Bingx shares his raw and harrowing journey to musical success with host Aaron Pete. From overcoming personal struggles with Tourette's, OCD, and addiction, to transforming these challenges into artistic strength. Bingx takes us on a walkthrough of his audio engineering techniques and shares key insights on the complexities of the music industry.
Seattle-born rapper and vocalist Bingx, also known as Chanler Hendrickson, melds his love for hip-hop's lyrical finesse with the deep emotions of grunge in his music, drawing influence from a diverse range of artists including 50 Cent and Third Eye Blind. Bingx has over 100,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and over 27,000 subscribers on YouTube.
Bingx shares his raw and harrowing journey to musical success with host Aaron Pete. From overcoming personal struggles with Tourette's, OCD, and addiction, to transforming these challenges into artistic strength. Bingx takes us on a walkthrough of his audio engineering techniques and shares key insights on the complexities of the music industry.
Seattle-born rapper and vocalist Bingx, also known as Chanler Hendrickson, melds his love for hip-hop's lyrical finesse with the deep emotions of grunge in his music, drawing influence from a diverse range of artists including 50 Cent and Third Eye Blind. Bingx has over 100,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and over 27,000 subscribers on YouTube.
Welcome back to another episode of the Bigger than Me podcast. Here is your host, aaron. As you all know, I have had the privilege of speaking with Vinjay about his music and his album High Frequency. Today, I get to speak with the other tag team of that amazing album and we dive into his philosophy, mindset, the trials and tribulations he's overcome and how he approaches making music with so many different artists as a producer. My guest today is Binks Binks. I am so excited to be sitting down with you. I've been looking forward to this interview ever since I turned on your album High Frequency with Vinjay. Would you mind please introducing yourself for people who haven't had the privilege of getting to know your amazing music?
Bingx:Yeah, my name's Chan, but I go by the stage name Binks. That's B-I-N-G-X. I've been making music for 18 years. I love it. I produce it, mix it, master it, engineer, song, write, develop, vocal coach. Whatever needs to be done to get to a finish line on a project, I usually just pick up the reins and figure it out.
Aaron Pete:You're the man. I get sweaty hands anytime. I'm nervous for an interview and my hands are all sweaty, so I'm ready for this one. Are we able to start with something that makes you somewhat unique? You actually struggle with Tourette's. You've experienced this. What I find most beautiful is when you're sharing your passion. That goes away. Are you able to share that story with people?
Bingx:So, yeah, I have my first tics from Tourette's when I was five and then I started developing OCD so I started having little rituals. So OCD and Tourette's are not the best thing to have together, because sometimes I have a tic and then my OCD will be a ritual to do the take a certain amount of times, which is kind of an unfortunate pairing. But it did make me unique, I will say. Growing up with that wasn't hard at all. I like this girl named Tassa when I was 12 or 13 and we was inquired together.
Bingx:So they had it in a half moon like this the teacher up here and then you got the Sopranos, the Altos, the Tenors and the Baritones and I was over here with the Tenors and the Sopranos were over here and I had this really gross tic from my Tourette's where I like I like open my mouth, my tongue came out and I was like trying to fuck with the muscles in my neck and I was ticking, not really realizing it, and I look over at the girl that I like and she was making this face, looking at me or looking at her friends pointing at me, and they was all laughing and that was the moment for me.
Bingx:It was like I'm not being ugly, like maybe I got some ugly tics that I do, but I'm not being ugly to anybody. That was ugly right there, that shit's ugly. And so that was the moment for me that I decided I was like fuck you, I'm different, I don't give a fuck. If you got a problem with me, maybe making a noise or clearing my throat or making a weird face or doing some tWitch, then you was going to find a reason not to like me anyways.
Aaron Pete:Absolutely One of your early influences you had. It sounds like rock was one of your early influences from interviews I've listened to. Then you moved into finding tech nine. Would you mind sharing a little bit of your process of finding rap and lyricism in that process?
Bingx:Yeah, absolutely so, I was. I was at 15 years old. I'd only heard, like I hadn't really heard much rap. I'd heard you know, hi, my name is, and you know maybe some Tupac and some stuff with people driving, but I didn't listen to that shit because I was raised on rap music. My pops raised me on like cake and the police and ACBC and shit like that, Like sheep go to heaven, goats go to hell. That's where I was raised on. So but you know I've always had this mind, for you know I'm really good in numbers and words and you know things of that nature Quick, quick thinking, rhyming words and all that. I was 16 and I was at I was hanging out in the trailer park with my boy, james and you know we had a whole bunch of boys that went there and, you know, did drugs, all the stupid shit You're not supposed to be knowing and one of them played me this tech nine song and it was called Breathe and I remember it was the first time I'd ever heard some shit like that, because you know I'm used to the slow rock, big choruses and shit, and tech was on there going like he was using his breath and as part of the inflections and like it was.
Bingx:Even he was like I don't want to be the one to get a millimeter when I got, I want to be the one to hit him with another middle color. I'm a little sick and different and I'm in a minute when I said that you remember that Motherfucking year? And he was like he was using all these new things and I was like what is this?
Bingx:It was like crack to me. I was like, how's he? How's he? You know he's harmonizing with his raps and and it was. I was blown away. So I started memorizing the songs and, you know, flash forward like a year maybe and I was able to recite all of his lyrics. And you know, one thing about rappers is when they rap, they're not just saying lyrics, it's the way that they say the lyrics, it's the inflections, that intonation, and you know just the way that they, that they speak in their charisma behind it. So I was able to master that via listening to tech, like master his inflections on a record. So I would like actually wrap all of the ways that he was shaping the vowels and and all that. But he was like, you know, you're pretty good at that, so you ever thought about writing your own music? And I was like, oh, that's a good idea.
Aaron Pete:I love that. When did you realize that, walking in, when you start doing this, that all of the challenges you face outside your life fade away, particularly the Tourette's, that you're able to basically put on your hero's cape and deliver and have no limitations?
