Today, on his 20^th Birthday, the Dublin-based rising hip-hop artist V-Sensei drops his latest and most personal song to date, “FALLING,” which he made with his long-time producer whenthebeatisbad. With an educational background in psychiatric nursing, V has spent a lot of time analysing others’ mental health, whilst not feeling comfortable expressing his own, until the release of this single.

Last Friday, V met with Post-Burnout’s Aaron Kavanagh to discuss the single, and it led to an over-two-hour-long conversation between the two. The interview would have made for a great edition of our podcast, but, unfortunately, the café where the interview was recorded had copyrighted music playing in the background, meaning that we couldn’t use the audio.

As such, here are some select quotes from V during this discussion:

On writing music: When I sit down and…it’s not even writing. You know I’ve never written a song a day in my life? I can tell you that so honestly, and my manager will tell you the same thing; she’d be like, “He doesn’t write songs; like, they actually just appear.” I’ll sit down in my room, and I’ll be like, “It’s time to just freestyle whatever.” We’ll play the beat, we’ll be like, “Oh, we’ll freestyle whatever.” And that was the idea with “FALLING,” as well; I didn’t walk into the studio with the intention to make anything like “FALLING,” you know what I mean?

On how freestyling differs from preparing lyrics: I think even in the past year – between kind of last year and this year – there’s been, like, 58 to 60 songs that are still like…They’re done, like, they’re sitting there, and there’s certain ones that I can sit there and I’m like, “I’m not dropping that” because it is actually just exposing too much. And it’s so true, when you’re freestyling, you’re just saying everything that’s on your mind, because I catch myself saying things that I wouldn’t say to other people in music, and people will hear them in songs, and I’ll be oblivious. I’ll be playing them a song, I’ll be like, “Bro, I have this song to show,” and I’ll play it for them and then that’s when I’ll remember what I said, and then I’ll be like, “Oh, wow. Secret’s out!”

On music as therapeutic expression: That’s so true, that you’ll say anything on your mind, and I think that’s why music is the best therapy. It’s like talking to people without the idea of talking to someone and getting judged, because who’s going to judge you for what you’re saying on the mic to yourself? Because it’s you in your own world with your own thoughts.

On whether lyrics or instrumentation and melody are more important in music: That reminds me of a conversation that I’ve had with Olivia Emade. We’ve been having this conversation for months – this is, like, an ongoing conversation – and we’ve had this conversation of months. It’s, like, this idea of, “What do people care more about: Lyrics or melody?” or “Beat or lyrics?”, and I was the person who stood on the ground of lyrics and she stood on the ground of melodies, because she’s a professional singer, and she was like, “I hum things and I vocalise,” and I said, “Eh, actually, I’m more of a bar-for-bar kind of guy.” Like, we’ll sit there with the lads, and you’ll start freestyling, and it’s all about the bars. It’s all about the lyrics, it’s not about the beat, and I think that’s what makes a great song: Good lyrics as well as a good beat, but I think it would be, like, 60 to the lyrics, 40 to the beat.

On interpretations: I had one guy ask me…he was like, “Would you like it, to be able to control the interpretation of how people perceive your music?” and I was like, “No!” [Laughs] Because that’s not fair because it’s like art; if you look at a painting and somebody’s like, “What do you see?” and then somebody else is like, “What do you see?”, you’re just going to get ten different opinions on the one piece of art, so that’s what I find myself doing sometimes: Every time I make a song, I have to step away and then go and play the song for, like, ten people and be like, “Yo, what do you think of this?” or “What do you think of this?” I try to make sure the people are kind of divided in a way that nobody knows about the song just yet, but the ten people will give me criticism, and I’ll take the criticism into consideration and that’s what decides if the song comes out or not.

On playing guitar: When I didn’t play guitar for long periods of time, because I was making music, I’d forget. So, now it’s kind of a staple to bring my guitar everywhere I go, or my guitar on stage, or my guitar to rehearsals, or my… Even if I don’t play guitar on the song, in the track, I will figure out a way to play, you know what I mean? Like, it’s come to that standard, and I think that’s really good, and I like my friends reminding me, “Oh, you play guitar!” And, like, even in nursing, it’s like, on my last placement, I got to play guitar for all of the residents because I love bringing my personality into wherever I am.

