Q&A: Extrazen Soars to New Heights in Sophomore EP, WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR HANDS
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY FAITH LUEVANOS ☆
Photo By Tiago Pestana
VULNERABILITY, LOVE, AND REASSURANCES – all can be found in 25-year-old Portuguese artist/producer Extrazen’s sophomore EP, WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR HANDS. No stranger to powerful topics, Extrazen returns in his latest triumph after a period of creative hibernation. The title comes from an introduction to meditation, one that resonated with the dynamic artist, leading him to bring this newfound knowledge to his music.
“He dives into a bigger idea, relating to the power of the hands and the meaning that the hands are a pure reflection of one's self-consciousness in the way they’re feeling.” Extrazen shared that this concept stuck with him, leading him to use his hands to discover a sound that felt the most like him. Every element of the EP contains a piece of the talented artist, the beginning of an exciting new chapter.
Even after playing iconic festivals in 2024 alongside music’s greatest artists, Extrazen remains humble, grateful for the exciting opportunities coming his way, and eager to see what’s to come in the new year. WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR HANDS is set to release in mid-February, and afterward, he will be performing the EP in Portugal as well as numerous dates outside the country.
Luna sat down with Extrazen to chat about the making of the EP, how he discovered his new sound as a producer, and more. Read the full interview below.
Photo By Tiago Pestana
LUNA: Jumping straight into your latest single, “BACK TO LIFE:” it discusses the concept of unreciprocated love. Can you dive a little deeper into what this track means to you for our readers?
EXTRAZEN: it's a really personal track to me. It's been in the vault to release for two to three years, and it's really just about unreciprocated love and the fight of going after someone after that person seems to have given up, and you're just trying to fight and try to grasp something out of that person, but [they] seem to have moved on. It's kind of a mix between that grief and that sadness, while also feeling angry about why that happened in the first place.
LUNA: These new songs you’re releasing are all produced on your own. As these past three singles have been released, listeners hear a cohesive, yet unique approach to each one. What did your creative process look like?
EXTRAZEN: Thank you, first and foremost, for bringing that up, it really means a lot to me. As the years flew by since COVID, when I started producing, I just started to risk a bit more. Not really focusing on following a certain way of creating, but instead just following whatever my head seemed to want to paint the picture with. I unintentionally started falling into those vocal samples and the certain grittiness of the sound, even if it was paired with a certain piano or a certain soft sound, like in “BACK TO LIFE.” It always has that grittiness and those hard-hitting drums that I really enjoy and all the distortion. I really seem to love it. I started creating without any boundaries in mind, and without trying to sound like anybody specific. I feel like it happened in a really natural way, it wasn't forced.
It's really cool that you listened to the three singles up until now, and you see a certain cohesive pattern between them because I didn't create them with that sense in mind for these tracks. It was just pure honesty of, “What do I want to work on, what do I want to put in these songs?” I feel like what kind of helped me, in a way, was myself not having any background in terms of musical ability and just being able to learn by myself and my rhythm. I had that space for flexible creation and just being able to fail and then pull back and then try again in a different way.
LUNA: Before these singles were released, you were in a sort of creative hibernation. During this time, what were some things you did to either reset or grow creatively?
EXTRAZEN: At the end of the day, it’s just about trying and failing until I have something, and maybe just having that routine of creating and setting it aside and then revisiting it a few months later. I feel like that's really important. I really value that, because if you keep doing that, you'll just get two months down the line and you'll have like, 20 or 30 demos for you to listen back to and just compare to what you do and don’t like. You get to be specific about what you want to change. The biggest thing for me was improving my production. There was a certain point in that creative hiatus where I was really deep into the production side of music, and I wasn't paying that much attention to the writing side of it. When I got back to making these songs, really going back to the beats and trying to write stuff, I felt like I got to writing, and just wanted to be as honest as possible and translate the real aspect of my life into these songs. Every one of those aspects really helped shape the EP.
LUNA: You have a wide range of musical influences from Tyler, The Creator to Arctic Monkeys. Can you share some of your favorite things about their music that inspire you?
EXTRAZEN: I'm a big fan of Alex Turner, specifically because of the way he writes his lyrics and the way his lyrics are so specific about certain topics. The way he writes is so personal to me and so special and it's really a thing that he does very well. I love the way he paints the picture with words and the way he writes stuff as abstract as it can be. Tyler is a big inspiration to me in all aspects, from him producing everything by himself to the way he conducts himself. He believes in what he's doing and what he brings to the table. With his love for music, he's really a geek, and I really relate to that because I'm a geek when it comes to music. I like creating. I like to analyze tracks, and I like to go into the albums and listen to them, front to back. Tyler is one of the biggest artists out right now, and he did it by being himself the entire time.