Bingx:I guess for me it's always just been the escape, for me, the outlet, because I didn't have without anger. Growing up I didn't have much left. So you know I was a drug addict in 14. I was. I was smoking synthetic heroin. I've been 10 for like 14 years. So I was addicted to drugs all the way up to I joined the military right before I turned 18. And I got out the military, got addicted to cocaine, did that shit, did that for years. But what I always had was anything.
Bingx:I've always been a big feeler. I've always had a big heart. Like I feel things very deeply and they affect me. You know, like I can have a thought and it can fuck up my whole day. Here I can have a thought and it can make my whole day because my feelings are very powerful and so kind of learning that, attaching, that, aligning that deep feeling, that deep rooted feelings that I have with an outlet and realizing that.
Bingx:That is why I was able to make it through the day, that's why things didn't stress me out as much anymore, that's why my anxiety would go away is because I was writing about it and able to voice this. You know big depth of ball of emotion inside of me and able to get it out and then hear it when I, when I play it back, that was that was really when that was really when it kind of like kicked in for me. Just you know, it happened gradually, but then once I was able to put that to words and realize that's what was happening, then it even got better, because then I'm like, oh, this is how I can do this.
Aaron Pete:That's incredible. May I ask? And this is a vulnerable question. So if you, if you don't want to answer, I totally understand, but what brought you down that path of struggling with drug use?
Bingx:Oh man, there was a lot of things. I mean I was. I was like 14 years old and my mom was addicted to percusses. She got she got real fucked up. She got a surgery to own a bone, the thing that your wrist swivels on it, like sits, like this, and then your wrist swivels on it. She had malpractice practice upon her at the hospital and they cut off the tip of her own bones so it fused her wrist together, so they put her on pain meds for it.
Bingx:It's like. It's like that's like a permanent thing that doesn't ever come back. And I started but she, you know, like I was, I would go and sell her prescription in the beginning of the month. I would sell like half of her prescription to make her some money and then she would go through like two weeks and then she'd run out of her pills and then we'd go spend more money than we netted in sales to like buy the fucking pills back, basically when she was going through withdrawals. So I was I've been around on that since I was like a, you know, since I was young and you know it was like. It was basically like my parents like painted a picture. I were like put up the frame and it was like all I had to do was color inside the box. You know what?
Bingx:I'm saying Right, my pops, you know, struggles with alcohol a bit, but him and I've got really really close over the last few years since I got sober and you know he lost a bunch of weight. He's been doing better with the alcohol and stuff too. It's never been, alcohol, has never been one of those things with him. That that took over his life is more like a, his daily escape. Maybe it's what it's. You know he raised four kids so he's like at this point you know what I mean. I'm good I raised four kids, I did it. But yeah, with my mom that was, that was the introduction, I guess, into the drug games and you know, or drug game and with you know, 1415, 1617, I was going from trap house to trap house and selling drugs, buying drugs, stealing robin, doing all this shit you're not supposed to be doing.
Aaron Pete:Where is the relationship out with your mother? If you don't mind me asking, Um, oh shit, that's a lot.
Bingx:Um, my, I went through a custody battle 56,000 dollar custody battle, um, two and a half years ago.
Bingx:It started two and a half years ago and the courts gave me emergency full custody, which is like temporary full custody and I have my son for a year.
Bingx:And how I got that is my mom came to me and told me that her and my baby's mom, my baby mama, had been using drugs together and that's how the courts gave it to me because I had a high witness and then, via my mom coming out and writing that on paper and telling everybody that came out and then the whole family found out and then my mom jumped, fell out of my second story window the next day, broke her back and paralyzed herself. Um, she, you know, out the window of my son's room while my son was in there and you know, the cops showed up and took her to the hospital. She's like learned how to walk again now and you know, but I think it's still tough for that. That relationship's hard for me. I give her, I create like a safe environment for me to be, like to interact with, to where you know I can, I can enable her to feel loved, but not enable her to hurt you have access, I guess, yeah, Um, but I love her.
Bingx:You know what I mean. I love my parents. You give what you get. You know a lot of people don't even have parents.
Aaron Pete:Absolutely. Thank you for being willing to share that. And what was your decision? To go into the military. How did that come about?
Bingx:I was. I was living in a trap house up in Everett it's like a real druggy town north of Seattle and, um, like, my roommate at the time was selling a bunch of them 80 milligram oxycontin. So I could, you know, I could smoke, snort and pop them all day as much as I wanted. And my homie, brendan McAllister, came back from the military. When he left he was like he's like 63, I think 62, 63. And he was super overweight. He wouldn't look you in the eyes when he was talking to you and wasn't confident at all. And he called me because he got home from the military. And he called me. He was like hey Chan, what are you doing? I want to come see you. And I'm like oh yeah, this is why I'm at getting my address. Well, he pulled up on his brand new RX six fucking motorcycle and hopped off. He's all in shape and he's walking with confidence, looking me in my eyes. He's like hey Chan, how you doing? I was like whatever the fuck, you just got a dose of I want that.
Aaron Pete:That's what I want.
Bingx:That was the first decision I ever made for myself. So he introduced me to his recruiter the next day and the guy said are you on drugs? And I said yeah. And he said I'll tell you what if you taste clean for me in a month, I'll let you in. And I got from fighting when I was a kid this is all titanium. So like this is all, this is all titanium. And they they got that recruiter was like I'll let you a, I'll let you in regardless. Like, not like hide the paperwork, but I won't bring attention to the fact that you know you got a big plate in your head. So I got to go do that. That was fun.
Aaron Pete:Hold on, you're. The top of your head is titanium, yeah this is all titanium. What? How did that happen? You said fighting. How did that what?
Bingx:I got my head bashed in with a mag like like a cop flashlight.
Aaron Pete:From a police officer.
