An Interview with Hakiné

Dami: How much would you say you’ve grown since you started making music?

Hakiné: I'd say I keep evolving creatively as an artist. I like to think that my life experiences and music growth go hand in hand.

Dami: What experiences so far would you say helped you evolve?

Hakiné: Well, human interactions in general, and going through collage while making music has put some pressure on me which definitely helped me grow as a person.

Dami: Speaking of college, how do you manage balancing school and music?

Hakiné: Well it's been a challenge for sure, but I've found it kind of forces me to keep busy and somewhat organized.

Dami: Do you ever feel burnt out while managing the two and how do you recover?

Hakiné: Of course, trying to balance the two and also the friends I have is time consuming but personally I've found meditation helps. It helps me keep focused.

Dami: What’s your creative process like?

Hakiné: I work on mostly all of my music with my friend Nick James, and we kind of just pitch ideas and see where they fall, whether would it be a solo song or another colab, we kinda figure it along the way. I might get inspired and just go with what I feel right at the moment.

Dami: Where do you grab inspiration from when making music?

Hakiné: Mostly the music I listen to, but working with Nick has been very inspiring and it helps me keep an open mind.

Dami: Which artists would you say inspired your sound?

Hakiné: Kanye is definitely my biggest inspiration overall but for New Pair of Eyes, I'd say ScHoolboy Q’s newest album Blue Lips played a huge role.

Dami: Speaking of project, you dropped a new project titled “New Pair of Eyes”, what inspired it?

Hakiné: Well, originally I was just going to remake some old songs, but it just kept evolving into something else with an entirely different theme. The only remake of an older song that I kept is "Distance".

Dami: And what is this theme it evolved into?

Hakiné: Looking at the older songs, I've noticed how much i changed as a person and that's what it's about. New pair of eyes as in a new perspective of life, seeing everything you’ve been through and how it changed you as a person; really seeing the patterns of how life affects you.

Dami: What 3 words would you use to describe this project?

Hakiné: Sample heavy, helpful.

Dami: How did the Sw1tch and Nick James feature come along?

Hakiné: Nick has been a good friend for a long time now so I'm going to shorten the story. He’s Canadian, I'm Romanian and he decided to explore Europe for a summer. This is one of the first songs we made toghether in person and everything flowed together very well. Sw1tch, I've met on hip hop twitter just like Nick. I made an original version of Distance in the summer of 2021 and asked him to hop on, while revisiting what songs to keep for the EP. This is the one that stood out the most for the very laid-back beat and his great verse.

Dami: Should we be expecting any visuals for any track?

Hakiné: I've been toying with the idea of making an actual music video for "Shine" besides the small video that is up on my Instagram but I'm not sure, I might save the idea for my next EP.

Dami: Is the concept for your next EP already ready?

Hakiné: Yeah. I want to expand on the themes of new pair of eyes with different sounds.

Dami: So you’re still gonna focus on new perspectives but with a different approach?

Hakiné: Yes, I think there's a lot more to explore with this whole idea. It’s something more than just this EP.

Dami: Care to explain what you mean?

Hakiné: Well, while I am very proud of how new pair of eyes turned out, I think the concept of truly seeing the patterns of life can't just be explored on a single EP. It’s about growing as a person and you can’t show growth with just a few songs. I intend to explore the idea of "Hakiné" as a person through this concept on my next EP as well, kind of showing a different side of how growing as a person looks. And in the finale, combining the experiences and the concepts in a full length album perhaps.

Dami: Who is Hakiné?

Hakiné: Hakiné is in a way myself. He is whatever traits of mine I choose to focus on for the specific themes I'm exploring in my music. Whether it's over-confidence or self-reflectiveness, it's my traits put on a canvas where i can showcase them.

Dami: Where do you see Hakiné 5 years from now?

Hakiné: Still evolving with his music, that's for sure.

Dami: What do you hope to accomplish by the end of 2025?

Hakiné: With doing music and college simultaneously, I definitely want to finish at least the next EP and maybe some more collabs with Nick.

Dami: Should we expect a collab tape from you and Nick in the near future?

Hakiné: It’s for sure going to happen; we even have a name- The Timezones.

Check out New Pair of Eyes here