[INTERVIEW] THEHXLIDAY ON HALLOWEEN, EMO-RAP + MARYLAND
Who is TheHxliday?
A kid from the suburbs outside of the city of Maryland, I grew up there my whole life. My mom was in a local band so I was always around music growing up. I kinda got put onto making music around 13, messing around with GarageBand trying to find my sound and building a fanbase at the same time slowly over SoundCloud and Instagram. I was really interactive, I feel like I’ve always been a kid learning and developing and also growing with my fans. I’m just a growing kid, I’m willing to share everything, share my opinion and try my best to help out people that are in my age group or even older if they need it. I just want to be that light.
As your name was inspired by your love of holidays, which is your favourite?
It changes here and there, every couple of years. For the longest time, it was Halloween, but now it’s between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Those two holidays together, I wish there was a way to connect them, I’ll just call it Christmas-giving LOL! My first song dropped on a holiday was on Halloween, I made my music sound real dark when I first started. It was purposely just to fit the Halloween type of vibe. People at my school liked that, I switched it up every few months trying to do something different.
Your music fits under the genre of Emo Rap, is that what you aimed for?
I have no problem with being labeled under any genre because I know for a fact, I’m going to show people that I can hop into multiple genres over the years. I’m okay being labeled under certain genres because at the end of the day I want to be established under those names. So you’ll see me be an emo rapper, you’ll see me get into Pop, Hip Hop, Reggae, all that. I have an R&B tape I’m working on, on the low, I even have some UK Drill.
Have you been to Europe yet?
No, I haven’t actually been overseas yet. This year, Rolling Loud in Portugal will be my first time traveling outside of the country.
Let’s chat about your new single ‘Opps’ and the video…
The video is crazy! It was crazy pulling up to the studio, there was a whole white room that we used. There’s a motorcycle scene where I’m just sitting on top of the bars, it’s a really fun video; it’s different than what I’ve dropped before. I made three other songs the day I made ‘Opps, probably close to a month ago now. I made two reggae songs but the last one I wanted to switch up the vibe and try something fun, I made this in just a couple of minutes. With ‘Opps’, I wasn’t really aiming to pick at people’s brains, I was trying to make more of a vibe that everyone can get hype to, especially when I’m performing.
What upcoming projects do you have?
I’m just gonna let you know, I’m finna T-UP with the EP for sure! It’s a crazy tape, it’s really different from anything I’ve dropped previously too. This is more in-depth of me, more from the heart. This is how I feel like people are going to get to know me more. The title of the EP is a symbolization of myself, like I can be all over the place but at the same time, life is beautiful. This is my life, this is the first step in leading to my debut album. Besides ‘Batbxy’ this is the first big step leading into music, more explaining who I am.
Who would you love to collaborate with?
Lil Uzi. Me, Uzi and Nav.
Has Baltimore influenced you musically? If so, which artists?
Baltimore has its own type of Hip Hop music, we have local artists that everyone shows support to. It’s a very different style of music than what I make and that played a big part in the reason why I make the music I do. Everyone around me that was tryna be an artist was making Baltimore-style music but I wanted to make different music. That pushed me to make different music because I wanted to stand out against that. I rock with Baltimore music though, Shordie Shordie’s from Baltimore. I want to stand out and try to go more worldwide than just local. You want to able to experience everything you possibly can, life is so short. When you have the chance to really take over you gotta go crazy, but you gotta remember to have a good purpose.
Who’s your favourite artist to listen to currently?
Right now it’s Lil Yachty, Lil Uzi, Ski Mask and Fivio Foreign.
How were you affected by the passing of some of your favourite artists?
It made me watch what I talk about because I realise putting out certain energy can come back. So if I talk about dying too much or talk about feeling that way I feel, is that going to come back on me wrong? I realised a pattern I kept seeing with my favourite artists, so I just watch what I say a little bit more. Whatever you put out there really does come back no matter what. Life is strange, I try to keep it more positive now. I still keep “that vibe” in a more positive sense.
Where do you want to be five years from now?
Drake level! When I say that I’m serious. But I mean it in the way I want to have a big enough impact to where I can just do my best to be able to help situations. I feel like there are people that have a lot of power to do a lot more, when I’m really really up there and I’m able to take control of situations more, I want to lead things in good directions and try to bring light to certain things too.
Do you have a message for your fans?
I want you to tell everybody I said Happy Hxlidays!
Interview by Eviethecool
Photo by Travis Shinn