Bingx:No, from. I was fighting, I was at a law store. I was at war tour and somebody was rock, was stealing from our campsite and he was stealing the purse of one of the girls that was there. She came up, was like hey, that's my purse. He turned around and knocked her to ground, hit her in the face. So then I beat him up and then he went and grabbed his brother and they came back while I was sleeping, drug me out of my tent and tried to kill me in the middle of the night and then all my friends chased him off and then you know, I had like frontal lobe damage, two dents in my skull, seven breaks and fractures in the orbit of my eye, smashed nasal column.
Aaron Pete:How did you process something like that happening to you?
Bingx:I took it on the chain and kept going. I mean, I was already using drugs at that point, so they just gave me a bunch of free drugs. I was like fuck it. You know, because you got to have for any type of head injury like that, you got to get a bunch of pain medication. So I just kept rocking and rolling. You know, that was it.
Aaron Pete:So you've lived like a few lives in this short span of time, just after entering the military, coming back like you've been through a lot in your life, like you have a lot of world understanding of the challenges, the ups and downs individuals go through, just from that period of your life.
Bingx:Very much so. I mean, after that it got even crazier. I mean, I went to. I was the face of Caviar Gold, the weed brand. I was the face of their company for like two years and they took me to Jamaica, you know, I went on nationwide tours, had my face on the side of a big tour bus, Shout out to Scott McKinley and Mike Brunson they're a great couple of guys I just I had a big ego at the time and I was addicted to Coke, so I threw that away and it was like how did that, how did that opportunity come about?
Aaron Pete:from everything else that was going on in your world?
Bingx:I did a show with a. I did a show with a weed dispensary and Scott McKinley was there bringing his products there, doing something, doing something there, and he was like I really like you. He was like I want to introduce you to somebody. And I was like, all right, cool. So I came over to the crib a month later, two months later, whatever it was. We built a relationship at that point and Mike Brunson walked in and he took one look at me and he heard my music and he's like I'm like, he's like you're a fucking star dude. He's like I'm a fucking, I'm going to make you a star. And I was like bet.
Bingx:And then two weeks after that, I was in a limo in LA. I was going to go into like a private resident residence down in downtown LA and I met like Jerry Heller and kicked it with him for the night, got addicted to cocaine, dating a fucking billionaire's daughter. I was going crazy. It wasn't until I was 26, almost 27, when I finally put the drugs down and got clean and started deciding that I wanted to be a. You know, I want to be a good dad and I wanted to be a. I wanted to be a musician, and actual musician, not somebody that just wrapped and walked out of the room afterwards Like he was hot sauce. You know what I'm saying.
Aaron Pete:We may be getting a bit ahead of ourselves. When did you start to commit yourself truly to music and to the creation of it?
Bingx:I went through this rap beef eight years ago in the city of Seattle and as it was going on, we all recorded at the same studio and the studio told me that it wasn't safe for me to record there anymore.
Bingx:And that was the point when I started on the journey that to get where I'm at now, I went and got a laptop Biologic Pro and I locked myself all of my free time, anytime I wasn't working or jogging or making plays or anything. I was all of my free time I was in the house learning how to engineer and mix and master and I did that shit for like three years. And when I finally came out of the crib and I started bringing artists through to come like feature on my songs, and they would come and see what I would do recording them and engineering and mixing their songs, and they were like how much do you charge an hour? And I was like I just do this for myself. And they're like I'd pay like 40 or $50 an hour to come work with you and have you record my stuff. And that was like a clip for me. It was like, oh shit, like. And I started listening to the stuff that these studios were doing and I was like my shit sounds way better.
Bingx:Like I'm good at this, I'm really good at this, and then it was like a whole new thing. Then I dove in and started studying under people and learning how to produce, and now I can pretty much do anything anybody asks me to do when it comes to audio.
Aaron Pete:Seems like a major moment that the studio said that it wasn't safe for you to work there anymore. Then you go off and you start creating and you do all these things. Why wasn't it safe for you to work there anymore?
Bingx:I was just the rat beef. There was, like there was. I was at a point in time where I'd let my ego get ahead of me and there was an artist in the town and he had made a song and another song and, like, set an artist's name in the song and then that artist, like, had stood up for himself in a song and then he, like responded again and it just rubbed me the wrong way. But which is not in my fucking business Nowadays. I shouldn't, I wouldn't bat an eye at it.
Bingx:But I was young and I was egotistical and you know what I'm saying. I was like fresh on the scene and I was trying to make a name for myself and shit. So, you know, I put my two cents in on it on a song and the artist didn't like that very much, but so he responded with a song and then one of his homies responded with a song and it was like it was all gangster oriented in a sense of like. One of the songs was called like domestic violence and it was like a you know, gangster mentality is what I'm saying Basically like I was gonna get killed.
Bingx:You know, lyrics were like pull up on that boy in traffic and clap him with a nine and stuff like that. So you know, then now I'm at a point where you know I'm driving around the city with my son and I'm like, damn, I might get shot at, you know. And so this studio obviously knows these artists. They probably recorded the songs there. So they were like no, like you can't record anymore, it's not safe, cause we're not trying to get the spot shot at.
Aaron Pete:Yeah, that's one of the challenges I would say that not just rappers, but primarily rappers go through, because there's something alluring to the public about beefs, about issues, about disagreements. You see how well like Eminem and MGK's videos did when they were going against each other you see, when people get into these disagreements, that pulls us in. I know when I watch interesting podcast it will be heated argument between this person and this person on this topic and then you're like, oh, what's going on? What are they disagreeing on? And that almost pulls us in, which can be so dangerous for the individuals involved.
Bingx:Yeah, absolutely. I mean everybody just needs to mind their own fucking business at the end of the day. You know what I mean. Like I don't speak on that. You know one thing I realized about myself even just working. I work at a public studio. I work with a lot of artists. They come in and out and I hear a lot of negative hatred talk when people come in, people talking shit about it as artists and these.
