IAN ISIAH

Ian Isiah is my name, 26 is my game and Brooklyn is where I am here to stay.
FF - Five years ago what were you doing?
II - Five years ago I was singing and starting a career in something that I didn't think I'd be starting a career in… being an ambassador / creative team member for designing stuff with Shayne from Hood By Air. I never went to school for art or fashion so it was cool growing up with Shayne and watching him really, really do his thing and it pushed me to learn that process. And him being my best friend for all these years we kind of think alike so

it was just easy to create ideas, it was easy talking to him about concepts. And the results of all those concepts were crazy

so something is going right for all of these things to go how it's going. And it's just a great experience, it's basically like I'm learning without paying for it. So it's a blessing.

FF - You're learning from life?
II - I am actually learning from life. So five years ago I quit my job working in retail, at a retail store which is where I met most of my friends that I still know today because they're all still around… but anyway I quit my job and took control of myself and took control of my passion and decided to go out and start doing what I wanted to do, which is singing and writing.

FF - How did your musical interests begin? In choir right?
II - It started in the choir! Brooklyn, New York… two, three years old, I'm in the kitchen… actually it may have started in the kitchen! I wanted to be a drummer first, I'm three years old, I'm in the kitchen, I'm making a drum set out of pots. I was learning the theory of music really young because

by five years old I'm singing in the choir and playing the organ so I developed this thing for music when I was really young.

By junior high school it couldn't get away from me at all, I went to private school where I didn't do anything but sing and play basketball a little bit, from like kindergarten to eighth grade… still singing, creating glee clubs just so I can sing with other people, a bunch of gospel music, R&B music all at the same time. I feel like I listened to that whole thing come together because obviously gospel music is an influence for every genre but in the 90s there was some sort of weird connection where it got even deeper and you really couldn't tell the difference and it was also during the age that I was growing up. Then, in Brooklyn at that time dancehall went insane… dancehall changed the game, it changed life for me, for fashion, style, music, attitude… dancehall basically changed my life in high school. So I started dancing and within me dancing I got a little comfortable with being flamboyant in public, around my normal people, being myself. I met a few people who helped me get started or just helped me realize that it's time and I have to put something out. Not that I wasn't ready and didn't want to do it, I just didn't want to rush anything. So I waited and met a few people I felt confident in as far as producing and co-producing and I made a mixtape called 'Love Champion' last year, which was great.

FF - What was your first project 'Love Champion' about?
II - It's about… the new generation needs to not only be lost in the hook and the lyric, they need to also be lost in the affection of the music, the chord progression and how that intertwines and fucks each other to create a beautiful track. That was kind of the inspiration for the video 'Mind Fuck' because the whole video I'm basically fucking Boy Child, who is an amazing person and amazing performance artist herself.

But basically we fucked the whole video, it was like a soft porn that was immediately taken off of YouTube, because they couldn't handle it.

When I put it out I hosted it on YouTube and YouTube was like get the fuck out of here, basically… I don't know what both of you are, I can't tell if you're a girl, I can't tell if she's a girl, I can't tell if you're a boy, I can't tell if he's a boy… basically being like this is too much for YouTube. So Vimeo tweeted me and was like this video is awesome, everyone check it out. So I put it on Vimeo, I felt like I kinda started a war between YouTube and Vimeo!

FF - Good! As you should! Stir it up…

II - Yeah! The response was really good, a lot of people enjoyed that video and from that I started doing the 'Love Champion' mixtape, which is the first mixtape I actually put out into the world. It's full of a bunch of love songs with a futuristic touch to it. There's a lot of auto tune… because I'm used to singing live, I wasn't used to doing so much studio time and when I saw all this fun auto tune equipment I was like this is fab! It's fun to use auto tune when you can actually sing, because it's actually an instrument.

FF - Tell us about your writing process.
II - I learned to respect that I was also a writer, I learned that if it's corny it's only because I said it was corny. And once I learned to do that is when I actually started writing things down, keeping them and nurturing that. It's a process… I'm still trying to learn how to write better. My process for writing, honestly right now is just like if I have an idea instead of me writing it down I tweet it and if somebody likes it then someone likes that lyric.

