i know those blinds and i know that
microphone and i know that face
i feel like in the ocean
all right welcome back to icrt my name
is erica and today i have a very special
guest with me you probably heard me
talking about him and playing him on air
as well as
possibly singing him if you saw on
youtube welcome mast wolf
hi how are you good how are you i've
been doing a lot of promo recently i've
seen a couple of your interviews
a lot of primo a lot of commenting on
youtube videos of people covering my
song
[Laughter]
a lot of making new music okay yeah i
want to first wish you congratulations
on the huge success of your single
action on the ocean
the last time i checked it had 230
million streams on spotify as well as
your music video had over 62 million
views on youtube so far so
congratulations that's amazing
and uh i want to be honest actually
before we get into the interview
i personally am not a big i wouldn't say
that
rap music is my genre of choice when i
listen to music
but the first time i heard your song is
because my sister actually sent me
your song and then the first time i
heard it i was like this is dope
and then what's what's your sister's
name her name is sonia
sonia i just wanted to say thank you
[Laughter]
thank you sonya yeah and then when i
first time i heard it i was like i want
to cover this
and then i did a cover on youtube and
you saw it and you commented and that
was just
absolutely blown away and now i get to
interview you so this is kind of like
all very um on like i don't know how to
say
just unrealistic yeah i'm so good all
right
uh let's get into it um so i want to
talk about your background
so a lot of your songs let's talk about
your grind
and how hard you work to work on your
craft
i feel like there's an underdog story
there can you tell me a little bit about
your fight to the top and your career
with choosing music
yeah i mean my my first outlook was
never to be on the top i never had that
mentality it was just to be recognized
um
i always said to like everyone if i can
get paid 500
or a thousand dollars a week and be able
to do music full-time and just go to the
studio here and there i'd be happy
and whatever comes on top of that was
like a bonus well
things obviously are a bit more than
that now but um
but for me like uh i started at 13
writing and i'm now i'm now 30 so that's
17 years
and um yeah so it's been it was a long
haul
but um for me it was like people say to
me like
what made you want to be a rapper i
never really wanted to be a rapper i
just
i just started writing you know what i
mean i
i i couldn't express i didn't like
talking to people about what i was
feeling or anything like that
i wasn't like a feelings type person and
talking about it
so i wrote i wrote about how i was
feeling and then that just sort of
transferred into lyrics and then music
and then people were like yeah
you're actually pretty good you should
stick to it i'm like okay
maybe i'll give it a go and then it all
just stemmed from that
how's your life changed since astronaut
in the ocean took off like that
um it's it's weird to say because i feel
like it's just more easier on my music
like i don't i don't i don't think i've
changed at all
as in a person because i've always been
the same i've always been chilled
but up front and i've always like spoken
about like what i believe in i'm a very
upfront person and that's what sort of
resonates with people for my from my
music
what's changed is like just obviously
job status and me now being able to
focus on music full time which is crazy
to think because like
i made like these type of songs under
the pressure of
working full-time then going to the
studio and having limited time
so now that i have like 24 hours in the
day to think of things
it's like what what can i do you know
what what could possibly be achieved so
um do you think this is just more less
inspiration
i don't think inspiration uh
differs from your situation it's
the fact that you get to do this now as
your job or i get to do this now it's
like my job
your inspiration should like increase if
anything not decrease
okay nice all right let's talk about
astro on the ocean
i think a lot of people at least a lot
of illegitimate in taiwan
probably don't understand what this
metaphor means so
can you explain in your own words what
astronaut in the ocean
stands for and how did this analogy come
to you
yeah um so i was in my car first of all
and i think i pulled up outside my house
and i remember
thinking that i like just kind of felt
like out of place
i was close to where i wanted to be with
the like sound of my music and who i was
as an artist
but i still wasn't there and i said to
myself like how can i come up with like
a title
that's that gives off imagery without
you listening to the song i'm very big
on like having a title that makes you
think
before you even hear the beat or the
lyrics and i thought of like an
astronaut in space and i was like
so what's the opposite and i was like a
