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Photo: Isabella Margolis

Miami-based artist Jonathan Whitmer, better known as Kxllswxtch, has been rising up as a distinguished artist ever since the viral success of his breakout single "Waste." It's little wonder then why we would choose him as our inaugural artist of the month. Whether it’s rap or slowed, elemental pieces, Kxllswxtch continuously delivers genre-bending pieces that convey the depth of mental health struggles and life as a whole. Following what feels like his overnight success, he has gone on to release a number of singles and projects, including his third album The Walls Have Eyes, further earning him critical acclaim and an increasingly devoted fanbase. We had the pleasure of sitting down with Kxllswxtch and examining both his success in-depth and some of his favorite pleasures in life.  

Ones To Watch: Do you mind introducing yourself to anyone who may not be familiar with who you are?

Kxllswxtch: Hey! My name is Kxllswxtch and I make all kinds of music in different genres. I like going into different genres than your typical rap fanbase or pure rock fanbase would get into. Just experiencing with sounds and showing other listeners and consumers different types of music that they can get into. 

How would you describe your music as well as yourself as an artist? 

I would describe my sound as emotional and vulnerable. I usually record myself and work alone the majority of the time, so I’m able to get all my true raw thoughts out and convey my emotions onto whatever beat it is—whether it’s me screaming a bunch of ignorant lyrics on a trap beat, expressing how good I feel, or like going on a sad grungy indie sound talking about past experiences. That’s pretty much all I’ve been focused on since 2017, polishing throughout these years and figuring out how to communicate with the people listening to me through my songs and having them be able to relate to something. 

I’ve definitely been able to pinpoint the change in sound from your 2017 XXXTENTACION-inspired singles to your recent releases now. Can you speak more on that?

Haha yeah no I definitely used to focus more on the rapping aspect. I would still put a little bit of the singing shit out but definitely when I started getting a little more recognition, but I switched it up to what I liked the most. Right now, I hate rapping. I wish I could just sing and drop music like that, but I don't know how it's going to do yet cause I haven't dropped, like, a whole project of just softer songs yet. So I can't really translate how well that does with my supporters and everything. We'll see though, I think I'm going to do that very soon and see how how they react to it and see if they like it, and if not, fuck, but if they love it, then great. I’ll feel amazing. 

You recently dropped your first album in two years,  The Walls Have Eyes. What's the response been like to the album?

I think that's probably my best album in my opinion. I think from KILL! to DISORDER, there was a lot of progress and a lot of change because I tried a bunch of different genres of music in that album. But for the new album, I think they really resonated with all of it. I think they like the hard shit and they like the soft shit, so it all went pretty well. I also think they appreciated the quality of the songs and how good they sounded, like they were able to appreciate the music for what it was and not be like, “okay, this is a different type of genre that I don't like so I'm not gonna listen to it.” But yeah, I think it resonated a lot better than the last album before that too.

Throughout the evolution of your sound, what have been some of your influences, either sonically or lyrically? 

Let's see… hmm, I think my influences sonically and lyrically are probably the same. There's Nirvana, Soundgarden, Denzel Curry, Pouya, and XXXTENTACION. I would even say Lil Wayne and Slipknot too. Those people pretty much inspired me to chase after the sound that I'm going for right now. The lyrics, like with Nirvana, which is my favorite to play with, they do a lot of contradicting in their lyrics. Like, when Kurt Cobain says “take your time, hurry up” or “the choice is yours. Don't be late.” It's like, yo, make up your mind but it sounds cool because it's like you're indecisive. I think that shows a lot of vulnerability and gives someone something to relate to because it's like, you don't even know what you want. 

One of the many things that stood out to me about your artistry was your vulnerability and reference to mental health. How do your experiences with mental health translate into your creative process? 

Well, first off, I'm just fucked in the head so I don't know. I kind of try to piece things together, but I have really bad anxiety and A.D.D., so, I can't fucking pin what I want to talk about all the time. It sometimes comes off as like, okay, one bar is about this and then another bar is about this. I mean I try to put how I'm feeling more than anything into detail or paint a picture with my music to put my listeners in my shoes and show them through audio how I feel, hoping I can get them to relate to it. But if I can’t express my thoughts into words, I usually just come up with melodies to portray how I'm feeling. I mean even with the song "Waste," the whole chorus is just me going “oooooo,” and I feel that just got out a lot of emotion on its own because of the vibrations of that song, sonically. It just gives you that emotion and that person's feeling. I mean, it’s also how there's certain frequencies that you hear and it'll be like, oh shit, yeah, I get you or I know what that person's feeling and I feel it too. I think it all translates, not just through memories but also through my engagement and response to the song. I’m just hoping that it'll get them to relate to it and for people to know, if I'm feeling this way, I'm not alone.

Speaking on the viral success and engagement with your song "Waste," how has life changed for you?

Well, first of all, I'm rich now… Haha, no, I'm not rich, just moderately wealthy. But no, I mean, everything changed after that. At first, that song was the worst streaming song off my project for a good year. It would do 3 to 5000 streams a day up until a year later. It like, skyrocketed and now I see it everywhere on TikTok and people are doing remixes to it even. I feel like people started to appreciate my singing more than my rapping. I feel like when I was talking to you earlier about putting my emotions on a song, I feel like I can do that a lot more comfortably right now because it resonates with more people. And I guess I could say I'm somewhat more relatable because it did get people to feel like, "Oh, hey, like I love this song because it explains exactly how I'm feeling or what I'm thinking." It just feels good because I can use my voice to help people out. But yeah, everything, everything changed. 

Now that you’re giving yourself the space to make the music that you want to and it feels more comfortable to do so, where do you see your career going? What are some aspirations you have or are there any festivals you would absolutely love to perform at?

Oh yeah, now that I'm doing all the singing stuff, the festivals that I want to go to are like, Coachella obviously, Lollapalooza, and Camp Flog Gnaw. I mean, regardless if I do rap or the singing shit, I would want to do, Wireless Fest, like overseas, cause that shit is insane. It's the main festival that I want to get on. Other than that, now that I'm doing this type of music, I feel like the range of artists that I can work with and producers that I can work with opens me up to working with a lot of new, different people. 

Do you have a dream collaboration or feature you would love to do?

There are two artists that I really want to work with right now, Denzel Curry and Dominic Fike. I guess Denzel would be my dream collaboration because I’ve listened to him since I was like 12 and now I know him personally. It's kind of funny but he was one of my biggest inspirations for making music, so I guess that's one of my dream collaborations. I feel like those are the only two people I really want to make a song with right now. There's probably a lot more, but those two off the top of my head

Who are your Ones To Watch?

Lu, he's part of the same group that I'm in, but he's like really good. He's also transitioning from just rapping to doing singing and everything. ThxSoMch is very good. Paris Texas has new albums, they're great. Drake. Drake is one to watch. And South Street. They're very into the underground SoundCloud sound, and they're trying to bring that back, but they're pretty good. It's a very niche sound. Then, last but not least, Kxllswxtch. You got to look out for that guy, he’s one to watch for sure. 

Last but not least, what is your drink of choice?

I want to be a good role model and say water, but honestly, tequila reposado. Like just a shot of tequila with a lime or if you want to go crazy, get like a truly or a white claw or something and chase it with so you get even more wasted. But if it's not that, then water. Yeah, yeah. Just stay hydrated.