Nuanced. - 91. Anickan: Artist, Producer & Filmmaker

Episode Date: February 6, 2023

Aaron spoke with Anickan about his work as an artist, producer, and filmmaker. Aaron asks about Anickan becoming an artist, and his latest album 'Interstellar Love Story' which released on January 22nd 2023. An awakening of the hybrid breed of artist is among us. As a Multi-Hyphenate Recording Artist, Producer, Professional Street Dancer, & Award Winning Independent Film Maker, Anickan is undeniably a fresh new force. From his initial rise in the sunny valley of Phoenix, AZ to his now ascending reach, Anickan’s journey is dedicated to his elaborate and critical artistic introspection, which he uses as a power tool to interconnect art and human experience. Confessional raps, entrancing melodies, filmic 808’s, and spacey distorted electro reflect Anickan’s off-kilter sonic vision. These tonal attributes, his passion for film, and aptitude for innovation deem Anickan’s sound somewhat of a musical cinematic experience. The Essence and familiarity of artists such as Kanye West, Kid Cudi, Travis Scott, Childish Gambino and 070 Shake can be encountered within Anickan’s compositions. After his 2020 debut album “SPRPWR” which landed him collaborations with independent powerhouses such as Futuristic, Chris Rivers, Oswin Benjamin, and more, Anickan is scheduled for release of his upcoming album ‘INTERSTELLAR LOVE STORY’ January 22nd, 2023. Listen to Interstellar Love Story: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzNHnTRbK5-z9JE3MK5WqzrZs5SMArzSQSend us a textThe "What's Going On?" PodcastThink casual, relatable discussions like you'd overhear in a barbershop....Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the shownuancedmedia.ca

I'd like to start maybe with an introduction of yourself. Could you introduce yourself to listeners? Could you talk a little bit about yourself? I know that you are a recording artist, a producer, a street dancer. You are involved in so many different things. Can you give listeners a brief introduction of yourself? Yeah, absolutely. I hate talking about myself, but for you, I got you.

My name is Annigan, for anybody that doesn't know, I come with a lot of piece, love and light. Like he said, I am a recording artist. I'm a cinematographer. I was a street dancer for the first greater half of my creative life. And I'm a graphic designer, audio engineer, producer, yes, photographer, a little bit of everything. Lover, you know. Yeah, man, that's just, that's me.

Beautiful, Arizona. and I just celebrated my 31st birthday. Fantastic. Yes, sir. Can you talk a little bit about getting into the music industry? You recently made a post on Instagram talking about an individual who really inspired you, who opened some doors for you, connected you with individuals. I think you mentioned Kanye West, Kid Cuddy, Lupe Fiasco. Can you talk a little bit about that relationship and how you kind of got into the music industry?

I got into it probably the same way that most all of us did, which is we just had a profound obsession for music and art. It started really, I recorded my voice for the first time when I was, I think, a freshman or sophomore in high school. I used to take just the city bus from one end of the city to another with the guy that I mentioned. His name is Jalen Edens. a.k.a. Bam. He was the first person that I recorded my voice with. He was one of my best friends in the world. He ended up actually moving in with me. He had a rough, you know, at home situation. So he came and lived with me and my parents and my mom and my sister. And my mom, I mean, we were delinquents, you know. We were young. We were dumb. We were savages. And we got in so much

trouble. School just never was for me. So my mom was kind of just like, look, what do I need to do to keep you out of trouble? And unfortunately, but fortunately, she got into an accident where I think it was like a cab or something that ran over her foot. And she got like a $100,000 settlement or something like that. And she put all of it away. But once she saw that I was like really, you know, struggling in school. She did what most parents wouldn't do, which is she kind of leaned against the curve and decided instead to discipline me to really try to figure out something that I would enjoy, something to keep my mind busy that would keep me out of trouble. So she took me to guitar center and she was like, if music is what's going to keep you out of trouble, that's what

I'm willing to do. So she got me a bunch of equipment, a computer, hard drives, microphone, keyboard. or literally everything that you could think of that you need for a beginning at home studio setup. And I didn't know what I was doing. And neither did he. Like, we just went crazy and we never took a class. But we were, I mean, it's sad to say, we were ditching school every day just to stay home and record. I did 300 songs in one summer and they were all terrible, absolutely terrible. But then I did that 301.

I remember my mom came in. We had it all set up in her laundry room. And yeah, she walked in on that 301 and she walked in and she was like, you should keep going. And yeah, so that was like, she's always been my biggest supporter. As far as me and Jalen go, we did a lot, man. We had like a single deal with universal. we traveled we had a song with A-Con and this was all before I was you know even 18 years old and we didn't know what we were doing but we were in the middle of something that seemed like it

was going to be pretty big and I just think that we weren't ready and it was a terrible time and life was happening all around us and we were growing up and she had sorry it's still kind tough for me to talk about. But yeah, he had, you know, somewhat of a psychotic break. And I think that was my first real experience with dealing with somebody my age that struggled with mental health. My mom was on depression medications for years. And I just never understood anything about it. I thought, you know, this was just some regular thing that people go through, you know, old people take medicine. It was one of those things when I was a kid that I thought of. But to see somebody go through it that was equal to me, you know, somebody that was young and my friend, it confused me.

And I didn't know how to treat it. And I just wish that I had some sort of a better understanding for it back then. He listened to those three artists. He listened to Kanye West, Lubay Fiasco, and Kit Cuddy. and what he used to tell me all the time was that these three artists make him feel like he has purpose like they were saying things in their music they were being vulnerable they were expressing these very specific types of emotions that he felt only he felt you know like and he didn't know who to talk to he could talk to me about it because I wasn't dealing

with it in the same light and I didn't go through the same things so Um, once I really started taking that into consideration, I, I listened to what he was saying. I listened to the music. I, I went and I did a deep dive and I wanted to really feel what he felt. And it changed my entire life, man. It rewired my brain into really accepting a piece of music. um like it wasn't music it wasn't this tangible energy or this tangible thing anymore it was this you know almost ethereal energy that was all consuming and it it made me feel you know it made me feel the the anger and the music i i i not only was listening to the story but i saw the imagery and i i felt the the sonic the bed of music that was under it that uplifted the emotions or or ripped the emotions out of you like everything was just all encompassing immersive and it took so long for that to click for me man and it and it sucks that i had to go through a real life

situation with him and his mental health and then um i too ended up struggling with my own mental health i was recreationally on pills for um a few years um i had a really terrible relationship um i've had this visceral self-doubt since I was a kid. And the only thing that I ever connected to that made me feel like I was worth anything was music and these other art forms that are all cohesive to each other. So yeah, man, the other day at my release party, that was the first time I said that story out loud or even really spoke his name out loud. The only people that know about him are like super super close to me so i've been kind of on this binge of like getting over my fears and i think that was really uh really important for me to actually say with the

