220 KID

How does someone with a master's degree, a background playing rugby, and an ex-model turn into one of the biggest ascension names in music? For producer/writer/DJ 220 Child, it literally took a marathon—both physically and figuratively.

If by risk you happened to catch a glimpse of a man dressed in pink running 220 miles for clemency a few years agone, you likely saw Volition AKA 220 KID . After going to university, getting a master's, and in a job that paid well simply didn't fulfill him, Will was at a crossroads with what to do. After the loss of both his godfather and a shut friend, Will decided to finally pursue what called to him for years: music. It's been a long marathon of discovery for him, but since then he'due south had multiple hit singles, collaborations with Gracey and JC Stewart, and has been deemed an artist to watch as nosotros get closer to 2021.

There have always been suggestions that trip the light fantastic and electronic music isn't a genre that tin can reach emotional depths, but the severity in which 220 KID explores his emotions and experiences is a direct rebuttal to those comments. Open about heartache, mental health, toxic masculinity and more than, the music 220 KID crafts is not only confessional but securely relatable. Never i to shy abroad from defying gender norms, 220 Kid represents a shift past taking aim at those who castor off the importance of continuing up for minorities and by blurring the lines between what it is to exist a 'man' in both the music industry and in the world.

In a refreshing and candid chat with 1883, 220 Child talks about actuality in music and allyship, his piece of work with his collaborators, and the importance of staying truthful to himself in an industry that begs artists and their creative minds to conform.

To start: how does an ex-model, a 3-month rugby player, and someone with a Biology degree decide to become into music?

My dad'southward friend put information technology well — he said "Your son is an idiot going into a career that'south going to mess upward his life," [laughs] I've always had this feeling about music and creating music and wanting to be a part of it. I'm sure you get it with writing and magazines, you tin can't escape that feeling of needing to exercise something, can you?

Yeah, information technology feels like information technology'southward ingrained within you lot.

You know if you're meant to practise something then no matter what yous do, you're always going to become back to that thing. I went to Uni and did a master's degree and I thought I'd keep doing the 'normal' thing and somewhen, the feeling of needing to practise music would go abroad, but information technology didn't. Then, my good friend and godfather both died within a month and I thought about how I was working a chore I don't like and pretending that is as good as it gets just because I was making good money. I only decided I would quit and do what I like to do which is music. I started modelling around the same fourth dimension, likewise, considering information technology was something I did when I was younger but I hated it due to fretfulness. I moved to Singapore on 7 days' notice and started modelling there. I idea I'd requite it a try and I would be able to know that, even if it didn't work out, I would be satisfied knowing I gave information technology a go and here we are!

And after giving it a become, you're starting to make information technology. Yous've had two huge hits this year — 'Don't Demand Beloved' with Gracey and Too Many Nights with JC Stewart. I saw 'Don't Need Love' has reached 100 million total streams, congrats! Despite the twelvemonth that the world has had, you've come into your own. How has it been for you lot?

Yeah, which is crazy. On my artistic lath at home, I wrote "get 1 meg streams" on information technology a few years ago and that felt incommunicable. I was releasing songs that would do a maximum of 300,000 streams then it'south unreal. I had this chat the other night with someone, they were describing my music and I feel like I finally reached a place where I knew what my music is. Later on the starting time unmarried I was quite scared near what I was going to release adjacent — should I mind to what I've been told to release or should I release what represents me? 'Too Many Nights' represented me; it wasn't just taking the ingredients nosotros took from 'Don't Need Love' and replicating them, which is an easy thing to do. Since it's been and so well-received I know whatever I desire to create and release I should listen to that gut feeling and do it, that's what being a truthful creative person is I retrieve. All songs might not have the same success, in the aforementioned way, I retrieve they all thing in the scheme of things; they don't need to be a tiptop ten because they are all a part of a process and every bit long as I know I've washed the best of my ability and I'k building a bigger motion picture, that's all that matters.

I remember a lot of people become caught upward in the demand to accept instant success. With things similar TikTok, songs can blow upward a year or two after they were released.

Yeah, exactly. My label is very unique in that they don't just requite a couple of weeks or months, they are in it for the long haul. We waited 9 months for 'Don't Need Beloved' to take off, slugging it every twenty-four hour period, and now look at it. We're non going to release a new song until Spring so nosotros're going to keep pushing and see where it takes usa, just that slow growth and delayed gratification is proficient for the soul! [Laughs]

When y'all're writing and creating, exercise you accept someone in heed who you desire to interact with or is that something you lot figure out afterwards?

