Yorkton-area man uses rap music to express himself

CTV Regina: Yorkton-area man uses rap to express himself Grayson Vachon is a new rapper, who uses the art form to discuss insecurities. Nathaniel Dove exlplains.

Grayson Vachon isn’t the type of musician one would expect to come from Tonkin, a village about 20 kilometres outside of Yorkton.

“You just got rid of the problems, rid of the hatred, rid of the culprit,” he raps into a microphone.

He’s working on a song called ‘Dr. Love.’

When it’s finished it will join his other songs on the global music streaming platform Spotify.

The 18-year-old musician has been on Spotify since 2017. A music promotion company called DistroKid sought him out to publish his music.

He’s now working on a new batch of songs. Like his older material, his music is written and recorded in his basement bedroom, which doubles as his studio.

He said his latest music is very personal. On one track, called ‘Slimmest Dreams,’ he raps about body image.

Vachon weighs a little more than 100 lbs. He said that he struggles with his own body image because he doesn’t look like the other people he sees in the media.

“For guys, it's [being] very muscular and having to see that growing up. It's difficult for kids to have to deal with that,” he said.

He’s also turned to creative outlets to express himself. Originally he began with comedy, he later turned to music and began writing about being bullied in school.

“Music just became an outlet to be able to express myself without someone shooting me down right away or giving me backlash right away,” he said.

His mother, Jacqueline Vachon, said that the subjects of his songs can be tough to hear.

“Some of it is heartbreaking because we can't fix it,” she said. “It's his personal growth so we have to grow with him."

Vachon is working towards finishing a new batch of songs by the end of April. They will be on Spotify shortly after they are completed. He said that working on such personal material takes time.

“It doesn't happen overnight, right? [It] takes a lot of hard work and I can't just put out a song that doesn't mean anything,” he said

His music is still his secondary source of income, partly because it pays so little. According to Vachon he only makes an eighth of a cent whenever someone listens to his music on Spotify. His main source of income is pumping gas.

He’s saving money so that he can afford tuition at the Vancouver Film School. He wants to attend VFS because he’s eager to explore another avenue of self-expression.