Bingx:And I realized, the more I get into the scene, like I don't really share opinions, like that I'm not out here. That's one thing that that rap beef taught me was like mind your fucking business. So I keep my opinions to myself. If I don't like something, I just don't like it. It doesn't mean I have to go and tell you that I don't like it. I don't have to go out here and trash somebody's name or whatever. It takes a lot. You'd have to really do something personal to me for me to speak on you without you being there, if that makes sense, so like.
Bingx:But I realized that that is the generation, that's what people do. They'll like right now I could go make a professional looking video on a green screen, hire somebody to wear a new suit. Put NBC, fox News, whatever, in the fucking bottom left corner and say Joe Biden has HIV. Test became public today and it would spread like wildfire and it's fake, but people would see it. And then they reiterate it. And then people come watch the video and then, now what? Everybody knows that Joe Biden has HIV when he doesn't. I mean, I don't know, but just an example. But that's how hatred works. You know what I'm saying? Like people share negative opinion. I fucking hate this. People are bonding over mutual hatred. That's why relationships are fragile and it's just a shitty time that we live in now.
Aaron Pete:regard, Okay, I do have some actual questions that I wanna get to, but you've spoken about something that really interests me. One of the challenges I find podcasters face is something called audience capture, and it's where we start seeing what gets the views and then we just start chasing that rather than why we got into the game. And for rappers, I think that there's something similar to that, where you start to make songs and you start to realize you hit a certain point. You talk about certain things, you're gonna get views on that, you're gonna keep hitting it, but it's not what nourishes your soul, it's not what actually means something to you. It's what's checking a box for other people and it might not be what they need. It might be what they like because they can tune in and they get kind of a reaction, but it's not something meaningful and full of depth.
Aaron Pete:And one thing that you've mentioned is, if Drake rapped one of your songs, it would get a Grammy, and I couldn't agree with you more. But so often rappers go to what will go viral rather than what is deep and meaningful and impactful. How do you make sure that you find that balance? Because I'm sure you can look at a rapper and say if you make these type of five songs, you're gonna do really well, be gonna be empty inside and it's gonna be nothing to you because it's not your voice. You're just repeating what five other people have said 10,000 million other times.
Bingx:Yeah, I kind of I look at intentions. So if I make a song about, for instance, me carrying a pistol around and bucking at a people, what am I inviting into my life? I'm inviting people to come check me. I'm inviting people to come and test me. I'm inviting that type of energy. If I make a song, it's true in a sense of, even if that is true, if I'm really doing that, I'm still inviting that. It doesn't mean that I have to talk about it. If that's how I live my life, does that make sense? Yeah, so like, if I'm like, for instance, if I'm dealing drugs, I'm not gonna go make a song and talk about how much drugs I sell, because then everybody's gonna fucking know how much drugs I sell. You know what I'm saying? That's just stupid to me. It doesn't make no sense. You're tattling on yourself but you're also inviting that energy in.
Bingx:So frequencies are, you know, I have frequency on my knuckles. But frequencies are the you know life, they're the universe, they're everything that we touch, see, hear, breathe, smell, everything. It's all frequencies, it's all everything. And you vibrate at a certain frequency and you would trap certain frequencies when you vibrate a certain frequency. So if I'm making, you know, if I put it out there in the world that I wanna work at, you know, this type, one type of establishment, and I go apply it, 10 of those types of establishment, I'm putting that frequency out there that I wanna work there and eventually somebody's gonna fucking hire me. That's a very small, closed, cut, fucking concise analogy, but that's the same, for like being true to yourself and people have different sides of themselves. So you know, like this thing going on in the industry right now with D1, he's calling out all these artists. For you know, you made it out of the hood, you made it out from this gangster mentality. This you know killer, be killed, flight of flight, response on a 24 hour basis. You made it out of this area of your life and now you're famous, but yet you still talk about that. And yet you're driving, you're living in a $4.2 million house and you drive a $1.5 million car, and you know what I mean. Like you don't have to do any of those things anymore. Why are you still talking about it? And you know the answer is yeah, because it sells. So I agree with you there. But there's multiple facets to everybody and like maybe that is a part of your life. So you know what do you wanna attract and those are the type of fans that you wanna have and that's the life that you wanna live. Then go ahead, man. It's your life. You know I don't have to do that For me.
Bingx:I write my songs, I listen to them back and I think what is the intention behind this? Like, what frequencies am I putting out there right now when I release the song? And there's sometimes I'll say some shit in a song that I'm guilty of it too. You know I don't really call my girl a bitch, right Like I'll be, like I might be joking around, playful with her. Be like, shut up, bitch, you know what I'm saying, or whatever. You know what I'm saying, like that. But I'm not like, yeah, this is my bitch, like I don't, I don't talk like that, but I've said that in a song. You know Like. And so you know I'm guilty of it too.
Bingx:And you know I think it's all just learning and growing and trying to figure out what the return is on what you're investing. Because if you're investing solid, true energy and you're only being yourself, well, it's probably a lot more boring than this grandiose kind of flashy, little bit exaggerated version of you. But you know when is it? When does it really become a lie? Because if I, you know what I mean by that is when you're putting all this out into the world to get heard. You know like I could go change the world, right? I could do that with my mentality, the way that I think, the pain and the trauma and the PTSD that I have, and the way that I've made it through it and the way that I conquer my and face my demons every day. I could help a lot of people. But let's say, I try for 15 years and I never get a big platform and I get. You know, I maybe help 100 people For a lot of people.
Aaron Pete:That's not enough.
Bingx:So they're like well, let me compromise this X, y and Z so I can get the eyes on me, so now I can make the statements and live the life that I want to live, you know. And then when does it change? You know, when does it shift into like, well damn, now I'm making money. So I kind of want to just low key, keep this up. And it's, it's hard and at the bottom of it all, it's all just attention and it's greed based. You know, people don't want to. People do want a Lamborghini, but they'd rather know, they'd rather you know that they have a Lamborghini. Does that make sense?
Aaron Pete:That absolutely makes sense, and I think that that's so true.
