Artist STATEMENT
IGOR
ARTIST/PRODUCER
Bio
A Danish/Ukrainian Copenhagen-born, Paris-raised artist and producer now based in New York, Igor built his foundation as a classically trained cellist. His music blends orchestral composition—particularly strings—with Contemporary R&B and Hip-Hop, aiming for a balance between cinematic scope and hard impact.
He moves between soulful, melodic writing in the vein of Brent Faiyaz and Frank Ocean, and more direct, high-energy rap records. The common thread is emotional weight, with lyrics centered on memory, identity, and the tension between origin and ambition.
With millions of streams as a producer and engineer, his credits include suhREEtah, Sudan Archives, Thorgan, and Vicky R. As an artist, he is building a catalog focused on the interplay between minimalism and grandeur, a balance he hopes to achieve through his collaborative EP with producer GNZ.
A recent graduate of BerkleeNYC, he is currently rolling out his Master’s thesis EP, Find Me, developed under the guidance of Grammy Award winner Josh Giunta. The project consists of seven tracks, four of which have been released as singles.
He has also received nominations for short film scoring at the International Poetry Festival in Athens and WORLDTHREADING in Copenhagen. In parallel, he has an established acting career, with appearances in The Rain and leading roles in the Danish series Julestjerner and Hemmeligheden, earning him a Robert Award nomination.
ARTIST STATEMENT
For this record, GNZ and I were searching for a shared sonic language. My classical background and his metal roots became the conceptual foundation: contrast as a reflection of the need for tenderness within a brutal, chaotic environment. The string-led intro establishes that fragility, drawing from references like 2009 by Mac Miller and Really Love by D'Angelo. As the track unfolds, cello and guitar gradually converge, and by the outro, they interact almost conversationally, resolving the initial tension and arriving at a sense of connection and balance.
Vocally, I approach the track from both a rapper and singer perspective. The performance leans into a heavily processed, almost psychedelic delivery inspired by early Travis Scott records. We were deliberate about shaping a tone that sits between softness and abrasion, reinforcing the song’s core duality.
Lyrically, the writing draws from personal experience. While the visual narrative follows GNZ’s character finding tenderness through friendship and community, “I Haven’t Seen You In Forever” is fundamentally a love song. It explores the distortion of time in absence, how even brief separation can feel prolonged. Rather than mirroring the lyrics directly, the video expands on the theme from a different angle, allowing each medium to express its own perspective on the same emotional core.
GNZ
PRODUCER
Bio
Inigo Gonzalez, professionally known as GNZ, is a New York-based producer born and raised in Manila, Philippines. He began playing guitar at eight and was producing full records on GarageBand by thirteen, turning raw voice memos into immersive sonic worlds.
After mentorship under esteemed Filipino producer Jim P, GNZ relocated to New York City in 2022 to pursue a master’s degree in Songwriting and Production at Berklee College of Music. Now based in Brooklyn, he collaborates with a new wave of boundary-pushing artists including Nini Iris, DAIXA, Andrea Turk, LetOutThePressure, Igor, and BXPOLAR.
GNZ is recognized for his guitar-driven production style and for pioneering “Club Metal,” a genre-defying fusion of metal and experimental club music. Drawing from the pop futurism of Charli XCX and Lady Gaga, the raw intensity of Denzel Curry and Haywire 617, and the sonic aggression of Slipknot and Loathe, his work exists at the intersection of chaos and control, distortion and melody.
Through his work, GNZ is not just producing records. He is building a new language for artists who refuse to exist within genres.
ARTIST STATEMENT
What I need right now in my life is tenderness, but not in the way most would expect. For me, it is not about safety. I see tenderness as a moment of being my truest, most emotionally present self. That is something I only fully experience when I pick up my guitar and start making music. In that space, the fear of judgment and the pressure to meet expectations disappear. Everything becomes instinct and truth. Every note is a release, a way to process what words alone cannot hold. I am not trying to be understood. I simply am.
Feeling displaced has been a constant throughout my life. Growing up neurodivergent, being wired differently was often seen as a flaw. I struggled to find common ground with others because I always felt out of place. That feeling continued when I moved to the United States in 2022. Even with exposure to Western culture back home, New York was a completely different environment that forced me to adapt and reshape parts of myself just to navigate it. I can speak the language and move through social spaces in America, but at the end of the day, I am still an outsider who was not born and raised in this country. Despite that, music has always been the one place where the idea of being foreign disappears. It is where I exist fully as myself. Every moment I pick up my guitar, whether in my childhood room in Manila or in my recording studio in Williamsburg, becomes my purest form of tenderness.
For years, I struggled with my sense of identity, but music gave me the courage to embrace it. That process led me to create Club Metal, a fusion of heavy metal and experimental club music. This genre is the culmination of every part of who I am. It brings together the metal and hardcore punk music that carried me through my lowest moments growing up, and the electronic music I immersed myself in after moving to New York and stepping into its underground scene. Instead of choosing between these worlds, I allowed them to collide. Club Metal is not just a sound. It is a statement of self-acceptance. It is my truest form of tenderness.
