More from Amorphous: Our interview & track-by-track review with the winner of 2020
The young entertainer reveals his process in creating mashups, speaks on his career aspirations, and admits he doesn’t know how to pronounce Moderat. (Probably like most of us.)
Amorphous, the online mashup sensation, sat with The Renaissance Project earlier in 2020, primarily to speak on their mashup project, Beyoncé x KAYTRANADA, which was subsequently taken down by Bandcamp. We covered a lot of maybe more interesting topics, as featured in our profile, “Amorphous was the winner of 2020 — and he wasn’t even trying”. But we have condensed, edited and provided some of the interview transcript so you don’t miss out on this valuable insight into the mind of one of the year’s top creatives.
Juwan Holmes, The Renaissance: Hello Jimir, thank you for talking.
Jimir Reece Davis, aka Amorphous: Hi.
TRP: How are you?
AMO: I’m doing good, I just made some spaghetti. Getting ready to eat, after talking to you.
TRP: I’ll try not to hold you too long.
AMO: It’s all good.
TRP: First, starting for all the people who don’t know you are — you are known as Amorphous, tell us how that name came together.
AMO: My government name is Jimir. Jimir Reece Davis… but on social media and through my music work, I’m known as Amorphous. I kind of came about that name, I believe, around 2014, 2015. I had gone through a couple of names by then, but they were just not doing it for me. I wanted to find a name that encompassed a feeling that being undefined, that I’m not categorized into a box. Something that I’ve showcased, I can do a multitude of things. Whether a multitude of genres, music, or different media — music, film, art — I wanted something that would represent all of that. So I went through… what’s it called — a thesaurus?
TRP: *laughs*
AMO: …And I just saw ‘Amorphous’, and said, ‘hmm… that’s kind of cute. I like that.’ I just stuck with it. Once I started to take off, I was like, ‘I’m definitely keeping this right now.’ So, yeah, that’s how it came about.
TRP: I can’t even remember the last time I opened a thesaurus — a physical thesaurus…
AMO: I know. Well, it was online, okay? I was looking for synonyms… I was like, ‘okay, what does this mean? Does this go with it?’ Oh no. I didn’t open an actual book. I haven’t done that since middle school (*laughs*) — it’s been a minute!
TRP: So, you are from…
AMO: I’m from Philly, and I went to college in Orlando, went and moved to L.A. for a year, and now I’m back in Orlando. You know, coronavirus and all.
TRP: Ah, okay, that definitely made a difference.
AMO: Definitely.
TRP: You went to Full Sail University and studied film.
AMO: Yes.
TRP: What would you say you are more known for? Filmmaking, music, or…
AMO: I think, definitely the music. I’ve done some documentaries, I did the Aaliyah documentary, I did a Rihanna documentary that she saw — so those got pretty big, but I feel most people, if you say, ‘Jimir’ or ‘Amorphous’ — they’re like, ‘that’s the guy that does the mashups, or produces.’ You know, I got my following on Soundcloud first, just from producing like the mashups.
TRP: You started out primarily producing things. Tell us how the mashups came about.
AMO: Um…well, production — like, actually producing music from scratch, that’s the real stuff in my eyes — but mashups are a fun exercise, almost, for me to do. I kind of work in the way that, if I’m really bored, I need to create something. So my mind will just start running with different song ideas, and I’ll be listening to a song and I can hear similarities. So, I go, ‘I should put that together and see how it sounds.’ So that’s what I did a lot, really, when I was growing up and then studying at Full Sail.
So, just like a fun thing for me to do. Nothing serious. If I didn’t have the mental capacity to do a song from scratch, I would just come up with a quick mashup as a way for me to create something. I started to post those on Twitter, not really expecting anything — just something to post on social media, just not really expecting it to blow up or anything. I believe it was 2017, around June, I was posting stuff back to back to back, very consistently — and it was starting to blow up very quickly. The Whitney Houston and Rihanna mashup that I did with “How Will I Know” and “Kiss It Better,” that blew up, and then I had done another one earlier of, Aaliyah’s “Rock the Boat” and Rihanna’s “Work,” that got played on the radio.
