We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Devin Sunshine a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Devin, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I’ve got kind of a two fold answer here, but they’re both very significant projects to me for different reasons. The first project worth mentioning is the Freaks Edge EP I put out this year with my best friend and co-mastermind Salem Strikes. We started this duo this summer, kind of accidentally. Salem asked me to feature on one of his songs, “Snooze” and it ended up being a BANGER of a song, that went over really well with both of our audiences. It was a new sound for me, personally. A bit grittier and more hyper pop than most of my solo work. When people received it so well and really took a liking to this new sound, and after we filmed the music video together and had so much fun with that, we decided to keep making music together and form an entire side project around this new vibe we were tapping into as a duo.

Freaks Edge was born very shortly after that! It took us a while to come up with our name, honestly. But once we landed on it, we knew it was perfect. “Freaks Edge” is all about honoring ones freaky, wild, chaotic, weird sides, and pushing those limits to the edge. The 5 song EP was a significant point of creation for me, personally, because it’s so very different from my own personal sound and style of music. Some of my upcoming music has a bit more of the grungy, gritty taste that you get from Freaks Edge, but truly the culmination of that sound is so uniquely it’s own and such a testament to the beauty and power in collaboration. Creating that project with my best friend really pushed my limits creatively, and also collaboratively! When you’re making music alone, or at least as a solo artist who’s the only one really representing the work, you have complete creative control. But when you’re working on something as a team, there’s not only two times the creative brain power, but two times the opinion too! So this project really helped me in me push aside my perfectionism at times, and reminded me that sometimes you need to compromise to come together as a team and allow something to just BE the magic that it is.

The SECOND project that has held a lot of significance in my life this last year, has been the current album I’m working on. I can’t share too much about this one yet, as it’s still many months out from release, but this project has been years in the making. Not literally, but in the sense that everything spoken about in this project, everything it’s taken to even come up with this music, has roots in something I’ve learned or come to the realization of in the last several years. They’ve been some crazy years! And I can’t wait to share this new music that portrays everything I’ve learned and the woman I’ve grown into in my early twenties.

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

What’s up! I’m Devin Sunshine. I’m a singer, a rapper, a producer, and what some would call a musician. But ideally, I like to just call myself an artist. Because my creative vision, while often rooted in and most frequently expressed through music, flows much deeper than that. I believe life is art, to be honest. Living and breathing and feeling all of these human emotions on a daily basis, if one allows themselves to do so, is art. Surviving is art. Thriving is art. Life itself is really just a dance of love, in many different forms, and I think that’s so beautiful. Seeing the “art”in everything, is an art form.

I also love visual creativity. Music videos and visuals, even down to cover art for my musical projects, is a huge passion of mine as well, and always created by myself or with the help of some close friends who share the love and passion for it too. I think it’s important to work with people who see the art in everything you do, and have an appreciation for it. It’s easy to get caught up in all of the outside factors that come with putting your art out there in the world. The recognition, the hate, the love, the “clout” or lack thereof, the money. But I think if the foundation of your endeavors is always simply to express your art, whether it’s to better understand yourself, or the world around you, or both, or even neither! – whatever the reasoning in your heart is for creating your art, if that is always the focus, you’ll always be fulfilling your purpose. And I think that’s the main thing I want anyone reading this to take away. Follow your passion, for the mere love of following it, and nothing else. It’s a huge realization I’ve come to this year, and I think in focusing on that passion and vision moving forward, more of “everything else” will come naturally.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding part of being an artist is of course being able to share that art and inspire and touch others in whatever way your art does for them, but a bit more selfishly, I think the most rewarding part of making art for me in the immense joy I feel when I’ve created something I’m truly excited about. My absolute favorite place to be is in my studio, creating something special, while I’m deep in the zone. My attention span isn’t the greatest. For reference, it’s taken me 17 minutes to answer this question thus far, because of small distractions here and there, even if just from within my own mind. But when I’m in front of my computer, or my piano, and I’m creating something from my soul, from scratch, THAT is when I feel most alive, inspired, fulfilled, creative, and ecstatic. I suppose some of that joy does come from the excitement of getting to soon share what I’ve created with others. I can’t deny that. But the pure happiness I feel just CREATING, especially now that I produce and engineer most of my own work or work closely with Salem Strikes, who often produces or engineers for me, has got to be the most rewarding part of being musical artist for me. I’m an introvert at heart, so that special creative time in my studio is everything to me.

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

I think my main goal in creating and sharing my art is just to better understand this human experience. We’re all here, just trying our best. All faced with different obstacles, but all feeling very similar things, for the most part. And I think diving into the beauty of just experiencing that, is one of the driving forces in my overall message and my music creation in general.

Lately, I think society has put a lot of focus on self improvement. And while self improvement and self growth are essential, I think too many of us, myself included sometimes, are so focused on getting to the next step. Being better. Being healed. Being happier. Sometimes just being happy. Instead of just being, where we’re at now. Because there’s beauty in all of it. And if we’re constantly worried about getting to the next step in our journey – whatever that may be – are we ever going to stop and appreciate where we are, and where we’ve been, before it’s too late?

Contact Info:

• Website: devinsunshine.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/devinsuunshine
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/devinsuunshine
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/devinsuunshine
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/devinsunshine
• Other: https://tiktok.com/@devinsuunshine