Bingx:So you know, it's for me it's just. I listen to the songs after I write them and I record them and I ask myself I'm like damn like, did I really reverberate with this? Is this, is this, you know? Does this make me feel good inside? Is this, is this what I'm actually feeling? And a lot of times I'll go change like two lines or a word or be like no, I wasn't being completely truthful there. Let me switch this line and let me change this punch line, and then I'll listen back again. I'm like, all right, that's him right there. And then sometimes, you know, I get to write the first track.
Aaron Pete:So you've done a lot of interviews on the song I'm about to ask you about. So I apologize in advance that you've done the interviews on the song and you've been asked a gambit of questions on it, but I do think that they missed one of the most important points of the song. Your song it's a Big Deal has been out for some time now and you've done interviews on it and people have asked questions, but one question I cannot believe they ask. As a host, I often go what am I bringing to the table? What value am I bringing? But the one question. I listened to like three or four different interviews and they all asked about the song, but they didn't ask about the underlying philosophy of this song that I think is so absolutely crucial that people need to hear. This should be automatically downloaded onto people's alarm systems when they wake up in the morning.
Aaron Pete:Is this song? Because it's exactly what you need to hear when you're starting out your day. What are you going to do with your life? Realize that it's only 80 years. Realize that most people let their life fly by and they don't do anything with it and they do a nine to five to get by and they never realized what their true potential was, whatever that potential might look like, and they completely miss out. And then they wonder what the heck happened. And I think it's so important.
Aaron Pete:My partner showed me the song and it was so motivational and so inspirational that I was like this every one of my friends needs to hear this song to understand where they're at in their life and where they could be. Because I have friends out there that are kind of like I'm kind of chasing my passion but I'm kind of putting in 10% and getting 10% back and wondering why the world isn't praising me. They're not putting in that full energy. And in the song it was all facts. It was all exactly what you need to hear and, as somebody who grew up without a father, it was something that I wish a father had have told me. It was all of that information about how to live a good life. Would you mind please telling our listeners about? It's a big deal.
Bingx:I was actually. I was working, I was laying carpet when I wrote that song. I was walking around a job site in between, like in between working. I was writing it at work. But for me it was just one day. You wake up and you're either doing what you love or you're not and you realize it. I've had many of those moments in my life where I wake up and I'll randomly become grateful and I'm just like I thank God, I'm like dude fucking. Hey, I know life sucks a lot sometimes, but thanks, this shit's awesome, like a little conversation like that. For me to have moments like that, I had to have had music in my life. So I found music early and shaped me as a soul, as a you know.
Bingx:I've got a lot of depth to the way I think and feel and I don't play in the shallow end. I'm not in the kiddie pool with my emotions, with my thought processes, any of that. I'm always in the deep end. I'm ready to dive in. I want to figure it out. I want to figure out how things take. I want to figure out how I take, and I feel like that's what's lost a lot with people.
Bingx:That's the disconnect they're not ready to dive in there's too scared to look at themselves. They're too scared to ask themselves the hard questions ask themselves am I happy? Is this what I want to be doing? Are these the people that I should spend time around? Am I in shape? Am I the person that I want to be? Am I? No, you're not, because you're not happy. So the only way to change that is just to go out and change it and do it now, because whether you're 19 or 49, you've still got time left. You know what I'm saying. Maybe you had a shitty run for 30 years Okay, cool. What's next? You're still breathing. Wake up and get to it. If you change 1% every day for 100 days, you're a whole new person. You know what I'm saying. 100%, yeah exactly.
Aaron Pete:That's what it is. Yeah, exactly 100%.
Bingx:But I'm saying you're building a wall and you're thinking about this process of like, damn, I got to build this shit 10 feet high and 20 feet long for this fucking customer. No, how do you do it? Break by break, right? Yeah, just focus on the next break. The most important step a man can take is the next one. It's always the next one For all of us. Shout out to Brandon Sanderson for that one. But it's true, like literally the most important step that anybody can take is the next one.
Bingx:Who cares what you did yesterday? Who cares what you did 10 minutes ago? Yeah, you fucking screamed at somebody, you called him a bitch, you punched somebody, you got arrested. You got arrested. Whatever the fuck it is, it just happened. Cool, what's next? What are you going to do now? Because now that you know that you don't want to be that person or do these things or say these things, what are you going to do now and how are you gonna apply yourself to do that? Well, I'm gonna start by right now. I'm gonna not call this girl a bitch.
Bingx:When I'm talking to her, I'm gonna start right now by not losing my temper. When somebody makes me angry, I'm not gonna snap in my kid. I'm not gonna drive drunk whatever the fuck it is you know saying that's the first step that I can take actions. I.
Aaron Pete:Couldn't agree more. I actually worked in the court system for five years, working with people who have assaulted their partners, committed crimes, stolen, done all types of things, and the thing that I always found that we forgot to ask people is not just the little thing Are you gonna go to counseling, are you gonna attend your next meeting, are you gonna do this? That another thing, but it was more about where do you want to be in 20 years? And we stop asking that people to people. At a certain point, what is your true potential at like 30 years old?
Aaron Pete:I interviewed Jayzak and he has a line in there where he's like when do we stop believing in people that they could make a change in their life, that they could improve things? We stop having that faith after like 30 years old that people could go on and do amazing things, and I think that that's so tragic and exactly what your song speaks to, which I find is missing in our culture, like whoever is supposed to tell us these things, whether it's teachers, professors, educators, family members, loved ones they're not telling that set that anymore, and Vin Jay talks about this like Rappers are the new prophets, and I think that that's true in that this is the last place people can go to to hear that type of advice.
Bingx:Yeah, I would say the entertainment industry more than just rappers, because you know you have people like you Do podcasts. They that people that do motivational podcasts, motivational speakers they have business motivational speakers they have. They have emotional counseling, like there's a lot of places you can go and get this too, but it's all in some form of you know, group session or entertainment or some some type of thing like that you can go get the information. Or, you know, you just pick up a book, you know a lot of people don't read.
