Following from yesterday’s study advice from Fred V & Grafix, we check in with Rollz who’s managed to find time to share his revision skills with us during the final stage of his masters in physics!
“I actually hated physics at school! Or any academic subject for that matter,” he laughs. “But I took it at A-Level, enjoyed it more and ended up taking it at uni. I’m really not sure why, I guess I’m a bit of a geek really.”
Blessed are the geeks… And Rollz has found the hardcore academia of his physics actually helps with his music production in more ways than one.
“When you’re doing something like music you have to be very creative and that’s not possible all the time, writing music every single day,” he explains. “It’s really nice to do something else that’s unrelated. There’s so much to learn and so many other things you can learn and do with your time, I wanted to stretch my mind a bit. Also, you can relate physics to everything. It helps with the technical side of music; engineering and mixdowns especially. I sometimes think about music in terms of numbers, like chord progressions. You can work stuff out without feeling it.”
Numbers: the backbone for absolutely everything in life. But this still doesn’t quite answer why Rollz picked physics over other sciences or subjects. Just in case you’re currently hating on physics in school right now – and don’t worry, a lot of us did – Rollz has shed some light on how the subject develops as you take it to the next level.
“It all comes down to how it’s taught,” he says. “It’s unfortunate that schools just focus on ladders on walls and balls rolling down hills, it’s all pretty uninspiring. As you go in to a bit more, you realise how vast and interesting physics is. I’ve had some lectures on the mass of time! It’s really far out, weird stuff – a lot of it sounds like science fiction, the maths of it blows my mind. I’m sounding a bit geeky but it’s great!”
Rollz secrets to studying success:
“It definitely comes down to hard work. I’m not naturally gifted at science or maths or music but I’ve been doing them for so long, every single day that I’ve learnt it. I have to force myself to go to the library. If I stay at home then I just end up writing music. I have to motivate myself. It’s just putting the time in. Make yourself go somewhere to study, but don’t beat yourself up if you don’t spend the entire day. It’s just about getting yourself into that environment. I actually use my ear plugs in the library. I get distracted very easily so they help force me into concentration. They’re expensive things so I gotta get my money’s worth. Don’t over do it. Do it in chunks. It’s not beneficial to stay up all night. And finally, nerves are good! They show you care about what you’re doing!”
“Always remember the grass always looks greener – when I started uni I was always thinking ‘ah man I wish I out there doing a job and earning some proper money’, but if you were doing that job you’d be wishing you’d studied more and got an even better job. It’s a very healthy thing to do – much better than a job you don’t want to do. Everyone is different, of course, but that’s how I’ve felt it. I went to uni when I was 20. You only really know what you want to do once you’ve tried a few things. Work out what direction you want to do. Don’t just go into it if you feel pushed or forced.”
Rollz is performing on our very special 200th live broadcast for D&BTV on June 6. Look out for a new EP coming soon on Pilot Records and check out his previous work right here.