Welcome to the 10th edition of Artist Spotlight. On this freaky Friday the 13th. Today we’re sitting down with Sean, better known as Mr. Wildenfree®️.
This conversation quickly turned into one of my favorite spotlights to date. Sean isn’t just a musician; he’s a multidimensional creator whose path moves through visual art, poetry, systems thinking, and the evolving world of Web3. What started as a discussion about music expanded into something much deeper. Be prepared to go on a journey through creativity, persistence, technology, and the philosophy behind building art that lasts.
Throughout the interview we’ve included several links to articles, livestreams, and references Sean mentions along the way. If you take the time to explore them, they’ll add extra context to the conversation and help paint a fuller picture of the journey and mindset behind Mr. Wildenfree.
Let’s get into it.
SI:
What is your name, and do you go by an artist handle?
WNF:
Sean, aka Mr. Wildenfree®️
SI:
Alright homie, I see that trademark! When did you first get into creating music?
WNF:
A long time ago it seems. My grandfather had my sister & I playing around with musical instruments from a young age. I joined the band towards the end of middle school, and was involved for the first 3 years of high school or so — participating in the marching band playing percussion (Miller Grove High School Marching Wolverines: Black Ice, playing quints, then cymbals, then tenor drum). I’d be remiss to not give homage to my parents for also playing all the great music on a radio underneath me & my sister’s cribs when we were infants. Most of all, I owe my grandfather, Gramps, for ensuring we had the musical equipment to even begin exploring the creative output of music throughout our adolescence.
SI:
Bro, I have a soft spot for marching bands and drum lines. I hear you guys know how to do it down in the dirty south ATL! That was fire bro, that was fire! And dude the blog post about your grandpa, I am so glad you shared that with me. That was some deep raw emotion, and I appreciate that. I can see the impact Gramps had on you and your music.
So do you have any other creative expressions besides music?
WNF:
To be honest, lately it feels like systems have been a creative expression for me lol. Funny enough though, most of my schooling and efforts revolved around visual arts. I remember my art classes fondly, I had a pre-engineering class in high school that got me into graphic design, I went on to be the primary graphic designer on our school year book. I went off to college and started doing freelance graphic design for student organizations, aiming to get my major in Graphic Design; however, they ended up dissolving the program into just the Studio Art major, and the way it aligned with my tenure, they told me I didn’t have to choose a focus area. So I ended up learning about a lot of different visual art mediums. Woodshop, 2D & 3D art, acrylic & oil painting, ceramics, digital ceramics, printmaking, typography, even fabrications like laser cutting, molds, cnc machines & 3d printers. Then in my extra-curricular path, I ended up pursuing Poetry & ultimately became president of the Poetic Lyricism student org on FSU’s campus for a year or so.
SI:
Is there anything that you can’t do bro. You are seriously blessed to be able to do so many different types of art, this is talent right here!
We have been talking a lot about all sorts of art but music, so when did you first start making music, and what drew you to it?
WNF:
I first started making music as I now know it back in high school. I used to go by the artist name “Discyple”, and I was a part of the Dallas Austin “Don’t Stop The Music” program, which was an after-school program to help educate music students in how to operate in a studio environment, understanding DAWs & how to perform on a mic, etc. I started working on a mixtape, and frequently worked alongside my bro Klass.
SI:
And so i gotta know man when you started rapping as “Discyple”, was this a Christian thing ? it has that kind of a vibe to it, that's why i ask.
WNF:
So it was actually more so like being a student or apprentice of Hip-Hop, a “Discyple” of the Emcees & of the culture as a whole that inspired me.
I was raised Christian, so that analogy didn’t fall blind on me, but it was mainly as homage to Hip-Hop initially & fundamentally.
SI:
Was there a specific moment or catalyst that pushed you to take making music seriously?
WNF:
Yes actually, very specifically I would say two moments. While at FSU I was a part of a crew known as The LEAGUE. Some of the homies and I were freestylin’, just kickin’ it, and my bro Chris, now known as Saint Norris, was like “yo we should drop a mixtape!” — he kinda said it in jest and most at the time weren’t even considering that as a real possibility, but I was like, “say less”, and started figuring out a way to make something happen from where I was at as a broke college kid yet without any of the equipment. Then, I attended the Kendrick Lamar concert, which I wrote a whole article about here, and the TL;DR is that his actions directly influenced me to think, “this is possible, and I can take this as a sign to pursue this for real”.
SI:
Bro you know what was deep, how Kendrick Lamar passed those beats headphones over to you. Like you said it was the passing of the torch. (I know we didn’t add that to this but we linked the article you wrote about the Kendrick Lamar show you went to so our readers can enjoy it).
How would you describe your sound to someone hearing it for the first time?
WNF:
Cerebral yet emotive; simplistically complex. Crude yet articulate & well defined. Eclectic Hip-Hop. An evolving metamorphosis through uniquely different chapters. An audible experience that expresses the balance in the duality of this lived experience. Lyrics inspiring resilience at the intersection of culture & the cutting edge.
SI:
You know after listening to some of your work, I would also consider it conscious hip-hop. Because a lot of people rap about nonsense. You know it’s all about the drugs, going to jail, killing people, their body count etc. I sometimes feel like the industry just wants us to get the wrong ideas so we end up behind bars, in a hospital or six feet underground. But there is something about hip-hop music that (and I’m not calling you woke) but conscious, being aware, and there being substance to what you put together, and I appreciate that more than anything.
What themes or ideas tend to show up most in your work?
WNF:
Introspection, overcoming, overthinking, a mental emotional experience, vulnerability, technological perspective, innovation, self-awareness, humility & braggadocio.
SI:
What does your creative process usually look like, from idea to finished track?
