Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Marcquis Evans. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Marcquis, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
The most meaningful project that I’ve worked on is a project that I just recently released on Christmas Eve last year called Wherever Life Goes. That project still to this day means a lot to me. It means so much to me that I could barely listen to it nowadays because of the fact that I feel as though listening to the project brings me back to a very terrible time in my life. Last year I was in a two year relationship that ended by month three. And then shortly after that I lost my job. I tried to preserve the two year relationship that I lost right when I lost my job and it ended up falling through the cracks. I also got my first major injury in between all of those things I was walking home one day from work and some guy with a moped ran me over and I have this giant scar on the back of my leg now which looking back is very funny because I was listening to Michael Jackson on the way home. I was having a terrible day already and I decided to walk home that day. I really shouldn’t have though I should have took public transportation but the weather was so beautiful out and i was so upset about things that transpired as the week went on i just needed fresh air. Every time I listen to the project now I always have these striking memories of the major things that transpired in 2024. I really did everything that I could that year so much so to the point where I made that whole project about it and Wherever Life Goes is me expressing my hurt, my wrongs and my rights at the same time. It was so many heavy topics that I was discussing. I felt like that project was me closing the chapter of pain in my life. I desperately needed to feel like things weren’t going to consistently crash down any longer than it already was especially in my love life. One of my favorite songs on that project is the title track which is called Wherever Life Goes. That song is the perfect embodiment of how I viewed life at that time how I viewed people who were using me for personal gain people who loved me people who hated me people who don’t like when the camera is in front of them people who consistently try to manufacture a relationship that we just simply don’t have.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
So my name is Marquis Evans my artist name is Qui$e. I am a hip-hop/R&B artist from Queens, New York, who started getting into music at a very, very early age. I think I was like in seventh grade it started from freestyling at lunch tables to actually recording in front of a mic at my friend’s Nakyi house who I didn’t meet until my freshman year of high school. as a kid, I was always singing, I was always humming. I was always trying to utilize my voice somehow, but I never really got really comfortable with it until halfway through my high school experience. My school teachers would always want me to do talent shows, and I would never do them really out of fear for real cause I never liked performing in front of people which thinking back that explains why i’ve been diagnosed with anxiety now because I had anxiety then and I didn’t know what to call it. I didn’t like doing anything in front of people like presenting school projects. None of that. In my 9th grade year of high school I met two people who ended up becoming very important in my life. One of them specifically his name is Nakyi. he is the reason why I stepped in front of a microphone and started recording in the first place because he brought me back to his house one day and he told me that his dad has all of this musical equipment and we started using them right in his attic, which ended up moving to his basement and ever since then we started creating wonderful music together. I mean, obviously through trial and error. It sounds awful now(our earlier work) but you can see the growth as the years went on and around Covid once Covid hit, and the whole world was locked down. I took it upon myself to use the knowledge that I had from watching him and bought my own equipment, bought my own laptop and started recording from home because I obviously couldn’t go over there and rely on him anymore so for the past five years, I’ve been doing both I’ve been recording mainly from home but also going over to his house and you know record over there as well and we have a whole group together with solid people that make music Vaughn, Keyshawn, Matteo, Jessi and Nova. I hope I’m not missing anybody but we all make such beautiful music now as older individuals who have been doing this for so long and honestly, I feel like I’ve never told them this but I feel like right now at this very moment we’re making the best music of our lives. my music is very very, very, very personal even the fun songs I make have some type of relatability to it, and it also stems from some type of personal place. People always told me that listening to my music they can relate to it and I make more relationship centered music love centered music so if you’re ever going through a break up, if you feel like you found the love of your life if you can’t go a day without thinking of somebody or you even feel like the person who you are in love with isn’t who they claimed to be. that is the music that I make that I so strongly am invested in. I couldn’t really tell you what sets me apart from others other than me just being a likable person in general and the energy from my likability seeps into my music so I kinda understand why people like my music. if there was another thing that I could think of that separates me from a lot of other people is that I don’t see this as something that I’m doing to pass the time I see this as something that I’m doing to gain me more time more special moments with the people who are around me, this is my livelihood. every day I’m constantly thinking of a tune I’m seeing tunes and I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t be able to make music anymore honestly so that’s that. being able to vocally engineer myself is one of the things that I am the most proud of because it gave me another way to understand music more and there is no perfect way of doing it, but there is something that can make it almost perfect. I don’t have to worry about going to the studio and paying for studio time because I have a studio in my house and I do everything from home. I don’t have to worry about dealing with engineers that don’t know what they’re doing because I’m an engineer that knows what he’s doing. It definitely cuts the stress by a ton. my personality is really the main thing that I want people to gain from the music that I make because I’ve never had anybody Tell me that they don’t know what I’m thinking they don’t know what my reaction to something is or they have no idea what my personality is like while also listening to my music like I feel like my music is me creating a book about my life or a how to manual on how to be a better person towards me what it is that I like, what it is that I love, what it is that I especially don’t like, what I hate, how my thought process is and what my obsessions are flaws included.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
it’s so many different things that flood my mind when I think about what it is that is driving me to create music and wanting to do it successfully but if you really want me to be honest, as of right now, one of the main goals for me on this journey is to prove a specific person wrong and I just can’t wait to do that. I cannot wait to be at a place where I’m everywhere and they have no choice but to see me be everywhere rather I’m doing interviews. I’m on an ad. I’m on a billboard when you walk outside radio station when you are in your car, soundtrack of a movie that you watched or TV show. That day is going to come and I’m not saying that that is my sole purpose of doing what I’m doing right now but based on how 2024 went that is an added purpose and I just can’t wait to fulfill that goal.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I know I’ve been mentioning this a lot, but 2024 has definitely taught me a lot of things. there’s three years that I feel like in my life that were major milestone years for me. 2018, 2019 and 2024. 2024 specifically, I definitely had to learn that over extending yourself is not gonna make people appreciate you more which forced me to unlearn my over extension. granted, I don’t do things because I’m expecting a reward like if I’m doing something for someone or anybody I’m not expecting to be rewarded at all honestly cause I do things without thinking a lot of times and a lot of my kindness doesn’t have a thought to it. It’s just if I have the ability to do it, I’m going to and if I don’t, I’m not going to do it now, but I could possibly have the ability to do it later. last year, I definitely did a lot for a lot of people and I got the short end of the stick, but I don’t regret any of it. If I could do it all again I would. the only thing that I would change is my boundaries and as much as I really really wish I could get into the backstory of the things that transpired around that time the most I would say is nobody knows what loving somebody truly is until even in destruction you are still finding tools to provide for that person.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/qui%24e/1506124615
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notquise?igsh=NXJjd2RwbTlkNnBz&utm_source=qr
Image Credits
IG: @murk_tsg
IG: @johnnywav_