Christian Gates’ best-known outside credit is co-writing “Ride Or Die” for Chinese superstar Cai Xukun, which reached number one on QQ Music, China’s biggest streaming chart. Inside his own catalog, the credits are even simpler: he writes his songs himself, at a pace of roughly a song a day.
The Cai Xukun co-write
Writing a #1 for one of China’s most-followed artists is a rare crossover for an American independent act; the full story is here. It is also proof the writing travels: a hook that works in a language and market completely unlike his own.
How Christian Gates writes
His documented routine from the daily-posting years, wake up, drive, write one to three choruses in the car, pick the best, record and engineer it himself by midnight, is covered in The Daily Grind. NUMB’s chorus was finished on the drive to the session; one of its verses came from another unreleased song in his notes on the same topic, with songwriter J-Bach contributing a verse. The habit explains the catalog: when you write every day, the hits are a numbers game you are always playing.
A song a day, engineered by midnight, owned outright.
Credits on his own catalog
Every release under his own name, from the Gold-certified NUMB through the No Strings Attached album, carries his writing, and most his production and engineering too, self-taught, no formal training. He also writes across genres deliberately: dark pop, alt R&B, emo rap and rock-leaning cuts, a range documented in his refusal to pick a lane.
Why the outside-credit list is short, for now
Two structural reasons: he keeps his best ideas for his own catalog (the economics of owning everything reward that), and songwriting credits for other artists often stay quiet until the splits and registrations become public. The Cai Xukun cut only entered his public story because the song went to number one.
As more outside cuts become public, this page will list them; songwriter credits often surface long after release. It is updated directly from the artist.