It's a beautiful Sunday afternoon on west 6th street, in Austin, TX. Im on my way to meet up with Killeen artist Andwan Zonez for a photoshoot and interview. We meet up at Kung Fu, a popular bar known for its arcade games and over-sized Jenga pieces.
This is my second time interviewing Mr. Zonez. The first time was on the Raw Brilliance Podcast where we talked about a wide range of topics from his upbringing to how he got into music. I really enjoyed our talk so I was looking forward to meeting up with the homie again to discuss what he has coming next.
Andwan had arrived a little before me so when I walked in to the establishment I found him already with a drink in hand in good spirits. I followed suit and ordered me a drink and and talked to the bartender about me taking some photos in the bar sense my budget didn't allow for me to rent it out. Thankfully the bartender was cool and allowed it. I made sure to leave a decent tip after receiving my drink order.
We talked a bit, drank our drank, got another drink, and then it was time to work. I need to a lot more than two drinks to not get my work done.
While I was taking pictures I was also asking questions, trying to multi-task lot make up for lost time. Unlike the podcast, when I tried to find out as much as I could about Zonez, this was more about what was coming next: any projects he may have been working on, visuals he had dropping, plans for 2023, etc.
As far as what he is working on, he and his producer/homie, Chadzilla, have a joint project coming out titled Slide Forever. They recently release the first track from the project "Bounce" which makes you do exactly what the title suggest. Andwan is a Killeen native now, but his roots are in the boot. He comes from New Orleans, LA and he still has the New Orleans flavor to his accent.
The bounce music that was made so popular in and by New Orleans is heavy in their lead track.
This is Chadzilla's debuts project and you can hear the excitement in Zonez voice for his friend. He may be more excited for the producer than the actual project. "I feel like he's one of the most talented producers that I've ever actually met in real life". Andwan tells me.
As far as what you can expect on this project, Andwan says, expect different from what he usually does because the duo is trying to reach a wider audience and get more eyeballs on what they do. He's tapping into his R&B side of things and experimenting more on the project.
Andwan tells me that his last project I'm OK, Too was more of an emotional side of him, while this tape will be more fun. He says that people who follow his movement will definitely notice the growth in his new works. He suggests, says that the growth comes from being more comfortable with himself.
The next step for Andwan is putting a face with the music. He says people don't really know his face when they hear the music. This is partly because he doesn't like social media to much and that attributes to his lack of visuals. He told me that even with his past projects it was more about letting the music stand on its own, but now he realizes that visuals today are just as, if not more important than the music.
"I'm really trying to do a lot more people moving," Says Zonez, "really trying put a look to the to the sound".
He has recently been doing performances in random places with just a mic and speaker. It is reminiscent of Dave Chappell setting up his comeback following his return Africa and media purgatory. Dave was trying to find his audience again and went back to the roots of his craft to do so. With nothing but a mic and speaker Dave would stand on corners doing pop-up comedy bits. Like wise, Andwan is now trying to find his audience and is going back to the essence of hip hop to do so: A mic, a speaker, a beat.
I asked him who is in this wider audience that he's looking for? and what do you want them to take from your music? He doesn't have a specific person in mind when he talks about an audience. He says you never know who is listening or who has eyeballs on you. The message is simple, "I really make music for people who want to live".
He is referring to the times we live in currently with killings being covered on 24hr news cycles. Its like there is something contentiously happening and it can make people not want to be here anymore. Gloomy but true.
"I feel like a lot of the things and even the images that we see today are very negative. It's very heartbreaking that every time you look up there is someone passing away." Says Andwan. He continues. "[There are] some traumatic events happening right now and a lot of the time we are in the middle history making events. I feel like sometimes it make you not want to be here anymore. I want you to be here".
He is very conscience of the energy he puts out through his music. He's trying to take it back to a time when talking about killing your brother or sister was not so prominent and frequent in the hip hop culture.
With tracks like "Bounce" he is doing just that. Artist like Andwan are moving the culture forward and those are the artist we try to highlight here at Raw Brilliance.
Follow him on social media to get up to date info on what he has going on and to support. I have a feeing Zonez and company will find their audience in 2023.
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