9lives' New Virtual Dreamscape

When did you start producing? 

9lives— I would say the first time I ever touched software was my second year in high school. It was a class that we just had to take, a mandatory class. One of the assignments was to just make a loop of a song, I guess. And that's how it kind of got started.

Was there any artist in particular that lit a fire under you, or made you want to begin producing/making music? 

At the time? I was listening to a lot of Pharrell, a lot of Tyler, The Creator too, and then back then it was also like the glory days of the SoundCloud rap scene, so X and Juice Word, Carti and Uzi and all that. So it was kind of that side as well that influenced me to start making music.

Was SoundCloud important in your musical development? How much does that platform mean to you? 

Yeah, it's huge. It's like my Instagram, basically. I've been using it ever since I was a kid, and then ever since it kind of got super popular, like in 2018 or so, I've just been on it every day basically ever since. It's kind of just an underground network for a bunch of up and coming artists and people that haven't been discovered yet.

Yeah. And why do you think SoundCloud has had the staying power and relevance into the 2020s? I know a lot of people thought that SoundCloud would fall off, especially when it seemed like the heyday of trap music on the platform was kind of over, but it seems like it stuck around. 

That's a good question. I think it did kind of die down for a bit, and then obviously COVID happened, so it was kind of like a resurgence of people just being able to get back into their creative flow because they're stuck inside. So I guess SoundCloud is just a platform that people kind of ran to in terms of just where to put their stuff out.

I know you and other producers have gained notoriety from “type beats” and then leveraged that into a more collaborative career. How do you feel now reflecting upon your "type beat" era? 

I mean, yeah, I think I got in and out at the right time. I feel like a lot of artists now are kind of staying away from type beats, and I'm not too sure why, but I just feel like artists are starting to reach out to producers directly a lot more, which is definitely a good thing. I feel like producers get overlooked pretty often in the industry, but it [type beats] definitely helped me a lot. Honestly, I think nowadays it's a bit oversaturated. It's like a million people doing type beats.

How would you explain “Sigilcore” to someone who is unfamiliar with the subgenre if they asked you about it, and how did you find it? 

I would just describe it as kind of like the darker side of hyper pop and trap, but it's very ethereal, kind of ambient and reflects a ton on the early 2000’s and what was going on at that time. In a nutshell, very video game influenced as well. A lot of the visuals and aesthetics come from the 2000’s and early 2010s era video games. I found it through this artist, Luci4. He was pretty bumping at the time I found it, which probably early 2021, maybe late 2020. He was kind of going crazy on TikTok with all the edits, and that was a big part of the community, with the editing culture and how people would just put these crazy songs in the back of the videos.

Do you feel like Discord and COVID played a role in your artistic development? And were you in Discord producer servers participating in Beat Battles, things of that nature? 

Discord was huge for me in that it was really the only way I could connect with people, especially people my age. They just genuinely gravitated towards Discord, as it’s so user-friendly for sharing screens and playing games together and all that. So that was a big part of my COVID era for sure. It's really optimized and so easy to share stuff around and create communities.

A lot of what you're saying goes back to the internet, but did you ever participate in the New Zealand or Australia music scenes, and if so how do you feel like those scenes influenced your work? 

In the early days? Not really, because obviously New Zealand and Australia are such small communities, and then the music community is even smaller, so it's kind of hard to get your name around there. But I find myself now finding joy in finding artists that are in New Zealand and just helping them with their music.

I'm sure a lot of your collaborations came about online. What's your preferred, or at least the most effective method of collaboration? 

The tried and true method is obviously being in the room with the person, you can just provide real time feedback. You can feed off their energy and their vibes. But I feel like Discord is honestly the best alternative way, just because of the screen share feature, you're kind of doing what you would do in a room, but just online virtually.

What do you think the legacy of SoundCloud in the 2010’s will be? When we look back in 10, 20 years… 

I think it's legendary, honestly, the amount of artists that have come out of SoundCloud and that we see as legends or basically almost like landmarks really in the community has been undeniable. SoundCloud definitely changed even the industry side of music as a whole. Even now I'm seeing a lot of mainstream artists almost go back into the underground and find new artists and find new styles and sounds. So I think it's something that will always be around for sure.

Can you point out a couple of important touch points in the development of SoundCloud production? I know recently Plug has changed a lot of stuff, as has Jersey Club and Drain Gang. 

Yeah, I feel like all those artists you mentioned, they influenced me as a whole. Obviously the plug sound was everything back in 2016 to 2018, and then even the Drain Gang sound- and that whole collective inspired me, even fashion wise. I still listen to all of them, but I feel like for me and my personal style, it's just a bunch of sounds that I've been influenced by and I’ve kind of just put it all into one.