release of this new project so yeah man a lot of my beginnings start from a really in-depth emotional emotional spaces of just being a human being and i think that that's the space that i create from i couldn't agree more and i appreciate you being willing to share that in that post and today, because I understand that those things are really heavy, I'm interested to understand what the journey was like to find these artists. Obviously, there's different genres, there's different subgenres within a genre, and the three that stand out to you, I can feel it. When I'm listening to your recent album, which we'll get into in a few minutes here, you can feel the inspiration that you're taking from them. And it's yours,

it's completely unique to you, but you can see the inspiration. Can you talk about how those three artists sort of shaped your understanding because it seems to me that you have a different relationship with the beat than other, I would say, more lyricists. And I'm interested in to know how you get inspired by these individuals that we've sort of talked about, Lupe Fiasco, Kid Kadi, Kanye West. Um, I think, there's so many ways I could say this. I think the easiest way for me to say it is feeling. I think that each one of these people are relentless feelers, and then it's the fearlessness. I think the bravery in their music and how they choose to create, the collaborative nature in which they choose to create, the spaces of solitude that they choose to create, and the unequivocal attention to detail in all of that they do, like, everything.

thing Cuddy does, I can hear the inspiration for, like you just said for me. It's like, I hear, like, I'm, I'm hearing Kurt Cobain. I'm hearing Hendricks. I'm hearing, you know, I'm hearing, uh, queen. I'm hearing, uh, Kanye. I'm hearing, you know, these 80s hyper pop, you know, inspirations. I'm hearing the Wu Tang. I'm hearing the Neo Soul. I'm hearing just, it's just so much, uh, so much painting of, of, of these sounds. that they're putting together where on paper somebody could probably look at you and say you can't do that you know that's not possible or you shouldn't do that and i think all of them are just fearless about it you know you take lubei fiacco who's you know he made a choice and his choice

was i'm going to be this you know incredible lyrical miracle but all of my music is going to be positive, you know, and people damned him for that. And it was like, but you can't damn him that much for it because you can't out rap him, you know, like he's one of the most prolific lyricists of our time. Your favorite rapper probably thinks Lupe's his favorite rapper. You know, it's like, so studying just his bravery, his ideology, of course, the skill form and the art form and the skill set that he puts into the art form, of course. But like, the bigger thing that I take away from these people is really what they stand. for man like and i think that that was something that i think that's something that a lot of us as

artists we struggle with is really believing in what we're doing and having a sense of identity it's so easy to just you know oh let's just look at these you know what's what's what's hype on ticot what's dope on instagram right now that's what's playing on the radio or what's what's popping right now on the street like we should get on that type of wave and let's let's make these type of songs or rap about this shit. And it's like, man, I told one of my best friends, Oswald Benjamin, I told him from the jump, I was just like, man, like, and he's friends with Lupe. Like, I told him from the jump, like, man, I don't give a shit about none of this stuff. The only thing I care about is doing exactly what I want to do. And as long as it feels

authentic to me and I'm creating out of a space of realism, hyper-realism. and it's in real time like that's the only space I want to create from and so I think that that's my biggest takeaway when I look at lubei Kanye Cuddy man like you can't tell them anything you know they're going to do what they want when they want on their own time and every time they do drop or they do something even if it's negative like it's it's eventful and it's it's something to be to be talked about so I think that that's the type of space I want to create from when it comes to my art for sure. So you made a song with Vin Jay about and one comment that I've thought a lot about is he talks about rappers being the new prophets. And I think that that's really interesting because

when we're talking about mental health, when we're talking about healing, when we're talking about coming from tough times and getting out of those circumstances, there really isn't another place you would go to. Then for me, going to rappers like yourself who are able to say, this is where I started from. I worked incredibly hard and now I'm here. That message, You find it in movies, but it's less potent. It's less clear. There's advice that you provide people. There's guidance that you offer people on how to live a peaceful life, how to live a meaningful life, that you don't always.

It may be in a story like a movie that you really like, but it's not clear. And people like yourself make that clear. What are your thoughts on this idea that you are perhaps the new prophets? I mean, I agree. Again, like it goes back to what I was saying about this stuff happening in real. time. It's like, we're the ones, you know, we're the, we're the Indians that, or we're the natives that are going, you know, over the mountain and letting people know, like, hey, there's all these, there's all these cowboys over there. You know what I mean? Like, and, and, and people are able to

see us go do that. And, and then they could follow that. And, and we can kind of trial and error everything that we do. It's like, so many people are afraid to even have a voice. And we're being a voice for those people. And because we're able to bridge a gap too, like, like me and Vin specifically are in a very specific space. It's like we're not the new generation, but we're also not the old generation. We're like this middle child that understands both sides and we have the ability to bridge this gap. It's like, I know these young cats that still fuck with some of the shit that we do. And then I know the OGs that we've learned and taken all these traditional things from that worked. And then we've, you know, broke some rules and try to figure out ways to

implement them into this new space. And it's like we have this ability to bridge a gap here. So yeah, I absolutely agree with them. I do think we're, you know, we're definitely profit-like and profit-bound because all we're doing is we're being brave enough to be a voice and put our emotions, but our stories, but our art out there. And if people can latch on to it, I mean, they're ultimately going to follow suit and they're going to, you know, lean into that and come with us and hopefully, you know, maybe it inspires them to do the same. And next thing you know, I may look to the right or look to my left and those people that used to follow us are now here with us, you know, like we're just doing what we were taught, you know, or what came naturally.

the people that inspire us and the people that came here before us that paved the way for us, they made it so we can do shit like this. Like I have so many, so many human beings, so many artists that I look up to that I just completely, I completely take everything that they've done shown or put into existence and I just latch on to it and I just use whatever I can from it and I just want to implement the same thing. You know, I feel like, I think KRS1 said something. He said, you know, hip hop didn't invent anything, but it reinvented everything. And I think that that's the space that we're in as people that are part of this culture.

I couldn't agree more. And huge shout out to Jay Cole for making that song that kind of describes what you're saying. There you go. There's a risk involved, though, a risk that's somewhat different. It's there's a reason that you leave the nine to five to do what you're doing. and I think of juice world as an excellent example of a person who is describing where he was, which was a very dark place, and then he went over that edge, and there's no coming back. And so there's a certain amount of self-belief and confidence in taking that risk,

in sharing your perspective, and going up the mountain and saying, this is what I see. Hopefully it helps. And there's a risk involved in that. And I'm just interested, what has that journey been like? because you have to bet on yourself. There's moments where you have a lot of doubt and questions, am I crazy? Was this a crazy step to take?

