Noah Sebastian was born on October 31, 1995. His work with Bad Omens reaches from the vocal booth into songwriting, production and the stories behind the band’s videos. “Just Pretend,” from their 2022 album The Death of Peace of Mind, brings those roles together: Sebastian co-wrote and co-produced the song with guitarist Joakim “Jolly” Karlsson, then wrote the story for its official music video.
Rap helped shape Sebastian’s interest in what happens behind a vocal. Discussing his formative listening with Kerrang! in 2023, he singled out Eminem’s music, particularly the backing tracks that encouraged his interest in electronic sounds. His listening also included metal and gospel. That range became useful as Bad Omens moved through their self-titled 2016 debut and 2019’s Finding God Before God Finds Me, toward a third album with more room for experimentation.
The pandemic interrupted that progression onstage. Bad Omens’ first headlining tour was cancelled partway through, leaving the band back home in Los Angeles with time to work. Sebastian gave himself an unusual production assignment: make a track by sampling objects around the house, without using musical instruments. The experiment supplied the framework for “The Death of Peace of Mind,” which became the album’s title track. Sebastian and Karlsson wrote, produced and engineered the record’s music, with Zakk Cervini handling mixing and mastering. A self-imposed restriction had opened up a different way to start a Bad Omens song.
Karlsson described a collaborative process in which Sebastian would establish an idea and ask him to help develop it into something that felt like the band. The guitarist’s response could take it somewhere Sebastian hadn’t imagined, prompting another round of ideas. Sebastian’s role in production gave him room to build a foundation; working with Karlsson meant that foundation could change substantially before the song was finished.
On “Just Pretend,” the decisions became especially detailed at the microphone. Sebastian told Rock Sound in November 2023 that the melody felt natural to sing, including the quick switches into falsetto on high notes and the vibrato at the ends of certain words. “The vocal delivery in the chorus is one of my proudest accomplishments,” he said. He also pointed to how quickly the song reaches its chorus. In his view, the writing could have worked in country or indie bedroom pop with a different performance and arrangement—a useful explanation of how he thought about the song beyond its place on a heavy band’s album.
The video gave Sebastian another way to develop its emotional story. His credit was for writing that story, while Erik Rojas directed the finished film. Alongside his songwriting and production work, it placed Sebastian inside the process of deciding how the music would be presented visually.
Film also became a starting point for music. In a December 2025 Kerrang! interview, Sebastian explained that watching Celine Song’s 2023 drama Past Lives had sent him home wanting to make instrumental music that evoked a similar emotional response. He began with that feeling and the production, rather than a finished vocal idea. The music then suggested a melody and lyrics. What started as his own instrumental response to a film developed into “Impose,” released by Bad Omens in 2025.
