The urban artist from Long Island aku comes with a strong track and music video. The song titled “rose gold in paris town” is a laid-back tune that invites in every listener. The video is disoriented and attractive that pushes extra sauce and character.
The harmonious union of vocals, tunes, and lyrics is a true trip to enjoy.
We caught this rare opportunity to chat with aku.
Congratulations on releasing your new hit track titled “rose gold in paris town.” Can you tell us what drove you to drop this track?
I had made a promise to my audience that I would do a minimum of 1 song a day and release 1 song a week. I ended up procrastinating one week and panicked because I hadn’t released a track yet. At the same time, I didn’t want to break my promise. I started to work on the track the night before the release. It took several hours to find the melody I was comfortable with. At this point it was around 3am. I mixed it til’ about 4:30am. Then I started video editing until 9am. The song dropped, immediately received positive feedback and then life went on.
Who would you like to collaborate with on your upcoming songs?
A teacher or mentor. There’s so much I don’t know yet. I would love to form a collaborative effort with selectives that have had years in the industry. To where as, these individuals are willing to guide me to becoming a better artist. This could be anybody. From producers, engineers, other artists … literally anyone with a creative vision and genuine love for making great art.
Name a few of your best influences?
Kurt Cobain. He told everything in his music. His insecurities, his anger, his weaknesses. He told his truths and nobody can take anything away from someone who does that. He used music in its purest form to connect with his listeners and tap into their emotions and psyche. Anybody who has this mentality of stepping out of the crowd to be different especially in a world where society wants to keep people in line, they’re a huge influence for me. People see someone in the spotlight and want to be like them. In cases like Kurt Cobain, people saw him in the spotlight and felt connected to him instead of trying to be him. He used his influence and fame at the highest level .. an international level, a level of superstardom. AND he was selling records at extremely high amounts with Nirvana. Legendary.
What skills have you learned that will help you in your singing career?
Appreciate the collaborative effort. We don’t give producers and engineers enough credit for the magic they do. I’ve been working on my confidence and standalone vocals as time progresses, but the people who have worked with me to make me become better have made me realize that you can’t do everything on your own. Another thing I learned is putting my pride to the side. Sometimes, we have this habit of thinking we know everything and we have everything under control. I am personally confident in myself that I am good at what I do. At this moment, I think I’m very good at rapping, freestyling, and finding unused rhyme schemes. Though, I feel I could do better with vocal pitches and I’ve been practicing that daily. However, there were times in the past where I neglected improvement or ideas because I felt I was too good. I had to learn to put my pride to the side when dealing with people who know more than me about the industry and making music.
What made you decide to pursue a career in entertainment?
This is somewhat of a continuation of the influence question and Kurt Cobain. The only reason I started doing music was because I wanted to expand my following and fanbase through other forms of communication. My audience originally started on YouTube where I would simply share my ideas or thoughts about life or give an opinion about certain topics. Such as relationships, family, religion, love, depression. I have been an open book to them for years because I also share my struggles with them as they share their struggles with me. So when I see someone like Kurt Cobain do this at the highest level, it’s truly inspirational and it made me start taking music more seriously.
What kind of singer would you classify yourself as?
Lotus flower. Temptations to find a rise in becoming better at every aspect. Trying to find ways to make something pure, beautiful and regenerating.
What has been the best performance of your career so far?
So, I’ve always practiced freestyling. Always. It’s just fun to me. I showed up to the studio one day and I told the engineer: “Hey, just record me with this beat here and let me just freestyle something for content”. This was called the “uber everywhere freestyle” that I released on my YouTube channel and posted on Instagram. There’s a gesture or an ongoing meme with my audience where if I have a ski-mask on, it means “it’s time to cook”. So in the video I had put a ski-mask on and started freestyling. I felt I did really well and it was one of my most favorite moments of making music. There are other freestyles I have done in the studio after that moment.
Thank You!