Being Mr Wilson means a helluva lot to Chris Will.
In his time he’s lost direction, motivation and understanding, largely in part to a severe break-up, hitting rock bottom when he was made homeless, and suffering from Cannabinoid Hyperemesis – but in writing his debut album To The Lost, he’s tapped into something that makes sense.
“I’ve found a direction. I don’t know if it’s the right one,” he says. “I’m trying my best to make something of my life rather than pretend. I’ve been really good at talking the talk, but actually putting in the work and living the vision I have for my life is very different.”
That vision was music. To The Lost was imagined in 2017 and Will played around with several different titles, though the hip hop vibes and rampant rapping were always going to be the soundtrack to his experiences. “I remember writing three tracks, ‘Any Way You Feel’, ‘Flying Too Close To The Sun’ and ‘Village’ during the split. Those three songs really formed the bare bones sonically of this offering, which is a creative departure from earlier directions I was exploring musically.
“I wanted, no, needed, to increase the tempo, get all of the energy and tension and rage that was building up inside me out. More bass, louder drums, less instruments was the order of the day.
“All the music I’d written beforehand was very ‘Don’t worry, nothing’s wrong, everything’s cool’ – all of a sudden, everything wasn’t cool. I didn’t know how to deal with that other than writing the pain. That comes through in the first couple of songs, sets up the atmosphere for redemption and rebirth.”
The middle of the album was Will trying to rediscover who he was. For a period of two-and-a-half years when he was in a serious relationship, and in that time lost part of his identity. “It was never just being allowed to be Chris, I had to check everything by these girls – I felt like I lost a bit of me along the way but it turns out I didn’t, it was just dormant.”
It’s pretty easy to identify which areas of the album are the pain and which areas are the journey, particularly in tracks like ‘F.T.W.’.
“That was the last song I wrote for the album,” Will says. “For most of it I self-produced which I’m still learning how to do. That one is someone else’s beat, Damas Beat.
“I had the tune for ‘F.T.W.’ for five years, sitting on my computer, and I was lazy with the lyrics and that song, I didn’t want to write the beat.”
Will loved this tune as a backdrop for what he was trying to say throughout the album. “Even if you’re lost you can try and reinvent yourself,” he says. “I’m working with a pretty good mic but that’s all I’ve got in terms of good equipment. I think for what it turned out to be, I did the absolute best job I could.”
Hip hop, synthetic drums and rapping, this was the best way for Will to get out all of his frustrations in a creative way, because, as he bluntly puts it, he’s too impatient for a band. “I like to write a song quickly and an idea will pop into my head and 36 hours later it’s done – you can’t do that with other people involved, you’ve got to wait.”
To an extent, this was something Will felt he had to do by himself regardless, all part of his greater plan to continue to better himself, and his drive and motivation is admirable. “I’m going back to uni next month because I want my music to get polished and learn as much as I can because I feel like when I make the music for the song, I connect with it a helluva lot more, and if I do it properly, that’ll eventually come through in the sound I’m making – I just need to learn a few things.”
