love & drugs with JT Soul
Canadian Hip Hop artist, JT Soul, has been churning out new tracks in preparation for an upcoming EP due out this November. His first single ‘Need Your Love’ has hit the web along with a night-vibed visual piece, directed by the great Felix Perreault. The 17-year-old Montreal rapper chats with SYS about music, drugs and the ever impressive Canadian music industry.
Bree Stewart writes.
Seventeen-years-old but such a refined voice, who are some of your vocal influences?
There's a lot of great artists that have influenced my sound but when it comes to vocal influences, I'd say MJ (Michael Jackson). He was the first person I heard sing and I was wowed. He's definitely my number one influence and the rest would probably be people like Kanye, Drake, (Kid) Cudi, Travis & Kendrick.
Tell me about the production for your latest music video for ‘Need Your Love?’
We got one of the city's finest directors, Felix Perreault to do the visuals. He'd been already working with Jei Bandit for a while and when we linked up the ideas just started flowing. He's dope at what he does and we'll be working together a lot more.
What’s the narrative in this track?
It's just about finding true love either within yourself or with someone else and trying to stay away from the streets and all the drugs. All we need is love.
What's your relationship with drugs in this story?
I had an on and off relationship with drugs. I was never into anything too heavy, mostly just party drugs like pills and shit. I used them to cope with my problems. At first it wasn't that bad, then I started going out more and I kind of lost myself. But, when I started making music, it helped me get through it. I started going out less, making more music, basically to the point that I'm in the studio all the time. But I do still smoke hella weed, I don't consider it to be a "drug" really.
Why is Canada constantly producing amazing music? Your country is always on point.
Because it's f**king cold! [laughs] No I'm playing. I think we have a lot of talented artists here in Canada. Cities like Montreal and Toronto have a lot of really creative people and environments and I feel like it's really forming it's own sound, just like the South has it own style, the East, the West and all that. And not to mention it's cold as hell.
What can we expect from the EP?
I feel like for as many singers there are nowadays, they don't have much bars. So the EP is really going to show how what I do is different by mixing the 2 styles together. I meshed that real rap content with a brand new sound of vocals. It's my own vibe, something no one has really done before. Just expect something new, nothing like 'Need Your Love' or my upcoming single 'Rosé'. We really wanted to keep the EP tracks hidden till the perfect time.
Check out oddioent.com for more JT Soul.