Sinceiwas12 Gallery Artist Interview by The New Bullcatcher

the indigo metallic turns the light elastic bending against the shamshir unsheathed with the intention to inflict rotund harm. perspiration freckles this gauntlet of geometric vehemence harvested in the sterile Kitsatchie of armed heathens. the bavarian oak splinters due to the velocity of distain but Overstreet Ducasse and Frederick Holmes of sinceiwas12 gallery lean their alkaline torsos against the gate of lethargy entrance.

Express your sentiments regarding the role of technology in parallel to the primordial modus operandi of tangible hand application.
Frederick: When an individual is purchasing a home it exemplifies the spirit of technology due to the expedient electronic transactions that were processed for the said homeowner to satisfy the the criteria to close the deal.It’s a paramount and necessary component in the exact way that purchasing original visual pieces for that home speak to the applied humanity of hand crafted material. Both are symbiotic in melding the cerebellum and physiology.
Overstreet: That is a question for photographers. Visual artist gave up that fight a long time ago, ironically around the time the camera was invented. A whole new style of art was created because of the cameras ability to capture realism. I am sure visual artist who were painting photo realism were not pleased. Then, it transpired to the box control camera of the late 1800’s to the digital camera of today, which troubled the ‘real’ photographers. As a mix media artist, I use a assortment of technology in my paintings, from magazine and newspapers to led lights and clock radios. Ultimately, I feel that artists should learn and respect the basic principals of hand application, yet utilize technology to create current thoughts and ideas.

What is the ideal paradigm for philanthropic institutions as a partner with artisans to assist in proliferating prosperity especially ones with an esoteric or cavalier approach?
Frederick: Institutions need to allocate more capital for artist who address the social fringe sensibilities that’s marginalized by the corporate influences who’ve infiltrated the non-profit fellowship grant distribution.The artisans who dwell in the modern wilderness of a fertile imagination are the ones feed the stoic museum industry. 
Overstreet: One of the problems facing philanthropic institutions and artists is the lack of respect for what each side is bringing to the table. The institution provides opportunities in funding and space whereas the artist provides the creativity, exposure, and awareness. But, when money is involved, an institution may have a hidden agenda, which could hinder the artists freedom of creative expression. However, the agenda of the artist could contradict the ideals of the institution, which may or may not be beneficial to either. In a perfect world, an institution would pursue artists who share a mutual respect and understanding for their goals and values, and vice versa. In my own personal experience, I was fortunate to receive free consultation from an established law firm that specialized in intellectual property and had a vested interest in the arts.

What genetic hybrid would be the most pragmatic and formidable guard animal on a jungle excursion and why?
Frederick: To thwart mosquitoes and tangle with the Lions , Tigers, and Lawyers I choose a flying Iguana Mongoose.The mongoose imbibes cobras by the way.
Overstreet: I would choose two monkeys because two monkeys are better than one. But, in taking this question seriously, I would select the lion and toucan as my genetic hybrid. The lion is known to be the king of the jungle and is very aggressive on offense and defense and is known to protect its young. Mixing that with a toucan will create a more colorful and creative personality, so you wont have to rely on aggression as the first defense. You can also fly away if you don’t want to be bothered.

Are you biologically predisposed to visual artistry or did your socio-economic environment form a conduit of escapism through this medium?

Frederick: My medium chose me from a metaphysical context that wasn’t necessarily genetic based. 
Overstreet: As much as I would like to believe that I am special, no one is born an artist. I believe that anyone is capable of accomplishing anything with time and dedication. It’s the age old question of Nature vs. Nurture. However, art is a subjective craft, which should not be judged by specific guidelines or rules. One cannot measure art as if it was a race. It is clear to determine the winner of a foot race, but impossible for all to agree on the artist who receives best in show. The only thing that may differ amongst people is style and individuality as well as the distance of time it would take each individual to create the same task. We have a habit of telling children that they can accomplish anything when they are young, so it makes no sense as an adult with more knowledge, wisdom, understanding, experience and resources, to tell them differently.

