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Last Friday, Scott the Pisces dropped an absolutely cracking summer anthem in collaboration with BINX, titled “Summer ’22“. The track is something we’ve totally been listening to on repeat and has definitely been added to our summer party playlists, and we’re sure you’ll be adding it too as soon as you give it a listen. We were honoured to get the opportunity to talk to Scott the Pisces about “Summer ’22“.

Scott the Pisces, real name Scott Joseph Hall, is a rising London-based artist. He previously released music under the name Spectrum and went on to gain over a million streams for his collaboration with Ria Choony on the track “Take You There”. Last year saw him debut his new alias, Scott the Pisces, with the drop of his debut EP Ocean Blue. The EP has five awesome tracks and sees him collaborate with Ashley Alisha, Aleesia, Ria Choony, Bethany Davey, and K.O.. He then dropped his debut single “Crazy About You” featuring Raene. The future is certainly looking bright and we can’t wait to see where his career takes him, especially considering this summer tune, “Summer ’22”.

We spoke to Scott the Pisces about this awesome track, what it was like to work with BINX, the reason behind his name change, the music he has released to date, his merchandise, and what his future plans are.

Hi Scott, how are you doing today? What’s it like to release “Summer ‘22”?

I’m very well, thank you! It’s a pleasure to be able to do this interview with you. It’s an exciting moment for me, mostly because it’s been a long time coming. This record has been in development for nearly half a year from its conception! It feels like a weight has been lifted, finally releasing it to the world.

Can you tell us more about the track?

“Summer ‘22” is our attempt at manifesting the summer we feel everyone has been yearning for, over the last few years. It’s a blend of upbeat pop and electronic, an uplifting record full of nostalgia. For those who grew up in the Katy Perry era, the song is almost a tribute to that time. As a producer, I wanted to lean into that driven four to the floor style many records of the early 2010s utilised. With the edgy electric guitars and layered synths, I feel as if I’ve nailed the sound I was hoping for.

It features BINX, can you tell us more about her, how you two came to work together, and what it was like to work with her on this track?

BINX and I began working together towards the end of last year. She had approached me about providing production for a song idea she had at the time. The track in question was titled “Sea Salt”, which was in line with the whole oceanic vibe I had just put out with my debut EP “Ocean Blue”; it was the perfect collaboration. We discovered that we had quite a bit in common, and so after the completion of “Sea Salt”, I asked if she’d like to work on a record I had just finished. The vibe was right, ideas began flowing immediately. BINX sent me over a vocal demo for the record, and from there we went back and forth with ideas. I’d send vocal demos back with melody alterations, or options for lyrics. She’d send back improvements on those, and before you knew it, we had a song written. After, we had “Summer ‘22” recorded, I spent about 3 months working on the mix, beating myself up until it was as perfect as I could make it. My process is me listening to the record over and over, making adjustments until I no longer hear anything wrong with it, and then I know it’s ready. It’s quite brutal, but I’m a perfectionist after all. 

You created the lyric video, the artwork, and all the promotional material for the track. What’s it like to do everything yourself and where did you get your inspiration for the content?

It’s a whole lot of work. Not having a team behind me means I have to operate as if I was the artist, producer, designer, label, publicist, marketing team, the list goes on. The benefit of it is that my vision is my vision; I have the final say on everything. It’s very time-consuming, but I know it’s super useful to build my strengths in all these areas. That’s just the role of a modern artist in this digital world. As far as inspiration goes, it’s actually quite strange. I never really have an initial idea of what I want, the answers usually come to me as I work towards it. 

