Now usually, for the interview portion of our blog, I find myself reaching out and cold calling artists who I think are next. However, this week, David sent me Madhouse, an upcoming antipop, R&B and alternative artist, because he knew “the dudes up next.” With additional and recent support from Pigeons and Planes, and an incredible repertoire of tracks already released and available to be streamed, I quickly saw what David meant. Madhouse is definitely someone you’re going to want to know moving forward. “happiness” (262k streams) and '“Nervous” (334k streams) showcase his previous experimentation with hip hop, both having that clean and classic Toronto sound that PARTYNEXTDOOR and The Weeknd have both help popularize. However, in his new project, he plans to branch out into uncharted territory.

Read our extended article below to hear all about it!

Decker: “Hey man, thank you much for joining us!”

Madhouse: “Of course man, glad to be here and to be talking to you.”

Decker: “Alright, so, to get started, whats your real name, your artist name, and where are you from?”

Madhouse: “Yeah, cool, I go by Madhouse, my real name is Niko, I was born in Scarborough, Canada, and lived in Niagara Falls throughout my childhood. I moved to Toronto when I turned 18, where I’ve since been tryna work on my craft and work on myself. I’m really trying to put myself out there.”

Decker: “awesome, and so, how old are you now?

Madhouse: “I’m 26 now.”

Decker: “Very cool. Thats a great age!”

Madhouse: “Yeah man, thank you! I’m excited, too, because I’m about to put the best music of my life”

Decker: “Ok, so then what is Madhouse to you? what does it mean?”

Madhouse: “Madhouse is about me living in my own world and making my own rules as I go along. I don’t try to confine myself to any trends. It became very fitting, it’s been engraved into my soul. Genre wise, I would say I’m antipop, more alternative, dark pop. Before, the music I’ve released in the past was more pop and R&B, but this project is now more a celebration of my influences from growing up: pop-punk and rock. Kendrick is still one of my favorite artists, though, so I see a little of that mindset and craft creep in sometimes.”

Decker: “Very interesting that you mentioned Kendrick in that answer, is he your favorite, or like, your personal hero?

Madhouse: My personal hero would have to be Mr. Kanye West. I think Kanye is a huge, HUGE reason of why I do what I do. The trajectory I’ve been on since I was 18, I heard Yeezys back in 2013 and decided to drop everything and really go for it. I owe a lot to the people I’ve looked up to in music, whether I’ve met them or not, I wake up everyday and actively choose this path because of my influences.”

Decker: “So, where would you like to be in 5 years?”

Madhouse: “In 5 years I’d like to be at the top of my game, creatively. I hope that my platform is much bigger than it is now, too. I’d like to work with artists of all kinds of ages, networking horizontally and vertically.”

Decker: “Whats your favorite place to perform?”

Madhouse: “My favorite place to perform is anywhere I’m allowed to.”

Decker: “Haha ok but more specifically, like a place you’ve played before, maybe?”

Madhouse: “I just performed last week on the day my single came out, opened for Tobias Dray, it was a sold out show at the Velvet Underground. They wanted an encore, too.”

Decker: “Fire. very cool, I love that venue. Speaking about places, what’s your favorite restaurant?”

Madhouse: “McDonald’s or Pizza Hut.”

Decker: “Hahahahah, what’s your order at McDonalds?

Madhouse: “Two sausage McMuffins and a black coffee. I wear that shit loud and proud on my sleeve.”

Decker: “A little psychotic but I like it. Where do you like to travel to?”

Madhouse: “Honestly, I haven’t been able to travel that much or go to places I’ve wanted to go to lately, my life has really been just music and I’m just trying to focus my money and time on that.”

Decker: “Favorite moment in music so far?”

Madhouse: “Music has been in my life all my life, but when I was 8 years old it was 2004 and there were all these live events for AIDS called Live 8 and I remember watching it in my living room with my mom and Green Day was on TV and I knew all the songs and crowd was massive, like Obama inauguration big, and I just remember watching that on my TV and knowing “I WANNA DO THAT.” I knew ever since that moment.”

Decker: “Awesome, man. So, whats the project you have coming out soon? What are you excited about?”

Madhouse: “The album is coming out at the end of the summer, “I’ll Be Here Tomorrow.” The album is about survival, and it’s an ode to my entire journey, all my struggles, and trying to get to the next day and the next day, but that no matter what I encounter, I’ll always have my creativity and it will always be a part of who I am, for the rest of my life.”

Madhouse, I LOVED this interview. I really look forward to all the amazing things you do in music, we all are! Readers, go check out his tracks, ASAP, before his tickets are selling out the day they drop and you wish that you had been in the know.