It happened organically, it wasn’t something I strived to do or make, but I made these mashups and people enjoyed them, so I continued them.
TRP: They definitely got people’s attention. You do produce and make music of your own, do you sort of feel now that making mashups are sort of, obligatory, because how popular they are with your audience?
AMO: Well, I don’t like to think that way, because I feel like at the end of the day, I have to do what makes me happy. I feel like, as long as I’m making what makes me happy, I will always have an audience. Whether that’s mashups or original stuff. I feel I’ve garnered enough support with my original work even before I did the mashups that, if I said ‘I’m never doing mashups again,’ I would still have a lot of support. I will say, especially during that time when stuff was really blowing up, I did feel a kind of pressure. I had to say, ‘okay, what are you going to come up with?’ to capitalize on the moment because, at the end of the day, I’m building an audience, organically, and that was really exciting to me. Like, wow, I’m getting followers that I’ve looked up to for years. But for now, I wouldn’t put that under pressure.
TRP: Is it fair to say — you know, especially through social media, it seems like you have a connection with a lot of people — do most of those people reach out to you through Twitter? How do most of those interactions happen?
AMO: It’s really crazy because, ten years ago, when I made the list of people I want to work with or the people that I really looked up to that I wanted to be in business with one day — obviously, I’m not there yet — but just to be able to get the support from those kind of people, it means a lot. Really, I’m too much of a punk to really, really, reach out to people that I really look up to like, ‘hey, it’s Jimir!’ or whatever. A lot of times, I just look on my Twitter, I get a notification and then I see someone I love DM me and I completely freak out.
That’s practically what happened with dvsn. Nineteen85 had seen a mashup that I had posted like, three minutes before he messaged me. Next thing I know, I was looking at my Instagram messages and I had seen ‘Nineteen85’ with a verified check mark saying, ‘what’s up bro?’ I’m like, ‘huh? Did you just reach out to me?’ So that’s how those interactions happen. I try to keep those things as organic as possible. When those kind of people reach out to me, I try to tell them what that means to me, because those are the people that have inspired me for so, so long. But it’s usually organic like that, whether it’s a DM on Twitter or a follow somewhere or something.
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TRP: So, talking to Nineteen85 led to you producing the song “Between Us” on their latest album, A Muse In Her Feelings, so now you’re on an OVO album!
AMO: Yes, I know. Crazy! I was like, ‘what the heck?’ That was one of my dreams, genuinely. Me and my best friend used to talk about working with OVO or just having something to do with OVO. So when the opportunity came about, I was kind of like, wow, that’s just crazy — the power of truly believing in yourself and being consistent — um, it’s a wonderful opportunity. You know, you hear a lot of people in the industry can be fickle or not have your best interests — but I know that Nineteen is a really good dude, he has talked to me about some really personal stuff, ideas of mine. So I’m very grateful.
TRP: So, when you receive criticism for doing mashups, what do you say to yourself?
AMO: At the end of the day, I’m my biggest fan. Every mashup I’ve done, every single original project I’ve done or documentary or whatever, I’ve done that for me more than anybody else. I made them truly for myself, I just realized that there were other people that enjoyed that work, and I decided to share it.
When it comes to people who don’t own that stuff, just other fans or whatever, I don’t really care. All this stuff with the artists, that’s a different story. But in terms of other fans or stans or whatever, criticism is part of what comes with creating, you know? You’re always going to have some critics. I just try to have a good head about it.
TRP: What’s being talked about a lot now is your most recent project, Beyoncé x KAYTRANADA — but before that, walk us through what projects had led up to that. You mentioned Bey-Z…was that one of your first mashup projects?
AMO: Yes. That week before Bey-Z was released, again, that was around the week when everything had begun to blow up for me, and I had already done a couple of Beyoncé-Jay-Z mashups. So subconsciously, I was kind of like, it would just be cool if I made this concept project. Maybe Beyoncé and Jay-Z could see this and be like, okay, let’s actually make a project together — collaborative project — and see that there was a demand there. A couple of my Beyoncé-Jay-Z mashups had went viral, like really big, and it was clear that people wanted to see that.
