Hailing from Wisconsin, which is rarely associated with producing standout hip hop artists, Von Alexander is looking to change not only the way we listen to music, but also the way we interact socially. With his musical influences ranging from N*E*R*D to Bon Iver, Von isn’t tied to genre restrictions, allowing him to develop a sound he can truly call his own. Today, Mass Appeal premieres the up-and-coming emcee’s new EP, V O N, a project he hopes is a step in the right direction toward his aforementioned career aspirations. Below, he discusses the new project and where he sees himself in the future of music.

Mass Appeal: Where are you from?

I am from the north side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

What influenced your sound?

My sound is influenced from music and artists I’ve enjoyed over the years, from my childhood up onto now. I wasn’t actually raised on rap or any of the music I listen to; I wasn’t allowed to have the luxury of hip hop around the house. I had to find my own ways of getting it. That’s when I discovered the Walkman, listening to the radio and finding different kinds of stations that played of variety of things from rock to hip hop. I just found my own pathway into whatever music I liked. From there, the Internet was my main resource for research once I hit middle school. From A Tribe Called Quest to N*E*R*D, from Nas to Future, or Toro y Moi and Bon Iver, I’m just a fan of music as a whole with no real genre boundaries. I just know what my ears enjoy and these are all sounds that I personally am influenced by.

I take these influences and I try to blend them all into my own creations, whether it be different kinds of flow patterns/rhyme schemes to just me experimenting with other sounds and testing my own limits musically. I place my main focus around developing my own vibe because I’d enjoy being the influence for someone else one day.

What are you trying to change in the world ?

One thing I’m trying to change in the world is how we view one another and ourselves. Too many things steer our minds and our opinions when it comes to accepting who we are as well as accepting others. Social media has its own certain power that makes people focus on so many things just to feel accepted by peers. We care for likes and comments on our physical appearances, we waste time on our phones when we could use more of that time building futures and being productive, we don’t spend enough time learning about ourselves and how to love our individuality/originality. We’re so easily influenced to want to be “like” someone else. And if you’re somehow not identified a certain way or placed in a certain box, you feel as if you don’t meet these invisible standards of others. It’s weird and I could speak on that for a while, so I hope that makes sense.

That’s what I desire to change in the world, just to adjust our mind frames a bit.

What do you see for your future and the future of music?

For my future, I see longevity. I see myself being able to contribute to more than just the world of music, but the world as a whole in some form. I see a lot of  impossible “dreams” becoming very possible for me.

I see the future of music shifting, sounds are still changing and developing. It’s one of the greatest influences of today’s society, with something new always happening within the genres and cultures. I think it’ll only continue to grow and really become a larger power for changes in how we live daily.

What can you tell me about the making of this project?

The making of V O N was a very spontaneous thing, definitely the most unplanned thing I’ve ever done. A lot of this music was made in such a comfortable space for me, I saw no limits with what I wanted to say or make. Before I knew this was going to be what it is, I was just trying to develop a sound, thinking real hard on what I should sound like. I wrote “W A V E S” recorded it and dropped it sometime in October with no real plan set in mind.

Maybe toward the end of October, two weeks before I dropped “D R E A M S,” on a Sunday I had booked a studio session to record. I had just wrote “D R E A M S” the very night before, like my homie who produced it dropped it on SoundCloud and I wrote my first verse right away, next thing I know I’m recording the entire track the next day. Right before I go to the session, maybe an hour or two ahead of time, my boy Yoshi calls me and wants to do a quick photo shoot before we head to the session. So we knock out the shoot, go to the session, I get home, I’m listening to “D R E A M S” and looking through photos, next thing I know I’m making cover art and announcing an EP the very next day.

So this was really just a very impulsive thing, me acting on my instinct of impulse is very rare, but something told me to just roll with whatever ideas came to my mind. Now I have this 7-track project all in a month’s time, featuring some close friends of mine.

The production on this project was just as impulsive; I was getting beats like a week and sometimes day or two before sessions I had scheduled, but I’m glad it all worked out and that everyone was willing to be apart of this speeding train.