And you have to keep going. And sometimes the places you have to go to share with your audience, to share with others is a place that's really dangerous to be in. And again, I think Juice is just an example of a person who he went over that edge and now he's not here.

But the music that he gave us on that edge was incredible and really valuable. But we were, we lost him. And there's a consequence. There's a risk involved. And I'm just interested in your thoughts on that. Man, the human condition is so insane. And yeah, like I think, I mean, Van Gogh cut off his ear.

You know, it's like there's just being an artist, you have this gift, incredible gift, and you're burdened with an unbelievable curse. and I feel like we all share it and it's like if you're not an artist anytime we talk about it it'll sound fucking crazy to you but all of us get it you know it's that edge you talk about

and we're subconsciously walking it all day you know just trying to find that new inspiration trying to feel something trying to create the next thing that you know that can help us get away from that edge because that's ultimately what we're

searching for is is is a way to be relieved from that feeling um and i have so many it's funny that you said that i have so many conversations and i've had so many verses that i wrote about that because i've one of my biggest fears is like um which i feel like i actually accomplished with this album um one of my biggest fears was thinking that i had to keep myself in a very specific mental place to be able to create from because that was the only time that my art was good. I remember I used to be afraid to not put the pills down because what I was creating while being on them was so raw and so authentic and so real. And that is the same thing. It's like I almost need to keep myself in a state of chaos and I have to be addicted to my sadness

to be able to go in on those nights in the studio and pull this shit out of me. And it's not, you know, that's really not true. It's kind of an inexperienced way of dealing with the creation part of it. Sadly, yeah, a lot of the greats have lost themselves along the way. And it is very easy to, I think our responsibility for artists. And again, this is why I want to be a catalyst for something like this. Like, I wish there was more resources and I wish there was more help, fucking health benefits for artists, fucking insurance for artists, little things that just, you know, show that people

give a fuck about what we're doing. because entertainers are demanded, we're demanded in this world, but also taking advantage of and take it for granted all day, you know? So for an artist, man, I like, I wish we had more support because I felt like you have to have this like sort of knowing about your purpose, you know, like you talked about quitting jobs and or like me, like I haven't worked a regular jobs since I was 18. Like I knew that I didn't go to college. I knew. I didn't go to college. I school wasn't for me. My sense of knowing of being an artist, it just came from choosing it every day. I literally just choose it on my worst days, on the days that I don't want to get up,

on the days I wanted to give up, like I still just chose it. And again, like, the sense of self-awareness was just like, there's nothing else here in this reality, in this space and time that sets my fucking soul on fire. Like, this is it. So whether I'm broken, I have nothing to show for it. For some reason, my entire body won't let me not do it. You know, that's the sense of knowing. All the other shit, the technical aspects, learning business and learning how to monetize it and being smart and all this other shit.

Like all those things can be programmed, could be learned with a little bit of outsourced energy. All of that can happen. But it's like, you have to have this first, the obsession, the obscene, obsession to where it's almost a little mad for you to feel this way, but it's like you have to have that madness to reach the magic, you know? And I just wish, I wish more artists, you know, could really tap in to that without the fear aspect, because I know how hard it is, like, yo, we all got bills to pay, you know, we all got to fucking make it at the end of the day.

We all are influenced by things. We all have, you know, wives or girls. friends or kids and other jobs and so many things that will distract us and pull us away from this but like man like if you just know that this is for you if you have that switch keep that motherfucker on man like because it's i mean for real one of my biggest motivational pieces is that you know we really might not be here tomorrow you know and people a lot of my friends hate about excuse you um a lot of uh my friends hate when like i talk about death or anything like that but it's like it's the one definitive in life is is that and and i've had so much my life has been surrounded by so much death like i've lost so many people you know and it's it's

just constantly reminding me to like you know just do what you want to do and do it right the fuck now because this is all you got man that's it and and i've spent so much of my time where i felt like i wasted enough already and uh i think it's only been recently that i uh i really tapped into this space and i'm like man like i'm gonna go and i'm just going to do everything that i feel i really really really want to do that's inspirational and i think important for people to hear because those steps are incredibly overwhelming and uh to your point i think so many people can you like it's just them, they're the only ones with these feelings and it's where artists shed this light. On July 30th, you made a tweet saying, I just want to be an album artist. I love

curating these experiences and stories and putting them into song form. You've just released an album. I'm just interested to know what it was like to put together an album. Sometimes maybe people think of just a song, maybe they're interested in the single. They don't understand that the album is somewhat a journey that the artist is taking you on. It isn't about going to the one with the star on it or the one that has the most views to really understand an artist is to take it from beginning to end because there's really motivational songs, there's calm songs that are really relaxing. The whole process of putting together an album is a journey. You take the songs and then you organize them in a way that tells a story. What was it like to be able to put to bring this

to life and to be able to think in album mode perhaps. Man, um, it's, it's crazy because I've just always been somebody that just loved listening to bodies of work. I mean, I grew up like my mom had 45s and vinals all like stacks and stacks of them in crates. And I saw I grew up listening to, you know, 10 minute songs. I grew up listening to, you know, album vinyl cuts of George Clinton and Earth went in fire and. And Hendricks and, you know, like, and these songs are, you know, eight minutes long or whatever, and they're all just an experience. They're just these musical experiences. And then, you know, as I got older, it was like, you know, your favorite artists would drop an album and then you don't hear from them for like two years until the next one comes out. So you wanted to listen to every song because the only other thing that you heard is if they had a single on the radio, but when you listen to the album all the way through, you get a whole plethora of experience. And so, I I think I just, I have that embedded in me. And what's funny is that although we're still in a single generation right now

and people's attention spans are like this, you know, what's crazy is to see that the people that do still put out these albums, they're not going anywhere. Like, these albums are going to live forever. Like, look what Kendrick just did with, you know, Mr. Morrell. Like, I listened to it through all the way, like, all the way like 10 times already. And it's like, I get a different experience every time. And it's not something I just want to go, you know, replay value for the car.