On comparing himself to other musicians: Do the people around you motivate you to keep going or do they discourage you? And I’m like, it depends on who they are as a person. That’s the thing, because it’s one thing to get a comparison, you know what I mean? Every day I can wake up and be like, “Oh, my God. I need to compare myself to so-and-so,” and I think that was the mindset I was trapped in for a long time when I was making music; I was like, “Oh, I’m not popping because I’m not so-and-so,” but, like, you’ll never understand the different challenges that someone else is facing when it comes to their music, and you’ll think they’re doing so well, because I had people coming up to me, like, “Dude, you’re doing so well,” and I’d be like, “No, I’m depressed, man. What are you talking about?” and they’d be like, “Yeah, but you have this, and you have that,” and it ties into this idea that when people see musicians making music and making songs, they think, “Oh, they’re doing just fine. They’re, like, grand,” you know what I mean?

On musician and collaborator Joe Butler: I think the kid is so talented. Like, if you meet him, he is so young, but he is so well-versed in his craft. He’s kind of like Jaq [Reidy, producer and musician] in that regard, where he’s just an amazing producer because he started so young. He told me he started playing guitar at nine and he’s been making music since he was thirteen, and now he’s kind of seventeen, eighteen. So, to me, every time I meet him, he’s one of those people who give me such inspiration and such character, because he’s so himself, if you get what I mean. Because I find it hard to meet people, and then you can tell when they’re putting on a fake persona, and the kid is just so himself that when I met him for the first time and we made…like, when I tell you when we made so many songs that it was almost crazy.

On music collectives: The power of collectives, from finding people who are on the same wavelength as you, it’s immense because, like, it’s the same way as I know five people, you know five people. Let’s say there’s five people in the group and we all know ten people each; that’s fifty people that are focusing in on five of us. But you always think that’s the case, I always think that’s the case. Especially when I’m setting up gigs, I’m like, “You know ten people,” and then you put an artist on the card and he can’t sell ten tickets, you kind of have to look at them.

On producing: I keep meeting people who are like, “Do you produce?” and I’m like, “Not really; I kind of just mix my vocals” and they’re like, “You need to get into producing.” No, trust me, I’ve tried; producing is not for me. It’s always going to be a vocalist thing or guitar, because I can express my sound through guitar. But I always find it easy to appreciate Jaq Reidy or someone, because you’re just a product of your environment. He really said, “I had to be a producer before I became an artist.”

On beginning gigging: I remember this time, last year, I was like, “Oh, I’m never going to get my shot. Never going to get my shot. Never going to be able to show people what I’m made of.” And somebody said to me how after your first show, you’ll pop your cherry at shows and everybody understands that you’re gigable, you’re workable, and after that is kind of where you start opening your eyes. And I used to think that that wasn’t going to be the case, until it was! After that first gig is when everything kicked off, and you wouldn’t think of it that way, because I was sitting in my room, like, “Yeah, it’s not happening. Like, I should…” You’re always going to think about quitting early, but the advice that I would give – it just sounds so generic – you constantly have to be pushing that boulder, because if you don’t push the boulder, the boulder just falls. Like, you actually just die. [Laughs]

On setting up gigs: Like, nobody tells you how much respect artists deserve for putting on their own shows, and I see why they needed so much help, if you get what I mean. When we were doing Jaq’s World, it was me, Jaq, and Emmanuel [Chucks, producer and manager] and we’d all kind of bounce ideas off each other, and it was great because that was three people who were on the same waveform all the time, and even with this show it’s the same kind of thing, but it feels like you’re busting your ass for others, you know what I mean? Like, people who don’t like to evolve. Like, I have this idea of…in my head, for some reason, you have to sell the idea that there isn’t a next one, and then you have conflicting minds with other artists, who are like, “Oh, we don’t have to promote, because, if the music is good, people will turn up,” and, I’m like, “That doesn’t make any sense because Ed Sheeran was busking in the streets, but you’ve never seen 20,000 people gathered around to listen to him sing until he became what he is now.” And then, the whole idea of setting up the ticket link and then selling tickets, I had this conversation on Sintia [Azubike]’s podcast, it’s called Hate The Sin Not The Sinna – lovely woman, lovely human being – she just does a lot, and we talked about the fact that when you’re setting up something for yourself, people take it very egotistical, as in you’re really just trying to grab them, and it feels like you’re speaking to a brick wall when you’re speaking to your friends. Like, I had friends that I’d say this to and they’d be like, “Oh, I’ll come to the next one,” and I’d kind of be like, “What if this is the end? Like, really, what if this is the end?” because sometimes that shows me that certain supports are kind of fake, and you kind of have to be like, “Is it a situation where you actually will be at the next one? We can never say for certain that you won’t be busy when the next one comes around, or the next one I plan won’t be around your schedule.”

