Who even is Nolan Lewis?: The Genre Bending Visionary is Here to Stay

If you were to ask a Wesleyan Student about their top 5 student musicians, Nolan Lewis is likely to come up. His name is sprinkled across the campus on posters, fliers, and instagrams. And as 2021 Hamilton prize winner, he already made his mark before even setting foot on campus.

With 7 albums under his belt and collaborations with artists like Yellow Shoots, Marcelo Mellino, and Helen, Nolan is a multi-media and multifaceted musician. Since he was two, music had been an integral part of his life as a drummer. Along with playing drums, he learned piano at four, was in choir, and started composing music at just 8 years old. The magic really started at twelve years old when he started to use garageband and produced his first pop and EDM track “okay.” From there it became one of the main ways he expresses himself artistically and contextualizes his life experiences.

The Jamaican-Creole American artist puts his identity at the forefront by combining different aspects of the Afro-Caribbean diaspora and queer culture sonically and lyrically. Whether it’s with hard hitting 808 bass, bright melodic melodies, or high bpm club music, Nolan’s musical diversity reflects in every track.

Like many musicians, there are obstacles to overcome. Navigating being in a PWI has proven difficult as the music scene at Wesleyan continues to lack diversity. With the emergence of Black Raspberry, founded by Neo Fleurimond in 2023, black musicians had a chance to shine and showcase their talent in otherwise non diverse spaces. However, though black musicians were highlighted and brought to the forefront by the University, many solo black artists were left in the shadows, Nolan included. He had trouble booking shows for an entire semester. And those who did get booked were white indie bands.

But because of his musical flexibility, Nolan diligently combatted this by putting himself in non rap centered events. And borne from his frustration of not being heard in the rap scene, was his album “Plastique” which includes the hit single “The Night is Young.” Additionally, with events like “Mic Check” founded by Leevon Matthews in 2022, himself, Nolan, and many artists on campus such as Tiz, EJECTDISK, Link Dog, and LORWOOD, are pioneers for black artists campus wide. With their efforts, the diversity problem with Wesleyan’s music scene will be a moment in the past.

Juggling his music career, extracurriculars, as well as being a double major in Neuroscience & Behavior and East Asian studies with a literature and culture concentration, Nolan has an extremely busy and robust life. And in light of his most recent album drop “Can’t Afford To Care,” I had the privilege of interviewing Nolan to know more about his musical journey, his place as a student, and his goals.

How much of “you” is in your work. Do you feel like there’s a gap between the “you” and your music, and then the “you” in day to day life.

“I think Nolan Lewis the person and Nolan Lewis the artists are two different people. My artistic persona definitely has bled into my personal persona a little bit, because I mean, this is classic tales as old as time. Artists feel like their persona is more confident, will never be bullied, and is so strong, and so they end up imprinting their artist identity onto themselves. That definitely made me feel more validated to keep going and then I keep going and make more like that confidence finds its way into my music.

And also, there definitely is overlap, because I do talk about my experiences a lot in my music. Whenever the Grammys happens, I always start visualizing my speech and everything. And I unironically would thank my exes in my speech, not trying to be cheeky or anything but those experiences though they didn’t necessarily last, taught me lessons. And as some form of therapy, I worked out how I felt about those things in my music. And so that’s kind of how Nolan the artist influences Nolan the person to feel better about himself. And yeah, so as time goes on, there is more of a merging and less of a difference, partially because it is my government name. So I think if I did use a different name, I would probably never feel 100% of an overlap. But I think that is a big aspect, like psychologically, knowing that I’m always hearing my name when it comes to anything that I’m doing. So yeah, that’s awesome.

How do you think your ethnicity and identity appears in your music and your creative vision?

“On my maternal side, she’s first generation Jamaican. And on my father’s side, we have been here for generations because we’re indigenous to the Louisiana region. So, like, Creole, same as Beyonce. And then overall I racially present as black, of course. And that lyrically makes its way into my music, because I do love to try to sprinkle in patois in my songs. For example, in the chorus of my song Hyacinth. I also really love bounce music. I have only made one bounce song before and added elements of it into the instrumentals of other songs but I hope to make more. I am making a goal to engage more with my indigenous side as I become an older adult. I mean, I’m always consuming artists who are of similar cultures as I am and everything that I consume influences me.”

How do you think your music transcends genre, or what genre even is your music?

My musical experience started with singing and choir, a capella, but when I fully started putting projects out on streaming services, they were a mixture of singing and rap, because I was more confident in my rapping ability than singing which is kind of, to me, what pop rap is. And in that way my music adheres to that genre through the instrumentation and structure. But it transcends genre because over the course of my career and all of my projects, I’ve done traditional rap, pop, psychedelic soul, Afrobeats, R&B, and more. On Negative Space, for instance, some songs are like Soul orchestral, mixed with rap vibes, some are more Soul conscious rap, afro beats, etc. I make a goal that every project should have something for everybody.

