Inside the Mind of Heyzeus

It was June of 2019 when I first saw Heyzeus perform. The memory still rings fondly almost six and a half years later, standing atop the Wayne Street parking garage in downtown South Bend for a GIIVENS installation. The sun had set, the crowd had fully gathered, and the energy was live when it came time for Heyzeus to headline the night. Seeing the local art scene in such a flourishing moment was a first for me. That year was a rush of new experiences, a coming of age that everyone grows romantic about—for at least one point in their life.

Here we are now, the world has turned a handful of times since. I sit alongside Heyzeus inside the Rocki Button. The quiet pre-opening hours of the artist-run establishment gave us pause to fully admire the walls that were outfitted with different pieces from countless artists from the community. Like a monument to the 574 art scene, or that old hallway in your high school with every winning team and sports legend, the interior of the Rocki Button is lined with so much South Bend art. And now joining me is a vital figure of that community;

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SOURCE: To those who may not know you, who is Heyzeus?

Heyzeus: Most people would know me from music. I'm a rapper, but I would say that's kind of like my second art love. I got into art because I wanted to do graphic designing and wanted to make streetwear merch and stuff like that. And music kind of just happened along the way. And I just became a little bit of both, just an artist all around.

SOURCE: As a lover of a good origin story, where did the name Heyzeus originate from?

Heyzeus: Honestly it was ridiculously random. I have like a weird wonky appreciation for Greek mythology, so when I first got into doing graphic design I would do a lot of pieces that involved pillars and stuff like that. So like I kind of wanted to do Zeus as like an art moniker, and then I just added Jesus to it but then I spelled it weird. And then once I got into music that was already the thing that people were calling me. I have like the worst artist's origin name story ever, I always get jealous hearing the good ones. [laughs]

SOURCE: Are you a native of the 574?

Heyzeus: Born and raised. I went to Riley High School, shout out to Riley. Growing up a lot of South Bend kids want to get out and travel, and see these big cities. But the older you get the more you realize South Bend isn't that bad, its pretty chill here. [smiles warmly]

SOURCE: I feel like everyone has their South Bend renaissance moment.

Heyzeus: It definitely hit me hard. A lot of my friends thought we got to get out of here, young 20s trying to travel and doing our art, trying to get into bigger markets and just meet more people. And that's what we did, so to do those experiences it was funny to be in other places that we couldn't wait to go to and think like, "Man, I kind of can't wait to go back home."

That familiarity is something that you appreciate the older you get. Having a community of people that you can relate to on a lot of different things, not only like the things that you artistically are doing, but where we come from. So it's been dope grow up in an area and fall in love with it the older that you get.

SOURCE: What was your very first creative memory?

Heyzeus: My dad is actually an artist, so growing up I would always be around some form of art from others. But for me personally, I would go to the Boys and Girls Club here, and me and my friends would trace Dragon Ball Z characters and different other anime characters and cartoon shows that we would watch. But then I was a big basketball fan as a kid, still am.

So I would like take magazine covers and try to redraw certain ones that I had. I had this really cool Tracy McGrady cover that I wanted to redraw, I don't think I ever finished it. But those are my childhood memories of wanting to draw and kind of knowing that I wanted to get into art in some kind of way, but not really knowing what direction. I kind of wanted to follow after my dad but realizing like, "Man, Drawing art is a lot." [laughs]

SOURCE: So your father was an illustrator?

Heyzeus: He would paint and he would do a lot of color pencil, family portraits of people. He would do a lot of oil canvases and stuff like that. I would always remember being a kid and seeing all types of art supplies around the house and wanting to be more involved into that aspect of art. But you know, just being a kid and really not being good at it, but still just wanting to try it out and to do it.

I think growing up I kind of just always drifted towards kids that made art, like most of my friends throughout life have been some form of artist. The older I got and I've realized how crazy that is, it's not intentional, you're just making friends. So it's cool to have been surrounded by all of this artistic creative culture without realizing it.

SOURCE: When did you know that you wanted to pursue music as faithfully as you have?

Heyzeus: [laughs] It was much later in my life, like my mid 20s. Starting my artistic journey it was mostly graphic design. I would do art covers for other music artists. That's kind of like the cool irony of my journey, it began working with rappers, whether it's designing show flyers, designing album covers, their merch. And then that's what kind of like allowed me to enter into the music. A few of my buddies were always recording so I would kind of like tag along and get into it. But the earlier years, I never really took it seriously. It was just kind of like fun to do, like hanging out with the homies, you know. They're rapping, I'll rap too. But I knew that it was a great gateway to get into the merch.

Like I always wanted to still do the clothing, but music was like the gateway to that. But then as I would do more music stuff, I kind of just pushed everything else to the back burner.

