Q&A with Blackwill: "I’d say dark trap can be listened to just like any other genre"
When your music can be described using words typically reserved for the sounds made by supernatural beings of fantasy and horror (i.e. gut-wrenching shrieks, hair-raising wails, guttural roars) then it stands to reason you'll get more than a few people asking "What the hell is this?" Add a generous touch of trap stylings, and you're in uncharted sonic territory that's not the easiest sell.
For Puerto Rican dark trap pioneer Blackwill, tethering that divide between his music and listeners is a challenge he leans into. As an unofficial ambassador of the genre, he knows how to talk about the music in ways that communicate his earnest feelings about how — despite its nightmare-inducing visuals and ear-splitting intensity — it's a genuinely therapeutic outlet that can be embraced by anyone willing to give it a chance.
He and his band recently released WARLORDS: RUIN, a sampling of their live work and a demonstration of how it translates from the studio to the stage. It's an excellent introduction to his music, with tracks like "PIRANHA: RUIN" showing off the frenzied cacophony of dark trap while also offering a smattering of moments for the live instrumentals to shine through, all while Blackwill raps his heart (and tonsils) out like a banshee trapped in a cage.
In an exclusive interview with Listening Party, Blackwill talks about how the chaos of dark trap actually helps to soothe his emotions when they feel too raw, how the community of fans in Puerto Rico is growing, the misconceptions about the genre from those who don't understand it, and more.
(The following quotes have been translated, edited, and condensed for clarity.)
What’s your name, and where are you from?
My name is William, a.k.a. Blackwill. I was born & raised in Mayagüez, until I was 6. Then from 6 to 17 I lived in Arecibo, and from 17 to 24 I went back to Mayagüez when I was in college, and now I'm in San Juan.
How did you get into dark trap? As a listener, what about that subgenre caught your interest?
Dark trap came into my life around 2015-2016 when there was a boom that included groups like $uicideboy$, and other artists from that scene, that got a boost. That style of music really appealed to me, and around that time a friend called me and asked “Hey, are you still making beats? Why don’t you make one and we can both hop on it?” And that’s how we started. I recorded my first song by myself at home, out of boredom, and I just kept on doing it.
I did it because I loved it, I felt comfortable, and it’s really fun to explore the vibe. What I liked about it is that it’s very similar to metal music, and the lyrics, the vibe, and the culture around it reminds me a lot of metal. And I’ve been listening to metal since I began to start paying attention to music, around 9 or 10 years old, up to this day.
Before you started your dark trap career as Blackwill, did you ever explore other genres? Why did you choose dark trap?
Before singing as Blackwill I experimented with metal, and tried to form bands with people, but... not to say that I didn’t have friends, because I was a very sociable person and had lots of people around me, but in regards to people who wanted to make music with me, those weren’t really in the panorama, unfortunately. I had musician friends, but [back then] they didn’t wanna do this project with me, and that’s fine too.
So, I started doing metalcore and deathcore alone at home. At school I had a few projects where I’d record the guitar, the bass, and vocals. In college, as a freshman, I got inspired to produce a little electronic music, sort of colour bass. I did like four tracks only, and then set it aside. And after that is when Blackwill was born.
I feel that as someone who loves metal culture so much, and loves punk culture so much, and loves this whole community and how its art manifests itself, I saw so many similarities in dark trap to those. And that in turn made my path as an artist easier; networking was easier, producing the music was easier, and the acceptance from people was easier to come by. Because it’s not metal, so it doesn’t have that stigma. It’s based on beats, and influenced by underground metal and underground hip-hop, and it all comes together. All those [elements] from both worlds, the rap and metal, fuse together as dark trap.
How does one "listen" to dark trap? That is to say, considering the lyrics can be often incomprehensible, and the production very chaotic, is it more about the energy around the songs? What would you suggest to people who want to approach dark trap as listeners?
I’d say dark trap can be listened to just like any other genre. It’s a highly energetic sound. If it has trap metal influences, like mine, it’s going to be very heavy. Other artists might perform it slower, lighter, but it’s still a very high-energy genre of music. People say that the vocals are sometimes incomprehensible, which comes from the trap metal influence, because we use very guttural voices or metal screams, or even some mumble rap influence, and that’s just part of the vibe [of the song.] I’d say, yeah, you should [focus] on the energy of the music and how it makes you feel.
If I were to give advice to someone about how to listen to dark trap, I’d say do it when you feel you need to release some energy. When you have to do something you don’t want to do, but have to. When you have to confront your fears. When you have to put a lot of effort into something. I think it's good music for confrontation, of any kind. Be it personal, professional, musical — it’s a [soundtrack] for confronting things.
Do you have an example of when music has been a balm, or therapeutic, in your life?
Music has always been that patch I put on life’s blown tires. Creating music and listening to music, both, has been what’s motivated me, sustained me, and [for example] got me through my grandparent’s deaths. In fact, even though this might sound strange, at my grandfather’s funeral I took a picture of him and started writing a song. As in, I had my laptop in my car, and in the middle of the service I took myself aside and put on my headphones and started writing.
Those are all healing processes. Some people like to journal, or to talk to to other people, but other cases are different. When — as in my case — you’re someone who offers their shoulder to friends and acquaintances a lot, who comforts the comforter? Who do we lean on? To me, it’s art. I lean on art.
What is the dark trap community like in Puerto Rico? What's the thing you like the most about it?
Honestly, I didn’t see a community form per se until me and some friends formed a collective — that doesn’t exist anymore, for creative and personal differences — called RealDeadBoys. We started creating music and putting ourselves out there, and slowly the enthusiasm led us to do various shows around the area. We were at La Respuesta, we were at El Nie, we were at El Ensayo, all of this pre and post-pandemic. And I feel that built a community that shared the same interests. I’m not saying it wasn’t [entirely] there before, but I never saw it, y’know?
The feedback I’ve heard is that us and people who are, like, contemporaneous of us, have been the ones who built and lead this current dark trap scene. There’s not a lot of artists doing this kind of music, and I always like motivating people to do it if they like it because the community is there now.
The scene right now is a combination of metal fans and hip-hop fans who are mixing together and going to our shows, or shows by other artists. I’d use Chri$ Mirror$ as an example as someone who does music that’s maybe not too similar to mine, but is still doing something that’s a valid representation of this scene that’s growing.
With this live EP, what were your artistic goals? Was there a specific vibe you wanted to capture that maybe you can't express in your studio albums?
I wanna capture the essence of how we’re reproducing these songs live with just instruments, no beats, and with musicians who are helping me translate this music to the live experience without losing its color and energy. For people who have seen me live they’ll be able to take away the familiarity they have with my shows. And in the inverse, people will also be able to hear the music but manifested live as an alternative to how they might have listened to it on Spotify.
It’ll sound completely new, completely different, and it’ll unify more these fans of both metal and trap who go to our shows.
How does a song like “DRAIN,” for example, come together when multiple artists are involved? What is the coordination like when it's time to write it, record it, produce it, etc.?
A song like that, which had one producer and three artists, takes a lot of time to come together. In this case, I spearheaded the idea behind it. I reached out to these two artists (Aku No Heavy, Nxxses) who had invited me to perform in North Carolina — my first show outside of Puerto Rico — and I wanted to honor this bond we made by creating this [formal collaboration]. I was in the middle coordinating all four of us: me, the two artists, and the producer.
Anything is possible as long as you have your microphone, your recording equipment, or access to a studio. Initially I talked to the producer, ARAGOTH, because he had a beat he had made for me. I knew I wanted that beat for this song, and so I reached out to the other two artists. I told them it was a “street fight” style track, with that confrontational trap metal vibe but in the setting of a literal street fight and we’d be narrating what’s happening in the fight and the fighter’s point-of-view. They sent me their parts super fast, and after a few adjustments, I sent the demo to the producer and he mixed and mastered it. I feel these days, with the internet and all, working with people who share goals and ideas isn’t that difficult at all.
What do you feel is the biggest misconception people have about dark trap and its community?
I think the misconceptions people have are tied to the fear of what they don’t understand, and also how innately intense this music is. It’s just a fact that this music scares people and leaves a strong impression, especially when you’re talking about metal. With dark trap, it still sounds dark but it tends to be a little bit more harmonious.
And when you talk about this kind of art, it’s actually an expression of these repressed feelings you carry and also putting a mirror up to society of these topics that are very charged, and that metal and hip-hop are very vocal about. And the artwork often represents this sort of self-reflection towards the world. Even if it looks “diabolical,” it’s more poetic than that. More than just horror. Although I do think horror and dark alternative music have the same purpose, in that they give people an introspective view at all the shadow work that you don’t want to admit or talk about.
And the truth is, when people look at these artists you can feel the prejudice and judgment over us and our personalities, and they don’t look beyond the surface. Me myself, I’m a golden retriever! I’m so sweet in person, but the healthy way for me to release my emotions is putting a two-way mirror between me and the world and becoming this aggressive person. When in real life, I don’t have the time to do that.
You work in the healthcare industry aside from your music career; how daunting is that challenge of balancing both professions? How do your colleagues react when they hear your songs?
I’m a nurse, and I’m also a clinical studies coordinator, specifically in pharmacy. Balancing [my music and my job] is difficult, I’m not gonna lie, because dividing yourself between the two takes a lot of energy from me. Right now, my professional life is what funds my life as an artist, but what I most desire is to live from my art. I know at some point I’ll be able to tilt the balance more towards the creative and live from that, but the burnout is real. And the difference is notable from when I can give find the time and space to dedicate to my art as opposed to when I can’t. Being able to concentrate on my music and give it my all depends a lot of whether or not I’m [physically] at 100%.
I love both professions. I love my vocation, I love being a healthcare professional. It does fulfill me, it makes me happy, but being creative fulfills my soul in a much different way.
A lot of people don’t see the link between being a rock or trap metal artist and this profession, but I think it just makes me more human. I thought [my coworker's] reactions would be a whole lot more intense than they actually were. But people were pretty great about it; they ask me how it’s going, when do I perform next, they send me well wishes. I’ve run into people at my shows who I’ve seen at work, who’re checking me out. It just goes to show you that everybody who has a 7-to-3 has [distinct] lives outside of their jobs.
For those who like your music, which artists would you recommend, from both Puerto Rico and outside?
I’d recommend a lot of local music. Bands like Manra, FRENZY, Out of Hand, TAPABOKA. Local artists like Someone New and RENSA, who’re my guitarist and back-up singer and also have their own solo projects.
Outside of Puerto Rico there’s many artists who are great. Some of the more mainstream ones are $uicideboy$ and Night Lovell. And there’s also Witchhouse 40k, KAMAARA, Saliva Grey, and 99zed. Those are artists that bring the same vibe that I do, too.