"Sometimes you go to a place, you do what you have to do there, you spend your time there, and then it's time for you to leave and show the rest of the world your art."
Tuesday 4 June 2024, Canterbury High Street, United Kingdom
Who are we talking to? BlacWintR
Who is the interviewer? Hyla
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HYLA: What are you passionate about?
BLACWINTR: I'm passionate about art. I love art as in like paintings, music, all types of art really.
HYLA: So painting and music are your main ones.
BLACWINTR: Yeah, and I’m really into any intuitive art.
HYLA: What does intuitive mean to you?
BLACWINTR: When I'm doing intuitive art in music or painting, I guess I would say it's like meditation and it's just being like, what's the word? Being one with the universe, you know? Being at peace, being at center, you know?
HYLA: Like transcendence?
BLACWINTR: Yes, literally it's so hard to say that.
HYLA: Do you meditate?
BLACWINTR: Well, I grew up meditating. Actually, doing the full lotus position. Bermuda is like a very spiritual place.
HYLA: You’re from Bermuda?
BLACWINTR: Yeah I'm from Bermuda and it's, like a lot of crystals there, called azeztulite crystal. It's a very powerful crystal, good for meditation, good for manifestations. And I feel like whenever I really have those crystals around me, they just inspire me more. You know, it inspires me to be more creative.
HYLA: How has your upbringing in Bermuda influenced your creativity?
BLACWINTR: It's influenced my creativity a lot. You know, Bermuda is a beautiful place. It's a beautiful island. It's very different from the UK like our houses are literally all different colors. It's like a rainbow. Yeah, it's a very creative place, but it's also kind of small-minded. That's part of the reason why I left and came to the UK. You know to explore. To get something new. You know doing the same thing every day, being in the same place every day, can drive you crazy.
HYLA: Are you a restless person?
BLACWINTR: I wouldn't say restless, but I would say I don't like to stay in the same spot for too long. Like the same place for too long.
HYLA: Why?
BLACWINTR: I feel, sometimes you go to a place, you do what you have to do there, you spend your time there, and then it's time for you to leave and show the rest of the world your art, show the rest of the world your creativity. You know, because if I want to be something big, I can't just stay in one space for the rest of my life. So that was the whole point of me leaving Bermuda.
HYLA: What inspires you creatively? Aside from your background?
BLACWINTR: I would say life inspires me, you know. Struggles, trauma, experiences, good and bad, they all inspire me to be something better, to want to be something. It inspires me to want to be somebody better, you know. To be something great.
"When I'm doing intuitive art in music or painting, I guess I would say it's like meditation...Being one with the universe."
HYLA: And have there been like people in your life who've encouraged you or acted as mentors?
BLACWINTR: Honestly, when it comes to my art life, I would not really say I've had mentors like that. I find that you know a lot of the people who I've looked up to and tried to show my creative gifts they've always tried to diminish me, you know, diminish my presence, make it seem like I'm less, or make it seem like I'm wasting my time. I guess I would say spiritually, I look up to the universe, God.
HYLA: As far as those people who've put you down, is it because they just don't see art as a viable career option?
BLACWINTR: Yeah so the thing is like in Bermuda people don't love art. You know, we love art, it's a very big part of our culture, but it's also very business oriented, you know. So most things, most people, they do their art careers as hobbies, not as something, an everyday thing, something that they want to do for the rest of their life. So it's not really pushed, you know, you're not really pushed to go into a creative background. You're more pushed to go into law, to be a doctor.
HYLA: Where do you think like your drive comes from?
BLACWINTR: I think honestly, I think it's like my ancestors. Like I said before, Bermuda is very business-oriented, [I have] really creative family members, way more talented, super talented, more than me, but they gave that up to just do an everyday job. You know, being an accountant, a broker, like you know, it's not really. It's not really my vibe.
HYLA: How did it feel when you moved here and you see more people and, people of color especially, who want to be in the creative industries? Was it a culture shock?
BLACWINTR: It was amazing. Yeah, it's a culture shock like it's just like it's beautiful. Bermuda it's like you see creative people, cool looking people, but they kind of standoffish a little bit. You know, people's just kind of full of themselves a bit. But here, honestly, I love the vibe. Yeah, it's so much different personalities, so many different people with different backgrounds from all over the world. and, yeah, I love that.
