Spree Wilson is a true artist. His work is a duality between nostalgia and a sense of innovation that looks to the future.
His song “Counterfeit” and the accompanying music video are making waves out in the ether, and he’s been honing his craft around some of the best in the business at challenging the boundaries of the mainstream. So, it’s not hard to believe he has the same future ahead of him. I had the chance to learn more about the man behind the boards, and now I get to share it with you.
Where are you from, and how do you think it’s influenced your relationship with music?
I was born in Nashville, TN. My earliest memories of music weren’t so much Nashville based as radio based. I was a true 90’s radio kid. My mom had a very eclectic taste in music and, by her also growing up playing piano, she would make me listen to everything from Elton John, Fleetwood Mac and Whitney Houston to Bach, Mozart and Stravinsky. She insisted, against my 6 year old wishes, that I play in the school band. So that’s when I started playing saxophone, which was much bigger than I was, and through that is when the love to actually play music was formed. Not long after that, I discovered The Beatles, and everything that I thought about music changed.
When and what made you fall in love with it? What is your earliest impactful music experience?
It’s really hard to actually pinpoint a specific time when I fell in love with music. For the majority of my life, music has always been there. I can remember being 5 years old listening to a song on the radio and innately trying to find my own melody and lyrics to go with it. I can even remember singing cartoon theme songs on the playground, while watching my friends play basketball. Music for me has kinda been just like a shadow…I don’t ever remember a time when it wasn’t there.
There were 2 early impactful music experiences that I think set me on the course to be an artist. The first was the discovery of The Beatles. It probably sounds weird that a 6 year old black kid from Nashville would find any sort of connection to The Beatles, but I did. To my ears at the time and somewhat still, The Beatles’s music seemed very childlike. The melodies were simple, but they stayed with you. The songs were infectious. It felt foreign and familiar all at the same time. And though it came out decades before I was born, it didn’t feel like I was listening to some old group of guys sing about things that were so unfamiliar.
The other experience that impacted me was performing at 7 years old, a rap song that was written by my mom and my best friend’s aunt in front of 500 people, with my two childhood friends. First let me address the obvious. Yes, my mother was my first and only ghostwriter! I’ll never forget it. Me and my friends wanted to perform for a church convention, so we put together a little rap group. We dressed like a mini version of The Temptations, with white turtle necks, black slacks, and black patent leather shoes. We also rapped over the MC Hammer “Pray” instrumental. I remember we received a standing ovation. It was first real taste of stardom…or embarrassment, depending on how you look at the situation.
When did you know that this was what you wanted to do for a living?
I think around high school was the time I knew wanted to do music for a living. My grandmother gave me my first guitar and I just started writing my own songs. Again, there weren’t any points of reference that I could look to locally as an example on how to become an artist. Most of the adults who were musicians,singers, and songwriters that I knew did so as hobbies. So I kind of had to figure it out alone, which was kind of exciting and scary. It wasn’t like now, where everyone is an artist. You had to kind of convince people that making music could be real job, and not just some fantasy.
How would you define yourself to someone you’ve never met?
A creative singer-songwriter whose soul is tiptoeing somewhere between Juicy J and Paul McCartney.
For someone who’s never heard your music, how would you describe it stylistically?
Hmm, stylistically? It would be as if Andre 3000 and Janelle Monae had a baby, and Cee-lo was the uncle of that baby and Pharrell was the Godfather…that would be my music in a nutshell.
Check out Spree’s “Counterfeit”
How did the Malay and, by proxy, Frank Ocean connection come about? Tell me the story of the first time you met.
Well I met Malay a little before Channel Orange came out. My old managers at the time were managing an artist by the name of Cris Cab, and he’d recorded a couple of songs with Malay. As soon as I heard the records, I knew I wanted to work with Malay. It was pretty instant. His production, the sounds that he used, the overall aesthetic drew me in. I kept hassling my managers to make an introduction and eventually I flew to LA to meet with him. The first time we met, we connected right away musically and the vibe felt natural. I think I flew back out to LA a few weeks later to meet back up with him and begin working.
I gotta say this one thing about Malay, which speaks to his character. So, the week I arrived in LA was also the week he was wrapping up the mix on Channel Orange, while also working as Frank’s music director for his tour. He was doing all of this by himself for the most part. He could have easily pushed back our sessions or just canceled them, but because he told me he would work with me, he stuck by his word. He never missed a session with me and still found time to finish mixing the record and help put together a live show for Frank. I have immense respect for him not just as a producer, but as a person. While working on some of the new songs, Frank came by the studio a few times. We spoke, albeit briefly about music and songwriting. He had a quiet confidence about him the first time we met. It was surreal to see where he was then at that specific time to where he went after the album dropped.
The representation of black women is something you said was important to you, especially when filming your “Counterfeit” video. Tell me about when the issue first became real to you.
I think the issue first became real to me as a teenager watching countless music videos and only feeling like there was a certain type of woman being portrayed on screen. Then, it was watching films with all these amazing actors and realizing that there were no women of color represented in them. It always felt like, if the woman of color wasn’t being hypersexualized, then she was in a subservient role. And although there have been a few exceptions, I just feel like there hasn’t been enough to show the full spectrum of black women. And even though “Counterfeit” doesn’t show a full representation of black women through body type, shape, or color, it was important that we make something that we don’t usually see, as well as something we all could be proud of.
What’s the last album you purchased?
The last album I purchased Kendrick Lamar “Untitled Unmastered”
Who are your top 5 musicians of all time dead or alive? No order necessary.
Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Miles Davis, David Bowie & Kanye West
Check out more from Spree on his website, and catch him on Twitter!
