FSD: You were like the best kept secret. I remember when we first posted Memories Speak, people were coming out of the woodwork asking who you were. And recently Nas tweeted about you, too.
Nylo: It’s been very cool, and very much a whirlwind. At the beginning, I only wanted to work with the two people I began working with for the rest of my life. I wasn’t looking outside. Then I started having experiences were other people wanted to work and I realized that I was being close minded. Black Blear one day talked me into writing a song with him, and for the longest time I didn’t want to do it, because I told him “I don’t cowrite.” But we wrote it and it ended up being one of my favorite things I’ve ever done to this point. Everything changed after that.
From that point on I started working with different people and other friends — and up until recently, the only people I’d ever worked with were friends. The only reason that changed was because a few things randomly came up. I was in same studio as J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, and I popped in their session to say ‘hi’ because I’d heard they were fans of my music, and I was a fan of there’s. And they were like “Hey, what are you doing right now?” They wanted to work right then and there so we started a session together and it came out crazy.
And Nas is a fan. I’d love to work with him someday, but it would have to be the right moment — but yeah that would be amazing.
FSD: And then you ended up working with Mac Miller, right?
Nylo: Yeah and that came about because of you guys [Fake Shore Drive], through J. Hill. Bryant [Bowens] had talked to J. Hill and said “There’s this Chicago artist that’s coming up and you should sample her,” and he didn’t hear anything from J for a while. I later talked to J and he was told to sample one song but the one that ended up sticking out to him was “Someone Like You,” so he sampled that instead. The first person who ended up hearing that beat was Mac Miller, and he ended up hopping on it.
FSD: So what’s next for Nylo?
Nylo: I have been anxious to release new music for some time now.
FSD: Yeah, Memories Speak dropped, what, a year ago?
Nylo: It will be a year in March. In order to appease a lot of parties, I was being held back in a certain way. But that’s not really a problem anymore, and I’m just going to start putting out music. I’m going to release a bunch of music come February, and will be performing down at SXSW. Around that time we’re going to drop a big, cool mixtape and then hit Austin.
I’m actually back in Chicago right now filming a music video with Young Wonder, we’re gonna put that online shortly. We’re gonna just start putting more music online. What I’m going to do is not have a plan, just release music, and go from there.
I have so much music in the stash, and that’s why this mixtape is so important. I’ve grown and gone through so much in the last year, that the sound is going to be different. I want people to hear it. I want the people who are already fans to make the transition with me. Memories Speak was so important because it was the exact way I felt right then. It was immediate. I felt that way, I put it online and that was that. I don’t want to lose that, so I always want to be releasing music that captures where I’m at at that particular moment in time.
The reason I started making music in the first place was because it let’s you express how you feel at that moment and getting it out. If you’re happy the music will reflect that, and if you’re not, it will reflect that as well. It’s time to let the music go.
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