kaleidoscope

By: Isaac Brown                    

Hip-hop artist kaleidoscope―a pseudonym for George Fox University (GFU) freshman Aiden Pisarczyk―said that he does not make music to be a type of person or to be a rapper, but simply because music and creating are “important … to be able to survive.”

According to Pisarczyk, to create is “one of the most beautiful things we can do … [because] we were made as creators.” And creativity comes naturally to Pisarczyk: “I was bumping music in my car. I like all these artists. I get tired of it. I have this idea of what I wanted to listen to, and so I just make it.”

“One of my greatest joys in life,” Pisarcyzk said, “is just hearing good music that I made.”  

Pisarczyk started listening to hip-hop in junior high and was inspired by artists like Amine and Migos, along with all the big hip-hop hits of 2014-15. But before long, he said “it was less listening, and more of just studying” his favorite beats and lyrics. Then he was making his own music with his younger brother, emulating his favorite artists and putting his own spin on the patterns.

“I used to be pretty bad,” said Pisarczyk, “but I … just kept on going.” He acknowledged the encouragement of his friend’s and his brother as a major motivation. He said he’s “still growing a lot,” but his recent album drop, EYE$ WIDE, is a testament to his artistic development―not just by the striking quality of the music and lyrical skill, but also by his features of multiple professional hip-hop artists with sizable followings. Dre Wave$ reached out to Pisarczyk and offered to collaborate free of charge, while Pertinence is a good friend of Pisarczyk’s. He said that his dream collaborator is J. Cole, who he called “the most skilled artist” in the hip-hop scene.  

Photo courtesy: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cba4VFbvZNr/

Pisarczyk said, collaborations aside, his goals are to “break [his] way into the live performance scene.” He performed a show in his hometown, Vancouver, WA, and has been thinking about it since. He’s hosting another one this summer and is currently working to schedule even more. Beyond that, Pisarczyk said he’s just going to “keep releasing music … and also start producing my own music … I think it would be really cool if I could make the whole song from start to finish.” He currently works with his producer and long-time friend, Derek, who helps create instrumentals that Pisarczyk writes lyrics to. 

Pisarczyk also offered some insight into his creative process. When he wrote HIGH KEY (his Dre Wave$ collab), he told Derek what sort of feel he wanted, gave the instrumental a listen, then came up with a hook and worked from there. “It just kind of comes to me … I wrote that song in like fifteen minutes. It’s mostly just the recording [that takes the most time] … I want to figure out what tone of voice I want to use and what flows I want to use.”

And lyrics aren’t restricted to the studio: “[I’ll write about] anything cool I notice in my life or … sometimes I’ll be listening to another artist and I’ll really like the way he says something and I’ll just try to say it differently.” Once they’d gotten the HIGH KEY track from Dre Wave$ and put it together with the instrumentals and Pisarczyk’s vocals, he and his producer played the music on headphones, phone speakers, car speakers and all sorts of devices to make sure the production sounded good in all contexts. 

However, Pisarczyk’s artistic career may not be evident to everyone. As a Marketing major who’s seeking “bigger aspirations” through business, he sees overlap in his interest, as both marketing and music are all about creativity. He’s two different people: sometimes a student, sometimes an artist.

And Pisarczyk doesn’t flaunt his title of artist, either. Several people who know Pisarczyk have noted his unpretentious persona, and one student said that “most hip-hop artists feel like they have to have a mean persona,” but that Pisarczyk is comfortable with being a kind person. Pisarczyk said that hip-hop culture is inherently “braggadocious,” and that he’s fine partaking in the culture and being confident about his skill as an artist. But he said that he doesn’t see that interfering with treating people well and acknowledging that he can’t “do everything [him]self.”: “That’s not really who I am.” And Pisarczyk is conscientious of whether his image is reflecting him or not: Pisarczyk doesn’t even like the term “rapper,” because of the stereotypes it comes with. He also acknowledged that he’s a white artist in an essentially black genre, of which he said “I just have to be respectful. That’s the biggest thing.”

Aiden chose the name kaleidoscope because he wanted his music to be a colorful and immersive experience that gives “a whole different perspective on the world … [and] I think it’s a cool word.” If you’re wondering whether his music has earned him the name, you can find his sophomore album, EYE$ WIDE, along with his first drop, Through My Lens, on Spotify and YouTube.