The downloaders have become the downloaded. Take Chazwick Bundick, a 24-year-old working under the name Toro Y Moi. The singer-producer makes a new but sort of old-fashioned form of music called chillwave (more on that later) and sports the kind of anachronistic eyeglasses and attire that practically scream the word hipster. His songs have been a hot commodity on the Internet for the past year. Whether they will remain so is a question he asks himself all the time.

“All through high school and college, I was one of those kids chasing after the flavour of the month,” says Bundick, reached on tour in Lisbon, Portugal. “It doesn’t bother me, knowing this could all fade away within a year. That’s why I went to college [to study graphic design]. I’m making music for me, so if people don’t like it, that’s cool.”

Among the folks who do like Toro Y Moi is Kanye West, who earlier this year tweeted about his love for “Talamak”, a dreamy ballad that epitomizes the chillwave sound. In the tradition of most tracks from that scene, “Talamak” sounds like a secondhand tape of vintage AM-radio pop that’s been left out in the sun too long. It’s sweet and warped in equal measure, the singer’s halting falsetto drifting over a hazy background of swirling synth lines and irregular-heartbeat drums.

As with so many people making electronic music these days, the South Carolina native grew up a rocker, not a raver. In fact, his first forays into making computer-based music were inspired not by any particular artist, but by the instrument itself.

“In my freshman year of college, I got a program called FruityLoops,” he recalls. “The interface was really captivating, with all the knobs and everything laid out on the screen. Mostly I just liked seeing how I could bend sounds. The songs came later.”

Because chillwave embodies a youthful nostalgia for lullabies and womblike atmospheres, it’s not surprising to hear that the road-tested Bundick has plans to depart from the genre for his next album, the follow-up to this year’s Causers of This. At least sort of.

“I really like [Italian composer] Piero Umiliani,” he says. “I think his most famous song was ”˜Mah Ní  Mah Ní ’ from Sesame Street. I listen to his repertoire and it’s just amazing—it’s changed my life. He definitely knew to build up huge arrangements that don’t sound overly complicated. That’s what I’m going for on the next album.”

Toro Y Moi plays the Biltmore Cabaret on Wednesday (November 17).