Neil! What’s happening holmes!? Good morning—it’s another lovely day here in Los Angeles. How do you feel today? I feel great—just moved into a new space that has beautiful windows facing some nice palm trees. What’s LA like totally like breh? It’s definitely a blast living here—the weather, filth and drugs keep you feeling fresh. You’ve got style—how, how do you do that? I don’t know... It’s just what I do. How often have you been shooting? Pretty often, but I’ve been shifting into some more studio-based projects as of late. I was shooting like a madman last year, but I’ve slowed that down to concentrate on some camera-less stuff for the time being. What other worlds are you traveling to for these shoots? I go everywhere. How much of your process is visualized? Pretty much all of it, with the exception of incidental photography or whatever that’s called... You can’t always predict how things will go down on shoots, but the rest is pretty much mapped out. Basically, the idea comes to me and then I spend the rest of my time chasing it. I don’t source imagery when I put the covers together, so the process becomes a list of elements I need to shoot and/ or make in order to get the desired look. All of this is boring to talk about—but it is what it is. I see you frequenting frequencies all over the visible spectrum, why color? Why not color? I don’t know... What would you like your viewer to walk away having felt from your photography? I’ve never thought about it, so I don’t know how to answer that... I just make sure I’m happy with it. How do you feel about your work with photography? Lots of things, but mainly that it’s a work-in-progress. How about Pulp Art Book—I just know you and Joni Harbeck are cooking up an exquisite feast for our eyeballs—right? Thanks man. Yeah, we have fun doing/making those photographs. We’re working on the third and final volume at the moment. How is Joni BTW? She’s doing well—keeping busy. What’ve you got tucked away on the personal tip? There’s a list—too many things to mention, but I like to put out. Where’s the spaceship? Front lawn. Or—wait, wait—time machine? Same machine, same lawn. When treating Neil, what’s Neil treat himself with?
Just use your imagination... Does photography get you laid a grip or what? I think people find my talents attractive. What makes you smile? “Loving You Sometimes” by The Outcasts. Is it just me, or do I detect a lil’ lysergic acid diethylamide in your past? There have been some long sunny days in my life. What’s your position on drugs towards creativity? I don’t think they make a difference. What in the hell does “hell in a hand basket” even mean? I haven’t heard that expression since I left Kansas. Where is it you’re going? God only knows. ...We’re going? We’ll see... Are you doing what you love? I definitely am—I wouldn’t have it any other way. What’s next? My inbox. Any shout-outs? Hi Mom—I hope you’re not reading this...
Nosego! What’s good mayne!? Everything—life is absolutely amazing! How’s Philly? Lovely as usual. First things first, why the name? I used to just go by Nose, then I took the first two letters of my last name—Goodwin—and got Nosego. I feel as though the “go” is the best representation of the energy I bring to my work. When’d you start all this muraling/painting/ awesomeness? About five years ago or so, but its really picked up in the past two. Why do you do what you do? We all have a part to play in this world to help out, contribute and inspire—this is just my way of doing exactly that. Was it straight up graffiti at the start? Yep, a little bit. Art school? Yep, I attended an art high school and college—I graduated with a BFA in film though... Rituals towards new work? Good tea/coffee, great music and let it flow. How many name changes have you gone through? Just the one and that wasn’t much of a change, more of an addition to my name. Between the street and the gallery, which do you prefer? Both are wonderful places to be, but this year I’m looking forward to traveling more. That way I’ll be able to venture into uncharted territories and check out some new spaces. Does your street stuff ever get buffed? Yep, I think that’s the inevitable. Have you been selling at the galleries? Yes—it’s been amazing the opportunities I’ve been receiving! How’s that client work treatin’ ya?
Extremely awesome! I’ve been meeting some great people and creating fun projects. How much time do you spend sketching in a given week? Not too much... It’s usually straight to the canvas or object. Why color? I just love color! Why patterns? I think it adds personality to the work. Why animals? Because they’re rad—and a fun subject matter to paint at that. What are your rounded characters signifying in comparison to the animals typically accompanying them? That’s just the personalities that I go through or experience from others in character form. Combine all that and more and blaow—a cohesive Nosego extravaganza! But what does it all mean? Pure energy! What’s your spirit animal? I think a grizzly bear, but I’m not exactly sure. How much of your work is off the top? 95%. ...Sketched? 5%. What wouldn’t you do for money? A ton of stuff! Thoughts on dinosaurs? Amazing! Are you doing what you love? Absolutely! What’s next? A few great shows in LA with Thinkspace, a solo out in Newcastle, a solo in the hometown and some more work on the East and West Coasts. Any shout-outs? Yes! Mom, Dad, my lovely sisters, girlfriend Courtney and manager Amanda—some buddies—RJ Rushmore, Joe Boruchow, Chris RWK, Royce Bannon, Scott Albrecht, Thinkspace, Unit44, Paradigm Gallery, Mr Penfold, Evoke—and a ton of other rad people who know who they are!
Haunted Euth! How the hell are ya breh!? Good—just starting my day. It’s the Friday after Valentines and I just had a pop-up show last night at a record shop, so currently I’m all about having a cup of coffee and getting back to work in the studio. What are you like in real life? My work is a pretty solid peek into what you would be dealing with in a face-to-face conversation with me. I take liberties here and there with the work to exaggerate and expand upon the narratives... But the entire basis for it—the ideas and visuals—are directly inline with my personal experiences. I grew up on heavy metal, comic books and skateboarding—and it’s safe to say that my focus hasn’t really changed as I’ve aged. Why the name? I never wanted to be associated with my work as a tangible figure. I’ve always been mindful of artists who create a persona that separates the ordinary individual from the work they produce—it creates a sort of mythos in the eye of the viewer. I think that policy is really reinforced by the musicians I listened to as a kid—a lot of the liner notes and albums never actually showed the band. That’s so much cooler to me because it allows the imagination to wander... While at the same time, it’s also nice to be removed from the work because, frankly, how I look and who I am never needs to be known beyond the material itself. All the information is in the details of the artwork—if you take the time to look... Did you get your start with graffiti? I stayed with my father in Hollywood for a good portion of my life—and at the time CBS, MTA, CMH, RTL, TKO, KOG and LTS were just grilling it. Brail, Rask, Pysa, Slur, Esel, Deis, Fishe, Sloth, Yanoe, Tyer, Mute, Cisco, Smear and a whole slew of other amazing graffiti writers had completely covered the area from top to bottom. And because I spent all my time hanging out/skateboarding in the area, I couldn’t help but be influenced by what they were doing with spray paint. In no way, whatsoever, would I consider myself a graffiti artist—I haven’t put in the time or the dues—but feeling the energy and vitality of what those artists did was a definite point of influence for me. When did pasting come into play?
When I realized that I enjoyed making a visual impact on my environment, but that I preferred doing so with images that I’d labored over in a controlled setting. And what better way than grilling spots with my hand-screened flyers!? The freedom to press and print your own images in a large quantity and at a high quality while avoiding having to use a commercial offset press is awesome. In about five or six hours I can knock out around three hundred, two color, 24x36” posters and have them ready to go. It’s great because the material is ephemeral in nature—you might get a chance to see it, or you might not... How many years you been putting it down now? Art has been the main agenda for at least ten years now. Is LA a worthy adversary in combatting your campaigns? LA is my favorite city and it’s certainly an excellent challenge for the making and distribution of art. Typically, how long does you work run on the street? Exterior work doesn’t tend to last longer than six months at the longest and that’s including the murals. Are you an all about the spot type of guy, or just an all around grill-master? I suppose it depends on what the goal is you are looking to achieve... And that brings us to your outstanding installation/gallery work throughout the greater LA metropolitan area... How’s that being received? Honestly, I can’t say... It makes more sense to just mention the terrific opportunities I’ve been given that I’m extremely grateful for. Any main painting partners for that? I’ve been collaborating with the artist TFail recently on painting some large-scale locations and with working my long time art partner Smog City on a new form of animated video—both of which have been awesome. Have you been selling? I make a living doing this, it’s my one and only means of income—which is not to say I’m living well, but I am living. You’re killing on that clientele side of things too! What you got locked and loaded for that next paycheck? I only work with companies who I feel best represent the product/culture they are geared towards and I can relate to. I did some work with Arbor Collective on some skateboard and snowboard graphics. I’ve also busted out a few album covers for bands recently, because I love music and I’ve always viewed the vinyl record sleeve as the perfect canvas to display art. Who/what is Bewarewolf? Bewarewolf is a short film/music video for the band The Hampton Beats that I worked on with the artist Smog City. We created a hand drawn series
of illustrations that were then animated. The video tells the story of a individual who falls back into the space of his basic instincts: roaming the night, having one night stands, drinking, partying, doing excessive amounts of psychoactive substances and then devolving to the point of a animal—only to wake up the next day and start the process over again. I liked the video and project enough that I felt like creating a poster campaign to help it compete against all the movie posters I see frequently around LA. Where can I get a shirt or thirteen? The company Clean Aesthetic has a limited run/release of some of my shirt designs... But you can always get at me via hauntedeuth@gmail.com, http://hauntedeuth.com or my frequently updated Tumblr at http://hauntedeuth.tumblr.com for the really rare, limited or custom orders. There is a new t-shirt label coming into play that will be using a large catalog of my drawings, but that line won’t likely surface until ‘14. Will you ever stop? No. I’m steadfast in my decision—do it till death. Did I miss anything? Did you? Are you doing what you love? Yes. I’m as grateful as could be for the continued support of the friends, galleries and collectors that are helping me do so. What’s next? Big things... That’s all I can hint at.
