Q: Tell me about yourself. Where are you from? What’s your story? How did you get into hip hop/music? 
Arcadia: I didn’t really get into hip hop until Tyler the creator came out. One of my friends showed me Yonkers and I was just so into it. Before that, I was only into punk rock and certain electronic music, but he had that edge that I hadn’t really noticed in rap before, or I just wasn’t paying enough attention. I got into hip-hop fairly late I feel like compared to other people I know who grew up on it. Now I couldn’t imagine life without it.

Q: What’s your “Why?” What motivates you and what gets you out of bed each day. 
Arcadia: I’m pretty confident in my music. I know it’s good, I just really want other people to hear what I hear. My goal is to make enough success in music so I can have the ability to uplift other artists careers and help bridge communities. I really wanna open public art centers and music studios that are free to people of all ages one day.

Q: What’s it like making music as an engineer? Do you feel like your technical skills help you when recording music? 
Arcadia: Before anything, I was a writer. I wrote comic books when I was six years old. Then I started writing poems in elementary school, and that turned into rapping. All my technical skills came out of necessity. Didn’t have anyone to record me, make beats for me, mix and master my voice so they don’t sound muddy. So I learned how to do all that. I was a producer before I was an audio engineer and I think that shaped my approach to mixing because I know where I wanted each sound to be placed in the mix.

Q: How did you find your unique sound? & who are some of your influences?
Arcadia: I’ve had a really interesting musical journey. I had the typical dad rock experience growing up, my dad played a bunch of Beatles, King Crimson, Yes. Through that I got into stuff like Paramore, Linkin Park, Nirvana. Then I got heavy into the punk scene and I’m heavily influenced by punk music. Then I got into more electronic music, started out with Deadmau5 and Daft Punk which transformed into really weird stuff like Arca, Aphex Twin, Hudson Mohawke. Then I got into Tyler which opened the door to rap and hip hop for me. 
I really try to take inspiration from every single genre, I’m open to any genre and I think there’s so much great music waiting to be discovered but most people tend to only stay in one lane, I like every lane. I know I wanna make weird otherworldly sounding stuff. And I know that might come with being ahead of the curve and making music people might not be ready for. And I’m okay with that. Although people are a lot more open to weird shit than when I first started making music, so that’s cool for me.


Q: Could you speak on some of the relationships you’ve built in the industry? 
Arcadia: I’ve been going to local music shows regularly since 2014. I watched firsthand a lot of people start from nothing and rise up. I met a bunch of people just going to shows. Popstar Benny, Larry League (legends), Danger Inc, all people I met at shows in like 2015 to name a few. I met RIPXL and we started recording at my house and now I mix and master all his songs. Through him, I met a lot of other people like JustLeek, SupremeCreme, Bka Trip, all of who I’ve mixed multiple songs for. A few artists I actually know from my High School, like Biasedjonny and Tony Shhnow. So many people I knew before they even had their first project out, and now a lot of them are signed. It definitely can feel a little intimidating and put pressure on you to work harder or faster, but it’s also been cool to watch people you admire get the recognition they deserve. I’m not tripping about what’s meant for myself because I know my abilities and I know that it’s just a matter of time at this point. 

Q: Could you touch on what “Burnout Circus” means to you?  Also the cover art is fucking fire , could you talk about some of the visuals and art you have lined up? Specifically the clown costume, is there a deeper reason you chose to wear that? 
Arcadia: Honestly it just sounds cool. When it comes to meaning assigned to my art, I don’t usually start out making something with any intentions. Sometimes there’s hidden messages in my music that I myself don’t even pick up on until the song is done. Like my last mixtape FORTRESS. I called it that just because I thought the word sounded cool. And the songs I put on there were just the best sounding songs I thought I had at the time. I didn’t set out to put any themes, messages, or type of cohesion in it. But after putting it out I realized how much the songs actually fit together, how much of the album is about my mental health and how I put walls up like a Fortress. I didn’t do that intentionally, I just wrote what I was feeling at the times (I wrote the album over a 2 year period.) So maybe that will happen with Burnout Circus too. I have no message I meant to put there, but maybe my subconscious hid things in there waiting to be discovered.

Q: How’d you come up with the name Arcadia the Delinquent?
Arcadia: I was 15, Chance The Rapper and Tyler, The Creator were some of the biggest rappers at the time. I’m like okay I need The and a comma in my name. Arcadia comes from an album I really like by Caroline Polachek under the name Ramona Lisa. I was a delinquent because I was doing a lot of graffiti at the time hahaha.

Check out his latest project “Burnout Circus” Here: