Ever since “Cuz You’re My Girl” gained notoriety, Yung Heazy has been digging his prolific presence into existence as a prominent musical figure with every release. From catchy and meaningful lyrics to explosive chord changes that creep on smoothly, Yung Heazy is really not wasting time with his career.
Yung Heazy exercises his vast diversity in his recent releases with style, while still capitalizing on his unique sound. The Vancouver based song writer and producer can be found painting his career a new shade. Especially with his newest jaw-dropping album “I Ur Boy”.
In this album, he takes most of his inspiration from his personal life. He creates a unique bond and understanding with his fans over the vulnerability he shows. He gives us something to relate to. He often says what we are thinking or may need to hear within his lyrics. Very much a trait shared by some of the greats. The raw skill, unorthodox approach, song structure, John Lennon like voice. These components can only be described as coming together as naturally, stunning as The Great Barrier Reef.
Last week. We were lucky enough to pick his mind.
Here's what he had to say:
Q: First off. I’d like to ask, what have you been doing during this quarantine to stay sane?
A: I started off in phases. I started off super productive and stuff. You know? I was kind of doing my thing for a little bit. Then, I just immediately became bedridden. Sleeping in all day. Watching a lot of Netflix movies, PlayStation. Just, tubs of ice cream in bed. Real sad shit. Recently, I kind of got out of that. Been trying to go on walks everyday. that keeps me sane. If you get outside in the sun, you’ll feel better. Trying to make more music, write more music.
Q: What was the name of the first band you ever formed and how old were you?
A: I think the first one was called “Death Child Play”. I was in grade 9.
Q: What genre was it?
A: It was like pop kinda stuff. We were trying to be like The Killers. We just thought we were the coolest.
Q: What was the best venue you’ve ever played in terms of how you felt about the show?
A: It’s kinda weird. When I would go on tour, I would play 15 shows in a row. Every show I felt like was better than the last one. I played a couple shows where we just went completely nuts and shows where we weren’t the tightest but we went really crazy. You know what? I’d say a really good show was when we played in Vancouver a while ago. I think it was at the “Wides Hall”. It just felt right. It was a year and a half ago. We just got off a big tour, so we were pretty tight. We got up there and just showed what we could do. That was a good ass show.
Q: Where did the album cover of I ur Boy come from?
A: That’s the artist “Bap.ril”. Her name is April. She’s from Arizona. She’s done like, 99% of my single covers and that kinda thing.
Q: I noticed another album cover I saw for When You're Around I Hate Everything Less. Who did that?
A: That was this other dude, Hudson. He’s a super talented artist. He was actually an animator on Rick and Morty. The third season I think.
Q. I noticed you set quite a twist on “Cuz Your My Girl” I was wondering if when you wrote that, you had an idea in mind of how it would’ve been presented?
A: No, I had no ambitions for that song or this project at all. “Cuz Your My Girl” was written as a Valentine’s Day gift for my girlfriend. I was putting all my musical energy into completely different projects. That song blew up and blew up my whole career and everything. I had no idea what a music video would look like for it. That was the director’s idea. He’s a really smart guy named Lester. Who kind of took it as, well everyone’s going to assume this is the lovey dovey thing. We should give them a reason to check out the video.
Q: Do you have a method for your writing process?
A: Kind of. I have five or six methods that I can switch through. The most useful one I’ve learned is, when I get stuck and can’t think of anything, I’m really good at persevering. Writing songs is a little bit like fishing. You throw it out, you see if you get a nibble of a cool idea or something. You see if you can reel in a big Tuna.
If I spend 45 minutes on the same thing and I get nothing, like I’ve just been really hammering away at the same riff or I think it’s going somewhere and it completely falls on me. If I persevere for another hour or something.. sometimes it’s gotta be a three hour session and by the end of that, I’ll usually have one or two things. Usually I can formulate the beginning of a song. That’s one of my truest writing methods; to just persevere when you can’t figure it out because that seems to work for me a lot.
Q: I noticed in your music you have a lot of inspiration from the Beatles?
A: Oh yeah, lots of Beatles. I never embraced my Beatles influence until I started this project. Before that, I was trying to make weird math, prog metal and shit. Really different stuff. I always loved the Beatles and I always loved the singer-songwriter thing. I kinda knew I could do it, but I never embraced it because that wasn’t the kind of band I was in at the time with the kind of guys I was in with.
Q: What bands were you listening to during the recording process of “I Ur Boy”?
A: I was listening to a lot of the Beatles, a lot of the beach boys, Lots of Ariel Pink. I think there was another album around there at that time that was checking out. Lots of Father John Misty also. I think those were the main ones. I was really trying to channel more of a beach boys, Beatles type of thing.
I listened to “I am the Walrus” and i'd be like “Oh shit, there’s like a cello doing crazy shit in one ear and what sounds like a trumpet doing equally crazy shit in the other ear and they are kind of bouncing off each other.” But at the same time it all almost sounds improvised. I wanted to open myself up to that because there’s something magic about having a plan but also opening yourself up to improvised parts. I tried to do a lot of that with the other instruments that I had in the album.
Q: What countries do you plan on touring that you haven’t already?
A: I want to go everywhere. I want to hit everywhere in South America. I want to hit up the rest of Europe. I want to hit up Asia. I want to go to Japan. I want to tour in Australia. Everywhere!
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