We recently connected with Boywithahalo and have shared our conversation below.
Boywithahalo, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?
People tend to misunderstand where I come from with my music. I grew up half of my life in China, having a polar opposite viewpoint and philosophy, coming to the States as lower-class and living inside the 2000s online world, my background is very mixed up and fuzzy, maybe it shows from the songs I make as well as how many genres I may be simultaneously involved in.
Speaking of that, there’s an expectation many usually have about what kind of music someone like me “should” make. Sure, at times it feel like I exist solely to never fit in anywhere, meant to be a glitch in the matrix, the Asian kid in every crowd I try to be part of. The AAPI crowds had totally different interests and backgrounds, and I wasn’t that into the K-Pop and anime-theme trends. I’m slowly getting into them though!
As consumers of art we tend to expect something familiar and normalized that didn’t necessarily need to be there for it to still be great. The mixing isn’t always pristine and polished, the vocals aren’t always clear, things may be drowning in noise or reverb. But that’s exactly how I wanted it to sound! People are used to listening to high-res, immaculately sterile mix-downs where anything else is by default not as good. But I enjoy those off-kilter moments, they give a level of depth, personalization, and character to a piece of art you would otherwise never encounter, because having a clean uniform mix for every song is like giving every painting the same gloss-over treatment and same frame. People would be so upset if that was the case, so why don’t as many feel the same with music they consume? I theorize it has to do with how we interpret and “use” music in our lives. My drive and passion is kind of built on this social experiment notion and I hope to dive deeper into this topic and get the conversation up.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?
My name is boywithahalo, I’m a musician and content creator. I make indie bedroom pop rock songs in FL Studio. I create everything myself, from the music to the graphics. On my off time I enjoy livestreaming on Twitch and YouTube playing video games and occasionally working on future songs. I have some other ventures on the horizon, the main ones being fashion design, modeling, as well as a fragrance line.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
I want to first mention that we are all creatives. There’s a misconception that as humans some of us somehow biologically cannot be a creative. We can and are, it’s usually that we either don’t allow ourselves to go far enough to qualify in our own terms, or situationally something prompts us from continuing down that path. If you have the ability to picture things in your mind, you are a creative. My journey is only different because I took that path and it consumes me and my time more than others. One may be deemed less productive going down this path, but if you’re *really* creative you’ll find ways to manage optimal productivity.
Is there a mission driving your creative journey?
Others usually expect one to answer this question with something noble or down to earth, but what drives me is simply living a better life than now. Better can be as subjective and objective as one wants to interpret it, but for me it’s resolving the ongoing current issues I have in my life, most of it I believe comes down to the financials. For someone in this profession the beginning stages of a career is similar to going to work and making negative money. Time is money for most in the modern world, and every hour spent really adds up when you realize just how many you put into it. I want to be able to afford going out with friends, health treatments, a place to stay, just the essentials right now. I can dream about fancy cars and vacations after I get those things finally taken care of.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.boywithahalo.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/aboywithahalo
- Twitter: Twitter.com/boywithahalo
- Youtube: YouTube.com/c/boywithahalo
- Other: Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/3kRxi6BupqTUsOhTeZ8bx1?si=WhwV7hApT_mM06XhqqmRRQ Apple Music https://music.apple.com/us/artist/boywithahalo/1551861185