So, it was kind of this cool, little fun thing to do. Made a little trailer for it, put it up on the internet, went to sleep, and… Bey-Z was all over the place. I was like, ‘Oh! Okay, well…’ it was nice, I was very, very, flattered, but I was definitely thinking, ‘oh, maybe it could blow up’ — but I wouldn’t think it would get that big. At the end of the day, I’m a fan of Beyoncé and Jay-Z, period — my cousin always teases me that, when I was a little kid, when I was four years old, I used to run around the house with my hat on backwards, trying to rap like I was Jay-Z. I did Beyoncé at the talent show like, two years in a row, so it was definitely something I made from a fan standpoint. It was something I wanted to listen to — with a little inkling of, ‘you know, maybe they’ll see it’ — but then it took a complete life of its own.
That got really big — I don’t think I did another, like, huge mashup project. I kind of did a Rihanna mash-up project, which was a cool little fun thing, too. That segues into [three months ago], when I was listening to KAYTRANADA’s Bubba — mind you, I’m a huge, huge, huge KAYTRANADA fan. He’s probably the biggest influence on me as a producer — as a young, Black, gay, kid, I wanted to do house music and KAYTRANADA was, and still is, the person I looked up to. I was listening to Bubba, and I just heard Beyoncé’s vocals on it. I was like, wow, I feel like Beyoncé would kill this section.
I put a couple of tracks together, and found it cool, and uploaded to YouTube — and I was like, wow, wouldn’t it be a cool concept, to have a Beyoncé project, completely produced by KAYTRANADA? Obviously, through mashups. That was the thought project for it. I was thinking, if I put this out as an actual project, I can do another little trailer again — do another trailer, tag Beyoncé and KAYTRANADA and let them know, this is a fun little project I did, I love y’all both — and put it out. I put it out, and I honestly, I truly… if there was any project I thought was going to blow up, I didn’t think this would be the one. I thought it would be a cool, little, underground thing that DJs would play in the club or whatever.
Obviously, it went off a little more than expected. But, that was just the process for me — from a fan standpoint, I felt Beyoncé would sound dope on a KAYTRANADA project — how have they not worked together yet? So, that’s what happened, and people really responded to it. KAYTRA liked the tweet, so that was a sign for me. A lot of people I looked up to are kind of onto that. It shook me to my core. It definitely did a lot of good things for me, but it definitely wasn’t my intention, like I said, I just thought, ‘Beyoncé would sound good on this.’
… Also, a lot of people messaged me thinking that [Beyoncé x KAYTRANADA] was a legitimate thing. I had to be like, no, I mixed them.
TRP: Let’s walk through the Beyoncé x KAYTRANADA project. Tell us what you think of every song.
First, “10% in Love” (feat Jay-Z).
AMO: I think that was one of the later tracks I finished. I did a lot of work on the track in one night — mashups don’t really take me that long. They’re not that difficult, I just feel like you have to good ear to go over some basic stuff.
TRP: How long did it take in total?
AMO: The entire project? All together, about three hours over time. It really was just figuring out what song works with which. “10%” is one of my favorite, favorite KAYTRA tracks. Obviously, I love KAYTRANADA, I love Kali Uchis, and that instrumental is so good. I listened to “10%” and I heard Beyoncé’s ‘Uh Oh, Uh Oh, Uh-oh-uh-no-no’ [from “Crazy in Love”] and felt, ‘wait! That’s going to fit so perfectly on that track.’ And obviously, I feel that it did. It was just a really cool experiment, to hear Beyoncé’s vocals over a KAYTRA track. Like, butter. I feel that’s a fan favorite one, people hear that and come to me and ask, ‘you did that?’
TRP: [*laughs*] Sounds like it was a good opener, then.
AMO: Yeah. I did think of the sequencing. “Crazy in Love” is Beyoncé’s debut, it’s only fair that I start the album off like this, with a mashup banger with that song.
TRP: The next one is “2 The Party”.