What is the future context of your form of creation that will foster qualitative progression?
Frederick:  Take the fiscal parasites who have no dimensional understanding of artistry and make them walk the plank baby! There will be authentic evolving of our discipline or industry after that transpires. 
Overstreet: If you visit the inner city school system, you will find students there who have no interest in history or statistics, but are able to tell you everything about their favorite athletes, including place of birth, the high school and college he graduated, the first team he played for, and the scores he accumulated during that time. Further more, they can pick up the news paper, and break down the sports section.

My point is that people are very selective with their areas of interest and will learn everything possible about the subjects that interest them.

The primary reason for moving to Jacksonville initially was to assist my sister who is a chiropractor. At first I had very little interest in what she did. But when it was time to decorate her office, she commissioned me to do several paintings. As I was working on one of the paintings, she noticed me painting 3 random numbers on the canvas. She suggested that I use the numbers 7, 12, and 5 instead. When I asked her why, she responded that those 3 numbers represented the lumbar, thoracic and the cervix, which represent the upper, mid, and lower section of the spine. That bit of information massively inspire me to not only create a new series but it also encouraged me to learn more in her field, which was later reflected in my art.

So the interest in art, music and sports is very relevant to science, history, and mathematics. Some of the best artists don’t just use freehand gestures but incorporate a lot of mathematics. There is a science behind the color red and yellow turning orange. There is a history in Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and the graffiti you see on the streets.

So as an artist who is interested in the future of our children, I am faced with the challenge of encouraging programs that combine art, music, and sports with science, math, and history, because those programs are essential for creating balance in education.

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Interviewed by contributor The New Bullcatcher.
Click HERE to read past interviews.

Street Interview: Cassandra Reyhani

I met Cassandra recently and enjoy her since of humor and interest in good people. Although you might already know she used to DJ at TSI, today she enjoys the company of friends and white water rafting. When not out, you can catch her building the largest pretzel hardon collider. My intro might have some lies.

If you could rename any road in Jax, which would it be, and what would be the new name?
I’d rename Osceola to Areola because that makes me laugh a lot harder.

Purple, actually, but I won’t tell anybody.

Can you recall the last creative or best local event flier you’ve seen?
BLORR’s music video release’s flyer for “Boy, You Need Jesus” was gorgeous. I liked the colors and style a lot.

What hat would you wear to a hat party?
I have a bunny hat. It’s so anime but I’d be afraid I’d be mistaken for a furry.
And that wouldn’t be cool.

Are ghosts real?
I don’t really know. I’ve never had paranormal experience of any type, so who knows?

What do you think motivated the kingdom to put Humpty Dumpty back together?

Any favorite local bands?
I’m going to say I love a lot of them, but SPP, Status Faux, Sunbears!, the AIDS, Opiate Eyes, Rice, the 2416s, Just Will, Yr Darcy… I don’t know, really… A lot of good music is out in Jacksonville (also I am totally plugging friend’s of mine’s bands) despite how much I hate on it sometimes.

Image you became extremely rich by inviting something; like the guy who invented post-its. What would it be? (David’s poised to steal the idea muhahahaha)
I’d invite a portable ice cream machine that attaches to your mouth like a horse-feed bag.

RELATED: She also contributed to Thrilla In Manila’s first issue.

Interview by David.
Click HERE to read past interviews.

Interview with There for Tomorrow: by Kellie Conboy

Florida’s own There for Tomorrow will be taking the stage at Jack Rabbits July 12 as part of the Rock Yourself to Sleep Tour. I chatted with front man Maika Maile during a day off about how their sound has evolved over the years, their involvement with the 2010 Take Action Tour, and how they’ve been keeping busy over the past two years with a new album, several major tours, and even a trip abroad to play for fans in Japan.

Before I jump into the questions, you should know that the first time I saw There for Tomorrow was about six years ago, my freshman year of college, at Wackadoo’s at the University of North Florida. Even then I was really blown away by you guys, you were so young to be playing so well and so professionally. And then a few years later you put out your first EP and it was a totally different sound, and I was even more blown away by that. Was that change in sound an intentional thing, or was it kind of an artistic evolution, or a combination?

