Continuing our series of written interviews with unsigned and independent acts, we had the opportunity to submit questions to Brighton based Hip-Hop Pop artist Dom Champ.
1) How did you start with music?
I always grew up around music and music lovers which is truly where it started. I connected with music mainly by singing all day every day – as a young kid, I had this angelic voice which I’d love to have today. I was always keen to learn lyrics to songs so I could sing along, so I would listen to the same song back to back until I knew every word. I went on to learn a few instruments at school but overall during education, I lost the passion for being musical, I was just left with the love for music as a listener. In my late teens, I was writing poetry and I formed my love for rap music and basically, it’s with the encouragement of the people close to me that I took myself to a studio to try and rap. It was a dream of mine to make music and those people helped give me the confidence to give it a go. 3 years later I’m releasing my first lot of music.
2) How would you describe your music?
I would describe my music as something very personal, which makes it unique. I draw huge amounts of inspiration from other artists but I have never had the desire to actually sound like anyone else. I remember when I used to sing/rap along to songs from big famous artists I would be sure to hear my own accent, inflections etc over the music and this helped me realize my own voice. It’s more spoken word than it is rap, it’s more chilled than it is hype and there’s a focus on poetic lyrical content. It’s been described as similar to The Streets, which I think is fair. I want to tick the boxes of a few genres as I make more music.
3) What inspires you to write words and lyrics?
Writing inspiration comes at any time, in a million different ways. I try and write lyrics every day, sometimes there’s a clear theme and a story naturally unfolds – those are great days and songs can be written in less than an hour. Other times inspiration comes from practice, I’ll tell myself I’m going to write and I’ll choose a phrase or word to get started, breaking it down, trying every rhyme pattern etc. Most times inspiration comes from music, listening to instrumental music will make lyrics come to me, I try and freestyle as often as possible which with practice helps to create full verses by accident. Lastly, inspiration comes just as I’m going to sleep, when I have no way of writing it down. I tell myself I’ll remember in the morning, I almost never do, but I guess it’s all practice.
4) Any plans for new releases?
In terms of new releases, I’ve got two singles out just now and I will be releasing an EP at the end of the month. Once that’s done I’m getting straight to work on my debut Album.
5) What are your gigs like?
Gigs are set to be big, I like performing a lot and I’ve got some real positive, crowd-pleasing chorus’ which I can’t wait to share. Dates for gigs to come after the release of my EP!
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