AMO: “Party” is, to me, one of Beyoncé’s most underrated tracks. I know it has its following, but it’s really just a classic, vibe-y track. I know it’s definitely gotten it’s following, but I love the track, I love everything about it. On Bubba, KAYTRA’s project, I love that track [“2 the Music”], as well, so it was just a similar track. I’m listening to the tracks on repeat, and I was like, ‘what song is vibe-y, lowkey, and chill,’ because at this point I’m putting together a conscious project — and “Party” came to mind. I was just like, Beyoncé, why are you such a genius? That was one of my personal favorites. You just have this really nice, little mashup track, you play it in the car, and you pull out. Each track, individually, already has the quality, so when you combine them, it’s kind of gonna be golden.
TRP: Next is, “Love You Need”.
AMO: I know I keep saying it, but I love every single track of theirs on this project. This, with “What You Need” [by KAYTRANADA], it gave me an up-to-date, old-timey feel. I automatically knew — I had to do “Love On Top” [by Beyoncé]. That would slap. If Beyoncé were to ever hear, she would love that one. To me, “Love On Top” is one of Beyoncé’s most vocally challenging songs. In the sense of, just to have that stamina, to continue to go up a key at the end — that part wasn’t part of the track, but — that one was pretty simple. It took me about five minutes to do that one. Her vocals were already mixed and stuff, I didn’t have to do many steps. I put them together, and that was track number 3.
TRP: You went new school Beyoncé for the next one, “Vex Your Way Back.”
AMO: Ooh, yes. Oh, my goodness. “Find Your Way Back” is a top 5 Beyoncé song. I love that track! I’m a huge fan of house and Afrobeats, so when Beyoncé put out The Gift, that was a blessing for me. “Find Your Way Back,” in of itself, is just a genuine, good song that makes you feel good. “Vex Oh,” on KAYTRA’s tracks, I love all the drumming… I was like, ‘you know what, these two songs are literally like brother and sister.’ I had “Vex Oh” on repeat and I literally felt that there was no way that I couldn’t mash up the two together. That’s how well they mix together. That was definitely a favorite for people, for show. “How can you do that? You’re crazy for doing that!”
TRP: “Green Taste”…
AMO: That’s probably the best track, for a lot of people.
TRP: Yeah, when I played it, it was definitely like, “okay, wow. This is dope.”
AMO: That was really good. [*laughs*] I was hesitant to do a mashup with “Green Light” — because, one, I had done so many mashups previously with “Green Light”, and two, I had remixed it myself. I didn’t want to do it and people are like, “Green Light” again? But… “Taste” featuring VanJess, like, that song is just so good. Listening to that song, it was just a thing of like, Beyoncé’s voice just fits. That’s what it genuinely was. If it sounded off at all to me, I wouldn’t have done it, because it defeats the point. But every single track, there was always one track between Beyoncé and KAYTRANADA that mixes so well. “Green Taste” was probably the easiest to connect two songs, because they compliment each other so well. That absolutely is a fan favorite.
TRP: Let’s go to “Before I Freefall”, which has Durand Bernarr in it.
AMO: Durand Bernarr is someone that follows me on Twitter, that sent me to almost, little kid, crying, opening presents — because I’ve been a fan of Durand Bernarr since he started, I have been there. It’s the same with KAYTRANADA; just another queer, Black creative, that has so much talent and loved being themselves. I’m 22 now, so a decade ago I was 12, 13. To have people to look up to with that kind of fearless sense of identity, and also be a creative, that meant the world to me. So, Durand, there’s … not enough things I can say about him. He’s just incredible. And I knew he was a Beyoncé stan, okay, I knew he loved Beyoncé. If I put this song out, or a mashup project with her, I knew he would see it.
The thing about “Before I Freefall,” I realized, very quickly was that “Before I Let Go” and “Freefall”, they compliment each other, lyrically, very well. That’s always a plus, when you get the mashups to lyrically tell a story, that just elevates you more. So, I definitely had some fun with that. I wanted to make sure I included Durand’s voice as part of it, and they just mesh very, very well. Everything is my favorite, but I know if I really had to choose, I would go with “Before I Freefall.” Everything just works so well, and you can never go wrong with Durand.
TRP: You’ve been saying that Beyoncé’s vocals went with most of the songs — they do say that Beyoncé’s always on beat. I imagine you didn’t have too much trouble with any of her work then.
AMO: Yes, they do. Listen, you can do anything with Beyoncé, and she will always find a way to be on beat. Whether it’s official, or a mashup, she will. She just makes it work, that’s just how she is.