FF - Any upcoming projects?
II - I've been writing a lot and working on some brand new music, working with brand new people. I put 'Love Champion' out with Uno Records and I'm now working with new people as well as Uno Records. I'm really excited about it…

there's no titles to anything right now but it's really beautiful music.

I have so many songs already… I have like 50 songs in iTunes already done and recorded, which can possibly be sold, I'm in that process too of learning how to sell my songs and working with other artists and writing for them and stuff like that, it's going quite well.

FF - If your life was a movie what would be on its soundtrack?
II - If my life was a movie I don't know if it'd be a soundtrack, it'd actually be a link to like a 48 hour Spotify situation where you're able to have like twenty playlists that would involve my whole life. Playlist's full of like Brandy 'Full Moon', Beyonce… all of them!, Jasmine Sullivan, Ella Fitzgerald… these are my people I listen to daily. Uh… Jodeci, John Legend, so many people I can't even name… I would just have a playlist of everything I cried to, smoked to, fucked to, laughed to. And Sizzla Kalonji! Everything!

FF - What are the qualities of a life well lived?
II - (1) Love for yourself. (2) Understanding that the answer to a relationship equation is 50% on both parties. And (3) accepting learning, accepting failing, accepting obstacles.

FF - What is your message?
II - The message is to activate, that's my message that I believe in. Like you talk a lot of game bro… but it's not going to come to pass unless you activate it. I understand activating might be hard, it's a process, but you have to… I think that's my message to the youth. Also, nothing is new under the sun, everything that we're doing now has been done before on different terms, you can modify or update something but honestly the sun did not change… it goes up, it comes down, people die, people were born and the mind just elevates, it's about elevating your mind.

Nothing is new under the sun, we're all creative people but it's about the force that you put behind your creativity and how you activate it that is going to make it different from someone else who might have that same talent or same gift that you have and have done nothing with it.

You don't want to be that person, you want to be the person that activates that. And then you'll reap the harvest and the benefit of that. All these great, creative people that I appreciate and learned from, like McQueen and all these other great people that really can't handle it in their mind so they commit suicide… no! I'm not doing that. I do believe in destiny, I do believe in living it out, I do believe in reaping the harvest that I put in. It's your gift, respect your gift! And activate it! Boom! Once you activate that gift you lit! That's it!

you can listen to Ian here and follow him here.
as told to: Olivia Seally // video: Olivia Seally

JASMINE SOLANO

There’s something truly admirable about a person who has let their passions in life lead them in all the right directions. For Brooklyn-based DJ Jasmine Solano, a.k.a. JSMN, her love of music has taken her all around the world and back to spin for high profile brands (DKNY, Apple, Nike and Topshop, just to name a few), and celebrities (including a little artist known as Beyoncé…) alike.

But it’s not just her incredibly diverse taste in music that’s impressive; the Philadelphia-native and one half of the DJ party duo Electric Punanny has the kind of work ethic and intelligence that would make any workaholic jealous. While in college, Solano created her own major, “music activism quest,” which was basically a triple major in music production, marketing and socio-politics. Then later on in life, she was inspired by her non-stop work schedule to create and host MTV Iggy’s Scratch The Surface. The show documented her efforts to discover something new and interesting in every city she finds herself in because, for her, music is anthropology.

TR: How did you first encounter music?

JS: My first encounter was through my mother playing strictly classic soul in the house. I was 5 years old listening to James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding. Classic soul connected me to music. With that being the first genre I was ever introduced to, it set my standards pretty high. My musical taste varies, but it always has to have soul.

TR:  What are your go-to tunes for:

– Getting out of bed and seizing the day?

JS:  Aretha Franklin “Groovin’”.

– Hitting the gym/spin class/going for a run?

JS:  Gappy Ranks “Baddest”.

– Hyping up as you get ready for a night out?

JS: JamieXX ft. Popcaan “Good Times”.

for the full article head to the Rhapsody.

Words: Portia Baladad / Photos: Olivia Seally

COREY WASHINGTON

My name is Corey Washington, I'm 21 years old and I'm from Baltimore, Maryland.

FF - Five years ago what were you doing?