Bingx:I don't know why. I read a lot. I've read Hundreds and hundreds of books. I've read definitely read over a thousand books. I don't know how many books, but and I've got 350 books on my phone I've read I don't even know how many times. I've read some of them five or six times, and I read a lot. I learned a lot from books.
Aaron Pete:I learned a lot. Is there a stand-up book to you? Is there one that stands out in your mind?
Bingx:You know, believe it or not, fantasy fiction is. Probably. My favorite series is probably the Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher or the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. You just get to watch their, their epics, so you get to grow with the characters. You know they. They develop over time. They started at, like, you know, 15 or 20 years old and by the end book they're like 40 or whatever.
Bingx:You know that's an epic but you know getting, you fall in love with these characters and you watch them get put into compromise positions to where they have to break their morals to Move forward. But instead of doing that, because that's what society expects of them, they change the fucking rules. They, you know I'm saying they step up and they pass their barriers and they break through their ceilings and they, they conquer their demons and you get to see how deep those demons go just reading the book and you fall in love with these characters, backstories and how much trauma they've had. And you know, obviously it's fantasy but at the same time you're still watching somebody grow and a lot of Mentalities that you know like. Brandon Sanderson is a phenomenal writer. I think he's the best writer of our generation and If you just watch the way that he paints the world and you and you just picture it and you listen to how he describes these characters, pains and losses and traumas, and how they affect their Decisions and how, how much dirt the world's thrown on them, but yet they still have made something of themselves, like. All of those things are information. Every book I read, it is information from that character, from this character, from this city. How this, you know how this city runs and whether this, whether it's a magical city or it's just a regular fucking city, like there's still people with morals and things that they you know. You know saying like it's still Character building and and when it's character building, as far as books, it's also building your character as a human being, because you get to ask yourself these questions that nobody's asked you before and that's all.
Bingx:From Just reading, you can read whatever you want. You want to read fucking crime novels? Cool, go read crime novels, you can. You can it'll if it strikes your mind that way. Guess what now? You, now, you know how to be analytical. They know how to break things down and and observe small details. Boom, you just learned that from reading the fucking book, you know saying like that's, that's. That's a lot that people. That's. One big thing that a lot of people don't do is read and and and you know, I don't know whether you do audio book or, if you can't read, just do the. You know, in a sense of whether you don't know how or you're just not the best reader. Do audio book but like, get information, stop stop. People need to stop doing this. They feed, they read all that, the the flashy, shallow information on here and then that's all the knowledge they have.
Aaron Pete:You're absolutely right. Jordan Peterson has this line that when you read a book or when you watch a movie, you are every single one of the characters and you can start to understand those characters Immediately. We are ingrained and taught and like born to do that as a process. But we do have to get to your album high frequency with Vin Jay. I've been dying to ask you some questions about it. First, how did that album come about? Because I had the privilege of speaking with Vin Jay and I just from your perspective, how did that album come about?
Bingx:I.
Bingx:Can't remember the we linked over the internet and we hopped on FaceTime and you know he was like he was like shooting music video. He had all the fucking skeletal fucking paint on and shit. I was like what up, bro, we're fucking chopping it up. And you know we kept in touch and I can't remember exactly how it Panned out, but at one point we started talking about making an album and he was like, fucking, I'm just gonna come to Seattle. Then he goes. I want somebody that can bring me out of my, out of my box and make me make me uncomfortable. And I was like, well, I'm good for that. So fucking, come on down.
Bingx:Hey, fucking flew out and you stay with me, I believe for five nights and six days left on the sixth day and we made like 20, 20 songs or something like that, 18 or 20 songs and that in that week and it was just a blast man. We, you know I Took some shrooms a couple of nights while he was there and you know, just like a little bit. And you know I was feeling the energy in the room and we were talking, getting to know each other and it was. We were just discussed, we were discovering each other musically and humanely, while we were discovering what his album wanted to sound like and man it was, it was a blast.
Bingx:I really enjoy working with in J He'sa. He's a, you know, he's a very deep thinker as well and Phenomenal talent. So it just Probably on the fourth day we realized like, oh, we got something special here, like this is dope, this is really dope. And then the song Human or high frequency, the one that's on YouTube with the music video. That happened after he left. Really, yeah, that was the the time. I think it's the title track, but yeah, that happened after he left.
Bingx:I I woke up one day and I played that bass line on my keyboard and I started writing that I'd like just got done listening to some like Andre 3000 or some shit, and and I was like hella inspired. So I made that bass line, I just started rapping on it and, you know, and I got like I got halfway through the song and I was like, damn, this is, i'ma send this to me and I send it to Vin and he was like, yeah, I got you and he hopped on that and then that that ended up being the that was. I think it was a final track we added to that one.
Aaron Pete:Yeah, One of the parts that really inspires me is we have kind of metrics for rap.
Aaron Pete:We'll say you're a lyricist, we'll say that you're a mumble rapper.
Aaron Pete:We have kind of like boxes will put people in, but the the depth of how you think and the two of you put together, though the depths that you go to it's like I'll go back to that and be like I never looked at that, that verse from this Perspective, or I'm going through this new thing and now I'm starting to see how that verse kind interacts with this new problem that I'm facing, that there's an unmet measure that we need to have, which is the depth of an album or depth of a song that that can impact a person, where you can continue, go back there and it nourishes you because it gives you that deeper understanding of how to look at people and how to process things and not to take things personally and to make sure you're living a good life All of these really valuable tools in that whole album that I still go back to and go.
Aaron Pete:This is fresh and it's it's a few years old in terms of what I was made, but it's still so relevant and nothing has aged about the importance of the information within each song.
Bingx:Yeah, absolutely.
Aaron Pete:What was the development process for that song? Like for all of those songs, what was the process to get to that depth with another person? Because you might be able to have those thoughts and he has those thoughts. But I'm just wondering, how do you two get onto that same high frequency and be able to meet each other there? Because you build off of each other's ideas in each song.
Bingx:Yeah, no, I mean, it was basically like I do scats. Do you know what a?
