Life as an artist can be rather difficult. Relationships can be very difficult. Now try putting those two together.

In the song “Give You My All” from ¡MAYDAY! x MURS – ¡MURSDAY! this topic is tackled in full by the emcees find a way to pull off the juggling act of simultaneously giving their all to the art and to someone else. The frenetic song perfectly captures the ups and downs of the situation and can only be found on the Deluxe Version of ¡MURSDAY!.

We interviewed Wrekonize to get his take on what the song means and how it applies to his everyday life. For anyone who is an artist in a relationship or in a relationship with an artist, this should prove enlightening.

Tell us what it’s like being in a relationship while being someone who works in your profession.

It’s tricky. To be in a relationship and do anything full time, whether it’s music or anything, you have to be with someone who can really understand that there’s give and take and appreciate that sometimes it’s not always 50/50. It can be really tough to be in a relationship, especially as musicians, because we travel a lot and there’s all kind of people we’re hanging out with that your significant other may not be familiar with, so it definitely has its obstacles.

The song started from a guy named QuESt, who is a Miami emcee. He just went on tour with Logic not too long ago and is a homie of ours. He started the song with that hook and I feel like it was at a time when he was about to start hitting the road hard and really going in and starting to cash in on a lot of sacrifice.

We felt him on that because we’ve all been there and we all continue to be there everyday. Like Memorial Day just passed and we’re twenty hours in a van missing out on some time with loved ones and family and all that, but it’s just the name of the game.

Do you ever struggle with wishing you were back home versus where you’re at when you’re on the road?

I definitely have. I don’t think I’ve felt the full effect of it yet. It’s definitely ruined a few past relationships with girls. I’ve had a few ex-girlfriends who couldn’t really handle the amount of time that I put into music and maybe felt a little bit jealous as well and just couldn’t fully handle it. They were supportive but couldn’t really handle the scheduling of what it takes to really be married to the music. I’ve definitely had two relationships fail because of it and a few friendships fail because of it, but I feel like I do the best to try and keep the other relationships that I have sustained and healthy.

I think the key to it is sometimes realizing that you’ve just gotta step back for a second and shut everything off and it’s all good. The walls aren’t going to come collapsing down because you took a few hours off. It’s not always easy to think like that but there’s times where you have to trick yourself into thinking like that because otherwise you just work forever and you turn around and you’ve lost people that needed your attention.

I saw something recently on your Facebook where you said something to the effect of “People have let me down but music has never let me down.” Can you expand on that?

Yeah. That’s just coming from getting into disagreements with people over the years. I’ve definitely had people criticize my focus and attention to the music and maybe even just how self-involved I am because my career is one of my main focuses, or pretty much is the main focus. I feel like that was stemming from a falling out with a really good old friend and being criticized for being too focused on the music. People commit fouls against you and understanding that shit happens and what happens with people is what friendship is all about. Shit happens and people make mistakes but at the end of the day music’s never failed to change your mood or raise your mood when you need it.

I definitely have an allegiance to music. I just tell myself though not to go completely off the deep end and just sever contact because you need human relationships and human contact. It’s a tricky balance. It shows you who the best of friends are because it takes some understanding to be friends when you have a schedule that’s as demanding as ours is where we’re trying to spread the word.

What kind of advice would you give to someone who’s trying to maintain a relationship while chasing the music dream at the same time?

Man I’d say lay out the ground rules up front. Be upfront about what it is that you do and that it requires a lot of time and let them know. The person doing the music needs to make the decision on “This is what I need,” and if that person can’t give it to you and they want to bounce then it’s your decision whether you want to sacrifice some of what you’re doing to keep that relationship or not.

You have to be cool and confident in that choice because some people get threatened by a significant other like “I’m going to leave if you’re going to go to the studio,” and then you stay but then you end up resenting that person because you didn’t go what you needed to do to feed your soul. Communication for sure and letting the person know “This is what I do. It requires a lot of time, and there’s a lot of things to where a normal relationship would crumble under. If you’re cool with that then let’s ride. If not then we gotta have that conversation.” You have to do it all up front though. Do it all up front. Don’t do it at your second anniversary dinner.

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER THE DELUXE EDITION OF

¡MAYDAY! x MURS – ¡MURSDAY! ON iTunes

 

• What’s it like to be in a relationship with an artist?

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