TSUMYOKI: GOA'S YOUNGEST ARTIST OPENS UP ABOUT MUSICAL JOURNEY, LATEST RELEASE & MORE [EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW]

BY BRENESSA ROACH | SEPTEMBER 2 2023

Introducing Tsumyoki, Goa’s youngest rapper and pop singer signed to Gully Gang. Tsumyoki debuted on December 5th, 2018 with the single “Spongebob Trappin’” which was a collaboration with OV3RDRIVE. He signed to Gully Gang in 2021 and shortly after released the EP Way Too Messy with Kidd Mange.

On June 2nd, Tsumyoki unveiled his fourth album A Message from the Moon and Behind The Beat had the opportunity to talk to Tsumyoki to discuss his musical journey, the album and more.

Watch the interview here:

INTRODUCTION:

Hi, Tsumyoki. Thank you so much for joining me today at Behind the Beat. Can you go ahead and introduce yourself?

Tsumyoki: Yeah, so my name is Tsumyoki, that’s my stage name. My real name is Nathan, you can call me whatever you want. I’m a 22 year old artist from Goa, and I’m signed to Gully Gang, and I make music, really good music.

Amazing, and how did your musical journey begin?

Tsumyoki: Uh, it started when I was about 16 years old. I wrote a dumb diss rap on my friend in school, because he was bothering me, and then I realized, “oh shit, I can write music”. When I was 17, I had half the money to buy a mic, and then my mom gave me the other half. And then, uh, after that, it was just trial and error, and just having fun, making dumb music. Like, just experimenting, doing dumb shit, and, you know, that dumb shit started to become a habit, started to become very, very real. And, now I’m here.

Yeah. And we really like your music, by the way. And who are some musical inspirations that inspired you to become a singer?

Tsumyoki: XXXTentacion. He’s definitely one of my biggest musical inspirations. R. I. P to X. I remember when he passed away, it was like such a bad part in my life. It literally turned my life upside down because I looked up to him so much. I was literally so, so, so into him, you know, X is a huge musical inspiration and, uh, music also comes with hard work.

So hard work wise, my mom inspired me to do so much, you know, the way that she grew up. She grew up almost poor, almost broke, and then she and her whole family, you know, had to work so hard to get where they are. And then, you know, if it wasn’t for her, I would definitely not be here. You know, so my mom is definitely one of my, I would consider her musical inspiration because, you know, music has also, like, it needs a lot of hard work to get where you’ve got to get, you know.

A Message from the Moon ALBUM BREAKDOWN:

I love that. And, so congratulations on your latest album, A Message from the Moon that came out in June! Just wanted to know, can you describe the inspiration and the meaning behind this album?

Tsumyoki: So A Message from the Moon, the moon is me, I’m the moon and then I’m actually wearing the AMFTM merch right now But yeah, I’m the moon and then, the sun is someone who was very, very important in my life. And in this, this whole album, when you listen to it, you can see that I’m talking about a lot of my problems to the sun and I’m addressing, and I’m telling the sun, all of my problems, that’s basically what the whole album is.

It’s a list of all of the issues that I have and all of this bullshit that I’ve been through, but you know, also, um, the love that I have for the sun, because it literally shines, the moon is shining because of the sun, because the sun’s light reflects off the moon, and that’s what the public sees, the public sees me all shining, all this thing, but they don’t know that it’s because of the sun, that person in my life, um, so, that person is basically how I have therapy and like I tell them all my problems, which is all the songs, and then I tell it to the sun, and then the sun helps me shine brighter, me being the moon.

That's beautiful, I really love that you incorporated the moon, the sun, and it tells your story, and it's kind of your therapy. What was the production process like? Did you produce, or did you have any help to produce the song?

Tsumyoki: So initially all the songs are produced by me. Honestly, the production process is like every other song, you know, you just have an idea, you put it into chords and then you put the chords into the software and then you make beats around it and stuff like that, you know, and then, after that, after I had all the songs ready, when we sent it to him for mixing and mastering, Bharg, shoutout to Bharg, he came and he jumped on and he did an additional production on all of the songs, and took them to like an absolute another level only, um, most of them, and uh, then he mixed and mastered it, made it like, gave it it’s final touches, and then, that’s how the production happened for the album.

Amazing. And this is kind of a Behind The Beat specific question that we ask all of our artists, but can you describe this album using a colour and why you chose that colour?

Tsumyoki: Yeah. Um, well, I think a lot of the songs have different colors, so I, I actually have that thing where like, I see songs as colors, right? So I wouldn’t say the album is like a whole bunch of, uh, I, I would say like, I would say it mainly, it is, black, green and yellow for some reason. Yeah. And blue, black, green, yellow, blue.

Love it. And what emotions are you hoping, hoping the listeners to feel when they listen to the songs on this album?