Aaron Pete:scat is. Vinjay started to describe it to me, but if you could give a refresher, yeah, here's an example.
Bingx:So I'll play this little guitar thing right here and I'll this is just a little loop, but I'll put it in the session and make it like three minutes long, like three minutes of a loop, and then I'll just press record and I'll go in the booth and I'll do something like this. I'm not really saying much but I'm trying to find a phonetic structure of the song, like the vowels that feel good, like you can have. For instance, you could have a yeah on a song that's three notes on the piano and go, eee, and it sounds terrible. Even it's the same notes on the piano but it's different vowel, because the vowel, the phonetic, the phonetic resonance of the vowel doesn't match the key of the song and the instruments. So that's what I'm looking for when I do that and I'll record that, and I'm looking for pockets and schemes and and just you know it's just mumble, basically with some vowel starting and, and then I get the whole song sometimes like that, and then I'll just write to those, I'll write to the words, to the scats.
Aaron Pete:And I think you taught Vin J this on that first experience right, Like he was still developing the skill set.
Bingx:Yeah, no for sure. We went in there we don't win and he had expressed to me that he wanted to do more melodic stuff, more singing stuff. So I was like just fucking dive in, bro. And you know we got there and started doing the scats. So he would do a scat on a song, I would do a scat on a song and then you know we'd follow his vision on a song, we'd follow my vision on a song and you know I'll sing a hook and he's like let me do this verse for you, let me do this verse real quick. And then I'm like, damn, you went, you went really in depth in that verse. Let me, when I had my verse, let me, let me kind of follow, or let me do the alternate perspective or whatever. You know, just feeding off each other, feeding off each other.
Bingx:And when you have two people that separately make really good music most of the time, when you get together, you're going to make good music Most of the time. Yeah, so you know different processes, different, different perceptions and the way that we perceive things and how we, how we think the song should go. You know I might go up on a melody when he goes down, and you know, for me that's great pause, but I think that the most important part of the whole collaborating thing is just letting each other live with with each other's energy, like like the scatting part of it. Like let me go in there and scat something that you're going to write to, and then you go in there and scat something that I'm going to write to, let me, let me live with your energy for a bit, because you're going to do a different pocket cadence, rhythm, scale than I'm going to do, because your history and your influences are different than mine.
Aaron Pete:There are so many life lessons in that. The first one that I'm thinking of is I've heard this line and it's in a song people are energy vampires. And that's a line from Russ, and the idea is that you can be around people who drag you down constantly and you come out, you wake up out of bed and you're ready to go, and you're ready to make everybody happy, and the sun is shining, and then people suck that energy right out of you. We often don't recognize that the opposite is true that you can get into a room with somebody you can vibe with and they're going to build off of your energy in a positive way.
Aaron Pete:And listening to an interview with Jeff Bezos and Lex Friedman, he talks about this idea that when you have an idea, don't be around people who are immediately going to shoot it down. Let that idea breathe, and be around people who are going to say okay, that's the beginning of an idea. What about if we build here and if we build there and you remain open minded and you don't immediately go? That's stupid, that sucks, that's wrong, that's incorrect. I would do it this way. You're wrong when you start to let those people in. It can be a challenge. You work with so many different artists. How do you figure out how to flow with them in a healthy way that's going to bring about the best type of music?
Bingx:I adapt really well. So for me, I pay attention to a lot of things that I don't. A lot of times I don't even know what I'm doing. But like, for instance, I'll meet artists and I hang out with them for 30 or 40 minutes and I'll subconsciously start using the slang or lingo that they're saying, because I understand that that makes them feel comfortable like innately, and I'll catch myself doing it after they leave. I'm like damn, I really sleep into that one. Just I don't know, adapting to my environment.
Bingx:And when I work with artists I just test the waters. First, I'll say something that's maybe a little contradictory or a little blunt and see how they respond to it. And if they respond well to blunt energy, then I can just be completely open and blunt with them. Sometimes they're defensive. A lot of times they're defensive and sensitive about their opinions and whatnot. So I have to constructively tell them to change what they did and figure out a way to maneuver around their traumas and their PTSD and their triggers and whatnot. But everybody has greatness in them. So you know, all you have to do is find it.
Aaron Pete:The other person that I have to ask about. You did Champion with Echo and that was such a motivational song. I have that song going anytime I'm on a run, anytime I'm at the gym. Would you mind talking about making that song?
Bingx:Man, I got that. I found this weird synth on Splice and I was like I like the melody but I don't like it. So I altered it and pitched it way down and it was like and I was like, oh, that's fire. So I wrote the verse to it and all I had was a verse on there forever. And then one day I woke up and I was like this needs like rock drums.
Bingx:So I started producing the real live drums on the hook and I was like, yo, this sounds, this is like an anthem, like for champions. And then I freestyle that hook and, like one take, I was like I got a solo of a champion. I was like, oh, that's him right there, that's the one, that's the one. And then Echo and I were talking about potentially having me produce some songs for him. So I made some beats for him. And then I was like, hey, man, I got a couple of songs later on to have open verses Like I'm going to send you those and see if you like them. And I sent him champion. He was like, oh, fuck this up.
Aaron Pete:He's like, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, let's do this one. I'm like all right, bet.
Bingx:So I had that shit sitting around for probably a year and a half.
Aaron Pete:Can I just ask about the personal experience of you've talked about this in an interview you did with Nashville on Sign which is just keeping that love of the passion, like loving what you're doing, and what is it like to make a song, to make a beat, to write that verse and to be like man, I did that, Like I actually made that and I'm actually proud of it and I actually want people to hear that because it's something I created. That's really good.
Bingx:Like what do you mean? Like what's it like? Is that what you're like Are?
Aaron Pete:you able to sit with that, Like some some rappers I've interviewed, they're like no, it's hard to sit with that. I'm on to the next song. I need to make a new single. I need to keep going and some people are able to sit back and really process that they are proud of who they are as a creator.
