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How to create a coherent work? Was there an initial concept for the album that you started with and wanted to develop – how did it all come about?
No, I don’t go into projects sticking to a concept because I think it’s dishonest in some way. You don’t know how you’re going to feel tomorrow, so that would be putting me in a box, trying to follow a concept, and maybe even going against my feeling by trying to make it consistent with that one idea. I really let the story tell itself. It’s like painting blind – when you take the blindfold off and see what you’ve created, it becomes a reflection of how you felt throughout that time.
And especially if you took a long time to do the work, will the narration have changed and progressed?
Exactly. There are so many different feelings there. At one point I say “stay” and at the next I say “leave”. You really go through my life experience with me.
Do you feel like the work you do as an artist and performer of 070 Shake is separate from you as a person? For example, if I listen to your albums and watch you on stage, is that expression a character or an alter ego, or the person I’m talking to right now?
It’s an unsaid thing in me that’s like a character, but it’s not like I’m saying, “Here, now I’m going to be that character. It happens naturally. I become something different when I’m on stage, I become the most powerful version of myself. And the people watching become the most powerful versions of themselves, because we all share all of that energy. I think there’s something so powerful about everyone being somewhere because they share something in common. My energy is directed towards them and theirs towards me. This frequency spoke to them, because that’s really music. There are people who like hip-hop, others who like country music. These frequencies speak differently to people. You can’t really see the music. You can’t hang on to the music. It’s something in the air and you don’t know why, but sometimes it brings tears to your eyes, you know? I think it’s a very powerful place. So, yes, I think naturally you become, not even something else, but just a different form of yourself.
