Meet Drew Sikorski | Producer / Recording Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Drew Sikorski and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Drew, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
For me, it was a natural progression from pursuing artistic endeavors since a kid. I got a job at 14 editing videos and creating graphics for a skateboard shop in my city and that really opened the door for me. There’s a lot of risks associated with creative careers but I feel that in my experience it was never too scary since had acclimated to this type of work. But the reason I continue with this career path is that I love solving problems for people, I love being a part of this grand conversation that is art, and I just don’t feel entirely myself without some sort of creative outlet.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
In my art, I love experimenting with different mediums and I’ve always been very multidisciplinary, I love how all-encompassing the world of releasing music is though. My goal is to craft an inspiring body of work in multiple mediums similar to Tyler the Creator, Childish Gambino, and Kanye West. I love how these artists create eras surrounding their releases and collaborations. I’m so happy that I was able to become proficient in production, motion graphics, and mixing at such a young age, I believe all those skills branch out and help one another and within the process of creating an album, it’s all very necessary, not even just to do everything myself but to come from an informed standpoint when I’m collaborating or contracting work. In terms of obstacles I had to overcome to get to this point, I feel that it’s all internal. I never see a roadblock or mistake as a true hurdle within creative work because that’s more or less the point of what we do, but to have the motivation to show up every day and progress even a small bit is what I find most difficult. Sometimes I feel like I’m back in grade school needing to get all my chores done before I can go play. For a sustainable artistic career, I believe you have to take care of yourself and the people that depend on you before you can go and “play” which is how I see my work. The lessons that working in a creative field has taught me is that sharing and receiving knowledge should always be a free thing, the practice of putting that knowledge to use is difficult enough in itself so I’ve never found any reason for “gate-keeping” information. Anyone who keeps secrets and holds you back is not someone that you should want to collaborate and no matter how small your town or social circle is I promise you that you can find someone willing to openly share how they got where they’re at. I want the world to know that my work will always be an unfinished product, up for interpretation and I’m constantly learning between projects, also words of appreciation are free, and never hold back from letting someone know that what they’ve done has an effect on you.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
For me I just hope they can skate because that’s my ideal day, grabbing some good food and finding some good skate spots, taking pictures, and just having fun. I recently moved to an apartment and I’m having a lot of fun painting and designing furniture to match everything else in my life so I’d probably just invite them over and be a good host, cook some great food and just relax.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d like to shout out to my internet friends! They know who they are and the importance they play in my life. Nearly all of my work goes through a stage I like to call “If someone outside of myself doesn’t push me to release this it’s never coming out” wordy, I know but it’s the truth. Also the odd teacher or adult early on in my life that would take notice of what I was doing and talk to me like a peer. Too many names to mention but if I could put my city on for a second ARDN, 1458, Rai, 80purpp, Conch, and Icedcoldshawty (amongst others) are doing way too much to not get mentioned.

Website: https://atlasmedia.group/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drewsiko/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnAaxWdRScNXVPxVFWtki9Q

Image Credits
Chantal Hoang