Midwxst is in his element. As the Indianapolis-hailing multi-hyphenate gears up to release his debut album E3, he continues to showcase his ability to fashion new genre’s every time he opens Pro Tools. Having gained early notoriety in amongst a class of musicians who, post-SoundCloud era, coined the limitless genre later to be named by the internet as ‘hyper-pop’, Midwxst has proven time and time again that his proficiencies for genre hybridity knows no bounds.

Arriving on September 1st with a body of work that reaches further and wider than he’s ever done before, Midwxst will make his mark once more, delivering a conceptual album that thematically encapsulates the universal phenomenon of ‘one door closing, and another one opening’. In a deeply personal way, on E3 Midwxst explores his coming of age through the lens of heartbreak, mental health struggles, and even his lineage; brilliantly harnessing his insanely musical clashing of genre’s to tell an affecting story.

Wonderland spent the day with Midwxst at Reading Festival to catch up with the global superstar on the precipice of his most sentimental release to date.

Listen to E3

Hi Midwxst! How are you doing?
Hey, I’m feeling good. I feel well rested for once. I can’t say that every day, but today I feel good!

It must be exciting to be playing the Reading & Leeds Festival. How are you feeling about it?
It’s crazy because this is my first festival. This is my first overseas show in general. I did a pop-up thing for my last EP “Back In Action 3.0” in London, but it doesn’t really count as a show, I guess. But with everything else, I’ve just seen so many cool artists on the line up with me for Reading & Leeds, so it’s really cool that I’m actually in these spaces now. I didn’t expect this like a year or two years ago, to be playing festivals like this. I think it’s really cool.

As you said, this is going to be your first overseas festival, there’s going to be a lot more people, which gives you a good chance to really engage with your fans. What do you want your fans to feel whilst you’re performing?
I want them to feel my growth, but also my maturity. I want them to see that I’m not the same kid I was two to three EP’s ago. I’m constantly growing, and me making this album and the music I’ve been performing; it’s made me become a better person. I’ve grown and experienced things that I’ve needed to experience that I’ve been putting off. So, it’s really refreshing to be in the spaces and to be confident to perform those things too. It makes it more fun to be more into it and to show how much I love, care and appreciate sharing my art in general.

Is there anything that you’d like to do before you go on stage to prepare yourself?
Usually, I pray, or I do a little huddle with my friends, and we just talk to one another. I understand that I’ve got to not let anything get to my head and then I go and rock it out. My body still gets nervous, I still get shivers and stuff, but I don’t know, I don’t get nervous in my head before shows anymore – so that’s really good.

I guess that’s like your own personal growth. You’re passing across that energy to your fans as well.
Yeah, it gives me that ability now. I can perform exponentially better than how I used to and just get straight to it. Although I’ve always been a good performer, I wasn’t up to the standard that I wanted it to be. So, I sat down and homed in on that and made sure that I could be the best I could possibly be.

What would you say inspires you the most when creating music?
When I’m making music, I like to think of pictures or images so that I make songs that sound like colours. When I’m building an album or making a body of work, I take a lot of inspiration from Kanye West and Tyler, the Creator because they’re both experts on building and having cohesiveness throughout when making a project. That’s sonically, visually and every other aspect you can think of. Those are the main inspirations specifically because with this project, it’s a lot more musical. There are a lot more live instruments and a lot more music theory is involved. It’s not just my take on what I think is the correct structuring of a song or what I think it should sound like. I was able to sit down and play around with the norms and the idea of what the norm was, especially for music categories and genres overall for the album. So, that’s what makes it really cool.

What would you say are your festival essentials?
You’ve got to have a throat coat or some sort of tea with extra honey. You’ve also got to have a hoodie because most of the time you can’t predict the weather at all.

Especially not here!
Yeah! I was thinking about bringing a poncho and an umbrella just in case [laughs]. Then I make sure I have some fruit snacks. I don’t put anything cold in my body at all before performing because it’ll make it harder for your vocal cords to warm up so, I only drink room temperature water. That’s the last essential I’d say.

Is there anyone that you’re listening to right now who you are just loving?
I’ve been listening to my friend Casper Sage, he’s very underrated. I’ve been listening to a lot of Dro Kenji and Lancey Foux. I’ve been listening to the Dominic Fike album like crazy if I’m being honest. Dominic’s album and the song writing is so good. I can relate to a lot of the songs on there so, it’s just been on rotation right now. He’s like pop slash storytelling. I feel like that’s a really cool space to be in and he’s blurring the lines between rap and pop or what people perceive them as. So, I think that’s really cool.

Let’s talk about your new album E3 that’s coming at the beginning of September.
I’ve been working on his album for about a year and it’s my most mature album and probably the most ambitious album I’ve made sonically; song writing wise, lyric wise, content wise and roll-out wise. I haven’t felt this confident about my music in a minute and there’s going to be a different energy. The way I’m carrying myself now is entirely different to how I was a year and a half ago and it’s been an entirely different process because I’m recording with an engineer all the way through. I’ve been used to doing everything on my own like mixing, mastering, recording, and structuring so this is the first time I’ve had a team of amazing people around me who can help me make the songs even better. It’s been such an amazing experience and I’m just excited to show the world that because it’s a reflection of who I am. It shows who Edgar and who E3 is. It’s a peek into E3’s mind and understanding of what has been going on behind closed doors for a year and a half. I’m very excited to put it out and I’m going to let the music speak for itself. That’s the best part about it.

Would you say you have a favourite on the album?
It alternates so much, but today I’d say the intro “lost” with the Sunday Service, “hate how much I like you”, and “old me” are my standouts. Those three songs are what I consider the best songs on the project. Even though all the songs on the project are amazing, those are my favourites because I remember making each of those songs and vividly feeing so passionately towards them in way I’ve never felt before.

I agree, the album is very visceral. Is there an overarching message to the album E3?
I’d say the message is that regardless of what situation you’re going through, or what you may perceive as a bad situation, as bad as it may get, you can get through those moments. You can prove everybody wrong. What people may have thought about you or believed about you, considered you to be because of your actions, or how you might have acted in the past, doesn’t define you now. I think that E3 is a character that everybody is going to relate to because he fucks up, and every good human who has flaws and makes mistakes and goes through things that they don’t tell their friends or other people will be able to relate to the music. That’s what I’m really excited for, and I think that’s the best way to put it.

And finally, what would you say would be the perfect location to listen to the new album in?
I would say at night-time or when the sun is going down, in your car with like, five of your friends driving somewhere with the windows down and on blast from top to bottom, no skips. I feel like that’s the best setting. You could listen to it at the beach at night, just a moonlit beach would be perfect. Anywhere that you can sit down and really immerse or feel. Anywhere in nature, like the park where it just feels like a fairy tale or feels like a fantasy to an extent where you can just enjoy it in full.