Q&A with Outasight

Outasight, a New-York-bred musician with a style of music that's all his own, performed in Waterloo Friday as part of his tour with T-Pain and Gym Class Heroes and currently has one of the hottest songs in the country. His single "Tonight Is The Night" was chosen by Pepsi as the soundtrack for their "Music Icons" TV campaign, and since then, the his career has taken off.

Tell me about your unique style of music. You say it doesn't really have a unique genre, so how did you start creating it?

I was a kid who listened so many styles of music. I loved rock 'n' roll, I loved punk rock, I loved hip-hop, I loved soul, R&B. I was just inspired by it all, and when I wanted to create, it was just very natural for me to sing and rap over any kind of music. I just kind of continued to grow and get better as an artist and it just kind of became what I do.

I heard that you started your career by doing a lot of open mic shows, so what's it like going from that to not being able to go anywhere without hearing your song on the radio?

When you're in those early stages, you want to envision where you want to take it and you never know how it's going to go. And those open mics — at the moment when I was doing them, it felt like it was the most important thing in the world, and now what I'm doing feels like the most important thing in the world. So at the end of the day, that feeling never changes.

What's your favorite part of all of the exciting things that have happened in your career lately?

The coolest thing for me is seeing people react to my music and just come up to me and tell me how my music is affecting their lives. Just the support is the biggest payoff to me.

What's it like going on tour with T-Pain and Gym Class Heroes so far?

They're great guys and they're a great band, and I got to see T-Pain last night and it was rockin'. It's a great tour — there's a lot of talent. Everyone got a great show — there was a lot of energy. I have a very good feeling about it.

Have you had any funny fan experiences so far?

I've definitely had a few. There was one kid who makes musician baseball cards and when he brought me my baseball card, I thought that was awesome. Very creative.

I know your fans are one of your favorite things about your career, but what else do you love about it?

For me, I love to create and I love to perform. So getting a chance to do both makes me feel like the luckiest guy on the planet.