CW- I definitely saw myself modeling... my high school was kind of like college, we had majors and mine was culinary. So I was cooking, cleaning, learning how to do catering events, actually going to other schools and serving what we cooked for thanksgiving. But that's low key something I want to do, I want to be involved in that and have something with my recipes, maybe even a food truck, something I can just come back to. That came from high school, but when I was in high school I didn't really want to cook actually, I just loved to eat (laughs). I really just wanted to model, like even my chef knew what I wanted to do. So as soon as I turned 18 I started going to New York.

FF - Was there one specific opportunity you feel broke you out or was it just coming to New York?

CW - It was just coming to New York honestly because opportunities happened one after the other. I wouldn't say that there was one specific thing that put me on the map. But there have been a lot of great opportunities that I wouldn't have got had I not moved up here, definitely.

FF - What's your favorite project or shoot you've worked on so far?

CW - That would be my art exhibit two years ago, it was my first time showing my artwork ever. People didn't even know that I paint because I've never shown any work on Instagram or Twitter or anything. I just released the flyer and it was a really great turn out! I was so nervous, I didn't really know what I was doing (laughs). It was cool.

FF - And what do you do now?

CW - So now modelling isn't something I really want to do full time but it's something that has been happening more frequently. But I really love to paint, and create and make art, draw, sketch every day. I like to paint on furniture too!

FF - Did you grow up in a creative household?

CW - Both of my parents are painters. My mom is more of a perfectionist and always teaches me how to erase and go back and fix stuff. And my Dad is more of an abstract painter, so both of them I got that from when I was young.

And photography... my brother used to shoot videos and do photography, so I learned that from him. And then cooking came from high school, I spent four years doing that. So all of these things I have years of knowledge in but I'm still learning it. So I don't really like to think of myself as someone who's a pro at it, but I know my shit.

FF - So would you consider yourself more of a sophomore / junior?

CW - Yeah I'm like sophomore / junior, you know. Still learning, even though I'm not in college doesn't mean I'm not reading books every day or I'm not like watching documentaries or reading articles online. I look that stuff all the time.

FF - What is the goal?

CW - The goal is just to learn more so I can be able to expand. I just want to evolve, that's really the goal. There's pin points and things I want to do but I don't like to put like deadlines because I can say I want to do something and plan it out key by key but it's not going to go that way. I'm not in a rush, I just want everything to happen naturally. And I'm already making a lot of work now that people don't know about so we'll see...

FF - Do you have a specific dream creative project?

CW - Yeah, to build and design my own house. I want it really rustic, really like this actually (looks around room), like minimal but big plants. My mom always had big plants in the house and she always has a garden around the entire house, she still does. Tomatoes on the side, I want to grow my own vegetables...

FF - What's stopping you from that?

CW - Um, to get there... I just need my money to work for me.

FF - Who are your personal inspirations?

CW - One person that definitely inspires me is Michelle Patterson because she just moved to Los Angeles, got a job in the field that she's studying, in a different state. And then she gets to come back and get treated like a queen in her hometown. And that's a really great feeling, to come back to where you started and where you were raised but be at this level and be like wow, I've worked so hard and it's paid off whereas I can relax for a month and not have to stay with a friend or family. That's not a bad thing, of course you'll see family. But you know, it feels good to be upgraded at home. You don't really expect that to happen so soon. Another person that inspires me... definitely Melo-X, not even just because that's my boo (laughs) even when we were just friends, like when I first met him, he's always been doing something positive, just always working and always busy. And that's a great thing because what else are you supposed to be doing if you want something bad enough? I see the rewards that come from hard work, from him.

FF - What are the qualities of a life well lived for you?

CW - If you've traveled, found happiness and if you've found love and if you've found a home. Those are the four things... travel, happy, love, home. I pretty much have all four right now... yeah, I have a home, I have love, I have happiness and I've traveled. I can travel a lot more, there's always room for improvement. I think it's important to find those things as soon as you can.

you can follow Corey here.
as told to: Olivia Seally // photos: Olivia Seally

WESLEY O'MEARA

My name is Wesley O’Meara, I’m 35 and I’m a Hair Stylist. I was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, but I’ve been in New York for around 16 years. Five years ago I was at a different (talent representation) agency and everything I did there was really consistent. I was just doing the work that was sent to me, and don’t get me wrong I was really happy, but I think on a personal level, maybe I got complacent. So fast-forward to now and I’m still with the same agent I’ve had for 8 years, but we’re just with a different agency.

