FRIDAY* doesn’t sit still – he’s a graphic designer, painter, producer, emcee and singer. The 21 year-old is a self-described multidisciplinary artist hailing from Eora / Sydney. His infectious-slash-heartfelt debut mixtape *pilot has made a splash here at FBi Radio, earning FRIDAY* (aka Fabian) the title of independent artist of the week. Fabian stopped by the studio to chat to Lill Scott on Up For It! this Monday.

Across *pilot and his new single ‘punk’, there’s a fluency in FRIDAY*’s production and writing. His tracks switch genres, layer guitars with breakbeats and drift between rapping and singing. These elements make it all the more surprising that music is relatively new for him:

“I think I only really shaped up to have the confidence to release stuff last year, so it’s a very new feeling to see people listen to you. Music was a very private thing for me. It’s neat to see people listen to things that I’ve made and actually like it and tell me and sing it back to me. It’s a weird feeling. But it’s cool.”

FRIDAY*’s genre-hopping is no accident (the beat for ‘punk’ is based around the edited stems of a certain British pop star). A man of many interests, FRIDAY*’s main musical inspirations are known for deviating far from their best-known styles:

“[My closest musical reference is] an artist called Jim Legacy. […] He’s from the UK and he melds a lot of UK dance music and a lot of drill and trap and that kind of stuff with emo melodies, indie melodies and stuff like that. So I’ve always wanted to figure out a way to bridge those two gaps. He’s probably the most primary influence for this specific mixtape. But throughout the whole thing, there’s young James Blake, Mura Masa, a countless list of artists where I really liked their production stuff.”

Despite the emo-indie-drill-trap blend, FRIDAY*’s roots are firmly planted in the hip hop world – exemplified by his love for sampling. His approach is playful, focused, and has plenty of intent:

“It’s something that I’ve always really appreciated about hip hop as a genre, because the whole genre is based on sampling – and I wanted to see how to incorporate that into pop. Because everything is a reference to everything. So I thought why not make this mixtape kind of an exercise in referencing? And in seeing just how much you can warp something to become something completely different?”

It’s worth noting that ‘punk’, FRIDAY*’s debut mixtape, isn’t available everywhere – rather, he made an intentional choice to only distribute it through SoundCloud and Bandcamp:

“I think SoundCloud and Bandcamp as platforms really encourage a bit more ‘rough around the edges’, playful approach to music and releasing music. I think when it comes to major DSPs like Spotify and Apple Music, there’s a sort of requirement to be polished when it comes to putting stuff out there… I really liked the idea that a mixtape is rough around the edges, you can see the brushstrokes and the seams… So it was an intentional thing to only put it out on these two platforms, because I wanted it to feel really, I guess, underground.”

Despite the rough underground framing, FRIDAY* is aiming higher. There’s intention in his approach of “mixtape first, then the world”. There are live dates and an EP in the pipeline – not to mention his growing confidence and wisdom as a musician and artist: 

“Share your work, just like put it out… I’ve been making music for maybe seven years. And nothing kicked off until I’d shared my work. So like if you’re so nervous, if you feel like something’s not perfect enough to put out, put it out if it’s finished, put it out.”

Listen to FRIDAY*’s chat with Lill Scott up top! Or check out his EP *pilot down below.