J Nui
As creatives, we are all incredibly passionate about our art. However, in order to turn that passion into a career we often face a dichotomy between the need to allow creativity to flow freely versus the need for an organised, methodical business approach. When Pario sat down with Brisbane hip-hop producer/rapper J Nui we discovered that this challenge was at the forefront of his creative journey.
For J Nui his journey with creativity & music production began as a fan listening to the likes of P Diddy, Biggie Smalls, DJ Premier & Kanye West. Once J Nui was then able to get his hands on FL Studio via Limewire the floodgates were opened.
"My music journey started by making simple beats on a probably newly infected laptop thanks to Limewire," recalled J Nui. Looking back on those early beats J Nui says it took "at least a few years" of experimenting with the software & discovering his personal sound before his music was good.
"All artists go through this process of throwing stuff out there & waiting to see if it sticks or not. Sometimes you just have to go in there with a big bat to just swing & hope. Over time though, the more you do it the better you get & the more refined your sound becomes."
Once he found that distinct J Nui sound the true challenge of transitioning his hobby into a career began.
"To be creative you almost have to remove any organisation from the process to let the creativity flow through," explained J Nui. "If you try to follow a step-by-step approach to creativity the end product probably won't be very good. So there is that juxtaposition to the entire process. You have to have the chaotic creative side but you also need to have all of the other business elements organised."
Whilst music is still not J Nui's sole source of income he is gathering momentum with the release of his latest singles, Hope & Built Different. Both of these were created in the midst of COVID lockdowns, giving both songs a sense of optimism to overcome adversity in their themes. Perhaps even more interestingly both of these tracks are free from explicit language.
"It wasn't a conscious thing I was doing," explained J Nui. "It could simply be because the message [of these 2 songs] is positive & I didn't want to taint that with profanity for the sake of it... If you can connect with the listener without swearing nobody even notices but they notice if it is there."
Whilst New South Wales & Victoria are now returning to some semblance of normalcy J Nui has been very fortunate in Queensland to have been able to continue performing throughout much of 2021.
"We've been really blessed in Queensland this year. I've been able to perform multiple times, with only 1 of these times being a sit-down event because of restrictions... Performing is when all of that backend work pays off... [performing] is the most rewarding thing for me."
Keep up with J Nui on social media at: @jnuimusic
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