Will

4th July 2022

What does music mean to you? How does it make you feel?

Music's such a big part of my life. It sounds weird, I kind of set myself milestones in my life to do with music. If I've ever got university assignments coming up or anything, I'll be like, "Once you've got this out of the way, you've got a gig coming up." It's how I kind of set myself goals - I know I've got a sick gig coming up. Music is just such a big part of it. I've played instruments in the past. I've played drums in the past and I'm always listening to it and yeah, I love it. My whole family is really into music as well. And it almost just feels like part of my DNA at this point, to be honest.

How big of a part does music play in your life and career?

It is just a big part of my life, but career - I've always thought about maybe doing something related to music, cause I'm a marketing student, so I've always thought it would be cool to do some kind of marketing, for like a music firm or something. Working in music would be nice, it's just so hard to reach that stage. But if I'm dreaming maybe I can get into music at some point or work in the music field. That would be pretty cool.

What's a song you know word for word, bar for bar?

I'm gonna have to probably say - when I was like 14, 15 years old, I used to listen to so much Logic back in the day, I can't say I listen to him much now, but I used to love Logic - I think it's, there's two songs by him I mainly know. It's either Fade Away off of The Incredible True Story or his song All I Do, which was I think only just added to Spotify recently, but that's a really good song. And I'd say still check that song out. That's a good song.

Do you collect vinyl? If so what do you enjoy about it? And if not, how come?

I collect a lot of vinyl. I think I've been collecting since I was 15 years old. So I think the first vinyl I ever got was actually from my parents. That's how I got into vinyl collecting. And I think it was the Coldplay album with - I dunno what album it was, but it had a music video of a bunch of monkeys dancing - I know it was that album, whatever that was. So I got that, that was my first ever vinyl. I think the next one was also from my parents and it was, Ed Sheeran - Divide as well, I think. But since then, over the last five years, I've kind of been building up my collection into genres I like a bit more, so I've been buying a lot of Hip Hop, a lot of R&B records. And I think my records [are] over like 70, 80 vinyls at this point. I love collecting vinyls and I think the reason why I do it as well is just it's I feel like vinyls are almost an experience. Anyone can just get their phone, slap on Spotify or Apple Music and just play music, but vinyls give you that authentic feel. I don't even know if it's the sound as such, it's just the whole process of getting the vinyl, flipping over to the B side. It's just a really cool experience and yeah, I'd recommend everyone get into vinyl collecting, to be honest.

Tell me about your favourite concert that you went to.

This is probably the hardest question yet. I haven't been to loads, but I've gone to a lot of my favorite artists now. So I've seen Slowthai a few times. I've seen Loyle Carner a few times, Cavetown, Rex Orange County a few times, but I think gig that really, really blew me away was seeing Childish Gambino, at The O2 in London, it's just unbeatable. I idolize Donald Glover so much and to see him live - admittedly I wasn't the standing, I was sat down, but even still, that gig was that gig was incredible. He's such an icon. And I would do anything to watch that again.

Your favourite lyric?

This isn't gonna be the conventional answer for "favorite lyric." I'm really weird, how my brain processes lyrics and music. I don't remember lyrics. Other than, like I said, a few songs if I listen to [it] a hundred times, but I know some people listen to songs like three times and pick up on it instantly, my mind just doesn't work like that. And I think it's 'cause I was a drummer in the past, whenever I listen to music, I always listen to the beat of the music. So I always hear the drums, maybe the snares, the bass drum or the toms and stuff. My mind just subconsciously automatically goes to the drums itself. I just don't really pick up lyrics. I honestly just, can't say I have one off the top of my head to choose from.

Give me the name of a playlist you made with no context.

hotboysummer

What are your desert island disc albums?

So if I had to pick three albums, I'm trying to think the first would Not Waving But Drowning by Loyle Carner. Second would probably be Because the Internet by Childish Gambino. And I reckon the third would be - I listen to a lot of indie, bedroom pop. So probably Sleepyhead by Cavetown for the third one.

Tell me about music your parents played while you were growing up.

So both my parents, they used to love the movie Amelie which is a French film that I'd highly recommend. My mum in her car, I remember she always used to play the CD of the Amelie soundtrack. I'd probably say that was kind of what I'm used to. My dad used to play a lot of James Blunt back in the day, so maybe one of the older James Blunt albums as well.

Briefly talk me through the songs you put in this playlist, what do they mean to you.

When I was compiling the playlist and the songs, I kind of wanted a bit of everything. I listen to a lot of bedroom pop and stuff, that's the kind of music I listen to when I want to chill. Then I have bunch of rap on there. I kind of just picked stuff that was from when I was growing up, like the main artists I used to listen to. I used to listen to so much EDEN in the past. More recently in the last year, since the Pony era, I've been listening to Rex a lot more. Loyle Carner - I'm a huge, huge fan of who I've seen at Glastonbury a few times. I just picked out a bunch of artists that just mean a lot to me personally. So I've met Loyle Carner in person before. He was absolutely amazing, he's such a nice guy. I met Rex the other week at his London popup show. Then I guess the one other that wasn't like normal music was One Summer's Day which is, I can't remember the composer - Joe Hisaishi, I think, for Spirited Away, but Spirted Away was such a big part of my childhood, so that album, all the music, just means a lot to me. It tears me up whenever I listen to it, 'cause I love that movie so much. But yeah, like I said, I just picked a bunch of songs that I loved, from artists I've loved throughout the years. That's the gist of it.