national an astronaut in the ocean
and i'm like yeah that's actually pretty
cool so that's
that's how it started with the title and
then i always like think of the chorus
after that
and uh i never heard like rolling the
the adele song you know deep everyone
always i wanted to ask you about that
and i was like so people brought that up
up and i'm like what do you mean
um so like for me it was like
uh an original moment of like me
thinking about
what it what it meant to me and for me
it meant i was out of place like the
song is about me feeling out of place
i had the suit on but i wasn't in the
right environment
i was close and
obviously i got a touch on mental
depression and anxiety because that's
the way i felt
i was depressed because i wasn't getting
the recognition and i was working so
hard for it
but when i say like what you know about
rolling down in the deep
i'm asking you what was your seabed
moment what was your
down in the trenches you feeling bad
tell like i'm asking you
what do you know like what is your story
as well
and that's why i think i it resonated so
well because i was actually asking
people tell me your story as well
not just all about me yeah yeah i think
it's really cool that you pretty much
created another meaning to rolling in
the deep
like it was known as being like
in a good being in a deep relationship
with someone and then you kind of
made it your own thing and i'm pretty
sure after
this everyone's going to be using
rolling in the deep by
talking about you know depression and
being down in the churches
i like how you talk about being in your
car do you write a lot of music in your
car because
you have speed races used to fight
writer these types of song titles so you
really like being
like when i was working i did
that was like my because i used to go to
appointments to appointments to
appointments and in between appointments
i'd
try to think of songs that was like my
time to do it so i was like kind of like
multitasking and i always liked the
thought of not
overthinking like when i'm on the road
i'm concentrating on driving as well
and it's it's not overthinking like the
melody when i scout and i think of
okay this is a cool melody i'm like kind
of half halving so i don't overthink it
because i tend to see like people
overthink their lyrics and overthink
melodies
and it hurts the song more than helping
it so for me it was like
kind of like multitasking but also an
opportunity at the same time
well do you find that it exhausting like
when you're working and then you got it
right at the same time oh it's
exhausting yeah i i mean i was
that that when i like astronaut like
came from like me erupting like me
completely burning out like there was a
point when i was like maybe three years
ago four years ago where i just
completely burnt
out like my whole body my whole
mentality
i was just gone i was like super super
depressed
i'd wake up i'd want to go back to sleep
because like going back to sleep i
didn't have to feel the pain
um that was like my i made i've made a
song about that
so i'm not going to say what it's called
but it's basically
got those type of lyrics but uh yeah it
was
it was a wake-up it was a wake-up call
yes definitely definitely
so it pains me to to hear that you were
you know so
so so down but um again like
as an artist you take your pain and you
turn it into art and
in that moment of you know explosion for
you you created something that
changed the world and touched so many
people around the world so that's really
great
um i want to talk about your single numb
that you released in 2019
oh the first person to ask me about numb
okay
i like this song like when um you talk
about being at a party
and not wanting to be there and just you
know witnessing all these fake people
around you and i feel like
i can relate to that feeling and i want
to
ask do you think of yourself as a
introvert like what kind of personality
are you
i have an introvert that's an extrovert
i always tell people that
it's a very i mean well it means like in
certain scenarios i don't want to be
extroverted
but i'm like if i wanted to be somewhere
i could easily walk up to a group of
people
and could easily inject myself and have
a conversation with them
like socially it's just a choice whether
i want to be or not
um but when when it comes to like my
writing and like doing music i like
being inside i like being up at 4 00 a.m
and 3 a.m and thinking of songs and
being in the
the night time and not going out and
speaking to people and num
num was like a it's funny because my
friends pay me out about it but it was
like about some of my friends who always
wanted me to come out
and they used to like bag me out for not
wanting to come party and they always
wanted to peer pressure me to say come
out
you never hang with us and i'm like i
have to focus on music and uh
now they're like oh numbs about me
numb's about me
are you still friends yeah yeah yeah
it's my one of my best friends as well
