After being told countless times that he would never make it, TX2 stopped by the idobi Studios to chat with Nick Major about his recent found success. In this captivating interview with the young, emerging artist, Nick delves into his remarkable journey of self-discovery and sonic evolution.
From his early experiences playing in rock bands during his middle school days to later experimenting with rap and hip-hop influences, TX2‘s musical path has been a dynamic and evolving one. He shares how the tragic loss of one of his bandmates in a car accident shifted his focus towards rap, yet he felt inauthenticity in his early endeavors.
Despite starting to find his place in music, TX2‘s self-discovery extended beyond his musical identity. He shares candidly about his journey of embracing his bisexuality, revealing that being his most authentic self has become his greatest strength and the reason people connect with his music. Check out TX2’s full interview with Nick Major below and tune into more artist interviews here.
I’m genuinely so stoked that you were able to stop by today because I have been such a fan of your music ever since I came across you on Tiktok. Absolutely killing it. When I kept seeing clips for “I Would Hate Me Too.” I think it’s really interesting your musical past in general. What kind of created who you are now because looking back you’ve done other releases under the name TX2. In 2018 and 19 you released some albums—one of them was 99 Proof. And the other one that you did was the Modern Punk. They’re very rap albums. They’re hip-hop stuff, great flows, and great songs. In your musical past what kind of led you to where you are now with stuff that was on like Drop Dead? I feel like that’s where we really got to hear the rock side of you.
So a lot of people don’t know this. In middle school, I was playing in rock bands. I started on the drums when I was five years old and then my brother played guitar. My mom put us on instruments so it was like our way of bonding. And then we played in a band and when he was in high school and I was in middle school everyone else was in high school. We were playing all sorts of shows, rock shows. And we’d play everything from System Of A Down covers to Nickelback, everything. So that’s kind of where a lot of my influence comes up. That’s where the rock influence came from and that’s what I grew up with. And then I think in high school the band broke up because there was that whole, ‘I’m never going to make it’ mentality.
Unfortunately one of the singers died in a car accident And I was like, ‘I’ve decided I’m going to be a rap artist, but like mix in elements of rock.’ Rapping is like drumming with words and I didn’t know how to sing and I could never sing. I just didn’t believe in myself as a singer. I started rapping and I think it was inauthentic when I started doing it.
And then 2018 came around and I released a song called “Living Punk Rock,” which is like punk rock rap. I actually liked Death Grips and was like taking like a weird influence from that at that time. But then that didn’t work and I kind of tried the rock-rap thing and then eventually took vocal lessons, learned I could sing and I was like, ‘This is my chance. Now it’s time to sing, rap, and do rock music all together.’
Did anything happen in particular to where you had some self-realization of who you wanted to be, of who the authentic version of you was?
Yeah, I moved out of my parents’ house. [Laughs.] So in 2018, I was able to like think about who I really was without a critical lens over myself and without judgment. Because in high school, I felt like I was bullied out of what I thought was cool into trying to be this rapper which I thought would have made people like me if I was doing something like that and I was so wrong. I was like the Soundcloud rapper school joke. Then [in] 2018, [I] moved out of my house, moved out of my hometown, and I finally got a chance to recreate myself. That’s how I was able to slowly start taking steps.
There’s no timeline on anything in life, I don’t think, but it is interesting how in hindsight you can look back thinking on something that you thought would make you feel good, something that you thought would make you fit in. But at the end of the day what’s actually working for you now is being your most authentic self.
Yeah, definitely. You know, it’s weird. I basically have realized in the last like six months the more I can just reveal about all of the shitty things and the good things, everything that makes me me, is the only thing that I will have as a “competitive edge,” is a reason for people to care.
An example: I’m bisexual/pansexual. I wasn’t able to talk about that most of my life. And then now that I’ve finally had a chance in the last six months to openly talk about that, it’s cool that I can just go full force and say, “I fucked every gender!”