Dublin based artist, The Mefisto, known also by his Instagram username, youngmeffy, has been making rounds on Trinity student’s Instagram and Tiktok feeds recently. With some of his Instagram reels reaching over seventy thousand views, you might recognise his highly saturated, brightly coloured setup, in which his hard-hitting, ‘rap and roll’ genre is at the forefront. Between spitting bars and playing guitar, the Mefisto, whose real name is Nian Dravidan, is a final year computer science student here at Trinity. I met with him to talk about influences, how he started making music and most importantly, what is next for the Mefisto himself.
The Mefisto is not a singular identity, Dravidan tells me, as his artistry consists of three alter egos; The Mefisto, Young Meffy and the Maverick . Each alter-ego has a separate personality, different quirks, and an alternating colour when creating content for his social media. “The Mefisto is the main character, he has more of a philosophical and really, an introspective kind of vibe. He’s … nonchalant, and he doesn’t talk much, keeps to himself. He’s thinking and philosophising all the time, you know, thinking about chaos.” Dravidan mentions that he was inspired to create the Mefisto based on characters like the Joker from Dark Knight, and Loki, as well as characters that are similar to them. His second alter ego, Young Meffy, is more of a modern, “contemporary type of guy, and he’s into rap and like, street-style, and rock’n’roll. He’s open and vocal about his stuff. He’s humorous, which the Mefisto is not.” Each character applies to a different aspect of Dravidan’s personality, “Young Meffy is more of a people person, that’s me, like socialising when I’m in pubs. When I’m studying on my own, however, that’s the Mefisto.” The third alter-ego within this ‘Trinifesto’ is the Maverick, inspired by Dravidan’s past as an athlete, “I used to play tennis and all that, so I really have the kind of, athletic, sportsmanship mindset. The Maverick embodies just, a simple man, who goes to work, who goes to the gym everyday. A man that has that discipline. That’s the Maverick.”
The three alter-egos of Dravidan are so nuanced, “[at the start] I was only going to go with Young Meffy and the Mefisto. But I was looking into a lot of characters because I want to create the Mefisto-verse, which is kind of a universe unto itself. It’s like my own universe, my own personality through all these characters. By quantising [my personality] and dividing up parts of myself, [it helped me] understand myself better through each character. That’s how I made them up.” Dravidan also emphasises the difference between the characters with his changing video set up, “Each character has a different colour scheme, pertaining to their alter-ego. I set up the room so it reflects their personality, and every time I make a new video, I switch the angle to get a different vibe, each wall of my room is a different alter ego.” The significance of an engaging social media persona is known to the Mefisto, “the lighting is important, it really immerses you. The red lights will give you more of a dingy vibe, whereas blue makes it more lively. When I first started doing it, I didn’t realise how it was going to look on Instagram, because I was doing it separately. But I feel Instagram is such an innovative thing, where you can click each reel and it sends you to a different type of music, so you can pick what you want [to see.]”
When asked about how he started with music, Dravidan mentioned his experience as a first year college student during COVID, “It started in Trinity Halls. We were here when COVID hit, and first year was really tough for me, doing computer science. I had never played music before I came to Ireland, which is the astonishing part.” Dravidan started playing music after he failed first year and went off books. “So, I picked up an acoustic guitar, the song that inspired me to start was Wish You Were Here, by Pink Floyd. I wanted to be a rock’n’roll guy, and then over time, I had always listened to hip-hop so it started evolving from rock’n’roll to rap’n’roll. I started rapping and doing this stuff separately, on my own.” Dravidan then recorded and released his first song, Desire, on October 17th, 2023. His second single, Lucy State of Mind, was released late last year.
Dravidan’s musicality is inspired by multiple different musicians, “for rock’n’roll, it would be Jimmy Page, the lead guitarist in Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, David Gilmour. That kind of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin sound, definitely.” When honing in on the rap element of his music, he mentions, “Travis Scott, I really love him. And all the classics, obviously, Tupac, Eminem. But I also listen to a lot of underground, independent artists. I feel these days, you have to support independent artists.”
What is next for the Mefisto? He mentions an EP is on the way but release dates are currently unconfirmed, ‘It’s my final year in college, and it’s just so hectic. It’s such a bittersweet time for me, because I want to enjoy the last three months, even though I’m going to miss it. I don’t have release dates yet, but the music is all recorded, ready to be released and I have all the material ready.”
With talks of another release, watch this space.
