Exclusive Interview with Thxrsday

Artist Spotlight: Thxrsday 

Thxrsday is a Tennessee-based hip-hop artist known for blending hip-hop with rock influences and drawing from personal experiences. His latest single, “O V R T H I N K,” from his upcoming album of the same name, explores emotions, vulnerability, and overthinking while encouraging listeners to find their own meaning in the music.

In this exclusive Q&A, Thxrsday opens up about the stories behind the music, lessons learned along the way, and what keeps their passion alive

MusicsWeek: When did you first realize you wanted to be a musician?

Thxrsday: I don't think there was one exact moment where I woke up and decided I wanted to be a musician. It happened from watching music change in real time when I was younger. I was around 13 or 14 when I started seeing artists come out of nowhere and build entire worlds around themselves. It made music feel possible.

MusicsWeek: Who are your biggest musical influences?

Thxrsday: The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar, Juice WRLD and XXXTentacion are probably the four that impacted me the most, but for completely different reasons. They all had a role in shaping my sound today, vocally and when I'm producing.

MusicsWeek: Is there a particular song or album that has significantly influenced your career?

Thxrsday: I don't think I could give that credit to one album. It was more of an era. I got to grow up watching artists break every rule about what somebody was "supposed" to sound like. You could hear rap, R&B, rock, alternative music and completely different emotions living in the same person's catalog.

MusicsWeek: Have your influences changed over the years?

Thxrsday: At this point, life influences my music more than music influences my music. My creative influences will change as time goes on, but my main influence is life experiences.

MusicsWeek: Who was your first major musical mentor, and what did you learn from them?

Thxrsday: I honestly never had one. A lot of this has been trial and error. Recording myself, mixing myself, making mistakes, releasing music, hearing what worked and what didn't, then doing it again. There wasn't somebody sitting beside me giving me a blueprint, just raw emotions which I then taught myself how to communicate through music.

MusicsWeek: What’s the story behind your song "O V R T H I N K"?

Thxrsday: It's about a relationship where both parties feel abandoned in some way, highlighting some coping mechanisms within the song that the main character is doing to get over his ex lover. Two people care about each other but can't get out of their own heads long enough to make it work, that feeling becomes bigger than one song. It eventually became the name of the entire project, OVRTHINK.

MusicsWeek: Every artist has a defining moment. Looking back, what experience shaped the artist you've become today?

Thxrsday: It's easy to say you want this when people are watching. It's different when you're recording songs feeling like they're not going anywhere, going to work the next day and doing the same thing again that night. I've had years where the numbers weren't impressive enough for anybody in the industry to care, but I kept creating anyway.

MusicsWeek: Your music often reflects different chapters of your life. Which chapter are you living in right now?

Thxrsday: The uncertain chapter where I know something is changing, but I don't know what it looks like yet. There's the life I've been living, and then there's this version of my life I've been working toward for years. I feel like I'm somewhere directly between those two right now.

MusicsWeek: What's a lyric you've written that still gives you chills today?

Thxrsday: There are four bars in “What Are You After” at around 35 seconds — that still hits me every time I listen to it. If you listen to the song, go find that part. Those four bars probably mean differently to a lot of people but that's one of my favorite things about writing music. Lyrics can tell hundreds of sides of different stories for different people. You have 100 people listen to 1 song and they all might have a different message from the different experiences they have lived.

MusicsWeek: The music industry changes constantly. What has remained timeless in your approach?

Thxrsday: I'd say the emotion. Sounds change. Algorithms change. What's popular changes. The way people discover music changes every couple of years. But people don't stop falling in love. They don't stop getting their hearts broken. They don't stop wanting money, making mistakes, losing people, getting addicted to things, regretting decisions or wondering if they're doing enough with their lives. That's the part of music I'm interested in.