Yeah, since we kind of hold our music pretty close to our hearts it just grows as we grow, because all it is is an extension of us at the end of the day. Of course, as time comes and as we go through different things … Now we’re traveling the world, I can’t imagine what our music is going to sound like in a couple years. But it’s not like we ever try to neglect the past, or anything, and move on to something new, we use the past to move on to something new. I can’t even really remember what we sounded like before Pages, it was a lot more, like, metallic, more metal influence. We just started to adopt a huge love for good pop songwriting, so maybe that influenced a lot of what we did from then on out. But it’s always going to be a changing thing.

For people who aren’t familiar with There for Tomorrow, how would you describe your sound?

I don’t know, that’s always a tough question for me. We’re influenced by a lot of things, but at the end of the day, in layman’s terms, we’re just a melodic rock band. We’re really inspired by melodies, that’s really what drives our music, but we’re still rock-rooted because all of us grew up, mainly, rooted in rock-playing and rock music culture and everything. But we really do listen to everything, so it’s kind of eclectic for just being a rock band, so it’s hard to exactly title it. That’s the thing, a simple question like that, which could be answered in two words, gets thrown out in a couple paragraphs, that’s how much we don’t know what we are.

How was the process of writing and recording your very first album, Point of Origin, different from writing and recording your subsequent releases?

Oh my gosh, we were, like, thirteen, that was us just having the time of our lives, just making music. Looking back on it I really can’t remember tracking or anything about the experience of the process of making a record. Everything was just so different and I was so young I can’t even remember. But, we went in there and did all our songs, we wrote all our songs, we always have, and did our thing, and we have that to always reflect on and brag about, like ‘look what we were doing when we were thirteen, while you were playing with Pokemon trading cards we were making full-length albums.’

There for Tomorrow recently wrapped up the 2010 Take Action Tour with Mayday Parade and A Rocket to the Moon. Tell me about the Take Action Tour’s mission and why it was important to you guys to be a part of it.

Take Action was great, we’ve always kind of looked up to it because of it being involved with things not just trapped into what happens in the music scene. It’s reaching out to the world, and it’s making an impact for situations that are tough for people. This year it was about bone marrow diseases and raising awareness for it. The National Bone Marrow Registry has a thing called the Be The Match Organization where it just tries to raise the most bone marrow donors as possible. We raised a bunch this year, I think by the second week [of the tour] there was like 200 or 300 newly registered donors, so it was really cool. The organization that was behind it all was started by a kid that had leukemia when he was fourteen, so it was amazing to be behind something that a fourteen-year-old is doing. That’s so positive, and it’s making such an impact, because he had leukemia and he obviously had his struggles with that, now he’s making a difference in the world, which is really cool. We just helped out by playing music.

You guys also recently returned from a tour in Japan. What is it like having fans in another country that don’t even speak English as a first language, and do they still sing along to the songs when they see you guys play?

I think nowadays English is the epicenter of communicating among the world, so they all know far more English than we know Japanese. That’s always respectable to go to other countries and meet people that are bilingual or sometimes trilingual, and sit there and translate with their friend who’s a fan who can’t talk to us because she can’t speak English. We meet really cool people all around the world, it kind of blows our minds that we were just playing Wackadoo’s a couple years ago for, like, thirteen people, and now we’re playing packed shows in a whole other continent.

Speaking of tours, There for Tomorrow has been busy over the last couple of years with the Secret Valentine Tour at the beginning of 2009, last summer you had Warped Tour and also released your album, then this year you had the Take Action Tour and the dates in Japan, now you’re on a tour with a little over 40 dates. Have you guys had a chance to kind of sit back and take everything in, and how do you deal with homesickness and keeping in touch with your family and friends?

You know, we’re just so eager and young and adamant about what we do, we love playing so much that a lot of the time it’s just blurred in our lives because of what’s happening. We basically save ourselves up for just the 30 minutes, 40, 50, an hour we get to play a day. Since we get so wrapped up in that, it’s hard to think about other things too much. But obviously we’re very close with our families, and we have real tight-knit groups of friends at home. At times you can obviously get a little homesick, but I think we’re all just so used to it by now, and our eyes are so set because we’ve seen such a return with it, with how amazing our fans have become, and are becoming, and some of the people we get to meet are really awesome. It always inspires us to meet people that are still actual, legitimate fans of music, so it makes us feel like we’re doing our job to return sincere music to the limelight again, instead of all of this candy land music.

