This is Devin.
Devin, tell us more about how you first got into music?
Music has been a part of my life since I was very young.
I grew up around a family of musicians and performers, and was involved in all things musical from as early as 2 or 3 years old.
My family always had me involved in the arts; things such as choirs, dance, musical theatre, and learning musical instruments.
I took piano lessons from my grandma all throughout elementary school and my dad taught me how to play guitar at age 13.
It seems funny now, looking back at my childhood roots of music, where it’s taken me and where I’ve also strayed.
It wasn’t until I got into high school that I started to really discover my own personal taste in music and ventured away from what I knew as a child and from my family.
It was in high school that I discovered my deep love of hip hop and rap.
I love the lyrics, the poetry.
I was really into old school and underground rap at the time.
Artists and groups like Blue Scholars, Souls of Mischief, Bone Thugs and Harmony, Atmosphere, Common Market, Cam Meekins, Grieves.
It was also around the time that I discovered my interest in more mainstream rappers such Eminem, Dr. Dre, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and up and coming at the time - Tyler the Creator/Odd Future and Mac Miller.
It was actually Mac Miller’s death in late 2018 that really shook me and inspired me to pursue this desire to make music, specifically rap, and put it out for people to hear.
Like mentioned, I had always been involved in music throughout my life and had written acoustic songs on guitar since I was a young teenager and all throughout high school, but had always pushed away the idea of pursuing it further, let alone rapping.
I was a big writer throughout high school and college.
I’ve always been pretty good at it and have always loved playing around with words, syllables and flows, usually through poetry or prose.
But around the time of Mac’s passing, I was getting deeper into my love of hip hop and rap; and his death really shook me.
It inspired me to go out and buy a keyboard, a mic and interface, the logic music production software, and at age 22, rekindle my piano skills from childhood and learn how to produce music from my bedroom.
I spent a lot of time messing around with it all, watching YouTube tutorials, and basically teaching myself how to produce, record, and engineer my own music.
Within a few months, I had written and recorded my first EP which I titled ‘Cool Glxy’ after one of the piano presets on my keyboard.
It was very very raw and amateur, but it was completely real and honest, and I was proud of it; I still am, for what it is.
It made me realize that I wanted to pursue this.
I wanted to get better, get deeper into rap/writing music in general and keep doing this thing I had found such a deep newfound passion for.
That was in late 2018.
Since then, I’ve released 2 more EPs and a full length album titled ‘Runaway’ - which just came out earlier this year, along with many other singles and various experimental covers and verses on Soundcloud and Instagram.
I’ve become more confident in my abilities to write music and specifically rap.
My more recent music has reflected that.
While I still love to sing and add plenty of melodic hooks and harmonies to my songs, my real passion is writing raps.
I’ve always loved the words behind the music.
I’ve always loved the art and poetry in it.
What would you say separates your sound/style from other artists?
I think my sound is very different than a lot of artists at the moment.
There aren’t too many artists, that I know of at least, approaching the rap game how I am.
In fact, I’m almost not trying to approach the rap game at all.
Of course, I consider myself a rapper, it’s what my passion is and what I’ve been trying to continually improve on and pursue, but I don’t even know if I’d consider my music of the rap or hip hop genre.
I rap, but I also do a lot of singing and melodic speaking in my songs and some of my music is more “pop” sounding than anything else.
But, I know my place, and that a lot of my music wouldn’t be considered “true rap" or "hip hop.”
And that’s okay.
As much as I love and respect that genre of music, what would be the point in trying to recreate more of that?
I want to add my own flair to what I call rap and make music how I want to.
I very much want to respect the game for what it is.
I know the roots of hip hop and its culture; I never want to overstep.
I know that my music and my raps aren’t going to be taken seriously by some, and that’s okay.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion.
But I love to rap and spit rhymes and come up with cool verses that flow and make you think.
So, I’m doing me; making music how I want to, perfecting my craft, and continually discovering and recreating my sound.
What are some of your favorite things you've got to work on?
Ooo, my favorite project I’ve worked on recently has been the EP myself and friend/fellow rapper Sheafy (@sheafy_d) put out titled ‘Lonely Hearts Club.’
We wanted to make a real laid back, chill, timeless EP full of tunes to vibe out and smoke to.
And we did just that.
It was really fun to work on because it was really just for that, fun.
We would send beats and verses back and forth, collaborating on every song and just letting what came to us flow.
It was one of the easiest projects to make because we really just let it come to us and had a great time with it.
Sometimes I catch myself taking all of this a little too seriously; but creating this project with Sheafy was a great reminder of what making music is supposed to be about.
Having fun with it and collaborating with friends to make music that you genuinely love and would vibe to continuously with the homies.
It came out May 1st and I’m still bumpin' it every day!
Do you have anything new or upcoming we can expect to see from you?
Yes!
I’ve got a couple songs dropping this summer and another project in the works.
It’s in the very beginning stages; so I won’t speak much on that just yet.
My first upcoming single ‘Vibez’ drops on May 29th and it’s a real feel good summer jam!
I experiment with a more commercial “pop-rap” sound; it involves more singing throughout the song than rap.
But don’t worry, I throw in a dope verse in at the end that reminds my listeners what I’m really here for. 😉
After that, I’ve got a song coming out later in the summer titled, ‘One More Day’ that brings back my more typical sound and tells a story of falling in and out of love through some carefully constructed story telling raps.
Both have accompanying music videos!
I’m really excited to put it all out. It’s gonna be a dope summer.
Follow Devin Sunshine:
Instagram: @devinsunshine
Twitter: @devinsunshine
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