In the process of finishing “Summer ‘22”, the Kanye West Jeen-Yuhs documentary had come out. I’ve been a fan of the old Kanye since I was like 6, and so it was super interesting to me, as a grown creative, to look at the process behind his first album. There was a scene where they broke down the creation of the “Through The Wire” music video, which supposedly cost $30,000 to make. I’ve been familiar with the video since I was a child but seeing how they made it inspired me to attempt the same thing. That’s where the vision of moving polaroids came from. At that point, I bought Final Cut Pro and began binge-watching tutorials on YouTube. Once I had figured out how to animate the polaroids, and placing footage within them, it was just a matter of time before I had the whole video sketched out. I spent about a month creating it. I decided I wanted the polaroids to be on a watercolour background, which looked like a scrapbook. That’s where the inspiration for the artwork itself came from!

We love this track and it’s totally going to be our summer anthem of this year. Other than the title, what do you think makes this song the perfect track for the Summer of 2022?

Thank you so much! I hope so. I think the song perfectly captures the essence of summer. The instrumentation is super vibrant, those guitars give you an edgy pop-rock vibe, the beat drives everything, and then the vocals seal it all together. There’s something about electric guitars and upbeat rhythms that make you want to go on a road trip in a convertible with the roof down. I believe mostly that the positive nature of “Summer ‘22” will be the driving force for this record going viral. I feel as if we all need it in our lives right now.

Now, more about you. You debuted under your new alias Scott the Pisces last year, but you previously released tracks under the name Spectrum. What led to the name change?

Yes, so I previously went under the stage name Spectrum from the age of 15. I was young and not too knowledgeable about branding at the time, all I wanted to do was make music and perform, which I did…a lot! Despite all the success with my music and the incredible shows I had under my belt with some majorly huge icons, I couldn’t get past the fact that other artists were using the same name. There was a label I would DJ at events for, one of them being an afterparty for Chase & Status! About a year later, they signed a new duo with the exact same name as mine. It felt like a betrayal, but growing I understood it was myself to blame for picking such a common name. I’d periodically have to deal with music being placed on my pages from artists with the name, and so when 2020 hit I knew it was the opportunity to start fresh. It was quite hard to let go, especially walking away from all those streams to start from nothing. With a better understanding and my accumulated knowledge, I knew that rebranding was the best thing I could do. From there on, I’d be known as Scott the Pisces.

Under Spectrum, you hit over a million streams for your collaboration with Ria Choony, titled “Take You There”. What’s it like knowing your music has been heard that many times?

Bittersweet. It’s incredible that my music could reach so many people, and I’ve heard beautiful personal stories from people who’ve used the song to comfort them in hard times. I feel like I did what the younger me set out to do. The bitter side comes from having to walk away from it all, with the song itself residing under the old alias. Almost as if it doesn’t count for anything moving forward. Regardless, it’s a special song and it holds a place in my heart. Ria is amazing, and I’m glad we could have shared a moment with that song going so big.

Last year saw you release your debut single “Crazy About You”, and your debut EP “Ocean Blue” under Scott the Pisces. What was it like to release these?

Exciting! Starting fresh meant a clean slate, a new sound. There’s nothing confining me. Notably, it was the first time I had released music in which I had written the lyrics to the majority of the songs completely myself, stepping out from simply being the producer. I was able to finally prove to myself that I could be the wordsmith and the music maker. To have a great reaction from those around me when my debut EP came out meant a lot to me. It was amazing how quickly I built a fanbase back up with the new sound. I knew I was on the right path.

Can you tell us more about those releases from last year?

“Ocean Blue”, the debut EP, was my way of laying a foundation for what’s to come with my Scott the Pisces brand. The goal was to come out with a super infectious, uplifting pop sound, with my own blended twist. I didn’t want to limit myself to any genres, so each of the songs stand out in their own right while maintaining that catchy pop formula. All of those releases were written during the pandemic, all remotely recorded. It wasn’t too dissimilar to how I’d been working before, but it was certainly a nerve-racking experience to be sending out my own vocal demos to artists I’d never met. The songs all turned out well, and so I’m very happy with the initial impact I made in 2021.

How did the lockdowns affect you and your music?

Honestly, 2020 gave me time to recover mentally. I had so much going on leading up to it, that the lockdowns were the perfect opportunity to find myself again. Having more time to work through internal problems, and after building myself back up, to then work on creative aspirations. I spent a lot of the time reflecting. The solitude felt necessary looking back.

