We were lucky to catch up with Xavier Robert recently and have shared our conversation below.

Xavier, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Being an artist and defining what that even means is a very tough task. Artistry ranges anywhere from the simplicity of creation to the refinement of providing value to others with it. For myself, that artistry exists in the realm of music creation and spreading my work with the masses. Regardless of all the variables and different interpretations that define what it means to be an artist, I don’t think I’m far off the mark by suggesting the following: one of the key sources of an artist’s success is “opportunity”.

The thing about “opportunity” that I learned is it isn’t always what it is made out to be. For lack of a better metaphor; unfortunately, “opportunity” doesn’t show up for dinner unless “risk” is at the table as well. Essentially, if I want success as an artist — I must also welcome risk. Every facet of my career is rooted in risk. From a young age, I’ve been both blessed and cursed with the inability to dream on the playing field of normality. I never had much care for school structure and the premise of a 9 to 5 career. Most people gaze at the moon and are content with its distant beauty. I, however, have always possessed the insatiable need to reach out for it. It has been this undeniable drive that has pushed me into the career I am in today. Most people look at my aspirations as a full-time artist as delusional and unachievable. To them, I say “embrace the delusion”.

With all that being said, becoming the full-time artist I am now and continue striving to be didn’t come without risk. I chose what some would consider the difficult route. As mentioned before, I strayed from what others considered conventional and safe. I left college in my first year. I stopped working a 9-5 in 2020. The creation of my music alone is a risk. The concept of sharing a piece of your soul, turning that into music, and sharing with others in the hope they get something from it is a risk. Not to mention all the money that goes into funding production costs, equipment, marketing, and traveling for shows. Not to mention risking the most important commodity of all: time.

It is these risks that I make as an artist daily that have allowed me to experience a sliver of what most thought unachievable. I have been able to provide for myself financially for 3 years now. I have continued to grow my fanbase and reach new audiences across the world. I have been able to spend more time diving deeper into the risks that can propel me that much closer to the moon.

Xavier, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Xavier Robert. I am a full-time recording artist, born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. In 2017 I visited a studio space to make my first song. At that point in time, I had never in my life expressed any interest in music creation. In fact, my whole life I wanted to work in the film industry. I attended film school for a year in 2016, and even though the film industry is still a massive passion of mine, I found that art form to not fully fill the metaphorical cup deep inside of me. After the 2016 school year, I decided to take a year off to “find myself”. This involved me coming to the creative solution of creating a YouTube channel where I would document my life in the meantime. I released these YouTube videos in episodes every few months. Typically they involved me hanging out with friends or traveling to new places. One day, however, I had the brilliant idea of wanting to rent a studio space and creating a song (purely for fun), and making an episode out of it. Little did I know that by doing so, I would be coincidentally finding my life’s passion. My own Eureka moment.

Fast forward nearly six years later and I have gone on to release dozens of records, garnering over 2 million streams across music platforms, perform at hometown staple venues in front of hundreds of people, and will be embarking on my second cross-country tour later this fall. My discography ranges a wide spectrum of genres from hip-hop to pop-punk. Originally started with a catalog fully rooted in hip-hop but then later branched out into elements of jazz, pop, alternative, and punk. Rapping gradually turned to me singing in 2020 and now I like to believe I have a little bit of something for everyone who may come across my music.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Yes. The resource I wish I knew more about earlier was “time”. It is so easy to feel like the clock is ticking and not have any concept of how much time we all possess. It is with this time that I have spent cultivating impactful relationships. Whether that would be with peers, connections in the music scene, or even fans. It is with time that I could sit back and make decisions based on strategy or just for the purpose of experimenting. Rather than act with haste and feel like every decision is going to have the impact on forever that I cynically thought it would back then. It is with time that all resources inevitably become available. However, not understanding that can ultimately result in a waste of time.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

One hundred percent. Reading has probably had to most long-lasting impact on my life. Unlike content that we can sit and mindlessly consume, reading takes dedication and effort. Able to obtain the gems within the text, I must set aside the time to earn them. I have always been a firm believer that success does not happen the same way twice, but failure does. There are tons of books that have provided insight along the journey of my pursuits. I may not be able to replicate the success of whomever I am reading about, but I can avoid the failures based on their experiences of what not to do. Some of these books include “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson, “Greenlights” by Matthew McConaughey, or even books like “The Greatest Salesman” and the “The Alchemist”.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://liinks.co/youngxav
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imyoungxav/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/youngxavofficial
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/imyoungxav
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtdogL3LyPdTJc8AkEMHJ9w

Image Credits
Jon Nano