Introducing Enrii Mart, a Toronto-based independent singer-songwriter. He first found his love for music when he serenaded a childhood crush with an Adele song. He took on this passion head-on and brought it upon himself to learn the skills required to pursue his dream. Though he is an alternative-pop artist, he found himself inspired by rock and old songwriting styles. Enrii Mart would like to take the old songwriting styles he is influenced by and mix them with the new modern ways of producing and delivering music. I had a chance to speak with Enrii Mart about his new music and inspirations which lead to a conversation about self-help and how his life impacts how he writes his music.

SPARKY: Tell me about your process as a songwriter. Where do you get most of your inspiration from?

Enrii Mart: The content that I make refers to my life and the issues that I am going through in that particular moment. I am also into self-help, so I try to apply ideologies to my music. The fears that I have to face in my personal life generally inspire the content I choose to talk about. Musically, I’m inspired by David Bowie's experimental sound, Coldplay’s songwriting, and new production like Frank Ocean. My inspiration changes depending on what I’m listening to, I don’t limit myself to one genre specifically. I can be influenced by artists like Elliot Smith or I could be influenced by Nirvana which is harder rock. All these influences and inspirations depend on what mood I’m in.

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You recently released your new song “Maybe I’m Wrong,” what is this song about? Does it hold any particular meaning to you? How do you want listeners to feel when listening to it?

EM: In a way, this song is about about a break-up but it is about someone questioning what they have done wrong. It is about coming to that point of an argument where you realize “Oh, maybe I’m wrong.” It takes two people to come to a point of chaos, not just one person. This song portrays that aspect of accountability and wanting to fix things even if they’re already messed up. In the middle of the song, there is a transition that shows different emotions, there’s some intensity with the drums in the verse which can be portrayed as aggression but there is also a pleading tone. After, the transition, then comes in where everything is calm and there is the realization of being wrong.

These situations (break-ups) teach us what we have done wrong and show us what not to repeat in the future. This is where my idea of bringing self-help into my music comes in. The relationship between the artist and audience is weird, the artist means one thing with their song then the audience is perceiving it from their perspective/experience. So a line from a song might not be significant to the artist but it could possibly impact the listener’s life or mind, which I think is beautiful. That is why I try to make my music broad in the sense that whoever needs to take information can take it.

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Let’s talk about the music video process and shooting it with an iPhone.

EM: My friend, Cory Pitman who directed and produced the video, usually does bigger-budget videos. But I showed him my album, he enjoyed this song and wrote a treatment for it and showed me the idea which I liked. But when it came to discussing things with a not-so-big budget, we got it figured out by asking for favours. The editing was done by Sara Sidheri, who has done two of my other music videos, and she absolutely killed it. She executed the vision perfectly.

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How long did that take?

EM: The process took about two weeks to put everything together. On the day of the shoot, we started at 9 AM and then wrapped at 2 AM. We shot at the waterfall in Hamilton and on the way back from that, we got in some stand-still traffic. While we were in the traffic, we got out and took some footage in between the cars but that didn’t quite work with the video. It was a really cool experience! We went to the second location for two hours, then to the other locations where we wrapped at 2 AM. It was a very intense day.

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What is one piece of advice that you’d give a younger Enrii Mart?

EM: To make sure that your actions are not driven by fear. Right now I’m working on this thing where I have this fear of not making it or not being good enough. This is what drives the action of practicing but what if you are able to switch the intent and reasoning of why you are doing things, then things can be purer. So it’s something like “Okay, I want to do this so I am able to offer *this* to people” instead of “I’m doing this because I fear not getting to a certain place.” But at the same time, I would not be where I am now without that fear pushing me. So there is this question of how much fear is good and how much fear just makes you miserable. You have to find the balance and toy around with the fear until you find that balance.

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What’s next for Enrii Mart?

EM: I have this project that is seven songs long. The last three songs that have been released are from this project. But my goal is to be able to release it or continue releasing singles depending on how it’s received by people. At the same time, I also have eight songs that I’ve written acoustically and haven’t even brought them to the production table or even thought about how the production is going to sound. I want them to be super good acoustically and very solid in that way. So what’s next is to start producing them, release the project I already have, and then from there continue growing.

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Are you happy with where you are in your music journey right now? How do you think you’re doing?

EM: Yea! I feel like I’m doing fine. There are a lot of things to learn and I’m slowly learning that even if I have to pay attention to some other places in my life that are related to music, that also helps me with music because it gives me content to create. Those experiences give me the knowledge to be able to music create from because the job is to deliver music that can help people. So how do I do that job? By being the best version of myself. What does that entail? That entails being able to combat my own fears and struggles.

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What’s one dream that you have as an artist?

EM: I’d love to collaborate with Harry Styles or Frank Ocean. This is me manifesting it right now, those are the two artists that are amazing to me. Harry Styles's latest album is mainly pop, but he also has those elements of old rock that you don’t really hear in pop music anymore. Frank Ocean is very brave with his music and has found his own niche, his music doesn’t sound like the pop music you hear today but the audience is there. That shows that if you stick to your core, you’ll be able to produce the music you want.

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After answering all of my questions, Enrii Mart and I continued to have a rather insightful conversation about facing fears, the learning that comes with being in the music industry, and how he wants his music to be driven by his life. It was a wonderful conversation and I wish Enrii Mart nothing but the best in his future projects. Make sure to check out the Maybe I’m Wrong music video and follow @enriimart on IG to stay updated on his upcoming projects.