So I want to say like 2015-16, maybe a little bit before then. It was kind of when it clicked in my mind that not only do I enjoy doing this, but it is allowing me to grow as an artist personally, and I'm able to meet and connect with so many other artists that are new to the field and trying to get established as well. I'm a person loves to be around other creatives. I think that's what has allowed me to grow and be always as inspired as I am. Just watching and seeing their routines and like the little things that they kind of geek and nerd out about.

"existential crisis" by Heyzeus

SOURCE: Was college something that ever crossed your radar?

Heyzeus: No, never. I knew in high school I was a pretty good student. When I got to my senior year I got the worst case of senioritis. It was like nah once this is over, I do not want to go to college, I don't want to deal with it. I had a few friends that were already in college so my senior year I just heard a lot of bad stories like people going for certain electives or certain degrees and realizing like man this is not for me. I think more than anything I didn't want to waste my time, and I didn't financially want to put myself in a position where I was in school learning something that I didn't fully want to dedicate time and effort to. And I didn't want to mentally put myself in a bad position. So I knew I'll just start working. I was trying to build to whatever is next.

At the time I honestly didn't even know music was that thing. But I knew that college would have probably been more of a hindrance for me than helpful.

SOURCE: What were those early hustle years like living with Terrible Tony?

Heyzeus: I don't even want to say dead-end jobs, but just working wherever we could, you know, working all day though and at night. Off days we would make art. And it was funny because even back then we had a lot of plans and goals of what we wanted to do and where we wanted to be artistically, but for us even with all the planning we just had fun making art, and still do to this day. A lot of those principles that we thought about or were developed back then kind of hold true to who we are as creatives. It was a bunch of kids that worked on art in high school and then after high school it's just like, "What now?" But the world is entering in a place where the internet is so important and prominent, and it's easy to pull out your phone and see an artist making a living.

So it's hard to tell a bunch of artists that you can't really do that. It's like, no, we see it like every day. We see it more and more that artists are carving out real careers, they're able to fund their lives and feed themselves and do all these dream things that you really didn't put on an artist at one point in time. So for us, it was like we're having all this fun and we're having all these crazy moments. And we didn't realize how much it was building our futures, but it was. I think because we focused on so much fun, it allowed us to create like unconsciously, you know? Like you're not creating from the source of like, "All right, this is the next thing that's going to make me rich." It was just like, you have a crazy idea and you try it out. If it sticks it sticks, if it doesn't, you move on to the next thing, but you don't stop.

That's definitely the thing that I learned from Tony the most. He was drawing every day, he was always doing something artistic and even still I admire that about him because he is like the definition of what an artist is, if you see him he's covered in paint, he's always thinking about art. For me it's a reminder that there is at least one person in the world that is doing something that he loves to do every day no matter what. That fuels me knowing that there are more Tony's in the world, a consistent inspiration to keep going, You can have a day where you're just not feeling it, but the next day, work on something or put yourself back into that creative mode or energy you'll figure it out from there for sure.

SOURCE: So what is your experience like now pursuing art full-time as a career?

Heyzeus: It's cool. I would be lying if I said it was the best ever, but I love it. I would think about days working 9 to 5 and thinking "Man if I just had X amount of time to do this." And then flash forward to being a full time artist and you have all that time, but you don't have that stability of certain things and you have to use all of your resources. For me it was tough early on because growing up I was never like the most vocal person. Even getting into music it was super weird and awkward for a lot of years because I've always just been a really quiet reserved person. But music, especially doing it full time, it forces you to have conversations, sometimes they're uncomfortable conversations.

Sometimes you have to go against the grain or do something that is "not the norm" for you. But I think it's been great for me personally because it has allowed me to figure out more things that I truly want as an artist. Starting out, it was a lot of freelance, and you're doing things that other people are requesting. I still do freelance stuff, so it's like a blessing. But earlier on, when everything that you're doing is the idea of someone else, it kind of reminds you of working at a job. It's like I'm doing the thing that I want to do, but I'm not, I'm still answering to someone else.

You kind of realize being independent artist, even though you don't have the stress or you don't have a boss looking over you, you still have to make those conscious efforts of getting up every day, wanting to work, wanting to grow, wanting to be better, wanting to figure out what the next step is, what's the next journey. I am appreciative of having a great community around to bounce off ideas and inspiration. It definitely has its ups and downs, but I wouldn't trade it. I'm able to create how I want to whenever I want to, I'm able to travel as much as I need to with the artistry. So I've been able to kind of carve out a nice schedule and I've been able to connect with a lot more artists that I probably wouldn't have been back in the past.

"Lethal Shooter" by Heyzeus

SOURCE: How has the South Bend art scene evolved over the years?

Heyzeus: Man, it's grown so much, and I say that with the hopes that it continues to grow. I hope that the area does not get in a place where it's stagnant or like, "We've grown enough, we don't need to change anymore." Like I said, growing up here it didn't seem like we had a big art scene or community. But then as I've gotten older, you realize there was one or there were always pockets of the community there. But I think now over the years we've realized how much we can grow together, and it's always cliché to hear and say stuff like that, but it's so true.

This community over the years has shown me so much that together, so many things that you kind of think are like impossible or would be really tough to pull off, have been able to be done. Taking Lauren Steinhofer, for instance, with Yart. Being around a person for years and hearing ideas, seeing them grow from small steps to something that is on so many people's calendars. It's awesome to know that a person in the community that we go to the same places, we eat in the same restaurants, a person that I will call my friend, is responsible for a festival that brings together thousands of people.

There's so many festivals and venues, even where we are now, like the Rocki Button. There are fundamental places here now that we didn't have before, and it's a credit to how much the community has grown.

SOURCE: What are your keys to consistency and self-discipline within your craft, and avoiding burnout on top of that?

Heyzeus: Something as simple as like pulling out my phone using my calendar app.

You have access to a walking planner with you. So for me, it was making sure that I schedule, write down, or take notice of all the things that I have to do. And if burnout approaches, recognizing that it's there and sometimes you really can't fight through it. Sometimes you do need to take a break. Like, "All right I need to say no, I need to turn down this opportunity." And maybe it sucks in the moment but it could be better for you. I would never want to be in a position where I'm doing a show or doing an event and I'm not giving it 100%.

I think that's what helped me along my journey is I treat everything like it's performing at the Grammys. Whether it is an open mic or whether it is a festival show, it's all important. It's all reps. It's all a part of the story.

Remembering that as much as you love it, as much as it is fun, you can get burnt out and not letting that discourage you. Trust your body. If you love what you're doing; that creativeness, that passion, that fire comes back, but sometimes you just need to rest your brain rest your mind trust yourself to get back to that routine.

SOURCE: Take me through Home Grown Hype and South Bend Don't Break?

Heyzeus: Home Grown Hype was actually started by Reminisce X as basically like a creative baby of hers that she brought along myself and Toast to help her kind of carve out. It's a collective that we started with showcasing local artists. And particularly because two of the three of us are rap artists we wanted to make sure that with all of the new the newfound love of South Bend music and South Bend art culture that we still have a foundation that is pushing local rap artists.

It started with us wanting to highlight local rap artists in the area, but then it pushed to us. highlighting just the community in general. And it kind of showed us you can have this idea that is particular to one thing, and as awesome as that is, that is not big enough for the grand scheme of the idea. And that was a great lesson for us to learn. We were able to meet so many other artists and realizing a lot of our journeys are super similar. Home Grown Hype essentially was an artist hub. Even to this day we just want to continue to highlight local entities and local community.

Our motto, "grow your own flowers," reminding artists that as much as you want to have that recognition from other people, it starts with yourself. It starts with making sure that you are dedicated to your artistry more than anyone else.

You have to learn the business of what you're doing. That was one of the biggest hiccups I had early on is not really knowing the business of making art and the business of doing shows and needing equipment. Do you have speakers? Do you have microphones?

There are a lot of variables that come along with it. If it's something that you really want to take seriously and that you believe that you can profit from and want to go on tour, you have to learn how to do contracts and learn things a lot of us don't want to do. If you're a local artist you don't have management team. You got to learn those things, and so Home Grown Hype essentially was kind of just started to remind artists to dive into those principles early in your journey.

As far as South Bend Don't Break, that was kind of like my passion project, my artistic baby. I always wanted to do a South Bend related brand. So South Bend Don't Break was kind of the corny idea that I had years ago, and as I got into music and wanting to branch back into the clothing, that was like, I think I can make this. Ohio had one, Indianapolis has Nap or Nothing, I think that's really cool to like have like a brand that is intertwined with the city.

SOURCE: Who are your biggest artistic influences, musical or otherwise?

Heyzeus: I don't want to keep talking about Terrible Tony, but he's definitely my biggest art inspiration. Oddly enough it's Tony and one of his best friends, B. Denise. Shout out to her out east out of New York. B. Denise is an incredible artist as well.

I got a lot of music inspo's, growing up I was like a big boy band fan so I grew up listening to NSYNC, you know. I'm a big Dom Kennedy fan. I know my boy's going through a lot right now, but I'm a Drake fan as well. I think because I didn't grow up wanting to make music, my music inspo's have always been all over the place. And then as I got into rap I kind of stopped listening to other rappers. You get that, "Mannn I don't want to listen to anybody else, I just want to focus on my stuff". But every now and then I'm always nerding out to everything. Tyler, the Creator, Childish Gambino, I have a lot of music inspirations for sure.

SOURCE: How has the world of independent streaming changed for you, from the days of Audiomack and DatPiff to SoundCloud and Spotify?

