Although less than a year old as an artist, Orlando-based singer/songwriter Emerson Vernon--better known as Wolfi--is already accumulating a solid fanbase, following the releases of his album "Black" and EP "Trash Rhapsody."
Vernon recently underwent an artist name change, switching from Young Luv to Wolfi after settling into his genre and style of music and songwriting. Hear some of his music on Spotify:
How did you get your start in music?
EV: I started playing music when I was about six, because I grew up in a very musical home. My dad was a guitarist and my mother was an opera singer and they were always really into that. I saw Jesse McCartney on Disney Channel and I was like, "I wanna play guitar!" So I asked my dad, and he was like, "OK," but he signed me up for classical lessons so I was playing classical guitar and it was not the same thing as what I wanted to do.
That was how I got my start, but how I got my start with the singer-songwriter thing, I started out as a DJ/producer. It really just evolved these past two years into this. I used to make demos for vocalists to sing on my tracks, but I slowly got better at singing and liked what I was writing and was like, "I kind of want to use these for myself." So I started the side project with Young Luv, and it started as a side project from my electronic stuff. I made the mixtape and it kind of took off, and now I'm here with the Wolfi gang.
How would you describe your sound?
EV: That's kind of been a hard question for me ever since I started, because the whole concept behind the Young Luv name was that I wanted to be very versatile, but I recently kind of settled into this more, I want to say alternative/R&B/almost pop, teetering on the edge of pop, kind of like Twenty-One Pilots. I always thought that I would move around genres, but now that I've settled into this kind of alternative/R&B/emo sound--it's kind of emo sometimes--that's one of the reasons I changed the name to Wolfi, because I finally settled into a comfortable genre.
Where do you get the inspiration for your music?
EV: My best songs are inspired by real events. Sometimes I do try to sit down and just write something, but it never turns out nearly as good as things I experience firsthand. I think my best songs are the type where I come home either really upset or really happy and then the song just kind of oozes out of me. I usually start with a beat and then everything else just follows--the songs kind of write themselves.
What's your ultimate vision as an artist?
EV: Honestly, I don't want to be a rockstar or anything, I don't want to be famous. I'm definitely not cut out to be famous. There are so many ingenuine connections and I don't know, I just don't think I'd be good for it and don't think I would be happy in the end. With that being said, my vision is I want to write for other artists. It's kind of an ambitious thing but I want to take my songs and give them to Ariana Grande or Justin Bieber or somebody who doesn't write their own stuff. The best way to do that is to be your own artist; you have to prove to the record labels that you're good. You have to prove to them that you can get people to buy your music.
Who are your top influences?
EV: For a long time I was really influenced by Blackbear. I kind of take more of my influence from his older music. Other than that, I take a lot of influence from Ed Sheeran. More recently I feel like I haven't been taking a lot of influences. When I first started out, my first album was literally me taking influence after influence. Recently I feel like I've been developing my own sound, but definitely when I was starting out, Blackbear, Ed Sheeran, Childish Gambino, Chance the Rapper, Skrillex.
What do you like so much about being a singer/songwriter, and what keeps you going?
EV: I like it because I just like making things. I feel like if I were into painting, I'd be equally as into it as I am singing and stuff. I get so much satisfaction out of making something that I'm really proud of. When I write a really good song, it's a really good feeling, and that is ultimately probably what keeps me going. I really like that satisfaction of knowing you made something totally awesome.
Tell me about your latest EP, "Trash Rhapsody."
EV: It was an experiment, it's nothing like my other music, it's nothing like "Black." Basically the album was about me trying new things. Like with "Trash Rhapsody" I tried to write about something other than love, because I wrote about love all the time. And with "Black and White Adidas" it was just a really cool song that I thought was awesome. "Traumatic," I wanted to write a sad song that was happy-sounding, because the song is pretty weird. It's all about me trying to get over this girl, but it's happy. I don't know, I just wanted to try it out and see what it was like, and ultimately I'm glad I did it because it really gave me clarity as to who I want to be as an artist. It made me sure that I didn't want to be that energetic.
What can your fans expect from you in the near future?
EV: I released a lot of music as Young Luv just because I could and now that I know exactly what I want to be, I plan on being a lot more careful with that and I'm not going to put out just anything. Basically, everything from here on out is going to be way better and it's not going to come out quite as quickly.
I have a single planned for December, which will come with a music video, and I have an album planned for next summer, which is going to be huge. I already have like two songs ready, I plan on featuring some pretty big people, and I'll probably go on a bigger tour. I do plan on posting a lot more covers, though. I'm starting a series called Hip-Hop Unplugged, where I take hip-hop songs and make them acoustic, so that'll probably be my thing for now. Next year's album is going to be awesome.