Generally, that comes later on because I piece of work closely with my A&R which I don't recollect a lot of people are lucky enough to have a human relationship like I have with mine. When I'm making something nosotros'll exist sharing videos and having conversations and I'll give him a vocal and he's and so in tune with fresh new optics and ideas. He's taught me how to exist more in melody with fresh musicians and seeking them out. We will work together on something and nosotros'll find someone and decide I want to work with them on a song. I just wrote a vocal on Friday and in that location's a Swedish creative person I desire to sing it and their proper noun kept coming up in a session I was in today, so hopefully, that happens for u.s.a.! I say 'us' because I always call the 220 Kid stuff a team project. After all, it's not just me.

Speaking of collaborators, you lot've grown shut to JC Stewart, even going so far as to acquire some choreography from Magic Mike. What was that like?

[Laughs} It was great. People kept request who comes upwardly with our content! I'll merely be in the shower and I'll remember of a stupid thought and send it to JC and he'll beg me not to make him do it. He has a lot more pressure than I exercise, existence a younger creative person and all. If we can endeavor and detect an outlet to take fun we're going to do it. Information technology tin can exist quite tough sometimes and we understand each other and what we're going through, then we endeavor to support one some other. If I can go a day booked into learning Magic Mike dances, I'thou going to do it!

Something I admire about your songs, in particular, is how deeply personal they are despite being within the dance and electronic genre, a genre many assume tin't get honest and vulnerable. I feel like your song Too Many Nights and the 2 versions of it testify the importance of storytelling over the genre. When yous're writing and creating music, is genre something you're actively thinking about or do you feel free to genre-bend as you lot come across fit?

No, non trying to stick to a certain genre. I had this chat with someone I was in the studio today near how I'm known for not writing that often. I'll cancel studio sessions considering, non to sound like a dick, if I don't accept annihilation to talk nigh I'chiliad not going to waste matter people'southward time. I take to go experience things, like what happened in 'Too Many Nights'. It has to come up from my life which makes it open and vulnerable, because what'due south the point if it isn't? Y'all can go people much more involved in information technology if it is relatable considering I'm human being and that means other humans must accept been through something similar. I don't give a damn about what I have to adapt to, I don't intendance. I'm merely going to write songs I want to make. If a song suits a house-country sound, that's how information technology's going to sound then. That's just how it goes. As long as it works and connects with people, that'due south all that matters.

I think it helps that you're older, too. You aren't bending simply to make other people happy which people in their tardily teens and early 20s could easily practice just to please.

Because I don't care what people recollect. I don't want to sound big-headed but there'southward a good power that comes from growing up where you are over conforming and comparing yourself to others.

Actuality is important to you lot, both as a songwriter and as an ally. I'1000 interested to hear about safe spaces at gigs — it's something I wrote an article about, focusing on the different ways artists help shape safe spaces at their gigs, like Lewis Capaldi and his piece of work with 'Live alive', to assistance fans that endure from social anxiety and mental wellness. At that place are withal a lot of artists who don't call back about the atmosphere at their gigs. Why is it important for y'all?

Members of my family are in the customs so from a very young age I was always brought up with an open up view of it. I remember a couple of years ago I was at an event when I was no one in music and I was request other people what I could do as a white straight homo, the most privileged position, to help other people. They kept saying only do something that helps create a safe space because that affects everything. That sentence changed my mindset because when you're in a position where you lot can make a difference, it's selfish non to. If I know I could do 1 matter that would aid someone, I'll do it. In my former band, nosotros made a music video with a real moving picture camera at Pride in London and nosotros filmed highlights of the day. I noticed a lot of brands would moving-picture show parts of Pride that suited their agenda and aesthetic which isn't always the right representation of the community. It doesn't e'er capture the dazzler and liberty of information technology. You can see in the faces of the crowd that they feel more accepted and they are just having a good time. I played at Manchester Pride and the song we played was about championing yourself and other people if you lot can and I got a message from someone that said they heard me say what I said and they started a Pride in their small town. That's the power of giving a damn and that was just ane day of filming and 5 minutes of talking, but that hopefully will take a long-lasting impact. Information technology's important to me to employ my ability and position for skillful and to assist others. Why would I non want to play to an audience that felt safety and accepted?

Recently you started a scholarship at Exeter Uni for a high-achieving minority student. I know yous kinda wanted to continue it on the down-low, but I'd love to talk to you about your decision to do that.

