
(Creators: “Tryna Figure Out” is available to license on Thematic.)
The One Thing That Keeps Him Going
“Become part of a community,” he says. “Don’t try to do this alone. It’s not about individuals, it’s about scenes and movements. The main thing that keeps me going is not what’s happening online, but the flesh and blood interactions I have with other artists doing their thing. You are not alone in this journey, and you need to build your tribe by showing up authentically and showing love.”
For artists hesitant about platforms like Thematic:
“I had no expectations going in, but it’s a remarkable thing to see my music get used by creators all around the world to soundtrack meaningful moments in their lives. There is no higher compliment to me than knowing that someone chose to use my music to represent themselves. That means it speaks to them on such a personal level that they want to broadcast it to the world as part of their identity.”
Get Your Music Heard by 1M+ Creators
Friends Of’s story is about what happens when music made without compromise – written to make people dance, laugh, and feel something real – finds the people it was made for. A sandwich artist in Korea. A French creator whose glamorous life turned out to match his satire. 10.5 million plays on a platform he never targeted, for a song that was never meant to be taken literally.
Thematic connects independent artists with a community of 1M+ creators across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and more. Your music, in real videos, reaching real listeners – the ones who find you in the middle of their own life and go looking for more.
Listen to Friends Of
Spotify: Friends Of on Spotify
Instagram: @friendsof___
TikTok: @friendsof___
Thematic profile: Friends Of on Thematic
✨ Friends Of’s full catalog is available to license free at the link above – including his latest single “Delicious.”
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