ON THE RISE: 21 Questions with undefinxd

undefinxd is a seventeen-year-old melodic pop-rap artist from Mississauga, Ontario currently based in Houston. Taking inspiration from his late idol Juice WRLD, he entwines his personal experiences into his craft through a vivid mix of melodic production and insistent and iterative lyrics. He released his first EP until it was over just last year. On July 1st, Harmony World had the pleasure of interviewing him to discuss his connection to his music, artistic craft, musical idols, and more. Be sure to check out his upcoming single “stay” available on all platforms on July 9th!

HWM: Tell us about undefinxd! Give us three words to describe yourself. What do you do for fun besides making music?

undefinxd: I’m undefinxd. I’m a small artist from Mississauga, Ontario based in Houston and I love making music. Me in three words… I am passionate about what I do, I try to be creative and I’m very very loving.

HWM: How did you first get into music?

undefinxd: Music was always a safe place for me. Anytime I needed something, anytime I was down, I was up-- any emotion was always balanced by music. When I was like twelve or thirteen I wrote my first song and I was like… oh this is kind of nice, I like this! The feeling of making your first song is just amazing.

HWM: What genre would you describe yourself as?

undefinxd: Pop-rap... melodic rap maybe, yeah. I love pop, the first song I ever listened to was probably by One Direction. And I love rap, not rap-rap but I love melodic rap. I love rap too, I just like all music to be honest. It’s not genre-based, I guess it’s an organized structure but when you try to categorize it, it won't make sense.

HWM: How would you describe the music you typically create?

undefinxd: Honestly, I just make music for people that need someone to be there. This is going to sound corny but people can feel alone at times; I’m just here to tell them that they’re not alone and that they have people that are there for them. My music is caring I guess… whatever word you’d use haha.

HWM: Where do you get inspiration for your songs?

undefinxd: I can’t write about things I don’t feel, so it’s mostly just my personal experiences and experiences that I have been a part of. If it’s something external to me, I have no idea how it feels. It’s just not real to me. I could make a song about it but it’s just not good in the way it’s not true to me.

HWM: What’s your favorite song that you’ve ever released?

undefinxd: You gotta give me a minute here, I need to pull up my Spotify! You really caught me off guard there, I don’t really keep track of my songs. Okay… my favorite song that I have released would be off my EP until it was over. It’s a song called “two-faced” and not a lot of people listen to it. To me, it’s not the best song that I have ever made, it's just my favorite one that I’ve released. It would be the truest to me. I woke up one day, I made this and I was just like okay I have to put this out.

HWM: What’s the most sentimental/vulnerable song you’ve ever written?

undefinxd: Oh vulnerable song… again it’s a song from the EP called “miss me”. It’s not about the usual girls or my love life. It’s purely about the way I feel and that’s just how I felt at the time.

HWM: How long does it take you to write a song?

undefinxd: On a bad day, ten minutes. Writing the song is the easier part. I don’t release that much because of the mixing-- I’m a perfectionist, it needs to be perfect. I spend most of my time mixing.

HWM: Are you a beats to lyrics person or a lyrics to beats person?

undefinxd: Beats to lyrics. I’m more on the melody side-- I create my melody then do lyrics, so I need to hear a beat first. I respect the whole lyrics to beats, pop off! Changing lyrics into a melody is a whole talent in and of itself. But yeah, it works for me this way.

HWM: What’s your production process like?

undefinxd: Obviously my parents want me to focus on school and I’m always working on that stuff on that side of my life but then there’s just a point where I’m like okay, I want to make music right now. So I go look for a beat and once I find a beat that I like I write for ten minutes tops. Then I edit for a good amount of time and I grab my mic and I go record. I mix. I master. I’ve been doing this for a year so I had to learn how to do everything by myself.

HWM: If you had the chance to collaborate with another artist, who would it be?

undefinxd: If he was alive, my dream would have been collaborating with Juice WRLD. He is my inspiration. That’s always been my dream ever since I had started. That’s what I wanted to do. If I can get that, then for myself that is “making it.” But right now, if I could, it would probably be someone like Iann Dior. Someone that high and who I think I could take their song and make it better than it is. My goal is to put out a track that would be better than what they already have. If I can make it better, that’s all I want. It’s all for the fans. It’s all for the people anyways.