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TRP: Okay, back to the songs — the seventh is “Culture Déjà Vu.”
AMO: Okay, so “Déjà Vu” — B’Day, the album, just in general — is, I’ve tossed back and forth with it, daily listening to it like gospel — it is hands down my favorite project. It is so… in-your-face, in a good way. All the live instrumentation, she’s not holding back vocally at all, and this is just a great album. “Déjà Vu” is the personification of the album for me. If somebody asked what does B’Day encompass, I would tell them this is what to expect. And “Déjà Vu” is excellent all on its own. “Culture,” featuring Teedra Moses, is my favorite from [BUBBA]. Her voice is just silk, and that’s one of KAYTRA’s best songs. It’s excellent, one of his best instrumentals — everything about it inspires me as a creative. Y’all can do something that good? I can look at that and feel that’s amazing.
So, they just compliment each other. I feel like, with “Culture Déjà Vu,” the reason I mashed those two things up is that the beginning of “Culture” starts with a bass. So does “Déjà Vu” — Beyoncé saying, “bass.” That’s a really cool parallel between the two tracks. You can never go wrong with a JAY-Z verse — I love me some JAY-Z, so that was just a great mashup idea. It was something that, again, just worked. I love that one.
TRP: The eighth track is “Blow In Me.”
AMO: Mmhmm. “The Worst In Me” is a really good track, and you know, “Blow” has a really… sexual awakening kind of feeling to it, from the original track to the version with Pharrell — it’s just a really, really, good song. “The Worst In Me” had that kind of same kinky, sexual vibe, with the instrumentation. So, again, they go together. It started to scare me, it was working too well. Like, “Beyoncé, you’re scaring me!” *laughing* So I had some fun, engineering wise, with that. I played with the reverb and delay, I had access to the stems of the “Blow”, so I was able to do something unique with that. That was one of the last ones I did.
TRP: Then, the closing track — “Gray Area’s Mine.”
AMO: That’s another one the fans love — I feel like it’s underrated, a bit, but I know a lot of people do love that one. That was the absolute last track I did. I told myself that I needed to do something with “Gray Area” by KAYTRA, that song is impeccable, and… I couldn’t find a song that worked, for some reason. There’s only so many Beyoncé acapellas out there — and I had filtered some myself, but even then, it was hard. Originally, “Gray Area” was mashed up with “Freakum Dress,” and they worked really, really, well — and I was like, the acapella wasn’t the best quality, and the sounds were clashing. I was like, “damnit.” I started all over again, and I listened to the first verse of “Mine.” I said, ‘you know what, Imma find a way to work with this track.’ So, that was very fun to make, because it was really tough to get it done. I actually had some engineering fun, especially making sure I incorporate Drake — you know, OVO gang — but yeah. That’s it. It was a fun, cool, creative experiment to find two artists that I look up to, and make something to celebrate them.
TRP: You did say, after releasing it, that you know that one day you would work with Beyoncé, has that changed?
AMO: Eh… I try to speak positively with good vibes. I would hope that her team, and herself, would know that I made the project with the best of intentions. I genuinely hope that’s the case… When I say, ‘one day, I’m going to work with Beyoncé,’ that’s me putting that energy out there, because that energy’s out there. Because, one — that’s Beyoncé, someone that I grew up on; my brother introduced me to Destiny’s Child when I was young, from “Survivor.” I was a stan! So, Beyoncé is an integral part of my life, and that’s just genuinely something I have to come to terms with. There’s no doubt, I would love to work with her.
I don’t want to come off as someone trying to get profit off of Beyoncé’s name, ’cause that just wasn’t the case, I did that as a fan of both Beyoncé and KAYTRANADA. I know people from her team are watching the internet, have picked producers from doing unofficial work before, so I just want to put this out here: I am a fan.
TRP: So you did tell me before that you got an offer from a… prominent film director, and I hope that’s still available. Has people felt that the music has impeded your film work, or vice versa?
