Q&A: meet Shy Troy, nailing his debut with some melancholic realness

Melbourne local Shy Troy has dropped an incredibly heartfelt debut EP in Lavender and again we find an artist elevating, producing a sound that isn’t your typical hip-hop track. Shy fuses an alt-rock sound with a melancholic rap flow, telling the story of someone who has persevered. We are absolutely getting the feels listening to this EP from start to finish, it’s this type of wistful writing that makes you want to break-up with your partner just so you can listen to this EP while staring out of a train window. 

Shy has poured blood, sweat and tears into his music trying create something that is in extension of himself. A process that took over 7 years has finally come to fruition and we get to indulge on the gift he has given. 

The rapper who’s only in his mid-twenties has set out and achieved. Man, Shy is just a ball of creative energy that we love at Fine Tune, his just damn funny. 

We caught up with our Melbourne slice to talk about his debut EP, his mad respect for his mum and his sleep paralysis demons.

Check out all the feels below. Here’s a snippet of our conversation: 

Rhys! How’re you? Tell us about your music project Shy Troy, how did it come about?

I’m swell thanks, Mr Magazine man. I guess the initial aspiration came from wanting to be an author from around the age of 6 or 7, and then when I got heavy into music in my early teenage years, I wanted to combine the two things I enjoyed most. It was mostly rap music that turned me on to the idea in the beginning, because no other art form that I knew of at the time allowed you to manipulate words and their meanings with writing techniques like double-entendres and elaborate story-telling, that can all be wrapped up in a neat, little 3-minute performance package. And I thought, hey, let me give that a spin. So after a couple underwhelming attempts under multiple aliases, I created the Shy Troy project in 2017, which was originally intended to be anonymous, hence the ‘Shy’, but it has since progressed to have my mop-head as the face of the project. 

Can you tell us about the process and how long it took to create your debut EP?

At first, it was mad sporadic. But the EP was kind of carving away at itself long before I could recognise it was growing into a concept EP at all, starting with a couple of songs I had written when I was 17 that went through a ‘ground-up restoration’ of sorts, in 2018. The songs’ landscapes, vocal delivery, production and style were reupholstered entirely; most prominently in the first single Up in Smoke and mentioned about in the third single Copper Green. Following the realisation that the Intro track (Selfish) served quite literally as an introduction to these songs, I created an Outro track to act as the second bookend, which then helped bottleneck the themes and ideas for Lavender. In turn, it guided the EP down a steady flow, allowing me to write new songs based on how the singles were influencing my creative headspace in real time. So overall, theoretically, Lavender is made up of work from over 7 years, but structurally it took 2 years to create. 

What’s your favourite song off the EP, and are you surprised by which ones are being played more than others?

Man, I’d probably say Uncomfortable, purely based on the simplicity behind its process. It didn’t take too long to write and the recording & production wasn’t overly strenuous, which meant that it didn’t carry the burden of perfecting all of those tiny intricacies that a lot of the other songs had. Plus it’s a bit of a light-hearted break from the rest of the EP.

I’m surprised that the songs are even getting played at all, to be honest. What a crazy concept.

Does the title ‘Lavender’ hold any significance to you?

The title of the EP was actually inspired by my mother haha. The songs were predominately written during a period of my life where I was struggling both creatively and personally, and my mum had to witness a lot during this period. At the far-end of drastic measures we took to try re-align myself and all of them failing, she one day picked a bunch of lavender and told me to put it under my pillow in a final, last-resort attempt to help me, saying “It couldn’t hurt”. I felt the symbolism of such an innocent and simple solution to a seemingly unfixable problem, combined with a mother’s persistence in going to any and all lengths for her children, in an abstract way, blended with the core theme of the music itself. 

What was it like to shoot the ‘Copper Green’ music video?

It was sweet. Being able to lean on the fact it was produced during lockdown by someone who really only had an entry-level knowledge and ability in video editing/production, created a safety net in case it flopped hard. That being said, I clocked over 200 tedious and stressful hours getting it done, so I was quite happy to see it off once the release date came around.

Your sound is quite multi-dimensional, where do you draw inspiration from?

Inspiration is super elusive and situational for me. I draw from film, books and stand-up comedy just as much as from music. Of course, there are also those impulsive thoughts and ideas we all get and I made a habit of jotting them down in my phone’s notes systematically, the moment one would pop up. But I’m an avid listener of all genres and eras of music – namely the 60’s – and I guess, like most other artists, you subconsciously adopt styles, and my own style could have very well come from a concoction of each of those genres that I would listen to. But lately artists like Rex Orange County, Dominic Fike, Mac DeMarco and Tyler, the Creator who have been thriving in that space between modern genres is probably what is driving me most.

How’re you finding the second lockdown in Melbourne?

Lockdown 2.0, for me personally, has been quite pleasant actually. The first lockdown I was scrambling, working back-to-back 12 to16-hour days for 7 weeks straight, trying to finish the EP, edit videos, create promotional content and do outreach. I wasn’t really sleeping, eating or drinking any water either. So this time, I’m still working on my music but I’ve been skating quite a bit and looking after myself a little better. Although probably like most people, I’m missing the social interaction side of things.

What’s something super weird you do that if you had it on your Tinder profile, people would probably swipe left to you?

I get a rare kind of sleep paralysis every night where I fall between a semi-transient and fully conscious state while still having control over my body, yet also experience the traditional sleep paralysis hallucinations. I turn into Floyd Mayweather at midnight, fighting off demonic entities and if you’re in bed with me, it’s probably best to learn how to duck and weave.

Would you say your house/room is more often tidy or messy?

It’s never dirty, however it teeters between tidy and messy depending on how busy I am. Not busy = Spotless. Busy = Socks on the ceiling fan.

Excluding food and water, what’s three things you can’t live without?

Super generic, but music, definitely. My three best buds/family. And skin, probably.

Shy gets his street fighter on most nights battling sleep paralysis demons, anyone good at ducking and weaving? All jokes aside Shy Troy has delivered a 10/10 debut EP and Up in Smoke is more than a vibe.

Check out his song below or head to our I’m So Indie You 🌞 playlist to hear more songs like it.

By Samuel Seedsman.