Tibi Tibi! What’s cri-nackin’ cuddy!? Hello. How’s Toronto? Probably pretty cold—I’m in NYC at the moment. Did you do finger-painting as a child? Sure I did, but can’t recall any specifics. I do remember painting landscapes in kindergarten with those horrible stiff brushes schools always have, while wearing one of my father’s old button-up shirts backwards. Do you still have any of ‘em? My mother might... Has anything really changed since then? My work contains fewer butterflies. What message (if any) do you have for the kids? Study history. Is there anything you don’t do? Punctuality. How much thought goes into new work? Probably too much... Often, I’ll have a piece in mind for over a year before I produce it. Usually, I’ll have a pretty formed concept right away, but it takes a while to decide if it’s worth making and to find the time. What direction do you see your work headed in the future? I’d like to do more installations, or other projects on a more immersive scale. Have you eaten any of your toasts—and if so—how’d they taste? No, but my mother told me that growing up in Czechoslovakia, there was no gum so kids used to chew beeswax. It smells pretty sweet, but the kind I use is processed with bleach, so I’ll resist the temptation. You won the big race on your page (at least in the screen-cap)—how do you feel? Well, I won that heat. But the race itself was comprised of seven preliminary sprint heats, which determined the setup for the eighth and final race. What’s that even mean? The winner of each heat had a sculptural obstacle placed in their lane thereby creating a handicap for the following run. The objective was to create a level playing field for the final race, which ultimately determined the victor. The performance was staged twice—I won the first, Geoff the second. Who’s proud of you? Dunno. How would you describe yourself on a job interview? Always late, bored easily. If you found fifty bucks in the parking lot at work, what would you do? Pay off credit card. Have you ever patted yourself on the back?
Yes. How come you agreed to this? I’m vain and crave attention. You be making that cheddah? I get by. What’s Geoffrey up to? He shot a movie last summer and he’s editing it at the moment. When’s the last time you really cut-a-rug? December 9th, ‘12, Miami Beach. Where are you showing next? Doing another performance at the Art Gallery of Ontario in April, then working towards a solo show at Narwhal in Toronto in July. Actually, it’s four separate solo shows that I’ll be showing simultaneously in the same space. Who do I gotta kill to cop a pair of those “Vietnam Veterans Memorial Sweatpants”? They’re for sale! Is Neuspiel your real name? Yeah, it means “new game” in German. That’s awesome—who cares? You asked. Aren’t you afraid your work is going to offend someone somewhere somehow? I think taking offense is a pretty selfish reaction, but we all enjoy it sometimes—it makes us feel alive to get worked up about things. If someone were to tell me they were offended by my work, my honest reply would be, “You’re welcome.” Are you doing what you love? Yeah, I think art is an amazingly adaptable pursuit—one which allows you to follow your interests. What’s next? Tomorrow. Any shout-outs? Humanity!