How do you feel like you represent yourself when it comes to a consistent vision with your overall artistic aesthetic in videos, fashion, and cover art?

Well, definitely I feel that a lot of my stuff is very on the darker side, but I like to keep the brand almost very ambiguous and mysterious. I feel like that's what keeps people interested and draws people in because they'll want to learn more about you and see what's going on. I guess visually it’s a lot of darker, mysterious sometimes angelic-ish themes.

And how do you feel like you express yourself through your fashion? Do you feel like it's a very vital form of self-expression for you? 

It's definitely a big part of my life, and obviously self-expression is important, what I wear, it's very form-fitting, very sleek and clean. It's kind of like my production. My production's very simple really, but very clean sounding and all that. But I think, yeah, my fashion sense kind of just comes from whatever I draw inspiration from recently, like Playboi Carti’s style, or Ecco2k who is a fashion icon.

You’ve recently blown up in popularity, especially on streaming. How do you personally reconcile artistic growth and experimentation with financial stability and pop music success? Do you feel pressured to concede on your sound to achieve more pop music success? 

I always think there's a way to blend sounds and kind of stay true, but I guess my philosophy is just to stay true to what you enjoy. Obviously if you're not enjoying making it, then it's not going to be true to yourself. I always just find myself making stuff that I'm listening to at the time and enjoying art that brings me nostalgia and all that. So I guess just making stuff that I genuinely, really enjoy making.

So do you feel like everything's happened super organically? 

I mean, two years ago I was basically making what I'm making now, but in my bedroom. So everything's just given me a new platform and just pushed me internationally and given me a lot more opportunities that I otherwise wouldn't have been able to have.

Okay. I've heard you say that you consider yourself a versatile producer. Would you ever consider completely switching sub genres or even genres? 

Good question. I was always thinking it's probably not a good idea to switch crazy, but obviously the sound's going to develop and it's going to evolve over time. But there's always a world where you can do just production with artists, and it doesn't have to be your name painted all over it. It can just be helping in the room or just sitting in the room and being like, oh yeah, that sounds cool. You can try add this or, but yeah, a lot of the sessions I've had out here have been in a different kind of musical land, and I've making a lot of alt music, a lot of pop style songs I guess.

Would you ever do what Uzi did on Pink Tape, explore more rock music sounds? 

Yeah, I'm definitely open to it. I mean, I love rock music. I definitely love the UK rock scene, it has some of my favorite music, like Joy Division and all that. Recently, Iv'e been bumping a lot of my Bloody Valentine, I love them. Charlie XCX, she's great. Dean Blunt too, and Snow Strippers are a really cool group.

What producers do you feel like don't get their flowers enough? 

I feel like P'ierre Bourne definitely doesn't get enough flowers. He's very overlooked in a way. I guess he's basically influenced everyone that's in my kind of bracket indirectly or directly, but I'd say he's definitely a producer that deserves a lot more flowers. I feel like people even overlook Tyler, The Creator as a producer, I feel like a lot of people don't even know he produces in the first place. But he is an amazing producer, a great composer,

Where did the name 9livescome from? 

Yeah, so it's from a game. It's Game called Model Warfare 2 in the Call of Duty series. There were these customizable calling cards that you could use. I was just a calling card called Nine Lives that I used a lot as a kid, and I never really changed it.

It was basically your gamer tag. 

My gamer tag was actually SmoothCriminal54 back in the day.

Do you still have time to play video games?

Yeah, I love to. I mean, it's one of my main sources of inspiration and it's kind like therapeutic to me. I've been playing them since I was a kid.

What about video games inspires you in your music? 

I mean, the soundtracks. My biggest inspirations soundtrack wise are Silent Hill and Final Fantasy and all the kind of more fantasy style games. Also, a lot of visuals from video games I like to take and flip into my visuals that I use in videos and visualizers.

Do you think regionalism is still alive in rap music? 

I don't think so, no. I feel like because of the internet age, people don't even care where you're from at this point. I mean, take me for example. I feel like a lot of people in the US don't even know New Zealand exists, but people still enjoy my music. It obviously is [still alive] to some degree, but I feel like it's a lot looser now. People are welcoming the UK scene and the European scenes and all that.

Would you ever make a boom-bap song, like a nineties golden age rap song? Alchemist, Madlib, J Dilla type thing? 

II actually do experiment with boom-bap in my spare time. I mean, that's one of my favorite genres. It's just got so much soul and it's just got the vibe to it. But yeah, I've never really thought about properly making one with vocals and stuff on it, but I always make instrumentals that are boom bap inspired and all that.

 Watch the visualizer for "I DID IT" ft. Kanii & Anycia below.