wit•ty
‘witē/
adjective
1. Showing or characterized by quick and inventive verbal humor.
“a witty remark”

When he first started his musical career, Witty went through the dictionary and found a word that described his humor, his—for lack of a better word—wittiness.

With his progressive change in his music and the meaning behind it, Witty found it would only make sense to mature his artist alias as well. From Witty to Witt Lowry. Dropping the “y,” and creating a “last name” by using a variation of his middle name Lawerance, after his grandfather who is a strong inspiration in his life. The name change also makes his music more easily searchable.

I was fortunate enough to speak with Witt Lowry about his career and recent developments. This is an artist who is taking music back to basics. The type of artist who speaks the truth regardless of what the outcome may be.

“I decided to pursue music as a career after I graduated from college,” Lowry explained. “I spent some time after graduation doing free-lance graphic design for the WWE. It was everything I had wanted from the time I first went to school, but once I was in the nine to five grind, I realized it was far from my dream. Photoshopping John Cena and The Rock became monotonous, and I realized I wanted to be the guy people were photoshopping, not the one sitting behind the desk.”

“I was just really unhappy, and I started working on Kindest Regards [his first mixtape] before I graduated, but hadn’t had much time to dedicate to it because of ‘real life.’ I knew it was time to just stop everything and focus on my music. I was passionate about it, and knew if I focused on it I’d be able to make it grow.”

You would think that an artist who writes so personally would have trouble performing live, but Lowry actually says the opposite.

“I actually choose my most emotional songs when composing a set,” he said. “This past weekend I did my first string of shows, from NYC to Boston to Rhode Island, and I knew to grab people’s attention I had to talk about the stuff that mattered. I didn’t want to be a typical performer who just paces across the stage, where all you hear is clanging glasses and various conversations, I wanted to be the reason people couldn’t look away. I wanted to spill my soul on the stage.”

Spilling his soul is exactly what Lowry does on and off the stage. His music can become the anthem of anyone feeling heartbreak, loss, happiness, or love. It’s not necessarily what he says though, it’s how he says it.

“The writing process is pretty simplistic for me,” Lowry described. “The notes on my phone are filled with one-liners, and the hardest part is not being able to fit a certain line in where I want it to go. There’s an element of having to let go that is really hard when you envision something else, but you have to just realize that nothing is set in stone and the creative process is kind of never-ending.”
Lowry is so inspiring to his listeners, and he says he realized this when Kindest Regards first came out.

“People said that mixtape changed their lives and it was humbling,” he said. “Opening up is so easy for me to do because I’m the type of person who is always truthful and honest, not to mention it helps me vent everything… like a coping mechanism,” he explained.

“The toughest part of it all is wondering if the people I write about will hear it and get mad or upset, but then I have to remind myself that people always know where they stand with me. I wouldn’t put anything in a song that I wouldn’t say to them in person. I just highlight the truth of what they did, and let the listeners take what they feel from it.”

While Lowry so easily inspires everyone else, his strongest inspirations in his life make his career worthwhile.

“Anytime I feel like I’ve had enough or I’m too tired I just think of my Mom. My mom has sacrificed a lot for me in her life, and I feel like it’s the least I can do to give back to her. I want us to be at a point where she doesn’t have to work thanks to me. She just really helps me push through. My grandfather is the wisest man I’ve ever met, and is so important to me as well.”

As for his musical influences, they are a bit harder to predict by his sound than other artists of his caliber.

“Musically Eminem, Macklemore, and Hopsin are inspiring to me with the way they go about making music. It’s not necessarily their sound that I model my music after, but the way that they convey their messages.”

Lowry’s latest track, Lay Here, is a true example of his poetic abilities, passionate truths, and relatable words. Produced by Tido Vegas, the sample on this track was taken from James Bay’s “Let It Go” and is cohesive to the story that Lowry tells as each verse unfolds.