Going Solo, But Not Alone: A conversation with Re-Mus

I got to interview Re-Mus for the first time in 2019. He was a solo artist, a singer, I got to see him at a lot of open mics, and one knew about about him when you met him or heard him is that he can sing his ass off. He dropped a great debut EP called Soul Searchin‘ — I recommend you check it out, especially “Wedding Jawns.” He’s not only an amazing singer and performer, he’s also part of the talented collective Arthur Thomas and the Funkitorium. And this past Sunday, he dropped his latest release called Universal Social Experiment — aka U.S.E. — and I welcomed him in the WXPN studio to talk about the project and what he’s got going on.

Re-Mus and I talked about staying productive during COVID, about collaborating with the production team surrounding his Funkitorium brothers — especially with co-producers N-DOT and King Isreal — about his creative decision-making on this new project, and about how the music and finding happiness went hand in hand.

Listen to our interview and read out some highlights below. For more, re-read my first interview with Re-Mus, catch him live at World Cafe Live’s Laughing But Very Serious comedy night on March 15th, follow him on IG at @re_mus324, and listen to U.S.E. below.

…on finding exploring autotune in his work.

I just like the way it sounds. And I always wanted to find a healthy blend of my natural voice and autotune, and with this project we were able to find that perfect blend — especially on “Tonight.” We touched on it a little bit with “Love Is Forever,” but when “Tonight” came around, and the way [producer] King Isreal put it together, my goodness, it just pulled that energy out of me. And then when the autotune was added on it, it was like “not too much, not too little.” We found that perfect blend, and it was like “boom, there it is. We got it.”

…on finding happiness, creatively and otherwise.

I’m a very overly critical person when it comes to myself and what it is that I produce and put out. If I don’t feel like it’s up to par, a lot of times I’ll just horde it and hold on to it. And I realized that okay, you’re only going to get better when you step outside yourself and broaden your perspective. So that’s what I did, and in doing so, I found a happiness in myself and what it is I create that I didn’t have for a while.