Quinn XCII comes to the Westcott Theater for his “Ordinary People” tour on Saturday night. The Daily Orange had a chat with the Detroit native and asked him a few questions.

The Daily Orange: How did you get into music?

Quinn XCII: I really first got into music, probably at an early age, I’d say around 3 years old. I would kind of find myself going through my parents’ music collection in my house and looking at the albums that they had, not really knowing what they were exactly, but I just loved the cover arts and just, like, the look of them. Once they started playing them, I was just naturally a dancer. Early on, I just got kind of an attraction for music.

The D.O.: When did you create the project that is Quinn XCII?

Quinn XCII: I started making music my sophomore year of high school, and it was just kind of lazy, poorly made rap music. It was much more of a hobby than it was a job, obviously. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my career growing up. But I just knew I loved making music. I went to college, I went to Michigan State, and I kept doing music on the side but not really thinking of it as a career for me. I went to school for advertising. But as I went through college, I saw this fan base growing online. You know, Spotify, SoundCloud, Facebook, Twitter. I saw something real and organic kind of happening. By the time I graduated college, I came to the conclusion that is what I needed to keep doing.

The D.O.: Who are your biggest musical influences?

Quinn XCII: Definitely the early Motown stuff that I grew up on. Michael Jackson, the Jackson 5, James Brown. A lot of these old-school pioneers of genres. A lot of the soul stuff I really grew up on. It’s not necessarily the most prominent part of my music, but I was definitely taught how to structure melodies by those artists and really just go off like that ear candy sound those guys provided. Just really nice, simple melodies.

The D.O.: What’s your favorite part of touring?

Quinn XCII: Definitely the fact that I get to see so many different cities and I get to do stuff that I probably wouldn’t be able to do if I wasn’t pursuing music full-time. I’m super fortunate and blessed because that’s the case. I like it a lot more than I thought I would, to be completely honest with you. Because I was never, like, a big traveler growing up and I was kind of a homebody. I didn’t love going on vacations. I just kind of wanted to stay home with my friends and do my own thing. Whenever I move somewhere, I get comfortable and acquainted — I don’t like to move around as much. But with touring, it’s a completely different experience because I just get to do what I love.

The D.O.: What are the goals for your show?

Quinn XCII: It sounds cliché but just to have a good time and have a very positive vibes throughout the night and spread nothing but, you know, love.

Published on March 25, 2017 at 6:58 pm