HELLO ALL PIT DWELLERS, our Artist Alert articles are going to be a little different from now on, being more of an interview style to show a more raw side with direct answers from the artists. And the first artist we’ll be doing this with is bloodcat so make sure to follow @bloodcatforever to keep up to date on everything he has coming.
1. How did you choose your name? Were there any names you switched from or is there any possibility of you changing your name in the future?
I was with my girlfriend at the time and we were just mashing words together, trying to come up with this bold, hard-hitting combination, and as soon as she wrote "BLOODCAT," I knew already in my heart that it was the hardest one.
2. Where are you from and how long have you been making music?
I'm from St. Louis; I'm one of those people who just was always rapping. I can play guitar and I can kind of produce but those are things that rap brought me to. I would get into these rap battles at the bus stop when I was in middle school and one time I got absolutely destroyed because this kid Jacob said my grandma looked like a goat 8 times but in a way it was the hardest freestyle ever, I have no idea how he did that.
3. How do you feel about the progress you've made this far?
I actually feel like I'm good at this now, and I only started feeling that way super recently. You're always dealing with that weird spot like when you're a kid and you try to draw a picture of Spider-Man and you had this perfect image in your head of exactly what you want your spider-man drawing to look like but you're a kid so your drawing looks nothing like the spider-man in your head, and you feel that tension. Every artist in the world deals with that, and so we get
insecure, but it turns into us underestimating ourselves, and I think it's almost better to overestimate yourself, like believe in the shit that you're doing.
4. What are your biggest inspirations?
People have asked me this before and I'll name drop a fav, but if I'm being completely honest I don't know. I feel like I'm always caught up in this wave of influences, because I'm still in a phase where I like to try new sounds a lot to see where bloodcat can go. My favorite songs aren't the kind of songs I could or would make, but I'm inspired right now by people who just don't take this shit too seriously, and somehow manage to have fun with it all the way through.
5. Are you trying to make a statement through making music or are you just doing it for fun?
I've been thinking about this recently because I used to complain to people about how "bloodcat is like my journal," like shut up nigga it was never that it was always for people to see, because I wanted to express myself when I have something to say, but that made me think about what I have to say in a new way. I was thinking about what bloodcat should represent and what my like mission should be, and I realized when we made the video for bankwet this like interpretive hula dancing video as a statement that my mission is to be an intersection. I lived in a lot of different ways really fast and my whole life now I get to bring people together who probably wouldn't meet otherwise and I get to be thankful for that because it's fun. So bloodcat as an extension of that, my mission is to be an intersection for different kinds of art. I'm not like doing mashups of genres but I'm always thinking about how to draw new connections between things culturally and musically.
6. Are you currently working on any projects?
I'm always kind of working, but I'm not in the middle of some big concept right now. I get so caught up in those sometimes or like I'll get all manic and make a mixtape, I feel like it's better right now for me to be more laid back about it, so I'm only talking when I really have something to say.
7. If you have one thing to tell someone who didn't know anything about you, what would it be?
If they don't know anything about me I'm telling them I'm the ghost of their great great grandmother.
8. Are there any interesting "fun facts" your fans may not know about you?
Fun facts I really like to cook. I like to paint my pinky finger on my left hand to color coordinate w my outfits bc I don't have a stylist (yet) and I gotta stay bad. I used to think money was the only thing that mattered but then I realized love is the only thing that matters. And my favorite color is orange.
