Artist Interview: Walwin

British artist Arthur Walwin can do it all. With a LANY-meets-Paramore vibe and a string of hits under his belt, he’s finally ready to release new music after a three-year hiatus of his own work.

Self writing, producing, recording, and filming, he’s released another bop this week, and we caught up with him to get the behind the scenes scoop on his new project, Calgary.

Crowdsurfer: Where do you think switching up your style came from? Was it experimenting more? Tell us about the evolution you’ve had.

AW: I’ve kind of done a full 180 musically. I grew up on so many cool bands, like all the way back to Evanescence, Limp Bizkit, and that kind of stuff. That’s where I started, and then at some point I started discovering girls, and that led me to All Time Low, Mayday Parade, and that kind of stuff. I feel like some of those bands went more commercial and softened their sound in a way, and I sort of did the same. And my heart just wasn’t in it. For me, first and foremost is making great art, great music. I didn’t hate the music I was making, I still really love it, I just think for me as a music maker, I need guitars and a good vibe. So I feel like this project is me returning to that. There are a lot of bands right now like LANY, The Band Camino, that are making guitar music cool again and that really pushed me into being like, “Okay, let’s pick up the guitar again.”

CS: Where else do you get your inspiration, where does that kind of creative energy come from for you?

AW: It’s very sporadic. I feel like that’s why it’s taken me so long to make this. It’s my first original song that I’ve self produced, self written, in almost three years. The past few songs I’ve done have with with other producers and DJ’s. So start to finish, this is the first one that’s just me. This song Calgary is a real life situation, and a lot of my songs are autobiographical in that way, or stuff I’ve gone through or something that’s relatable. I’ve actually been sitting on it for awhile, and now just felt like the right time.

CS: Is there a part of the process you enjoy the most?

AW: In terms of actually making it, I enjoy everything. Guitar is what I started with, so if you put a guitar in my hands, I’m super comfortable and know exactly what I’m doing. Trying to program drums or like a synth on like keys or something is different. I am semi-comfortable with those things, but it’s not like it’s as natural. It’s almost like another language. If you’re fluent in Spanish, in English you can talk, but you might have to think about it a little more. There was probably a whole entire year where I’d sit down, I’d hear a song like a LANY song or something, and think, “These drums are really cool, that key parts are really cool.” And I’d sit down, get inspired and try and do something along those lines.

CS: Do you feel like now like with the accessibility of how anyone can record anything in their house that makes it like in some ways easier to make music?

AW: You know, it’s a bit of both. My setup is like a static iMac that just sits there, with the interface and everything and I don’t know, I feel like I may be mentally kind of restricted me being in just that room. So I’ve got a new laptop I just saved up for, and it’s purely so I can be mobile. I love the idea of just like sitting in a Starbucks and working on the tune rather than like everything I do has to be in that one room. I want to be able to do stuff on the go and just be in different environments having that kind of freedom, because that’s what I used to do.

So now I have this weird thing where like I rearrange the studio completely, like every six weeks. The computer, the TV, everything. When you walk in, it feels like a brand new room. So many bands have come around to record and said, “This literally feels like a different studio to when we were last here.” And I feel like for me as someone that’s there all the time, it just makes it fresh and sparks different ideas.

CS: Tell us about your process when you cover other songs.

AW: I have never covered the song that I don’t absolutely love, but I really have to love the song to be able to do it. It’s working out the arrangement, recording the song, filming the video, editing the video. Like the average is around maybe three days to complete, so I have to really like the song to give up three days of my time. So yeah, it’s 50/50 just wanting to make all out of something that I absolutely love. And also, you know, just building on my YouTube profile and filling a niche or gap in the market.

But I feel like you can take it too far. And that’s exactly what happened to me and just led to me taking such a long break with music. I mean, subsequently I found photography for it, which is great, but I really got caught up in that whole cycle of the brand new cover and then need to do artwork for this and you need to promote this and then book a tour because the EPA is coming out and it’s a lot.

I still count myself as a small independent artist. But I’ve done work with major artists and people on the other end of the scale and the amount of work that you personally put in compared to like when you’re an independent artist compared to when you’re with a major.

I remember working with an artist, we were in the studio for a few days. And every two seconds I was getting like an email from the manager like, “This is being sorted out and you need to do this press junket for this thing and all this.” And I was just like, “I have to do that all myself.” I have to go out and do all that whist being an artist. And for me, making the actual art work, even is fun to me. I love designing my Twitter banners and doing that kind of stuff. Like I love it. I love just putting all that together.

And that’s really what it’s about for me. So with the new single Calvary, I wrote the song, produced it, mixed it, and then we filmed the music video, edited that. And I’ve done and I shot the artwork and edited that as well. And it was basically just a chance for me to do absolutely everything. But I love putting it out to the world and be like, yeah, cool, I made that.

CS: Would you say that it’s important to you to do the photography and videography for your projects so it adds a visual element to your music?

AW: I’ve always been inspired by great music videos and just a love of cinema. So taking effectively a year off making music and purely just being a photographer/videographer, I was like, oh, I actually have the means to create something cinematic. The reason why I haven’t done a cinematic music video before is because I just couldn’t afford it and I didn’t know how to do it myself. And it just wasn’t something I had access to. But as soon as I did, it sounds cheesy, but it was a dream come true.

CS: Tell us about Calgary!

AW: It was a concept that I wrote. It’s kind of slightly based on what the song is about. It’s based on someone from the UK that falls in love with someone that’s from Canada. And they’re about to go home and essentially break up. The relationship was not even really a relationship. It’s more of just a fling, which is what happened to me. And it’s just them kind of making up for all the things they never got to do, like they never really got to progress themselves as real couple. They go through flashbacks, but they’re not flashbacks, almost like daydreams. And just imagining what would this have been if we actually had the chance to blossom this relationship?

I found these two amazing actors and we filmed in London. They’re a same sex couple in the video because I wanted that aspect of it from like a representation standpoint. We don’t really see a lot of that with commercial music videos. And I thought it’d be really cool to kind of showcase that and use my platform to be like, “Hey, this relationship looks like every other relationship. It’s no different to what I experienced. It is something that happens to all kinds of people. And yeah, I think it’s just an excuse to kind use my platform to show something that doesn’t normally get shown.

CS: That’s incredible. What’s next for you after Calgary?

AW: It’s just about pushing myself and just trying to take myself to the next level, which is great. I’ve always tried to push myself further. And yeah, this is just like the next step of that.

I have an EP’s worth of new music. The past three years has been me running away from guitar music, but I realized these are great songs and they need to be heard. So I’ve got a comfortable five songs that I absolutely love and want to bring out this year. I want to do really great visuals to go along with it.

But the great thing is that this weird time of self isolation has allowed me to have weeks to get everything done, and finally have enough creative energy to do it. So the rest of the year is just more. This is just the beginning of everything.

Calgary is out now! You can watch it on YouTube, stream it on Spotify, and anywhere else you get your music. Make sure you keep an eye out for new music from one of our favorite artists, Walwin.