Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Gary Watson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Gary, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I’m much more widely known as a hip hop emcee/rapper/lyricist/song-writer, for my catalogue of works under the artist name “Sivion”. However, those that have really followed along on this journey with me for the past 3 decades also know that I’m a saxophone player (mainly tenor, but I do play Alto, C-Melody, and Soprano). I’m also learning to play the flute as well. Over the past couple of years I’ve been really pouring back into improving my playing level for sax as that has been a differentiator in my music that I’ve taken for granted for many years. I’ve always considered it just something I can add to my hip hop every now and then, but every time I would add sax to a live set or studio recording, fans and supporters were always drawn to it. I was really good in high school and also studied jazz instrumental performance as a minor in college as well, but I really only got to a solid intermediate level, not really a strong professional level. Knowing what I know now, I would have spent more time in high school making sure I learned all of my scales, chords, site reading, and more music theory vs. relying solely on my ability to play by ear. Back then I think the fact that I was also a very active athlete kind of stood in the way of making the time necessary to really get the most out of my music training. That history definitely hindered my development at the time, but now I’m doing those things that I should have done then and it’s been a lot of fun.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m a rapper/song-writer/musician who’s most widely known for the catalogue of recordings I’ve produced mainly in the realm of Christian Hip Hop (CHH) under the name of “Sivion”. My musical journey started in elementary school and got much more serious when I became a jazz saxophone player in junior high school. I carried my development as a tenor sax player through 4 years of college at which time I began writing and recording raps with my twin brother Terry (aka Wushu). We formed a group called Phat KATS and did shows in the Dallas, TX area as well as surrounding states for a little over a decade and then I began a solo career as just Sivion, which has resulted in 6 studio album releases in addition to several other releases affiliated as a member of the super crew Deepspace 5. I think the thing that sets me apart from the others is that I really don’t care what’s “hot” right now. My aim is to create timeless music that’s good for the mind, body, and soul. I try not to get into the habit of capitalizing on the trends. I just make what feels good to me knowing that there are others out there who dig the type of stuff I dig. And the thing I’m most proud of is the consistency and longevity of my career within the CHH genre. It has been fun continuing to release meaningful albums that give back to the community in providing the listeners a message of hope and an alternative to mainstream hip hop which at times can be so destructive and meaningless.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
One of the biggest things I had to unlearn is the idea of competition or “competing” against other artists. When I first got into the crew Deepspace 5 I noticed that the other emcees were a lot more aggressive in their delivery of raps than I was. I was more of a poet and a lot of them were more battle rappers. So in order to blend my style with theirs, I started to emulate their level of energy and aggression on the mic. What resulted was some really cool music, but it wasn’t always a good reflection of my unique talents, the same ones that were the reason they asked me to join the collective to begin with. But through those experiences, I’ve learned that every individual has unique talents and have been created for a specific purpose which differs from the purpose on anyone else. So we are all 1 of 1 creations made to flourish in a lane separate from anyone else. If we focus our attention on finding that unique lane, then there’s literally no competition in that lane as you are there by yourself. So now I focus on making my music as unique as possible and bringing my most authentic self to the recording booth for delivery of every song and performance.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
For me, the most rewarding thing about being an artist is that you “get” to put your heart on records and then share them with the world. There’s nothing more freeing than putting your heart out there not knowing how it will be received or if it will be discarded or stepped on. You have no idea how people will react, but you do it anyway, because it is a release for you as the artist. When an artist has a bunch of great ideas that never see the light of day or never get put out for human consumption they just feel wasted. Having an avenue to share my story, my experiences, my perspective, etc. is such a release that the benefits spill into all aspects of my life in a positive way. I know how to express my feelings with my wife and kids better because I have 3 decades of experience releasing my expressed thoughts and feelings on record for a global audience. It’s really a blessing and a huge responsibility to be intentional with the power of influence through music. I’m honored to have this platform for expression.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://illect.com/pages/sivion
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sivionds5
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sivion/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/SivionDS5
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_ltyxp-8ob6awtO3Zq5FAQ/about
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w1wj7Zh_OQ
Image Credits
Jon Madison, Rondo Estrello, Raymo Estrello, Samax Amen, Jacob Weston, and Scott Alan