An Interview with Curtains

Curtains is an incredibly mysterious and talented producer and artist based out of Canada, part of the Garden Avenue and Varsity music collectives. Influenced by the sounds coming out of Yung Lean’s camp, Curtains and their friends created a space for themselves within the pop and hip hop genre with successful projects such as +1 LUCK, Sonic Riders, and blink 1-16. In this interview, Curtains chats biggest challenges, inspirations, collaborations with Shinigami, and more.

Hey Curtains, thanks for chatting with us. Tell us a little about yourself. What is living in Toronto like?

I actually live in a city just a few minutes away, but it’s nice to have met a really cool group of friends here and have a little scene built. I’m very proud of us for it, because I don’t think there was anything like this for the community until we linked.

Who or what inspired you to start making music? And, when did you start?

The first time I remember caring about music production and beats is when I heard Kyoto by Yung Lean. So many people were commenting about how good the beat was and I never really focused on instrumentals in songs until up to that point. Yung Lean & Yung Gud inspired me to want to make beats, along with some friends from my high school who started doing it. I was inspired to create my own sounds. I’ve always been in love with music all my life, but only recently started making beats when I was 16. I took a beat making class in school. It was sick.

What’s been your biggest challenge as a musician?

The first challenge that comes to mind for me is avoiding burnout when working, and overcoming self doubt and creative blocks.

You’ve worked a lot with Shinigami on songs such as +1 LUCK, Sonic Riders, and Fresh White Tee. How did these songs come about and how did you all make the tracks from a distance?

We made these songs from a distance, we actually never linked up to make music yet, but hopefully will soon. It was just from networking online and sending beats through email. Sonic Riders happened when Shinigami was asking for Lil Uzi Vert type beats on Twitter, and I replied with a snippet of the beat.

What’s your favorite project or single you’ve released so far?

My favourite self released projects from this year are probably +1 LUCK and blink 1-16. Braxton Knight, Scotty Splash, Dani Rain, Shinigami and I went through so many problems working on +1 LUCK but never gave up on it, so the end product was really rewarding. And blink 1-16 was such a fun project to make with smrtdeath.

What’s the process behind working on a song like?

Working on a song for me is either from a distance online or in person, but it’s usually online. I create the beats and send them, through either text or email, to whoever I’d like to hear on it, and if they like it they write and record over it. Then we just figure out cover art and schedule it for release!

Any upcoming releases from you to look out for?

I’m planning to release a loop pack soon for the producers, new beats for the artists, and I have a bunch of unreleased music to put out as well so I’m excited about that!

What are your plans for 2021?

Musically, I hope to be able to DJ at some shows in 2021, I miss that. Possibly even be a tour DJ, it’s always been a dream of mine. I want to meet new people and make more music. Personally, I just want to level up physically and mentally. I want to learn about more stuff and be a better person.

Have any shoutouts?

Shoutout to my friends, my family, and everyone who supports me and helped me get to where I am today.

With new music releasing all the time, Curtains is an artist to watch for in 2021. Want more from Curtains? Check out their official discography on Spotify!