Before the ASCAP “On The Come Up” New York Showcase, we got a chance to talk to Souly Had and discuss some of his musical influences and how he began making music.
As well as his recent EP B.L.I.S.S. and his upcoming plans.
The Knockturnal: You recently released B.L.I.S.S. this past Friday, I’ve heard some of it and wanted to know what was the concept behind that project?
Souly Had: Pretty much every song is a love song on that EP. I kind of left it open to whoever. BLISS is an acronym Because Love Is So. I left it open for interpretation cause the songs range from like love songs to love is overrated. That’s one of my tracks on there “Overrated”. However you interpret love, mine is because love is so special because I got a girl. But yeah I just leave it up to interpretation for the listener because there’s all types of versions of love on the tape like after a relationship, before a relationship, when you’re in between relationships and you’re like fuck a relationship. I’m just trying to do my own thing.
The Knockturnal: Any person listening to it at different stages of a relationship would be able to relate to the songs?
Souly Had: Pretty much and that happened unintentionally. I just came across all these songs in different stages of my actual love life. Which is crazy, so I put them all together and that’s where it came from
The Knockturnal: Coming from Albany, NY, what were some influences you had growing up there?
Souly Had: I mean no one specifically in Albany, but influences on the grand spectrum of things, Mac Miller he was a huge inspiration and R.I.P. to him, Tyler The Creator I love him, Kendrick Lamar is fire. Just the basics man, I really like Kali Uchis and Jorja Smith they’re two of my go to female artists to listen to and they’re fire. I like their voice inflections but those are like the main people I listen to or listened to growing up. Like Mac Miller’s whole YouTube era with videos, like on the K.I.D.S. mixtape and that whole era that’s what inspired me to make music. I wouldn’t make music until two years later but that whole thing inspired me.
The Knockturnal: When did you initially start making music? Did you just start singing at first or did you start playing an instrument first?
Souly Had: I was a backpack rapper at first, well actually now that you mentioned it I did play guitar when I was like 12 or something like that. I played the guitar, just learned like Nirvana songs, Metallica songs and AC/DC songs like I had all the books with the chords. Learned all those. I was rappity rap, rapping fast and rhyming words and then I found my voice when I was like 15. So I started to put out music singing, which was like a huge step for me because singing is like a whole different thing then rapping. If you’re a rapper, it’s like a whole new element you’re bringing to the table. So like I was nervous about it. Putting out my first song where you could hear my vocals in it. It was new to me too, as new as it was to everyone else. I never had a vocal coach, I never had anyone teach me how to do this, I just said fuck it, and it sounds good so I’m going to drop it. I started singing when I was 15, I think I was good at signing when I turned 19 and now I’m 22 so I’m doing pretty good.
The Knockturnal: I was at Chelsea Music Hall last week and saw your performance and saw you playing with a live band and you told me that it was your first time performing with your live band, is that something you look to incorporate moving forward?
Souly Had: Yeah, definitely. It brings the energy, Like I can’t go back, it feels like I can’t go back after that. I mean I’m going to go back tonight on my backing tracks, but for my own tour, for the B.L.I.S.S. tour, live band it is.
The Knockturnal: So you do plan on touring for your EP?
Souly Had: Yes sir, it’s in the works. I don’t know when but it’s happening.
The Knockturnal: And that’s through Island Records? How did that relationship begin?
Souly Had: Yeah, well I was shopping around I mean not shopping around, I got reached out by a few labels at once because in the industry when you get hit up by one label people start talking. Everyone hits you up, I got hit up by a bunch of labels and I met with a lot of labels, big names. I met with Island and the whole vibe was kind of family-oriented. It’s a smaller label, they don’t have a lot of artists on their roster so I went in there and it felt like everyone was a fan of my music. Seems like the whole building is behind me type thing, super family-type vibe on that floor cause it’s in this big building and there’s three or four labels in the building but Island was the one that really stuck out to me. It felt organic which is what I came up doing in my music. Organic is a word I hate to use but for the lack of a better term, it was super organic in there, family-oriented, everyone knew each other and that’s the vibes I like. I don’t want to get into a label where I don’t know Drake drops an album, and I got people focusing on that instead of focusing on me.
The Knockturnal: I know you told me about the B.L.I.S.S. tour, do you have anything else coming out this year or early 2020?
Souly Had: I got another EP dropping, I can’t really give many details on the release date or the name of it, but it’s finished. I have all of the tracks for it. Give me three or four months and another EP and then it’s album mode.