The Willistonian Interview is a column written by Campus News and Sports Editor, Nate Gordon. It is a column for which he interviews different faculty, staff, and students on the Williston campus. In this week’s edition, up and coming musician, J.D. Askin ’14, talks about his music and his promising music career.

Nate Gordon: Could you please tell me a little bit about your music career so far?

J.D. Askin: I’ve been playing piano for like ten years and it all just kind of started with that. I’ve always been a huge fan of all music, so I got a lot of inspiration from that, but it started with piano.

NG: How did you get into performing music?

J.D.A: Over the summer I was with my friends and we went to the Nuyorican Café (NYC, http://www.nuyorican.org/) and there was an open mic. I do mostly hip-hop stuff, but also a blend of hip-hop with some jazz—I try to get my beats to be jazz. My friend signed me up for the open mic and I performed my piece and they liked it a lot. They invited me back eventually, after I had gotten a lot of attention on the internet, to be a feature artist there.

NG: What kinds of music had you been playing before you really started to perform?

J.D.A.: Mainly just jazz and piano and writing composition, stuff like that. I really got into the hip-hop and writing lyrics and song writing when I was about thirteen-fourteen. Before that I had a band with a few friends of mine-we’d write our own music, but that was really just kids messing around.

NG: Who are artists you admire and really enjoy listening to?

J.D.A.: I think there’s a difference between who I really like and what influences me. As far as hip-hop, I really like Kanye West. I love the whole Odd Future movement. I love Drake, his new album is incredible, and he’s a big influence as far as melodies and stuff. I love guys like Skizzy Mars, kind of less known. My favorite guy is Chance the Rapper, he’s a crazy artist, he’s really good.

NG: So when you’re listening to these artists that you really like, do you try and take things away from them that you try and use in your own music?

J.D.A.: There’s a point where I really like an artist and his sound. A lot of the time when I was first writing lyrics, I would just like mimic other people and I could do it—not completely my own sound. But this past summer, when I really started seriously recording, I started to develop my own sound, still taking from a bunch of different people.

NG: How do you come up with the lyrics for songs?

J.D.A.: I don’t know, a lot of it is like I can’t really decide when they come to me. It’s kind of those times, like when I’m about to go to bed and a thought will come and then I will immediately start thinking stuff. Once that creative feeling hits you, it’s really hard to stop.

NG: What are some of your recent projects?

J.D.A.: I have an album coming out, called “Nites w. Her.” That will be coming out on January 15th, my birthday.

NG: Do you have any recurring themes or causes that you express through your music?

J.D.A.: Yeah, I mean a lot of it is pretty sad. A lot of it’s about a messed up kid, heartbreak, stuff like that. I’m in a happier mindset now than I was the past few years, in a pretty dark state. I’m making happier music now. A lot of this project’s going to be kind of nocturnal.

NG: So you would say that a lot of your darker music is influenced by your past?

J.D.A.: Yes, without a doubt, without a doubt.

NG: What do you find to be the most difficult part of music, performing or writing?

J.D.A.: Probably to find an element of originality, but also commercial appeal. Make something very original, but also music that people will really buy into and listen to. That’s what I’m constantly trying to do.

NG: How is your music a little bit different than everything else out there?

J.D.A.: I think as far as lyrics, if you look at hip-hop as a whole, the whole movement and how it’s introspective and it’s not just bravado and bragging about money, drugs, and girls. That stuff will inevitably come up if it’s part of your life, but I think just making something with a little more depth. Musically, with beats production, that’s the most important part of my originality. With added unordinary chords, different kinds of scales, different kinds of melodies, which I definitely learned through my jazz history.

NG: Where do you see your music career going from here?

J.D.A.: I mean it’s not really up to me. I’ll take it as long as people are liking it, but I’ll leave it up to my close friends to tell me when to stop and if it’s not really working out.

NG: If it was up to you, where would it go?

J.D.A.: Oh, you have to dream big. As far as it could go.