Q&A: Pop Artist CG5 Goes Phonk With New Single, “Let Me In”
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY GIONA CIACCO ☆
Photo By Lori Gutman
SINGER, SONGWRITER, AND MUSIC PRODUCER CG5 IS BACK — with his new single, “LET ME IN.” Based on the animated web series Murder Drones, the single’s music video hit #14 in YouTube’s trending music, gained two million views in its first six days, and has amassed nearly three million more in the weeks since. Shying away from his Pop roots, this song mixes in what CG5 calls “modern phonk vibes,” featuring the original voice actor of Cyn, a character from the show.
Known for his video game and TV show-based songs, CG5 began creating music when he was just five years old. Now with eight million YouTube subscribers and two million monthly listeners on Spotify, he’s become a force to be reckoned with inside and outside the gaming community.
He’s currently on the first leg of his “Under the Spotlight Tour,” which concludes in Amsterdam on November 1 and picks back up in Cincinnati on January 31. To make his first world tour special for fans, he’s prepared a full storyline for the show and a surprise character with props and outfit changes.
CG5 sat down with Luna to discuss his current world tour and new single, how he fights burnout, and his plans to move toward mainstream music.
Photo By Mikey L’Heureux
LUNA: How’s your tour going?
CG5: Tour is going really well. I have been coming back home in between so that I can take breaks, and it's been really helpful. But I've gone all over the country now, and I'm about to do Houston, Texas this week, and then next week I'm going to Europe, which is going to be the most exhausting leg of the trip, but it's going to be very rewarding, for sure.
LUNA: Have you had a favorite city so far?
CG5: I mean, LA comes to the forefront of my mind. There was a big crowd there. Probably the biggest crowd that I've gotten was in LA. It was fun too because we sold out a really big venue, and that's always cool.
LUNA: What went into putting this tour together?
CG5: I wanted to [set it up] as a unique show with a beginning and an end, so it has a story and a character and a few props and outfit changes - it's very involved. It makes you feel like you're part of the show. And I'd say it has enough emotional depth so that people can latch on to it a little bit. The most important thing to them is that I sing the songs that they like, but I also wanted to stand out, so I'm glad to have this show that we made together. We all made it together.
LUNA: How has it felt to perform your new song OCD on this tour?
CG5: I love performing that song because it may not be as popular as the others. In comparison, when you talk about the avenue that I've taken in my career, where I make songs about video games, those are the most popular things, but then OCD came out, and I got a good response from fans. I love hearing people singing along with me. But it's also fun to just share with fans a song that they haven't heard before.
LUNA: You co-directed the music video, right?
CG5: I co-directed with my friends William Bradford and Dash McDonald. [It has a] very involved storyline about past relationships that I've been in where the OCD really took over and I couldn't pursue those relationships because of my mind…trying to make decisions too soon and take charge of my relationships. And they always did, and I ended up running away really quickly because of that, and I wanted to convey that story in the video.
LUNA: Has the release of that song helped with your transition into more mainstream and personal music?
CG5: I would say the ideas that I have going forward are going to be a little bit different from the way I've gone about releasing original, mainstream-style music this year. Next year is going to be very interesting. I'm kind of keeping it under wraps right now, but it's going to be really cool the way that we market this.
I love making songs about video games, though, and I’m glad I get to keep doing that for a little bit longer since that’s a big part of my career.
Photo By Jessica Czarnecki
LUNA: Do you think that transition has been harder because your audience is generally younger?
CG5: Yes, my audience expects video game songs, songs about video games all the time. And that makes sense because that's the community I've built. The way I have to do it with mainstream stuff has to be very formulaic, it has to sort of be a seamless transition, slowly but surely, into that mainstream sphere. There's a lot of things happening behind the scenes. But ultimately, yeah, the fans expect songs about their favorite video game or favorite internet show, like Digital Circus.
LUNA: What kind of process went into making your new song “Let Me In”?