It came from the Black Lives Matter move and having conversations with producer friends. They were talking nearly how nosotros're ill of people just posting on social media saying they are doing something when they are doing cipher. I ever wanted to get-go a scholarship if I always had the resources to do so, so I spoke to my university and asked how much it would be to start something. If I'm having such an incredible yr, mayhap I could help someone else that could as well thrive, too. They gave me different payment plans and we figured out how I could pay for someone to become to academy. It's important to educate yourself about racism only going and helping is a different feeling. Now they might exist able to become a better job in the future, which gives their family a different life, which changes a whole lineage or family. I don't demand a stupid lookout or anything expensive, I take everything I need.

I'd like to talk to yous a bit near mental wellness — I saw on Twitter that recently physical activity has helped yous mentally. I know 2022 has been rough for a lot of people, especially in regards to mental health. Your tweet about using subversive coping mechanisms struck a chord with me — no one is talking about stuff like that. It sounds a flake cheesy, but where do you lot get the courage to be so open about stuff similar that?

Once more, I just don't give a damn what people say! I spent too much of my life caring near what people think. I needed help and I got the push I needed to get help. I don't want anyone to feel trapped and I don't desire anyone to look up to their function model and think their life is perfect considering no ane's life is. The first time I posted stuff similar that made me a bit nervous but now information technology's second nature for me. If someone needs help, I'll talk to them. I've got a friend who I'grand speaking to subsequently this telephone call and he wants to talk about how he's struggling a fleck with his mental wellness and he's a pint-drinking rugby player. Information technology happens to everyone and beingness open near it helps other people come forward and become help instead of suffering in silence lone. I have moments where I'thousand struggling and considering I was pushed to go help, I know that I can go to people and be open about my struggles and they'll assistance. I just want to show people they can get help as well. It can be difficult to go help with free public health services considering there is such a list and information technology'southward slow, and so using connections at the personal and ground level is important. We have a couple of projects with brands coming to help make therapy more accessible to people who can't beget it which I effort to practise to utilise these connections I have to help others.

I love your sense of style — the all pink outfit you just posted was amazing. You lot aren't afraid of defying gender norms, much like the likes of Jaden Smith and Harry Styles. Although the music industry has made a lot of changes, I however feel like toxic masculinity exists in some aspects. When yous first started pursuing music every bit a career, did you have to deal with any situations like that?

I've been around toxic masculinity from playing rugby and you can see how it affects people and their decision making. Circumstances and peer pressure impact people who are in vulnerable places that are only trying to be cool. When I was young, I wanted to paint my nails and do stuff like that merely because it's not "manly" I didn't. You spend so long questioning how to dress or how to deed or how to speak to expect a sure way and it's incredibly stressful. Nowadays information technology'southward worse because kids take access to social media which is a whole other thing. I want to be a function model that encourages people to do whatever they wanted — pigment your nails, dye your hair, only exercise it. There will exist some kid in the centre of nowhere that will look up to yous and see what you lot're doing and information technology'll leave a lasting impression on him. Information technology'due south how we break the toxic masculinity cycle. From what my ring wears on-stage to my anthology art, I want all the different colours and gender-bending thing that could be subtle psychology that helps pause down barriers.

That all pink outfit y'all wore recently was to dice for. It feels like we're slowly starting to make changes, especially in regards to breaking downwards the idea that colours and article of clothing and everything else is for certain genders.

Yep, I finally experience like I'm existence fully myself. In the past, I wasn't sure who I was and I didn't experience comfortable, but I've reached a point where I don't care! [Laughs]

What else should people know almost 220 Child? I know you said on Twitter that yous have some sad bops in store for us…

I was sitting in this verbal seat, staring at the wall, listening to those lamentable bops! I said I don't write a lot but I do write my all-time when I'm sad and going through something. I understand my 'make' as an artist is to bring free energy to the music simply besides bringing a story and the emotions behind the song. We're exploring that a lot more. It's quite a lamentable time in the world correct now and then if I can assist people connect with their emotions, I'll try to practice that. The next thing I release will surprise everyone and information technology's going to exist astonishing. I'one thousand non allowed to say likewise much near the new music coming out but a cliffhanger is good, isn't information technology?

Check out 220 KID below!

Photography by Jordan Rossi

Interview past Kelsey Barnes

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Source: https://1883magazine.com/220-kid/

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