Fresh artist GAWVI has recently released his first album We Belong. The artist of El Salvadorian and Dominican decent tries to mix his faith and a unique sound into every song.

“A lot of artists try to write about things that are close to the heart. One thing that is very personal thing to me is my faith, I’m a Christian, I like to write a lot of songs about my experiences and my journey,” GAWVI said.

GAWVI tries to shadow a incorporate religious meaning into his songs but hopes that he does not give the impression that he is trying to shoving religion down people’s throats. He wants to involve his faith in his music because it is important to him, but more importantly he wants to create songs that everyone can relate to.

“I’ve always wanted my songs to be on a Spotify playlist that aren’t just specifically for hip-hop or just for a country or Christian fan, but everyone. I want everyone to feel like they’re accepted and belong even with their differences,” GAWVI said.

GAWVI started his career as a production assistant at Reach Records working under big shots like Rodney Jerkins and Pharrell. The experiences and oppurtunities that he participated in helped skyrocket his success.

“I’ll tell this cool story where there’s this music producer called Rodney Jerkins, he’s produced stuff with Mariah Carey and Backstreet boys. One of the reasons that he wanted to work with me was because of Lacrae because I heard what he’s done with Lacrae and I thought it was phenomenal, and I’m so grateful for everything they’ve done for me,” GAWVI said.

Along with these established producers, GAWVI voiced  he had lots of encouragement even when he was still young, all the way back to high school.

“Oh gosh of course, I had this teacher Mrs.Harpage, who was so on board with my music. I was actually the class clown so when I couldn’t focus and was just banging on the table creating rhythms, instead of getting me in trouble she would say oh I really like this music stuff why don’t you try and incorporate that into your next debate or she would bring me books about Two Pac, so she was just very encouraging about people’s dreams,” GAWVI said.

GAWVI is fairly new to the music world. His career is just getting on its way. He has recently embarked on a tour and has merchandise already on sale on his website.

“In the future I really want to shift culture. Right now there’s a transition where people hear many different genres of music, like ECM,  they look for hope. I want to motivate and influence,” GAWVI said.

The following responses GAWVI gave were inspired by questions from 10+ journalism students from various high schools around the country.