Exclusive Interview with WIN$LOW

Win$low’s electrifying musical fusion will elevate your playlist and blog posts! Win$low is an up-and-coming musician who has made a remarkable transition from a routine life as a high school teacher to a fierce pursuit of music. He brings a special mix of genres to the table and produces a sound that defies expectations. Check out the exclusive interview below:

1. Can you tell us a bit about where you come from and how it all got started?

WIN$LOW: I was born in Atlanta and aside from my college years I lived in Georgia my whole life until moving to Portland, OR in 2022. I’ve been playing music for as long as I can remember. My parents were both big classic rock fans, so I grew up listening to their old vinyls of all the greatest bands of the 60s and 70s. My favorite part of every song I heard was the guitar solo. I was drawn to lead guitar from the beginning and the impact on my music is pretty obvious! In high school, a close friend of mine invited me to join a metal band as the lead guitarist and it was awesome! We called ourselves Some Sort of Substance and I’m still impressed with the creativity and talent that we had together. With SSOS, I got my first taste of being on stage playing at local metal venues and for a couple years I started to feel a bit like a rockstar. But, as with many bands, life happens and eventually we drifted different ways. I never stopped playing music, but it was demoted to hobby status for the next 8-10 years while I studied philosophy in college and searched for a career. I was a Zookeeper for a while, then a Park Ranger, then I became a High School Teacher. I also got married and had two amazing kids! Although I wasn’t playing shows or doing anything concrete with music, it was during this long hiatus that I really developed and broadened my artistic horizons. I started playing piano, singing, writing my own songs and also dipped my toes into recording and producing at a friend’s home studio occasionally. Then, in 2022, my wife and I felt like it was time for us to shake things up and start a new adventure, so we moved across the country to Portland. We went to a Post Malone concert in November and were on the front row. During the show I was struck with inspiration to create a rap/rock fusion album and so I dove headfirst back into music. I found Brave and Fortune Studios where I teamed up with my producer Echo the Savage. Now, I’m just finishing up a 12-song album that will be dropping in the next few months and it’s going to be something special. My single “Win Slow” is just a small taste of the genre blending versatility that will be present on the full record. Stay tuned!

2. Did you have any formal training or are you self-taught?

WIN$LOW: No formal training at all. My mom bought me a kid-sized electric guitar when I was probably 7 or 8 years old and I just started banging on the strings until I could make something that sounded relatively decent. It took a few years before I could even play a whole song. But, I would listen to Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, etc. over and over again trying to figure out the songs and eventually I started to get pretty good at it. I loved guitar solos, so my dream was always to be a lead guitarist. It wasn’t until I was in my 20s that I really started playing piano, also with no formal training. I inherited my great-grandmother’s piano and similar to guitar, I just started banging on the keys until I figured it out. I had no idea when I first started messing around on the keys that it would open a whole new musical chapter for me, but piano is really what led me into songwriting. Before that I only played guitar and wrote riffs to fit other peoples’ songs. As for vocals, again I’ve had no formal training. Singing was the last of my musical abilities to develop because I was always shy about it. I never really wanted to be a singer, but once I started writing songs on the piano singing naturally evolved with it. Then, I started rapping last year when I began my newest project. I liked the idea of blending my rock background with more modern hip hop music, so I decided to challenge myself to learn something new and I’m so glad I did! It has again led me to expand my musical horizons and allowed me to be more creative in my art.

3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences and why the name ‘WIN$LOW?

WIN$LOW: It’s hard to pick just a few influences because I draw from a wide range of types of music. My rock roots are definitely with Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. The heavy guitar rhythms are modeled after my metal influences like Black Sabbath, Lamb of God and Killswitch Engage. The dance/pop side of my music comes largely from Post Malone. My favorite rap artists are the Wu Tang Clan, Biggie Smalls, and Eminem, but my rap/rock fusion style is probably more akin to the Red Hot Chili Peppers or Beck than pure hip hop. As for the name, Winslow is my middle name and it’s been in my family for generations, so it’s always held kind of a special meaning for me. Then, recently I came up with the concept of “winning slow,” which is essentially keeping your dreams alive even when you can’t focus directly on them. Win Slow is all about accepting that you may have to grind for a long time before a window of opportunity opens, but staying ready so you can seize that opportunity. My philosophy is to mentally keep all options open as long as possible because you never know what life is going to throw at you, so you have to be ready for anything or you might miss your chance. My artist name Win$low represents all of that with the additional aspiration of being able to earn a living and provide for my family by making music, thus $$$$$!

4. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?

WIN$LOW: In my experience, when you ask people, “what kind of music do you listen to?” They almost always tell you that they listen to everything. So, I’m making music that has a little bit of everything all rolled into one. Win Slow is classic rock, alternative rock, hip hop, pop, disco, and more! And, my upcoming album will throw metal, classical, folk, and electronic dance music into the mix, too. I like boundaries blurred, minds open, hearts beating, skin tingling and tears welling, so I try to make music to help listeners feel all that and more. With my lyrics, I draw a lot from personal experiences in my life, as many artists do, but I try to tie them into universal themes and archetypes that anyone can relate to. I write a lot about cyclical patterns in relationships, nature, and life. I write about grief and loss, but also about dreams and love. Some of my songs are meant to be easy to digest and others take a long time to fully understand their depth of meaning. I guess If I had to put an overall label on my music, I’d call it something like Philosorock with a Hip Hop twist.

5. For most artists, originality is first preceded by a phase of learning and, often, emulating others. What was this like for you? How would you describe your own development as an artist and music maker, and the transition towards your own style?

WIN$LOW:

With guitar there was definitely a long period of time that I learned by emulating the great guitarists of the classic rock era. I wanted to sound just like Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck. Then, when I started playing metal I updated my rhythms to be heavier, palm-muted chugs and breakdowns, but held onto the classic rock leads and solos. There was a clear progression there that I think is still present in my music. When I started playing piano my only real inspiration was the instrument itself. I never listened to other pianists and tried to emulate them. It was more that the notes available and the location of the keys taught me how to play. And, the piano also taught me how to sing. I could never sing and play guitar at the same time and still can’t do it very well, but for some reason when I started playing piano I almost couldn’t help but write lyrics and sing along. It came organically over the course of a few years and then before I knew it, I was writing songs on piano and would add the guitars later. In my most recent project, I’ve been extremely lucky to work with Echo the Savage because he has helped me to elevate my music to a whole new level through production techniques, musical arrangements and styles. He also helped me to not just sing and rap, but find a unique voice to fit with each song. His musical advice and guidance have been invaluable to my progression as an artist in the past year.

6. What’s your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles – and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative, and entertainment?

WIN$LOW:

I definitely want to communicate a social and spiritual message with my music. Sometimes I probably even get a little too preachy for some people. Ideally, I want to make music that a casual fan can enjoy without thinking too hard about it, but also with enough depth to keep my die-hard fans coming back seeking further understanding. I also try to be vague enough to allow listeners to form their own interpretations. Music is a two-way connection between the artist and the listener, so I want my songs to be versatile enough to mean something different to anyone who hears them. If my music connects to a part of someone’s life and offers an emotional outlet for them, that’s much more important than the meaning that I originally intended. Having said that, the general message I try to convey is one of appreciation for our opportunity to exist in this world. The Earth is an amazing miracle garden orbiting a giant fireball flying through space at unimaginable speeds. We are part of so many overlapping systems and cycles in the vast expanse of time and space it is mind blowing. If any of those cycles were to occur differently our lives would not be possible. So, I see life as a gift and an opportunity for experience. Sometimes we get trapped in our own limited subjectivity, so I want to urge everyone to step outside of themselves occasionally and view the world from an objective perspective. Zoom out from your everyday life and see the bigger picture. Witness the universal cycles of creation and destruction on a large scale and then you start to notice that they also occur at a smaller level in your life. At both levels, the cycles of time are outside of our control and once we accept that, it alleviates a lot of the stress and turmoil that occurs when we fight against it. In short, I guess I’m saying, go with the flow! And, I hope that my music can inspire people to make the most of the experiences they encounter along their journeys.

7. Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?

WIN$LOW: Well, I do hope to find a way to turn music into a financially viable alternative to the everyday grind that most of us face on a daily basis. But, even if I never make a single dollar from my music, I won’t regret the time and effort that I’ve put into this project. In the end, life is about experiences and relationships. And, in the process of recording this album and performing my songs, I’ve had so many amazing experiences and built relationships that I never could have otherwise. So, the whole process is very fulfilling. From the first spark of an idea for a song, through the development stages, all the way to production in the studio, the creative process is exhilarating. Making art in any form is kind of like magic if you think about it. Artists make something from nothing. Through the power of imagination, we can introduce entirely new concepts into the world that would not exist without our efforts. The artistic impulse is one of the oldest endeavors of humanity as a species and it distinguishes us from all other animals. As an artist, I am carrying on a tradition that dates back to the origins of our species. So, if I go broke doing it at least I can always take solace in that fact!

8. Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?

WIN$LOW: The creative process is really mysterious even to me as I go through it. I don’t know how to explain exactly where the ideas come from. Each song has its own origin story, but they all seem to start from somewhere outside of myself. I have never sat down and intended to write a song deliberately. Instead, ideas usually come to me as a vague tune, or a set of lyrics, or a nice chord progression while I’m aimlessly jamming, and then I build onto the original spark. I see my mind almost like a receiver of wisdom from the collective unconscious or musicians of eons past, rather than a generator of ideas. If you consider that there are only 12 musical notes, you realize that there is a limit to the number of combinations possible. Then, put that against a backdrop of the infinite cycles of time that I believe are at work in our universe. Then, imagine the countless lives that have come and gone from existence over the course of time. With all that in mind, I’ve started to believe that my songs are just echoes that mirror the ideas and experiences of previous generations of humanity who have felt the same emotions, undergone the same struggles, achieved the same goals, and shared the same urge to express it all through music. My own unique additions to the archetypal themes come during the process of ironing out details. What alterations do I make to the melody throughout the song? What rhythmic breaks to I add to keep listeners on their toes? What lyrics do I choose to express the overall idea? During that process I often bounce ideas off others to incorporate various perspectives into the music. Then, during the recording process, there is a lot of fine tuning and adjustment that occurs with my producer as well. But, I believe all of us are tapping into the well of musical knowledge that already exists somewhere in the ethereal crossing between imagination, time, space and subjectivity.

9. What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life so far?

WIN$LOW: No question, the most difficult experience of my life was losing my older sister to suicide in 2009. She was a mentor to me on several levels. She and I shared a lot of the same musical interests and she often exposed me to new genres and artists that I had never encountered before. She was very supportive of my musical endeavors and often told me how special I was because I was the only one of our siblings that had musical talent. She was also my inspiration for studying philosophy helping me develop my foundational beliefs and principles, which have guided my unique, meandering but successful path through life to this point. It is no coincidence that the first song I ever wrote on piano was dedicated to her after she passed. She struggled with addiction and mental health like so many people do in our current society and losing her was devastating to me and our whole family. I feel for all those who have gone through similar experiences with their loved ones. Losing someone to suicide is such a complex emotional tragedy. Anyone who has been through it knows that there is really no good way to rationalize it. There is no way to feel better about it. It’s very difficult to see it as part of any kind of greater divine plan. You’re left with so many questions that you know you’ll never be able to ask. That experience made me realize that you can never actually “get over” traumatic events. The best you can hope for is to find some level of acceptance that allows you to continue moving forward with life. You are never the same person that you were before, so it forces you to craft a new identity and incorporate the pain into your worldview. In the suffering, you become stronger. It’s not something that I would ever wish on anyone, but it does harden your resolve and allow you to shrug off ordinary challenges of life. Those who have suffered greatly are given the gift of perspective. Daily stressors seem meaningless by comparison and if you can avoid the temptation to fall into depression, there is an opportunity to search for a much deeper meaning. I’ve been on that search since the day I lost my sister and I believe the course of my life has been guided by my desire to find answers to the impossible questions that I was forced to confront in the wake of my own personal tragedy.

10. What would you consider the most successful point in your life and/or music career so far?

WIN$LOW: I believe my greatest successes in music and in life lay ahead of me. The future is full of opportunity, and I plan to continue trying to improve myself and the world every step of the way. I strive to be better tomorrow than I am today. I want to continuously grow as a musician, as an artist, as a husband and father, as a philosopher, as a teacher of the next generation, as a brother, as a son, as a friend and as a human being. I believe the best way for me to do that is to stay in the present moment. That’s the only time and place that anything happens. The past is gone and the future is uncertain. So, I try to take all my endeavors one step at a time and focus on what I can do to contribute myself to the world in each moment. That is the path to Win Slow! “Those who dwell in the past suffer depression. Those who dwell in the future suffer anxiety. Those who dwell in the present are content.” – Lao Tzu