Episode 1: Reflections on Artists 1-5 || Noah B Interview

Welcome to Episode 001 of The Artidex Podcast.

The Artidex is a multimedia archive dedicated to documenting artists through signed Polaroid portraiture, long form conversations, and short films. Inspired by the idea of collecting artists like rare trading cards, every featured artist becomes a numbered ENTRY housed within a growing physical binder archive, a tangible collection designed to preserve not only creative work, but the people behind it.

In this first episode, we explore the origins of The Artidex by taking a closer look at Entries 001–005, discussing each artist, their work, and how the archive first began to take shape.

The episode also features an in-depth conversation with our co-Host, artist and producer Noah B, exploring his journey into music, the evolution of his sound, his creative philosophy, and the experiences that have shaped him as both an artist and collaborator.

As the archive has grown, so has its mission. What began as a photography project has evolved into The Artidex Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving contemporary creative culture while supporting artists through grants, sponsorships, and other initiatives that help sustain artistic work over time.

Whether you're interested in the artists themselves, the creative process, or the stories that shape creative identity, Episode 001 serves as an introduction to both the archive and the larger vision behind it.

Featured Artists

• Rachel Lynch (@ihateblonde)
https://ihateblonde.com

• Amber Strickland (@amby.strickland/@weepling)
https://weepling.com

• Mira Mariah (@girlknewyork)
https://studioknewyork.com

• Will Crooks (@willcrooksphoto)
https://willcrooksphoto.com

Thank you for supporting The Artidex.

Collecting • Preserving • Supporting

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Now, is it corny if like if I'm like I'm Gina and you do I'm Noah and then we both say and you're listening to the Art of Dex podcast at the same time? Is that corny?

SPEAKER_03 0:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 0:12

Um I feel like Okay, what should we say?

SPEAKER_03 0:16

Um instead of like simultaneously saying it, we can just you can just like call it kind of alternate. Yeah, yeah, and you can just say Oh, I see what you're saying.

SPEAKER_04 0:33

Okay, we could always change it up.

SPEAKER_03 0:34

You can just say, yeah, you can just say like I'm Gina, I'm Noah, and then you can just say like and you're listening to the Artidex podcast. Yeah, that's fine.

SPEAKER_04 0:39

Okay, all right. So I'm Gina.

SPEAKER_03 0:42

And I'm Noah.

SPEAKER_04 0:43

And you're listening to the Artidex podcast. Welcome.

SPEAKER_03 0:46

Welcome.

SPEAKER_04 0:47

All right, man. Let's jump right in. That was pretty good. That was pretty good, right? It felt it felt legit.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Yeah, it felt natural.

SPEAKER_04 0:53

Um oh, so what do you want to talk about first? Should we talk about my weird morning?

SPEAKER_03 0:59

Yeah, yeah. Let's uh let's jump into that because I feel like it's a it will segue cleanly into everything else that we're gonna talk about.

SPEAKER_04 1:06

So how's my overall aura right now? Is it chill?

SPEAKER_03 1:10

Yeah, it's kind of it definitely is chill.

SPEAKER_04 1:12

It's joyful, but it's chill.

SPEAKER_03 1:14

Yeah, joyful but chill.

SPEAKER_04 1:16

I feel like I'm in basically almost like a meditative state. We basically meditated.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:21

So I'm talking about I I got a psychic reading this morning from my a friend of a friend. Her name is Jill Fogle. That's the psychic's name. Um, and I've just been really uh enjoying speaking with her. And just I feel like you and I have talked maybe just a little bit in general about like spirituality and all of those things. But what are let's start with like what's your perspective on all of that? Things like tarot, psychic readings, like what is your how do you feel about them and what's your impression of the way it works, or what is there any utility? Is it bogus?

SPEAKER_03 1:57

So I've never personally had an experience with any of those things. Um, but I know people who have practiced tarot and like done readings and things like that, and like palm reading and like all that type of stuff. Um, I think it's extremely powerful. Um I I can't speak to like the validity of any of it because I haven't personally experienced it, but from what I've seen, it's incredibly powerful. It's been around for thousands of years, and there has to be something to it. Um I think I'm also somebody who and I think we've talked about this before with um with astrology and horoscopes, is that I worry that if I engage in those things, that it will like subconsciously steer me in a certain direction. And maybe that's just my own like feelings on it, and that's not actually what would happen. Um, but I do I do feel I do feel strongly about that. And I think that alone speaks to the fact that you know, I believe that it's powerful and that yeah, there's something to it and it has an effect on people. Yeah, regardless of like the nature of that effect, I definitely feel like it's something um that uh that can really have a strong pull on people.

SPEAKER_04 3:16

Yeah, I feel like um in general, just my overall view of things that are abstract or spiritual or just like not based in reality is is just kind of a very general openness because I I I can tell you some things that I believe are certain.

SPEAKER_05 3:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:34

One is that not everything that exists is meant to be comprehended by the bounds of the human cerebral cortex, and that was actually articulated first by Neil deGrasse Tyson. So shout out to him, and I completely agree with that sentiment.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

Yeah, well said.

SPEAKER_04 3:49

Two animals, uh, you know, many different types of animals have different um limits to their senses. Humans are extremely limited in our ability to sense or perceive things.

SPEAKER_05 4:04

Right.

SPEAKER_04 4:04

Um, we have you know five senses, and I can tell you right now, they suck because both of you and I are wearing glasses to be able to see four feet in front of us right now.

SPEAKER_05 4:14

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:14

Um, and and I can I can barely hear things. Sometimes I'm like, what? Repeat your shot. You know, I can't, you know, our senses suck.

SPEAKER_05 4:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:22

Meanwhile, a hawk can see like three miles in the distance, and like a horse can like feel the rain before it comes.

SPEAKER_05 4:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:28

So there are there are things that can be sensed or perceived that humans are not able, they don't have the capacity physiologically to sense or perceive accurately.

SPEAKER_03 4:38

Yeah, I can definitely agree with that 100%.

SPEAKER_04 4:40

But maybe there are some humans that can access certain things that maybe not all of us can, right? Like there's like virtuosos, there's like child prodigies that somehow are like three and can play Mozart flawlessly. You can't really explain that super well. Um, so it's it's very possible that there are people that have inclinations or like natural abilities or gifts. And I could see maybe that being one of them.

SPEAKER_03 5:04

Yeah, I absolutely think there's people who are like tapping into something uh that maybe other people like don't have access to or like are not attuned to. For sure. Um, and I I think you see that across like everything because even like in you know what we do like creatively and things like that, there's definitely like a lot, and especially with the Artidex project, you know, all these artists that you've um spotlighted in in their own way, they kind of are each attuned to something, you know, creatively um that I feel like maybe other people are not on that same wavelength. You know, it's yeah, it's pretty fascinating.

SPEAKER_04 5:45

Channeling some you know artistic entity and then just like manifesting it externally. Um and third, thirdly, something I know objectively to be true is that the more you think you know, the less you realize you know.

SPEAKER_05 5:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:59

Um, I can tell that, tell you I felt dumber and dumber the further and deeper I went into my medical training. And like you would think that would be the opposite, but it really just shows you, and it really it profoundly humbles you, and it shows you how much you don't know. So I'm like completely open to the concept that there are things that I don't know or understand, and I don't know how they work, and I might not ever be able to know how they work. But um, but in general, like tarot psychic readings, I almost look at it like a Rorschach.

SPEAKER_05 6:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 6:28

And so I kind of agree with you, is there is a subconscious and conscious simultaneous influence of like doing and engaging in those activities, like reading your horoscope. It sounds like you don't really want to be steered. I want, I'm looking to be, I'm looking to be guided. I'm looking for that like refinement. And and I do find that it's like it almost makes you find things for yourself. Because like if it tells you X, Y, Z, and you're like, well, X is true, and Y and Z are not, that's you consciously like refining your own understanding of the subject.

SPEAKER_05 7:04

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_04 7:05

Um, so it has that kind of use, and it's just it's very interesting to play with. But uh, she's super cool and had me doing all of these things like outside of my comfort zone, like, and and as a physician, right? I have to get like completely outside of my head because she's doing like chakras and like body work and all this like eastern medicine stuff. And I'm just like, I'm gonna go with the flow. Yeah, like there's value to there's value to everything, and there's value to like concentrating on like the sensations in your body, it's a very meditative and peaceful, yeah, uh peaceful thing to do. So um, so if I'm if I'm feeling zen or seeming zen.

SPEAKER_03 7:39

Well, I think even just the fact that you're open to something like that is really cool because and and maybe this is just my like limited understanding of like doctors and like people who um who work in like science and things like that is yeah, is that there's very much um like a groundedness to all of it, and it's grounded in like physical reality and like things that we see and know and can like ascertain from like looking at the body or looking inside the body or various things like that. Um, whereas like this whole other side of things is uh like you said, you know, it's more so dealing with like things that are unseen and unknowable. Um, so the fact that like you as somebody who is like you know rooted in medicine, but also is like willing to explore these these other things, um, it's pretty cool, you know. And I I feel like maybe that's something that you don't see very often.

SPEAKER_04 8:34

Yeah, I I I hope to spread that like sort of um sentiment far and wide within my field because I see everything as like just a tool I can add to my toolbox. Yeah, it's important to know when to use them, you know. Um, and and I think a lot of Eastern medicine can and should be used as adjunctive therapy to a lot of Western medicine. Um, and you know, people have very strong opinions about those things. And what I will say is everyone has autonomy, everyone can make decisions for their body. I'll recommend what I think is you know safest and most medically sound or research based. But ultimately, you know, people are gonna do what they want to do. But um, but yeah, I see I see all of those like Eastern modalities as just like adjunctive therapies that should be used alongside you know, Western therapy. Otherwise, you're just like limiting the things that you can offer your patients, right? Like I want to be able to give you like ABCDE instead of as options for you to treat you. Yeah. Oh my god, I forgot to put the cats away.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

That's fine. We'll have some friends through this.

SPEAKER_04 9:37

This is just gonna be part right now. Um, I want to give you multiple choices as opposed to just like limiting the things that I know about like offering you.

SPEAKER_05 9:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:47

Um, and also people are doing that on their own. So if I don't teach myself what people are interested in or like what they're doing, like for example, I don't know who's talking about this. I don't know if it's Rogan. I don't I don't know who it is. Someone on the internet is talking about using beetroot powder interesting for hypertension.

