MidSõlis brings his love for hip-hop and empathic demeanour to the forefront with his debut mixtape: The LA Tape. This 6-track project is made up of a diverse palette of lyricism ranging from a romantic relationship to national identity and discrimination. Guided by his experiences in LA, he writes poignantly from his perspective. While his verses detail his time in the city of angels, he curates these separate experiences with a musical backdrop set by instrumentals from LA-based artists Tyler, The Creator, Kendrick Lamar, Souls of Mischief and Brent Faiyaz, providing added authenticity to his keen imagery. The last track from the EP, Keep Moving, is entirely self-produced and has been made widely available across all streaming platforms.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Kamil) Hello MidSõlis, it's a pleasure to speak with you. What first got you into music?
Hey. Thanks for having me. So, I was interested in playing guitar when I was a little kid. After a few years, I was more interested in the writing aspect and started with pop punk songs that were carbon copies of Blink 182. Then, I got into rap and more genres and that expanded my writing style, got me thinking about song structures and learning music theory. I was recording demos on my phone’s voice recorder for years until I picked up production, but the songs still sounded so rough. So, I learned about mixing and how to refine the sound and bring everything together cohesively.
How do you balance your time in the studio with other commitments such as a part-time job, family, admin?
It's a bit give and take. I'm still figuring it out, but sometimes I go through periods of time where I'm putting more time into one thing than the other than normal, especially if I have deadlines. My main thing is to keep creating and learning, that's how I stay fresh creatively. If I do get an idea I like though, I chase it. It’s so easy to get distracted that when I get in the zone, I have to prioritise that.
'Keep Moving' is your most recent single. Can you tell us about its history and whether anything remarkable happened during its creation?
I was in LA on holiday. Just trying to disconnect and not focus on work or uni hand-ins. But while I was there, I was writing verses compulsively and decided to rap them over some LA songs that were on rotation around that time. I made an EP out of it, but I wanted a song on there that was fully original. So, I got to work. I was in my hotel room producing the song for a couple of days. It was an iterative process. At first, it was going to be this Poetic Justice-type groove, but the chant sample didn’t sound right in that context. So, I kept trying things until I found what sounded right to me. The lyric aspect was me finding pockets to try out new flows I don’t use much and practicing my writing in different languages while keeping with the theme of the song and EP.
Tell me about the biggest difficulty you've ever gotten yourself into.
That’s hard. My whole life feels like different life times, so I’m really just in tune with this chapter right now and everything else is a bit hazy. I can tell you what the recent hardest situation I’ve gotten myself into was. I was going for a meal with my mum and it was raining quite a bit and I confidently, but accidentally stepped in a puddle. It was permeable shoes and the puddle was filthy. And they were white. I was so annoyed. Definitely not the most challenging situation, but the first one that comes to mind. There are other, more serious events like covid but it’s not like I jumped head first into those situations. They just happened.
You live in United Kingdom. What do you enjoy best about this country?
It feels like home. I’ve grown up here really, so life in Spain seems like a distant life. I still love my home country, but I see more of a future here pursuing music.
Does your family share your interest in music? What are their thoughts on your work?
They’re really cool with it. I got into music in the first place because of their support. They’re always constructive with their criticism. They don’t always connect with what I’m saying or the instrumentals themselves, but seeing them sit down, take it in, process it and articulate their exact take on it is everything. That’s the thing I was doing when I first got into Kendrick and Tyler and it changed how I absorb music. I give chances to things more because they’ve subverted for me the expectations of where a song should go, the genres an artist can ride, etc. If I can do that to others, that’s perfect. And I guess it always starts with your inner circle.
Can you describe your finest performance in your career? How do you recall it?
I’d love to say my best performance was in 2022, but it was a quiet year for me, growing artistically and getting my songs ready for a big release in 2023. My best performance was in the summer of 2015. There was this band I was in in high school and we were playing a rock concert in the school hall. Bear in mind, I was a stand in front man and singer because we didn’t have enough members. I wasn’t a strong singer, but I loved performing in general. Just before the show started, I thought of fake-flashing the audience to elevate the ending of the show, so I put shorts under my school trousers beforehand. In the climax of the song, I started unbuttoning and unzipping my trousers while looking at one of my bullies from that time and took them down. It was hilarious. The crowd went from yelling to gasping and looking away to going berserk within 10 seconds.
Do you have any interests outside from music? If so, could you please introduce us to them?
Acting and writing. They’re not one and the same, but as far as what they make me feel, they serve a similar purpose. Being able to break down and understand the psychology of a character and bringing that to life feels great. I haven’t acted in a couple of years, but I’ve been writing scenes every now and again recently for music-related ventures and outside of that.
Who is your dream musician with whom to work, and why?
Andre 3000. As a featured artist, he’s appeared on so many different types of songs and killed it, so he’s very flexible with genre and delivery. His pen game is so good, too. He’s just a very versatile writer and rapper. On top of that, he’s had practice with different instruments, so I know I could start a blank session with him and know we could still do something cool. I’ve talked with some music friends about the difference between an organic-sounding feature and one where you can tell a space was left there for someone to hop on. Having an instrumental somewhat curated for the rapper going on top of it or getting input from them on how it could progress leads to something dope. From what I’ve heard, 3k could pull that off. Him and Tyler, The Creator.
What are your plans for the future?
I’m releasing a big project later on in the year. I’m going to start doing live shows now that we’re back to normal too. I want to bring that energy from young 14 year old me back to my shows. Connecting with some other artists will be cool, too. I’m focussed on staying consistent, but growing in all aspects.
MidSõlis