Host Jayla Canizales visits with senior Mark Willis about his passion for music.

Q: What would people be surprised to know about you?

A: I like to mind my own business. I don’t really hang out with a lot of people. It might seem like it but no I keep my circle small.

Q: What are some things you’re passionate about?

A: Music, I spend like 23 out of 24 listening to the same music.

Q: What, if you had to choose, what would you say you’re most passionate about?

A: Movies, films. I’ve been watching movies since I was two, it’s just a good way to spend your time.

Q:Tell me when you first learned about like music choices like when did you first get to know them?

A: My mom, she would always play music in the house, it didn’t matter what we were doing she’d be cooking, cleaning, helping me with my homework, she’d always have music in the background, it was always like a filler and she would just play all different types of music like r&b, jazz. She played a little bit of I don’t know what the correct term of it well it is but it’s like kind of like kissy Yetta music stuff like that. She does to this day, but without her I don’t think I’d be into it as much as I am.

Q: How did that influence you? The way like she played her music?

A: Well for me, she doesn’t like to listen to albums like I do. But whenever I listen to music, I want to get deep into the artists and I searched their whole catalog. Play a couple of their like, underrated songs or their whole album Back to back to back. And then I just make my judgment from there.

Q: Do your friends feel the same way about your music or is it just you?

A: I wouldn’t always say yes, but I will say no at the same time because, I’m because I’m always listening to music. They always have to give me like new suggestions. Now, I would say I take a step further. Maybe they be like, a little bit more. Passionate about it than I am. But I don’t really like listening to my music in front of other people. Kind of like reserved for me because it’s my special picks.

Q: How much time do you like devote to searching your music to find the right one?

A: Before I do like a special task, let’s say if I was at my house and I wanted to do homework. I always have a couple songs in the queue waiting to be played while I’m doing my homework. But I always do that before I start because if I do it while I’m starting, then I would get distracted. And then I’m going to want to listen to a whole album and certainly the time to do that.

Q: What type of music do you listen to while doing different tasks?

When I’m doing homework I’ll usually just put on like I say, pop I know people don’t really like pop like they used to but pop songs cool. And I was playing video games or I just was doing something for fun I’d put on maybe a little bit of rap. If I wanted to go to sleep I put off some like light jazz, maybe some alternative depends on like how I’m feeling what my mood is

Q: What is your favorite type of music? What’s the one that you can listen to 24/7?

A: There’s a hard debate, but it has to be between rap and r&b. It’s those two those are like my two top genres.

Q: Who’s your favorite artists for those two?

A: Oh, this might sound a little cliche, but for r&b I like the weekend. Frank Ocean pretty. Frank Ocean like comes pretty close. But for rap, I can’t really say a certain person because rap has its own little sub genres. And they have they have one artist for every sub genre. So yeah, but if I had to say overall, little a little basic, but I’d say Drake.