Xavier’s Way

The thing I love most about writing, is the refreshing feeling I get when finding that new artist. The type of artist that reminds you how it feels to actually appreciate the art of rap.

Meet Shno Xavier, an independent artist living in Vancouver, Canada. Shno happens to be one of many artists I found on TikTok, (the new industry,) promoting his newest video “JA.” I was drawn to the track and visual instantly. A lot of artist fail nowadays in catching a quick reaction when promoting or making music in general. You have to realize everyone takes in so much content every day and you need to be capable of standing out in the noise. Shno demonstrates this easily, throwing a catchy cadence in the air with memorable punchlines. I see a lot of people comparing his flow to something similar of Drake’s. If I’m being honest, I disagree. Shno is his own artist with his own bounce and loves to switch things up and experiment.

Q&A

[When did you start making music ?]

I’ve been making music for a minute. I can honestly say for 8-10 years it feels like damn near now. I dabbled in it super young obviously not taking it too serious being a sports guy primarily, but it’s not till when I decided to move to Canada (Vancouver BC) for music, is when I started to take it a bit more serious and actually learn the craft rather than just sticking to my GarageBand presets and taking beats off of YouTube

[What sparked your inspiration to create music ?]

Musics always been around me. From family members pursuing music and also having some friends who were already in it and so I just started dabbling in it. And it was fun being productive with friends rather than linking up doing nothing or some dumb shit. Felt good at the time to be around people with the same aspirations to experience life outside of our comfort zones.

[In an oversaturated field like the music business, what makes you stand out from the rest ?]

I try to think progressively when I make music. I want every release to be like a breathe of fresh air from what’s out already ya know? And I think I provide little nuances that’s within contemporary music but most stuff you can’t exactly put a finger on which is dope cause it’s so new but familiar enough to play it back to back with your favorite songs.

[How old are you ?]

300 🙂 #chiefkeefvoice

[Do you feel like the locals in your town are your biggest supporters ?]

Idk, I’m grateful for everybody though. My day 1s of course. And to the new supporters from all over. The power of the internet man is crazy. So yea idk where the biggest base is necessarily. All I know that it’s growing so it’s love to everybody fr

[What are some of the cons you have experienced being an independent artist ?]

Same shit that everybody pretty much knows about. Pros is freedom to do what ever the hell you want and try out different strategies in all that. Main con unless you scammin or selling is just budget to do what you want to do when you want to. Cause independently you gotta pay outta pocket for your production if ain’t on them daws learning how to record yourself. You gotta pay for that music video, marketing, cover art, mixing mastering etc. so it’s just getting a lil schedule around what you can do within your means. I’m tryna be like lil bro redveil and do everything myself eventually.

[What are some things you wish to improve on ? (music related or personal)]

 I want to improve on my mixing and mastering skills. I just need to be a lil more of a nerd when it comes to plugins and all that. I feel like the more I can do musically the easier it is to either communicate the vision to someone or execute it in the proper way. And then can love it and be solid on the finished product and want to spam y’all on social media 🙂 But yea that among many other things. I just wanna continue to learn everything I can, from learning instruments to fuckin new languages I’m tryna soak up game anywhere.

[Your newest video, “JA”, what led to the making of this song ? were you just vibing in the studio looking for a song to make or was it one of those “i got something to get off my chest right now” type of tracks ?] 

JA came about by testing this new theory of how I make music or at least the process of it which is very unique. I’ll tell y’all soon enough of how I record haha but basically the song was already written and the homie Najera who produces and Dj’s he’s really the jack of all trades. But him and I basically made this beat at like 3am the previous night. We usually record like a freestyle demo then and there, but he airdropped the instrumental to me and a couple days after that I sent him back a rough mix and said it’s done cause I recorded vocals at the crib. And yo everybody we showed the demo to was like yooo that’s how you feel? And so we knew instantly that would be a good way to kick off the summer releases. We got some shyt tho that thang was literally made in 48 hours and sent off to platforms for release haha

[Do you prefer writing or punching in ?]

Writing. I’m a songwriter at heart 

[Who are some artists / producers who give you inspiration and who do you hope to work with one day ?]

I’m a vessel so I’m inspired by everybody in every form of art tbh. Like for me I love applying principles from people outside of music and bring it back to how I can use it in this field. But idk that’s tough as far as inspiration. 

For who I wanna work with though. I love the element of surprise so definitely something left field or unexpected. Would love to work with Will Paquin, Toro y Moi, Cosmo Pyke, Remi Wolf, Clairo hella people man I’m an open canvas 

[What are your favorite things to do outside of music ?]

Sadly I don’t have a life besides music right now. I used to hoop. That was my first passion but yea lately I feel locked in to do this at all times. If it’s not creatively it’s in the business realm ya know.

Outro

I am interested to see where Shno is a year from now. His art form has so much potential and I can honestly say he is one of the few genuine artists out at the moment. Loading Mag has hella eyes on him and so should you. Watch the new video at the link below!