What is your support network like? Are your family and friends supportive of your music?

It’s hard to be someone with a creative mind in a world that appears so black and white to the majority of those around you. I’ve been quite lucky with the circles around me. Everyone is very supportive of me, from family to friends. In my experience, the drive to chase these dreams of mine, and the passion I put into things, definitely inspires those around me, and so the enthusiasm from everyone is projected back at me. I want to see everyone doing well, and achieving their goals. You attract the things at the frequency you resonate at. 

We also noticed on your Instagram that a lot of people are loving the Scott the Pisces hoodie. The previous design is available on Etsy and you have the new design coming soon, have you got more merch on the way? What merch do you hope to release in the future?

Merchandise is such a tricky thing to do right, mainly due to costs. The previous design was a simple enough concept, and so it was easy to finally put out while keeping the price low. The new design which I came up with is an All Over Print, and so it’s far more expensive to produce at this moment. Plus with the shipping costs, it’s way too high of a price to justify it to myself to sell. For now, the new hoodie will be simply for promotional reasons, and if I find a good partner for creating merchandise in the future, I’ll be sure to release them to the public. In the future, I’d love to go down the route that Justin Bieber’s team has with his Drew branding.

Click here to Scott the Pisces by buying the old design of the hoodie from his Etsy shop.

When you’re not creating and releasing music, what else do you do and get up to?

At this point in time, I’m always working on building up my brand. When it’s not me creating music, I’m planning my next moves, securing opportunities, and learning as much as I can about the business. I rarely leave time to myself, though I believe it’s a necessary sacrifice to get ahead in this world. In my downtime, I spend it watching documentaries, and old movies. I love watching concerts from before my time, my favourite one currently is Tupac & Snoop Dogg performing at the House of Blues, in 1996. I find a lot of inspiration in seeing stars in their prime, fulfilling their dreams. 

What else can we expect from you this year?

You can expect me to be making a lot of music, however, I won’t be releasing any for the rest of the year. I have a few remixes coming out for other artists, but currently, I’m in a financial situation where I can’t release as much music as I’d like. You see, I spent months perfecting a song, putting my heart and soul into it. To not be able to financially back the records feels like throwing them away after all the work I put in. That’s the real kicker about being independent, you don’t have a massive money machine behind you that a label could provide. You’ll likely see me pushing my brand as much as possible to build an audience with the music already out, yet it’s very likely you won’t hear any new music from me until 2023… Unless of course a song randomly goes viral… Fingers crossed.

Who else do you expect to collaborate with this year?

There are a few independent artists in the genres of RnB & Hip Hop that I’ll be working with behind the scenes to help build them up with their projects. No announcements just yet, but it’s really nice to be able to work on music in collaboration with other creatives.

And, finally, is there anything you want to say to your listeners?

Firstly, thank you all for listening to my music, sharing it with your friends and using it in your creative content! All of these things truly help me as a struggling artist. In that same mind, I hope that more people show further support to their friends and creatives around them. It’s a very challenging world for those with dreams that aren’t financially driven or “safe” bets. Every sweet comment, act of kindness, and show of appreciation really helps us all. 

Thank you so much for interviewing me, it’s truly a privilege and I hope to explore more with you as my career develops.

Thank you Scott the Pisces for answering our questions and for this interview. “Summer ’22” is a brilliant track and we are totally loving it, here at CelebMix.

“Summer ’22” is available to download and stream right now. It’s definitely something we’ll be playing this summer, make sure you add it to your summer playlists. Check out our article about the release of “Summer ’22” by clicking here.

What do you make of our interview with Scott the Pisces? Let us know on Twitter @CelebMix.

The post Exclusive Interview: Scott the Pisces talks about his new single “Summer ’22”, working with BINX, the awesome lyric video, and his EP “Ocean Blue” appeared first on CelebMix.

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