It's like, I'm really having an experience here. And it's, you know, they're pushing the genre forward and you're breaking barriers and breaking boundaries. That's what I love. You know, you take when Kanye did the Donda album, pretty much every Kanye album, to be honest, is an experience. And all of it has been ahead of its time. and the same thing with Cuddy. Cuddy's last album was a TV show, you know, and he rolled it out on Netflix as a movie, you know,

and it's an album. And it completely ties in together. Again, it's more than songs. It's always been more than the music, though. The music is just, you know, the music is just a way to present it. But the stories are what I really love and what I really dive into. So I think for myself, man, like again, and it's so weird because none of my friends are like that like i think maybe ozwin might be the only one but like all my friends i was like man like i'm

doing this single i got this single i got this single you know i got 150 singles ready to go and we're just going to roll them out like this and i'm sitting here like i sat on singles for months and i was just like it felt pointless to put them out because they weren't connecting to something i felt like they were just little pieces of a puzzle and i was just going to give them pieces to a puzzle and I felt like then the puzzle wouldn't make sense if I didn't give them. You know what I mean? So I started working on it. It was actually I was working for futuristic.

I shoot all of the futuristic music videos and stuff. Yeah. So I've been shooting all his music videos for the course of like almost three years now. So I helped him with that. I was working for him, you know, doing a bunch of stuff for Indy Amplify. and I was working so much on film work that I didn't have time to really work on music. And so he ended up going on a vacation, I believe, and I had like a window of like three days. And he just gave me the keys to his, like we have like a workhouse.

And he gave me the keys to the workhouse. And there's like four studio setups in there. And I called my boy Binks. And I was like, yo, I have some time to work on. music like what are we doing like let's let's lock in so he flew out came to the studio we got in the studio for like three days and I shit you not like I did not sleep so much so that on so I did this for three days on the fourth day I was hospitalized that got cellulitis I woke up with a crazy flu ended up being cellulitis because my immune system was so low because I was awake for like

65 hours or something like that and and it was all because like I said like I said like I didn't have the time to work on the music, so I wanted to get as much done as I could. Within that three-day session, we probably got the blueprint for like seven of the songs on the album. And we worked all from scratch. Like, me and him curate all the music together, the sounds together, his favorite thing to say to me, and I love it when he does it, he'll come in and he'll say like, what are you feeling? Give me a word that you're feeling, just one word. and I'll say a word and he's like okay give me a minute and he like goes to the computer goes back to the board gets the keyboard out and maybe like 30 minutes goes by and he was like okay cool I got

something for you and it could be it could be anything it could be a lead could be an 808 loop could be a drum could be a sound could be a sample and he's just like I think this is aligned with what you just said that you felt this feels like that word and he'll play it for me. And if I like it, he'll be like, okay, cool, get on the microphone. And I'll get on the microphone. And before we do lyrics, before we do arrangement, before we know the concept, we always find the feeling first. So I'll get on there and I'll just scat. I'll just holler, hum, scream, yell. I'll try different rap cadences. I'll freestyle a little bit, like, whatever, just to find what I'm feeling. And then once we find a feeling of it, we'll like pull

out of it. We'll listen back. And then if we know that we feel something and if there's something there, then we'll go in and we're like, okay, let's put lyrics to this. Let's put arrangement. Then it's just all texture and stuff like that. So, but we did a lot of that within that three days and then I got hospitalized. I was in a hospital for nine days after that three days. It was insane. And then again, and then I got away from it. I went right back to working on more film stuff. I was filming Echo's music videos, Vinj's music videos. I was filming futuristic stuff. I was doing, I filmed Chris Calico's music videos. I went, I did a documentary for Chris Calico. I was just doing so much stuff. And then I came back again. And I was like,

here, let's go back in and revisit some of the stuff that we did. And we probably worked together for like a week, a week and a half maybe. And then we kind of knew. I was like, okay, all of this stuff is starting to sound cohesive, I think that this is becoming more than just some singles that I need, because they all started to sound like they tied together. And then it was like we're after that week and a half, like he went back, he started putting some mixes on things and he would send stuff back to me. And we both kind of agreed. We were just like, yo, this is something. And we should treat it as something. So originally the album was called Aurora. because I have this

album concept where my first album I did was called Superpower and it was the dark version so the dark side of it. So it was called Superpower Dark. And then I was going to do an in-between album called Aurora because I wanted to do a third album called Superpower Light.

And I wanted the dark side and the light side to have two musical aesthetics. One being very grungy, very dark, very distorted. another one being more vibrant ethereal, you know, a little bit more ambient in its nature. And that way I could kind of let people know, like, I don't want to just do any one type of music. I want both of these sounds in my music to, you know, kind of be significant of what I have to create internally. So when I first thought of doing an in-between project, I thought of calling it Aurora because I looked at the definition. The definition of Aurora

was like an electromagnetic phenomenon that happens in the night sky and it poses the first rise of light. And I was like, oh, okay, well, that's dope because obviously there's light, but it's light in the night sky. So I could just do this in-between project. The bigger ideology behind it was that that music that I made for Superpower Dark was so dark and was so painful. And again, it goes back to what we were talking about earlier, about how, like, I just

didn't want to keep making this dark music where I felt like I had to feel pain just to create. And so, but then I also was struggling with creating this lighthearted, ethereal, positive music because I just wasn't there. I didn't feel that at all. So again, it's the real time thing that I was telling you about. So when I thought about an in-between project, I was like, oh, Aurora would be kind of perfect. and I could do a little bit of both because I felt like I had this little spiritual tug of war going on anyway, just put it in the music. The more we kept going with the songs, the more I still liked Aurora, but it didn't, again, it's something I already said. Like, it didn't, like, set me on fire, you know, like, I didn't feel huge about it.

Like I said, I'm a huge, I'm a cinematographer as well, and I'm a huge, movie buff. Ridiculous movie buff. I watch so many movies. Literally in my phone, I have a list of like my top directors at my list of my top 10 movies and I play this little game with myself all the time and I try to like replace my top 10. And it's so hard to do because those top 10 are like embedded for me. And then I even have like list like people, my friends always come to me for like movie recommendations. So I have like separate notes in my phone of like list for my friends and all curated by like who they are as a person. And I'm like, Like, it's like, oh, I know they will do this.

I went through this. They should watch this type of movie or they felt this or this or this. They should watch this. So that's just why I am when it comes to that shit. So I watched, I've seen it a many times, but for some reason I went back and I watched this movie Interstellar, written and directed by Christopher Nolan, incredible film. Like, have you ever seen it? Yes, of course. Yeah, okay.

