Exposed Vocals Interviews RAY Rockman
RAY Rockman is a rapper from atlanta, “RAY” in RAY Rockman honers his grandfather that passed away before he was born ( All caps because we do it big) and “Rockman” honers his middle name and two family legacies. His style consists of Melodic singing mixed with a hard hitting rap which he likes to call ” RAY gun”
Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?
RAY Rockman: I was born in the city of Atlanta, Georgia to a white, Jewish family. My parents got a divorce so I lived with my mom until she met my stepdad and now we are currently living in Lilburn, Georgia. A friend in the 6th grade passed me a note saying that we would make $100 a week rapping. This was total B.S but it got me into writing lyrics and I’ve been making music ever since
Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?
RAY Rockman: The name RAY comes from my grandfather that died before I was born. I decided to put the name in all caps because our family always does it BIG (I also used to play a lot of COD and the ray gun is the best gun in the game). Rockman is my middle name and honestly I just think it sounds badass. I like to think that RAY Rockman is the creative side of me while my regular name and life is where I get my inspiration from.
Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
RAY Rockman: I think it is 100% necessary to put your music out for free. I would rather have 10,000 fans listen to my music without having to pay then selling 100 tapes and not even making near to what it costs to make the music. You can still monetize your music even when it is for free and then sell your music to core fans at concerts. Physical copies are basically merch at this point so a mixture of selling and not selling is a good mixture for me.
Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?
RAY Rockman: I’m in a group with another rapper called “Trilla Kid” so you guys should definitely check him out.
Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?
RAY Rockman: My life. I live a nice and relatable teenage suburban life. People can relate to my life so why would I try to be anything different. I usually just take stories of my life or feelings from my life and channel them into my music. Most of the time its positive however I also rap about the not so positive things of suburban life.
Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?
RAY Rockman: I like my traffic coming in through soundcloud.com. I don’t care if you call me a “soundcloud rapper” I make good music and that’s the platform I chose to be loyal to at this point. Expect more music on other websites such as Spotify, Youtube, and Itunes.
Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?
RAY Rockman: Flip it. Make so much music. Work with all my favorite producers and other artists. Promote and invest in other endeavors. My whole team would be treated well. I would still probably wear white T-shirts, drive my mom’s Subaru and live in the same house. Basically I would make the best product possible and still be able to be inspired by my suburban life.
Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?
RAY Rockman: Hustle. Telling literally everybody I know while having my fans post it to their Instagram or twitter followers. Having those people tell those people and the cycle continues. Taking advantage of the internet also helps. Anywhere where I can post a link. I know it may seem unprofessional but in all honesty screw being professional I just want people to enjoy my creations.
Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?
RAY Rockman: My group, “2Tru” are going to be making music throughout the whole summer and releasing a mixtape once the school year starts. We will have collaborations with bigger artists that we currently cannot say the name of (We are crazy excited though).
Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
RAY Rockman: Either studying or doing something else that is creative. After I answer these questions I’m going to be studying for finals so that kind of sums it up.
Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?
RAY Rockman: That is probably the toughest barrier that I face. Making it big in this industry will require overwhelming work and money and that is a huge stress for me. I have learned to balance my other responsibilities by simply just toughing it out and being productive with my time.
Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?
RAY Rockman: I just wanted to say I just turned 16. So I am still developing as a person and as an artist. More music will be on the way, more collaborations will be on the way and honestly I have no idea what the future holds because only months ago I didn’t even think I would be seriously making music and have fans that want more and more music. I just want to thank you guys for this interview and this has been RAY Rockman.