Adam! Hey! What’s up man!? Yeah! How’s LA? Very good—trying very hard to avoid the all-pervasive traffic and survive this harsh Southern California winter. Since I moved to Los Angeles, I’ve lost all tolerance for cold weather. Growing up did anyone ever call you “Adam bomb”? Yes, it happened occasionally... I also got “Ferriss wheel” pretty regularly—I’ve never been overly fond of either. What are you up to today? Enjoying a slow weekend, drinking coffee and doing a little reading. How do you see the world in which we live? I used to make a lot of photographs, but recently I’ve been more and more invested in my computer screen. What is work? I’m the photography lab manager at an art school here in LA. I run the camera checkouts, darkrooms, digital lab and lighting studio. I have access to more cameras than I know what to do with. What is this we’re looking at here? These images are an implementation of a program originally written by Jeff Thompson (another artist I’ve been in correspondence with). Do you take the pics? I’ve taken Jeff’s Processing code and contorted a few variables. The color is generated either by a predetermined gradient or from Perlin noise. The actual process involves setting a number of seed pixels. The algorithm looks at the seeds neighbors: top, bottom, left, right and the diagonals in between those and swaps the pixels. Then each of the neighbors continually expand in the same fashion. I altered the code, so that it grabs neighbors that are further from the seed, rather than the nearest neighbors—I guess it all sounds a little strange and abstract describing it now. How much time goes into coding? I’ve been trying to get up to speed with a number of different things and since my background is in photography and not computer science or a related
topic, I have a lot of catching up to do. I’m much better at altering another artist’s code than at coming up with my own from scratch. For me reading, altering and playing with others work seems like the best path to learning and becoming a better programmer. ...The actual processing and image creation? Once I have a program I’m happy with, I generally like to spend a lot of time altering the variables, playing with different source images and colors. For the 500 Years Away series, I was able to emulate another artist’s idea with a different sorting algorithm. Once I had the program working, I ran the code over an over again, only altering one or two lines until I was happy with what it was spitting out and changing the numbers for each image. What do you feel upon completion? I have a hard time feeling like I’ve truly finished something—I really have to force myself to move on and start something new. How much of that coding is freestyled? Probably not very much and sometimes a lot. I still feel very much like I’m in an intense discovery phase and I often don’t know what I’m doing. I like to throw things like sine and radian functions in to see what will happen—it’s a lot of play really... I spend a lot of time trying to twist one range of numbers into another to produce unexpected results. Computers don’t real-
ly like this though and I get to see a lot of out of bounds errors from the compiler. I think I’m getting pretty good and making programs that don’t work. What got you going in this direction? I took a class while I was studying at MICA that introduced me to Processing. Sadly, it was one of the last classes I was enrolled in there—so most of my exploration since has been on my own. The going is slow, but there is a great community of people online to whom I ask questions when I’m stuck. After I graduated, I got a job at MICA working fifteen-hour Saturday shifts in the darkrooms there. Since people were scarce on the weekend and I had a lot of time to read, I got started in reading Learning Processing by Daniel Shiffman. Where do you see your work advancing? It certainly seems like the possibilities are limitless in the field of creative coding. It’s also a relatively new field, so I think there is still a lot of uncovered ground to work with. I’d like to work on more interactive projects and I’ve been thinking about buying a Kinect to make 3D scans. I’d like to learn some shading languages like GLSL and also get into openFrameworks to get better performance with 3D work. I haven’t figured out what I’ll do with these tools yet. I feel like the production of work will slow down significantly as I try
and figure all of this stuff out. Are you facing any limitations? My own knowledge of the subject matter feels like a pretty large obstacle. How are you going to smash those walls? A lot time reading and shaking my fist at the computer. Have you ever had milk come out of your nose? Never. Seems like it should have happened by now doesn’t it? Do the freaks come out at night? They most certainly do! But I never see them because during the weekdays I am a shut in. What inspires you? The pace of technological advance is really exciting to me. There are so many amazing projects being released every day, it’s hard to keep up! The limitless possibilities created by these new programming languages, algorithms and libraries is a great motivator. It’s one of those things where the more you know the more you realize you don’t. Right!? What do you do for fun? I am living out my middle school dreams and go surfing and skateboarding a couple times every week. I probably spend too much time at the beach. I have been out hiking around Malibu and Rancho Palos Verdes pretty regularly too. Baltimore or LA? Incomparably different... I love going back to Baltimore and sometimes I miss it a lot. I still have a lot of friends there and I love being able to walk around from place to place. There really aren’t seasons in LA, so sometimes it feels like this one long dreamy day where time never passes and the cars never move. The weather, scenery and culture are pretty great—all things considered. Are you doing what you love? I hope so! What’s next? I am trying to soak up all the knowledge and resources I can while working at an art school out here. Grad school is on the horizon for sure. Any shout-outs? I have to plug Jeff Thompson (http://www.jeffreythompson.org/) again, since I’m shamelessly making work using his code. Also my longtime friend Cam Floyd (http://www.camfloyd.com) has been ontinually churning out great illustration and music.
