Interview: Watsky

It’s a Wednesday night and the dim basement that is Club Academy is alive with the pulse of several hundred people jumping in unison before the man at the heart of the room; George Watsky. Every person in the crowd has their arm resolutely in the air and every voice joins Watsky’s to declare the brilliantly affirming: “Just take everything ever and we are that, times infinity.”

This celebratory and defiantly positive statement that concludes Watsky’s ‘Tiny Glowing Screens’ trilogy encapsulates not only the message behind his latest album, aptly named X Infinity, but the general feeling that dominated his show.

While ‘Tiny Glowing Screens’ Parts 1 and 2 from 2013 album Cardboard Castles see Watsky struggle with his own insignificance in the face of the vastness of the universe, ‘Part 3’ sees a flip in perspective: “From the view of an atom the human body’s a universe”, he states. It is this fresh positivity that is integral to his latest release, a notion echoed by George Watsky as he sits across from me in a corner of the venue, hours ahead of his performance.

“I spent a lot of my young life trying to grapple with anxiety around getting older and mortality. I was raised in a non-religious household and I always wanted answers and to be comforted by my parents, but in retrospect I really appreciate them not giving me comforting answers. I think at some point in anyone’s life, you have to grapple with that feeling of meaninglessness and find a way to assign joy and beauty to your life. I do think it’s possible to do that, but you have to go through that fear in order to get to the joy on the other side. All we have control over is the present moment and that philosophy is at the centre of the new album.”

It may not be a new concept, but the way Watsky pitches it—tightly honed rap layered over the punky chants of tracks like ‘Midnight Heart’, or laced amongst melodic choruses—it certainly carries itself as if it were.

The show itself was a diverse display of the rapper’s talent. Having been thoroughly warmed up with a vibrant DJ set by Chukwudi Hodge, it might have seemed strange that Watsky then drew us in and cooled us off by opening with the intense and sobering ‘Knots’. But with this, Watsky gripped the crowd with a connection that gave the entire set the feeling that you were experiencing something special.

From the growling anger that seeps into ‘Seizure Boy’ and ‘Don’t be Nice’, to the bouncy chant carrying the chorus of ‘Never Let it Die’, to the raw emotion of ‘Tiny Glowing Screens Part 2’, Watsky took us on a journey through a full spectrum of human emotion.

It is this masterful combination of the fearless honesty of Watsky’s lyrics and the integrity with which he presents them that makes his music and his performance so compelling.

“I think your goal as an artist is to try to express your feelings in a way that’s relatable to people—at least that’s one of my goals.” He tells me, “I’m trying to mine my own emotions and get closer to what my own personal truth is. I want to make sure I’m getting closer to reflecting the truth as I see it.”

It is perhaps on this quest for his personal truth that Watsky turned to a slightly different form of expression, releasing his first book earlier this year. How To Ruin Everything is a collection of essays written with the same conviction and dexterity as his songs are, combining brutal honesty with sharp humour to a beautifully poignant result.

“I felt so at sea writing the book at first,” he confesses, “I really didn’t think I’d be able to do it. I regretted my decision to take the book deal for a long time because I felt like it was total shit what I was writing… I’m not saying I’m a Pulitzer Prize worthy author, but I definitely felt really proud of getting to the point where I felt this is worth being bound and published by a legitimate publisher.” As a New York Times bestseller, it certainly seems like something to be proud of.

Talking to Watsky, I am struck by both his incredible work ethic and his humble respect for every person he works with.

“I’m working with a lot of other people who are very responsible for me being at where I am at… There’s no way that I would have the career I have without those talented people. I definitely still feel a sense that if something falls through or doesn’t go right then ultimately it’s my responsibility; if someone can’t get a flyer done in time then I will get onto Photoshop and I’ll make the flyer. I am my own fail safe, but by no means have I done this myself.”

“I do view what I do as my job. This is my nine to five and I take it seriously… I need to show up to work and I need to make things and if I don’t do that then I’m going to lose my job and have to do something else. What it comes down to is that I like doing it, I’m going to keep doing it and also take it seriously as a job. I’m not going to stop, but try to push the boundaries of creativity for myself.”

Already pushing a number of creative boundaries, X Infinity is a remarkable album about embracing all the fears and uncertainties that plague our lives and rather than allowing yourself to become crushed by them, finding the ability to be comforted by them.

At its core, X Infinity is a celebration. And with our hands up, moving in fluid symmetry with the body of the room, that is exactly what Watsky’s show felt like. A defiant shout of man’s capacity for good at a world focused so predominantly on man’s capacity for evil.