POD Interview: We Talk to midwxst Before the Release of 'B.I.A 3.0'

In between a wild slew of festival appearances and shows, 19-year-old genre-bending artist midwxst found some time towards the end of July to visit our city to rock the stage on Thursday of Lollapalooza weekend. We were fortunate enough to meet up with him for a quick conversation after his meet-and-greet at Jugrnaut on the Wednesday before his memorable Lolla performance. As soon as I was introduced to the young artist, he radiated a relaxed and positive personality that made the task of interviewing him an easy one.

Shoutout Edgar.

midwxst has provided a steady flow of quality releases over the last few years extending to his latest release ‘BACK IN ACTION 3.0’, which dropped two nights ago as the third installment of this hard-hitting series of EPs. midwxst’s entire discography is quite eclectic in and of itself, yet the ‘BACK IN ACTION’ series seems to showcase his more energetic and aggressive sounds. This latest installment is no exception, featuring tracks that lean into the raw new wave sound… he even tracked over a bouncy Detroit beat on the lead single “223s” with BabyTron. With nine tracks (his longest B.I.A installment) and only two features, we are given a great example of midwxst’s ability to create extremely catchy rage music. Read through the end of our interview with Edgar to see his musical plans for the rest of ’22!

Keep scrolling to see our conversation and photos of midwxst.

Welcome to Chicago man, have you had any memorable moments in the city ?

Thank you. Yeah, this is where I did one of my first out-of-state shows at Schubas. That was my first show ever, outside of Indiana, that I didn’t pay to perform at. Schubas was nice, lowkey, and the lineup was crazy – Cyber, hatesonny, nombrekari, and a lot of others. That’s where I met Sonny for the first time, and he went crazy. Me and Sonny got one in the vault, and me and Kari have been working on something not even music related… we’re working on a lot of really cool concepts outside of music.

How important is it for you to be apart of the bills for massive festivals such as Rolling Loud or Lollapalooza?

It’s really important because it’s showing that we’re getting some representation. Across all of these big festivals, there’s been some love shown especially towards the midwest artists. Babytron was at Rolling Loud, a lot of Detroit is getting put on again, and a lot of the midwestern power spots have been coming back to life. Like, Durk brought out Kanye, that’s insane. All of these things are really good moments for Indiana, Chicago, or any area in the midwest. It’s going to allow us to be put on even more.

Were you able to catch any sets at Rolling Loud?

Yeah, bro, I saw Carti’s set. I was in the pit in a disguise for Carti… I had my hood up and I was going nuts. Went crazy for Carti, and then we saw Kodak and Uzi. Uzi was crazy live. I saw my friend Tana live, I saw Ka$hdami live… all of my homies were going crazy there. It was really cool to be there and have fun seeing all of those things.

Any sets at Lollapalooza you’re looking forward to?

Definitely looking forward to ericdoa, Glaive, those are both my best friends. Dominik Fike, Audrey Nuna, really big fans of those two. But I’m boutta get in there, man… you’re boutta see me in pits too, bro. If people see that, I want them to understand, you don’t have to be afraid, I don’t bite. Come up, let’s rage together, let’s have fun.

How special is it for you to be playing the Discord stage just a few hours before Pi’erre?

That’s insane to me. Every time something happens with me and Pi’erre on the same lineup or we’re in close proximity to one another, it’s kind of nuts to me. Growing up, he was a pioneer to me. To see this shit happen and to see us playing barely apart from one another on the same stage is crazy. And it’s the Discord stage, and Discord is where I got my stripes. That’s really where all of my friends and I came up from. It’s a really cool double W moment, I guess you could say.

How has Pi’erre influenced the way in which you create music?

I’d say that both Pi’erre and Kanye gave me a sense of, if you want something, you have to go take that shit. People didn’t start taking Pi’erre seriously as a vocal artist until he made a name for himself on ‘The Life of Pi’erre 4’ and people didn’t take Kanye serious as a rapper until he dropped “Through the Wire”. All of those things were things that they had to take on themselves to make people recognize them and take them seriously. That’s all I want people to do, is to take me seriously… you definitely have to watch out for me, don’t box me into anything because I’m just going to break out of that box.

How have your previous collaborations with DotComNirvan inspired you artistically?

Bro, with Nirvan, me and him have such a cool creative process. The shoot day is so fun and I can always send him an editing idea that he’ll try to incorporate. Or he’ll send me the rough and I’ll give him ideas on what to change or tweak and he does. Those are the things that I really value about Nirvan, you don’t really see that a lot in a lot of directors. Sometimes directors will come with a specific vision and that vision will be the final product. To have the flexibility that Nirvan offers paired with personality he has is important. Nirvan’s such a cool and funny guy and we have great chemistry outside of our shoots; he’s inspired me not to be afraid. He shoots literally off of a standard camera and makes everything else look crazy… it makes me understand that you don’t need all of the resources in the world to make quality art.

Any other visual artists you could give some flowers to?

Definitely Reduciano, that’s my friend Diego, definitely my friend Brian over at CrashVancouver, so many of my visual friends like Elan Bia for NoSoap going crazy, also Trey Lyons, I love Trey Lyons he’s my homie, my big brother. And obviously Cole, but there’s a lot of underrated shooters like Vanity20k, Sienna Burmess, and Jalani Miller that have inspired me to be me.

You’ve talked about being mostly influenced by your home state of Indiana, is there any other region or place that has impacted your music?

Europe has had a big inspiration on my music, I lived in Belgium for a year and a half before I moved to Indiana, and Warsaw was over there. Warsaw was a really good breeding ground for me to be exposed to different types of music. I found out about jungle, garage, drum & bass, electronic, trance hop, and dubstep and all those things from Monstercat. Also through SoundCloud and Youtube, I’d find one song and go down the rabbit hole. The way I dress was definitely inspired by Japan. Over there, outfits are very colorful and Y2K-era-like and that’s how I like to present myself. I try to give myself my own identity to not box myself into one lane of dressing. This is who I am, if you fuck with how I dress then you fuck with it, if you don’t you don’t.

How have you been growing as both an engineer and producer?

I’ve been growing like crazy. Being in New York I’ve been surrounded by a lot of really great producers, especially my friend Zuko. Shoutout Zuko, he’ll slide to my crib and we’ll be locked in til 2/3AM making music… making quality music. I’ve been using FL for years and I didn’t even know you could do half of the shortcuts he shows me. The fun semester I had at Belmont taught me a lot about Pro Tools and introduced me to some talented individuals like Coop, Livia, Jack, and Sammy.

How has it been growing as an artist while simultaneously growing as a young individual

I think they go hand-in-hand. As I’ve gotten older, my music has become a lot more mature and I feel like I’ve become more transparent with my words. I used to sugar-coat a lot of my issues through my storytelling but recently it’s been straight me, who I am, raw emotion.

Highlights of ‘21?

Definitely my trip to LA. I took a trip in July out to LA for a month and I just posted up to work and make music. I met so many of my friends out there in person, including ericdoa and others, for the first time.

Highlights of ’22 so far?

Rolling Loud. Like, I got in the pit during my set and rapped a song. It was insane. The energy was radiating.

Plans for the rest of the year?

I’m boutta start working on my debut album, so I’m really stoked on that.