With it being a few sleeps till Shawn Maine drops his second EP “When The Sun Sets”, he joined in a “tell it all” interview to bring us up to speed on what he’s been up to, shed light on his new forthcoming EP, and more. Read On!
- Shawn once again, we welcome you to the Mugi Talks podcast. We missed you musically. How have you been?
- I’ve been good. I’ve been away doing you know, what I need to do when it comes to balancing life. I figured that to balance life, I needed to sit down and strategize and see what I needed my energy at the moment, (school needed my energy) and right now I’m back and better since school is done, and yeah its time for the music; and to pick up the consistency throughout the year.
Related: “Reserve Me A Place On Your Playlists” – Singer Shawn Maine Teases New Music
2. I did attend your listening party for “After The Pain”, it must have been October 2020, which makes it 3 years a few months from now. I do recall, it must have been your former manager, he once made a joke saying, all it took was receiving one blue tick from your former girlfriend, and then you wrote that entire five-track fire project. What’s the real story behind it?
The real story comes from relationships, just pain, after heartbreak, you know ‘After the Pain’. That was written based on emotions I went through, you know, dealing with my very first heartbreak. And yeah, that’s how ‘After the Pain’ came about.
3. On how he came up with his stage name:
Before I could do music, I used to be so social media savvy and liked being on social media all the time my name at the time was “i am the mainest”, cuz my sister used to call me that. So, when I decided to do music, I didn’t want to have my real name out there, cuz I wanted that you know to be a separate life. I chose Maine from “i am the mainest”, and that’s how Shawn Maine came about.
4. On his ideal time to create music
Everyone that knows or that I record with knows that I work better, every after 6 Pm, yeah 6 Pm to 6 AM, I am lively, I am awake.
5. On his life outside the studio
Out of the studio, I do a lot of cooking, I do a lot of watching series. and I am not an extrovert or that savvy; I am very reserved, a very shy person. so I am usually home eating, or out with friends, or in class.
6. The TV shows he’s been watching
‘The Walking Dead’, ‘Elite’, as well as ‘Insecure’.
7. On how he discovered that he could actually create music
There were different moments obviously, I can’t pin down on one, but the fondest memory was when I was around 6 or 7 around that age. I would be home (I am the last born of 7; all grown up). so I didn’t grow up in the typical way that people in my generation did (like in terms of watching Disney). all my siblings were like adolescents, so they gravitated more to music. There was a lot of 50 Cent, Jim Scott, Michael Jackson, and Stevie Wonder playing in the house so I gravitated to music more, and that’s where my love for music started coming up. In terms of creation, I think it was in High School, that’s where I figured I had a gift to sing. I knew I could sing, but I think it was that serious. So yeah. I did choir at some point. We had a music teacher who made people individually sing, so he came to me, and made me sing and discovered that i ouh I had an Alto, so I used to lead the Alto group. Later on, I started doing solos. When I switched schools, a few people there noticed I could sing, cuz I talk and sing a lot. So, once they discovered that, I started doing a lot of assemblies, and the love just kept on going.
8. On whether he will ever sing in a local language
Right now I am not in the space of saying I will, but I know definitely that time will come but right now, from this EP (what we are going to talk about later), there is no Luganda or any other type of vernacular in terms of the Kinywarwanda and all that. It’s a thing of I speak them very well, but I don’t sing them as naturally as I thought I would, and I am wanting it to be organic. And there are a lot of people doing incredible stuff in Luganda.
9. Fondest memory from University
None. Finishing was my favorite moment. I am still in the process of finishing up with school. I’ve never been a school person, so I won’t lie, I won’t say I used to go out and sit with my friends after class, nah I was never that type of person, I just wanted to get done with it.
10. On who picks out his impressive outfits
I do style myself. Before I took music seriously, I took fashion seriously. I communicate more, in terms of like my feelings through the way I dress or the way I sing, so fashion is something that is very important to me. I also work with other top stylists.
11. On which stage he dreams of headlining someday
There are very many stages, I don’t wanna jinx them, but the one I would really want to be on for sure is the “Super Bowl” stage. It’s the one that is the dream, but the journey there is not the easiest journey, so having that as my dream stage helps me do as much as I can to get over these stages like Coachella, you know.
12. On how he handles imposter syndrome
I haven’t gone through that stage of wanting to quit because of people not appreciating the music, or saying ‘you don’t sing in Luganda, so we don’t wanna listen to you”, but I think every artist has gone through the stage of “Is this worth it?” and I have been there before, but it’s because of other things because some people gatekeep, they hold you up for selfish gain on their end. So obviously it makes the journey twice as hard. But once you find your people, once you find your path, your audience, it is always go-time.
13. On bouncing back from the feeling of imposter syndrome
I think its knowing and understanding no one is going to appreciate what you do, the way you think they will, and understanding that not everyone has pure intentions you know, so nothing is ever that personal, to the level of them taking away something that means the most to you. You always have to snap back, do what you do with the people that appreciate you, and it goes a long way. Also, praying to God.
14. On the hardest part about being an artist
Creating stuff that you think people are going to resonate within the way that you do but in the end, they don’t. Also, the gatekeepers, but other than that, I don’t think there’s anything crazy about being an artist.
15. On his new EP
When I took my time off, I didn’t close off entirely close off the door to music. I kept recording, and not just putting it out and we came up with a whole lot of songs for this time when we come back, and bring the consistency like never before. With this come back, we chose to have an EP called ‘When the Sun Sets’, and it’s a 4 track EP that deals with the 4 (different stages of heartbreak) which are anger, depression, acceptance, and bargaining as well. Yeah, it’s just something that is a pure experience. It’s a follow-up to my EP ‘After the Pain’.
16. On the original number of songs created for the project
So, I had created about 30 songs, and from those, i picked out 20, and from those we also picked out a few, and when we sat down and listened to them, a few just didn’t sound like they were good comeback songs, so i went back to the studio to create something very personal, and very real to me. I wanted this comeback to be about something that was real to me. I am not doing it for the bars, I am just doing it for the people. I want to be pleased with what I’ve done.
17. On which song was his favorite on the project
There are two and they are favorites on a different level. There’s ‘These Dreams”, it was my favorite because it helped me to heal, but recording it was the hardest in terms of the emotions. My favorite to record was “Resentment”.
18. On what direction he thinks his next projects will take
I can’t say for sure but I know, my next projects have to be different. I just want to have fun and experiment.
19. On who he worked with to bring the EP to life in terms of production
I have been studying a bit of production. This project was mainly produced by Joshua Baraka and I co-produced tracks 1 and 2. I Executively produced the project with Felix Byaruhanga and Michael Jowasi.
20. His favorite meal to cook
Pasta. It’s my favorite meal as well.
21. Introduce your project to the people
My new EP ‘When The Sun Sets” is out on 28th April. It’s a 4 track EP, about the four stages of heartbreak. You can find it on any streaming platform; Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, you name it.
22. On which he prefers, Apple Music or Spotify?
Apple Music. The quality of the music, has an easy user interface. It is also a streaming site that I have grown with ever since the streaming culture.
Pre-Save ‘When the Sun Sets” here.