On post-performance depression: But after the show, I fall into the post-performance depression. You get off the stage, you go from being in a room with 200 people, and you love them, they love you, and you get off the stage and walk outside and you’re like, “Oh, I’m alone again.”

On his next gig: The Sound House. 30^th of October. Joe Butler, Temi NLA, Jaq Reidy, V-Sensei. Lovely time. Costume theme. Drinks for the best dressed. Like, you don’t understand the music that is about to come out, especially from myself, Temi, Joe, Jaq, like, revolutionary. Like, it’s almost like The Renaissance for Dublin.

On The Sound House: To be honest – this is not to dick on any other venue – the equipment in The Sound House has just mainly been better than most gigs that I’ve played. I went from playing in Workman’s a lot, and sound isn’t great when you’re sitting out in the crowd but, on stage, it’s beautiful. So, I noticed that – especially in recorded videos, you can hear it – like, on stage, you think you sound amazing, and, from a couple of steps back, you’re kind of like, “Whoa! Why does my voice sound a little bit odd?” But I feel like, with The Sound House, their gear and their equipment and the fact that they also have wireless microphones, that’s what allows me to, like, jump into the crowd.

On his new single “FALLING”: The elevator pitch for the song would kind of just be, like, you need to understand that your problems are unique. I remember I talked about Juice WRLD and the fact that he could find himself venting about his problems, and I think that’s kind of the consensus of the song. The song is about the fact that my problems…there was a period of time where I was talking to people and, like, there’s this kind of obligation to be the therapist because I’m the psych student. There’s this kind of obligation that I listen, and I feel like I kind of self-impose it sometimes in myself, where I was like, “Oh, my problems aren’t good enough to tell other people,” you know what I mean? Like, if they’re telling me their problems, I have to take that into consideration to figure out how to solve that or how to comfort them. And when I wrote the song, I was kind of sitting there with my producer, whenthebeatisbad, and we were kind of sitting there, like, “How do we make a song about the fact that we can’t tell people about our problems,” you know what I mean? And then there’s always this game-staging phase where it’s like, “My problems are bigger than yours” or, like, “Your problems are bigger than mine,” and I feel like everyone should just take their problems with a  grain of salt and figure out that we all kind of have problems. And it ties into this idea that you need to treat everybody with respect because you never know what anybody’s going through.

On releasing an album: There’s always going to be a plan in place. There’s always this idea of dropping a project very soon. Like, I still have control of all of them, but there’s a couple of tracks in mind that I’m kind of like, “This is going on an album.” And you’ll see me on my Instagram stories, talking about, like…People are always asking me why I’m not dropping, like, a project, like the rest of the them, and I’m like, “Because, to me, this is not about perfect timing, this is not about this and that; this is always going to be, like, ‘Am I ready to job a full project with a theme in mind,’” you know? And the answer’s always going to be “Yes,” but am I ready to put it out to the public? That’s a different story.

On paying it forward with up-and-coming acts: I try my best to never take it as, “Oh, I’m this huge presence.” I’m like, “I always just fuck with whoever’s around.” That’s how I ran into Jaq. This was 2021, Jaq will tell you how at the first ever open mic I did, I was like, “Oh, we made that song ‘BLUE ON BLUE!’ Wanna come on stage?” and this was like the hand back, you know what I mean? And pulling the hand out, and when he set up Jaq’s World, he was like, “You. Come here,” you know what I mean? And it’s always going to be this idea of, like, symbiotic relationships, respect and friendship that I love with other artists, and I feel like, if everybody was on that same waveform, I don’t know. I feel like the music scene would just be a lot better place. This is not me saying that it’s a terrible place now, it’s this vicious…I think everyone I’ve met so far has actually been really nice and lovely. I never met…eh! I was going to say that I’ve never met someone who’s, like, bullying someone, but I have, like, it’s fine, but it’s all about pushing past that and understanding that it just doesn’t end with yourself.

V-Sensei’s new track “FALLING” is available to stream from today. You can buy tickets to his Sound House show on the 30^th here. You can also follow him on Instagram.

Aaron Kavanagh

Aaron Kavanagh is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Post-Burnout. His writing can also be found in the Irish Daily Star, Buzz.ie, Totally Dublin, The GOO, Headstuff, New Noise Magazine, XS Noize, DSCVRD and more.