LUNA: These new releases are leading to the release of your EP, WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR HANDS. This title comes from a chapter of a book you read that resonated with you. Can you explain why this particular chapter stood out?
EXTRAZEN: It comes from a meditation book by John Kabat-Zinn. It's called Wherever You Go, There You Are. It's an introduction to meditation. One of the names of the chapters is exactly the name of the EP, “what to do with your hands.” The base idea is literally, “What do you do with your hands when meditating?” Do I open my hands and face them up? Do I close them? Do I put them on my lap? These are normal questions, but then he dives into a bigger idea, relating to the power of the hands and the meaning that the hands are a pure reflection of one's self-consciousness and the way they’re feeling. If we're stressed about something, if we're mad, our hands start to sweat. Our hands start to tremble when we want to do something. We feel this power in our hands to pick up things and make them as our own and just have that power in our hands. I found it to be such a cool concept that normal things, such as the hands, can be so relevant to all these topics. It’s about the self-reflection and the importance of the hands, and also the power that you have by actually using your own hands and putting your own hands to work and making the songs and producing it all by myself, which is what I did for this EP. It touched me in a way, and I felt like it was the perfect name for the sophomore EP.
LUNA: Compared to “BACK TO LIFE,” “STUNT” is faster with a more BROCKHAMPTON-sounding flow. How do you feel the parallels of these songs complement each other?
EXTRAZEN: There are certain elements that, despite the themes being unrelated, I feel like certain production elements and certain decisions of where the song should go really pair nicely. “BACK TO LIFE” starts slowly and has this kick, just keeping the rhythm. But then when you get to the end of the song, you have this explosion of drums and the eerie sound. “STUNT” has these distorted synths throughout the song and fast-paced drums. As the title says, I’m stunting, I’m just saying everything that I want to say and talking myself up a bit. Even if one track is a bit more on the downsample side of things, and the other one is a bit more up-tempo, I feel like they can co-exist in the same project because of those production decisions.
LUNA: You end the EP with the song, “DON’T YOU WORRY.” Was there any specific intention with this song placement at the end?
EXTRAZEN: It felt like a cool conclusion to it, but at the end of the day, it's just something that I, in my personal life, am facing right now, which is having to move away from home, and having to work with new people. At the end of the day, you kind of end up not having much time for the people who have been there from the start with you, and that's my way of saying, “Even though we haven’t spoken much, even though I'm a bit more absent because of my work, you don't need to worry, because I'll always be there for you, and you'll always be part of me.” It’s just me wanting to keep that connection and not forget about people. It acts as a reminder to see the beauty in people when people start dispersing a bit and growing.
There’s a Portuguese word, “saudade,” which means to miss something. Longing. It's a very special word in Portuguese that I feel like the song can relate to because it's just about looking back on something and missing it, while also looking at it with a smile and not being sad about it. I feel like it ended the EP perfectly because of that sense and because it just takes so many turns.
LUNA: That’s such a lovely way to put that. You’ve had some exciting opportunities recently playing huge festivals alongside other incredible artists. What were those experiences like for you?
EXTRAZEN: They were amazing to be honest. it was really something that I was trying to push in 2024. It's kind of difficult to grasp that we're already in 2025, but it was something that I really wanted to go for last year, and we were blessed enough and blessed by the work we were putting in to be able to perform in one of the biggest festivals in Portugal and go to London in October to play NiNE8FEST with lots of amazing artists. I was very happy to meet people and just hang around for a few days. It was my first experience outside Portugal. Even now, I can see the importance of it. We did our thing, for sure. It went really well. Feedback was very positive. So happy with it.
LUNA: It’s a very important milestone! As we begin the new year, what are some things you’ve been reflecting on that you’d either like to grow or change?
EXTRAZEN: I wanted to make a promise to myself to accept the things that I can’t change, to make myself aware that problems are there, and by doing that, maybe I'll solve them, and it'll be better for me. One of the things that I'm learning to master right now is just trusting my gut and trusting my ideas, and going full force with it. Still listening to people, but trusting my ideas. If I feel like I should be doing something, I will be doing that. That's one of the main aspects that I'm working on. I'm getting better at it. I'm way better than last year, for sure. I can only grow from that. Also, being present. I feel like that's the best thing for me right now. I'm just a blessed individual, and I just need to be more present and be aware of that, and make myself aware of that. 2025 is going to be a busy year for me in terms of releasing the EP, having concerts, and all that. I just want to be able to enjoy it to the maximum.
Photo By Tiago Pestana
