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Are you in a better place now than when you wrote it? ‘Astronaut In The Ocean’ is a song about struggling with mental health. I’m like, ‘Well, how and why these topics’, you know?” Then it like went into like sports and athleticism – parkour and people doing these wild jumps. So when it first started, it was a lot of four-wheel drives and welding. There were a lot of welding videos, of people smashing light bulbs and the sparks going everywhere, and I’m like, I didn’t know welding was this serious and fun at the same time. “I feel like the welding was really weird. What’s the wildest TikTok you saw that used your song? The wave’s there, and I’m just going along with it, wondering when the wave’s gonna stop and just enjoying the sun.” So I don’t know what the world’s doing to me at the moment.

Then it went to 50 and then we’re all talking about 100 and then, you know, now I’m nearly at 300million. I went out to celebrate 20million streams with my friends. I was happy with 20million streams, I said to a lot of people. What has it been like watching the song go viral in real time? And now on Spotify alone it’s got 275million. In January you made a video thanking people for over 50million streams. ‘Astronaut In The Ocean’ took a few months to get massive momentum. The wave’s there, and I’m just going along with it, wondering when the wave’s gonna stop and just enjoying the sun” I find that more authentic and free-flowing, rather than me forcing them to talk about me.” But if someone wants to come up to me and be like, ‘Hey, you’re Masked Wolf, you’ve got that song?’ And I’d be like, yeah, that’s me for sure. I just don’t like boasting, I’ve never been a boaster. I think if you need to talk about yourself, and what you do – It’s kind of egotistic and that’s just my opinion. What do you like about keeping a low-profile – not advertising the fact that you’re a rapper? I try to keep it on the low, but I think it’s gonna be hard for me in some scenarios now.” When I go out, I really don’t like talking about what I do. But now if I don’t say I do music, I’m lying.

I couldn’t be bothered telling people I do music. Because when people say, ‘What do you do for work?’ I never even used to say that I do music or anything. How’s it feel now, calling yourself a full-time rapper or full-time musician? I just came to the point like, yeah, I need to finish up and focus on music 100 per cent and put all my effort into what I’m making and everything, with the wave that was coming.”

And I got to the point where I just couldn’t mentally and physically balance my one job with music and everything that was going on. But it had to be something that really put me in a position that I could do, then I would think about it. Was that something you were actively working towards? I read that you recently quit your day job to focus on music. And now it’s like, OK, you got to go with the flow.”

I don’t think any of us expected what’s happening, but it’s happened.

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And I’ve been learning how to swim with the sharks, basically. “Yeah, I’ve been thrown into the deep end. It sounds like you’ve been having a whirlwind few weeks. He talks to NME about how TikTok upended his life, wanting to collaborate with fellow breakout Aussie rapper The Kid LAROI and what his new material sounds like. In late March, Masked Wolf got his biggest TikTok cosign yet: Jennifer Lopez, who danced to his song while lounging by the pool.Īs of January a signee to US label Elektra Records, Masked Wolf is hard at work on a new album. That’s thanks in large part to TikTok and its enthusiastic users, who’ve used the song’s first dramatic 30 seconds to soundtrack videos about welding, four-wheel drives and acts of impressive athleticism (think parkour and powerlifting). with had to dance with my homie since she’s on the Astro train 🙏💪💪 #fyp #foryoupage #foryou #dance

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It’s also cracked the top 5 in his native Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Finland and Hungary. Days after NME spoke to the Sydney rapper born Harry Michael, ‘Astronaut In The Ocean’ crept even higher up the Billboard Global 200 chart, now sitting pretty at number 4 behind Lil Nas X, Justin Bieber and Silk Sonic. Two years on, Masked Wolf’s self-belief has paid off. “ Even if I don’t get paid for progression, I’mma get it,” he vowed. That was obvious from the lyrics: “ When your brain goes numb, you can call that mental freeze,” he raps on the opening verse, later confessing, “ Didn’t know which way to turn / Flow was cool but I still felt burnt.” What distinguished ‘Astronaut In The Ocean’, though, was its creator’s determination to push through, no matter how thankless the journey was. When Masked Wolf dropped ‘Astronaut In The Ocean’ in 2019, he wasn’t in the best of places.

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