Fresh off his latest EP release Becoming, we had the chance to sit down with future bass producer Feather. Discussing the effects of quarantine on artists, going DMCA free, and Feather’s plans for his fast growing TikTok page.
It’s been an interesting year for the music industry. What have you been up to during quarantine?
Overall it’s been an interesting year. I didn’t know how to deal with quarantine at the beginning. As a creative, I felt a lot of obligations to use my time productively. That ended up stressing me out when I wouldn’t be productive, I began to feel a lot of guilt when I wasn’t being productive. Eventually, I found a balance between on and off. During that time I was able to finish a bunch of the songs that ended up being on the Becoming EP.
In terms of the motivation aspect of it, has the lack of shows affected your motivation? Are you more self-driven?
I’m pretty self-driven, in terms of getting the record done with the world on pause it made me feel like I can catch up and finalize a lot of things without falling behind on other things.
What was the inspiration behind the Becoming EP?
At the time I knew it was time to put some music out. I was down a road of learning how to produce for a few years and I was really missing the side of making music and sharing what you create with people. I chose a handful of songs that I made over the last few years, I was worried these songs might not be very representative of present me but they were because I made them. The idea behind the record was getting these songs together that represent the process of growing into a person you are becoming every day.
The cover art for Becoming, you came up with the idea and sent out the concept to an artist to complete it. What was the inspiration behind the art?
I wanted something to represent a powerful image of looking off into the journey of becoming the person you want to be. That journey and adventure can be very grand, beautiful, and intimidating. This character standing on the edge of a cliff looking onto this world not knowing what to expect which is intimidating but inspiring and beautiful. That was kind of a way to embody what it feels like to go through self-growth.
Becoming EP is DMCA-free. What made you decide to release it that way?
Recently there’s been a big crackdown by Twitch and similar services on copyright songs. I make vlogs sometimes and understand how hard it is to find songs to put on the vlogs. Because I was in a position as an independent artist who owns his own music, I figured why not? There’s no reason not to. Right now we are entering a really interesting era of content creation where things are being very collaborative where there are so many mediums whether it’s streaming, TikTok, or vlogs. Even with musicians and live shows we all need each other’s art to facilitate the best experience. I needed a graphic artist to make an album cover to capture my thoughts. A streamer needs music to supply energy and entertainment to his streams, I felt like the way about it was to embrace a model of helping each other out. I really do think that’s the solution to a lot of this stuff and just a nicer thing to do I guess.
Tiktok is another thing that seems so beyond me, it’s constantly changing and growing. Before the release of Becoming I was using it to let people know that music was coming out and now that is out trying to get it to as many people as possible. I also wanna try to find a way to use it to show more parameters of my personality. Yes, I am a producer and artist who makes music and that’s a big part of what I do but a lot of your personality can come through on TikTok so I want to make informative videos that make it easy for people to get to know me better.
What are your plans when shows come back? Will you be joining the festival circuit?
I really want to find a way to do shows as soon as I can. We’ve been trying to figure out what a live show can look like for Feather. A really big part of music for me has been the performance side. I used to tour in a pop-rock band and I got a lot of playing there but it’s 5 years since I performed.
Any closing thoughts?
I always want to tell people I appreciate their support. What I do can’t be done without people supporting me. If you support me I want to do my best to support you back, if that’s joining the discord server or tweeting me let’s stay in touch and ill do my best to give back.