orange / prey - first gradients visual installment
june 11th, 2017
these long days are consistent when trying to make things happen. we began the shoot for orange at 4:00 AM, in order to catch the sunrise... and wow. we were driving up to this remote spot right outside of los angeles, and as we were passing by this wondrous mountain, the sun began peaking out creating these angelic rays of light piercing through the clouds; reflecting on the green mountains. i can't really put into words how beautiful that was, while riding in an old camaro haha. the team, deangelo, marques, natey and taylor all were ready upon arrival, to bust this out. i couldnt of felt more blessedto be surrounded by nature, with a team that is willing to work hard (at 4 AM) to create a visual taylor and i came up with months ago... this being the first visual from gradients, i wanted it right; and everyone understood that. to be on the same page... wow.
the day consisted of fresh poke, straight from the ocean, coronas at 10 AM, driving back and forth on a mountain top, dodging cars; figuring out how in the hell we would mount a camera onto a moving vehicle without destroying it (pictured above), how to keep deangelo from falling out of a car in front of me driving, also without destroying him or the camera... among many other things. it was a full 12 hour shoot, and i couldn't be happier.
the second part of the video, prey, was a bit different. i met with my close friend, jerel, just to hang out. we randomly decided to try and shoot a video for the song, to add right before release. jmo (jerel) being the genius he is, set up a light and we got to shooting... 10 minutes later we had all of the shots done and i edited up what you seein the video that night... when things fall together like they did you really start to wonder
that this was supposed to happen, exactly as it did. that is something ill remember,
always.
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gradients release show
march 11th, 2017
what a long day. i had printed 50 shirts, been rehearsing for the last two weeks (after
JUST finishing the project) had to pick up and drop off the stage that day, my squad
helped me SO MUCH with sooo much, but somehow i still found ways to stress haha.
the event started at 7 and everything was set. our only real run through got cut short
because.. well.. the event started haha. at about 8 pm i was beginning to get a bit worried
...BUT. around 8-830 piles of people began coming in, loving the energy. at one point
there was just a bunch of people i had never seen in my life coming in, which i wasnt
mad about. beautiful people, with even more beautiful energy. even the people i didnt
know, it was filled with some of the best people ive met in la. lucky me haha. we started
the performance around 930; which like i said above, we had zero time to realistically
prep for. andrew was doing live lights that we hadnt rehearsed once, i was playing with
a small band made up of natey, trace and ryan, which we added a drummer on who
just happened to bring an electric drum set with him that day, i had multiple songs with
AMAZING dancers on them that i had asked one to do the day before, ryan jumped on
violin AND tapped danced just cuz i asked him too... etc. etc. on my end, it was the first
time running from front to back of gradients in front of anyone ever, in full, on a mic, etc.
shoot. we even had a taco stand, a weed bar, alcohol, an art gallery and merch booths.
looking back, i see a world of changes id make. on my performance, decisions, hell,
even on the project itself. but that isnt the point. the amount of people who approached
me after hearing the project, and seeing the show, who told me it inspired them and
about how excited they are... THAT IS THE POINT. my friends who came up to me crying
out of how proud they were. thats the point. and that is gradients in itself. it is this
constant evolution of growth, and beauty, and disaster, all in one that blends into
its own existence to then create this crazy thing of life. lol. idk. life is crazy and im excited
for the future. to improve. to get back on stage. all of it. i love it all.
thank you.
(photos by dillon j shook / taylor glassman)