SPEAKER_03 10:07

I feel like I've heard whispers of this in various things.

SPEAKER_04 10:10

Yeah, so a lot of my patients are coming in on like beetroot capsules, and and um and I did research it, and I think, you know, my knowledge is limited, of course, but there's some some degree of efficacy to it. I think the concentration that you have to take is like quite impressive to actually get a meaningful effect, and the effect, like the amount to which it can affect your blood pressure is like maybe five to ten millimeters of mercury. So, like let's say your blood pressure is 180, it only has the capacity to take you down to like 170.

SPEAKER_05 10:40

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:41

And so while that is it's lowering your blood pressure, it is. It may not be enough for people who are like really that high. Right, right. If you're like 130, 120 is actually much better. Yeah, so like it depends on where you're at. So these things are so nuanced, but people maybe don't know that. So so I'm trying to educate myself as somebody who like you know is working with humans who are on the internet.

SPEAKER_03 11:04

Yeah, no, that's I think that actually that's an interesting thing too that we could get into is just like the fact that you know, you as somebody who's practicing medicine have to uh you know contend with people who have access to the internet and therefore, you know, find all sorts of you know at-home remedies or think they know things, yeah. And you kind of have to um be able to meet them at their level.

SPEAKER_04 11:32

Absolutely, and very, very gently and respectfully try to guide them in in you know what I what I think medically as their doctor is is the safest direction, right?

SPEAKER_03 11:44

Um and how else can you do that by you know, without knowing what these people are getting into?

SPEAKER_04 11:49

Exactly, or being yeah, being familiar with it. So anyway, that was a really long segue.

SPEAKER_03 11:53

Um but the reading that you had, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:56

But the reading, yeah, the reading was really, really cool. I mean, um, you know, I had like kind of a crazy weekend. And she went, she went into some like past life stuff, and you know, kind of saying that maybe it had something to do with that, which is always very interesting. Um, it makes like the emotional weight of things that might feel like disproportionate, it almost um validates or affirms them, even if it's like just a concept, okay. It like makes it feel lighter to carry around in a really weird way.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

So interesting.

SPEAKER_04 12:27

It's all like exercises of the mind and things like that. But um, and it's a really fun story. So that's it's honestly just like objectively very fun. Yeah, absolutely to think about. But but yeah, it was it was really cool. Um, I had had a had a good time. What's new with you? Anything?

SPEAKER_03 12:46

You know, your shirt, your shirt's really cool. Oh, thank you. Yeah, this is uh a good MC Escher 1991. Um, I picked this one up recently, and I've been like picking up a lot more cool tees. Um, I think I was like in the beginning, I was probably more of like a jacket person of my uh my my vintage clothing journey, but uh now I'm like falling in line with everybody else and uh and getting into t-shirt craze.

SPEAKER_04 13:12

For those of you who don't know, Noah has a vintage archive. I don't even know.

SPEAKER_03 13:18

Yes, is it an archive? You you introduce it for people who don't know because most people you know know me as a music producer, a DJ, a graphic designer. Um but uh I around a year ago, I I got a lot more into vintage clothes and stuff, and uh I started a business. Um, so I sell vintage clothes under the name Arc.hive. Um yeah, which the name comes from uh my first name, Noah, you know, Noah's Ark. And the Hive is related to my the first initial of my last name, which is B, like a bumblebee, but also the Hive is sort of like representative of like the collective um of people and the network of people that you build through things like this.

SPEAKER_04 14:01

So such a good name.

SPEAKER_03 14:03

Yeah, it's it's one of those that just like came to me, and I was like, that's isn't it so gratifying when you think of a name for something you didn't use Chat GPT for? Yeah, mine is mine was I'm like, mine is better.

SPEAKER_04 14:13

I'm like, I don't think this is better.

SPEAKER_03 14:15

Yes, it's true, very satisfying.

SPEAKER_04 14:17

Yeah, that's really cool.

SPEAKER_03 14:19

Yeah, so there's gonna be a lot more uh with that, and uh you know, I have been meaning to have a conversation with you about it outside of all this too, because I have some ideas of the direction I want to go with it and things like that that I think you'll be excited about and that you can kind of um you know help me with my own.

SPEAKER_04 14:36

I can't wait to hear that sounds sick, yeah. Um, but yeah, so so archives on eBay, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:41

eBay, uh Depop, Instagram, you know, the huge coming, yeah, coming to Depop or live on Depop. Coming coming to Depop and uh live in person soon. I think uh there'll be an opportunity to start doing some events and some pop-ups and stuff like that. Just trying to like get my inventory to where I want it to be. Nice and uh have have cool stuff for the people, you know. I think it's gonna be like a a fun curation of stuff that I feel like represents me and the things that I'm interested in. Um so I'm trying to like niche down a little bit and get like cool, interesting like music tees and and just stuff that I feel is culturally relevant to me and not necessarily just like what is the most popular things out there, but stuff that like resonates with me.

SPEAKER_04 15:25

Yeah, I have a strong belief in that. Like if something really like you know resonates with you, you're gonna attract the right people and and so forth. And like we were even talking about like me, you and Kate, like we're all so similar, yeah. And it's and it's interesting because we're like connected through your music, which like came from your mind, but like the frequency of like the music or like the actual physical waves must be like scratching a part of like my brain that like made made it resonate. And I'm like, you know, um, and it's so interesting because music is really powerful for that and it like connects people, but um, yeah, really interesting, like how how everything is sort of interconnected.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_04 16:02

Uh all right, do you should we talk about one through five? Yeah, one through five. I'm gonna I'm gonna get the binder out.

SPEAKER_03 16:08

Yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 16:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 16:10

Yeah, it's crazy to think you're already at 11 now, right?

SPEAKER_04 16:13

Yeah, next one's 12.

SPEAKER_03 16:15

It's pretty wild.

SPEAKER_04 16:16

Yep, and I think I, you know, I never like to jinx these things. Getting people to commit's hard, but I think I'm doing 12 pretty soon in like a week or so. That's awesome. So I'm pretty excited. Um, but yeah, I don't know. So do you want to just we'll talk about how I know the people, I guess?

SPEAKER_03 16:34

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 16:36

Or like why I chose them for certain things.

SPEAKER_03 16:38

Yeah, definitely. I'll hand it to you. Definitely why you chose them, I think, is is super important too, because uh, you know, there's there's already so much diversity in the kind of art that and I think it would be very easy to just lock in and only do musicians or only do you know one type. But I think what you've already shown through the people that you've covered is that just that art comes in so many different forms, you know what I mean? And it's like um, you know, even like with number one, um, with I Hate Blonde, you know, after after seeing that one, I was kind of talking to you about that. And I was like, this is somebody who's like essentially whose life is like performance art. Yes, you know what I mean? Like her life is art. Um, and I think that's that's a cool representation of that. And there's so many different um ways that creativity and art is being expressed through these projects. Um, so I think that's a cool part of it too, is just that people are seeing like the many different ways that art takes shape and like manifests itself through people.

SPEAKER_04 17:40

Yeah, I so entry number one, Rachel, aka I hate blonde. I've known for like well over 10 years, I think at this point. Um, I I don't 100% remember exactly how I found her. Um, she was a a blogger um at the time. I mean, she still is a blogger.

SPEAKER_05 17:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:58

But at the time when I was discovering her, I was discovering her as a blogger and a writer. Um, she had an Instagram. She's also just like incredible at styling herself, just really like gifted at putting outfits together. Yeah, I would see like something she would post and how she like composed an outfit and the things that she would put together, I would have never thought to put together. And it would just like blow my mind wide open.

SPEAKER_03 18:22

Some people are so good at that.

SPEAKER_04 18:24

Oh man, um, I'm like I'd be like, wow, I can't believe like I never thought to wear that with that. Like, that's so clever. Like, I can't wait to do some type of interpretation of that. So super, super inspiring. And then um, when I was doing uh PR for that UK clothing company, Long Clothing.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:41

Um, and like Boy London New Future, they're all the same people doing those three brands. I reached out to her and I sent her clothes to shoot in. And that was actually how I made a lot of like really early friendships. Um, did I send you stuff? I feel like I did. Did I ever send you anything? No, no? Okay, so maybe it came that might have been a little earlier than you.

SPEAKER_05 18:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:00

Um, but yeah, Rachel is. I'm actually gonna, for the actual episode, plug in a voice note that she left me because it illustrates the kind of person she is. It's just like the cutest little voice note she left me, and I feel like it just shows who she is as a person. So we can plug that in like right here.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

Hi, love. Just dropping in to say that I really like the video you posted. I actually watched it a couple times because I thought it was so cool, and the transition was really cool. So congratulations on that swag. And I feel like that just really illustrates just the vibe of her.

SPEAKER_04 19:40

Yeah. And I think um you were talking about how different everybody is, but for me, there is some, there are some similar threads that kind of are woven through everyone, and it's it's how complex everyone is.

SPEAKER_05 19:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:55

So how complex everyone is outside of their art and how multidimensional they are, and and how they're gifted in multiple different mediums is fascinating to me. And also the the book doesn't match the cover. And that's like a theme for like me in my life that like really profoundly resonates because growing up, I have always been just like misunderstood, sorely underestimated by default, which was always really hurtful. Um, and so like I'm striving in my life in general, and like through this project to truly just like see people for who they are. And like I always assume the best of people. Like, if you were like Gina, I'm taking up crocheting, I'd be like, you're gonna be so good at that.

SPEAKER_03 20:36

Yeah, like you would.

SPEAKER_04 20:38

So, Rachel, you know, she has this very like share Horowitz glamour, Anna Nicole Smith, yeah, for sure. Playboy bunny exterior, but a lot of people don't know. She actually has a degree in forensic journalism. It's insane. She's so intelligent, she's an incredible poet, really strong writer. She has like multiple books she's published. Um, and and I feel a need to like speak on that and like praise her because I think a lot of people underestimate her. A lot of people, you know, think she's um maybe just like more of an external aesthetic sort of person.

SPEAKER_05 21:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:17

And I think she is, and she loves aesthetic, but the reason she has that aesthetic is actually very profoundly meaningful.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:26

Like she's very much um, I have that pure imagination tattoo, like Willy Wonka the song, where essentially he's singing about like how terrible the world is and how he has to basically create his own world in his mind to escape from it. Right. That's what Rachel's art is. She's creating a different world for herself and for other people viewing it to escape into. And I think that is just so cool. And I don't know how long she's been like doing that for consciously, but she's always spoken about like world building.

SPEAKER_05 21:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:54

Um, and I think that's such a cool form of art that's maybe not even like touched upon, like performance. Or like live being living art, and that's a hundred percent who she is.

SPEAKER_03 22:03

Yeah, definitely. And I think you know, with me as somebody who's like, you know, I kind of um position myself as like a world builder as well. You are, and so you know, seeing what she's doing, it immediately clicks with me. I'm like, okay, I get it, I get it. You know what I mean? It's like I know exactly what what you're going for here, and it's also, you know, it got me thinking, it's interesting that um people who have really strong like visual aesthetics, especially like when it comes to like personal style and things like that, can kind of get like pigeonholed or like seen as one-dimensional. Um, you know, I I feel like sometimes it's it's surprising that the majority of people don't uh don't look at somebody like that and immediately think like, well, what you know, what else is there? Because there's always something really interesting about that person, you know what I mean? Behind all of that, it's it's coming from somewhere. Um, you know, like you said, whether it's coming from this like you know, deep imaginative place, um, that you know, there's usually a really interesting person behind all that. Um, you know, so it's it's cool that you know you can kind of you can definitely sense that even just from her uh from her Artidex entry.

SPEAKER_04 23:16

That's I mean it's it's really nice you see that. And I I just I've had a few people kind of just like ask about her, and I just got the sense that like their impression was not a hundred percent accurate. So I feel like very like motivated to like go to war because she's so incredible. It's like, oh, she just does outfits. It's like, no, no, no. She's a poet and a painter, and she's a world builder, and she like lives through her art and like who she is as a person, like how she actually interfaces with the world is like sometimes in character, um, which is super interesting. And she's like actually formally diagnosed with autism. So I think that also might be where some people are misperceiving her, misunderstanding her.

SPEAKER_05 23:58

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 23:59

Um, but it's like what I love about her, but she's so goofy, and like she sees and meanwhile, she looks like this like super glamorous model, but she's like one of the funniest people I've ever met.

SPEAKER_05 24:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:08

Um, so so that's why I've I did Rachel. We we um we have like a religion where we uh we'll get takeout food in a hotel and watch forensic files. Um, we're both obsessed with forensic files, and she loves like true crime. Okay, that's it. Which again, like it contrasts with her external a little bit, but um, but like that's our thing.

SPEAKER_03 24:28

But yeah, that's she's basically the quintessence of the Artidex, is like, you know, there's more underneath that this or which is cool and like really works for like a first first impression of Artidex first episode. Um, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 24:43

Um, so number two, entry number two, is also just one of the coolest people on the planet. I would I will nominate. Like, if the aliens came down and we had to like elect some representatives that we know to like represent humanity to make us not look terrible, yeah, I would send Amber.

SPEAKER_03 25:02

Okay. Just the coolest, that's valid.

SPEAKER_04 25:05

The coolest girl in the whole world, and just like has the warmest spirit. Like you you meet her, and like in her presence, you just know you you you can just tell that she's an authentic person, and she's like just really down to earth, really kind.

SPEAKER_03 25:22

So for so for people who don't know, what is what does Amber do?

SPEAKER_04 25:26

Oh, yes, correct. Um, so she is an entomologist. Um, she is a bug expert, essentially, and she makes art out of the bugs that she raises from larva.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

Umsane.

SPEAKER_04 25:40

She's so cool. Um, because I was I was doing her arteryx and I was looking at some of her pieces, and I was like, so like where do you source your insects from? Like, where are you getting them? And she's like, Oh no, I'm like growing them. And I was like, uh oh, she she like she she raised them.

SPEAKER_03 25:55

That's like it, it's talk about really being like immersed in in your work, like from all all stages of it. You know what I mean? It's like, um, I feel like that just shows a level of appreciation and like dedication for what she's doing. Um, that like, you know, from start to finish, like she's involved with all of it. And even like I'm sure like the raising of these insects and stuff, uh, in a way becomes like a part of the whole process and the projects that she does, which are super, super cool.

SPEAKER_04 26:26

It's like it's like planting the seed that grows into the plant that then you like cook as a chef and put on a plate, it which maybe the food analogy aspect isn't great, but you know what I'm saying. Just like like she's like creating the materials herself. And I think it also just shows such reverence for the subject matter to like put like the time, love, and effort into like nurturing this creature, letting it die of natural causes, and then like making its body into really beautiful art is like really just poetic um and beautiful, and um just can like speaking of multi-talented, she's also opening a bar oh that's in like the lower east side called Crybaby. That's what's crybaby coming soon. Um and it looks super cool. I've seen like I've seen like the uh menu draft. She she uh gave me this little sneak peek. It looks phenomenal. Like if I still lived in New York, I'd be there. I'd I'd be there, I'd be there, you'd catch me there. It looks super cool. Um, and so I met her through uh my friend Ashley Rose Couture. She that's the name of her brand. Ashley Rose is the designer. Um, and she was a mutual friend. Amber and I both modeled for her for her brand. Um, and that was how I how I met Amber. But we just had this like click, you know, just like that like handshake, like soul to soul, like you're one of my people.

SPEAKER_03 27:50

Yeah, it was like immediate. I didn't know how to do it.

SPEAKER_04 27:52

Like, uh, yeah, I wish she lived closer. She's like one of those people I could feel like would be my absolute best friend if she lived like in a house a couple of you know, a couple of houses down the street.

SPEAKER_02 28:00

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_04 28:02

But but yeah, she's very special. She's um incredibly gifted at styling outfits as well. Uh she's on Watching New York, that uh that page by uh Johnny. I hope I'm not butchering his last name. It's like Cerillo, I think. I mean so forgive me if I'm saying that incorrectly. All everyone, including Johnny, especially. But um, he posts her outfits a lot and for good reason. She's truly just like her her mind is like similar to Rachel's, like just like on another level, thinking outside the box, integrating high, low, different, different textures, just like a genius.

SPEAKER_03 28:36

Because it's interesting, like, you know, with these common threads between people that um, you know, as individuals, everybody still chooses to express themselves creatively in a completely different way, a completely different medium. Um, but you know, that same energy is there for each person, and you can see it, you know, even in just the little like vignettes of their daily lives and stuff, like you can see that bleed through completely with each person. Um, so that that part of it's really cool too.

SPEAKER_04 29:06

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:07

Um it's authentic, you know? It's like authentic, like real creativity.

SPEAKER_04 29:11

Like truly. And I think that that's I I'm really lucky that people are like letting me into their like sort of little personal bubbles because I think that that aspect is really um, I think it's part of what's making the series really special, is it's showing the humanity and the and the the human being like that's underneath the performance and the persona, yeah. Um, and I think that if someone's willing, you know, and open enough to let me showcase that, I think it goes a long way and really resonates with people and it's really special.

SPEAKER_03 29:41

So yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_04 29:42

Dude, are you serious? Okay, you're gonna hear my cat now. And I forgot to put I forgot to put her away, and she loves the spotlight, so she's definitely gonna make herself known.

SPEAKER_03 29:54

So well, we might have to do an uh an a special Artidex entry for half for the cats, yeah, for both of them together.

SPEAKER_04 30:01

I love that, yeah. I uh she would love that for sure. Um okay. Number three.

SPEAKER_03 30:08

Yeah, number three.

SPEAKER_04 30:10

All right, entry number three. I'm gonna be impressed if I don't like cry. I mean, I'm definitely gonna try not to. Um uh entry number three is Mira Mariah, um, who is one of my best friends in the world.

SPEAKER_03 30:24

Um she's most popularly known for being a tattoo artist, but again, yeah, well, who famous famously did the uh the Ariana Grande uh Moonhand? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:37

And yeah, yeah, she's done many tattoos on Ariana, um, and is probably most like well known for for that aspect of her art. But she again is super multifaceted and multi-talented um and a multimedia artist. She works with sculpture, she's an illustrator, she's a painter, she's a mom, which is an art in and of itself, honestly. Um but but yeah, she's probably most recognizable publicly for her for her tattooing and who she's tattooed. Um, but even her her art even extends into like clothing. She'll do she'll make like t-shirts, she'll do scarves, she'll do stickers, keychain. Like it's she again is a world builder.

SPEAKER_05 31:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:18

Um, so it's like this Girl New York is the name of her brand. And Girl New York is like almost this like personification of an entity of like the quintessential cool girl in New York.

SPEAKER_05 31:30

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:31

At least I don't know if I've ever like specifically talked to her about it directly, but in conversations with her about the art, that's the impression that I got.

SPEAKER_03 31:40

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, it's cool. Um, and I feel like, you know, out of everybody that you've covered so far, she is the person who I feel like I've heard the most about um in knowing you for as many years as I've known you. You know, I've I've heard you speak very highly of her um and like praise her and like sing her name from the rooftops like constantly, which is really cool to like have a best friend who you know who uh who is that like excited about the things that you do and like wants other people to to know how awesome you are. Because I feel like even just through conversations with you, like I can tell she's an awesome person. And I don't even, you know, I mean I don't know her.

SPEAKER_04 32:19

I never thought that's her right there in the picture with me on my desk on my desk. Um yeah. So um the way I'm at Mariah is like one of the craziest stories. Um I was with my friend Joe Wood. Shout out Joe Wood, I miss you, buddy. Um, and we were, I think we were in like some type of bodega. We were like sitting at a table.

SPEAKER_03 32:41

Well, let's set the scene. Like when what year is this?

SPEAKER_04 32:44

Yeah, I don't know, probably like 10 years ago, something like that. I feel like everything's 10 years ago. Yeah, at this point, at this point, it feels all ten years ago.

SPEAKER_03 32:52

Once you get to RA, just like yeah, it's like my early 20s.

SPEAKER_04 32:55

I don't know. Yeah, um, and he was like sitting there and he he had just gotten a new tattoo and it was on his arm. And I was like, dude, nice tattoo, looks really sick. Do you just get that? Like, tell me about it. And he's like, Oh yeah, my friend uh Mariah did this. Uh, she actually knows who you are. And I was like, What? Like, really, like just like who says that? Like, what in what context? And he's like, Yeah, she like followed you on like lookbook. Like, she know, and guys, when I tell you, multiple people have told me that they know me from Lookbook, and I'd just a crazy poll.

SPEAKER_03 33:28

Most uh like any anybody who's younger that is like listening to this, they probably have no idea what lookbook is, but it had a moment.

SPEAKER_04 33:37

What's crazy is I think I posted like two outfits on there.

SPEAKER_03 33:40

That's crazy, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:41

Like it wasn't a thing that I did regularly enough for it to be like a point of reference, so that was just like crazy to me.

SPEAKER_03 33:48

Yeah, I had a few look book outfits too.

SPEAKER_04 33:50

That's hell yeah. I just I only posted two, so the fact that people are like, Oh yeah, I know you from lookbook, yeah, is like so abstract. I was like, I didn't do it that much, but okay, super cool. And then um, I don't know if he told I think she just told me, but she was like, she she basically told me a lot of my art is actually I use you as a reference. Oh wow, which was like insane. Like, yeah, that's because I love that is like I I loved her art so much, and I thought like all the people she drew were so cool looking, and and to perfect meanwhile, you're like, well, actually, it was just you the whole time.

SPEAKER_03 34:31

No, no, no.

SPEAKER_04 34:32

She drews she draws other people too, other really cool people too. Um, she draws like her other friend Bobby and her other friend Camilla, and they're all super cool and beautiful, uh, beautiful women. But yeah, I think she like she just might have just flat out told me at some point. She's like, Yeah, like I a lot of these are of you, G. And I was like, What? And then like afterwards, I could, I could see it. Yeah, yeah. Um, and it's like, well, it and it like became obvious. But um, but yeah, I think you know, just talking about going back to how I I felt misunderstood a lot growing up. Mariah, I feel like is one of the few people who like saw me for the first time or like met me for and just like immediately got me and even understood me maybe before I met her. Yeah. And I don't know if that was like through some like cosmic understanding that came from like drawing me or something like some hocus pocus like that. Yeah, um, some voodoo, but but she just like fully understands like my soul and my spirit and where I'm coming from, and that's why I like it I get emotional. Because like sometimes when I'm sad about something, whatever it is, I'll be like, Well, Mariah understands me and thinks I'm cool. So life can't be too bad.

SPEAKER_03 35:40

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 35:42

She's like, she's like my like happy place, like when I think about her, yeah, for sure. And and she's just so so talented and so so strong. And um, I don't know if a lot of people know this about her, but she she lives with a a disability um or differently abled uh and has one leg. And I think a lot of people don't don't know that about her. And it's on her, it's on her page, and she's like spoken about it sometimes, but she just functions at such like a high level that I think it's often missed, and people don't don't know that she struggles with that. And she's so graceful, it's like impressive, it's it's just incredible how she like handles difficult things um really beautifully, and she's so wise. Like talking about somebody who just drops bars, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:34

Yeah, she's that she's that person.

SPEAKER_04 36:36

She's so insightful.

SPEAKER_03 36:37

We'll have to get her on a on a pod.

SPEAKER_04 36:39

Oh, I would she'll she'll come, she'll do one, and it will be a really good one because she's just like, I'll I'll come to her with a problem, and and she's like, she's like Zach, yeah, who is number eight, who we'll get to at another in another podcast, but we'll just say something that like makes me look at the situation in a completely different way.

SPEAKER_03 36:57

Don't you love that when like people can just it's amazing, they can like shift your whole like perspective just with like one like fire line. Like it.

SPEAKER_04 37:07

Yeah, yeah. And she she does that for me. It's like grandmother willow energy. Yeah, like she'll just like drop a bar and I'll be like, wow, you know, I never thought of it like that. Yeah, thank you. Um, so she she's just the best, but um, but yeah, anytime I'm sad, I'm like, I just think of her and and our friendship, and I can like smile, and that's why she means a lot to me.

SPEAKER_03 37:28

Yeah, and how many, how many, um, how many tattoos do you have that that she did?

SPEAKER_04 37:33

Oh, probably like seven. Yeah, yeah. I think I have Miss Honey written on my foot from Matilda. She did the pure imagination one, which she I don't think she even likes writing words, to be honest. But like uh she does it for me because we're besties and she's super nice. Um, she did the first tattoo she did on me was the world tarot card on the back of my um back of my right arm. And then she did the leaves around my my boob on my left side that like comes up on my sternum, like a vine. The vines are like her classic, one of her one of her signature uh things. So that was really cool. I think that was like when I graduated med school, we did that.

SPEAKER_03 38:12

Oh, cool. Um so she's got the most Gina real estate right now. Yeah, she did A, she did AFX Twin.

SPEAKER_04 38:19

Yeah, she did AFX twin on my left arm. So yeah, she's got oh, and Trinity from The Matrix on my thigh.

SPEAKER_03 38:24

That's right, that's right.

SPEAKER_04 38:25

That was cool. She did that in my living room while we had the Matrix on in the background. That's sick with her portable machine. Yeah, that's really sick. So she had never seen it before. And I was like, well, we're Oh, what? Yeah, I was like, uh What an experience. Well, we're putting it on right now. It was really funny too, because she was like, you know, it's like I I have the tattoo of Trinity where it's like um she's saving Neo on that rooftop when he does when he does the first like slow-mo backbend of the the dodge this and that yeah, and and that's like the scene I have where she does the dodge this and then like and then Mariah's like, Are you sure you want a gun tattooed on you? And I was like, Yeah, I really do. Yeah, she's like energetically though, and I'm like, No, absolutely, it has to be, it has to be exactly that. Yeah. Um, so she got she broke another uh tattoo rule for me. So I'm very grateful, but that's cool, but but yeah, she's she's just the best and just like a force to reckon with, a creative genius. Um, and I'm so grateful for her friendship. Truly like keeps me going for sure.

SPEAKER_03 39:25

Yeah, absolutely. And of course, you know, we both highly recommend that all of the names that we're mentioning that you go check these people out. Oh, yeah, see what they do, check out their pages. They just all of their work is incredible. Um, you know, it would not be featuring any of these people if they weren't incredible, uh incredible artists and incredible people. So yeah, absolutely, you know, get out there and go check out their stuff.

SPEAKER_04 39:48

Which brings me to the next one.

SPEAKER_03 39:50

Yeah. Number four.

SPEAKER_04 39:53

Number four, you yeah, so lucky to have you, my dude.

SPEAKER_03 39:57

No, thank you. Thank you. Uh, you know, it's a pleasure to be a part of it. And uh, you know, I feel like our, and we talked about this a little bit in the first podcast, but I feel like our friendship and our connection is pretty pretty interesting because um, you know, at this point we've known each other for like close to 10 years.

SPEAKER_04 40:17

We're gonna just say 10 years.

SPEAKER_03 40:18

Yeah, we we just say 10 years. And I think the majority of that was spent just sort of like admiring and appreciating one another from afar and just like internet homes. Yeah, and just like short internet conversations here and there, and just like talking about things, or me sending you like music I was working on and stuff, which you know evolved over time. Uh, you know, I think you maybe came to like one or two shows that I did in the city. Um, and then you you were up in uh in Beacon for that uh it was for a wedding. I think it was a wedding, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And we hung out that one time at my apartment, and that was uh, I think the first time you met Kate. Yep. Um, and now living in the same in the same area and like being able to hang out all the time, it's uh it's really interesting, you know, how the universe kind of like lined things up for us.

SPEAKER_04 41:08

Did we mention that?

SPEAKER_03 41:09

No, no, not at all.

SPEAKER_04 41:11

We didn't talk about that the last time.

SPEAKER_03 41:12

No, so we could we yeah, we can briefly touch on that. That uh, you know, we kind of both ended up moving at the same time to the same place with no knowledge that the other one was moving there, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:25

It's and it and it's not like it's like Austin, Texas. Like we moved to the city. It's not a big city. Like people don't know where Greenville, South Carolina is. Like it's very I mean, it's on the map, but it's kind of off the map.

SPEAKER_03 41:37

Yeah, and I mean it's interesting too because we we moved to this area for completely different reasons and and based on like completely different premises. Um, and and now that we're here, we're kind of both like exploring it and like meeting each other on this this interesting level where it's like, well, now we're we're both the New Yorkers in the South, you know. Um, and I ended up here just through needing a change, you know, it's it's really not any sort of crazy, profound uh, you know, story or anything like that. It was just kind of me and Kate saying, where do we want to go next? And uh we started Googling low cost of living upcoming cities for young people to live in and just stuff stuff like that. And uh, you know, on a bunch of a bunch of lists and like the best places to live right now, you know, we kept seeing Greenville, South Carolina. And of course, you know, you see the photos of the waterfall downtown and uh, you know, as we looked more into it, we started seeing there's like you know, mountains around and things like that, and these waterfalls, and um, it's just really cool vibe. And I think we just kind of gravitated towards that. Um, something about it felt felt different than the other cities that we had looked at. Um, and you know, we came to visit a couple times, and each time we came to visit, it was, you know, we stayed for longer and we just we fell in love with it. And I think there's so much about Greenville that uh that feels like home, that feels like back where I grew up in upstate New York. Yeah, it does. Um but with much better weather and uh much better cost of living.

SPEAKER_04 43:12

So and nicer, nicer people. Although Beacon, the people in Beacon are pretty nice.

SPEAKER_03 43:17

Yeah, no, there's a lot of cool people there, but there's nothing like southern hospitality level.

SPEAKER_04 43:21

This is like the south is special, special place, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:24

But yeah, it's been it's been pretty wild.

SPEAKER_04 43:26

Let's yeah, I just remember like being in my car, and I think I had like accepted the job down here, and I was texting you, and I was like, Yeah, man, I'm actually moving to uh South Carolina, and you were like all caps, like, wait, bro, where? Yeah, and I was like, Greenville, and you were like, Me too. And I was like, get out. Like, that's insane.

SPEAKER_03 43:49

Yeah, that's it's one of those things like you can't you can't make that stuff. Can't make it up.

SPEAKER_04 43:54

I was like, I was blown away. That happened with my my best friend from med school, John. We like saw each other at a wedding and I was like. Hey bro, what's up? Um, I'm moving to South Carolina. And he's like, dude, I want to move to South Carolina. And I was like, what?

SPEAKER_05 44:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:07

Because it's just not, it's not really, it's, I think it's getting more popular. But at the time, it was very like, we're we're still flying under the radar a little bit. People will figure it out eventually, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 44:18

Yeah, they'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_04 44:19

Um, but that was insane.

SPEAKER_03 44:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:21

But getting back to your art and your music.

SPEAKER_03 44:24

Yeah. So so uh, you know, of course, we have time. So, like, where where do you want me to start?

SPEAKER_04 44:30

Oh man, damn. Okay, so again, when I like end up interviewing people, yeah, which we're gonna low-key sort of do a mini right now for you because you're here and I'm talking to you. I know I know certain things, but I'm gonna ask them as if I don't know them because I want you to talk about them for other people to learn them. So, talk to people about how you like first got into music.

SPEAKER_03 44:52

Yeah, so I think everything okay, so the interesting thing is um a lot of people don't know that I'm adopted and uh I have white parents. Um, and growing up with white parents in a what I would consider to be like a predominantly white suburban, you know, middle class area of upstate New York, um my exposure to black culture and to black people was, and and this is no fault of my parents, because I know they're gonna be listening to this, you know, they did everything they could to make sure that uh, you know, the people that I was around were as diverse as possible, that I had as many experiences as possible growing up, um, you know, with people from all walks of life. But, you know, there are things uh that I was not exposed to. And I think at a young age, uh trying to, you know, find my identity uh like as a black person, um, a lot of where that came from was the way that I interacted and interfaced with music. Um, you know, so I can remember as early as like seven or eight years old, I was like watching, you know, videos on MTV and like seeing rappers and stuff like that. And that was like uh, you know, I started started developing this like I guess like parasocial kind of uh connection with like rappers and rap culture and thinking like, oh, okay, well, like as a black person, like this is a part of my culture and who I am. So like I looked to you know, rappers for how to dress and how to talk. And uh, you know, ultimately this led to me being obsessed with rap. Uh, and you know, maybe around the time I was like 13 or 14, I started writing. Um, and I think that that went on for a while. And then maybe when I was like 16 or 17 is where like I started recording. Um, and I was like uploading music to MySpace, um, you know, solo and as part of a group. Um, and that became my identity. Um, people knew me for my rapping. I think locally I had you know a modest following or something like that. But I felt I felt like people knew me. I felt like people were like putting me on a pedestal as a rapper.

SPEAKER_04 47:21

Um because you are very, you're very good.

unknown 47:23

I will say.

SPEAKER_03 47:24

And uh, you know, that was truly what I wanted to do. And, you know, graduated high school, um, you know, went to college in New York City. You know, being 18 and going to school in the city, I think it affects different people differently. For me, I don't think I was ready at the time to uh to be in New York City and like try and go through school. There was still just so much that I was figuring out about myself. Um, you know, I had a girlfriend at the time who was still living in upstate New York and I was going back and forth and it was this whole thing. But I think during that time, um, I really like locked in and knew that music was what I wanted to pursue. So I ended up dropping out. Um, and I was like going to community college back home. Um, I was still rapping, I was putting out projects, I was gaining, you know, more of a following. I did some like decently high-profile shows, like opening up for like Wu Tang and like other artists.

SPEAKER_04 48:20

Dude, you opened for Wu Tang? I did, yeah. Dude, what? Yeah, that's insane, bro. I mean, I'm not I'm not I'm like I'm happy for I'm not surprised. Yeah, I'm not surprised, but like that's so I didn't know that. I love learning new nuggets of truth about my close friends. Yeah, so fun.

SPEAKER_03 48:35

And I think, you know, like like anything else, like as I started to get older, um I I think there was a lot of like interesting things that I had to come to terms with about who I was as an artist and as a rapper. Um, and maybe there was part of me that started to realize that you know the person who I had become as a rapper was not truly who I was on the inside. You know, there was a lot of things I talked about in my music and the way that I carried myself and talked and and all these things where I feel like people had this impression of me that I was one person. Um, and and maybe that wasn't really true to who I actually was.

SPEAKER_04 49:20

Right.

SPEAKER_03 49:20

And I think that sort of led uh to me wanting to make my music uh, you know, feel more true to me. And with that, I started learning how to produce because I thought, okay, well, if at least if I start making my own beats, then I I feel like, you know, maybe uh maybe as a side effect of that, my music will feel more personal or something like that, right? Sure. Um, and very quickly, as I got into learning how to produce, and shout out to my buddy Adam. Um, he was the one who showed me Ableton, uh, and something just like clicked with me when he showed me this program where I was like, this is it, like I get it. Um, and I started making music and I was uploading stuff to SoundCloud, and this is around like 2011, 2012.

SPEAKER_04 50:04

Golden era, man. Good time.

SPEAKER_03 50:06

Uh I was uploading instrumentals, and people really enjoyed them a lot. And I was getting a lot of traction on the instrumentals I was uploading. I was doing a lot of stuff with like sampling and like video game sound effects and stuff like that. Which I think Mario Ghost. Yeah, which at the time was like kind of um, it was kind of new at the time, whereas like you know, a lot of like producers and the whole like lo-fi movement and stuff. There's there's a lot of that stuff now, but at the time it was it was somewhat new. And so, you know, I started gaining a following very quickly. Um, and I think you know, one thing led to another, and uh people started DMing me saying, like, hey, we do parties in in Brooklyn. Do you want to come play your music? Um, and of course, I'm like super hype about this up. Like, I didn't even know that people played instrumental music live or anything like that, um, or like did shows where they could just like play beats. Right. Um, and I've always been somebody who is open to opportunities. Um, I take the opportunities that come my way, and wherever that leads me is kind of where I end up. So, you know, one thing leads to another. I'm playing shows in Brooklyn, and that kind of just snowballed into playing more shows, meeting more people, making more instrumental music. And around, you know, 2014 is where I really started to uh land on that kind of sound that people know me for.

SPEAKER_04 51:35

Um is that when you did 2808? Yeah, I think that was that was that sounds like the right year that I saw.

SPEAKER_03 51:41

So the the project I did 2808, that was in, I think I want to say it was in 2014. Um, and that was kind of the the project that I guess sort of like put me on the map in terms of like SoundCloud notoriety, and like you know, that was when my my plays start shooting up, and I'm getting like 50, 60, 100,000 plays on stuff on SoundCloud, and um, you know, thousands and thousands of followers and and playing more shows. And uh and from there, it kind of just became this journey of uh of making this music and taking opportunities and you know traveling all over and uh and just going from there. And that's that's kind of like what led me to the last like you know, 10-15 years of my life being dedicated to just making this music and seeing where it takes me.

SPEAKER_04 52:30

Hell yeah. And I I uh I played that project, the 2808, like on repeat for a very, very long time. And and heavy armor too, absolutely. Like that follow-up was incredible. I like I like everything you make though, honestly. I feel like because everything again has that like thread of you in it, there's there's something very similar like in everything you do. Like, weirdly, even in like the clothes that you choose, like I can kind of see that there's there's something harmonious about like all the ways in which you express yourself. And and therefore I I generally like all of it because we have really similar taste, honestly.

SPEAKER_03 53:04

We absolutely do.

SPEAKER_04 53:05

We have like a side, like a slight sidekick. Like, I was even uh when we were talking about how we met, I had like gone back on Facebook to like scroll all the way back in time to like when I first DM'd you. Because I was like, how did we become friends? And and like I looked at like our first messages, and then like as I'm scrolling back, I'm noticing there are so many times where we would like be like, dude, I can't believe you just said that because blah blah blah blah blah. Or like, you know what I mean? It was like we were like doing the same things at the same time, or like somehow on the same wavelength at different points in time throughout our lives, which was like super, super interesting and super cool. And I think that just like speaks to like why we're such natural friends. Um but anyway, these are all of the reasons that you're in the Artodex. I mean, like you are the quintessence of a multifaceted artist with like a ton of depth, tons of talent, a really profound and beautiful life story, and just like super kind and cool. So like you check every box, like you are uh like one of the first people I thought of when I thought of like who you know, should I who should I highlight? It's like, well, Noah, obviously. Like it's like the most like intuitive, quick, like that's a hundred percent like a great prototype of like an example of someone who needs to be one of the first people to go in there.

SPEAKER_03 54:23

So I just feel like you know, naturally, um again, going back to the world building thing, I have such a clear vision for everything that I do. It's everything I do is incredibly intentional, like to a fault, um, where it's like it's it's so, so curated and so thought about and agonized over um, you know, how I present things and um, you know, the visuals that go with my music and what kind of world I want to build, what do I want to bring people into? Um, and I think that's why like a lot of the music that I've made has transcended like genres or scenes that I was a part of. Um and I never really felt quite at home in any one particular scene. Um, because what I'm doing just kind of like transcends all of that. Um and now like with pivoting into clothes, um, it's it's been interesting too that I I do feel like that that same approach is is still there um in like how I photograph things and the types of things I'm starting to curate and all of that. And it's it's been an interesting um it's it's been an interesting change there. And I I think you know, and I still make music. Um that's something that's never gonna go away. Uh, you know, the Noah B project is not like defunct or anything like that for people out there who are like, why haven't you put out music? You're allowed to take a break, my dude.

SPEAKER_04 55:42

You're allowed to do whatever you want.

SPEAKER_03 55:43

Well, I mean, I think too, it's just social media, it, it, it's soul sucking completely. Yeah, you know, it's like, and after doing that for like 10 plus years, it's you know, the burnout is just absolutely unreal. And like every post I make is just like, um, you know, it's it's it's super difficult for me because I'm like, I I feel this immense pressure um that you know, no one else but myself is is placing on me, but it's still there regardless. Yeah, and uh the pressure just builds up and and feeling like you need to keep up with what other people are doing, it's uh it gets to a point where I just needed to kind of step away from everything and like get to that point again where music is just like fun. Yeah. And I think I've reached that again where now like the music that I'm making in general is just like I'm having fun with it, and I'm not like concerned with like when I'm gonna put it out or who's gonna hear it or anything. It's just like uh the joy of like just creating things is is has returned.

SPEAKER_04 56:41

So and I I feel like although I am an artist myself, I feel like my life's mission and one of my life's purposes is to support other artists and to be um add fuel to the fire. And like I feel like I'm trying to, you know, because we've been that like dabbling in music and I know nothing about music or producing. And so like my lens at which like I'm approaching like everything we're doing is very um new and like like a baby doing something for the first time. Yeah, yeah. And so it's probably I'm I'm hoping that like that freshness and like um lack of familiarity almost is like a callback to like the when you first started making music and like viewing it through a lens of just like purely for fun. Oh, yeah, uh, and just like the joy of it. So um, you know, I'm I'm I'm hoping that like all the stuff that we do together too is like helping to stimulate that that original joy that yeah, definitely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 57:43

And I think too, just to touch on like the the clothing thing a little bit more, you know, because I'm sure a lot of people who do know me would be curious as like why or how I pivoted to selling clothes. Um, but you know, I've I've always collected clothes, I've always been like really, really into clothes, um, you know, from a young age, like I was into sneakers, I was uh just everything. Um, and I think, you know, you know that a year ago I had this accident, um, which I never really talked about on social media or like, you know, uh let it rip it. Explained to anybody. But, you know, for those who don't know, a year ago I had an accident where I fell um in the middle of the night. Uh I don't remember falling. Um, you know, for a long time, we thought that I had maybe like fallen out of bed or something like that. I've had like strange flashbacks where I feel like maybe I like I tripped uh or something like that.

SPEAKER_04 58:47

Not sure how it happened exactly.

SPEAKER_03 58:48

Whatever it was, my mind like completely blocked it out. And the only thing I remember is like waking up on the floor in like the pitch black and like intense pain, and like then like feeling that like I had teeth missing, and it was just like whole like crazy, crazy experience that um ended up changing the trajectory of like my entire life ultimately, um, and in like the most beautiful way possible. Um, because through this, through this accident, um, you know, as you know, like I really like damaged my teeth and my face like badly, you know what I mean? I had I fractured my orbital uh and like my upper like sinus area and like knocked out like a couple of my teeth. Um and I think during the time I was recovering, um I felt a lot of like anxiety and I felt very self-conscious about like going out into the world because I've always been somebody who's like very confident in like the way that I look and like the way that I dress and and things like that. And people always told me like growing up that you know I have I have a great smile and stuff like that. So I think uh, you know, looking in the mirror like every morning and like seeing my fucked up face, um it like weighs on you, you know what I mean? Absolutely. Um, and I think through that, the interesting thing is I I kept thinking to myself, well, I can't control like how my face looks, but like I can control what I wear. So like let me go get new clothes and like just start really putting that shit on. That's so good. And then maybe that will like like I don't know if I thought that it would like make other people focus more on my clothes, or if it was more so that it would just make me feel better about going out because I knew I had that shit on. Um, so in that I got more into like vintage clothes and uh, you know, started buying things. And then, you know, like anything else, you know, there's things that we have that we want to get rid of. So I started selling things here and there, and I saw them, you know, move really quickly. Um, and that kind of led to me starting to yeah, starting to like source clothes and sell them. And the next thing you know, that was my full-time job, which is so so crazy.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:09

I didn't know that it was like connected to your accident, but like the timeline makes perfect sense.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:14

Yeah, absolutely. Well, and and also I was like going through this transition where um I was like leaving my old uh job as a paralegal and like you know, thinking about starting a career in tech. And I had this period where like there was three or four months where I had no job and I wasn't doing anything. Um, so I think I was selling clothes to like supplement income in in between. And uh very but like I said, very quickly, it just snowballed into something uh where I realized I was like, maybe I don't need to take another job or something like that.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:48

Because your taste is immaculate.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:49

No, thank you.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:50

That's uh that's really what you're selling, dude. It's not even like the clothes themselves, it's the curation, yeah. And like your eye. Your eye is like pretty insane. Yeah, I'll like I'll like hold up a dumb shirt in like a goodwill and I'll be like, Noah, is this cool? And he's like, No, Gina, that was from like last year. It's not actually vintage. I'm like, oh, and I just like quietly putting it. Yeah, but like you've got you've got such an eye for I'm learning more from you, but like you've got such a tremendous eye for it, which is really, really cool.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:16

Yeah, for sure. And I think you know, the direction that I'm going in with things and a lot of it is just trying to highlight more and like how can I how can I build more of a world like through the clothes, right? So um, you know, a lot of like what I'm interested in clothing-wise is definitely like late 90s, kind of early 2000s stuff. Um, but mostly is based on like the subcultures and like things that I was interested in growing up, whether it was music, video games, skateboarding, like all that kind of stuff, uh plays a huge part in the in the type of stuff that I gravitate towards and like what I'm curating right now. Um, so I think going forward, I'm I'm just gonna find more ways to incorporate all of the the aspects of those things and not just clothing. Right. Um, but you know, but but all the the parts of it and all the things that inspire me from under an umbrella, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:09

Yeah, for sure. No, that's that's super cool. Um, but yeah, man, your Artodex was super fun.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:15

Yeah, it was fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:17

And like you, like you said, like you know, you you had mentioned a lot of people hadn't really seen you sort of like in that context, like A, in your element, but B, it is it's it's a vulnerable thing. Like it's not lost on me that people are like letting me into their homes or their like bedrooms or their studios or like wherever their setup is, and and like letting me film in there, which is just like you know, it's like I said, it's a privilege, and and it's not lost on me that it's kind of like an intimate thing. So, um, but I know yours was received super well, and people really enjoyed like seeing just like how your setup looks and like the kind of environment that you uh create in.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:54

And and yeah, I got a lot of cool messages from people who were like uh who were excited about things like that. And we we touched on this briefly in the last pod, but you know, I've I've been like notoriously secretive, yeah, kind of like secretive um with things, which is again just about like the world building and like the the curation and all that. Um, but I think it's cool to like let people in once in a while. And and I saw that when I was uh I went through a period like of maybe like two years where I was like streaming very regularly on Twitch. Um I was like doing a lot of like reviewing of music. Um so I don't know if you ever caught any of them, but essentially like I was having I was having people uh submit music, like various artists and DJs and things like that. Um, and I would like listen to it and give live feedback on stream. Um and I would do this like a couple times a week and get like tons of submissions. We'd be going through like 50, 60 submissions every time. That's so cool. Yeah, and it was it was a lot of that to me.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:55

That's no, um yeah. I don't know if there's any are they around?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:58

I don't know if there's any clips out there, anything like that, um, or if I saved any of them, but it was it was really cool. Um and it was a cool way to like give back and to like highlight other artists because that's it was more about the other artists than it wasn't about me. Yeah, you know what I mean? It was just about like listening to people's music and like hyping them up, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:17

Um as you know, I love to hype people up. I agree.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:20

I think through that I understood the power of like relatability and the power of like being able to meet people like on their level and like just have conversations with people, and like not everything necessarily needs to be like super hyper curated and like, yeah, I can do that, but also at the same time, it's fun to just like goof around on stream and like yeah, talk shit with people and just yeah, and and you know, feel more like connected to people. And I think part of it too, with me, you know, being that my artist name is Noah B, which is my my real name. Um, there's always been this sort of uh well. I think a lot of people who work under an alias have the benefit of being able to kind of like hide behind something. Whereas me, like I am who I am. And like I think in turn, people maybe feel more connected to me as a person through my art.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:21

Because you know, I, you know, just having my artist name be Noah B, it's like they feel like they know me.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:26

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:27

Yeah. And in a way, they kind of do. And in a way, they do. Yeah. A part of you. Yeah. Yeah. But now, now I'm trying to give people more opportunities to get to know me like this. As a person. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:38

Like this. And you're so um, and you're so so awesome. And thank you also, like, shout out to you because I would not have I wouldn't be sitting here doing this podcast if you didn't push me to do it. Um, and I knew I knew you were right, um, because you're often right, but like it's a lot of work and um having someone, you know, push me in the right direction and support me with it, uh, definitely made it happen. So thank you. Thanks for doing the Art Dex and supporting my my crazy ideas. Um, you're one of the people that, like I said, uh, you know, but the binder mostly consists of my friends who support my crazy ideas. That that's you.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:12

Um, so I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:13

I'm always down for for a good crazy idea, you know. But for for what it's worth, the majority of your ideas are really not that crazy. They're ambitious, but uh, I don't think they're crazy.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:23

They're ambitious. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:25

I just think sometimes you tell me something like that's I mean, hey, if you want to go for it, yeah, go for it.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:31

It's well, I think I think just like my tendency towards delusion just comes from like the fact that I went from art school to med school successfully and like did it. So now I'm like, well, I could probably do anything now.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:40

Yeah, well, it's like you you did something that's like incredibly ambitious.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:44

Yeah, it's it's it's insane. So now I'm just like, well, proof of concept, when I say I'm gonna do something, spoiler, I'd do it. Yeah. So I mean, you know, there's a lot of variables in art that are like outside of my control, whereas like medicine I could control everything. Like my my my outcomes were equal to my effort.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:02

So um Which I think in a in a way, too, your ambition has rubbed off on me a bit where I maybe feel like some of the ideas that I've had uh in the past that were that were ambitious that I told myself were too ambitious. Now I kind of feel like, well, Gina would tell me that I can do it. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 1:08:22

Absolutely. Yeah, thank you for saying that. I that's I I always strive to like I want to do that for people. Yeah because I do believe in you, like a hundred percent. Yeah, and I'm glad that like it's both felt and then it like actually echoes through like your your life and like your actions. Cause um, I mean you're super talented. I think you could do whatever you want. So and I'll and I'll I'll uh be there to stand everything you do.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:46

So for sure. That's awesome, dude. Um I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:49

Hell yeah. All right, last one, maybe we talk about my buddy Will.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:54

Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:54

Let's talk about uh let's talk about Will.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:57

Um, so number five is Will Crooks. Um, Will is one of like the first friends I made in Greenville, actually.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:05

Oh cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:06

Um he was he was a friend of a friend of a friend, like multiple, there's like multiple people in Greenville who are like interwoven. Um specifically uh AJ slash Bernard, who owned the plant store in the West End. It was called Sovereign.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:21

Right, yeah, which unfortunately I never got a chance to go to.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:25

It was so cool, it was so cool, but um which is actually isn't um sovereign over by where um T Warden?

SPEAKER_03 1:09:36

Yes, T Warden is Sovereign. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:40

So so so T Warden totally.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:42

Shout out to T Warden, shout out to T Warden, Jeffrey, one of the one of the coolest people I've met in Greenville, and a huge inspiration uh for my my journey with vintage clothes. He's somebody who has like an insane eye coolest store, absolutely insane eye and and a really awesome store.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:58

Jeff is Jeff is sick.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:59

If you're in Greenville, you you absolutely have to go there.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:01

Yeah, absolutely. Check out West End T Warden. But um, but yeah, so uh Bernard owns Sovereign, which was a plant store in the West End, which is now T Warden. Um, and I think Bernard had photos on his Instagram that were taken by Will. Oh, wow. And they were beautiful, they were like really gorgeous portraits. Like Will's understanding of light is just its next level. And and like just the way that he plays with and controls and manipulates light is really just like innovative and unique. And like actually, um, in his Artex, he was showing me some of the ways in which he actually changes the photograph, changing the changes the lighting in his photographs with like certain props that he has in his in his house. Um, like he has this old uh, you know, like the glass that comprises the windows and diners that's like this thick, sort of like they're like square blocks that are like 10 inches thick, yeah. Yeah, and it's almost like wavy, it has this like icy texture. Yes. He has like an old piece of diner glass, like a square cube, like from an old diner. And and he'll shine like a distant spotlight through that cube and project it onto a printout of a photo he took previously.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:17

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:18

So he'll like take a photo, take a portrait, print it out onto paper to give it texture, so that the texture of the paper is already adding a dimension to the photograph and then refracts the light through the diner cube onto the photo and then re-photographs the picture again, which is just like the layers of like how many times he'll re-photograph the photo to give it a texture is just like, and it's like kind of analog in a sense. Like he's he's photographing some some and many things digitally, yeah. But like the processing, like the post-processing he does on his photos is just so um handcrafted.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:53

Yeah. And like yeah, well, it sounds like there's like many like layers to it as well, you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:58

It looks like you got a buddy that wants to come on your lap.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:00

Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:00

Yeah, my cat, my cat named Cake is uh trying to get on Noah's lap in the middle of the last podcast. I remembered to put them away. This podcast I did not, so now you're getting podcast cats. Um but but yeah, Will Will was um a friend of Bernard, and um, so that's how we met. And he actually reached out to me. Will messaged me, and he was like, Hey, uh, I'd like I'd I'd like to take your picture. I'm doing this this series that I'm working on. And I you know looked at his work, looked at the series he sent me. It was super, super cool. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:30

Cake.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:31

Oh my god, cake, cake just fell. We can we can cut that out.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:35

Yeah. Um cake stood on the Artidex and it just like slid off.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:40

All right. So um Will actually messaged me and he was like, Yeah, I'd like to take your picture for this new series that I'm working on. Um, and I took a look at it and I I really loved all the photos he was taking. So I was like, hell yeah, for sure, dude. So um we linked up, we shot, we hung out a couple of times, and again, just like instant friends, super, super cool guy. And um, and it's very rare too to find like a male photographer as like a woman that like doesn't make you feel slightly uncomfortable. Will is like just like the warmest, goofiest, like chillest guy. Like you just feel you feel safe, and like that's pretty difficult to do as like a white, straight male photographer. Yeah, unfortunately. Unfortunately, and and he's got it. He almost has I gave I gave um another photographer uh this compliment recently, and I think it also very much applies to Will. And it's like one of the highest compliments I could award to a male photographer was um he has the female gaze. You know, like when he's shooting a woman, it's not like sexualized, and it's not like grotesque, and it's not like it's it's truly just like a celebration of beauty. Um, and I think that goes for Joshua too, who I just covered, who does pigeon doll. Just like really the way like he like the lens through which he looks at women is really nice, but Will has that that quality to him as well. That's cool. Uh I really admire. Um, but yeah, he also um the reason that there's a basketball in his artidex, which people probably don't know, but he like I think he did basketball for a long time. I don't know if he'd like played professional. I might have just been in college. He was just like, I think he played college basketball.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:18

Oh, so he was good, he was really good.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:21

He was legit. Um and uh so I was like, take the ball out. I'm like, let's toss it around. And so I and uh so I was like, he didn't want to throw it at me for that like one shot. I'm like, throw it at the phone. Yeah, I'm like, just throw it. Like, it's fine if it hits me. It's fine. He's like, are you sure? And I'm like, he's so nice. I'm like, dude, just throw the ball. So um, so for that shot where he like throws the ball and it like hits the lens for the transition. Um, that that was really cool. Um, but again, just like a really multifaceted person. And then like in the middle of his artidex, he got mail, and it was a giant box. And I was like, dude, what's in the box? And he was like, Oh, he's like, I forgot I ordered this. It's like 10 volumes of this rare, expensive. Like, is it manga or manga?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:07

Manga.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:08

Manga? Yeah, yeah. Okay, potato potato. I didn't want to mess up. He's like, it's this rare, like all of these volumes of this rare, expensive manga.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:16

Do you know what one it was?

SPEAKER_04 1:15:18

They were red, they were leather, they were bound. I don't know. I'll I'll have to I'll have to research that for you. Uh as you know, something that like it's a world I've been like curious about, but I haven't like fully I haven't dove in, and a lot of people have given me recommendations of things they think I would like that I just haven't gotten around to exploring yet. But um, but that was really cool because then like I like had like a very quick snippet of him like opening the box and he looked so happy. He looked like a kid on Christmas. Um, but yeah, that was cool to like show, you know, I showed like a little bit of his like fridge, which has pictures of him, has pictures with his dad, um him opening this like mail he got in the middle, his like a nod to his like basketball past, and then like how he makes photos. So again, just like a super like beautiful, multi-talented, multi-faceted person. Um and I just I really love how his his came out really good, I think.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:10

Yeah, it was awesome. It was definitely awesome.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:12

Yeah. So um, but yeah, those are the first five. I mean, oh, one other thing I should plug about Will, because I don't think I feel like artists don't plug themselves, honestly. No, we don't, um uh, unless you're prompted to or given given like a specific setting. Um, but like, I mean, he's just like incredible. He's like shot like Gavin Newsom for the cover of like a major magazine. He's done like he's done stuff for the Times, Billboard, like make he's he's not just like he's not just like your friendly neighborhood photographer, even though he gives your friendly neighborhood photographer, he's like in major publications and gets like paid to try. I think he just like went to Japan to do like a whole series for some specific publication that I don't I don't remember exactly, and I'm probably not even allowed to say anyway. So um, but yeah, he's just a super impressive down-to-earth guy. Um, and and of course, and I've joked about this, but like during his session, I was I'm still just getting uh used to this new camera, the Polaroid i2 that I have is like a relatively recent camera that they released, and it's this hybrid between analog and digital. Yeah, so it has manual features on it and different like settings. So you can you can do auto, but you also can do like an aperture priority mode. There's like a self-timer mode, there's a dual exposure mode. And I was still learning the camera, and I hadn't realized, but like it was accidentally like on the dual exposure mode. So like the shutter, I thought, like, kept getting stuck in the middle of a shoot. And I was like, dude, I don't know what's happening. Like I'm I'm pressing the button and it's just like sticking for some reason. And it's like so embarrassing because it's like I'm trying to take a photograph of a photographer and like my camera's not working. And I'm like, oh my god, this is so embarrassing. Um, but he was like super sweet about it, and he like helped me figure out my own camera so that I could take his picture properly. Oh, he's like, he's like, oh, you're just on like uh double exposure mode. And I was like, oh, of course. That was simply what it was. Yeah, I didn't even know that I didn't even know that existed on that camera.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:17

You had no idea that was a thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:18

Yeah, I had no idea that was a thing on the camera. Afterwards, I obviously learned my lesson and read the manual, but um, you know, at that time it was just like super uncanny to like be messing up the taking of the photo of the photographer. Yeah, like it's like it's like having to sing in front of a singer and your voice cracks.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:35

True.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:36

It's just like the worst. I was like, oh no. But um, but he was super just like sweet and helpful, and his his came out pretty good at in the end. Um, you know, it looks pretty cool. So I'm happy with it.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:47

Yeah, no, I think it looks super cool. Um, yeah, I'd I'd love to meet him sometime as well.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:51

Yeah, he's he's a cool guy. Um, but yeah, I mean, I just um went to LA over the weekend. That was pretty crazy. I got three done in a row.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:00

Yeah, which is wild. I know, I know leading up to the LA trip, you uh you had a lot of mixed feelings about going out there.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:07

Yeah, yeah. Well, just because, like I said, you know, it's so hard to know um what people's lives are really gonna look like around that time. Like you can you can set a plan and be like, hey, do you want to hang out on XYZ date? And people will say yes and they'll mean it, and then like something comes up, you know, and that's just like how life goes, especially as an adult. Yeah, of course. Um, it's just like it's just such a mixed bag, and that's like to be expected and totally okay. But it's just like when you're spending four grand or whatever, whatever it is for like a flight, a hotel, multiple dinners and Ubers, totally fine. But like you do want some level of commitment, yeah. Where you know, you if like I'm going out there, I want to at least get one, you know. So um I just was like really hoping they would pan out, and they and they did. I got, I mean, I got three, so that was that was awesome, and I was super grateful about that. Um, and I think they came out amazing.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:57

I'm excited.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:57

I was really, really, really happy with them. Um and uh the one the one that's coming out next, which will probably be out by the time that um we we air this, yeah, yeah. It'll be out. So it's Hannah Beth.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:11

Uh and I'm gonna legend. Yeah, the legend, the icon.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:16

Absolute icon.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:17

Yeah. She was just like super incredible. And I actually wanted to show you really quick. Um, so in her apartment, which we'll talk about this more when I just cover one through 10, but um, her apartment is basically a museum from 2005. Okay. And there's like a million, just like plushies. Like she loves a plushie toy. Yeah, like a like a laboooboo. She's got like 10,000 laboo boos of all different colors, shapes, and sizes. Um, and she was always known like for doing like these bag charms and also phone charms.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:47

