Interview: Chughey Discusses His Newly Released EP "Pivotal" Featuring Production From SkwirllMaster
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Chughey is a Summerville, SC based rap artist and who just released a new EP entitled "Pivotal" featuring production from SkwirllMaster. We connected with Chughey for a Q&A to get some background info about the EP, find out how he and SkwirllMaster connected, and much more.
After reading our exclusive interview with Chughey, be sure to follow him on his social media streams and definitely stream/download "Pivotal" ASAP! Stay tuned because our in-depth review of the EP is coming very soon.
Tell us about your new collaborative EP with SkwirllMaster, entitled "Pivotal". How long did the project take to record and how did you guys select which tracks made the cut for it?
'Pivotal' was the first project SkwirllMaster and I created together. We both put our best efforts into it to make the best product that we could. The project took about six months to create. We kept making tracks, and it was pretty obvious what tracks didn't fit with the project and what wasn't up to par. We really wanted to make sure that every track on it was good enough to be the single while fitting in with the rest of the project. That's why the final product turned out as good as it did, honestly, I'm extremely happy with it.
After your snowskating accident in 2012, what about that experience led you to focus more on music?
I had made some jokey rap songs before during my prime skateboarding years, but never really made anything serious or took the time to figure out what I was really doing. I've always had a creative outlet I was passionate about through life, first drawing, then skateboarding, and then making music. So when I was basically bed-ridden, I decided to try to really make a song, and after that, I developed a love for making music and haven't stopped yet. Four mixtapes and an EP later and now we're here.
Also, during that period of recovery and not being able to skate, who were some artists that you listened to that sparked your creativity for rhyming?
A lot of Knowmads, Chris Webby, Oncue, G-Eazy, Sol, Atmosphere, Brother Ali, Logic, really the list keeps going on. If I wasn't making music, I was listening to music and trying to find new artists to listen to.
How did you and SkwirllMaster connect originally and what is it about his production that you enjoy writing to the most?
How we met was actually really random. One of my old roommates was going to a going-away party for one of her co-workers and invited me. I decided to join, and the party ended up being at his old house. He was playing some of his beats, and I thought they were dope. I decided to chat with him, I kept the fact I rapped on the dl for a minute, we talked for awhile and found out we had skateboarding in common. So we had some drinks and skated a handful of times after meeting, and after awhile I decided to show him some of my music. He was interested in working together, and I was stoked cuz I had just been rapping over random beats I had found on beat tapes and YouTube and engineered the tracks myself. We started working together and haven't stopped since. Now we're best friends, roommates, and business partners. Crazy world, but when you find your destiny the universe puts things in your path to help you get to where you're supposed to be.
He has a tremendous amount of talent and his beats definitely show for it. He really puts his heart and soul into the music, and we have a very similar personality, so there'll be beats he shows me that just really captivate me and the lyrics come to me naturally when listening to them. It's mostly the emotion I feel from the beats that really makes me enjoy writing to them.
Compared to your earlier releases - "Doodles", "Still In The Sticks", "Sloth Life", and "Progress" - how is "Pivotal" different from a thematic standpoint? Are there certain life experiences that you address on this new EP that weren't even a reality on the early releases?
'Pivotal' was created at the time in my life when I really decided to hit this head-on. It's really the point where I decided to go from amateur to professional with my music career. It's when I really started finding myself and who I am as a musician. Of course, it's a constant learning process. Honestly, it feels like the mixtapes were the prologue, and 'Pivotal' was the first chapter in this story of my life as a musician. Definitely, "Undertow" was inspired by some rough times I went through when I first got back down to South Carolina, and "Mailman" was the first song I made after being back down, and also the first song that I felt I really found myself as a musician. There's been a lot that's happened in life between 'Progress' and 'Pivotal' and every song I make, I try to put myself into, so it's kind of inevitable.