Shayro is the literal example of a genre blending artist. A rapper who is influenced by both neo-soul and psych rock growing up, he wanted to change the game completely with his music, and he's been making waves ever since.
He has just dropped his debut album 'scatterbrain', 9 tracks that shape everything that Shayro is as an artist, and it's highly impressive. Reminiscent of the great Mac Miller in his lyricism and flow with the music of Hiatus Kaiyote, we sat down with Shayro to talk all about his first record exclusively for FLEX.
Hey Shayro, welcome to FLEX! How are you?
The brain is a little scattered today, but overall things are going well! Please tell us how you've so brilliantly blended two very different genres together, psych rock and neo-soul?
Blending these two genres came naturally to me. Psych Rock and Neo-Soul are two genres of music I have loved for a very long time. It shows when I start putting songs together and choosing the sounds, effects, and styles that create the sonic fabric. I have a wide range of things I have been inspired by over the years and I make the music that comes most natural to me. In the future I’d like to be more intentional about a sound before I start a project instead of feeling my way through it. I love the way 'scatterbrain' turned out but it had its title for a reason.
Who influenced you to create this sound specifically?
I have a very long list of influences, but it starts with the band that was closest to home. My older brother, WonderKind, started a band while I was in middle school called 'The Formalities'. Along with my current manager, and the guys who went on to become 'Boa Boys', my brother and his friends helped me to entertain the thought of music as a career. I'm not sure what would have happened if it weren't for their love of music.
A few other artists that I really love: Hiatus Kaiyote Tyler, The Creator Erykah Badu Mac Miller Bill Evens (for the jazz heads) Roy Ayers Grateful Dead MF DOOM Anderson .Paak NxWorries
What do you want people to take away from your music?
scatterbrain goes to so many different places along the way but if I had to put the overall take away into words:
it’s okay to be yourself
do the things you love
surround yourself with people you love."
Listen to 'scatterbrain' in full here:
There's so much going on in your music! Please tell us all about your new album 'scatterbrain'?
scatterbrain has been coming together the past year as I transitioned away from playing music as part of the band Church Friends. I picked out which songs I liked best and which ones I wanted to leave behind as I made tracks on my own. I have a minimal, budget friendly bedroom studio. It's good enough for me to put songs together and then take them to be professionally mixed and mastered. All the vocals are then added on top. With that process I have the freedom to make as many songs as I want and leave out the ones I don’t like. There were around 30 songs that didn’t make the cut.
Scatterbrain was influenced heavily by the events that have taken place from 2020 until 2022. You can hear that in tracks like 'interlude' which was mostly about sitting at home stuck in your own head, knowing you need social interaction but also actively avoiding it. I can be hella antisocial sometimes. 'whatsgoodforme' and 'smokew' are the flip side of that, when you find a good connection with a person and you can finally stop overthinking.
There is a back and forth between these two feelings throughout the project to convey the idea that at the end of the day no other person is gonna figure your shit out for you."
What made you want to drop the album straight away, with no releases beforehand? Quite a statement!
I had a few singles ready but for my first release I wanted to show more sides than one because I’m an artist that’s always changing. I don’t have a single that conveys that as much as I could by just dropping the whole project. I have music I’m more excited about than this so I wanted to move on to the next project pretty quickly. It's about planting seeds."
Favourite track from the LP so far?
My favourite track is probably 'interlude' or 'Pieces'. Both are fundamentally Psych-Rap."
And lastly, what's next for you in 2022?
I have a lot of plans for 2022 and a lot of music already written. Right now I’m working on pulling other Louisville, Kentucky artists together for collaboration purposes. If everything goes my way the next project is going to blow this one out of the water. Lookout for show announcements and more by following @Shayrisky or @church.friends on Instagram. Thank you so much for your time. Keep an eye on my town, big things are coming.
Follow Shayro:
Shayro IG: https://www.instagram.com/shayrisky_/
Church Friends Collective IG: https://www.instagram.com/church.friends/
Church Friends Collective Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheChurchFiends