We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nicholas Burdo a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Nicholas, we’ve been so fortunate to work with so many incredible folks and one common thread we have seen is that those who have built amazing lives for themselves are also often the folks who are most generous. Where do you think your generosity comes from?
My mom is very spiritual and I adapted that trait from her because we truly believe in Karma and that as long as your heart is good and your intentions are pure you’ll be rewarded in some way shape or form. Also music is a very giving art. Any art is truly. But music really touches the soul and because I’m an artist, the generous trait of giving vibes and feelings come naturally for me.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I go by the name 8ightvibes. I am a Musical artist, composer, producer, audio engineer, drummer, director, and performer. Not only am I pushing art and spreading inspiration to break the norm of society, 8ightvibes is a lifestyle. To live life through vibes and freedom doing what you love to do regardless what anybody says. With my slick rhyme schemes, trippy music and vocal effects, experimental beats, each listen will give you a different sensation. Whether if its the music video to give your eyes visual candy, your ears to give you auditory candy, the shows to give you that deeper sense of connection through the rage and energy delivered, or the merchandise so you can wear the vibes, not many artists can hit every vibe and emotion the way 8ightvibes can. I was born this way with getting behind a drum set at the age of 4 and could keep rhythm. At 5, after my dad broke the set by using too much force (he was a drummer too) I became disconnected from music creation once I started school and ended up playing baseball. I played baseball as a pitcher for 8 years and was considering going pro until the drama started within the teams. I would make beats on the bench and do freestyles with the team and would always get in trouble from the coaches for not paying attention to the game if I wasn’t playing. Once I started 4th grade and discovered hiphop from vine which was Kendrick Lamar’s song “mAAd City”, my life was changed. Hiphop wasn’t a house hold genre for me and my parents actually prevented me from listening to it. But that just drove me to listen to it even more. Then I started making music videos with video star with old Eminem songs and Macklemore songs. Starting 6th grade, I wrote my first song and was participating in the cafeteria freestyle battles with my friends. But I kept writing songs and making music more lowkey. Then at the end of 8th grade, I asked for a mic for Christmas because I wanted to start recording. It wasn’t until two of the kids in my class made a song and was sharing it around to everybody that I was like I need to record and promote my talent. So I recorded my first song and sent it to my classmates via email which got good reciprocation. Since that moment on I was on a mission to find my sound… being a white guy rapping, finding a good sound for yourself is a difficult task but once I realized I just needed to be myself, I’ll go way further. I kept telling my family I wanted to get into firefighting but deep down I knew I was going to do music but I needed a solid excuse to not go to college. I knew since I was a freshman in Highschool that I was not going to go to college. Truthfully I really did want to pursue the firefighter path but an incident happened to me when I was skateboarding in 2020 that landed me in the hospital and I broke my foot. It was that moment that I realized music was the right path for me. I just needed to figure out how to take it serious without a label. So starting 2022, after a year of experimenting and building a support group, I dropped my first album, which at the time of writing this, has gained over 100k streams. From that point on its been a mission of getting heard and loved by millions of people to inspire with my music. Since dropping my first album I’ve performed in 5 different states to nearly sold out venues, hosted my first headlining show in Broward County which sold out, dropped a sequel mixtape which has almost 100k streams as well at the time of writing this. Coming soon I have a few short films and music videos as well as a youtube exclusive single dropping called “Joose Freestyle”. I also have a new merchandise drop coming for the fall season and the band I drum for just released a new single called “Spiderwoman”.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Figure out your ‘why’ as soon as you can. Don’t rush it though… really think it through and do it with love. Think of instead of going to parties, how can I make money from this party. Learn how to manage your money.
Practice, practice, practice. and Consistency
Some advice I can give is never give up, evolve and branch off yourself.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
Two mandatory books I have to say: Start with why – teaches you that people don’t buy what you do.. they buy why you do it. That your branding is everything or you have nothing.
A Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck- the title says enough. Beautiful book. Really helps you align yourself and is great for branding as well and marketing to be honest. Just overall an amazing book for life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/8ightvibes
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/8ightvibes/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@8ightvibes/featured
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/n8urdo67?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
Image Credits
Tyler Duke Ordinary tale3 Darioo