Lately I’ve gotten to do some interesting things and I’ve been able to pursue outside opportunities. I still do the same thing. I do hair! I do a lot of Editorial also some red carpet stuff, and now I tend to do a lot more advertising, which I’m not mad about. But in my job you don’t really hop to another level, you’re just consistent and then you get something really good and you ride on that high for a little while.

That’s the life of any freelancer. You do something really high caliber or that you’d actually pay money out of your own pocket to do, and then you ride off of that high of getting those images. And then something comes along and just shits on that, or there’s no work for a while, and you panic like “Fuck this, I’m going to College. I’m going to go be a Para-legal someplace or something” (laughing). But it’s almost like a drug, you keep coming back and I feel like that’s just what freelance life is like. It’s a rollercoaster. It’s insane.

FF: Do you have formal training or education in your field?

Um… it’s kind of unconventional. When I went to Hair School, it really didn’t work for me. This school was very… well like girls would get stabbed! I’m not even kidding, a girl got stabbed. Not that that stuff would go on all the time, but it wasn’t a good environment for learning. And it was expensive so I knew I was being shot in the foot. I got to a point where I was like, ‘I’m going to have to pay for this whether I stay or not. I don’t want to get my license because I don’t want to work in a salon’. So I left school. I had finished maybe half of it.

I had lived in New York for 7 years at that point, so I knew a lot of people that worked in the industry. I got in touch with a friend of mine, Gray Scott, a Hair and Make-up Artist who had started taking pictures and we just started working together.  He had been doing hair and make-up for so long before photography that he showed me how to do a lot of stuff on-set. We worked together for like a year before I signed to an agency. So I definitely didn’t go the conventional route, but I kind of like that. I approach things a little differently because I’ve had less structured training and I’ve been allowed to be more creative, which sometimes ends up being better and I can save time on set.

FF: Do you consider yourself a freshman, sophomore or senior in your field?

Sophomore! I wouldn’t consider myself a senior because I’m only 35 and you’re supposed to retire at 65. I make this joke all the time… a lot of my job is working on set for clients that can be like 25 years old, so I’m already 35 and I’m totally okay if they’re giving me direction and telling me what to do, but I can’t imagine being 60 and having some 25-year-old telling me what to do. I’ll be 50 in 15 years and I can’t imagine still doing some of the stuff that I do now. I mean my hair’s already falling out! If I have to hustle like this for the next 15 years, I’ll be fucking bald (laughs). When I’m a senior I’m going to have like a product line or other business opportunities that would enable me to be more selective with the on-set work. So now I’m working on trying to set that up so I’m not still doing ponytails when I’m 65.

FF: What was the project or opportunity that broke you out of entry level?

There were two! There was the photographer I talked about (Gray Scott) who took me under his wing. So he was the first. He taught me so much about how to behave on set and from that I was able to get some images really quickly. And from those images I was able to work with other Photographers and reach out to Stylists and get word-of-mouth going.

The other one I would say is my agent, Bianca Balconis. I originally met with her about assisting other people. It was just a speculative meeting, but we just really hit it off! So she would try to send me on jobs here and there, but I was starting to get busy on my own at the same time.

She called me about 2 months after we had started talking and was like “I want to sign you” and I was stunned! I mean this agency was one of the top ones in the country, if not one of the best in the world. So when she said I want to sign you without a portfolio. I mean that’s unheard of! It was huge.

I just skipped years of struggle. So it’s very important to keep in contact with people, without harassing them... just in an organic way. But we just hit it off and we still work very well together going on 8 years now. She’s so great. I hear people complain about their agents a lot, but you have to remember that your agent isn’t there to do things for you; they’re there to manage. And when you start saying ‘why aren’t you doing anything for me?’ you’ve lost the whole purpose of what we’re doing. You need to be putting yourself out there - it’s 80/20. An agent is there to look out for your best interests, to keep my schedule and do my billing. They still get you work, but after 8 years of doing this, I should already be getting my own.

