fuckflexan209 
SF – Yo thanks letting us interview you. what’s your name and where are you from?
KN – The pleasure is all mine, thank you for taking the time to do this, it means a lot.
My name is KNØTTZ and I am from Phoenix, Arizona
SF – Sick name yea fasho I got you man, I can tell where you got the name inspiration from no need to explain bro haha love it and what’s the music scene like out there? How you came up with your name? When did you start taking music more serious?
KN – hahahaha i know what you’re thinking, my name inspiration actually isn’t derived from the name Slipknot.
My name is inspired by my hair. When i first started uploading to soundcloud in 2017 when i was in high school, i had an afro. i grew up in a white family and my biological father was never around so nobody including myself knew how to take care of “black” hair so most of my life my hair was a matted, nappy amalgam of knots, probably up until my sophomore of high school. So i called myself Lil’ Knottz. My hair got so knotted to the point where i was starting to form dreadlocks which i ended up embracing and locking them myself. I’ve had them ever since.
Later on i dropped the “Lil’” because it was generic and no longer fit my image, so i made my name KNØTTZ. This was a really dark period in my life at the time and i’ve been angry at everything for a long time so the ‘Ø’ to me means “not welcome”, and that was when i started taking music more serious which was around mid 2020. I have mixed feelings about the scene in Arizona. There are multiple parts of the scene that all kind of tie in together in one way or another and i kind of just float around between different parts of the scene. My performances are pretty high energy so some people don’t understand to the music i make and the aggressive approach i take. but overall the scene is cool, there’s some really dope artists out here and there’s a lot of love if you look in the right places.
SF – Hey man I love slipknot grew up with their music and I’m just playin yea I get where you coming from cause of locs can be knotted sometime right? That’s a unique name and way of embracing I fucks with that yo. Soundcloud scene in 2017-2020 was crazy! Shouts out to the dark part of us as within us creators hell yea. Keep going never stop even when it’s hard bro. See any potential in your city’s music scene? Any ups and downs? If you can collab with any artist in the world who would it be and why? Any exciting news for upcoming projects and visuals?
KN – Oh hell yeah man, i’ve been a slipknot fan and all metal in general since i was a really young kid. My older brother was a metal head at the time and he took care of me a lot. I grew up on a lot of Nu-Metal and anything Drop D tuning. I draw a lot of inspiration from beatdown hardcore bands nowadays. but thank you bro i appreciate you hell. I do think my cities scene has potential, especially with ppl from all around the country moving here. Like i said there’s a lot of really good artist, bands and rappers out here. But there is a lot of drama in the scene out here and i feel like that really gets in the way of Arizona having its time. There’s a lot of ppl out here who have this “crabs in a bucket” ideology. Nobody wants to work together and help bring each other up, people get caught up in the hollywood shit. You look at most scenes in America who have had big names break out and a consistent pattern you see is that these artists worked hard and worked with other people in their respective scenes to make shit happen. Florida is a perfect example with artists like XXXTENTACION, Ski Mask, SuicideBoys, Kodak.. etc who all worked together and showed support for each rather than treating each like competition and giving each other the cold shoulder. What i love about the scene out here is that when we come together and let all the pride and ego go, we all have a great fucking time and enjoy ourselves. but there can be a lot of drama and pointless feuds between creators out here that ultimately get in the way of the success of our scene and the individual artists involved. If i wear to collab with anyone alive, i’d choose Randy Blythe of Lamb of God. his vocal performance has been an inspiration to me my whole life as well as his writing style. he is a huge inspiration to me altogether and would love to work with him or any metal vocalist for that matter. I love seeing musicians and artists from metal bands collaborate, work with or even acknowledge the trap metal/scream rap scene here.
SF – Who doesn’t like slipknot esp like their early days is my fav from them til this day. Yea off no doubt dude we’re here for art/the creators that gotta message with a way of their expression of themselves all for it. Respect the artistry fr! I remember in y2k’s lotta AZ bands entered the scream/deathcore/metalcore scene which was amazing anyway yea there’s fake everywhere you go just guard ya grill and your energy. You are right bout that tho! Cali/Florida/Atlanta are those cities where people unite music wise but some places it takes something to get that message point across. RIP JAH! Ok I see you first one to choose Lamb of God good band too! Hell yeah let’s fuckin go new material coming soon! Keep working bro! Where do you see yourself 2027? Who’s behind your cover art, logos etc? Fire btw and Do you have any tattoos?
KN – yeah man, Iowa is probably one of my favorite albums of all time. really got me through some shit when i was younger. i only really listen to the first two albums by slipknot tbh. but yeah, i truly believe arizona could reach its peak if we all focus on getting up there as a whole rather than individual artists. i personally believe that i don’t have competition and i don’t mean that in an egotistical way. 1. i’m here to express myself and people are either gonna take it or leave it at the end of the day, i’ll always assert myself, be the best i can be as far as who i am as an artist and a person but i can’t force everyone to rock with me. 2. your success will always be determined by the substance within your art, originality, how you treat your peers/following and ultimately how much work you put in. i work day in and day out and if i’m not reaping the benefits of my art, it means i’m not working hard enough and i need to continue to evolve and move accordingly.
the only competition you should have is yourself at the end of the day. the business aspect of this music shit is a game of chess with yourself more so than a game of chess with other creators within your scene.
SF – That Iowa album is crazy I’d have to go with 1999 untitled they’re very first album my fav. Which I respect btw all we can keep doing is create, inspire the youth show em that can do this shit too, help people also. What goes around comes around, You Gotta want this shit badly like do or die type beat, They really did $uicideBoy$, Nascar is a major influence in the scene as of today but doesn’t get his flowers which he will I think that he inspire a lot of artists today, Even the industry is copy/paste off us underground creators real shit bro how many industry rappers want to be “punk” so bad since Nascar came out real shit the real know the real the real will prosper, I see life as art and inspiration like it’s never too late to be something great – Ionpuu like my boi would always say. It’s always great keeping a good amount of genuine people in your circle that you trust that trust you that believe in the vision which is an amazing feeling fr. Keep going Sir KNOTTZ never stop keep believing man. Yea most defff esp that part being a pillar to kids who are misunderstood fr. Growing up as kids everybody was misunderstood/judged it happens to all of us I know that exact feeling its bitter sweet.Like you fuck the fame etc you just want to create inspire others if the fame happens which it will it happens you’ll keep doing what you create bro badass! I love it. Since we’re wrapping up this good ass interview btw any shouts and stuff you’d like to say?
KN – nah you good! this was a dope interview fr and thank you for tapping in. it means a lot. it was cool to have a lil conversation about music in an interview. Thanks bro! Appreciate ya’ll having me and I want thank my friends/fans/family.
