Since campus has opened back up since COVID-19 there still hasn’t been much to do on campus. This is understandable because we are still living in uncertain times where everything can change tomorrow. I was able to experience an unforgettable moment here at Mercy College called the Suzuki Festival. It was a show with live performances hosted by SuperJack. He had many great performers who attended but two names who caught my attention the most were Issa and Malgo. I got the opportunity to interview them and see their point of view as performers that night. 

Issa is a songwriter, a producer, she raps and sings, and she makes music overall. Issa feels like her performance went well but she feels like there were moments where it could have gone better. She went into further detail about that. “I sing better when I’m relaxed, and feel like I could have done better at that. I think the tempo was too fast, and it was rushing my performance. Surprisingly though, I haven’t been nervous. It was one of those things where I wanted it to just be over with.” Issa performed “My Lovely Heartbreak”, “Capture Me” and “Waiting On You” which are all singles by her. Issa had a deeper meaning behind the song “Capture Me” that took me by surprise. “Capture Me has a physical meaning to it and a spiritual meaning to it. The physical meaning is I can see through people’s lies now, so I won’t let them capture me, along with the spiritual as well. I won’t let the devil capture me and persuade me with his lies anymore.” I finished up my interview with Issa by asking her what goes through her head as she performs to really dive deep into her thought process. She responded by saying this. “It’s like you are truly living in the moment when you are on stage. Nothing else enters your mind, and that’s rare. It’s like I perform but not to really impress people, it’s a plus if they do, but I’m doing it to prove to myself that I can perform on stage.” 

The second performer I got the chance to hear from was Malgo. Malgo feels that his performance went really well and everyone liked it. He performed “Start It” “Dreams”, “Sweet Mariah”, “New Moon”, and “Born Again” which are all out now. “I’m happy about my performances. I really couldn’t have asked for anything better. This was also my first time performing.” Since this was Malgo’s first time performing, I was curious to see what that experience was like for him. “I’m not gonna lie to you I was just trying not to bomb my performance. I went up there and was like, it’s gonna be over soon, so if I kill it, I do, if not, then it is what it is.” Not the exact response I was expecting but it was good. “I went into my performance wanting to kill it and bring the energy. I wanted to go up there and have a performance that was memorable, where people didn’t just forget I did something.” Malgo really wants to be the artist who leaves his impact on the game who stays independent as an artist. He doesn’t want to be one of those artists who make like 3 tracks and no one has anything to really remember him by. 

The last person I had the chance to interview was SuperJack, who made this show possible. Suzuki is the name of SuperJack’s label, and one day he decided he should put a festival on, as most labels do, and when he was a freshman in college, he had his first show, which he hosted in Victory Cafe. Fast-forwarding four years later to his senior year now he’s hosting shows in Lecture Hall. Safe to say he’s come a long way. Taking all of this in and hearing Malgo and Issa’s point of view on how the show went, it was dying to hear SuperJack’s point of view, the one who made all of this possible. “I feel like the show went really well. This was our third annual show; one of them got canceled due to Covid, but we’re back now. It was a success, in terms of the show going on during the pandemic, it was definitely a success. There was not one mad performance. Everyone was doing their thing, they really killed it. Everyone had different time slots, but I feel like in the future I’ll have people shuffled around so there’s not a really hype act followed by a really slow act. That’s what happened tonight and I feel like it was kinda thrown off.” It was good to hear how the overall show went, but of course, no show is possible without any technical difficulties. Having experienced some myself I wanted to see how SuperJack felt about his show. “There were some technical difficulties that went on in terms of our DJ not knowing how to set things up and then us not really knowing how to set things up but everyone still killed it.” 

SuperJack is not your typical performer. He performs all genres of music from R&B to alternative music. He is known for his mask and cape that he wears while performing, hence the name “SuperJack”. Going into detail about his performance style was something I needed to know. “That’s a difficult question,” he said. “It’s a combination of reading the energy in the room but also knowing how to set the energy as the performer as well. So you not only have to play what they may want but also take them to a place they might not think you will actually go. So when you actually take them there it’s something amazing.” I wrapped the interview up with SuperJack by asking him what this festival actually means to him, especially since COVID shut down last year. “It’s an opportunity for me to gather the people I like and the music I like and display it. It’s like we’re a family, we’re all in this together. It’s more than just the music for me, I trust these people. Music is my life so it means a lot to me.” 

Getting the opportunity to interview SuperJack and see how he brought everyone together for another annual Suzuki Festival was truly inspiring. It’s clear that music is a part of his life and he’s come a long way with it. You can stream his new album “The Lingering” now on all platforms.