CG5: So, I had the aim of making a song with the original voice actor from the show Murder Drones, who played the character named Cyn, and I had to figure out what would best fit this character. I went through about four different projects, one where I was trying to fit the vibe of “Still Alive” from Portal, but that didn't exactly work.
I wound up going with the “modern phonk” vibe because I’ve never released something like that in particular before, in that style. And different games always give me the opportunity to try new things around the pop genre, still keeping it in that sphere, but experimenting with subgenres. “Let Me In” was a big experiment, but it came together really easily once I found that project, and I think it was perfect for Cyn.
LUNA: Does your production process change with each song, or generally stay the same?
CG5: No, it doesn't stay the same. It literally always changes. I'm actually working with a song right now where I am using orchestration, and that's ultimately the biggest focus in the song. But I'm working alongside a friend to figure all that out, because I'm not amazing at orchestration, but the point is that the process is genuinely always different.
LUNA: Do you have a genre that’s easiest for you to work with, or that’s your favorite?
CG5: The genre easiest to work with is pop, or I guess alternative pop because it doesn't have to be so complicated. The biggest focus is the melody, and the elements of pop production are my strongest suit. I love making beats and experimenting with sounds that are unique.
LUNA: Is there a genre that you want to try out in the future?
CG5: Well, this one I'm trying right now is solely orchestration. I sort of experimented with that with my song “Lonely King,” and that was kind of a segue into [my current project]. So, it's like a musical theater kind of song, but I definitely still want to keep it darkish, so that people can listen to it normally and not think that it's just some Broadway musical cast recording or something like that.
LUNA: You’ve released 11 songs in the past year, and you’re on a world tour. How do you avoid burnout?
CG5: I take a lot of breaks, and I have my morning routine that I'm getting back on, where I'm exercising and stuff like that, and things that feel rewarding really help with the day. With burnout, I think it's just a step back, making something else, possibly working on a random beat, listening to other music, taking a break, watching movies with my wife, or just chilling.
I think that I have a good balance in my life to avoid burnout, but there have definitely been times where I've been on the edge and overwhelmed because I am, ultimately, the creative mind in all of this. It sounds egotistical, but I am the center of all of this, quite literally, and it can be sort of exhausting to give everyone what they want all the time, but I have a really good balance. So, I've been able to accomplish what I need to.
LUNA: What’s the most important thing you’ve learned in your career so far?
CG5: Don't waste your time. Be creative as soon as possible. I started making music when I was five years old on the computer. I'm 25 now, so I'd say I have a little bit of experience at this point. But because of the time that I've spent and the patience that I've had with all of this throughout my life, and balancing [the work] with my life, I've been able to stay on track and get better and better all the time, because I'm always working on my production stuff, and I'm always learning something. I'm not perfect now, and I was definitely not perfect then.
You have to be willing to do things that people think suck. You need to take criticism. You have to not be stubborn. You have to take criticism from people that may not make music themselves, but they're the ones listening to music. They don't care about, you know, whether or not the frequency is just a little bit too low, or something like that. They don't know anything about that. You can kind of keep that in mind when they give their advice, and wake up some of those frequencies, you know, technical talk, but, you just have to take advice and not be stubborn.
LUNA: Before doing research, I thought that you were British for some reason. Do you ever get that? Do people ever think that you’re British?
CG5: Yes, because I've collaborated with British YouTubers, and that is to be expected, but I don't know if my singing has ever sounded British.
I am definitely not British. I am very much American, but I do have a British heritage. My dad has parents that are very British, for sure, so I don't blame everyone for thinking that. But yeah, definitely not. I like my water (American accent), not “wa-er” (British accent).
LUNA: Have you considered making a Muffin Part Two?
CG5: How would I do that? I would have to get BadBoyHalo again for that. I have not thought of that, no, but I have thought of doing a Minecraft musical sort of thing. We're working on doing something for April, possibly, it's up in the air, but we'll see what my schedule [allows].
LUNA: Anything else you would like to talk about or add?
CG5: Lots of new music coming. New song coming out, November 8. Song about Shadow the Hedgehog is coming up December 6 and a big New Year awaits.
