Maŧ D is a singer, rapper, songwriter and producer. He was born in Timmins, Ontario Canada, now residing in Ottawa. Maŧ D has been releasing music since late 2019. He has also been involved with local Timmins collective known as Waste, and has collaborated on multiple musical projects, including the Transcendence collab EP with Krown, and the Strachan mixtape series as a producer and featured artist. 'h4ze' is a song about the feeling of growing up that became pretty overwhelming after Maŧ D moved away from home.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Kamil) Hey Maŧ D, super nice to have the chance to chat with you. What first got you into music?
Hey Kamil, it's good to talk with you. So, funny enough, I ended up acting in some theatre shows in high school, and I was a shy kid, so that really helped me break out of my shell. Somewhere along the line, I had a friend of mine from my Grade 9 year who just put me on to a bunch of Hip-Hop and Contemporary R&B albums, and I loved all of it. I got super invested into the concepts albums, so albums like Because The Internet, 4 Your Eyez Only. So, that love for musical storytelling and performance just kind of bubbled over and I decided that I wanted to just tell my own stories, make the music that I wanna hear. And then like 2019, I put together this beat and I fell in love with it. Super simple beat with a catchy guitar lead and the lyrics just flooded to me and I recorded it. That's when I decided that'd be my first song. And I've just been working at this music thing ever since.
What is your creative process like?
At this point now, I kind of just throw stuff on an FL project and just see what sticks. I'm just all consumed in music, so I'm always re-listening to anything that comes up on Spotify or checking out new stuff that my friends show me and so I've gotten to the point where when I listen, I'm always looking for different things like, automations on instruments or different effects and how those people use that and I just go, "Ok, I want to try that on a beat.". When it comes down to it, I kind of make whatever whenever that creative spark hits me.
Your latest song is 'H4ze'. Can you tell us more about the making of it and if there were any unusual things happening during the process?
With 'h4ze', this is the first song that I'm switching up my usual style, It's not like this Trap or R&B thing I was doing before. Close to the start of the pandemic, I got put on to a bunch of new artists in the Hyperpop genre, like Brakence and Sophie, and I thought, "Oh, weird noises make really good music.", and I just wanted to put my own twist on it, so I put these glitchy Trap drums over a Lo-fi melody, chopped that up too and made it glitchy for the chorus. Wrote some lyrics about how I was feeling and everything going on in my life at the time when I made the beat and that's how 'h4ze' came to be. This time around too, I've really learned to appreciate the value and work I've been putting into these new records, I'm proud of what I'm making, so that's why I've kind of been hiding my face this year. That's why everyone in the collective I'm a part of, Waste, is hiding their faces this year. We want our art to stand out. We want to promote our art, not ourselves as a brand.
What was the most difficult challenge you faced?
It was probably just getting the beat off the ground, so to say. The whole Hyperpop genre is so new to me, that's probably the first-ever song I've made that could be closely classified in that genre. So a lot of the time when I was starting the song, it was a lot of just trial and error and just feeling like I wasn't getting anywhere. The drums we're probably what set it off though, once I figured out how to apply those crazy stutters and effects, that's when the pieces started clicking together.
What is the biggest mistake you have made within your career to this point?
If I'm being honest, probably some lyrics I said in some records. It's nothing incriminating, don't stress. But I've made some negative comments about the music industry that I'm not proud of anymore. I realize now, that some of those lyrics came from the heat of the moment emotions, but I know that dissing isn't going to solve any of the problems in the industry.
How do you know when a work is finished?
When it sounds good sonically, or whenever it sounds close to whatever reference tracks I'm using. Because I'm mixing and mastering all of my own music too. I'm working on promotional stuff and artwork all along with the actual record itself. So, by the time I finish a record and sit with it, and I sit with it for a while, because I want every new record to sound like my best work yet. Once I'm happy with it for a few days, I send it out and start getting ready to put it out.
What are your long term goals?
Right now, I'm just collaborating with a lot of new people and just making stuff I don't normally make. I'm working on putting out records to help build up a following for myself. Then when the time is right, I want to put out an album. I'm planning out something crazy in the terms of narrative and sound, and I want to entertain as big of an audience as I can. The hustle to the top never stops.
Do you have a mentor or coach?
I have an uncle of mine, he taught me guitar and piano, and kind of got me started on how to mix. I kind of fell out of playing the instruments, but I've retained a pretty basic understanding of music theory. Production-wise, a lot of my stuff really came from YouTube tutorials and re-creating beats when I was learning.
What memorable responses have you had to your work?
I think what really struck me, and it's what kind of what helped made me stick with music, was when I put out my first song. I'd be hanging out with some homies and they'd have people come along and they'd actually recognize me from my song and the cover. It wasn't huge numbers, but people from my city were finding my music, but what was better was that they liked it. People I never knew, and I knew that if my music could have that kind of impact if I kept getting better at producing and songwriting, I could really reach out to people and make them feel something. That's the end-all goal for me, I guess.
If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?
There are a lot of things I would change, I'll save you the specifics, otherwise, this would be an essay rather than an interview. Even though I regret some lyrics I've said, I think it's maybe more of regret of how I said them, not what. Because when I said what I said, I was upset. There are a lot of issues that plague the music industry, there's no ignoring that. But like how I want my music to have an impact on people, I want to have an impact on the industry. I want to get in and start the conversation to where artists can make the music they want to make, and not have to worry about getting paid properly, not getting paid enough, or even being the rightful owners of their music. I wanna be the voice in the industry that sparks change. Not only for just the artists but for the people too.