Surely you remember The Third Floor from issue eight | HEARTBREAK, right? If you don’t then you must have been sleeping, since he was featured as the opening track for one of our biggest compilations to date – up until here & Now : issue nine | ANXIETY. TTF changed things up a bit to cater to this theme and it’s completely transparent. Let’s get right to it – scroll down, press play & read on. We hope you can see.
Interview curated by Michael of the Phuture Collective team.
Phuture Collective: The Third Floor!!! It’s only been a couple months since we last spoke but it feels like forever! You turned the world upside down with your collaboration between M i s t e r / L for HEARTBREAK, and now you’re back with a single, with a sound that completely evolves you. We couldn’t be happier to share it with the world! Let’s start things off by going over what you’ve been up-to the past few weeks. Share on!
The Third Floor: I’ve been up to a bunch of schoolwork and making tracks / practicing jazz. Thats pretty much it haha 🙂
______________________________
Phuture Collective: ‘i can’t see’ takes the world through a combination of your orchestral and symphonic style but adding an experimental bass element, which we like to call MURK. Clearly the theme inspired you. Mind going over what else spawned the creativity needed for such a ground-breaking track?
The Third Floor: The track originally wasn’t being made for anxiety, but it stemmed and originated from experiences in my life at that time that were anxiety inducing. Those experiences were my parents forcing me to quit my job without 2 weeks notice, having a 09 in english ( yes a 9) and a few other things that overwhelmed me with fear and anxiety.
______________________________
Phuture Collective: Let’s talk about your symphonic/orchestral influence. What do you think motivates this, since many other artists don’t have such sound.
The Third Floor: Well I love stories. Movies for example have always moved me and i try to find deeper meaning behind the plot or characters in them. So i try to do the same with music: tell a story and hope that the listener can find a deeper meaning and purpose behind it.
______________________________
Phuture Collective: What have you been listening to lately & what is your primary platform for listening/discovery?
The Third Floor: I’ve been listening to a lot of “modern” Jazz (i hate using the word modern lmao). I’d say my primary platform for listening and discovery is soundcloud but my #2 is friends and musicians that share music with me or tell me to listen to an artist.
______________________________
Phuture Collective: Any collaborations in the works? Any we can expect to hear soon 😉 ?
The Third Floor: Hm, I’m planning to start collabs with Floret Loret, Paul Manton and a few others i have yet to ask. Nothing too soon though sadly. (although i have a finished collab with thinktvnk thats been sitting around, not sure where its going lmao)
______________________________
Phuture Collective: Writer’s block happens to nearly everyone that has ever created art, what are your methods to overcome it?
The Third Floor: I think writer’s block happens when I don’t feel inspired, and i don’t feel inspired when i don’t feel a powerful emotion. So i go and try to make myself feel something by having experiences or watching a movie.
______________________________
Phuture Collective: Can you recollect a spiritual experience in your life? Doesn’t have to be religious, just something that altered the course/perspective of your journey.
The Third Floor: here are a couple that are noteworthy, but I think the most important revelation i had was while i was lying down with a friend at a river talking about our fears. (and other stuff too). I said my biggest fear was not playing well (My main musical focus is actually on saxophone and jazz which is kind of what my life revolves around), and that whenever i didn’t i felt like i was less than nothing. She looked at me and laughed and spent a bit telling me the generic stuff to make me feel better about myself like “you’re great what are you talking about” etc, but then she said something that stuck with me. She said that caring that much about music is stupid. She said if i held my breath under the river after the performance i was having that week if it went terribly (at this jazz camp we were both at), how long would i really think about how badly i played. After 40 seconds? A minute? It made me realize that it doesn’t really fucking matter at all. It doesn’t matter if i make one more song. It doesn’t save me from death, it doesn’t save anyone else from death. Does me making music help starving babies, or stop genocides around world? No. This killed my fear, by allowing me to not care and allowed me to strive forward as a musician and a person.
______________________________
Phuture Collective: We know how you got your name, but are you comfortable sharing it with the world yet? It’s not expected but if you think now is the right time, we’re listening.
The Third Floor:Well, my name is very meaningful to me, but i don’t think i want to share it with the world now, or maybe ever. I think names should have defining meaning in the artist as a person, and that those names in some way, shape or form should be related to that person’s true self so the Artist can be reminded every time they start a song why they are creating and what they are creating for, even if their listeners don’t know or understand. I personally believe that artists should create for themselves, not selfishly, but as a way to further understand themselves and portray themselves in their music so that the music they create is true to their lives, which in turn will be hopefully accepted and loved by their listeners.
______________________________
Phuture Collective: Who have been some of your biggest influences, thus far on your musical journey?
The Third Floor: Well, there’s the generic way of answering this which is by listing musicians and artists that i listen to and aspire to achieve the level of mastery that they have, and there’s the cool kid way of answering it, which is how i will. The biggest influences on my musical journey have been the people that i love, hate, envy, lust for, admire, long for, miss and have hurt me. The reason is is that without any one of these interactions i wouldn’t be the same person and i wouldn’t feel emotions in the same way, therefore i wouldn’t create in the same way.
_____________________________________________
Phuture Collective: Where do you want to be, musically, in 3 years time?
The Third Floor: I want to be studying Jazz in New England Conservatory.
_____________________________________________
Check out more The Third Floor here :