We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Matthew Wright aka Sitch a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sitch, thanks for joining us today. Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?

Authenticity is one of my biggest focal points in my creative career. I want all of the work I create to feel true to me and speak genuinely toward my brand and creative identity. That said, I think it is unfortunately inevitable for people to see you or the work you create and misconstrue the intent or the message or even your entire persona, and that can really grind your gears if you don’t know how to circumvent or deal with that. I wrote a song called “Another Life” on my In Other News EP that describes the feeling of people taking a loosely constructed perception of you based on your persona and running with it, and how in a reality where that persona didn’t exist, neither would you to them. I think as an artist, especially as a member of several marginalized communities, scrutiny and mischaracterization comes with the territory. What’s important is how thick of a skin you develop in the pursuit of staying unapologetically You.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am Sitch, I’m an R&B/Pop-Soul artist and all-around entertainer. I was born and raised in Fayetteville, NC and was singing for as long as I can remember. In addition to music, I am passionate about visual art and dance, but music has always been the thing that keeps me going. Sitch is a superstar. Any time I am on a stage I am to put on a show. I bring great music, choreography, visual elements when I can… I like to give audiences a whole experience. Ambitious? Sometimes. Worth? Absolutely. I invest heavily into my brand and Sitch (as in “What’s the sitch?”) has a couple staples: my jerseys and the Newsroom.
If you see me perform I’m usually wearing a custom branded jersey. My artist name is derived from my fraternity nickname and line number, so I don that on my apparel to honor that team/village mentality that’s at the root of my whole deal. That village is what pushed me to this point and I refer to that village and my supporters as “The Newsroom.” This name was a no-brainer for me because since “Sitch” is short for “situation,” anyone who knows “what’s the sitch” is always in the news.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I will admit, I have a very stubborn desire to prove people wrong. HA! This has motivated me throughout my whole life to do the highly improbable and do it amazingly well simply because someone said I couldn’t… That is incredibly unsustainable, but extremely powerful as a driving force. Nowadays I think my goal is to be great because I have a message and an artistic quality and product that the world needs to see. I embrace so many beautiful aspects of the creative landscape and package it in a way that I believe people can relate to and see themselves through. My mission is to share a unique vignette of a multi-faceted, queer, Black, male artist on the mainstream stage. And I mean, I also wanna make a bunch of money, memories, have wild experiences, work with Beyoncé, buy my mama something she always wanted but never could get, you know… All the things!

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I don’t think non-creatives really understand the worth or value of a creative career vs one that “makes money.” How do I know? Because if more of them did, more creative careers would also “make money”. Seriously though, being a creative is so viral to the world we live in! Think about it, we are inundated with content on social media, YouTube gets days worth of videos uploaded daily, the number of visual learners is increasing all the time — we NEED creative professionals. Not only are we necessary, but the work we do is just as tedious, challenging, and intentional as any left-brain career. I feel like non-creatives sometimes see the work we make as extraordinary but flippant, in that “wow this is great, I could never” but still that creativity doesn’t include the strategy, precision, hours of labor, etc. that more objective work involves.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sitchofficial.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/sitchofficial
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/sitchofficialmusic
• Youtube: https://YouTube.com/@SitchOfficial
• Other: https://TikTok.com/@sitchofficial

Image Credits
Richard Ngo NC State Red-i