Oscar!! What’s going down dood!? Hey! Painting, painting, painting!!! How’s Santiago? Santiago is like an enlarged village—increasingly chaotic and highly segmented socially. There are beautiful places, but if you want to get to know them it takes very little time. I live in the periphery and it’s not very friendly—all too highly centralized, as in all of Chile. What’s your background in art? I studied graphic design and then started working with an advertising illustrator who initiated me into this. Later, I did a postgraduate in Art and New Technologies at the University of Chile. I then engaged in 2D animation for a few years, to finally return to illustration 100%. Have you always been on fire? I think so—it makes me sleep to work for others, so I do not sleep now. What out of this world stuff are you currently working on? I’m in too many things at once: concepts for a feature film, advertising pieces for festivals/customers and packaging illustrations for toys. How much direction is usually involved? I think a lot and work hard in advance, but the job will always be very demanding. When dealing with a lot of people it can get really nasty when they demand results—but I must say that I have really learned a lot in dealing with so many people. So now every time I need less direction—it’s increasingly in my hands. What’s your workflow looking like? It’s well defined, a straight line—almost boring. Does that differ between personal to professional gigs? Totally. Personal work is constantly experimenting—no rules, no process—it’s difficult to see concrete results. How much time is invested into each particular piece? It’s all relative, but I think they take too long! Designing a character can take half a day and the painting of the character can easily take a day or three. Where do you gather inspiration for your characters? People, including myself—anyone has potential—it’s just a little thing to watch. But I also admire many artists who develop characters as Hoisel, Denis Zilber, Michael Kutsche and Mark Fredrickson do, to name a few. What are your thoughts on Escher? I’ve always admired him. I’ve always imagined him as a very correct person—maybe? I’ve always felt a lot of honesty in his work. Escher was very innovative, hard-
working and perseverant. Actually, more than a creative—I see him as a builder, who moved a lot of stuff in his life. Are you a competitive person? I think so. I’m very demanding with others and myself. I’m a damn perfectionist and feel like that’s too bad... As they say, “Perfection is the enemy of good.” And that’s just because I do not feel good about one thing or another. My methods sometimes overwhelm me. I run out... It kills my expressiveness. How do you see math in the world? It may sound trite to say, but math is in everything. I do not have a very abstract mind, but I feel that my art is born of mathematics—the proportions I see all the time through measuring my surroundings. But physics is the sister of mathematics and I think both are the basis of form. Technology towards creation... Go! We are pure technology because tech is great. Whether a hammer or a computer, it does not matter... The important thing is to feel comfortable with the tool, because I love how it works, but without becoming a slave to it. They are only a medium and always can be discarded. Digital is fascinating, but also complex and complexity neutralizes our minds—we cannot afford that. What do you get down with in your free time? What free time!? [laughs] I love my family, but the job steals too much time from them. I spend all the time I can with my daughter and family. What is happiness to you? A kind of impossible—an elusive word—it makes me think of it as something distant. Better be happy and not think much about it. Sometimes you have to send some to hell—maybe it’s the thoughts of happiness that come first... Fast or slow? Slow. There is already too fast out there. Speed is for the world—to devour it. The slow is for one, for the interior. Why do you think your heart stops when you sneeze/ orgasm? I do not know. Micro-meditation? Micro-connection?
What makes the world such a beautiful place? Life. All life is incredible. If we look at the operation and evolution of things, we can discover the logic and coherence of the whole. Our ability to understand and marvel at evolution—the realization that we are all a part of an infinite and mysterious process—that could be happiness. I do not know if animals can talk about beauty, but we have a special power and that is to make distinctions—that is the “beauty” and “happiness”. Where do you see mankind headed in the future? I am confident that we will find consistency before we finish with the planet. We will become conscious and that means that we will be responsible. The biggest responsibility is the work of a parent. I think we should be our own parents. The great powers will fall. Must fall. ...Your art? Impact. I have the need to reach many people with what I do. Are you doing what you love? Yes, all the time I fight with myself for what I do, but I do not give up. I like it. What’s next? More personal work. Any shout-outs? Peace! And thanks!
Who are you? Th@ Kid. Where do you live? Burbank, California. What do you do? Drugs and rap. When did you start? Recorded my first mixtape when I was ten. How was your first show/ performance? It wasn’t my show, I did a verse for somebody else and it was hilarious. What would you like to gain from your work? Enjoyment and experience. What would you like your audience to gain from your work? That you can do whatever you want in this life and that you don’t have to look up to other humans—be your own idol. Who or what are your biggest influences? Life, my family, Marvin Gaye and Frank Sinatra. What keeps you up at night? Death. What’s next? Watch and find out.
