Kris Lawrence explores the NFT space for new music

Artists, regardless of the medium, find new avenues, whether physical or virtual, to showcase their art and creativity. They adapt to the changing times in further engaging their public. Kris Lawrence, the singer-songwriter, knows this.

He has recently embraced the digital trend called non-fungible token (NFT), by making his latest song, Future Girl, an NFT asset or good. Kris shared this latest development in his career in a recent virtual press conference.

“I am doing this new venture, it’s called the NFT,” said he. “A lot of us have been locked in our homes (because of the pandemic), and a lot of our businesses (have) gone to the metaverse and crypto space. Things have changed. As an artist, I personally believe that this is where a lot of things are headed.”

Asked what makes his song non-fungible, Kris shared, “It’s basically a new asset class. We have fungible things like houses, cars, dollars. (Let’s say) I give you 1,000 (peso bill), and when you give me two P500, we’re quits, because it holds the same value. Now, there are different things that, like one-of-a-kind (such as) a painting, an art piece.” So, an NFT tune has special features and is documented on the blockchain (a digital ledger, as one may put it). It is non-interchangeable and unique. “It’s basically a collectible,” said Kris. “Now, as a musician, my music will be a collectible.”

Supporting Kris in this endeavor is the platform called SongRise, which has tapped him as its first-ever artist. At the time of the group interview, Kris mentioned about the minting process that authenticates the digital work or the asset.

“We’re gonna mint about 200 to 250 copies only of this NFT, my NFT is actually a song called Future Girl, written by Andrew Real and Kuya Productions from Canada. So, we did a collaboration on that. May digital art work, tapos may kasama na pong kanta. It’s very, very limited,” added he. “The way this works is once we get sold out, pwede ding tumaas yung value.” Those who purchased the NFT of Kris’ Future Girl, according to him, can also resell it after “since it’s like a very scarce number.”

By making the song NFT, Kris will be able to “test my engagement with my fans,” said he. “I feel like this particular project will show me who my real fans are… I also see this as hopefully making my value as an artist, testing the waters as my value as an artist.”

Although he has started his presence in the NFT space, Kris will continue to release his music commercially in the traditional and streaming platforms, like YouTube, Spotify, iTunes and Apple Music.

“I’ve been trying to tap as many venues as I can,” said he. “For future artists, (they) can mint as many copies as (they) would like. Just like any asset, the more it’s scarce, the more value it holds.”

From the artist and the followers’ perspectives, they may look at this digital experience as a new way of distributing creative works and owning collector’s pieces.

Future Girl was recorded by Kris and his collaborators for a week. As its title suggests, the song is about a guy who looks for a girl and hopes the latter will accept him for who he is. The SongRise platform, on the other hand, describes the song narrative as “about a career focused individual who (has) made many sacrifices such as relationships” and “who is striving to take the next steps in his life.”

“Whoever she is, I hope I will find her soon,” said the singer, who co-parents with former girlfriend Katrina Halili their daughter Katie. “Tumatanda na tayo. It will be nice to find someone that can take care of me.” He added that “I really love this song. I actually would like it to be on Spotify. Just so that it could reach more people, but because I would like to give this NFT a shot, you know I’m going all in and seeing how far it could take this, ginamit ko na din yung Future Girl dito sa NFT space.”

Aside from setting his foot in this new digital territory and claiming his space in it, Kris will have new collaborations, hopefully with artists like Arthur Nery and release about five songs this year.

“I have a new cover,” said he. “I decided to cover Ms. Regine (Velasquez’s) song, Dadalhin, and give my own twist to it. I took it as a challenge on myself. It’s very, very challenging to sing a Regine song. I was also interested to see my own take (on) Dadalhin.”

He is flying to the States end of the month for an EP of songs with good friends Jay-R and Billy Crawford.

“The way it looks is we’re gonna try to be like, kind of a boy band-ish. We’re gonna release a couple of songs together,” shared he. “I know we have our own accomplishments in our lives here in the Philippines. We just thought that it would be nice to finally come together.”

As for other music genres he might try in the future, Kris, who is identified with R&B and soul, said, “I think I see myself going probably as far (as) pop because I think if I do something drastic like rock, parang hindi na magiging authentic… I’ll stick to my roots and my strength.”

Like all artists out there, Kris is always on the lookout for emerging platforms in connecting with fans and digital natives and showcasing his music.