Following the release of his October mixtape ‘EGO’, we caught up with North-West London underground Rap talent Coults to talk performing in Tokyo and which artists inspired his growth as a musician.

What five words define your sound?

Bold, experimental, timeless, unapologetic, Coulture.

Tell me something unique about your creative process

Throughout the day I’ll always note down certain lyrical ideas or flows that randomly come to mind, and then I’ll piece them all together to form a song when I get down to writing. I’m not sure whether this is something unique to me or if this is a common practice, but it’s almost like putting together pieces of a puzzle.

Which song of yours would you like people to hear first?

‘Millionaire Shades’.

What inspired you to make that song?

Realising that there is nobody else on this planet who can push me to get to where I wanna be other than myself is the idea behind this song. Doing things for myself and myself only. A lot of people would call that selfish, but being selfless in this game doesn’t take you too far.

What’s the most vulnerable you’ve allowed yourself to be when writing/making music?

I think using your voice to create art already puts you in a more vulnerable position to other artists. I wouldn’t say I’ve ever felt vulnerable in any way when making music though, I speak my mind in my music and it’s never bothered me how people perceive me or what I’m saying.

What’s the best/worst experience you’ve had on stage?

Best experience hands-down was my show in Tokyo this recent Summer. The crowd was insane, I’ve never seen crowd response like that in my life. Real fans from halfway across the planet who knew my lyrics bar for bar. I wouldn’t say I’ve ever had a bad experience, everything’s been a learning curve and I’ve never left a stage feeling disheartened.

What is your favourite song to perform?

‘Is It Cool?’ – they love that one.

Which artist/song/album made you want to make music?

‘Friend or Foux’ by Lancey. I heard that album and a couple months later I picked up a mic and started teaching myself Garageband.

What’s the meaning behind your name?

It’s just a shortened version of my surname. People often ask me that and expect a deep answer, it’s literally just that.

If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing instead?

I literally have no clue. I don’t even wanna think about that. I genuinely have no idea what I’d do in life without music, I’m just very blessed to be able to say I get to do this full-time, and I guess we’ll never know the answer to that.

What’s success to you?

Being able to provide for my family and leaving behind a legacy and a blueprint for others to follow.

What moment in your life/career forced you to change direction?

I remember falling heavily depressed during lockdown in 2020, not really knowing what my purpose in life was and losing touch with what I enjoyed in life. I knew something had to change before things got inevitably worse very quickly, and writing my own music definitely changed everything for me.

Where can people keep in touch with you?

You can keep up to date with everything on my Instagram @coultss and my TikTok @coults. Coults on all streaming platforms.