AMO: That’s a really good question, because I thought that. I don’t know if anyone has thought that, but — I feel like, you know my presence on social media, I realized I tweet too much, but I think I’m going to invest in a journal rather than tweet-and-delete a lot. I feel like a lot of people do know me as a music or mashup producer, and a lot of film people follow me and know that — but they also know I’ve done film, they know I went to college for film, they know I’ve done some documentaries — and I’ve gotten legitimate support from film people, so I feel like music hasn’t impeded that? I feel like they would respect that, that I’m trying to make it all work. Um, but me personally, I tell myself, “I have to focus on my film stuff,” so people know that I do film, to know that I do that. It’s a little hard in our culture.
TRP: Yeah, I know. I’ve talked about this before, as a multipotentialite, people expect you to do one thing and stick to it. Sometimes, you reflect on that yourself — “should I be doing one thing instead of all these things that I’m talented at?”
AMO: Right.
TRP: So, a lot of your work has involved pop musicians, specifically Beyoncé, Aaliyah, Rihanna… who else, or what other areas of music or film are you interested in, that people might not see as much? Anyone specific?
AMO: I feel like my music tastes are very, very versatile. It slaps! Sometimes I’ll listen to my playlist of music and say, “that was cute.” I feel like, I’m in this kind of phase where I’m listening to a lot of ambiance and soundtracks. I love Hans Zimmer, he’s one of my favorite composers. Um… I hope I pronounce his name right — Lorne Balfe — he did the soundtrack for the most recent Mission: Impossible. It’s my inner film head.
Some other artists that I’m really into is Mode-rat — or is it Mod-e-rat? — anyway, they’re this band or something. I recently got into them in the last year. It’s really cool, alternative, off-ambient type of stuff. I love M83. They’re ambient stuff, mostly.
In film… I love Titanic. 100%. It came out the year I was born, and James Cameron is one of my favorite directors.
I love Matthew A. Cherry. He is a dear supporter of mine. I am so blessed — when I started blowing up on Twitter, he was one of the first people to reach out and support me. And, to see his creative ascension is just incredible. His short films, 9 Rides was really, really good, and then to see Hair Love — and to win an Oscar from that, I was just like, wow! He is one of my top favorites. Cary Joji Fukunaga is a good director — I’m just all over a place! Honestly, I couldn’t even tell you. If you ask me a question, I’ll sit here and go on for 3 hours.
TRP: I did see that Mod-e-rat is on hiatus… I also don’t know how to pronounce their name.
AMO: Mod-e-rat, I think. Or it could be Mode-rat, I don’t know, something like that.
TRP: Well, they’re German.
AMO: Yeah, yeah, I definitely don’t want to butcher that. My bad.
TRP: Your rise was very organic. What would be your message to other creatives?
AMO: A lot of people that do mashups are multi-talented in other aspects of music. Myself, a lot of other people only knew me for doing mashups on Twitter — and then they saw, “oh, you have a whole Soundcloud of actual production. You’re talented!” Same thing with Nineteen85, he saw the mashups, and then he saw and heard all the other things I did, and he said, “Yo, I really value you.” So I just feel some labels and people are going to have to get with it. There’s so many creative people out here, that could be helping.
TRP: I get your point. I mean, KAYTRANADA liked this project and saw it, so maybe for him, it was cool to see his work with Beyoncé’s.
AMO: That’s what I thought. I feel like that was his team, from what I know, but I think he would really, really like the project, but there were just label things that had an issue with it. That’s where I feel like it comes from. Most of the artists that have seen the stuff that I have done, they have genuinely loved it, liked it, or given me props for it. Tee[dra Moses] saw a mashup I did, liked it, and used it on her tour. A couple of other artists are like that… one of my mashups even got used in Australia, on The Voice. Kelly Rowland heard it, and was like, “that was genius” — I didn’t get credit for any of that, but it is what it is.
And I want to be clear… that I do this as a fan, fun creative stuff — and the label stuff? That’s real hard legal things. That’s something I’m not that well-versed in. I’ll just learn about that and respect that until I have the opportunity for me, because I don’t need these issues to be seen. I don’t want no cease and desist from anybody, because that’s not why I do this. I don’t make any money off of this. It’s just a fun, creative thing for me to do.
Further Reading: “Amorphous was the winner of 2020 — and he wasn’t even trying”
