Interview with “Rebels no Savage”

Interview+with+Rebels+no+Savage

Interview with “Rebels no Savage”

Elizabeth Heglar | Lifestyles Editor

Making music is an art form that many enjoy but do not participate in themselves. UNC Wilmington students Evan Shanks and Basil Williams are two students who work together to create music in a genre they love, hip-hop. The duo and I sat down together to discuss their music and their life as students.

What is your group name and how did you decide to title yourselves that?

Williams: “Rebels no savage. It’s kind of a play off words of a derogatory term used in hip hop, but we didn’t wanna be derogatory.”

How did each of you get into music?

Shanks: “Where I’m from, well I played a lot of sports, but there’s a lot of bad stuff you can do and there’s a lot of good stuff you can do. So basically for me it was just you know, trying to stay out of trouble. Then it just kind of took on its own thing.”

Williams: “I’ve always loved music but I never took it like, seriously. I always joked around with it. The first song I ever made was “Flexin on me.” People actually really liked it so we just started doing it more and it stuck.

How long have you been using iTunes and Apple Music to distribute your art?

Williams: “Since September 2016.”

What projects do you currently have out?

Williams: “Well we feature each other on our projects. “Welcome to Wilmington” is mine and “Studio Arithmetic” is Evan’s.”

Where will you be performing next?

Williams: “We aren’t sure yet. Possibly Clemson in the spring or NC State.”

Shanks: “We are working on a few things outside of UNCW, so we will see how it goes. The thing about Clemson is we could get a lot of exposure just based off the size of their university.”

Are you involved with any on campus organizations?

Shanks: “We are both going to be orientation leaders.”

Williams: “Oh and we both do intermural flag football, that is a lot of fun.”

What are your majors?

Williams: “I am applied math and econ.”

Shanks: “And I am marketing.”

What artists inspire you both?

The two look at one another and laugh, as though the idea of picking just a few artists will be an impossible task.

Williams: “My first would probably be Childish Gambino… I gotta say Drake. And probably from a producing perspective Metro Boomin, he makes beats.” 

Shanks: “Drake of course. There’s a guy named 6lack and then my third one would probably be Chance the Rapper.”

What three artists would you say your collaborations are the most like?

Williams: “I hate to say it but Drake, Future and then…”

Shanks: “We kind of have some Uzi vibes too. Lil Uzi Vert, he’s on kind of that new wave kick.”

“Welcome to Wilmington” has been out for over a month, how does that feel?

Williams: “Well before that album came out I released an EP in September. That did really well and is how I got my first attention. Evan released his first mixed tape “Cloud 9” a week later, so that’s how people got to know our music. “

Shanks: “The music we both just released we have had for a while, we just started working a lot harder on it. The work I released titled “Studio Arithmetic” has gotten a lot of positive feedback. That album was basically a time period of my life, a sequence of events that happened in 2016, that I wanted to leave in 2016. With me leaving that behind I have gotten negative feedback from some of those involved. So I left it there and I don’t speak on it. But I am glad I did it and put it out there.”

Williams: “Yea so this is like my first official project and Evan’s first full length project. We didn’t expect to get the response that we have gotten with our music, like people from Arizona and California have given us positive feedback.”

What do each of you do for the music?

Williams: “He does the production. Evan is a stronger lyricist than me, but I enjoy writing the hooks.” 

Shanks: “But then Basil does most of the marketing and promotion.”

What is your favorite part of collaborating together?

Shanks: “Two different styles coming together and merging. The process of making the beat to writing to recording something is really satisfying.”

What is the most difficult part of working as a collaboration?

Williams: “Seeing if it sounds good. We have a team of friends we send our music to.”

Shanks: “Yea their feedback is important, we’ve made some music that definitely doesn’t sound good.”

To listen to “Rebels no Savage” check them out on www.soundcloud.com/rebelsnosavage. You can also look them up on Apple Music and Spotify as King Basil or Ev Bernadino.