WNF:
Methodical, patient, incessant, whimsical, present, researched &/or mined internally. If you’d actually like a look, here’s an 8-hour livestream I did, for the creation of one track.
SI:
You know watching your livestream was pretty dope. It really gave me a good feel of your entire process, and I can appreciate more of what you do, and for any artist what they do!
Do visuals or storytelling influence your music?
WNF:
Always, though the gravity of how much they impact my music varies on where I’m at in the journey, how lucid I am in the writing process & what the chain of thought surfaces through the correlating connections tied to the subject matter, recent events or or recent art / entertainment I’ve consumed.
SI:
What made you decide to participate in the NFT/Web3 space to promote your work?
WNF:
I believed in sovereignty. The concepts of ownership & resilience. The idea that there was a more structurally sound & disaster-proof architecture for how the internet works. A model that had a decentralized, distributed & immutable foundation left me inspired, believing that my musical works & perspective can persist in a medium forever accessible to the hearts & minds of many, whether or not some large conglomerate cared to facilitate it.
SI:
What platforms do you primarily use to share or sell your work, and why?
WNF:
That’s still in debate if I’m being real. Right now my music is on Apple Music, Spotify & such. I did attempt several drops across various Web3 platforms (OpenSea, hic et nunc, Foundation, SHARE protocol, etc.) yet the most prevalent of all the Web3 paths currently is Tortoise that @mattlee made. I have some others on the schedule to explore, and have been in talks with & looking forward to what @Les is building (@Infanity). I’ve also considered an upcoming album drop on EVEN.biz, the platform Larrussell helped to propel by proving its model, and the platform J. Cole recently dropped on.
The future of my outputs here will likely be a continued synthesis of these platforms, along with my own proprietary access point for my music, which I’m just currently considering & mentally mapping out the possibilities for. It will likely leverage some underlying protocol &/or API capabilities from one or more of the aforementioned.
SI:
So speaking of the Tortoise platform, as of March this year you are the most collected artist on Tortoise, with 114 total collects, and 60 of them coming from “Seams of Dreams”? What do you think about that?
WNF:
It was not what I was expecting to discover just from checking out the @tortmusic.eth API, but wow this is a nice stat to discover.
SI:
How do you feel NFTs or Web3 change the relationship between artists and fans?
WNF:
There’s likely real social & intrinsic value in knowing you’ll forever have access to a song that you love. Value in having proof that you were participating in an artist’s ecosystem & supporting an artist in niche spaces beyond the typical surface level listener-in-passing. Beyond that though, having that provenance is also impactful for me as an artist. It’s a forever-through line that lets me confidently reach the high-signal fans & supporters who were willing to financially support my journey, to help keep the music alive. There’s been pros & cons to the experience, caused my false expectations & projections on what benefits & deliverables should accompany something like an NFT. However I’ve been doing my diligence to stay patient while also reframing the conversation to remind folks that “The music IS the value”.
I had half a season where I participated in degen activities out of the natural FOMO that was emerging, and I quickly learned what a losing game that was; in retrospect it felt no different than having wealth siphoned away to those already well positioned through gambling, fantasy sports or prediction markets — however that’s not to slight the technology as a whole, just an observation on how it was being utilized & promoted. I recognized that the technical innovation matters significantly more than the human patterns being projected onto it, and so I am still hopeful & inspired about the possibilities it unlocks & how it can be leveraged to alleviate many existing pressures within our legacy financial infrastructure.
SI:
What's the biggest lesson you've learned so far as an artist?
WNF:
That Nipsey Hussle wasn’t lying. Persistence is key. Never quit. It’s a marathon & not a race, indeed. To share my own personal insight though, I’d say that my creativity doesn’t need permission or parameters; it simply needs the space to exist & express itself. So as long as I give myself the right moments of stillness, my creativity will flow.
Still, knowing that creativity alone isn’t what enables an artist to be an “Artist”, has been an important & humbling expansion on my endeavors.
SI:
What advice would you give to artists who are curious about NFTs but hesitant to jump in?
WNF:
NFTs are just a digital packaging option, don’t get distracted by it. Don’t overthink it. Always prioritize your art as the value itself. Never over-promise OR accept projected promises or expectations around what your NFT offering can or should afford the ones who are seeking leverage through your offering. Cherish those who buy your NFTs because they love your music & want to support your journey in creating it. Be weary of those who are attempting to buy your Music NFTs (Art, Web3 IP, etc.) for some kind of financial gain. They likely only bought in off of your hype, and won’t care about you or your music if it doesn’t give them some kind of incentivized financial gain because of it.
SI:
Just for fun: What genre of music do you listen to most, and is it the same while you’re creating?
WNF:
I listen to like 50% Hip-Hop, 25% R&B, 20% Cultural (Reggae, Afrobeat, J-Pop) & 5% Other (Jazz, Yacht Rock, Funk, Alt-Indie, etc.) To be fair, it does vary from season to season.
Sometimes it changes during a creative season. If I’m in a deep creative sprint, I’m likely not listening to anything else other than myself lol. Still, I do enjoy the art of curation almost as much as I do the art of creation, & I do listen to a lot of music in those times.
Talking with Mr. Wildenfree makes one thing clear: his work isn’t just about releasing music, it’s about building, and building something that lasts. From early influences shaped by family and marching band percussion, to exploring visual arts and poetry, and now navigating the possibilities of Web3, Sean approaches creativity as an evolving system rather than a single lane. Whether he’s experimenting with platforms, producing tracks, or thinking about new ways to distribute music, the underlying theme remains the same: persistence, independence, and staying grounded in the art itself.
Just remember the music itself is the value.
If you want to keep up with his work, explore his music, or follow the journey as it continues to evolve, you can find him on the platforms below.
You can follow Mr. Wildenfree and stay up to date with his socials music and more: