Episode 6 of Personable features Iain Alexander. Iain has reached the top of many fields, and this episode promises to be a good one.
Iain made the swimming squad for the 2000 Olympics but unfortunately had to pull out due to injury. Following this, he became an international DJ, travelling to over 4 countries a week! He made friends with DJs such as Avicii and shared the wisdom and stories that he picked up from his own experiences and the legends he surrounded himself with. Iain then transitioned into his current main endeavour: art.
Iain is an extremely talented artist who has developed an incredible skill for creating unique artwork whilst also having an incredible business mindset and an ability to have clientele in the highest echelons of the World.
Portraits & Clients include:
Queen Elizabeth II ,Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nayen (former Ruler of UAE), Sheikh Khalifa Bin Sultan Al Nayen (Ruler of UAE), Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani (Ruler of Qatar), the Malaysian royal family, Dame Vivienne Westwood, David Beckham, Jim Morrison, Kanye West, Mick Jagger, Madonna, Kurt Cobain, Jimmy Hendrix, Will Smith, Daniel Craig and Alexander McQueen, Mohammad Ali and Kurt Cobain.
I hope you enjoy the episode!
Sign up to the Draft: https://www.thedraft.io/
Episode 6 of Personable features Iain Alexander. Iain has reached the top of many fields, and this episode promises to be a good one.
Iain made the swimming squad for the 2000 Olympics but unfortunately had to pull out due to injury. Following this, he became an international DJ, travelling to over 4 countries a week! He made friends with DJs such as Avicii and shared the wisdom and stories that he picked up from his own experiences and the legends he surrounded himself with. Iain then transitioned into his current main endeavour: art.
Iain is an extremely talented artist who has developed an incredible skill for creating unique artwork whilst also having an incredible business mindset and an ability to have clientele in the highest echelons of the World.
Portraits & Clients include:
Queen Elizabeth II ,Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nayen (former Ruler of UAE), Sheikh Khalifa Bin Sultan Al Nayen (Ruler of UAE), Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani (Ruler of Qatar), the Malaysian royal family, Dame Vivienne Westwood, David Beckham, Jim Morrison, Kanye West, Mick Jagger, Madonna, Kurt Cobain, Jimmy Hendrix, Will Smith, Daniel Craig and Alexander McQueen, Mohammad Ali and Kurt Cobain.
I hope you enjoy the episode!
Sign up to the Draft: https://www.thedraft.io/
Hello and welcome to episode six of Placid Neville. Today I'm hugely honored to be joined by Ian Alexander. Ian is a former Olympic squad swimmer, having almost gone to the 2000 Olympics, but unfortunately I'm going to drop out due to injury. He is an international DJ and club owner, founding one of the original beach clubs in Dubai. He's also a world-renowned and famous artist who has produced work for the likes of the Queen, donald Trump and many other world-renowned people.
Speaker 1:He's achieved the OCW Carbon Neutral International Standard, which I'm sure I'll hear a lot more about from him, which is hugely impressive, as well as being a very kind philanthropist, notably Donate think, one of his amazing pieces featuring David Bowie, which raised tens of thousands for Jersey Hospice. So thank you very much, ian, for joining me today. I feel very privileged to be able to learn from someone like yourself. My pleasure, I'm looking forward to this. So yeah, ian, so thank you for joining me. I wanted to get started by asking you you've been incredibly successful, but all of this comes from you know your little child and you've got, you know, your blank slate. So what was your early childhood like and how did that shape you into the person you are today?
Speaker 2:I think most importantly, it was the support and belief in my mother from day one. To have a parental support mechanism in your life can give you opportunities in so many different ways and some of my decisions when I was younger might have seemed to have been a bit random or off-skew, but she believed in everything I did. My granddad, however, was also a big support when I did choose to do the artistic direction, when my mum wanted me to follow in more of an educational direction, that she did. They 100% supported me and best decision I've ever made. To be honest, just feel very privileged to have that in my life. You know that's amazing.
Speaker 2:In a nutshell, my life's come from. I teach a lot of sort of young children, sort of assemblies and stuff, and I always say to them make mistakes in life is the best thing you can do, as long as you do learn from them and not be scared of making mistakes. I can only stand there and tell people that because I can't be a hypocrite and say I haven't made mistakes in life myself. So yeah, I think it's always been about experiencing things, cultures, life experiences and as you progress in life, try not to waste any of those opportunities you've had in life, even if they were a failure or something, how you can bring them back into life to make them into a positive or make them, make you a better person because of your life experiences, and certainly my life now.
