My names Eamonn … I’m from Saint Paul Minnesota … Growing up there … (laughter) … I don’t know why I thought of this first … It reminds me of Peanuts … Charlie Brown … Love the feeling of those environments … It’s kind of desolate in some way … but it’s clearly a community … there’s a lot of people … it’s definitely a city … Sometimes … being in Chicago … when I tell people I’m from Minnesota  they don’t think of a city … unless I say it’s a bridge-way from Minneapolis … and they kind of understand … It’s very urban … but … it still has that feeling … for sure … of quiet … it’s very quiet … especially in the winter … when there’s snow on the ground … It’s beautiful … it’s kind of haunting … but it’s beautiful … Both of my parents are artists … Both of my parents are also teachers … My dad is a poet … and he taught creative writing … and my mom taught … directs theater … at high school … the high school I ended up going to … and so I was always involved in … I was never encouraged … but the options were as valid as anything else … to do … art … with my time … or something physically active … or mentally active … What I was into I think … mostly was … acting in my own play … and I still do this … I remember narrating a lot to myself … it was a movie .. and I was the narrater … I was really really interested in that … It kind of happens when you play with toys … it was my own life … Yeah … I think that’s what I did the most … I wasn’t creating so much … but then I started making … those stories … into music … Poetry is what I’ve made the most of … I started playing the guitar at a really young age … around eleven … I picked up a guitar … but before that … there were two guitars around the house … one was twelve strings and one was six strings … both acoustic … and I would be playing whatever … and my dad would never … as much as I wanted him to teach me something … he wouldn’t say no … he would give me some kind of tricky response … like … you’re already playing … or something like that … and he would do it all of the time … if I asked what a word meant … he’d be like … “What do you think it means?” … I would write a lot of music … Did my folks play music? … Yeah … My dad did … My mom played the piano and sang … it was more in a private environment at home … My dad played music … and tried to involve himself with bands … playing the guitar and singing … he wrote a lot of the lyrics for any of the bands he was in … and that’s how he got more into poetry … as time went on … I have one brother … I’m thirteen months older then him … We’re very close in age … and also just … spiritually … I was actually thinking about this yesterday … it’s sort of … we weren’t thinking about it in the beginning  of things … so … it was kind of collaborative in that sense … but I don’t even know what the form would be … I guess … it would be kind of like him playing … and me writing … or vice versa … almost like joking around … like if we had just a melody … and somebody else adds words to it … As we’ve grown older … we’ve become more comfortable with separate identities … or just our own distinct identities … which overlap in their interests … my brother plays music all the time … he comes up with a project … and he finds people to fill it … and then they commit together until … there’s a departure … and then he finds a new form … He’s in Chicago too … he also goes to Columbia … he’s going to graduate this year … High school? …. It was an interesting … thing … in high school in particular … In grade school and middle school … I was more …  I didn’t really have a desire … to prove myself in any way … or a desire to make myself understandable … as like an artist … or somebody that’s into anything … like that … guy … with whatever variable you want to fill in … When I got to high school … I wanted to … I went to a private Catholic high school … so … the theater community is pretty much … the only outlet for people that don’t fall into the … “box” … So … I came in … and people were like … My mom goes by KK … Katie Kreitzer … So people were … This is KK’s son … It was so much to deal with … and I didn’t want to involve myself in that … and then … I eventually started doing sound and lighting … for every show … my sophomore year … till I graduated high school … I liked it … I liked doing it a lot … I acted in one show … but yeah … After high school … I had to find somewhere … to go … I … didn’t have to go to college … my parents gave me options … I didn’t want to commit to any options back home … I didn’t have other means … like I do now … to just create … either … I only got into fashion a year ago … but Chicago … I had just known about through … the music … and the culture of art that I had been hearing about through the music … When I was a sophomore in high school … this artist named Chief Keef … blew up the world basically … the music world … and just radicalized everything … just changed everything … in my opinion … it made me aware of Chicago … From then on … I had the finger on the pulse … until … characters like Chance the Rapper came along … and I was like … “wow” … this is … in  Chicago … So that was about the time that I had to make a decision … I had heard of Columbia … because … my improve coach … I didn’t do any improve … but he was the improve coach … from high school … had graduated from there … I was passionate about photography … and writing … and they had a photojournalism program … and it’s in downtown Chicago … So … I thought it would be … resourceful … I guess … an intense location to get stories … So it all made sense … and I thought it was a strong enough comment to start there … The initial experience was … it was challenging … in a questioning sort of way … I have to make art … I have to think about what this is … I remember thinking about that a lot … because … my photography class was once a week … and every week there were … in the middle of class … critiques … and it’s a class of about fifteen or twenty … and … it was one of the most intense things … because I’d never gone through any sort of critique before … if I ever performed my music … it was … there’s not really a critique for that … you’re kind of on stage … and you do it … The critique is … before you go on stage … almost … when somebody decides they want you to perform … whatever they think is ok … In that classroom setting … it was like … “wow” … it really pushed me to … and I had a great teacher … that made me see things differently … There’s a moment where … this is one of the first couple of weeks being in Chicago … where … it was the first photography class … and my teacher took us outside … and told us to freely shoot within a two block perimeter … and he found me … or I found him … during that thirty minute interval of time … and he was like … “What do you see?” … I was so nervous … because I didn’t know what I saw … but I found something true … and I told him that it was the outline of all the … buildings … and the shape that they make … just that line … and he was … “Ah … ok … ok” … and he told me to zoom in … really far … and hit this point where all these buildings were overlapping with each other … and he’s like … “That’s some really abstract information man” … and he told me that … and wow … when you zoom in on a certain thing it just kind of changed everything for me … or go far back enough … It just introduced me to the idea of abstraction … and how there’s little moments happening everywhere … and then you think about the universe all differently … this is all … reflective of nature … to me I think … And … that started changing … my path in school … because my mind had changed … it became … multi media photojournalism … and then became audio … that’s where I’m at right now … Designing clothes … comes from … I learned the most from film … a community of film makers … and directors … and I learned the most about what can be said from … unspoken things … and art generated from film … and that influenced my music just incredibly … what I want to say with words … what is being said … and what’s being left out … It just enhanced my understanding … of storytelling … in general … I met the right people … we got this warehouse space … we started a community of artists that fluctuated over two years … Eventually … there were two people … that knew how to sew … and I came across a sewing machine … for twenty dollars … and … one of them loved me enough to be patient with me to teach me how to … how to do the basics … and taught me how to set up the machine … I got a sheet of fabric … from a place out in Pilsen … it was really interesting … it was an advertisement for package deals … for weddings and fine dining … and there was something about it having so many objects … that I wanted to make a shirt out of it … So … I made a shirt out of it … and I realized what I liked … and didn’t like about that process … and what I liked was the text … what I didn’t like … was making something that new … The clothes kind of come from … finding text … creating a story from two separate stories … and being able to … literally cut them in half … and put them together … again … there’s something just about it that … has taken over … my … heart … really … because I still consider myself all these things … I have been … like … with my words … even through making clothes … people say … that you’re into fashion … to me … I don’t ever correct them … because … it’s not wrong … but … I don’t feel like I’m not a writer … I feel like I’m a writer … through clothes … through textile … I … this is jumping slightly back to … before I got into clothes … For a year … I got obsessed with the art of free styling … because I rap … and I’ve been rapping for ten years  … and it was just stemming from poetry … seeing life through metaphors … as my dad would explain things … as a parent … you know … The hero’s in society for me have … just happened to be rappers … there’s something about that role … that is really powerful with what’s around in the world today … I think … It just makes a lot of sense to me … so I started doing it … and then I started doing so much that it kind of became a constant thing … and last year it got to the point where … I was around so many musicians … who were so willing to hop on the drum set … and we were in this warehouse all the time … so we had … everything set up … and we could just like … they would just switch roles … they all knew how to play each others instruments … and … I would just be there … soaking it up … and I’d feel it so intensely … my body would move … and I had little control over it … And eventually … I collaborated with them … bringing them pieces I had written … and … they were aware of my skills … and I would be around … and I’d pick up the microphone … and just … “go” … and I would freestyle … and it would be as good as anything I could write … which is the strangest part … I don’t understand why that is … but … I don’t force it … I just let it jump out of me … It’s something about … that threshold of how much control I apply … to what I make … that feels really good … to me … and that still is around with the clothes … too … I’ll be at a thrift store … and I’ll see something with a text or an image … and I’ll purchase it … and somebody will give me a shirt because they’re trying to minimize their closet … or they’re traveling and they need to get rid of most of their stuff … that has happened a lot … one of them will remind me of a piece that I had forgotten