Artist Spotlight: WizTheMc

Shot by @alex.m.kennedy

WizTheMc epitomises creativity. With a style that he himself has described as borderless, the forward thinking musician uses genre loosely, borrowing sensibilities from the likes of pop, hip hop and R&B to amalgamate a rousing, charismatic and vibrant sound. The South African born, Germany raised singer and rapper released an excellent EP, ‘What About Now?’ towards the end of last year, which saw critical and public acclaim, amassing 30 million streams on Spotify alone. 

Earlier this month, the Toronto based artist dropped his latest sprawling, spine tingling effort ‘Break’, which represents the start of the next chapter of Wiz’s musical journey. Chopping and changing his flow and tone, Wiz illustrates his chameleonic talent and ear for a killer melody, as he voices emotional messages and thoughts about how the perception of a former lover changes over time, as you begin to see them in a different light. 

I managed to catch up with the surefire superstar to chat about the DIY creative process, his defiance of generic convention, and standing out from the masses.

Who influences you?

I’d say mostly people in leadership roles like my martial art masters, artists who make quality music and create great rollouts, mentors and coaches online and in real life…really anyone who has strong opinions about their respective field. 

You’ve had an incredibly varied upbringing, how has your diverse cultural experiences helped you in your writing and musical outlook?

It gave me perspective on life, on different living environments as well as different world views and philosophies. 

I know you’re a native German speaker. How important is language and the way it forms expression to you?

Expression is probably the thing I am fascinated with the most and something I’m constantly trying to get better at.

Like many modern artists, you embrace the DIY aspect of sonic creation. How does technology aid you in your writing and production?

It’s just super simple nowadays, granted you have a computer you can work with. I learned everything from freestyling to making beats on YouTube…so the internet is my true guru when it comes to all things music related.

In such a cluttered scene, how do you maintain authenticity and individuality? 

I have no idea. I always seem to wake up as myself and never had any reason to be anything but me. I feel very fortunate that I get support from people in and outside of the industry for just being me and making the music I enjoy. 

Talk me through recent single, ‘Everything’. 

In “Everything” I talk about the first of many chapters of love that i’ll be exploring throughout my next releases. Everything describes the falling in love phase aka. The Infatuation .

What is your writing process? 

 The producer usually plays the guitar and I start singing nonsense until a melody or lyric sticks and we go from there.

You incorporate your sense of humour seamlessly into your music. How does your music represent your personality?

I think you’d have to be the judge of that..after you meet me…but I’d say I express myself in my music similarly to how I talk or express myself in conversation. It all comes from my life…so I feel like its all just natural.

You’ve described your sound as ‘borderless’. How do you define this and how do you keep coherency in something so fluid and ineffable? 

I never tried to create a “unique sound”. I started with rapping and over the past 2 years I’ve been super into making more poppy songs but for all I know that could change next tuesday. So in a way my music being borderless was never an intention, but rather  an expression of how I felt. 

What’s your opinion on the concept of genre? Do you think it is still relevant in the modern music climate?

Genres make sense for radio so that people don’t get fooled into music they don’t like but for anything else its pretty irrelevant. Would be so dope to see Grammys being given out purely for best songs. I guess that would make it all the more confusing for the audience but I don’t know …good music is good music. 

What else is to come from you?

Me opening myself up more towards the world and people and you’ll hear that vulnerability expressed more and more throughout the forthcoming music.