Smoking Inside draws inspiration from films like Old Boy and Hellraiser. How did these movies influence the mood, sound, and storytelling of the project?
I think the visual and symbolic context of Old Boy really bleeds through on this project. It’s called Smoking Inside. In the movie old boy The character Dae Su spent years underground figuring out where he went wrong in life. I think there’s something to that on this project that you can hear if you’re really listening. As far as Hellraiser goes, the second movie influenced the song Devilman pretty heavily. I had just come back from a show in Europe and felt like a bullet or a demon or something, I don’t know. I was ready to rap, shoot to kill type shit. That’s why we pulled those samples, they sound deranged. We also pulled a lot of direct visual inspiration from Oldboy, most of the promotional material was inspired by the film, especially me wearing all the thrift store suits in the videos. I wanted to look like a drunk “salary man.”
The project highlights both the party and its consequences. What inspired you to explore the introspection of the “morning after” rather than just the celebration itself?
I celebrate enough. I go out and I do what I do and I have fun, but it’s easy to talk about that. I think when it’s 10 AM and you’re off like three hours of sleep, that’s when you’re experiencing or processing whatever idiocy you were up to the night before.
DJ Knick and Alexander Azar handled production for this mixtape. What makes them the right collaborators for this project, and how do they complement your creative vision?
DJ Knick and Alex will always be my go to guys, there is no YOUWIN without them. DJ Knick really coached me on how to record at MARSTEN HOUSE. Before that, I only had a few songs on SoundCloud and had no idea what I was doing. He helped me realize what I wanted to sound like, and what I wanted out of music. Definitely helped me find my sound in more ways than one. Lately, Knick has definitely taken a bit of a step back, but he still has hands on almost everything I do. As far as Alex, he’s my blood cousin. We grew up freestyling together and just went different routes in life. When he saw what I was doing (musically) he got back into production full swing. Alex is my lab partner, we experiment. It’s not always good or commercial, but when we have something releasable, it’s always a hit (at least to us). Alex did Morrison and Hysteric Glamour.
Smoking Inside marks your fourth official mixtape. How do you think your sound and perspective as an artist have evolved since Eden and Hedonist?
My music has definitely evolved with me, I’ve said it before, but I can only make songs about what’s happening right now in my life or what’s right in front of me. With Eden and hedonist, I was still trying things out, there was a lot of experimenting and not everything worked and there’s things I could take back about both those projects, but at the end of the day they do mark important pieces of my life and career. I think with this one I set out to make it my best work yet, with hedonist and Eden, they sort of just fell together at the time. To sum it up, I would say smoking inside was more intentional and Eden and hedonist were happy accidents.
The music video for “Hysteric Glamour” is visually captivating. What was the concept behind the video, and how does it connect to the themes of the mixtape?
I wrote the treatment for that actually. Randy, the Director really brought everything to life. we wanted to go full psycho, full David Lynch. Something that induces psychosis and makes you go. “What the fuck was that?” . we just wanted to create something that’s jarring and bizarre, and I think we succeeded. I don’t know if that song is for everyone, but we had fun making it. Hysteric glamour the song is almost a word for word account of a night I had in Philly, we wanted thev video to feel like the lyrics feel.
You pull inspiration from films and introspective themes. Are there any non-musical influences—like books, art, or life events—that helped shape Smoking Inside?
The cover was directly inspired by the Japanese photographer Masahisa Fukase and his self portrait series that he did in a bathtub. He was a really captivating photographer and I love that series. My music will always reflect my life. prior to the creation of this album, I had been about five years sober from drugs and alcohol. While working on smoking inside, I was definitely doing a lot of drinking, a lot of drugs, and a lot of going out. I don’t regret any of it. That’s just a state of mind I was in and where I was at. I don’t think smoking inside would be the same without having those experiences. When I was sober, I felt like I was missing a lot of life, like I was on the outside looking in. My life was more together, but it was really fucking boring. We’ll see how all of that pans out I guess.
With Smoking Inside now out, what’s next for YOUWIN? Can fans expect more visuals, live performances, or any future collaborations on the horizon?
The team is still pushing smoking inside. we still have a few more videos to get done before everything is over. As far as what’s next or what’s new, I have an EP done called barfly, and a bunch of singles I’m gonna put out in 2025. We have a festival in Atlantic City in April, and we’re trying to get a European tour underway, but we’ll see how that goes. Keep watching, I’m not going anywhere.