I had gotten … and I’m like … “right here is a story” … just like how it came out of my brain … when there was music … and I’m sure it’s going to shift again … I don’t know if it’s going to be something new … or something … from before … As far as our social climate … I have been going with this phrase … I said it one time … about what I make … in my Instagram bio … where I post all these clothes … it says … “Produce without judgement or exclusion” … I can think about it further … but right now that’s where I’m at … and in terms of that … it’s like the free styling with the words … today … we live in an age where thoughts are judged … and concluded upon … like … immediately … and very strongly … I would like the space to make mistakes … and to learn … and become better … to understand myself better too … and I do that through being checked … making a statement … Sometimes I hardly know what I’m saying … and then somebody has a reaction to it … and I’ll rely on them to be honest with me … about how they feel … sometimes I’ll ask somebody how they feel … and sometimes people just tell you … I really appreciate that … because it helps me become better … helps me become wiser … helps me focus in … I think it’s the least biased … it helps me say something more precisely … and I don’t think there’s much of a space for that right now … It’s just a hard commitment to what one believes in … and presenting it … and not really … feeling so strongly about it that you don’t … hear any of the reflections from the walls … like other people … As far as social media … Instagram is … hilarious … it’s such an interesting thing … it makes me smile … because … especially going to college … they teach you the industry of art … and there’s such an emphasis on networking … and making sure you have a website … and I’m not … I don’t have any thoughts to share on that … what I’m trying to say … Instagram just suffices that for me … I am developing a website right now … but I haven’t needed it to actually present my art … to get it out there … and have people want to buy it … or engage with it in someway … collaborate … if they’re a model or if they’re a photographer … all I’ve had to do is post it on Instagram … which is a free app … and I didn’t have to do any type of branding or anything … it was … knowing people through going to shows … or them coming to events when we had the studio in the warehouse … and it just started as reselling clothes … and they would follow the page … and I’d start posting things I make … So … I’m a fan of it … but … what we were just talking about … with expressing your ideals … on Twitter … or Instagram … they’re the two I think about the most … that’s even less … of an allowance for understanding … Its … A B … A B … A B … A B … there’s no evolution of the letters … to get to X Y and Z … and it changes when the individual changes … but I don’t know if there’s much of a collective effort to understand … I would like there to be … I don’t know if it’s possible … that’s … the downside of it … But there’s a lot of good things … and you can push yourself forward … you can promote your posts … I haven’t thought if it’s good or bad … or doing it myself … I originally found out about Virgil Abloh through Twitter … I was following him … A rapper who was underground at the time … now he’s one of the most mainstream rappers … They have their partner in crime … it wasn’t a rapper … it was a stylist figure … and got them signed to A$AP Rocky’s label … after that … Virgil had been working with Kanye for a decade … ever since Kanye’s “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” … I think Virgil did the art direction for the … tour … At that point … Virgil used them as models because … he was trying to … for lack of a better word … capitalize on their … power within social media … because they were creating such a noise … and they were such a fresh … radical perspective on … lifestyle brands … music … the connection between those two things … and social media being a medium … and so they put out their ad campaign … just through social media … I look back on those years so fondly … They were my … heroes … because they just pushed themselves into it … and created things … I remember thinking about how the music sounded then … and me even questioning it … and now I listen to music today … it’s smooth … it makes sense … more things have started to revolve around what they started … I don’t know how Virgil would have happened … or anybody … unless there were this means of just projecting yourself without any type of … power … or ability … except for … attention … and the economics of your attention … Where are things heading for me? … I’ve been feeling a call to go to New York since … I don’t think it was a year ago … but it was over a half a year ago … It was when I was learning about … I think it was in the eighties … the subway system was just filled with people … I don’t know much about that still … but just feeling inspired to … not to do that … but to figure out … something there … I guess I get inspired by … potential chaos … and applying something that is orderly … the process of craft and art I have right now … and applying it to a chaotic city … but then it’s pretty unpredictable about where it would go … and … I’m ok with that … but it makes things hard to plan … I don’t really know where I’ll be going next … or what the future of my art is … I know what has felt like the most challenging … scary … and then at the same time … because of that … on the other side of the coin … confident … the most confidence because of those things …  feeling like its something holy … I’m called to do something … I think if I keep my finger on that pulse … it will lead me somewhere …