[@CurlyHaris]: Describe 2021 so far for me!

[@Jetski_Wavez]: To be honest, after everything that happened in 2020, it feels a bit offset from everything else if that makes sense, the days just fly by without me even noticing. That being said, I can't even compare it with everything that happens last year, so in a way, I'm glad this year's been a little more toned down for now.

[@CurlyHaris]: I'm glad to hear! Last year was horrendous for a number of reasons, and one of thosе reasons was you leaving Genius, what did you miss most in your absеnce?

[@Jetski_Wavez]: I missed the community a lot — it's weird as well because I didn't even realize how much I missed being a part of this community until I came back and got back into the swing of things. even when I was gone, I always had the community in the back of my mind and wanted to find time to come back, and it's been amazing since I've been back.

[@CurlyHaris]: It's safe to say I speak for everyone when I say we're all delighted to have you back amongst the ranks. I hope you don't mind me saying, but when I was planning a UK community revival, many people were quick to point me in the direction of your initiatives and previous actions, so having the opportunity to work alongside you in all this brings more power to the community, what inspired you to build a UK presence on Genius?

[@Jetski_Wavez]: It's all good! when I first joined Genius, I mainly annotated US music, but when my habits began to shift towards UK music, I noticed that UK music is heavily slept on among the site, especially the forums. I did some digging in Genius UK's forum, and found out that Genius UK was a pretty strong force a while ago, so I wanted to bring it back to its former glory, especially with the work that Genius UK users have been putting in, and I'm really glad to revive it working alongside you!

[@CurlyHaris]: Whilst we're on the subject of what Genius UK was like in the past, I want to put a focus on Genius as a whole; what are some obvious differences between Genius when you left and your return? As we know, a lot can change in a year!

[@Jetski_Wavez]: All the editors I mentored are all in the tens and hundreds of thousands of IQ haha—but for real, I think the quality at every corner of this site has only gotten better—from artist verification to annotations, everyone's been working super hard and it's been super great to see. There's this new Discord to replace the old Slack, and the Getting Involved with Genius project which has become huge since I came back, now there are pages on everything and anything you could ask about a Genius user.

[@CurlyHaris]: All excellent points! I can only imagine the nostalgia you must feel in seeing your mentees flourish on the site! It's only just dawned on me that I haven't given you a chance to tell the people reading who you are! Do you want to give us some insight into who you are, and what people should know?

[@Jetski_Wavez]: For sure! I'm Jetski_Wavez, but most people shorten it to Jetski. I've been on the site for a few years now, and I pretty much do a lot of stuff—I annotate, transcribe, troubleshoot, little things all dotted around the site to help out behind the scenes. I'm a big sports fan, a diehard follower of the 76ers and Tottenham Hotspur, and I get down to playing the piano in my free time. I just love music!

[@CurlyHaris]: I couldn't have said it any better! Now very quickly, you mentioned your own mentees, but who did you see as your role model on the site in your own Genius journey. I see huge names in your old activity, such as @MERLYN and @Tossing_Dice, but who else comes to mind?!

[@Jetski_Wavez]: Definitely a huge shout out to those two, both super hard workers on the site—I'd point to @UnBalanced as one role model, he was the literal embodiment of Genius UK, regularly writing articles for Genius about UK artists and working on homegrown artists from across the genre spectrum, he was a big role model for me. Also, @JJEvans—he does so much for the site behind the scenes, and it's been remarkable to see all the stuff he's been doing that sometimes goes unnoticed. I think that in a way, I take inspiration from all sorts of users I see on the site since there's always room for improvement, whether it's structuring an annotation, mentoring a user or something else—but when it came to a solid role model, I would have to go for @UnBalanced or @JJEvans.

[@CurlyHaris]: All honourable mentions, and names you easily belong in the company of! What's in the pipeline for you on Genius, as I’m sure you're eager to follow in the footsteps of what we've achieved so far?!
[@Jetski_Wavez]: All sorts of things! There's reviving Genius UK with you while we lead the resurgence, and I've got a bunch of clean-ups in mind lined up for the future. Clearing out the backlog in the Artist Verification and Abuse Reports forums is part of my plans too, as well as reaching out to UK artists to get them verified and writing for Genius too, and adding all types of music to the site, and annotating them to be as high quality as possible!

[@CurlyHaris]: I for one am very excited for the year ahead! It's sad to see the departure of legendary members of the community, so to see a well-respected user and one as dedicated as yourself returning is always a welcome success story - not only for the UK but for the rest of the site! What do you make of the latest effort of reviving the Genius community as a whole?

[@Jetski_Wavez]: I think it's been coming along really well; I understand that we took a lot of hits, but that's the best thing about this community — we always work together to surge back up to what we once were, and it's coming along so well. There's this new Discord which is the central hub, there's the countless number of projects running to slowly but steadily revive the community, there's a whole lot of stuff, and it couldn't have been done without the dedication of users, from contributors all up to staff, to make it happens, so big props to everyone for that.

[@CurlyHaris]: I agree! We always find a way to bounce back, and it's great to see the resilience of the community, which you are absolutely right to focus on! Another thing I want to touch on is your life outside of Genius, and you mentioned some things like Basketball, what else do you get up to in your downtime?

[@Jetski_Wavez]: Last year I got into teaching myself piano with a combo of the piano method books I have and YouTube, it's pretty therapeutic. After a long day, I can sit down at a piano and just play — I really admire musicians that can play multiple instruments, and hopefully one day I can reach that calibre, I want to tackle all sorts of instruments, but the piano is a good start in my opinion. I also arrange some music scores too.

That's whenever I'm not doing schoolwork — outside of that, I write Medium publications whenever I can, mainly sports, but I've touched on other topics too—that leads on to another hobby I have, running a basketball Instagram account. It's a great platform since you can see a thousand people's opinions in a few scrolls. And finally, I play a lot of old video games — no hate towards the games of this generation, but revisiting my childhood in playing games like The Legend of Zelda brings an amazing feeling, and I wouldn't trade that for anything

[@CurlyHaris]: By the sounds of it, you have a good disconnect from the world around you, and in a period where occupying our time is incredibly important, it's good to have this sort of outlet. I hope you get to where you want to be with music as it opens the door to so many opportunities. What’s your favourite song that you've learned so far?

[@Jetski_Wavez]: There's nothing super impressive — it's a fairly simple piece if you have some piano experience, but Ludwig Schytte's Etude is my favourite simply because it helps with a range of piano techniques. Somewhere between that piece and the end of the piano method book, I'll become seasoned enough to play Für Elise, which I'm looking forward to, but until then, Etude's practicality makes it my favourite.

[@CurlyHaris]: For my final question Jetski, I want to ask whether you have any final thoughts or advice for future generations of Genius to take away from this interview?

[@Jetski_Wavez]: Whatever projects you guys in the future do on the site, put 110% into it — it's satisfying, it pays off, and it helps out all over the site. Keep up with the community too, it's really worth it, and you might learn a new thing or two from your time on Genius!