HWM: If you could open a show for another artist, who would it be?

undefinxd: Again, if I could it would be Juice WRLD but right now it would probably be The Kid LAROI. I know his shows go crazy and I feel like my music would go hand in hand with his audience.

HWM: What’s your go-to playlist called and what’s in it?

Undefinxd: My go-to playlist... hold up, I have to check haha… I found it! Okay don’t laugh at me but it doesn’t have a name, it’s just two emojis. I have two playlists. One is called “Life’s Great” and I’ll listen to this when I’m just vibing out. The emoji one is just the sad emoji and that’s what I listen to when I just can’t deal with life right now and just want to dip somewhere haha. This has stuff from The Kid LAROI, Juice WRLD, Uzi, Iann Dior, you know that whole thing. The other playlist has stuff like 24kGoldn, Lil Skies, Juice WRLD obviously, Tecca, and a bunch of other lowkey artists like Daniel Caesar.

HWM: What is a song that you think is a masterpiece?

undefinxd: Not a lot of people know this song but it’s called “End of the Road'' by Juice WRLD. If you couldn’t tell I’m a Juice WRLD stan!

HWM: How has quarantine affected your approach to music?

undefinxd: It’s been difficult to be honest. It’s definitely given me more time on my hands to make music, which is a good thing but I’ve also been moving around-- moving cities from Toronto to Houston. It’s been crazy. If you see my reference bar on Spotify, you’ll see a bunch of songs released up until February. Those songs were created back in June 2020. I haven’t properly recorded a good song that I’ve wanted to put out. All the songs I’ve put out now-- “attention” was written back in December. There have been people who have dmed me and have been like you shouldn’t have stopped in the middle cause you would have been in a different place and you know they’re probably right. But now I’m slowly getting back on the road, just trying to ease back in. TikTok has helped me greatly as well.

HWM: If you weren’t an artist what do you think you’d do?

undefinxd: I’m really big into physics! So, I’d probably become an aerospace engineer. I’ve probably switched what I’ve wanted to a hundred times but for me, it’s always been space. I thought space was really cool as a kid, so I was like I wanna do something with that.

HWM: If you could go back in time, is there anything you would have done differently?

undefinxd: I would have started this earlier, that’s what I would have done. I would have made music earlier, I would have not stopped in the middle, and I would have told myself that even though I’m not getting any plays or whatever, I need to continue. I would not have taken a break in the middle.

HWM: What is the best advice you’ve ever been given about music?

undefinxd: It’s hard. Not the music part but making music is hard. You’re always going to think it’s going to be different-- you can make it, you can make it. But the industry is the industry. There is no cheat code. You’ll either make it or you won’t, but regardless you have to try. I’ve had people come up to me and tell me that if you sit there listening to a song sixty times you’re going to find a hundred mistakes because that’s just how musicians are. If you take that same song, give it to a random person, tell them to listen to it sixty times, they’re not going to hear those mistakes because the general population does not listen to music like musicians do. Maybe an average musician could tell, okay this is wrong and this is wrong, but the people that you want to influence are not going to know. Perfectionism? Great. Over perfectionism? Gonna slow you down.

HWM: If an aspiring musician came to you for advice, what would you say?

undefinxd: Don’t quit. Quitting is not the answer. I get it, you want to quit all the time because there are certain people who are always going to be like I don’t like your music, great. Almost eight billion people in the world! Someone out there is going to like your music. Don’t worry about it.

HWM: What’s next for your music? Do you have anything coming up soon?

undefinxd: I have a song called “stay” coming out on July 9th. I was going to push it back but a lot of people have asked me. Pre-release is coming out on July 5th.

HWM: Is there anything you want to say that you haven’t mentioned yet?

undefinxd: Shoutout to Harmony World Magazine! And shoutout to everyone who has stuck with me from the start :)