Um, so I brought, I brought that's what's in this weird bag over here. I just like didn't know what else to put it in to hide it from you so that you wouldn't see what it is.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:55

I'm not gonna lie, I literally just thought that was a you thought it was trash. Yeah, I thought it was a bag of trash.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:00

It's actually a bag full of plushies that Hannah Beth gave.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:03

Oh, let's go. Let's go. So I'm gonna like give you like if anybody knows me, they know that I I mess with the plushies. That's it. 100%.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:10

So um, so she was so cool because she had them on her phone. I was like, damn, man, you're making me want to do that. She's like, Oh, I'll do it for you. And I was like, what? And she's like, Oh, yeah, I have a ton. Let me just get you some. Like, what's your favorite color? Which nicest thing in the world. Sick, yeah. But um, I'm just gonna like show you some of these guys.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:26

Look at this guy. I love it.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:28

Look at him. Or her. I don't really know. Yeah, but um, Lila Lila toys. I don't really know a lot about these. I'm not like in the game. I don't know. I'm not like in the I'm not in the field.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:39

Um so I'm not like super in the game. Like, I'm in the Pokemon game, you know. That's and that's kind of like my uh my reference point. And like I know about a lot of this stuff and I've I've seen it, but I'm not like deep in it, you know what I mean? But this this type of stuff is really cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:54

Um, yeah, so we got this little dude. I'm just put him right there. I love the little bow tie. Yeah, I told her my favorite colors were like baby blue and and black, so she just like did a spin-off.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:04

I did not know those were your favorite colors. Oh, we got the black on black.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:08

That's isn't that isn't that hard? Yeah, that's pretty fire. It's fire.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:12

No, the black on black is sick.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:14

Yeah, it's it's like an all-black labu-boo. Yeah, um, which is like kind of goth and metal and like just sick in general.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:20

Um, this is like I think it's a telephone. I don't know. It looked, it says hello on it. So I'm gonna go with it. It looks like a little blue, plushy telephone there.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:28

I like this little charm on it, too.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:30

Yeah, you can hang it on a bag.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:32

It's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:33

Um, this is a character from SpongeBob, I believe. I think this is like Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:38

I cannot oh if Kate was here, she would remember what his name is. Um, I I can't remember.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:46

I think he's like, I thought he was one of the posse members, like the meat, Kevin Meep.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:49

I'm one of those guys. I feel really, really ashamed that I cannot remember what his name is. Um, but I know that he uh he has some iconic lines.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:00

He's not the diet Dr. Kelp guy. Is he? I don't know. We need I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:08

I'm I'm I I need to brush up on my SpongeBob. It's been it's it's probably been too long.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:12

Um, and then this actually, this is what she put on my phone. I took it off for work, obviously, because I don't have a separate work phone from my from my personal phone. But it goes in your phone like this, and this hangs off your whole phone.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:24

This is nuts.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:25

Is that not insane?

SPEAKER_03 1:23:26

Wait, so how does this go? How does this attach to your phone?

SPEAKER_04 1:23:29

So like you unhook this little tab here from this class, insert this tab into your phone case and clip your phone case on, and then it holds it through your phone case. Oh, that's cheap. Like this little tab comes through the bottom.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:43

Um, and that yeah. And she just had like a phone, like that with all this stuff just ha hanging off casually. And I was like, that's hard.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:50

Yeah, that's that's sick, actually.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:52

I actually put it on my backpack when I went to work.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:55

I dig that. I like I like all this stuff on here.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:57

There's also a clown on it that says why so serious, which is fully me.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:01

Also, did you intentionally do the eight ball because it's okay?

SPEAKER_04 1:24:05

No, so the the eight ball came from artist number 11, who I don't I don't think artist number 11 will be out by the time we release this, so I'm not gonna say who it is. Yeah, but artist number 11 had a bunch of them in their apartment, and I commented on it. I was like, eight balls are following me around right now. Yeah, and they were like, Do you want this keychain? And I was like, I do. I do, in fact. Yeah, so that was just a coincidence. Okay, and I saved my favorite one for last.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:31

Let's go.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:33

Ooh, how freaking adorable! This is bad.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:37

This is cool. This one is really cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:39

I don't know why, I just love it so much. Yeah, it's just got giant ears, yeah, it's super cute, and and just the feet. Look at the little feet.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:46

Oh, yeah, the little feet and the little hands.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:49

The tiny hands. I don't even know what this is called, but I love it. It's great. Its expression is like fully on brand, I would say. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:59

Just uh just vibing.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:01

Yeah, for sure. Um, but yeah, she she gave me all of these and it made my whole week, to be honest. Um, it was pretty, pretty cool to meet your hero and then get a bunch of like plushies from them.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:14

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:14

Quite quite clutch, quite clutch. Um but actually it was really funny. Uh, I'll talk about it a little bit more during the the five through time, but just briefly, she like we had met like once before, but Hannah like thought we had like hung out like multiple times. It was really funny. She's like, Yeah, like we used to go out together, right? And I was like, No, but I was like, we can, we can do that. But it was so we do have overlapping social circles, like Rachel since Rachel, who's number one, knows her, and then my friend um Aileen, who's a makeup artist, also knew her. So we like had some mutual friends and like overlapping circles, but like we had never like hung out before, and it was so funny. She's like, Yeah, like we've hung out. And I was like, Hannah, we've we've never hung out, but we can't, we are now, like we can. But it was it that was really, really funny. Um, but uh we became fast friends too and like really clicked, which was which was cool. But we'll talk, I'll talk more more about that day and that that Artidex at a later time. But hopefully we we covered, I think we covered a lot of ground.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:16

Yeah, for sure. We definitely did.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:17

I hope my phone didn't die.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:18

So I I don't know if you mentioned this, but is is Artodex a uh are is is Artidex accepting applications at this time? Like is this an open thing or are you kind of just covering the the people who you have a personal connection with?

SPEAKER_04 1:26:35

Like I it I mean it's a little bit of both. I I definitely like absolutely trust my friend's opinion. Like I've had people who have done the Artodex be like, oh, you know who you should do? Yeah, my friend, blah blah blah. And then like they'll they're linking me with their friends, and their friends are super cool, and I'm like very excited about it. So, like, yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:56

But maybe some sometime down the line you may open up that would be a way for people to uh that would be legit.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:03

If I if I I'm trying to be more legit, yeah. One of the future Artidexes was like, Do you have a photo release form? And I was like, uh no. Yeah, I was like, it's just been me and my friends, but I was like, you do make a fair point. Yeah. So then I uh sat with Chat GPT for six hours and like made the chillest photo release form I could possibly cook up.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:27

Cool, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:27

Where it's like it's legit, but it's also just like very chill. I even put like a too long didn't read on it.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:34

At the bottom, I'm like, if you don't want to read this, it basically just says like all of the art that's in the video is yours and like the actual content that I filmed is mine. Yeah, and that's really it.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:45

That is the interesting part about doing this, is as as you get further into it, um, it's it's becoming more legit. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 1:27:52

It's uh yeah. I actually just got the notification that it was like accepted by the state of South Carolina as like the Artodex Foundation is now like a non-profit.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:01

Oh, for the 501c uh classification or whatever. That's that's awesome, dude.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:06

Pinky is up 503 5013 C. Yeah, yeah. So I well, I still gotta do all like the IRS bowl. I'm gonna get like an accountant to do that because I can't that'll pull my hair out. But um, but yeah, so that's gonna be really cool because that's gonna basically be like the mechanism through which I give artists the grants and also accept money from sponsors that the company is like a donating money to the grant pool to help artists, and then B, they're also like technically sponsoring the podcast and the videos, yeah. And then C, they can also use it as a tax write-off because it's a nonprofit.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:44

Yeah, of course. No, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:46

It's like a I'm trying to give like the triple appeal here. Like you're getting some advertisement, you're helping people, you can write this bull crap off, you know. It's it's uh it's good, it's good for your taxes, it's good for your heart, it's good for your soul.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:58

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:58

Um, so I mean, you know, hope hopefully, but yeah, it's nice to see like the first steps coming to fruition. Hello. This is not for you. Or maybe it is. She's like it is now. Yeah, I guess so. I guess she's she's part of the pod for sure. I think so. Um I think I mean, I feel like we covered a lot of ground.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:21

Yeah, I feel like we did. Is there anything else that you need to uh no you want to dive into real quick?

SPEAKER_04 1:29:27

Or well what I would I guess what I can say is I do have a podcast uh with Joshua, who I think maybe that podcast will come out right after this podcast. Yeah. Um from Pigeon Doll. Because now I'm trying to do podcasts with the artists as well, because that was also a recommendation and a request.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:43

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:44

So and and I am I just want to preface this to everyone involved, like even you in the room. Like, I've I've never done this before. Um, and I'm still like learning how to be better. I'm learning how to be a better photographer again. Like, I know I went to photo school, but like I'm relearning it. It's like if you don't play, if you don't play piano for for 12 years, you're not gonna like be able to throw down a concerto at the drop of a hat. So I'm like reteaching myself photography. I'm learning how to do this podcast stuff I've never done before. So I just appreciate everyone's patience and grace as this um hopefully gets better over time.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:20

Yeah, yeah, we're we're learning. And uh it's I mean, it's good that you're open to suggestions.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:26

Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. We love suggestions. But hopefully we have a jingle for this one.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:30

Yeah, yeah, we should. And a little intro.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:32

A little intro. All right.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:34

Well, we're getting official.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:35

We're getting official. I think this is a good good conclusion. So thank you to everyone who's listening. We uh we really appreciate you you joining us and and listening to us yap for like an hour straight.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:45

Um, and and for your support. And certainly, if you if anyone listening to this is interested in the Artidex or being in the Artidex, donated to the Artidex, being interviewed, um, just reach out to us at the Artidex at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:57

Yeah, absolutely. And like I said earlier, please go and check out all of the uh the artists that have been a part of this project so far. Absolutely. They're all really, really cool and they deserve your attention.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:08

Uh-huh. And we will we'll link all their stuff. We'll name drop at the end, like link it in the show show description.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:13

Yeah, we'll put all their stuff down there.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:14

Yeah, for sure. Thanks for uh thanks for rocking with us.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:17

See you next time.