HYLA: What are some things you've worked on recently?
BLACWINTR: I've made a couple of songs. There’s another artist here. She goes by Rayo. Yeah, we made some music together, some really cool songs. We're gonna be shooting some videos pretty soon, yeah, and tomorrow I'm actually shooting a music video.
HYLA: What type of music do you make?
BLACWINTR: Honestly, I make all types. I make indie, I make pop, I make R&B, r&b, hip-hop, but I'm more of like right now is more like indie vamp. I don't know if you know what vamp is.
HYLA: It's a bit like gothic and vampire?
BLACWINTR: Yes, basically like hip-hop, but gothic.
HYLA: Ooh. Okay, I'll have to look into that. Which genre do you think you feel called to the most?
BLACWINTR: I would say right now I'm an indie boy.
HYLA: And are you self-taught?
BLACWINTR: No, I learned from the best: Lana Del Rey, Frank Ocean, Steve Lacey, all of them, you know. They are very inspiring, they helped me. My style, everything, my music, you know.
HYLA: Do you write songs, compose, sing?
BLACWINTR: Yeah all that. Produce, make beats, all of it.
HYLA: It kind of gives you a certain kind of power when you can make your own beats.
BLACWINTR: Feels good.
HYLA: How do you feel while you're creating your songs?
BLACWINTR: I feel amazing. You know, I used to go to the studio in Bermuda but the only thing was say I would be there recording, we'll edit it, everything. It would sound good but, like the next time I'll come to the studio, it's like the percentage of the volume on each track is different and then it's like completely messed up and then everything sounds completely different from the last you know, it sounds completely different. So I thought you know I need to do this myself. Like I saw a video of Steve Lacey right before he blew up talking about how he created his first album on BandLab and I said, yeah, okay, I know he used GarageBand. Yeah, I said, okay, I'm going to do that, and I've been doing that literally.
HYLA: I use GarageBand too. Yeah, I love it. It's so accessible. And like yeah, how do you feel about how music has become more accessible? Like people can open their laptops and create songs.
BLACWINTR: I love it. Yeah, you know, I think it's just beautiful. It's just amazing that we have all this technology at our hands.
HYLA: Can you describe the moment when you fell in love with your passion or realized this is my passion and you can talk about painting as well?
BLACWINTR: Well, about two years ago so I've been an artist all my life, but I've really always been into drawing. I went to art school after high school in Bermuda, so it was two years ago I graduated. I remember my art teacher. I just was just sitting there watching him paint and I hadn't painted in probably about seven years and I was just watching his brush strokes. You know the way he was dabbing the paintbrush and it was just beautiful. It just looked so beautiful to me. It was a painting of Van Gogh, one of Van Gogh's paintings of a sunset, and the way he blended it, his brush strokes, the way he held the brush, it was just, (smiles) it was just so amazing, I was just like that is just beautiful. I sat there, I watched him for about an hour and, you know, just learned how he did it. Literally he was angling my hand (laughs).
I remember I had finished a big portrait of myself in his class. I did it about a canvas, it's really big and we had an art show at a museum and it was up in the museum on the wall and I just remember walking in and people were standing around. Nobody knew that it was me and I was in the back of everybody. It was a portrait, I could show you. It was three pictures of me on it.
And I just remember sitting there, I'm just looking and people were just so amazed. I'm just like "I really did that," like I painted a portrait of myself. It felt amazing you know.
HYLA: Yeah, and just to be in the audience so you could switch perspectives but, you're like I made that.
(BlacWintR shows the painting from the art show)
HYLA: Wow, this is so wonderful. Is this all paint?
BLACWINTR: Yeah.
HYLA: Even this part.
BLACWINTR: So actually no, this part is a Photoshop picture. I print it out and then I cut it up and paste it.
HYLA: I like it, so it's like multimedia.
BLACWINTR: Yeah.
HYLA: Can you talk me through? Like this piece and inspiration?
BLACWINTR: So this was basically me right before I left Bermuda (points to figure). This is supposed to be me now (points) and this is me in the future (points).
