London's The Young Wizard is a producer and rapper who is making waves with his expressive form of hip hop. With an upcoming EP and projects with some of our favourite artists in Leeds, The Young Wizard is definitely someone to have in your periphery.
What inspired you to start producing as under the alias The Young Wizard?
The Young Wizard is my first and only project as a solo artist. At the time of the birth of TYW there was a lot of crazy shit going on in my life and in my head that there was just so much trying to burst out that I wasn’t able to deal with normally
.
How long have you been going as The Young Wizard? How did you meet the other members of your band?
The Young Wizard was conceived about two and a half years ago, when I started taking my rapping more seriously. The current live band has only been going since September 2018. The band is made up of a mix of musicians I met whilst studying jazz piano at Leeds College of Music; Seb Knee-Wright (Necktr) on guitar, Glen Leach on keys, Patrick ‘Cheekbones Tricky’ Hand on bass, Greg Burns on Drums and Bethany Herrington (B-ahwe) on back-up vocals.
What would you say are your main influences?
My main influences are from all over the place. Anywhere from pianists such as Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner to Mos Def, Nas, Red Hot Chilli Peppers. At the moment I’m really feeling Noname, Saba and Smino hailing from Chicago and St Louis respectively. I think what they’re currently doing is pushing the boundaries of what hip-hop is both musically and lyrically and it’s really resonating with me.
You worked with LAUSSE THE CAT on his album last year, how was it working with him? Any more collabs planned?
I’ve worked with Lausse the Cat since the dawn of TYW as a project. In fact we were both once freestyling at a house party together and he was the one who got me to record and pushed me to take it more seriously. So I guess you could say without him there would be no Young Wizard. He is a really creative guy and has forced me to look at things in a whole new light with regards to conceptual writing. Lausse will be featuring on one of the tracks off of my upcoming EP.
What’s coming up for The Young Wizard? Any big plans?
I can’t describe my excitement to release this upcoming project. It’s my first multi track release and has been about a year in the making. All 8 tracks were written, recorded and produced by myself so I’m keen to share the hundreds of hours of hard work with the world. It’s entitled Life’s a Bitch, I Just Need an Early Night and mainly explores themes of death, sex and introspection.