Heyzeus: Even Napster [laughs] It's been great because I come from the era where we downloaded music illegally. We didn't have any of these streaming platforms and these opportunities to access your favorite artists' music that quickly. Music was never this attainable being a kid. So being a part of the era of music where not only can I create music on my own in my home with all my own equipment, I can upload it to SoundCloud on my own. I remember uploading a song to SoundCloud for the first time and thinking like, "This is crazy, I put like a song out for people to listen to." Like super awkward and shy about it, put the song out and didn't send it to anybody. But it was the fact that you could do that at the time was really awesome.

And then fast forwarding to streaming and being able to upload to Apple Music and Spotify. For me it's awesome because you can be a mainstream artist and you can be a local artist, which are extremely different gaps, but we both can put our music on these platforms. I think it inspired me to put out music more. Like earlier on I would make a lot of music and it just kind of would stay on the hard drive, it would stay to myself. But then realizing I can actually upload this to iTunes, I can put it on a playlist and I can really share this and look as professional as a lot of my favorite artists are, that was a big push for sure.

I think it's awesome to know that no matter how big of an artist you are, a lot of our foundations start the same.

SOURCE:  How do you view social media's role in the current state of art and self-marketing?

Heyzeus: It's tough because I think that social media is one of the greatest tools that we have, but it can be kind of detrimental, you know, all these thoughts and opinions all in one space all the time. But I think it is great, it is a constant way to promote. Social media wasn't as prominent as it is now when I first started getting into music. To promote or share your music was not always the easiest, but I think it's great that a lot of new artists your promotion is always right there. You don't have to rely on the radio or rely on getting on TV with your music. You're able to connect with people across the world that you may never ever see in person one on one.

That was something that I kind of fought against early on, like man, I don't want to be super involved in social media with music, I kind of just want to build organically. And you realize this is the new organic way of building. It can get chaotic so tread lightly as always, but definitely use it for the good that can be provided from it for sure.

SOURCE: How important is the role of live instrumentals in your performances?

Heyzeus: Super important. I'm always on record of saying that live performing is probably my favorite part of creating music in general. I write and create a lot of music with the thought and intention of performing it live. It's one thing to perform live over the raw beats but having live elements with it, whether it's live drums, live keys, live guitar, anything that just takes it to the next level, it kind of just unlocks a lot of things for you. It's like therapy almost. It's just freeing to have these out-of-body experiences. Like man, not only did I write this music, I get to showcase it, I get to scream it as much as I want, as loud as I want to. You get to pull people into your process of what you're feeling, whether it's good or bad.

SOURCE: What's been your personal favorite performance of yours?

Heyzeus: I've had a lot of really fun performances, but I would say any of the past like three Yart performances have been my favorite. Just because it is the guaranteed day that I know that not only do I get to have an immense amount of fun on stage, but I get to do it with all of my artist friends that I really don't get to see all throughout the year as much as I want to or we used to when we were in our earlier art years. I hate picking favorite performances, but I go into those with a little bit more oomph.

SOURCE: What is the one album you cannot live without?

Heyzeus: Easy, Songs About Jane, Maroon 5. Could not live without it. "Sunday Morning" is one of my favorite songs. I remember buying it at Target, shout out to south side Target, and like the lady at the register looking at me like, "You listen to Maroon 5?" I'm just like, "Yeah. Hurry up, please. I got to listen to this now." [laughs] But yeah that album is filled with a lot of great ones, "Harder to Breathe", "Shiver", just great music. I guess I grew up on boy bands.

SOURCE: What is one film you cannot live without?

Heyzeus: The Prestige. Prestige. I'm a big Christopher Nolan fan, that's one of my favorite movies. I have a weird love of magic. I don't know why. If I had to pick a movie to watch every day for the rest of my life, it'd probably be The Prestige.

SOURCE: What are three keys that you would give to an upcoming artist?

Heyzeus: All of them are going to sound cliché but:

1. Find the right community for you, that's super important.

2. Speak up for yourself at all times even if you are uncomfortable with that.

3. Keep smiling.

SOURCE: What's next for Heyzeus?

Heyzeus: More music, more merch. We are currently trying to put together a workshop next year for the kids in the community. We want to make sure that we are getting kids into music as early and as often as possible. We want to not only show them the creation of music, but like I said earlier, the business side. Not to overwhelm them or scare them, but it's become that art can be a thing that you can live off of and make a great living, and travel the world doing art; why not learn the things that you learn later you but when you're in middle school or high school, or even younger than that.

The shout outs

Heyzeus: Shout out to Reminisce X, that's my boo thangg. Shout out to Toast, an amazing sound guy, an amazing guitarist, an amazing drummer, amazing everything. Shout out to the Rocki Button for always giving us a home and a safe space to do cool, awesome things. Shout out to everybody in South Bend. Shout out to the Silverhawks. I miss the South Bend Silverhawks...

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