Yo! DotKom: Yo! We back!! What’s Good? J Arthur: Just living and breathing. How’d you two link up? DK: I went to college with one of J’s high school friends (our mutual friend and now sound engineer, Adam “Switchmastah” Hooczko) and linked up with him when he used to come to hang out with us on campus. JA: I was doing my solo thing, but looked up to them as motivation to get better. I’ve always made a lot of beats and Dot always liked my stuff, so we decided to do an EP together. After that, we just formed into to the duo that we are today. Having known each other for a few years, what really sparked theWHOevers? JA: After everyone finished college, we all had the free time to do stuff and that’s when everything started occurring. I would do solo shows and invite Dot to come play in on them with me—that’s when we really started to connect. Who came up with the name and why? DK: We got the idea off of some old Ghostface Killah tracks... He would always speak his famous slang on albums and would always say, “It’s whatever, whatever.” at the end of his sentences. JA: We started using it in our daily conversations with the homies and would be like, “Yo! What we doing tonight?” and Dot would come with, “Oh—you know—it’s whatever, whatever.” Then one day, we joked on what if we went ahead and called the group “theWHOevers”. DK: It kinda just stuck after that. Does a two-man group help towards making new music? JA: We definitely have different styles... Dot’s the loud wild guy and I’m the cool soft-spoken dude. It brings a good balance in creating the music—yin and yang type stuff. ...Shows? JA: Shows are great! Shows bring out the live energy in the music and definitely help us connect and share our music with the people. Do you have different individual roles with theWHOevers? DK: Not really, we’re both very similar. We share many of the same ideas when it comes to music, but we’re different people we it comes down to presentation and style—that’s what makes this work. JA: Like I said, Dot’s the crazy guy and I’m the calm dude. [laughs] What direction is your music heading for in ‘13? JA: We love that boom bap hip-hop sound that everyone has us branded as, but with our newer material we’ve been breaking away from it a bit. It’s sorta like our comfort zone, but our sound and lyrics have definitely matured through our next project. DK: We don’t want to be put in a specific category of hip-hop music. We love music in general and are definitely looking to add new and exciting sounds to our future projects. What do you guys have on the solo tip? DK: We both have respective solo endeavors and projects. I’ve released two projects: Words of Wisdom and the Daydreamer EP with DJ Japandrew of Vertual Vertigo. Lots of influences on those two, but we’re definitely bringing that boom bap sound with positive and upbringing lyrics. JA: I dropped Out of the Blue on Valentines Day ’12, which was
produced by my good friend, Jack Flash. With that project, I tried to think outside the box to recreate all the R&B and soul music I grew up listening to. It was the first project where I introduced my vocal capabilities. Do you ever fight? DK: Not yet... [both laugh] How have the shows been going? DK: Shows have been great... With each show we’ve been building better stage presence and becoming more comfortable with ourselves as performers. JA: Keep ‘em coming! I want to play that Bird’s Nest venue in China soon. What else have you two got lined up? JA: Possibly an EP before our next album release—we’re looking at late spring ‘13. DK: We’ve definitely got a full year left to work. Some collabos are in the works and some great shows are on deck. Unfortunately, there’s not too much we can elaborate on right now, but look out for some dope shit coming soon! I noticed some fresh merchandise, where can I cop some? JA: We’re sold out at the moment, but we’re definitely looking into re-stocking for the summer! Has hip-hop always been a part of your lives? JA: Yes, I believe that hip-hop has and will always be a part of me. The culture will definitely live vibrantly throughout my life. DK: Hip-hop and music in general will forever be a staple with us. Our parents, aunts, uncles and even grandparents were musicians—it’s in our blood. How has Chicago helped define your style? JA: We love the city of Chicago, but it always catches rep for its unfortunate acts of violence. It rubs off on a lot of the youth, which is pretty devastating to see and hear about. Bringing our own message and remaining positive through our music will hopefully show people that Chicago is not merely defined by its violence. DK: That’s not to say that everything is always great and fantastic. As musicians, we see and understand that we can make a difference. If the youth look up to you, I think it’s important to shed a positive light— especially in the city of Chicago. JA: Overall, Chicago has helped us become aware and concerned about how we portray ourselves as musicians. We bring a positive energy to the city. What makes it all worthwhile? DK: Getting on stage and having people you don’t know reciting your lyrics and connecting to your music—it’s just one of the greatest feelings in the world. JA: To know that with one simple listen, something you put your heart and time into can have the power to connect you to another person for a lifetime—amazing stuff man.