TRUST ME I KNOW WHAT I'm DOING

Once again, thank you for listening to TRUST ME I KNOW WHAT I’m DOING and sharing it with your friends, and for following us on social media. If you’re enjoying it, please take a moment to rate and review too, as it’s very much appreciated. So, in a world of multiple personas and multiple versions of our introverted and extroverted selves, art and music remain wonderful ways to display it all. Yet, as public facing and outward as musical expression might be, it can in fact also be the vehicle we need for an escape, a therapeutic sanctuary, and even a healthy companionship…and this can be especially true when the ongoing self-discovery is filled with open questions around honesty and trust, identity, and learning. This is what I found when I recently chatted with musician , producer, and artist Curtis Waters. Curtis (who was born Abhinav Bastakoti) was born in Nepal and after moving to Germany and then Calgary, Canada, and then finally to North Carolina, where he was attending college and working at a smoothie shop. The artistic journey that started with drawing and designing clothing and selling it out of his locker found its way into making music, as his first single “Stunnin” was an overnight summer sensation in 2020 and his album Pity Party was an introduction to his multiplicity as a musician, with shades of rap, hip/hop, electro-pop-punk, and many visceral emotional states …from braggadocious and confident to insular and sobering. The success found him navigating through life and fame and the music business, and finding his own self-assurance and freedom in being the son of Nepali immigrant parents, and peace as someone with mental health struggles Curtis has a new album called “Bad Son” and on one of the tracks called HIMBO, he calmly states that he is just here for the party, and so when we caught up, I was curious about this metaphor in the context of all his art and the characters he shares through his music, so I asked him whether he feels more comfortable as a party goer or a party thrower.