You have to hustle yourself. It’s New York-fucking-City, if you’re not going to do it yourself, then your agent will have 10 other people on their books and someone that’s hustling harder is going to come in and eat your dinner!

FF: What is your dream creative project?

I don’t know if it’s so much a creative project. I guess I would like to work in a parallel field. I would like to work in product development. It doesn’t even have to be my product line because I don’t think I have that status where I could have a namesake product line. Let’s be real, those people have been doing this a long time. But just to work on like a small boutique product line and see if it grows. That’s ultimately where I want to end up.

FF: What's stopping you from it?

I’m very self-aware so I know exactly what’s stopping me. I wouldn’t have to jump right to product development. I could start small with a website or something and then hopefully it grows exponentially. To get that started would be very cheap, it’s only going to require help from a couple of other people, but then it’s going to have to be on-going. That’s the hard part! Once I get started on that path I have to be willing to dedicate myself. Like, there goes lying on the couch watching Netflix all day! Part of me is a little scared to give up that part of my life - or maybe not scared, but just procrastinating. I think I’m at that weird age where I’m done going out and partying, but I’m not ready to get fat and pregnant or settle down. I’m getting close to wanting that, but it’s New York City so we’re all kind of perma-25. 

FF: Who are three people whose thought process you'd like to learn more about?

I don’t even know how to answer that! In terms of artistry, I would say Pat McGrath. I don’t know where she gets these concepts from, not so much her editorial stuff, but her runway work. It always makes total sense and it’s always so on-point for the collection and I can see exactly what she means. I know she carries around suitcases full of books for reference, but I just don’t understand what exactly made her think of that. I mean, I know the creative process and have to come up with things myself, but it’s also difficult to garner the level of trust from the people you work with the way she does. Like, this is a bad example, but if I were to say ‘I want to do blue eyelashes’, then someone else on set would say ‘no I don’t think blue eyelashes work’. Even if I just know it’s going to work, nobody will say yes. But she’s gained that much respect that she could say ‘it’s blue eyelashes’ and people just trust her because she’s just on that level. To be in her brain, not the story of how she worked from the 90s to where she is today, that’s pretty self-explanatory, she clearly worked her as off, but just how she links that ideas process. Other than that I don’t know. I can’t name 3 because

I always think of that quote, “Good Artists copy, great Artists steal” but I never really want to be like that, so I try not to reference too much current stuff.

It’s really annoying when I look through a magazine and you can see the trends, so the trend in hair is still wet hair, it’s not even wet it’s like greasy. It’s like did I just drag all my stuff here to just squirt water in her hair and she's in a fur coat? I’m over it. It was great the first time someone did it, but I’m not going to do it for the millionth time. I try to argue for something new. There’s too much referencing what’s happening now and it slows everything down.

FF: Why do you think that is?

I think there was more freedom before the recession because advertisers didn’t dictate everything as much as they do now. So there’s the trickle down-effect. Editorial lives off advertising (financially) so it’s like, it worked, it’s safe, so they’re going to ask for it again and again. So now with the shows that have just been, the trend is very 70s, and that’s already referential and who knows how long we’ll get stuck there. Maybe I’m just being kind of cranky because I’m not as bright eyed and bushy tailed and new to the industry. But in some ways that cranky side, or the fact that I feel like I’ve already seen it all can be helpful, because then I can be like ‘I don’t want to do that anymore’. And usually when you voice that and say for example, I don’t want to do wet hair anymore, it clicks with people that it’s already done.

FF: If there were a retrospective of your work, what would be your favorites to include?

My favorite work is always my next job. But I think what would be interesting and hilarious would be to do a show of everybody’s first work, their test shots. So all the great hair and make-up artists working today, you could see where they started. Because in the beginning we all do the same thing where we’re just so excited to be working that you pull out all the stops and it’s just a shit-show. The images are terrible. It’s like so much hair, so much make-up and then the poor stylist could only get like American Apparel leggings or something. All the stuff that was unpublished because then you get to see the then versus now. 

you can follow Wesley's work on instagram.
as told to: Kylie Johnston // photos by: Nick Blumenthal