“Perrero”, Nick Souza’s latest release is making waves around the world amassing over 62,000 streams in the last two weeks on YouTube. His fusion mix of his Brazilian-Canadian heritage highlights his emerging year in the Toronto music scene. Perrero is a perfect combo of both English and Brazilian-Portuguese, as well elements of both North American Hip-Hop and his South American atin influences. Perrero caps off a significant year for Nick with other significant releases such as “Light Show”, “Reason”, and “BAILE”. I am lucky to have sat down with Nick and discuss his previous single. In this interview, I wanted to use my platform to make sure Nick Souza becomes a household name and get to know him more on a personal level.

SPARKY: Please introduce yourself, where you are from, where you have lived/studied/worked and what you have been up to recently.

Nick Souza:

My name is Nick Souza, I’m a Canadian born artist/producer from Toronto, with a Brazilian Immigrant background! I studied and completed the Music Recording Arts Program at Western University/Fanshawe College in June 2022, and I just started working at a lighting and sound production company called ACS this summer where I’m learning about all things tech in live music (stages, PA systems, etc)! I’ve mostly been working my job, working on music, and finding my bearings after finally being in Toronto full time after 5 years of being in London Ontario as a full time student!
Who are some of your influences? How have they specifically impacted your sound?

N: I’d say my main influences are the big Toronto artists (Drake, Weeknd, PND). I feel like I borrow a lot of their moodiness and versatility. I always admired how they can flip from doing dark music to brighter uplifting stuff very easily. Outside of them I would definitely say Anitta, Kevin o Chris and Bad Bunny. I resonate with latin rhythms a lot because of my background and I always admired their innovative songwriting style, production, and authenticity that makes them easy to gravitate to whether or not you speak the same language as them.

How was Perreo produced, what moved you to write it, story behind it, and do you feel it represents a new sound or approach for you?

N: Perreo was produced by my brothers Alejandro Rojas and Daniel Tortos. They had the main beat already put together in a studio session with me and writing it came easily. We were in the middle of the pandemic at the time so in writing it we tried to manifest that cramped basement club vibe that we were all craving from being locked inside for so long. It definitely represents a new maturity in who I am as an artist because before I was mainly a hip hop/rnb act, but there is a whole different musical side of me that I resonate with through my South American heritage which up until recently was totally untapped and unexplored. The response thus far has been overwhelmingly positive so I think I’ve gotten closer to finding my own authentic voice by tapping into my cultural roots.

Where do you hope to go next with your work? Anyone you specifically looking to work with? Any upcoming performances or dream performances?

N: I hope to cross borders with my music and to become a bridge musically and culturally in general between North and South America. I definitely want to work with the biggest artists from both continents and to also introduce genres and their audiences to each other that otherwise wouldn’t have been able to mix. I would love to perform at an OVO Fest or alongside any big artist that I admire, and obviously a sold out arena show is a dream come true for any aspiring artist.

Thank you Nick! It has been an honor chatting with you and getting to know more about you. I believe I am speaking for everyone, we are all looking forward to what is next.

N: Thank you!