Incredible film. the fucking mantra of the movie just wouldn't leave me alone and you know it's basically just love transcends space and time and Anne Athewey has a piece in there where she's talking and she basically was saying like you know love and you've seen it like love is an artifact

that we can't consciously perceive and maybe we need to dial it back to a science like maybe we just don't know enough about it And we've been struggling with, you know, broken hearts this entire time because we're trying to tame something that is ultimately wild and not tangible. So, man, like, I, that just jogged in my mind so much. I started taking notes and I was writing stuff down. And originally for the release party, I was like, damn, like, I really wanted to show the movie, you know, after I did the album. Because I, when I shit you not, if you go back and you watch Interstellar after listening,

to this music, like, you will be able to see the direct references of what I referenced and what moments I took sounds, the sounds of the Endurance Spaceship, the sounds of, you know, them being in gargantua or next to gargantial in a black hole, the sounds of just everything, you know, some of the dialogue that they say, I really, really wanted to dive in conceptually. So after being so inspired by that movie, I was just like, you know what? the song sound like love and this is my story of love and fuck it i'm just going to call it interstellar love story and i thought it was such a great title and i called my boy a trip who produced a polygon um which is the love story song on the album and he's also a huge film buff with me and he

loves the movie interstellar and i said i figured out the name of the album he was like what is it and i said and a stella love story, and he hung up on me. He hung up on me and he called me back and he said, that's the most perfect thing I've ever, like, when you said it, I knew it was it. And I was like, all, right, good. So, yeah, that's kind of how it all started. That's such an incredible story. And I think speaks to how everything comes together, right?

Like, you're not in a silo, just alone. You're taking inspiration from things that bring your ideas to life and can have an impact. and now when people listen, they can see those connections. I'm interested to understand sort of the ability to connect things together. Your album cover is fantastic. It's beautiful and it really speaks to exactly what you're describing. There's a sense of disconnect. I often try and remind people that we are on a rock hurtling through infinite space

and that it's so easy to forget that. And you talk a lot about that in the album. You talk about how like the very beginning is, all about how like we forget we're going to die we forget that the trivial problem somebody cutting you off in traffic is just nonsense when you zoom out and you think about how you get like 84 years on this planet and that's it and you use that time wisely and you might not get those 84 years so take advantage of it fully and the image it reminded me i don't know if you've heard of the falling man but it was in regards to 9-11 and there was a person falling out of one of the twin towers

and falling alone and he was just hurtling and it became a representation of that moment and an understanding of this person would rather fall under this building than stay in a falling building. And it was really heavy for a lot of people. And it made, I think, the front page of the New York Times. And it was a reflection of that moment. And seeing your image reminded me of that because we are on our own journey inside ourselves. But we are connected to other people and we can have a positive difference.

Can you talk a bit about the album cover? Yeah. It was actually so weird that you just said that. Like, you kind of just gave me chills right now. Because I just got back from New York. I saw the monument for the first time ever. So that was so weird that you just said that. That was crazy.

Sorry, I'm really big and like, you know, we're right. We're supposed to be type shit. So I always like get little signs everywhere. And again, like that's crazy. You said that. The album cover, it happened by accident because I knew I wanted something open. and very like art gallery-esque like that's that's really what i want i want something that can just live alone that doesn't say much i didn't want my face on it i didn't want it to be

overly you know uh overly um displayed of like trying to drive a theme or drive um the narrative I didn't want the words on it. That was something I struggled with a lot as if I was going to put the words on it. But at first, it was actually just going to be the stars. Like, I was just going to do the,

take the guy off. I was just going to do stars and, again, just have this open space. And I love the power circles that are around because it's so significant of, you know, life, you know,

the subtripetal motion of everything. But, yeah, just like, you said, I think once we made the conscious decision to like, hey, I think I need to be in the middle of it in a space suit. And, you know, I think it just really needs to be contingent of how I feel. And which is, it's just this one thing in the middle of this centripetal space. And these songs are going to be, I guess, just a supporting factor of what's happening

while I'm in this space, you know, what's going through my head, what's happening with my heart, what am I looking at, what am I, you know, trying to discover, what am I searching for out here in this nothingness, you know, because essentially that's what all this is. This is all nothing, like you just say, like none of this shit matters. That's one of the first, you know, things that, one of the first sentences in the song, Saturn, and it's just nothing really matters you know and it's i just wanted that to kind of be that story to be told in the album cover and i also didn't want it to be overthought like just boom this is what it is i'm i'm just in the middle of this nothingness and the nothingness is

very very beautiful but it's mysterious and um yeah those things with it your album covers brilliant because i think it can transcend genres in that way i see some people album covers and I love them as artists, but I couldn't show it to a stranger and say, I love this rapper and say, like, oh, like, it's got this image on it, like, it doesn't, it says something about me where your album is like, it's a mood, it's a vibe. Like, when I, when I first saw it, I was like, this is brilliant. And then hearing the songs, it connects perfectly. It flows really well. And it, it's something where you could put it on vinyl. You could have it out. And it would look beautiful, independent of whether or not you know anything about you or the songs on it,

it's a beautiful thing to want to display in your home. It's something you could put up on your wall and you'd be proud of, even if people don't have the detailed context, which is why I think it defies genres. Yeah, agreed. Man, thank you so much for it. Absolutely. So can we talk a little bit about the album? Can we talk about Awake, my love? Like, the beginning of the album is, it feels like something you would want to say to a child being born. It seems like that conversation, we talk about, like, people are born, but that moment where you really have consciousness, you really understand that you're you, you have opportunities, you have gifts, you have abilities, you have skills, and you have to share that with people. And that seems like the very starting place, which is not everybody gets that. Not everybody is encouraged to reach their full potential.

And that seems like the starting place where the conversation comes from. How did that come about for you? Damn, bro, you're good at this shit. because that's that's exactly it like for real that's exactly the space it was it was an awakening and it wasn't an awakening of anything other than my awareness my consciousness my ability to transcend fear um it was the knowing that we just talked about that's what it was it was that knowing is awake that feeling the wake the uh the purpose is awake And it was sort of like this, you know, here's this cool, older guy telling this younger, you know, so, hey, like, this is what you should look out for because I've already been there.

You know, this is what you have inside of you. And you have no idea the things that you're about to face, but you know that I'm letting you know that you're prepared for it. and then uh so it actually happened because uh i knew i wanted to find like some sort of very heavy tone voice like that and um this guy named tim tones i reached out to and um i you know again i i kind of pulled from the interstellar movie you know there's some dialogue from the movie i kind of wrote in some random stuff myself and then i still pulled from star wars a little bit like the guy kind of sounds like palpatine i thought the first thing when he said And again, I was like, that's crazy.