Tell me about the Rock Yourself to Sleep Tour and how There for Tomorrow became involved in it.

Rock Yourself to Sleep is put on by Motel 6. They just contacted us about it, and our friends were going out as well, so we just decided to come out and visit all of our friends that we’ve built all over the country one time during the summer, and then we’re coming back all around the U.S. again in the fall. We just want to get out there and just really keep tying the knots with our fans, we gotta keep busy on the road.

Talking about your new album, A Little Faster, how does it feel to have an album that’s doing so well? You guys got the MTVU award … Was it surprising, or something you feel like you’ve been working towards?

It’s kind of hard to really classify what “doing well” is nowadays, but for us, and how young we are, and how much time we’ve been doing it, it’s been a huge honor to see what’s happening and how people are really paying attention to our music. Personally we don’t feel like we’ve connected with the world yet, at all, we don’t feel like we’ve made any sort of stamp yet of what There for Tomorrow is, what we mean, and what we will mean. It’s obviously just going to take time, just like everything has up until now. We’re young, we’re 21 years old, and able to travel and play, but it’s not like we’re real interested in making suitcases of money any time soon. We’re just trying to put in time and show some genuineness towards what music is nowadays.

Are the lyrics on A Little Faster about specific events, or situations, or people in your lives, or are they meant to be more general?

Especially on A Little Faster, they’re fairly personal accounts of things I’ve been through and things I see happening through my eyes. I’ve been through a lot, I’ve seen a lot happen, and have made it through a lot of things thanks to the love and support of my family. I’m able to kind of just share my personal experience being myself and striving to be a unique individual, so I think A Little Faster was kind of … just a way to vent, to just cope with being a person. So I try to open up as much as I can because I think it’s really important for people nowadays to understand how important communicating is; communicating your thoughts, what you think about things in your voice, just speaking up and not being ashamed is what we’re trying to encourage.

Just to go back to this whole “making it big” idea, in an industry where bands with little to no talent can become popular overnight just with marketing by the right people, how do you set yourselves apart from everyone else and get your music out to listeners?

You know, thanks to the internet and thanks to all these new ways to reach out and break language barriers, this and that, we can kind of enable ourselves to start to slowly become something global. Thanks to the support of our team behind us who help us push what we do, and they all really believe, we can get our stuff out there among the cesspool of candy land music, and baby music – cute music is what I like to call it. But everybody does their thing and my whole perspective on life is that there is no one better person than the other, there’s just good and bad intentions, and I think everybody can understand what good and bad intentions are. So when you have people singing about just taking shirts off, and partying with “my red cup” and this and that it doesn’t really hold any true weight to anybody, it’s just a fun time to get drunk to. Like I said, I want to be a part of the fight to restore sincere music to the top again.

Another thing that has changed in the music industry, also because of the internet, is how accessible artists are to their fans, and vice versa. But along with that comes easier access to the critics, too. I took a few minutes the other day just to look at some news entries about There for Tomorrow on and immediately found hundreds of people who had lots of good things to say, but there were also lots of people who had bad things to say. Do you guys ever read reviews and look at message boards, and is the negativity that comes from some people on the internet something that’s ever bothered you guys, or is it as normal to you as someone stopping you to take a photo with you?

Well, when we were young and kind of new to having ourselves out there it was a lot more effective, like, somebody attempting to bring us down, but now it’s just an understanding that some of those people are probably just sitting in their underwear with milk crust all over their lips in their parents’ basement on the computer that their parents bought them last year. So it’s not like that really has a huge effect and weighs heavy on what we do, but of course you have to have those people. You have to have the naysayers because there’s no protons without electrons, there’s obviously no good without bad, bad defines good, so the negativity defines us just wanting to prove through and come out with something positive instead.

Do you have any last words, anything to say to encourage people to come out to the show at Jack Rabbits?