“I Haven’t Seen You In Forever” is more than just an entry to this competition, it is historically one of the first official records that falls under the world of Club Metal. It represents what happens when you allow yourself to be tender and fully embrace your identity without limitation. I am not following a rulebook with this genre, I am writing it in real time. That is why collaborating with Igor and Nikki on this project means so much to me. Beyond them being my close friends, they are artists whose perspectives pushed this record into something greater than I could have created alone.
Igor and I are currently working on a new set of tracks that sonically blends his background as a classically trained cellist with my Club Metal sound, alongside the pop and hip hop influences that have shaped both of us. This track is the result of two artists fully trusting each other’s instincts and allowing contrast to become cohesion. Nikki brought that same level of intention into the visual world. Her approach to VHS videography showed me how something accessible can still feel deeply personal, original, and artistically innovative in the right hands. The way she was able to grow so quickly within her craft within a short period of time is an amazing moment to witness. It is a reflection of what tenderness looks like in practice. It is not about perfection, it is about honesty, curiosity, and the willingness to do what it takes to be your truest self.
Through my work, I am not just making songs. I am building the space I wish I had growing up: a space where chaos, intensity, and emotion are not rejected, but understood and embraced. I am no longer asking for permission to take up space. I am here to prove that vulnerability and intensity can coexist at the highest level of artistry, that a kid from Manila with a guitar can reshape what global music sounds like. My work as an artist is proof that tenderness can be loud, unapologetic, and impossible to ignore.
NIKKI
VIDEOGRAPHER
Bio
Nikki is a Texas Born, New York–based videographer, editor, and director whose work centers on accessibility, nostalgia, and everyday life. She began filming in 2025 with a handheld DVD camcorder, documenting daily New York life and collaborating with fellow artists and creatives.
I Haven’t Seen You In Forever marks her first large-scale release. Shot on a vintage camcorder, the project embraces a raw, voyeuristic aesthetic that places the viewer inside each moment and encourages them to witness each scene with honesty and truth.
Her work reflects both a commitment to accessible tools and a fascination with a pre-smartphone era, capturing a sense of authenticity that feels increasingly rare in an always-on, high-definition world. Having once hesitated for the same reasons, she aims to encourage others to create without waiting on better tools, time, or certainty.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I was really grateful when my friend, Gonz, aka GNZ, approached me with the invitation to work on this project with him. I had spoken at length with him about my desire to learn videography and editing. I had also previously helped our mutual friend with her own music videos. They both saw the potential in me that I myself couldn’t see or act upon and gave me a chance to prove myself.
Through this opportunity, I’ve been able to confirm just how much I want to continue learning about videography and editing. In the span of a month, I’ve been able to learn how to edit on Davinci Resolve, apply effects, color grade, use the fusion tab for transitions, mask out objects, create dynamic text, discover the importance of lighting and b-roll, and ultimately, put together a music video worth watching.
It was not always easy. There were 2 second transitions that took me an hour to do because I couldn’t understand why the clip wouldn’t go transparent, only to realize it was because I was working on top of an adjustment clip. Or I would spend an hour mapping out each frame of a hand only to lose that work and have to start again. Color grading was the hardest, however. Each time the lighting changed, so did the color grade. It’s a tedious process, and maybe my least favorite part of the job, and yet–I look forward to the ways I can and will get better at it. There is a world of transitions and effects and cuts and I have barely touched the surface. As an art medium, I find video editing to be both forgiving and extensive. There are so many creative ways to apply your vision, and I hope to find them all.
Beyond editing, there was the process of creating the story and filming it on a camcorder. Originally, we had hoped to have a moshing scene at the end. The story, heavily inspired by GNZ’s own life, would culminate in the protagonist finding community and tenderness in the music he loved the most. When that didn’t work out, we realized an even better storyline would be for Igor, the cellist and vocalist in the song, to be the tender hand we needed. In the end, music still saved him. It brought him out of his depression and gave him purpose, identity, and friendship. Yet, it had to start somewhere, and it started with Igor being that light at the end of that tunnel. It occurs to me that this parallels my own relationship with videography, as Gonz was the one to be my helping hand and show me a way forward.
I was often bogged down by the idea that I needed the newest, the best, and the nicest. That my videography couldn’t be good unless I mimicked all the other videographers I would see on the internet. Of course, too, there was the fear of failing. Of realizing I couldn’t step up to the bar I had set in my own head about my creativity. With this project I’ve realized…I couldn’t. Not that I won’t, but that the bar I had set was so high it scared me into inaction. It was an impossible goal, because then I wouldn’t want to create. I’m proud of the work I have put out. It isn’t perfect, far from it, but it’s work that was accessible to me, and it’s work that I enjoyed doing.
I am now equipped with knowledge, skills, and a collaborative finished project that I didn’t own a month ago. The plan going forward is to continue working with the camcorder, and creating even cooler music videos. We already have plans to work on a music video for Igor’s upcoming song. I will also be diving deeper into the processes behind fusion and color grading, the two most complex editing systems. One day, I may move on from the camcorder. One day, I might buy paid editing software or invest in an editing computer. For now, it’s one day at a time, and I’ll look back and think about how it all started here. With this project, with this camcorder, and with these friends.