Today in our series of profiles of the artists on the Sounds of Southampton Vol 2 album, we meet Drestar.
SoCo: First of all, can you tell me your name?
Dre: It’s Dre, Drestar.
SoCo: And the name of your track?
Dre: It’s Persuade, and it’s a collaboration with Nade.
SoCo : Great, thanks. And thanks for being part of the Sounds of Southampton Vol2 project. How was it for you – what new skills do you think you’ve picked up through the project?
Dre :I’ve learned a few things, definitely. I learned how to work better in a team. Before this, I’ve never really done a feature with a female artist before. And my song on the album’s actually with a female artist. So, yeah, I picked up how to work better in a team, you know, how to look into music with a sort of diverse aspect.
SoCo: And do you think it’s helped you express yourself more through music?
Dre: Massively, massively. It’s always hard to get your words out and to portray what you’re feeling without music, so when you can put it on a track, and actually people will actually listen to the right place for you to be sort of thing, that’s how I feel.
SoCo : Okay. Yeah, that’s really interesting. And what about progression? Do you think this has helped you progress with your music?
Dre: Yeah, yeah, it’s definitely has. Obviously all of us have put all of our fan bases together with this, so we’ve all hit a bigger audience than we ever have before. So yes, it’s helped us progress on socials and with live performances. It definitely has.
SoCo: Okay, brilliant. And how do you think this has helped with your wellbeing, maybe your emotional state – has it helped in that way?
Dre: Yeah, definitely. Because it feels feels like we’ve achieved something during this. We’ve been part of this project with everyone else. And it’s easy to get your head down a lot of the times when you don’t feel like you’re achieving anything. So when you do make an achievement like this, it just makes you want to go 10 times harder.
SoCo: Great. Yeah. So, do you think it’s given you a more positive kind of outlook?
Dre: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Southampton has its ups and downs, you know what I mean, but this is definitely one of the most positive things that’s come out of the city.
SoCo: Are you from here?
Dre: Yeah. From her born and bred round corner.
SoCo: Has it sort of made you feel a bit more optimistic in yourself or in your music?
Dre: Yeah, definitely. It’s definitely showing that doors will be opened if we just keep on trying, and working together. Even if you don’t think they can open, it, definitely gives you that optimism to try and strive for better.
SoCo: Do you feel like it has given you a sense of empowerment, do you feel like more able to push on?
Dre: Yeah, definitely. It’s a big landmark in my music career, I think it’s a big landmark in a lot of people’s music career as well, doing something like this, just the pure fact that is everyone in the city working together as we should do. And it just goes to show when you work together you can actually achieve big things, so it makes you want to want to do more and more.
SoCo: That’s really cool, thank you. Do you have any other any other thoughts, ideas or feedback about the project?
Dre: I think it has gone really smoothly. Yeah, it’s just a really good project, it should definitely carry on, it’s helped loads and loads of people you know.
SoCo: Great. So what do you think would help you with your next step?
Dre: The next step for me would just be to keep doing what I do best really, just keep making content, keep pushing it out there. It’s definitely showed me that I should go down other avenues with my music – even though I do rap and hip hop and stuff, I should try and do more pop, R&B, things like that, it’s showed me that I can do sorts of genres. So most definitely something that I should actually try out more.
SoCo: Cool. And is there anything else, and other support you think you need like beyond this? What other support would it be good to get?
Dre: I suppose more venues to do shows. That would help people to be able to make music and music videos as it would cost less money – obviously things are expensive, I get that it’s a business but being able to do little things for fun like when there was a studio over therea at Bargate you can make your own tunes for free and stuff like that – that makes a difference. We don’t have those sort of things now.
SoCo: That was our studio!
Dre: Yeah, it was, I know! Me and my mate, we used to go down that all the time when we were at school
SoCo: Great. Oh, that’s so cool! Yeah. So, you kind of need access to like recording spaces or video opportunity
Dre: Or venues to perform in on venues to perform in
SoCo: OK, thanks, that’s really cool. Thanks a lot!
Listen to Drestar’s track on Spotify here, check his other tracks on Spotify here and connect with him on Instagram here or Facebook here
Watch the launch video here and listen to the album here
