EKKSTACY: “I Just Have to Make Music”

It was evening in Berlin when Khyree Zienty, aka EKKSTACY, answered the call from bed—late morning back in Vancouver. There’s not much mystery to his stage name, at least not to him. He’d always liked the name Stacy and just found a way to build a word around it.

There’s a quiet kind of chaos that follows EKKSTACY—an artist whose music sounds like it was made in a bedroom at 3AM but somehow fills entire venues with sweaty, cathartic release. He’s already lived through several lives: SoundCloud rap prodigy, post-punk romantic, indie rock outsider. His lyrics are bleak but weirdly hopeful. Sadness isn’t a passing emotion in his world—it’s the baseline. And with his new album FOREVER, he returns still sad, still searching, but sharper now, and more direct.

SLEEK spoke with EKKSTACY about Berlin crowds, leaving L.A., and why he hates his biggest hit.

SLEEK: You’ve said you approached this new album ‘FOREVER’ differently. What changed about your music-making process?

EKKSTACY: Before, it was just me and my friend—he’s actually from Kassel, Germany. We used to do everything on the computer together, and I’d add vocals after. But now I usually write on my guitar first and then bring it to a producer. It’s a longer process, but it sounds better with real instruments. It feels more like a full band now. 

S: How come that you have moved back from L.A. to Vancouver and how does that influence your music?

E: I don’t really have anyone to work with in Vancouver, so I just make stuff on my own and bring it back to L.A. when I need to. I moved there when I was twenty, but I didn’t love it. It felt kind of cold, kind of mean. I was always sneaking into bars because I didn’t have an ID. Some parts were fun, but I missed my friends—and honestly, I missed my mom, my sister, and my dad. 

S: Your song “i walk this earth all by myself” has gone viral, how can you create something off of a viral momentum and what are the downsides to it?

E: That song annoys me. I don’t like it, it’s too big, it’s almost platinum. I made a lot of money with it, so I’m grateful but I hate it. 

S: Did going viral change your audience?

E: Not really. People don’t come to my shows just for that one song. They don’t want to be sad—they want to go hard and hear the heavier stuff which is lucky for me. 

S: Is performing your favorite part of what you do?

E: I love performing, I love a good show, I love making a good song. I just like when people are really in it, the crowds in Berlin are so amazing, they are so into the show. Something about Europe, they just go harder. There are places in America that are good like California and Texas but Europe is just different. The kids are different. I feel more important especially when I am in Germany, I feel like I belong here. 

S: Sadness shows up a lot in your music. Does writing about it make the process feel heavier?

E: It’s kind of just everything I talk about. I don’t know how to express other emotions very well. All I have written about are negative things. When I was 16, I was going through some unfortunate stuff and that’s when I started writing music. I went from being a really happy kid to being pretty emo overnight. I think I find joy in most days but sadness is more like an over-looming feeling that I have. I think everyone has that, I just choose to talk about it. 

S: Do you have other ways to deal with those emotions?

E: Not really, I don’t write anything else besides music, I don’t think I even use music as a way of coping anymore.

S: So what does music mean to you—work, passion, therapy?

E: I just enjoy making music, I have been doing it for so long now. I just have to make music, it’s not a job for me. It just feels like this urge that I have to do like having to eat or having to breathe.

S: You started young, making rap on SoundCloud. What made you change genres?

E: I liked making music both ways, Soundcloud was easier. I wanted to make indie rock back then, but I didn’t have a guitar and didn’t know how to produce that sound. I eventually figured it out. I was producing on my iPad when I was like 14. I always knew I wanted to do something special, I just wanted people to acknowledge me. 

S: Do you feel like you’re at a point now in your career and life where you have achieved this?

E: I just feel like things are going to work themselves out. All I can do is work hard and everything else will just happen. You know, I do trust myself. I know that because I don’t have anything else beides music. I am happy with my music, my career and my mind but my physical self not so much. 

S: With your new album ‘FOREVER’, do you feel like the themes have evolved with you?

E: It’s the same, it’s always about girls. The thing is, a lot of the time I’m not even writing about a real person. I’m just kind of writing about the idea of someone or the idea of an experience. I just write about whatever comes to my head, I don’t really like to sit down and think about it.