Height Keech, Drew Scott, Ray Strife & Lt Headtrip Play Vans_Westly's "QUILLS RELEASE PARTY" On The Eve of Nelwayne & Scott-produced Quills EP (The Windup Space)

I was attending a wedding reception here in South Jersey at The Little Red Schoolhouse this past weekend with my fiancé, when I received a Tweet from @DrewciferScott tagging me in a previous Tweet from @Vans_Westly, which simply read: "Yo, I really want someone to review Quills." Westly was of course, referring to his latest Quills EP, which was completed and released just in time for his Quills Release Party this past Saturday, June 24th at Baltimore's The Windup Space with "special guests" Height Keech, Drew Scott, Raymond Strife, and Lt. Headtrip—nearly all of whom I've previously worked with and covered here at The Witzard. Drew Scott, who produced "Spring Sh*t" on Quills, road tested a few new tunes from his upcoming "weirdo Psych-Pop EP," which soon after The Windup Space show, he said "felt real sexy and pathetic;" in addition to Vans_Westly's Quills EP, Scott also released a long-in-the-works remix of headliner Height's "Amazing Spiral" from his recent album, MIND MOVES THE MOUNTAIN. Quills EP was entirely produced by fellow Baltimore-based Producer // Musician // Visual Artists Nelwayne (aside from Drew Scott's contribution) and vaguely reminds me of Stones Throw's early 2000's output, such as Quasimoto AKA Madlib's The Further Adventures of Lord Quas, DOOM & Madlib's MADVILLAINY, Jaylib's Champion Sound, and even J Dilla's magnum opus, Donuts. Drew Scott additionally lent his hand on the mixing/mastering end of Quills EP in post-production, as well


Long story, short... I spoke with Vans_Westly following our Saturday afternoon wedding reception, as well as throughout the weekend and he was kind enough to provide this statement on his Quills EP: "Well, I made the cover like six months ago in Hawaii, but only started working on the music about three months ago. I think I've found my rhythm with this EP and although I didn't come into it with a purpose, it became a weirdly personal project... I like [to] think, when referring to arrows in the [Quills] EP, it's actually internal or external struggles I face/see people face in my life. Although, that's probably me just being pretentious lol... I got diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder like the end of last year, so this whole year I been struggling with that and the effort it takes to try and make it work. The EP for me is kinda a weird reflection of all that." Vans_Westly additionally readily cited Morrissey, The Smiths, and "Dropout Bear" Kanye as his greatest sources of inspiration and influence while creating Quills EP. Quills is Vans_Westly's second project released on Bandcamp, after last year's Re​-​Reading Texts at 3am EP and third overall, if you count his 2013 DatPiff EP, Barefoot . In . Baltimore. Westly easily had one of the strongest verses, in my humble opinion, on fellow Baltimorean Drew Scott's recent album, ILL VESSEL, which can be heard on "Signals." Vans_Westly's 6-track Quills EP is currently available for an extremely reasonable "$4 USD or more" (Name-Your-Price) on his Bandcamp page.