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We asked Arsee about his music, his creative process, and the words that carry the most weight in his scene.
1. What almost ended up being your artist name before you landed on ‘Arsee’?
Actually funny story, when I started like 11 years ago I went by Short. There’s probably an empty spotify account with that name somewhere on the internet.
2. If someone heard just one track from you, which should it be, and why?
I don’t even know I have a love-hate relationship with my music. I dislike almost all of them because I know I could’ve done better, but they are still all like my children. If i had to pick I’d say “Wagti”, “I’m him” or my latest “Baby”.
3. Weirdest place you’ve ever written a bar/lyric?
I mean, if my brain starts thinking it has to come out so a lot of places, on a plane, in a club, at work.
It’s so many places I could probably write lyrics about the places I wrote lyrics.
4. What’s your toxic creative habit?
I can’t stop.
As in if I play one key, even if I know it will be trash, I’m finishing the song down to mastering, I could spend 24 hours straight on no sleep working on a song just to delete it and go to sleep.
5. What’s something you had to unlearn to grow musically?
I used to be very into old school hip-hop back in the day, against auto-tune and any unnatural effects, now my music is more about all these tools making a vibe and I don’t start a session without a stacked effect channel.
6. What word from your dialect hits hardest in your scene/crowd, and why?
I feel like ‘Wala’ is a good one, it’s super expressive for some reason and depending on the tone everyone around you understands the context. I don’t even know what wala would be in English.
7. Who’s an artist from your city that deserves more love?
All of us, the hip-hop and alternative scene here has some of the most creative people in the region in my biased opinion but for some reason it’s hard for anyone to break out of the “underground” so to say.
8. Dream collab: who’s on your wishlist & why?
Pre February 6th I would’ve said Lil Wayne and that’s a rapper answer to be honest.
But after J. Cole released his album it changed to him, I think he’s really cool.
9. If your music were a place, where would it be?
Is inside of my head an answer you’d accept? (We accepted!)
I know that if it was a place it wouldn’t be anyone's dream destination though.
10. How do you get re-inspired when you hit a creative block?
I usually listen to my own music and get mad more than inspired because I know I can do better so it kind of annoys me that I didn’t, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
