Highrise On the Making Of “Young Man”
Can you tell us about the inspiration behind "Young Man" and the story it tells?
On the surface, "Young Man" is a message to younger men about the weight of past mistakes following them into the future,
however it is also a reflection on the consequences of my own mistakes. I had a lot of perspective-changing events happen in my 20s that, now as I settle down in my 30s, have caused me to reflect on how I could have lived differently. I recently became engaged, lost a friend to gun violence, lost another to suicide, and lost more family members to old age and poor health in the last few years than I have at any other time in my life. I lived through the vicious spiral of drug and alcohol abuse, one-night-stands, and clout-chasing that left me feeling more empty than the brief moments of euphoria could make up for. I wrote this song partially as a cautionary tale, while also acknowledging that anyone like me who hears it, will likely ignore the message and have to find out the hard way. Such is the foley of youth.
Were there any challenges or breakthrough moments during the songwriting process for this song?
As an artist with more of a background in rap, recording and mixing sung vocals has been a bit of a learning process for me. Over quite a few mixes, and many YouTube tutorials, I've finally built an effects preset that works for my voice. As a self-taught engineer, I'm sure I still have much to learn.
How do you feel "Young Man" represents your artistic identity?
This song marks a very hard course correction in style for me. My past music was heavily rap-centric and featured a lot of edgy, aggressive lyrical content. I've been a self-producing artist and vocal engineer for the past five years, but have been
attempting to develop a singing voice since 2011. Only recently with this latest release and the previous one do I feel like I've finally started to nail down a decent sound.
What inspired you to pursue a career in music?
I always needed a creative outlet to express myself, and in highschool I discovered a couple kids, now very good friends, who were in a rap group. They noticed I was decent at writing lyrics and convinced me to try. After that, I was like a fish to water. I always wanted to be a singing artist, but I had a terrible singing voice, and no engineering ability. So I stuck to rap, which gave me the confidence I never had, I could say the things I never would have in normal conversation, it cleared up a stutter that I had, and after my parent's divorce, which was brutal for me, became my greatest outlet for expressing my emotions, as well as being a source of therapy. From there my interest in music only grew, aspiring to be like some of my biggest influences, from Mac Miller and J. Cole, to Chainsmokers and Panic! At The Disco.
How do you continuously grow and evolve as an artist?
Every new song, I try to make what's in my head come out on the track. I'm constantly looking up new ways to do things, buying plugins that can alter the sound, and pushing my range as a singer. My goal is to be the best artist I can be, and have the versatility to accomplish any style of music I set my sights on.
