Music holds the capacity to be much more than melodies, and artist Raury knows this. Having made his beginnings as a self-taught multi-instrumentalist, the talent made a name for himself with warmly-received releases such as “God’s Whisper” – which saw the artist find fans in the likes of Kanye West and Erykah Badu. But, while touring and completing stints at coveted events such as Coachella, the artist still had his sights fixated on the next steps in his musical journey. In the hopes of connecting with the music industry in a deeper and more raw way, Raury has now embarked on the launch of his non-profit organisation, The Woods, which aims to provide clarity and a higher purpose through music and nature.

“The Woods is an organisation I began in order to cut out the middle man between people and survival and use the musician’s platform to help catalyse the process of creating sustainable, autonomous communities whose main economic force is the arts and food,” explains the artist when speaking on his latest venture.

Now, as he looks towards helping others in the industry with The Woods, the talent sat down with Wonderland to discuss his journey into music and not letting the opinions of others affect him. Head below to read our interview with Raury…

Hey Raury, how are you? How has this past year been for you?
The past year has been full of major milestones for me which includes having my first child, turning 25, stepping into manhood even more, moving into a second home, finally getting my official team together since leaving the industry, and preparing to return with an amazing album.

With everything that happened last year, was your creativity affected?
Everything that has taken place in the past year has allowed me to further tune in to trusting my vision as a person who saw a lot of BS coming before the whole scramble. I’m glad I took a path towards more autonomy, as far as how I support myself and my community and vice versa. It has put a lot more confidence into my mind trusting itself to create what it feels needs to be created, even if I don’t know exactly why yet. I trust that I am in tune with a mainstream of information like properly positioned antennae. So, I’m much more audacious and careless about what people think.

How did you get into music? What sparked the interest?
By the time my brain developed, I knew of 4 people: my mum, Jesus, Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan. So, you could say that I was into music very early. I was imitating Michael Jackson very early and making up songs by the age of 3. By 8 I was writing raps due to my introduction to hip hop through Tupac, at 11 I was on the guitar thanks to Guitar Hero.

You’re a self-taught multi-instrumentalist! What was learning all these instruments like?
It’s just a shit show or consistently fucking up until you don’t fuck up as much. But for the most part, it’s like sliding down a shit slide, and at the end of it it all turns into clear water, and all the shit disappears and you just try to enjoy the water slide and forget all the shit that you had to slide through to get to the water part. Most people hop off the slide before it gets good.

Talk us through your non-profit organisation, what inspired this and what does it mean to you?
The Woods is an organisation I began in order to cut out the middle man between people and survival and use the musician’s platform to help catalyse the process of creating sustainable, autonomous communities whose main economic force is the arts and food. I was just always thinking, ‘damn why are we stuck in this matrix where families are being torn apart. System killing us on purpose. Attempting to destroy nature on purpose. What can we do?’ I thought about how communication is very key in waking people up and how music is a very potent form of communication next to other forms of art. So, if an artist were to partake in the spiritual war of restoring balance, I believe it would happen this way.

What do you want people to take away from your music?
I used to want people to hear the music and become a better version of themselves, but now I don’t give a damn what people take away from my music. I’m just about to keep cranking it out, and if you get it, you get it. If not, maybe next time.

Which one of your songs means to most to you, how would you describe your creative process?
I can’t answer that question, really. I love them all.

What’s next for you, what are you most excited for?
World restoration.