by Cristóbal Uribe, editor Hunter students are undoubtedly talented, but a hidden talent lies among some of them: music production and rapping. Our fellow peers along with millions of others around the world display their enormous talent through SoundCloud, a platform where anyone can post music for free. In this column I will be interviewing various past and current HCHS students who use SoundCloud to display their musical talents, whether they produce, rap, or sing. Nick Guillem is a senior. He produces music and enjoys rapping. He recently released his second single: “All in All.” I sat down with Nick to investigate the origin of his music career, inquire about the intricacies of making music, and discuss Nick’s plans for the future. When did you first make your SoundCloud?
I originally made a SoundCloud for just beats under the name hancholo a little under three years ago. But I wanted to start making full songs, so I made another one under the name Nick Jr. to post those. Does hancholo still exist? Yes, he is my alter ego and I plan to feature him on songs in the future. What and who inspired you to make your beats and eventually these full songs? I’ve always liked rap and music in general, but making music is so much more fulfilling to me than just listening. My friends and I used to try to write raps over beats for fun, so I guess we all inspired each other. But then I started taking it more seriously. What do you use to make your beats? Logic Pro X and a crappy old keyboard—from when I was younger, and first started learning piano—that I figured out I could plug into my computer. I looked through the hancholo account, you use a lot of cool samples...A lot of Kendrick Lamar. Where do you find your samples? I fux with k-dot. That Kendrick beat [on Hey, Kunta], happened because I was walking with James Soren [fellow Senior at HCHS], and I was singing the pixies song that it also samples, and he started rapping King Kunta, and it sounded fire. What are some artists that you appreciate, or inspire you? I really like A$AP Rocky and the whole A$AP Mob, as well as Isaiah Rashad, Frank Ocean, Young Thug, D.R.A.M., and Vince Staples. All those guys inspire me. Was it hard to make your first full song (Contempl8)? Making the actual song wasn’t that hard looking back, but it felt like it took forever to get to the point where I had something I was proud enough to share with everybody. I legit trashed hundreds of songs before that one. What about these songs made you trash them? I just didn’t like them. They didn’t feel like all the sounds and pieces fit together. Sometimes I also caught myself trying to sound like other rappers which only made for wackness. What made "contempl8" feel unique to who you are as an artist? I don’t know. I just liked it. It’s simple. Do you enjoy singing as well? In some parts of "contempl8" I can hear you singing. Yeah, I do. I like switching between singing and rapping, because too much of one gets boring. Have you made more music since your last song? Yeah, I’ve made around five more songs with various producers. Some are still produced by me though. Are these other high school kids around the city? No, just people from around the world on SoundCloud who I’ve gotten in contact with. Wow. That’s pretty cool. Yeah, SoundCloud is huge and there’s a lot of music nobody knows about. That’s really sick. How did these interactions go down? I just email them, asking if I can use a beat of theirs that I found. But I do it after I’ve already made the song, (Laughing) so they can have something to actually listen to and decide otherwise. Most people just ignored me and assumed whatever I was going to do with their beat would be bad. Do you plan on doing stuff with music in the future? In college, maybe? Definitely. I want to keep doing shows too and I think college will be a really good scene for that. Have you done a lot of shows in the past? Just one. Do you feel like you are getting the exposure you would like to have? Do you feel like a lot of people know about your rapping and production skills? I don’t know how many people know about my rapping, but I think that number will keep growing the more songs I put out. … I also don’t post about my shit all the time on Instagram like some rappers do. So… (Laughs) Last question. Lay it on me Chris. What are your thoughts about the other Hunter SoundCloud artists, such as charvog (Charlie Vogel, 2017), mile$ (Miles Shebar 2016), Tritone (Gregory Stanger, 2015), and DJ Lele (Leander Cohen, 2018)? Fuck Tritone. I like the other guys. I also plan to do something with mile$ soon so that should be cool. … Also, you’re missing another Hunter SoundCloud artist on that list. Who? spa¢ey. His first work is coming soon, so watch out. OK. Will do. Nick, thanks for doing this. Thanks for having me on the show Chris. ______________________________________________________________________ Check out Nick Guillem on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-869837763 Stay tuned for further installments of “The SoundCloud Artists of Hunter” |
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