"Bermuda is full of creative people but for some reason, people don't follow their dreams. They really don't. I don't know nobody in my family that's followed their dreams."
HYLA: What's the title?
BLACWINTR: The title is "Not Even Roy," because this is before I got my name BlacWintR. I was trying to really think of a name to put to myself and I basically knew that I didn't want to be Roy. My name is Zeroy, my real name, and people always call me Roy. Basically, I had been to a medium before I left Bermuda. She was telling me how my name is my power. If I'm gonna change my name, I need to pick a powerful name that aligns to me. But then she basically just gave off the numerology of like a nickname Roy, and showed how, like that numerology wasn't really too good and I didn't really align with that path. So I really sat there and meditated, found something for myself and picked BlacWintR and when I started this painting, you know, I was like I'm gonna live it because this is me transitioning into BlacWintR.
HYLA: Do you still visit mediums?
BLACWINTR: No, not here. I'm very intuitive so I can kind of tell when somebody's fake. I can really tell when somebody's fake, you know, because, like Bermuda is a very spiritual place. You know, I've seen weird stuff there, but it's a very spiritual place. The medium that I met, the whole vibe. I haven't met that vibe since I've been here.
HYLA: You're selective.
BLACWINTR: Yeah, very selective.
HYLA: How does it feel to think about your future.
BLACWINTR: It seems scary. It frightens me all the time, honestly, because you know I feel like so. Sometimes I feel like you know what if this is all for nothing? Like what if I'm doing all this work and it doesn't even work out? But you know, you know it gets like that sometimes. You know, you just have those days where you're just scared and you're like, is this gonna work out? Am I, should, I, even should I even really be doing this? Basically that's it.
HYLA: What pulls you out of that mindset?
BLACWINTR: You know it's still like it's a little part of me. It's a small part of me that is just like yeah this may be for nothing, but it's like you can't give up. You know what if you give up today and tomorrow you walk, tomorrow you freaking meet somebody in like the top modeling agency, you know. Anything's possible, so just as like it could not happen, it could happen.
HYLA: What's something you want to do that you haven't done yet.
BLACWINTR: Walk a runaway.
HYLA: Do you have a brand in mind?
BLACWINTR: Vogue.
HYLA: What’s your proudest accomplishment?
BLACWINTR: Being my authentic self. Like it took a lot for me to get back to me. You know, I feel like before middle school, I was very outgoing, very creative. Then I went through like a lot of bullying and it really just made me closed off, more reserved. And my last year, I remember in high school, I just thought to myself this is my last year, like I had cut my hair all off, created a whole new look. Literally cut my hair all off, got rid of my acne. I said I need to be somebody new, I need to be, I need to be me, I want to feel like me again and I said f**k everybody else. After this, I'm gonna graduate, I'm gonna go art school, I'm gonna leave and then I will be completely me. You know, I'll be at my peak.
HYLA: Sounds like you have a lot of determination. Where do you think the determination comes from?
BLACWINTR: It comes from me seeing so many creative people in my family choose a different path. Like I said before, I've got a lot of creative people in my family. Bermuda is full of creative people but for some reason, people don't follow their dreams. They really don't. I don't know nobody in my family that's followed their dreams. Everybody, the job that they're doing, yeah, it's a good job, but it's for money.
HYLA: You know it's someone else's dream.
BLACWINTR: Yeah, it's somebody else's dream.
HYLA: Describe yourself in three words.
BLACWINTR: In three words: unique, star, BlacWintR.
HYLA: What's one song you've been listening to recently?
BLACWINTR: A song that I have had on repeat would be “Video Games” by Lana Del Rey. Yeah, that song has just really resonated with me. I have been through so much this month. So much growth. You know, I've actually been through a lot this break so much experiences, so much friendships, you know, breaking off. So that song kind of, yeah, it really resonates with me right now, the vibe, the melody, everything.
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Photographers: Dante Richardson & Paolo
Photo editor: Dante Richardson
Photoshoot Assistants: Hyla Etame, Vanessa Mbeko, & Jolanda Oruni
Interview editor: Hyla Etame