I don’t know, I think the people that really want to be there will be there because they know where we’ve come from, we haven’t come from anything different than just what we’ve done. They’ve seen us play Jack Rabbits a lot of times, and Murray Hill Theatre, so we have a lot of family there, a lot of believers and followers so we’re excited to be in Florida once again.

JAXSCENE LWBM SPORT Interview with Taylor Alexander Smith (TAZ), Owner & Designer

What does LWBM stand for, and when was it conceived?
LWBM is an abbreviation for “Legends Will Be Made.”

This abbreviation delivers the underlying message that legends are not born, they are made. This is to encourage young athletes and really everybody to always keep their dreams in mind.

LWBM is for everyone to enjoy, where sport, fun, and a relaxed luxury lifestyle mix cohesively.

I am a professionally trained racing driver, specializing in open-wheel formula cars. In 2006, I wanted to create something that I could connect my creative arts side with my passion for sport. I uttered the words, “Legends Will Be Made.”, to myself late one summer night, and the abbreviation and concept of LWBM was formed.

I first saw you at the 229 North Hogan gallery during “I’M BOARD 4“. How was that experience?
It was incredible to say the least! I was super enthused to see an event like that here in Jacksonville. It was my first time attending a public event with my product for everyone to see and comment. It was great to see it side-by-side with other decks and get feedback on where LWBM stands in the Jacksonville market. I look forward to attending this event EVERY YEAR!

As a local business sharing the market with other local clothing retailers, what have you learned or discovered?
I have discovered that the markets here are tightly-knit communities, which is great. They are supportive of each other, and they warmly welcome new partners and products into their communities.

I understand that LWBM consists of limited edition products. How often do you rotate product and is there any plans to extend or change that?
Yes that is correct, for this point in time our products are very limited.
I rotate the product pretty much as soon as it sells, or basically every season.
Limited products are always fun, because they allow me to try new things. So I will continue to offer small scale productions.

In May you are dropping a new line, LWBM Summer 2010. What are we to look forward to for this line?
For LWBM Summer 2010, you should be looking forward to a beach themed line, drawing inspiration from the local Jacksonville beaches and west coast neighborhoods, such as Sherman Oaks (I am after all a west coast kid).

I will be offering a limited print skate deck and my usual shop skate decks, limited tank tops and pocket tees, super limited denim shorts, rubberized sunglasses, new posters, the new and free LWBM Skate Mix Volume 2 music mix, and one specially colored Nintendo Entertainment System package.

That is the current list of the confirmed summer products. I may have some more additional surprises, as well as, product additions from third party brands throughout the summer heading into our Fall 2010 line-up.

Will the LWBM Summer 2010 line be available all at once?
Unfortunately, due to staggered shipping dates, it will not all be available the first week of May! So we have the free skate mix kicking things off May 1st so be sure to check that out online at Our rubberized sunglasses should be here by the end of the first week of May. Clothing should be ready by May 13th. And the skate decks are the latest items, shipping mid-June.

Are you stocking retailers this season?
I will be expanding LWBM’s distribution from Jacksonville to international and national retailers. If you are a verified retailer interested in carrying LWBM items, just e-mail me at, and I will take care of your needs.

You’re re-launching a new, what is the main focus of the new site?
More complex shipping options. PERIOD. I actually have a pretty solid startup worldwide fan base. I get comments and messages from kids in Hawaii, the Bronx, and all of the way to Indonesia, so I have made it a little easier for my long distance fans to get connected for the time being.

The new site also features a more in-depth shopping experience, allowing customers to create accounts, wish-lists, join an e-mail update service, and the potential to collect “Baller Points” to reward them on their purchases.

What are your plans of the distant future? Are you going to expand to other sports paraphernalia?
The big plan on my plate at the moment is opening a retail location here in Jacksonville. In doing so, I will be further opening doors to third party brands that would be supporting my looks and styles in a live environment. Plans are already locked in to provide other sports focused paraphernalia, so keep an eye on us over the coming months.

What are your plans for Fall?
We will see, enjoy Summer 2010 while it lasts!

Use coupon code S10JAXSCENE for 15% OFF all products at (expires ON August 1st) All LWBM purchases come with a free pair of LWBM rubberized sunglasses.

Interview by David W.