That just satisfied the nerd, the nerd in me. I love that because he sounded just like him. And he really, he really drove it home, man. And when I was writing it out, I just knew I wanted to land on that line. My favorite line, which is the line that I wrote was just find what you love and let it kill you. And I thought that that was all you needed to tell somebody, you know, kind of what we just talked about, the motivating factor of, you know, just being here, um, for a short amount of time. Uh, but yeah, I think, uh, find what you love and let it kill you is just the place I wanted

to land and then him just telling you to do it with this, you know, very interstellar-esque composition happening under it. I just, I loved it, man. And, and, and that was, uh, that was probably, it couldn't have came out better than I thought it was going to come out. Like that, that's probably the first time something I planned on doing that came out exactly the way that it, that I had planned it. It was, it gave me chills when I first heard it because it was the perfect introduction, in my opinion, to the rest of the album. It was a clear walk through, through that starting position of people waking up and realizing they have control over their life. And so many people don't feel that way. So many people stuck in this nine to five, it's not fulfilling them. And

there's a sense of like, what more is out there? And I'm stuck. And I'm a pretty big, big, Sean fan. It's where the bigger than me name comes from. And he has his album talks about in the beginning, it's an old man saying like, this is, this is not what my life was meant to be. And at the end, it's him realizing he's capable of more. And I just, it was very beautiful how you started that out. You have the song Starheart, which I think highlights a huge issue for artists, which is the balance between perfection and delivering the truth. And you can get so lost in making something perfect, that it starts to lose the soul in which, like, the raw feelings that you have, there's this balance that you have to find. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Yeah, Starheart was, and everybody told me not to put that as an intro. So many people said don't put it as an intro because after I had that talking piece already, we wanted to, like, everybody thought the pacing was just going to pick up. Everybody knows me for like, boom, just go and I was so stuck on like no this has to be the first thing because I did again like you just said I didn't want it to be perfect and and that was the point was like I didn't want it to be perfect I didn't want to start the way everybody else would think I would start I wanted to start with it took me some time space and time like from whatever music you've ever heard me do all of that is done this is why i am right now and it took me some time it took me space and time

from everything for myself just to get here right now and yeah i literally just dove into that like addressing like if if you want to put me in a box fine but it's not going to work and you're just going to keep dissatisfying yourself if you want to put an expectation on me fine but again you're just going to be disappointed you're better off just turning this off now because I'm going to go to so many different places, and they're all places that I want to go. You know, again, if, if, if, uh, I said something before like that, like, if, uh, what food for thought would this really be if everything on my plate was just catered to you, you know, like, it's, I'm, I'm stripping myself, I'm depriving myself of, you know, why do it if I do that.

I'm not a song of a person, period, you know? So, um, yeah, Starheart was incredible. in the way that I felt the pacing would go like the being very dim tones very kind of you know almost spoken wordesque into this heavy you know downward spiral

of like oh shit like I just jumped you know and I just jumped off the edge of the earth and I'm spiraling down and while I'm getting lost in the space just asking myself questions I'm like I want to know everything there is to know about all this shit because I know that we may never know. So I want to ask now. So that way, if anybody has any insight, give it to me now because I feel like I've spent so much time on this earth already, just not knowing, you know, and now I just want to know.

And that was like my leap of faith. Starheart is my leap of faith. The kind of underlying part of it too is Starheart was like me saying, I'm different. Like Starheart was me saying my heart is not like the rest of your guys's hearts you know um i feel like you know you talk about you know astronomy astrology and you talk about you know humans made up are made up of star dust and and things like that and it's like me really honing in on like yeah i really think that heart is just a piece of a star and you know when everybody else you meet on this earth might be the same they might be carbon copies of each other everybody might be programmed everybody might be you know fucking robots for all we know mine is not that way and i was just that was the first thing i

wanted to get across was just like hey my heart is just different um the flip side of that which is kind of cool is i really wanted to end close to the uh the end of the album with supernova because that was like the broken heart aspect like supernova is just a star that explodes so i wanted to, I think the first part was it was going to be Starheart and then Supernova was going to be my outro and that's how I wanted it. But then I, last minute, I decided I didn't want to end on a dim note. So then we had to do one more. But yeah. I have to ask about Supernova. Is that you beatboxing in the background? Who is beatboxing in the background? That's big beat boxing in the background. He's just doing. Yeah. I could hear it and I was like, I wonder how that came

about and what the mindset was behind that song. It was so random. It was just one of those things where it was like he wasn't really I hate almost every time he puts high hats on on any beats that we make they sound really insecure and I hate him and he's just like and he always is making fun of me because like you hate all my eye hats I'm like I just don't I don't know why just give me more space to do something vocally we don't need any high hats and uh so when he was doing that so instead of going back and putting high hats on it he was just like and I was just like all right just run it because I like it's like oh you like that and not that I absolutely yeah i like that

that that's awesome can you tell us about the song we need space and that collaboration man we need space was crazy um uh because we need space was actually it came from at least the concept came from me kind of in a weird space in my relationships where i felt like i was really disconnected from both of them and he actually just got out of a breakup and sorry binks um but he had actually just got out of a breakup and so i think we kind of met in the middle of like this feeling and i the first words that you hear in the song i wrote down and i was going to sing them and then i was like binks this is too perfect again

we're creating in real time here we should just do this one together so then i had like the first few things written. I just, I passed it off to him. I said, yo, finish the lyrics for this part. And you, that's your part. You sing that part. Let's just make this a feature for me and you. And he was like, perfect. Let's do it. And then we did it. And then when my part came on, it was just again, like it was something that I didn't want to think too much about. It wasn't something that I wanted to even explain too much. It was like, let me just have this space of thought. That's it. you know, if we need space, I feel like everything about it needed space. The, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the time. It was just spacey. The, it was just like, I thought about it. And, yeah, um, we were supposed to do. I think I actually had, I had a third verse, but for the sake of the album,

pacing. I did that speaking part because I felt like a speaking part was way more impactful. It's almost like a psychosis of like, she loves me, she loves me not, you know, and then being able to tell everybody like, hey, I feel really disconnected right now. And I just want you guys to know how I'm feeling. And going from that into the drift interlude with Osloat was just seamless. I couldn't agree more. And it again speaks to the idea of an album that we look so much for the song that needs to hit somewhere that needs to have these sounds we forget to give insights into like the mindset and the process and like my partner and i rebecca we were walking last night and we were listening to that part we were looking up at the stars was so peaceful and we

were so focused on songs hitting that we don't give the artist the space to share their thoughts or just let you kind of follow the journey and i think that that's really where that comes about and i don't know if you know this, but the Bible is one of the first hyperlinked books where things connect throughout. And so the way you name the songs, the way they all connect is again where I think people don't always understand the beauty of an album. We need space. The tie-in with the idea of the songs, the idea of the album. It all kind of comes together so beautifully, in my opinion. Yeah, thank you so much, man, for real. It's kind of surreal that, you know, people are even ingesting it that way because I always am so in my head about, like,

like, dang, nobody's going to get this, you know, because I, like, I know my mind's wired like this. I don't know if everybody else is. So hearing it back is very, very fruitful for me. So thank you so much. Of course. I'm a huge fan of Andrew Huberman, and he talks about neuroplasticity. And when you hear songs that are outside of your comfort zone, that's actually your brain going, this is outside of what I know. It's why people get stuck with, this is my all time favorite album. And then they kind of fall off the music train because they've found what they like. It's familiar and they just want it to repeat, but you grow from hearing and taking that journey with the person and giving them the respect and the time to kind of go on that journey.

