Spotlight On... Washington

Zimbabwe-born, Scotland-based alternative hip-hop artist Washington, aka W4, burst onto the Scottish scene with his debut EP Rookie in 2020. Gaining recognition from the likes of BBC Introducing In Scotland and Amazing Radio, since then he’s gone on tour with Bemz (with whom he’s co-released a number of singles), and has played festivals like TRNSMT and Reading & Leeds, releasing a whole host of singles along the way.

His latest EP XTC came out last week, with Washington’s purring and laid-back flow sitting atop fresh production skills from the likes of Gillieson, H8A and Oran. We catch up with Washington to find out more about the importance of collaboration in his practice, the new EP and his plans for the future.

Can you start by telling us a little bit about yourself and how you got into music making?
I don't even know – it’s like I just grew up around music. It was always there, and I just took it in naturally. When I moved here, I wanted to start making music, but I didn’t know anyone else who did. Eventually, I met Gillieson, and I knew he was into music, so I approached him about making a song. At the time, I only wanted to make one track, just so I could listen back to it because I thought that would be cool. But we made the song, I liked listening to it, and then I wanted to make another one. Before I knew it, I had a bunch of songs, and I just thought, 'Why would I not put some out?' So yeah, it kind of just went from there.

I think the first time I saw you was at Amplifi in Edinburgh. You performed on the same bill as Bemz, who you’ve released a couple of songs with in the past. Can you tell us a bit more about your involvement in the local hip-hop community, and what collaboration means to you?
That’s quite a hard question to answer, to be honest. How would I put this… I’m generally open to collaborating with people, but it has to make sense. Each individual’s style needs to match up in some way so that the project feels like one cohesive body of work.

Recently, I’ve been making a lot of music with SP, a new artist on the scene. We just dropped 380 on my new project XTC, but we’ve got a whole lot more music ready to go – it’s a completely different soundscape. He’s going to start releasing his own music next year.

I’ve also been working with a producer from Stirling called H8A. He’s bringing something fresh and unique to Scotland, more specifically in alternative trap. Another producer I’ve been working with is Oran, also from Stirling. So yeah, I’m always open to the idea of collaboration, but I like to make sure we’re on the same wavelength before jumping into something.

How did that partnership with SP actually come about?
SP is someone I’ve known for a long time. He’s always been around when I’ve been making music, and he’d show me his work too, even though he was just getting into it and hadn’t released anything yet. I could still resonate with what he was creating.

Because he’s been around so much during my studio sessions, it’s made collaborating and creating together really easy. That’s how it came about, really. In general, we don’t go into the studio with the intention of making a track to release; we just experiment, have fun, and let things happen naturally. That’s actually how the XTC EP came together. The ideas and concepts were already there, but it didn’t make sense to piece them together until afterwards. It’s kind of like looking back on itself – it shouldn’t make sense, but it does. It feels like a moment in time captured in music.

And can you tell us a bit more about the rest of the EP? Who/what inspired XTC, and what are some of the themes found across the record?
The whole EP was me having fun and experimenting with a new sound. I was fresh out of uni and finally had more time to put into the music, which definitely helped push the project forward. From start to finish, it’s almost like a journey of euphoric feelings. That’s why I titled it XTC. It’s a play on both the emotions the music evokes and my initials, WTC.

The EP also reflects a specific timeline; each track was made one after the other – not in the same session – but they’re presented in that order on the project. The main recurring theme is just an expression of day-to-day activities and the different experiences that come with them.

There’s obviously not much left of 2024, but what does the rest of the year look like for you, and what are your plans for 2025?
The plan is to keep doing things the way we already do, but more consistently. It’s time to be more present. For years, we’ve been working behind the scenes and building ideas, but now it’s time to put them into action and see where it all goes.

I’m excited to see what happens next. Expect to see a lot more of me – I’m planning to be more active, even though I can be a bit antisocial at times. There’s so much more to come, and I’ve been working with a lot of different people. We’re just doing what we’re doing, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it takes us.

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XTC is out now