What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned about the process of producing music?

When it comes to my specific songs I really love, I’m learning to find the formula of them while having minimal resources. I feel like we’re in an age where simpler songs are proving to be more popular, like, or at least simpler sounding. And this is not a new concept with songs like “Head will roll” with four chords. What I’ve learned is that you can definitely make more with less.

I’ve also learned that I love a good like 808 bass. I really feel like my philosophy is, I don’t make every song with the intention for you to dance. That’s very clear if you listen to my discography, but the ones that I do make with the intent to dance, as I’ve said on YouTube, if the bass isn’t booming, if the bass doesn’t make you want to move, I did not produce that song. I think it’s so fun to use things like traditional aspects of songs that are not supposed to, have a lot of movement and make them move like a more modern song. Like the melody pads would be long three chords, but it’s the bass that is jumping all over the place that gives it life. I’ve learned to take a more unconventional route to producing, that still stays within a strong formula.

What is one idiosyncratic thing you do to this day, like, from the beginning of like, your producing career, or your music career in general?

“That’s so funny I was, I was talking with TIZ about this last year, shout out to TIZ love you. And playing around with vocal registers is not a unique thing–other people do that all the time. But I think that the closest thing that I have to a bit or something idiosyncratic that I do is laughing in my songs. I just like how it sounds. Also, with a lot of my lyricism, I want to be funny and silly, still bars, but something that is there is the potential to laugh at it while also recognizing that, like, “oh, this goes hard”

I’m a big lyrics person. My biggest thing during the “Negative Space” period, which is not too long ago, was that I wanted danceable instrumentals with deep lyrics. Because we are now entering an age where a decent chunk of us are actually talking about serious things and experiences and making it danceable. So yeah, we can just do anything.”

Do you feel like there’s a tension between the desire of your art to be seen and you wanting to make more obscure, more experimental music? How does it affect the process?

Yeah, it’s hard. I actually saw the Tik Tok Ban in a positive light because the music industry would go back to what it was before Tik Tok. Especially with Tik Tok being one of the main ways music gets around these days. Music has to either be danceable or lyrics that could apply to any situation. And so I was like, “Okay are there any songs in my discography that I can scour and find that can be trendy? No, okay then I’ll make it.” And then I ended up making MMXXV and I realized that I really couldn’t do that. I didn’t want to because that’s just not me. I can’t make something generic or department store. And some people can do a great job with that, like “Paint the Town Red” by Doja Cat. You have to have that sweet spot and that’s what I’m trying to find.

As a STEM major at Wesleyan, how do you stay grounded creatively in a seemingly uncreative major?

Well, I can say that you’re wrong. In general people think that STEM is not creative. My project that I’m doing in the Melón Laboratory, which is the first of its kind at Wesleyan. And I’m pretty sure, it is the first of its kind ever in the history of science. And yeah, that project is literally me applying my audio engineering skills. The synopsis of it is, I am recording the vocalization patterns of mice when they are stressed, when they’re chilling, when they’re competing sexually, when they’re sober, and when they’re drunk, to see how alcohol impacts their communication.

Because I knew that I wanted to engage with music somehow in neuro I also discovered that there are whole careers dedicated to music perception therapy one of my larger career goals would be doing music therapy for dementia patients and Alzheimer’s patients, because I see that with my geriatric family members, music is still a place that we can connect in addition to a few other things. My grandmother in particular, as her memory starts to ebb and flow a little bit we will always, like, be able to connect with music and it’s a source of unlocking memories.

Tell me your story? Who is Nolan Lewis?

Once I’m the artist, Nolan Lewis occupies a unique space between the Slick Ricks and sillier rappers, they were all definitely very serious, but something that’s more unorthodox definitely with the stylings of the Tyler the Creators, the Doechiis, and the Kendrick Lamars. If they were a fashion brand, they would be Tom Brown, like that, if you, if you know, you know, if you get it, you get it. And then I have the performance drive of, like a Victoria Monet, a Doja Cat.

Noel Lewis is a scholar of music I try to bring everything that has come before me, and make a sweet amalgamation into what I do. I have pulled inspiration from Chaka Khan and Doja Cat But we can go even further back, like the very first rap video ever created, even if it was religious, I plan to be like a beacon for blackness, for queerness, for its intersection, most importantly, because those are the people who drive the culture.

I’m also a scholar of ballroom. I would not be the person I am, and a lot of people on this campus don’t realize that they wouldn’t be the people they are without ballroom culture, without black and brown people, without black and brown trans people, without black and brown trans women. Like that is where I really draw so much of my energy is the intersection of all of those identities, minus the fact that I’m cisgender. Hopefully I intend to be a beacon for black and queer people, separately and together, most importantly, together. And I am just, I am up next. I think I feel it. I’m very psychic. It’s like a family thing. It’s not even a joke, like I see shit.