But I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about the song, Healer, because it has been stuck in my head for so long, we need to talk about it. How did this song come about? What was the inspiration behind it? That's a characteristic's favorite song, man. He would not shut up about that song. I love it. I have all of the lines from the chorus just stuck in my head, walking around all day, singing

it. Um, Healer is like, heeler is like my, like, almost ego R&B version of being Polly, you know, like, it was, it was like, how do I talk about being Polly, but like being Polly in a, you know, almost prideful way, you know, I heard, uh, Travis Scott's another big inspiration for me. Um, he, I think it was the feature he did with Drake, and it was on the mixtape album that he did. Why am I blanking, if you're reading this, it's too late. And I think it was company, the song company, if you listen to the song company, right before Travis Scott comes in, he says, I'm a dog, and I think he says I'm a heed or something like bet and I loved how it sounded so much and it's just like a like a weird background adlib that he did and so it wasn't like a big moment so I was like wow that that really stuck with me

so when we were making the song um actually another artist I pulled a lot of inspiration from is St. John I love St. John's drones his drums are so groovy and they're all filtered and they have this like he might be the only person that I've ever seen. like their music is very sexy. Like it's sexy music, dog. Like, the drums are just, like when you listen to Healer, those drums are sexy. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, that's some sexy-ass drums.

So when I'm listening to them, I'm like, that just sound like butter. I was pulling that, that inspiration from St. John. I, uh, I had that little Travis Scott thing in my head. And then we just started going. And yeah, it was kind of like this conversation I was having. It reminded me of a date that I went on. and again like the first the first conversations that I've had on on many dates have been like I'm not a monogamous being I'm polyamorous and I want to open the floor to let you know who I am about it

you know like I don't want to lie about it I don't want you know it to be like a surprise like this is who I am and I'm willing to you know I'm here if you want to get to know me like I'm right here You could ask me anything, you know, because a lot of people still don't know about it. You know, a lot of people still are confused as to what it is or everybody has this narrative about what it is. And I think healer is definitely one of those things where I wanted to start talking about it, but I wanted to talk about it in a way where I'm giving you also my belief system and giving you the reality in what happens when I fall in love. When I fall in love with somebody and the people that I have fallen in love with, I've been, I've taken on. everything about that, you know, like I really have taken on, you know, their mental health

struggles. I've taken on their family's struggles. I've taken on, you know, their growing pains and things like that. So it's one of those songs where I'm just like, man, like, I have the capacity to love you and I have the capacity to help. And I really want this love to be a healing energy for me and you, you know, because that's what love should be. That's how we heal as we love each other. So yeah, I think that that was the space that Healer was created from, man. I just wanted, you know, I wanted it to be this prideful way of me talking about this space of myself that I'm ultimately insecure about. But, you know, here's a way to kind of just be fun and, you know, say it with some pride that time. But yeah, Healer, I love Healer so much.

Amazing. So I have a few more questions. And again, I appreciate your time so much. One of them is around the song Shooting Stars because I think you point to something that's really important for people to understand when you bet on yourself, when you start pursuing your goals, when you start chasing your dreams, that goalpost moves.

Your comments about having like a fear of missing out and your goals just keep moving forward it's something I think all people who are passionate about what they're doing get stuck in which is by the time your album releases by the time you hit your pinnacle

you're already your mind is already what's next where am I going where do I have to go from here and so I'm just interested can you reflect on your albums released a few days ago you should be hopefully soaking this in but where is your mindset at and can you talk a little bit about how that connects to your song shooting stars oh yeah um yeah that that little piece was so pivotal um because it's it's very very true man like we we deal with that shit all the time we talk about it all time i feel like us as artists we're always so focused on our output like everything is output and we get so lost in it that we forget about our input we forget about celebrating those small wins we forget about allowing any little piece of gratification to come inside because you know

it's it's it's calculated uh um motives now it's like this is just something we need to do and we need to let go of it and then we need to do something else and go again and go again. So when I look around me, all my friends, my friends are millionaires, you know, like my friends are successful. My friends have their own houses.

My friends have, you know, so much success in, in terms of what I'm viewing success as, that I start to get lost in it. And I feel like I'm done. Another favorite part of that song is, I said, how am I doing, you know, how am I doing, how am I doing enough if we're doing to

much? And it's like, I feel like that all the time, bro. Like, I always feel like I'm doing so much and yet I'm still not doing enough and I'm exhausted, you know, all the time. But I think, yeah, I think it's so important for us to really sit back and and take these winds in and like a deep breath and hold it in for a bit and and meditate on him because the other night with the release party that was the first time that I've really like to the point where like I still haven't even really been able to talk about it much like I've

it was so surreal for me there was so much love in that room which was ironic as hell because of the album's you know mantra and meaning but there was just so much love in the room for everybody for me, for the space, for the music, so much love. And it was probably the first time in a very, very, very long time that I felt peaceful mentally, you know, even the couple days leading up, or the couple days after, like, I'm still sitting here, like, man, like, I'm soaking it in. I go back. I've been looking at footage. I've been talking to so many people, having so many conversations about songs and meanings and what it means to them and it's just beautiful man it's it's it feels like what we me and futuristic you should talk about all the time

which is just you know i want to take on the responsibility the same responsibility of the music that i love and and that's what's happening and it doesn't matter if it's happening only in small numbers right now or it's happening in the millions like the point is that it's happening And that's exactly what we wanted, you know. So it's a little surreal from me, man. But, yeah, Shooting Star, again, another one, like Drift, where a lot of people around me didn't know if that should make the album. But again, it was something that I fought for.

It was that space of thought. That space of thought is something that I'm always going to fight for, which is, no, everything that I said in that song, I really wanted to say and I need people to hear it. And then once Mike hopped on it and he sang over it, I was like, oh, yeah, this doesn't do, it's staying. I don't care what anybody says, staying, because it meant so much to me, for sure. The whole album is incredibly beautiful and, again, connects so elegantly.