Tsumyoki: Honestly, I don’t have a specific, like, um, specific emotion. I want the listeners to feel. I just want them to perceive my lyrics and my music in whatever way they can perceive because I want them to have a subjective approach towards this album. Like, I don’t want them to think, when they listen to this song, oh, this is about Tsumyoki’s heartbreak.

I want them to be like, oh, this song and these words are describing my heartbreak or how I feel about this person or that or a friend I lost, you know, it doesn’t have to be a girlfriend, boyfriend thing, you know, it could be anything. And I I like that. I want my fans to put their own emotions and connect to the music in whatever way they wish to connect to the music.

And, out of all your discography, what song are you the most proud of so far?

Tsumyoki: Falling Down. I think that is. It’s definitely not what’s doing best on the album, but um, it is what is the most personal to me and Yeah falling down there’s this one line which says all the dreams that I turned into memories, you know and that line Literally, like, I always think about it so much, about how, like, how far I’ve come and all of the bullshit that I had to go through to get this far, so all the dreams that I turn into memories, you know, it’s a, it’s just a really nice line and I, I love it so much. I, I should, I should get, I should get it tattooed.

FUTURE GOALS

Yeah, that's actually very beautiful and just want to say very proud of you for everything that you've gone through and how far you've come. I've kind of watched you grow a little bit. Um, is there a genre or sound you want to experiment, experiment with in the future?

Tsumyoki: Uh, I don’t, honestly, I’ve been winging it for like five years straight. There’s nothing. That’s honestly my secret. Every time I planned. Like future goals or some shit that just never works out and it just works out another way But like even better than my actual plan and honestly I’ve been winging it for five years straight and like it’s just been the absolute like the amount of luck that i’ve had along with the hard work. It’s crazy. So I’ve just stopped keeping future goals, I keep very vague future goals. Like I want to work with this guy. I want to work with that guy, I want to release another project. I want to release a rap project, you know, it’s stuff like that because winging it just seems to Work for me. Yeah. That’s pretty much it. I know it’s a dumb answer and I should probably keep proper goals and stuff like that, but I’ve tried. It never works. Okay.

Brenessa: No, that’s always totally fine. Whatever works.

Tsumyoki: Yeah, it’s always the, like, you’ll, you’ll be, you’ll be chilling at the mall and then you see like, okay, like, like some famous guy at the mall, and then you just go pitch him your music and then boom, your life has changed. Yeah. Your five-year plan is gone. Now it’s, it’s, it’s. Changed, you know, it’s just that’s the way it is.

No yeah that’s true, things happen so fast, but, I guess without giving away too many details, can you at least tell us what you have planned for the rest of the year?

Tsumyoki: Um I’ve have I definitely after this I have an a deluxe album that I want to release which will have some big features on it like it will definitely shock India once they see the the lineup that I have the absolute concept that I have on that on the deluxe and then after that I want to go back to rapping for a bit, you know I’ve been a pop star i’ve done a great job as a pop star and now I wanna go back just to rap and say dumb stuff on a mic, you know, I need a break from singing I need to go back and, and, and start creating more mosh pits, you know, so, and then, and then I’m just fucked because then I have a pop audience and I have a rap audience and then they’re gonna have to deal with each other in the crowd.

One wants to dance, one wants to mosh pit, you know, they gotta, they gotta fight it out. Whoever, whoever lives, whoever’s alive at the end of it, that’s the genre I’ll stick to.

Brenessa: Yeah, I love that and can’t wait to hear the rap side and the deluxe album. That’s very exciting.

Tsumyoki: Yeah, it is.

Just to wrap it up, do you have any advice for aspiring musicians, especially the younger ones?

Tsumyoki: Okay. So, the proper advice is to be humble and all of that stuff that everyone gives you. But honestly, man, just like, just, just love what you’re doing, man. Make mistakes and just screw up. Okay. Cause that’s what we’re going to learn from. And like, honestly, don’t take this music stuff super seriously.

Okay. Especially when you’re working with bigger artists and all don’t give, don’t give power to anyone’s opinions except those who are personal to you because that’ll put you down such a huge spiral, man. Like the nose and the rejections and stuff like that. The only person you have really in this music stuff is yourself.

Um, that’s the harsh truth But it is what it is, you know and turn your emotions into music man. Don’t procrastinate. I know so many people bloody procrastinating and wasting time. Yeah, turn your emotions into music and uh I think, uh, that’s pretty much it. Yeah.

Special thanks to Tsumyoki for taking the time to do this interview with us. As well, thank you to Hrishikesh and the team at Gully Gang for making this interview happen.

Listen to A Message from the Moon by Tsumyoki on Spotify:

Check out Tsumyoki on Instagram: @tsumyoki

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