We recently connected with Ethan Hauskins and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ethan, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

It was embedded into me that I was here to be seen and help others feel seen. I always knew the path that I would walk would be encapsulated by the creative spirit. However I didn’t see it as a real reality I should pursue until my early 20’s, I was the tour manager for a Portland band called CellarDoor in 2015 and had been making the bands flyers and merch since I was 13yrs old. After that I dove head first into trying to find my lane in a treacherous sea of musicians all set on the same thing at the core, expressing themselves. I think it had something to do with the connectivity of music for me. Regardless of country of origin or language spoken we all feel the vibrations, we all gravitate toward it. Every artist dreams of being able to live off of their art, I am no exception to that. I created and released my first album in 2020 and it was real, I did it. It was the start of a new reality taking shape in my mind. It created a new hunger to hone my craft and create my place in this world. I moved to LA during the Pandemic and it all changed. I never thought I would get on a stage and rap my lyrics. It was never the plan until it was, until it became the one thing I wanted to do more than anything else. But the short answer is, always. There was never a doubt in my mind that I wouldn’t be an artist.

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

Yoooo, I’m FRXST. An independent artist hailing from the Northwest, the Pacific Northwest, it’s cloudy out here and we smoking up. I’m a lyrical artist expressing myself through many different mediums and forms of creativity. Focusing mainly on rap and multimedia design. I’m an actor, voice actor, writer, and model from time to time. I’ve been a fan of music for as long as I can remember and have always been inspired by photography, my surroundings, trauma, death and life itself. In my opinion everything that is created is art and should be revered as such, the good the bad the ugly the beautiful the calm and the chaos. I see life through a lens that differs from the norm and I incorporate that in all that I create.

When it comes to music in particular, the main artist that I connected with that really inspired me to put my voice on the record was Kid Cudi. I discovered his music when I was a freshman in high school. I had finally found someone out there in the world that was expressing to the world things that I felt internally that were begging to be acknowledged. He showed me that it was okay to share the things that you felt, the things that you were afraid of. To be unapologetically you and to not limit yourself. To this day he is and will forever be my biggest inspiration musically. Check out his album with dot da genius, titled WZRD, you’ll understand. Some of my other major musical influences would be Wiz Khalifa, Eminem, XXXtentacion, $uicideboy$, Chester Bennington and Kurt Cobain. I grew up listening to all kinds of music, which led me to try and incorporate many different styles and sounds into my music. I don’t believe any artist fits into a box, I classify my sound as alternative/emo rap. I have been doing this in some capacity for 15+ years. My stance has always been that I make my music for myself, it is my outlet, it is my zone for experimentation.

I paint, I draw, I sketch, I write, I take photos, I curse, I cry, I scream, I prefer things in black and white, I’m a son, I’m a brother, I’m a misfit, I’m a dreamer. I put myself into anything that I create, it’s an extension of me. I am flawed, I am broken, I am hopeful.

Death has been a major impactor on me and how I see the world, how I feel about existence. Most of my biggest supporters are now on the other side of the veil. I lost my grandfather at 13 and my father at 18. One to cancer the other to alcoholism and disease known as addiction. Mental health has moved further and further into normalization and it’s a huge part of everything I do. Especially on the male side of things because most men don’t feel they are able to or allowed to express and release feelings out of fear of judgement, Male suicide has been and continues to be the bulk of all suicides. I hope to shed light and show that it’s okay to feel your feelings without prejudice regardless of anything, all humans should feel able to express and not internalize to the point of no return because there is someone out there that feels what you’re feeling when you’re feeling like no one does.

Forever I will be trying to see the beauty in the chaos

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

For me personally its the reaction from others, Especially those that have no idea who you are but were struck by you in some way which implored them to share those feelings with you. I think that’s a very special thing that nothing else can really match. It’s the connection without prior knowledge, the general understanding without any context that truly makes this worth doing.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

The biggest thing that we can do as a society is, not be afraid to share with creatives how they make you feel. We are trying to make people think and feel, so without that support either negative or positive things don’t change. There has to be more engagement and want to break away from the ideal that only the industry leaders make the best material. Or that other artists don’t have that same potential. We live in a world where a like and a comment can literally change someones life but because of saturation and algorithms artists aren’t being seen or heard. So much music is made and put on streaming services that never gets played. We all understand art differently but we as a species are meant to create and that requires nourishment from the ecosystem. We live in a time unlike any other in recent human history, albeit a great time it definitely has its pitfalls. We are the most connected, disconnected group of humans that we know of. In conclusion, the answer is support. Support those in your circles and in your webs that create. Support the person you see potential in. Support art because its the glue that holds us all together.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/f_r_x_s_t
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fvck.frxst/
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3eBcHJDPCANtwx7vZ1oukg https://m.imdb.com/name/nm13157627/?ref_=m_ttfcd_cl24

Image Credits
Photos taken by Natasha Hass @n.elizabeth.h3 on IG