I would be remiss if I didn't ask because it's one of the ways I discovered you, the song Sedona. And one of my favorite parts about that song is where you pass the beat back and forth, like a ball. Like the way you guys both move back and forth, it, I think that's why. where I get the most chills. When I listen to a song, because the tempo has to be right, your vocal chords have to be right. If it's too different, people are going to notice and it's not going to feel right. But the way you two bounce the end of that song back and forth just blew my mind and I get lost on that part every time. Can you tell us about that song? Sedona happened by, again, another happy accident, man. Like, me and Vin have been friends for a while

now um again i i shoot a lot of his music videos i've been shooting all of his music videos for the past couple years and um he we he's always said incredible things about my music and we've had so many conversations about doing music together and he was actually supposed to be on the sky knows my name him uh he was supposed to do the second verse because i i did not want to do the second verse whatsoever vyn's also like me vin is somebody that creates in real time and he's very very he's a feeler and and if and if something doesn't reach and the way he wanted to instantly um he will start to overthink and and and self combust a little creatively and so he was so hype we loved sky knows my name we love the beat i had the first verse done

i sent it to him and he hit me back he was like bro i'm not finding anything and it's like I'm so sorry, you know. And literally at the release party the other day, he looked at me and he said, I'm so happy I didn't do the second verse. Because I did not want to do that second verse. You got at, bro, Binks, Binks the whole time, we were done with the album. The album was done. But that verse was not done.

And Binks, I'm like wiping my hands of it. I took a drink of some champagne. I sat down on my couch. And Bix was like, you have to get up there and go through your second verse. I was like bro no like I'm not gonna do it no way he was like gave me this whole spiel the same type of spiel that I would give somebody and I was like you know what fuck it

and I went upstairs and I knocked it out and I did it and yeah it's one of my favorite verses because it again it establishes that hunger um but that's the type of shit even though in a different way that's the type of shit that Finn brings out of me um so when he he called me and he was super excited

he was just like yo like I got this crazy beat. I think me and you should go back and forth on it. I think it would be crazy. And I said, all right, bet. He was like, I'm going to send it to you. I said, no, don't send it to me. I'm coming over. So I was out. I'll just pull up. So I went to his crib, um, walked in. We had like two beers and we went straight to the studio. And he already had all his parts done. And I was like, okay, do we want a hook? Do we not want a hook? Or like, what do we want? He was like, whatever, you do you. He just let me go. He let me do whatever I wanted to do. So I just got on the mic. I started scatting. I started finding some stuff. I actually found kind of that little

hook piece before anything else. Before I even did the verse, I think the first thing was the, that was the first thing I scattered on the mic. And then once he liked it, we were like, okay, cool, we put some lyrics to it. We kind of wrote the hook back and forth together. And then it was just, he was just like, yeah, just do whatever you want. I sat there and I'm not going to try to, you know, go bar for bar with Vin. I was like, this is not what I'm going to do. I'm going to be myself. And he was like, yeah, just do you. And I was like, perfect. I did the verse on like 15 minutes. And we, we couldn't stop listening to it. It was just over and over and over again. And we knew it was something. We just didn't know it was going to go as crazy as it. But we knew it was something.

Like, even if it was just going to like, you know, do good on social media or something, like somebody was going to like it. Because we loved it. It was like somebody's going to like it. And then, yeah, I remember randomly he FaceTime me, just like, yo, we just hit a million streams. And I was like, oh, shit, like, that's crazy. And then, yeah, we, you know, did the music video. That was fun. But, yeah, Sedona was super fun, man. And it was cool to, it was cool to finally do it after all the conversations that we had.

We probably had conversations for the course of two years before even doing one song together, one verse together. So yeah, it was, it was really, really fun. And it definitely will not be the last song that me and Vinj did. We're definitely going to do a bunch more. Thank goodness, because I feel like you two brought out the best in each other. I feel like the, he was like more flowy, like it felt more smooth. Like, he's a brilliant lyricist. And so you brought out like a little bit more singing to me.

And you were more of a lyricist than I think, like, what your album is now. Like, you guys brought out really cool parts of each other. I really enjoyed it. So I'm glad to hear that it won't be the last one. Yeah, absolutely. You've created a fantastic community of people as a consequence of knowing all these people, helping them succeed and building up, I think, a really strong network, a really strong sense of community and people that you can rely on.

What advice do you have for people who are on this journey of trying to chase their dream, chase their goals? I just think you're really unique because you're connected to so many other rappers. You're connected to other artists in a way some people aren't. They're siloed and they're trying to figure this thing out by themselves. What advice do you have for those individuals who are on this journey? Because it doesn't seem like you do it alone. Man, be yourself above all.

Like, don't compare. Don't pay too much attention to what other people have. Be yourself. Keep, protect yourself from bitterness. Protect yourself from the ego that can phase in and out. Protect yourself from spite. protect yourself from all of it protect yourself from negative energy if you have negative energy around you get rid of it i don't care who it is get rid of it um set your boundaries with

your loved ones set your boundaries for yourself and um yeah man just really just stay true to yourself again like and i can't i can't express it enough if you feel something and i mean really feel something and you have that sense of knowing you have to do it you just have have to please please do it because that's this world was built on that you know i feel like this entire world was built on somebody just knowing believing in themselves and just executing what they believe just do that shit man for real um other than that like love throwing through show love i think that the reason i have the people that i have around me is just because i've always shown up for them i've always been there for them in every

which way they needed, whether it was work, whether it was conversations, whether it was parties, whether it was hard times, whether it was sickness, you know what I'm saying? Like, I've really been there, you know, and I don't really, again, like I don't have much to show for it. Um, that's tangible. But what I do have to show for it is these incredible relationships and incredible spaces of love that I have surrounded, um, surrounding me. So yeah, I would just say through and through, man, be yourself, stay true to you, stay true to your heart, and move with love for real. And if you're going to do something, do it out of love. And I really mean it. That's my favorite line. Find something you love. Let it kill you. Beautiful. How can people connect with you on Instagram's, Spotify?

Everything at Ann again, A-N-I-C-K-A-N. Again, I come with a lot of peace, love and light, hitting me up anytime. um interstellar love story out now thank you guys so much for streaming that have already um i have so much more coming so much more that i'm doing um gonna be definitely some more visuals for the album i have a whole list of singles lined up and i already have another project that's like halfway done so let's go i'm so excited thank you again for doing this interstellar love story out now go stream it go check it out it's fantastic i could couldn't say enough good things about it. Thank you again for being willing to take the time to share your story and share the journey

of this. It's been an absolute pleasure and absolutely lived up to the hype. Well, thank you, brother. And thank you, you know what I'm saying, for doing this and shedding light on the people that you believe in, man. It's very commendable. And it's an honor for me as well to be here. So thank you.