MILESTONES - A NEW PLAYLIST SERIES
Music has this wonderful ability to create a stamp on our memories, or maybe trigger one of the 5 senses to a time of the past. Growing up in large families, there is no doubt the sounds around us influenced who we've become. Whether it be the music our parents loved, to the genres that floated in and out our siblings rooms. Each particular song left a fingerprint of sorts for a moment we could draw inspiration from.
Think long enough, and we’re confident you could associate a favorite song to almost any moment. Our time with close friends, places we may have been in the world, our first love, our first loss, and also our biggest wins. We could tell you that every time we hear Diana Ross’ “Upside Down”, memories of mom dancing around the kitchen arise, with the aroma of freshly baked Empanadas radiating through the house.
Music does this. It’s an instantaneous flash of your past, in the present. So we asked ourselves, what could this feeling be for some of our dearest friends, and how the music shapes their lives? This curiosity led us to our new series, MILESTONES, a collection of playlists that explore this idea through various themes.
Our first selector is Designer/Artist, Daniel Lint. Originally from Seattle, now residing in Hawaii, Lint has become well known in various circles for his extraordinary collage work, among many other styles. Working with clients such as Sango, Damian Lillard, Spice Adams, Xavier Omär, Redbull, and many more, we get a close look on how music guides him. In his theme entitled, Creative Space, Daniel sparks his creativity and invites us on his journey through sound.
We'd like to highlight that Daniel is also the exclusive visual designer for all assets pertaining to our “MILESTONES” series!
Enjoy his Q&A, and playlist below.
--
SOSA
Daniel Lint
First off, thank you for participating in the many levels of this project. I’ve known you for quite some time now, so it’s comforting to know that we can build with you, and make our community stronger. First up, your take on “Creative Space” is amazing. Various sounds, by solid artists, can you give us a glimpse at the significance some of these tracks may have in your life currently?
Thank you it's my pleasure to help out whenever I can and it's always great working with friends. So my approach to this playlist "Creative Space" is a collection of songs that have resonated in some way or another and stuck with me over the years, some are from when I was a kid and some came out in recent years. A few come from growing up skateboarding (Ray Barbee, Tommy Guerrero, Cymande) so that always takes me down memory lane when I hear some of those. Some carry a motivational push that helps me out during long sprints of working on projects, like the Nipsey - Face the World, Brent Faiyaz - L.A., Larry June - Consistent to name a few. I like "life music" I guess you could classify it as. Something you can relate to, that helps you grow and process thoughts to be able to continue pushin' through the days regardless of your situations.
I noticed you have 93 til Infinity in there as well, which is honestly one of my favorite tracks of all time regardless of how played it may be, lol. What specifics can you give us about feelings that drum up when hearing this song?
The sound, the confidence, the delivery, everything about that track to me is just timeless. That's how I approach art and life. I guess if I wanted my life to sound like something — 93 Til Infinity would be that.
You have a 3 year old son, Harper, who I should add creates some amazing paintings. How do you notice music inspiring who he becomes? Is there a particular song that you and him share together?
He's a painting machine and for sure loves music haha. He's just been exposed to it his whole life. Lots of hip-hop and jazz but he gets a taste of all genres. I have music playing most of the day while we're at home and I'm working on projects or in the car running errands and I just always catch him vibing out, dancing and whatnot. Lately he's been requesting songs so that's always fun and trips me out at the same time that he remembers them. I work a lot with music artists so I'm always listening to new projects and songs I get sent and it's fun get his response to those. One of his favorite songs he requests every time we're in the car has been Dame D.O.L.L.A. ft. Brookfield Duece - Dre Grant. So that one is definitely fun watchin' him go crazy with.
photo by Cadence Feeley
It must be such an amazing feeling to watch that awareness for art and love for music growing right before your eyes. Do you find yourselves both working on creative projects side by side? Him painting, and you handling some of your design work? Sounds like it could be a powerhouse in the making, lol. How does he go about getting started on a piece?
Yeah it's definitely fun to watch and art is something I encourage him to explore as long as he's having fun with it. As far as working side by side, that happens but definitely not painting haha. He'll mess with some collage or just draw on paper with some pens or something at my desk. The painting takes more supervision or it's all over the walls.
As far his painting process he's old enough now he lets me know when he wants to paint and where all his art stuff is so he starts grabbing it down and I'll help him set it up. He'll pretty much grab every color in the box, sometimes we'll do little color drills and ask what ones he wants to use, or sometimes I just pick the colors out. Then he takes it from there and I just make sure the paint doesn't go where it's not supposed to. Early on I would show him how to pick up his palette and smear it — he loves that and he calls it "dumping" and does that every time now. After it dries I have 8 frames hung up that we interchange every time he has a new painting. I let him decide which painting we're replacing and whatnot. My goal with hanging them is to help him build confidence and take pride in whatever he does. He's always telling me he painted them so I think it's working haha.
It seems like you're making all the right moves to empower him and his creative outlet, which is dope! One last question, we're hoping this gets to live here for years to come. What is a gem of advice, or maybe the perfect song you'd like Harper to take with him for the future? Something that helped you through any pivotal points in your life.
Don't major in minor things.
Bet! Thank you for sharing your experiences with the world, Daniel.
If you'd like to support Daniel and his works, we invite you to visit his website
HERE to explore more.
photo by Cadence Feeley