With a budding scene out in Boston, Massachusetts it seems like there’s a new artist making his way to the forefront every other month. This week, he had the chance to catch up with Jxylen. With his latest release KMC, making its round online, the young upstart believes he has what it takes to go mainstream. Check out the Q&A interview down below.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/693457240″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]How did you start making and what gave you the motivation to stay with it?
Honestly, rapping was poetry and therapy for me at the age of eleven and eventually, it became a day to day thing that I just had passion for. I always was a very creative kid editing videos and drawing but there’s something about me being a writer that stuck out for me even in class, English teachers loved my writing. The crazy part about it all is the more I focused on just writing raps I started to stumble across other people in the same field that helped me grow into my art simply because they were just as passionate as me whether it was close friends or people that know people.
What are some of the biggest mental tools you can obtain to be successful in this field?
One thing I will say is I create from feeling and experiences so I never force anything, what I feel and whatever I hear I just gravitate towards almost like my spirit is talking. I stay on my toes by remembering the goal, why I started and sharping my skills by reading and being around people I think are on my level or better than me so I can keep pushing. I watch interviews and even listen to the podcast to gain knowledge especially from all my influences. I even take time to study my past work for improvement.
Being from Massachusetts, how is the underground music scene out there?
I love Massachusetts but I won’t lie and say we are perfect, things definitely gotten better over the years in terms of support but for the most part many artists are for themselves but don’t get it twisted, there’s many artists you should be looking forward to that have talent in the western Mass area (where I’m from). Boston and eastern Mass is usually where everyone’s eyes are but trust me there are a few artists y’all should be looking towards over here Like Taixchi, Righteous Justen, Gook, all of TOS crew,Deziner Drugz.. I can keep going.
What do you hope listeners take away from your new single KMC?
I just want people to be real and be themselves
Is the single part of a larger body of work?
Nah, but I do have another body of work coming this year and from here on out I’ll be dropping all types of content this year so all imma say is … Be looking out because I’m not playing.
How would you say you grew as an artist since your last EP release Save Yourself?
I definitely write songs better. Way better like my unreleased music is crazy. Save Yourself was a personal EP to catch people upon my life and to also spread awareness to Save Yourself because at the end of the day, no one is going to save you, you gotta take the steps to save yourself, ya know.
Do you have a favorite musical project that you’ve worked on?
Probably Save Yourself only because lots of memories came out of it compared to the other projects I’ve worked on in the past. I have The Road to Darkness and my very first EP which I deleted from everywhere (in laughter) but yeah compared to Save Yourself, it was a similar yet different approach, redoing songs over and over until I got it right.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/787708140″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]The199x, seems to be a frequent collaborators of yours when it comes to production. How did you guys link?
The 199x. Is the bro, don’t sleep. We started this music shit together to be honest. We have been through a lot so yeah he and I he created a lot together all around whether it’s videos or music, we do it all.
If you were to describe your sound, how would you describe it?
My music is very raw, honest and dark. I try to project the things that people don’t or are afraid to talk about. Everyone talks about the good side of things and completely abandon the things that should be talked about, for me it brings awareness. There has to be a balance with it but in terms of sound, my sound is very lofi and gritty. Sonically I’m going to elevate but lofi sounds are what I gravitate towards usually.
What’s your recording process like?
My recording process can honestly be one of the longest ever simply because I’m a perfectionist and I’ll literally keep doing a verse over and over until it sounds exactly how I want it to. Sometimes I’ll even rewrite a verse if it doesn’t sound anything like how I want it to, sometimes it’s fast actually, for the most part, it’s fast but overall I’m a perfectionist, I sit on records for a while which is bad but I’ve gotten better.
Do you have any big plans to close out the year?
This year I’m planning to drop one more project just close the year out, I’m literally sitting on so much music right now I just need to sequence and figure how I want to execute the project. Like I said, I’m a perfectionist.