Well-respected producer and artist Like Mike released his debut album on October 1st after almost a decade of solo and collaborative releases. Pain, Love, & What Comes After is a 15-track project that spans a range of emotions and chapters across the past decade of the international artist’s life.
Pain, Love, & What Comes After by Like Mike
The 40-minute album presents a range of genres, energy levels, and topics that all come together to create a cohesive, hair-standing body of work. From the chill mood of “Feeling a Vibe,” to tracks that’ll get your body moving like “Lipstick,” this project has a song for seemingly any occasion; but the music also goes well beyond the varying beats and flows, too. Like Mike gets extremely vulnerable on this project, telling stories of the two strongest emotions: pain and love, along with the wide spectrum of emotions between.
Additionally, the album features many impressive and buzzing artists such as Lil Baby, Smokepurpp, Blueface, Wifisfuneral, and more. “Silence” ft. Lil Baby is a sure highlight of the project, with the two artists’ heartfelt vocals fluidly colliding. Another stand out track is the previously released “W Hotel” featuring Smokepurpp and Blueface due to its high energy and sneaky trap beat.
STREAM Pain, Love, & What Comes After by Like Mike
The album has seen a lot of success in just a short period of time. With “Silence” hitting over 700k streams, and other tracks following shortly behind, Pain, Love, & What Comes After assisted Like Mike in amassing almost 3 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
Respect My Region had the opportunity to chat with Like Mike about Pain, Love, & What Comes After, his upbringing, recent collaborations, and more. Continue reading for the full interview.
Like Mike x Respect My Region Exclusive Interview
RMR: Where are you from, and how do you feel like your roots have influenced your sound and/or career?
Like Mike: I’m of Greek origin and grew up in a small industrial town in Belgium. As a kid I was obsessed with putting down my feelings and thoughts into rap lyrics, and eventually I was doing full songs and productions during my early teenage years. Along with that came the hopes and dreams of one day making it big in music. At the age of 15, I moved to Ibiza, where my love for house music and other types of electronic music grew. Eventually, turning that love into a major career as an electronic music producer making some of the biggest songs in history. My whole life though, I never really stopped recording my thoughts and emotions and turning them into songs.
RMR: Pain, Love, & What Comes After is a collection of songs written over a whole decade, why did you decide to cover many chapters of your life within this one album, rather than splitting each chapter into different projects?
Like Mike: This album consists of a selection of songs that I wrote these past years. Never actually having released any of those projects, I still had an emotional connection to a lot of those songs and I felt that the accumulation of these particular songs painted a picture and told a story of my life. I still have a crazy amount of unreleased music, so maybe I’ll drop more songs at some point. But for now, it’s time to write new music.
RMR: How does it feel to finally be releasing your debut album? Why do you feel like this year was the right time?
Like Mike: It wasn’t so much about picking the right timing, it was more the alignment of circumstances that have led up to this.
STREAM Pain, Love, & What Comes After by Like Mike
RMR: What helps you express your emotions and translate them into lyrics that are vulnerable and touching?
Like Mike: After certain events, I have to be in the right headspace, where nothing from outside can influence me. Once I’m in that zone I need to be able to just create. This can be positive or negative, and can be a very emotional process but can also be exhilarating. It’s almost therapeutic. Some moments I can get overly creative. That comes with a negative side to it. Sometimes I catch myself barely eating or drinking for days, even when someone brings me food because I just can’t snap out of it.
RMR: What helps you stay present through the ups and downs?
Like Mike: We’ve had a very rough year, to be honest. Losing your first child and your father in a very short period of time makes you realize how fragile everything really is. Living happens now – but maybe not tomorrow. Things like writing help a lot… going out in nature helps, meditation… if the pain will ever go away? I guess not, but it subsides. Life will continue anyway, with or without you. Better make the best of it.
RMR: You said “any moment can be intensified through music.” With this specific project, what is your goal for people to feel when listening? Any specific moments or activities you feel this project would enhance?
Like Mike: This album is more a collection of songs that describe different emotions or different chapters of my life. It was about what I was feeling like in each specific moment.
RMR: What was your experience like working with many different artists on Pain, Love, & What Comes After?
Like Mike: A lot of these collaborations happened on the songs that I wrote during this pandemic. Not being able to travel, a lot happened through sending files back and forth. Every featuring artist on Pain, Love, & What Comes After is an amazingly talented artist and I would love to work with them again on my next project.
RMR: What artists would you like to work with in the future? Any specific genres you’d like to try to blend with your style?
Like Mike: There’s a huge list of artists I’d like to work with on my next projects. Lil Uzi, Jack Harlow, Kodak Black, YNW Melly, Rod Wave to name a few. I’d also like to bring more organic instruments into the picture.
RMR: Where do you write music the best? What is your ideal environment for working on music?
Like Mike: My ideal environment for making music is somewhere with a view, especially when putting down first ideas and straight vibing, a pool, a view… and maybe a BBQ. Although I like a good indoor studio from time to time.
RMR: If you’re hanging with your friends and they hand you the aux, what is the first song or artist you are putting on?
Like Mike: Depending what moment, I like to play something I’m working on without mentioning it’s me and watch everyone vibe to it.
RMR: If you could be reincarnated into any animal, what would it be and why?
Like Mike: Something fly… but not a fly. Idk, what bird lives long and can fly far? Maybe I’d be a whale or a giant turtle roaming the ocean. Can I be a T-Rex?
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