so
it wasn't it was never like a bad intent
it's just like that's what it was
stemmed from
and i i feel like people want to
be go to places just to be at them just
to say i went to this party
just to say that i had a drink just to
say that i smoked
whatever it's not out of like your own
choice it's just pressure
and that's what the song was about doing
things because of pressure
i see all right so what would what do
you like to do for fun then if it's not
partying or
going out to meet when you don't want to
what do you do for fun
i love playing basketball i'm a big
basketball person so i
i i do love playing basketball um
i love games i play games as well i
interact with people
anything and everything to be honest
like i play a lot of uh overwatch
valorent with my friends stuff like that
um
i used to play league of legends which
is a massive game but uh
but yeah uh it's just it puts me into
another world where i don't have to
think about
anything else um yeah and then obviously
like i love
i love going to bars and stuff like a
restaurant like not loud music
like just once once once in an occasion
going out and just
enjoying enjoying the outside i feel you
there
in a lot of your songs i see
a lot of uh like
pga i had to google what that meant
is that pretty girl advantage
what is he talking about evil evil on
the inside
is that where you go yes that's the song
i was talking about uh pga is golf
it's a golf tournament so i talk i talk
about the green
on the golf course like green money
all right i went in the totally wrong
direction you were
thinking outside the box but yeah the
pga is a massive golf
golf tournament and i was talking about
a girl and how she
she only wanted me for the money but i
thought i used the great the green of a
golf course as like a metaphor or a
simile for
pga okay all right well
besides the golf then then t-h-o-t and
like a lot of other
other references about i guess girls
i feel like there's there's some there's
a lot of hurt there
is there was there a previous experience
that uh i just always felt like uh i was
overlooked
i feel like a lot of girls um that i was
dealing with not every single one like
there's obviously girls out there that
don't think like that but
i was overlooked as like a person and if
you didn't have
tattoos or you didn't have this type of
like look or attraction you were
overlooked and
i really dislike that about the world um
i feel like
both genders get overlooked and like
attraction rules everything
and no one cares about like the inner um
and you just completely get like pushed
to the
side so that's why a lot of my
references lean to that
that would also apply to you know how
you say that you don't look like a
rapper
yeah yeah on the outside you wouldn't
assume that you're a rapper
so what do you think uh that you bring
to the rap game that no one else has
honesty honesty
i mean there are the rappers that are
quite honest but i think i'm very
authentic and honest with who i
am there's only an another few maybe a
couple
that really do it all the time but
from my point of view that's that's
where my difference would decide
yeah i remember in one of your lyrics
for night rider you said i talk about
scars
who you know that do this yeah
you also reference lion a lot in your
your lyrics so it just made me think
like
why not masturbation why whoa
is there any special the lion's the
lion's known to be the king of the
jungle and the wolf is known to be like
the smart predator that comes out when
he wants to
so there's a big difference the lion the
lion
the lion sort of shows off and says i
own this but the wolf
is tactical you put a lot of thought in
that
that that's cool i like that if you
could
go back to um when you were
younger and trying to pursue the music
career and
probably struggling and you know um
being overlooked
or feeling like you've invested a lot
into your music but
it seems like no one's listening what
would you go back and tell yourself
i'd walk up to myself i'd slap myself in
the face
and i and i'd say get on with it it's
supposed to be like this okay
nice i like that i wish you all the best
and i really really i truly truly like
your music and i
i hope that you become you know
super big and it's what you deserve and
i love again how humble you are your
mentality
and your charisma and how you come off
to people it's very approachable
and it's not boastful or prideful in any
way so i
really i'm rooting for you thank you i
appreciate that any
any new things to look forward to in the
future
new plans that you can speak of i can
say that there's an
album coming when maybe end of year
start of next year
definite tour and uh
for a single very soon
okay excited to see that thank you so
much
master wolf for uh chatting with me for
a little bit
no problem nice to meet you thank you
again wishing you the best and
good luck with all of your promo and
your new single can't wait to hear it
thank you nice to meet you all right
peace