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For those interested.
Shout out to the writer Jess Kenwood, she did a brilliant job editing this.
Justin McWilliams is a 20 year old rapper who lives for music. His style is unique in the sense that instead of being about monetary worth and vulgar name calling, he has taken on the task of writing about life. His lyricism is poetic, his structure flows, and the words make sense. Justin also goes by the name Five Feet Deep. He started writing at the ripe age of eleven, and by sixteen he had taken it upon himself to go out and buy equipment to start recording. He is now recording with other artists and plays small gigs around the West Island and further west. His fan base seems to grow daily and he could not be happier. Justin is a person who creates art because that is what he loves to do.
Q: How would you describe creativity?
A: That’s a really tough question… (takes a minute)… I guess I would describe it as the way a person interprets their ideas and expresses them to others.
Q: Where do you find yourself most creative?
A: I’m most creative when I’m alone in my room. It has to be in my room. I don’t know why but it’s not the same if I’m alone anywhere else.
Q: Where do you find yourself least creative?
A: It’s not so much a question of where but when. I’m least creative when I’m restricted by life. Like when I think of something great but I can’t write it down because I’m at work, that’s a good example of when I’m least creative.
Q: Do certain emotions stimulate or stagger your creativity?
A: Yeah. Any emotion stimulates my creativity. But the one that does it the most is sadness. Some of my best writing is done when I’m sad, which is weird because usually I’m a really happy guy. As far as stagger, there’s no emotion that makes me uncreative, the only thing that does that is writer’s block.
Q: Do your emotion directly effect your songs? Example do you have to be in love to write a love song, sad to write a depressing song?
A: No, not for me anyway. I’ve written love songs without being in love.
Q: Do you bounce your creativity off of others or do you have to be alone to write?
A: Both. Sometimes when I’m alone I’ll even go online to find a friend to ask them to help me out with something. I can write in groups. I find it nice to have different perspectives.
Q: Do you tend to hang around other creative people? Accidentally or purposely?
A: I never thought about it before but now that you mention it, yeah. That’s really weird, well I guess that answers the second part of the question. Completely accidentally.
Q: Is anyone in your family creative?
A: No one in my direct family is musical. My mother can draw though. I don’t know if that counts.
Q: How do you think you’ve evolved, creatively, over the years?
A: I’ve definitely improved over the years, but I think that that comes naturally with practice. I find I tend to be harder on myself, which can block my creativity. But I also know that I’ve changed and developed new styles of writing and recording.
Q: What does a deadline do to your creativity?
A: For me it’s really helpful, it forces to me sit down and do the work. Being under pressure triggers my creativity. I like having a deadline.
Q: Do you need time to reflect on current events of your life before you start writing, or does it come automatically?
A: It’s a strange thing. I think that somewhere within my subconscious self, I use writing as a cathartic tool to deal with recent events of my life. It’s completely unintentional. I don’t go in with the intention of writing, but somehow, it helps.
Q: Is your writing reflective solely of your life or your friends lives, or is some of it fictional?
A: I mean most of my writing comes from my life and I guess my friends lives as well. But inspiration comes from everywhere.
Q: Does your writing flow naturally or are songs written over time?
A: It really depends. I guess I’m a real mix of everything (laughs). I guess the best way to describe it is to say that I gets spurts of natural flow. Like a verse will come to me all at once, but very rarely can a whole song come out in just one sitting. But I work on more than one song at a time. I do prefer when a whole song flows, but it’s rare.
Q: What kind of songs do you find easier to write?
A: It depends on my mood and what’s going on in my life. My mood affects EVERY song.
Q: Earlier you said that you were able to write a love song without being in love, so how does your mood affect the songs that aren’t directly related to your life?
A: Well, my mood can be affected by the moods of others. Let’s say I have a friend that is talking about how completely in love he is, that is what inspires me to write about love without being in love. The same goes for any type of song that isn’t directly influenced by my life.
Q: What or who inspires you most?
A: Everything. Life, instrumentals, artists (right now I’m highly influenced by people like Blu, John Mayer, and Jack Johnson). It always changes. For example, a random song, or even a lyric, or a even a word from a song can draw inspiration. Of course this isn’t all of the time, but when it happens it feels like nirvana.
Q: Are you confident in your art?
A: Different aspects of it. I hold a lot of confidence in my writing, but I’m less confident in my recording. I think if a person is completely confident, they are doing something wrong.
Q: How do you stay original?
A: Wow, you think I’m original? Thanks (laughs). I’m just being myself. I don’t try to sound like someone on the radio, I try to sound like me.
Q: Do you have a creative routine?
A: When it comes to recording no. Someone calls me and I go into the studio, that’s it.
But my writing is different. It varies, when I’m alone I have to have headphones on, I feel useless without them. My writing routine also depends on my environment; when I’m at home, I write on the computer. When I’m outside of home I use a pen and pad. It’s a little O.C.D., but that’s the way it is.
Q: When are you most creative, are there certain hours or times of the day that stimulate your creativity differently?
A: I’m most creative in the morning or late at night. The problem with the morning is that I’m in such a rush to get to work that I never have the chance to do anything with my creativity. Most of my favorite verses are written at night. Sometimes I can write all night, I would go as far as to say that my creativity keeps me up.
Q: What advice would you give a younger you, given the chance?
A: I’d tell myself to be more confident and honestly, to push myself harder. The more work you put in, the further you’ll go. I wish I had worked harder at recording my music.
