What’s certain is that he is tied to no particular genre, in taste or in creation: “I listened to Imogen Heap a lot when I was in high school. I think I started making electronic music because I was trying to mimic what I heard her do. And then I always listened to Brandy growing up, and just like a lot of soul and R&B singers cause… I’m black,” he laughs.
He takes the blending a step further while describing his artistic process: “When I make songs, a lot of the time I see visuals and hear the song at the same time. It all happens real fast, real simultaneously… My imaginary world that I make music from [isn’t] like this one, but somewhere cool, like the future, neo-Tokyo world. I feel like the whole point of making music is to paint an image with sound.” We can see this narrative style on his 2016 EP ‘Ronin’.
So why do it? “I’m at the point where I feel like I’m kind of insane when it comes to music. I feel like a Disney character who breaks out into song whenever they’re sad… but I really save the song afterwards. It’s instinctual: the one thing I know I’m good at, that I can do, that I can feel… I love the way [music] can just make you burst out into tears, from happiness… I think it’s how I’ve kept my sanity.
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