Bingx:Oh yeah, I mean, I have songs that I listened to this day I made a long time ago that you know like still make me cry. And you know I have songs that I go to when I'm feeling happy or when I'm having a fucked up day or anything like that, and really process it. And you know, sometimes you can admire who you are Like. I'll admire who I was the day that I wrote that song and the strength of my mentality that day, because I'm lacking that on the day that I'm listening to it and I'm searching for it, I'm trying to find the strength to make it through the day. But on the day that I wrote that song, I felt powerful and you know I felt in control and you know living in a place of determination and drive instead of doubt and uncertainty. You know what I'm saying.
Bingx:So you can admire that's one thing that we can do as artists. We can admire the person that wrote that song, even though it was us, but I can admire the version of myself that I was that day and I can take power and strength from that. I can admire the person that just processed this fucking breakup and instead of trashing her and doing this, or instead of losing their mind and or isolating themselves from the world, they're going to go tell everybody how they're feeling and how close they were to breaking. And you know, whatever it is, you can go back there and do that. So I do very much value living with the music afterwards. But also on the other side, I've got seven hard drives with over 2000 songs on them that nobody's ever heard. So you know there's that too.
Aaron Pete:That is wild. Are you able to tour us around and give us an understanding of how you make music?
Bingx:Yeah Well, I gave you a little bit of it already. But basically for me, I sit down Either fresh, without listening to any music beforehand, and I'll have like some type of energy that day. It'll be sad, I want to. I want a minor scale, minor key Guitar or piano. Some days I'm somber. I want to. I want the same thing, but I want it.
Bingx:You know, I wanted a little bit slower so I can sing a ballad on it. Other days I'm having a great fucking day. You know, I just got a, I just got a big paycheck, or I just got to spend the day with my son or whatever the fuck it is, and I'm like I need some upbeat. You know, whatever it is, I'll take whatever I'm feeling and I try and capture that because I think I believe that music is just captured energy. So you know, sometimes you can, you can make a song when you're feeling really happy and make this happy pop song or whatever it is, and then go try and recut the vocals the next day because you didn't like parts and you can't do it because the energy's gone, it doesn't sound the same, doesn't feel the same. So the process for me is just anytime that I feel anything? I Know it sounds like something.
Aaron Pete:Yeah, there are a lot of artists that I know, whether they're photographers, rappers or just creators in general, that they start to burn themselves out and they start to lose that love of the game. They start to disconnect. Are you just able to give a little bit of advice? From your years of experience and your ability to work with so many different creators, what advice or what recommendations would you have for them on their journey?
Bingx:When people fall in love with something, they fall in love with the ability that they attained and are attained and are attaining to do whatever it is that they love. You're not just falling in love with making music. If you love, you have a passion for making music. You have a passion for growing in music, for learning how to get better and making that next song. And then people start chasing songs, or they chase that feeling of how what they got from making that one song or whatever it is. People need to allow themselves to live and if you have writer's block or whatever, all I'd say is is don't think about it like writer's block. Think about it like you just need to apply yourself to a new skill set within the same family tree of whatever it is. So for me, if I don't feel like writing a song this day, if I don't wanna make a rap song, I'll make a singing song. If I don't feel like making any songs, I'll just make a beat. If I don't feel like making a beat, I'll just mix a song, I'll just work on music. If I don't wanna do any of that, I'll just play the piano for a little bit. I'm gonna go do something, because music makes me happy. Music is what I love. So if the passion is just music in general and it doesn't have to be a specific part of the music, yeah, there's our favorite parts of said whatever it is.
Bingx:Some people love performing on stage but they hate going on tour because they're away from their family for two months. Right, but you can't have one without the other. So the end of the day, you know what I mean it's the music that you love. So I would say, just pick up a new skill set. Pick it up. If you edit videos and you're fucking, or you shoot videos and you edit them and you're getting worn out, or whatever, pick up a new skill set in there. Pick up, learn a new way of editing, learn a new way of shooting videos. Learn you know shoot.
Bingx:Try learning how to shoot slow mo film, try whatever it is. Try attaining a new skill within there that you have to apply yourself to get good at it, because that's the part that makes us passionate. It's that climb up the ladder where we're getting better and we can see the progress and we know that that next step is coming, that next level is coming. That's what gives us the determination and drive to continue to go. If you just did something and you always sucked at it, you know what I mean. You're probably not gonna wanna do it for very long. Or you might just love to do it, even though you suck at it, and you're not trying to get better at it, you just do it because you love it. That's cool too, but you're probably not losing passion for something like that, because if you suck at it and you're still doing it, you know.
Aaron Pete:Binks, I have to call you an absolute inspiration and I think, more importantly to me, you are a philosopher. I find that you have a really strong mindset and a deep understanding of things, and I find that really admirable. I can't thank you enough for being willing to do this. I think your journey from what you've shared today, I'm sure that there's so much more. Your journey is also so inspirational and motivational to people. I saw on Instagram that you just got engaged and I have to wish you a congratulations on that. I'm so happy for you to share the story from where you started in this interview to where you are today. You are making such a positive impact, inspiring people like myself with your music and with your creative abilities. I am so grateful to have been able to speak with you today.
Bingx:Yeah, man. Thanks for having me on the show, bro. It's been a real professional and it's been awesome. I liked all the questions you asked. It was nice. You did some homework too, which was awesome. I'm glad to be a part of the show, man. Let me know when it comes out and whatnot, so I can share it and do all the social media stuff.
Aaron Pete:Sounds good. I owe Vin J Big One for this one, because this has just exceeded expectations in my wildest dreams.
Bingx:Go team man. What's up, man? I hope you have a great rest of your day. I'm about to. I got a client pulling up here in like two minutes to the studio. But thanks again for having me on the show. And yeah, man, you got my number. Give me up sometime.
Aaron Pete:Sounds good. Enjoy. Best of luck tonight. Thank you again, and yes, I will share this with you once it's out All right brother have a good night. You too. I'll see you guys next time.