Imagine the perfect blend of Drake, The Weeknd, and Frank Ocean, and you have [BRIDGE](https://www.instagram.com/xxbridge/?hl=en). Hailing from Los Angeles, the enigmatic recording artist creates somewhere in between the genres of R&B, pop, electronic, hip-hop, with his moniker conveying the literal BRIDGE between all genres of music.
In describing BRIDGE, he emphasizes the genreless approach he takes as BRIDGE versus him as a person. “He's someone who wants to keep people on their toes, he states. “Wants to keep doing the unexpected, wants to dabble around as much as he can. No genre restrictions, no limitations.”
Enamored with the art of creating music, his melodic voice and rhythm transports you into a newfound landscape full of introspection and personal discovery, using lyrics as a medium to chronicle his self-progression as both an artist and human being. Having worked with the likes of DVBBS and Schoolboy Q, BRIDGE has accumulated tens of millions of streams and returns to his independent roots that he began with.
Most recently, BRIDGE released two singles: “Across The Universe” and “Around.” While he’s not doing music, he’s busy running his jewelry company called Martyre with Anwar Hadid. Flaunt caught up with BRIDGE via FaceTime to discuss his biggest influences, going independent, his sound, “Body” for the females, goals, and more!
**Being from LA, where are you from originally?**
My family grew up in Beverly Hills and sent me to private schools, went to Beverly High. I got kicked out of private school mid-year, so I had to go there in the middle of tenth grade. It was cool, public school versus private school is a vibe for sure. \[laughs\]
**Biggest influences? Who are you bumping?**
I don’t want to fake it, let's look at my library. My boy put me onto this kid Haven, the song “Demon” I fuck with. I've been listening to this girl Hope Tala. I'm listening to Baby Keem. I'm listening to a lot of Rosalia, some Rema. Some random rap shit, random deep house shit.
**At what point did you realize you could do music for a living?**
I started making music 9 years ago. Every year, I thought I was going to do something amazing, I was going to break grounds, it’ll be my year. You have that approach every year, until I got signed to Warner Brothers 5 years ago. That's when it felt professional. I got out of that deal 2 years later, got out of all my deals. Been moving independent, it's been realer than ever now.
**Your name’s a nod to all the different genres you do, can you describe this sound specifically?**
I do jump around a lot. The only common denominator between a lot of the records I release is they all have switch-ups mid-song. I released 2 records: “Across the Universe” and “Around” One of them is a ballad for the majority of the song, then switches to a bit of a house or dance record towards the end. “Across The Universe” starts with heavy synths, mid-song changes tempo and key. I'm jumping around pop, R&B, dance, hip-hop, dancing in between those right now.
**Who or what inspired “Across the Universe”?**
It's a mixture of 2 songs. The first half is uptempo, rapid, and direct. Sounds like a clutter in my head of what I'm going through, the second half almost feels like clarity. Moments I figured it all out almost. You're invested in an acid trip, honestly. You get a second of clarity. When you listen, you'll understand it. Feels like you drop a tab, look up at the sky and everything feels different. We change the tempo and the key for that reason. You felt it go from being a cluttered clusterfuck to it having a moment of peace at the end.
**What inspired “Around”?**
“Around” is a ballad that’s kind of sad. A sad, happy record. A happy song if you listen to the lyrics. The lyrics say “I'm better when you're around,” but it sounds like a sad song. We wanted to bring up the tempo towards the end. We're at Sunset Towers, we plugged in the guitars. We’re test-running it. One long freestyle was what created that song, it’s only missing 3 or 4 words. We didn't want to put drums, didn't want to touch it. We added accent to the guitar, took an extra couple minutes to write it. It felt good so we put it out. Felt pretty honest.
**Thanks for creating a song like “Body,” which celebrates women.**
I love women. I appreciate women. I'm either talking through my subconscious or directly at a woman, that's a majority of my life experiences as far as songwriting. “Body” is talking about a girl feeling yourself, women empowerment. Being confident, whoever you are.
**What inspired you to do this for women?**
People have different approaches where they have the entire records mapped out in their head, they know what they want to talk about before. That's never been too much of my process. I feel a beat or a loop, play melodies, start puzzling through the melodies I like, start making sense of it all. I laid a melody that was a low tone. The 90's, there used to be these band records where the hooks were low tone. It wouldn't be singing hooks. “Come My Lady” or “Amber” by 311, these low tone hooks from bands that weren't really singing. I thought that was cool, we wanted to keep going down that realm. On the freestyle, I said “run that for me, work that for me.” I know very confident women, always had very confident women in my life whether it’s close friends, my mother or anyone. I can't help but keep the powerful woman I have in my life, in my mind when I create.
**Talk about your vision with the video, the girl’s on the couch in the middle of nowhere it looks like.**
We didn't want to be typical because the song felt pretty center as is, especially compared to the rest of the catalog and stuff I do usually. We didn't want it to be some lovey dovey typical guy, girl music video. People expect a love story or something simple, expect me being in it dead center. We thought it'd be cool to make it all about this badass bitch that does really cool, ill shit. She really does all those things, she's a monster! She skydived 5 times, she’s busting out wheelies doing the gnarliest shit. She was so hot. It’s important for us to have a female shoot this, the whole thing came together beautifully.
**3 things you need in the studio?**
Weed, for sure. I need my spliff kit with my papers, American Spirits, a little bit of weed. I need the Stellia headphones, for sure. Every studio I go to, I’ve always got to plug-in with these specific headphones. Green tea.
**What is it you want fans to get from your story?**
I take pride in doing a lot with not very much. I've always been a studio rat, but I'm not really in love with big studios. Not really loved the glamorous studio setup, whether it be recording setup, big sets, or big production. We take a lot of pride in keeping it tight, keeping it private, keeping it about the product, keeping it about the work and the consistency. I’m independent now, we're doing everything ourselves. I got out of a deal myself, said no to a lot of deals offered to us.
I’d love for people to get that from my story: somebody who believes in himself and would love to inspire other people to do the same. Not to say don’t sign to labels, do what’s best for you. Know about what you're doing, be consistent, try and gain any leverage you possibly can. Try and do as much of the work as you possibly can alone before you bring other people outside in. Right now, I've been dropping a lot of songs. I'm dipping in a lot of different categories. I'm concerned with the results of course, but I'm more concerned with forward momentum. Whether I feel fulfilled and satisfied and content. How I'm making the music, it's not really an approach. If you love what you're doing, you can be consistent, people listen to you coming back for more music, that's real. I’d love to inspire more people and have them be themselves, find their own paths.
**What can we look forward to next?**
I'm always one or 2 steps ahead. I never like to be too many steps ahead of the public because then it's a wash. Feels too much of a rollout or bait. I'm trying to release consistently, keep dropping singles I'm sure until eventually I announce I do a project. An EP rather than an album. After this one, I'll drop a song called “It's Okay” in December.
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