Rupert Howarth, professionally known as Perto (born January 30, 2002) is a singer and producer from Sydney, Australia. He is most known for his production work with artists such as glaive and Ken Carson.

Perto has been interested in music ever since he heard Skrillex‘s “Bangarang” on the radio at the age of 10:

Skrillex is the reason I got into music, and then fast forward to last year and we’re singing Evanescence in a club in Myanmar together.

Ever since then, his life has been revolved around music. He started making music with some of his musical heroes at 14, including Flosstradamus and Valentino Khan, and was signed to Warner at 16, leading him to drop out of school at 17. He has since been seen in the studio with titans of the industry like Timbaland, Billie Eilish and more.

In 2020, likely due to being forced inside by the COVID-19 pandemic, Perto began to experiment with his own voice, releasing music under the Okolo alias on SoundCloud. He would consistently put out songs by that name into 2021, with the final release being in October of that year. During this time, he met growing hyperpop artist glaive and would work with him on the production of his deluxe EP, old dog, new tricks, as well as a plethora of other tracks, though many remain unreleased.

Though he began his musical journey in the sphere of electronic music, Perto would soon have the desire to release his own music, shifting his focus to synth-pop and preparing for the release of his debut EP, bozo. Despite production for bozo beginning in 2021, the EP would go through many revisions, with Perto stating that there had been over fifty songs on the project before its eventual release in December 2023. This project would reflect on Perto’s self-identity and how he thinks of himself as a court jester—and would be a defining moment for his sound, being his first time releasing music featuring his own vocals under his own name.

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