Speaker 2:My inspirations, my sort of direction of where I go and how I mark it and how I sell myself is from the story of everything that I've done in my life. You know, there's no recipe to anything and I think in life you've got to find your own path and the older I get I'm trying to find ways to explore and dig back into areas which I think were probably weaknesses in my life, and most of them I either express that in a creative way or or just build it in some way, shape or form where you can also have that positive view and comfort in yourself, knowing that the past is the past and you can make it into the future. You know so.
Speaker 1:Did you have this creative mindset and focus throughout your whole life? Or when you're a teenager, were you very focused on things like swimming and it became later on, or was it always something in the back of your mind that you thought you would eventually get on to doing like DJing and art?
Speaker 2:So yeah, it's a funny one that obviously as a swimmer it's not the most sociable sport and it's such dedication that you, you know you're up at five am every morning, you train for two hours and you've got to school. I used to do my homework during lunchtime because I would train again after after school. There was obviously no socializing with friends, you know where as a teenager, you'd be hanging out and maybe having the odd drink at the weekends. There was none of that, you know. So a lot of it was a lot of time to think quite deeply about yourself or or any other subject matter. You know, going backwards and forwards 300 times every single morning. You know you have to sort of use that time to not only focus on what you're doing but what else is around you.
Speaker 2:You know, and I think I think it gave me a subconscious way of actually sort of forecasting and planning in life, which at the moment I do, I'm quite, quite almost OCD on, you know it's I always have something, and when I do have a plan and this comes also from my swimming days if I have routine in a day, everything sort of works in the right way. If I fall out of routine, everything has a little bit of a domino effect for me. So I keep, I keep. Even today I'm still up at five o'clock every day. I'm more productive at five o'clock than I am at any other time of the day and I structure my day in a way where I've got that sort of routine and it helps my productivity, you know, to bed early at night, especially now I've got a little two year old daughter. It's something that I've continued in life since when I was doing it from the age of 12, 12 year old.
Speaker 1:I was doing that sort of you meant. You mentioned this amazing routine that I I don't know. I've never actually been a DJ, but and that sounds like a very hard thing to do to be able to achieve a sustainable routine when you're DJing around the world. So what was that experience like and how did you form a routine like you're talking about in that time?
Speaker 2:Well, that was a complete under an 80 degrees on my routine on my. So when I got the injury with the from the swimming, when you make an Olympic squad, it it comes down to Psychological sort of goals and planning. It's a huge part of the, of the sort of training. You've already achieved the physical part of it, but, as you've seen, so many amazing athletes under the pressure Can get kind of buckle. So they had a really, really heavy sort of infrastructure with psychologists in mental planning and focus. And then obviously, when I got the injury, you know it was my whole life had been focused on these Olympic games and it got taken away at the last minute. So what they did do is they kept up the psychological, psychological training. And and they asked me right, okay, what you've achieved here with your swimming wasn't About swimming, is about your mental strength, of how you've committed and focused to get to where you are. What you need to do now is take that mental strength and channel it into what you're gonna do in your future.
Speaker 2:So they asked me what do I do with my friends? I said, well, I don't have much time with my friends because I'm swimming all the time. They were like what do you do at the weekends? And I was like I go away and compete and swimming. They were like, okay, so what do you do as a hobby? And what I did do was I used to listen to really fast music To give me that adrenaline and motivate motivation. And they said to me okay, well, that's your next path, focus on that. So, yeah, so very help. Very healthy swimmer Transitioned into a traveling DJ where I was in four or five countries a week with a complete 180 degree on, say, four to five countries a week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, In in summer months. Yeah, it was pretty, pretty hectic, which was Completely opposite time schedule when I would get up.
Speaker 2:I would finish. So so, yeah, so that that was good and I did that for about six years. What what it did do was it gave me the opportunity to Travel the world and I was quite young I was what? 18 when I started doing that and I made an agreement with my mum again which was basically, if I'm gonna do that, it's not all about partying. I had to really embrace the travel and and culture, foods and go and say Something to do with each country I went to. You know it wasn't straight to a club or anything, and Did you did you?
Speaker 1:did you earn enough money at the time to be able to sustain yourself? Because a few years later, you managed to open up your own club. So were you saving the money? Were you spending it all traveling? Did you have enough to actually build from there, or was it just later ventures that you're able to open up your club?
Speaker 2:You know. You know DJs get paid a lot and everything's paid for. You know flights, hotels, everything. And where do you spend the money? Because you're constantly traveling, you know, you know. So it's like one club to another. So during a summer period, you know you could make enough for that for the rest of the year. So make money's never really been a sort of a do you know what is. I've never thought about making money. I think my view was always if you concentrated on success, money should come with it. You know, I think sometimes if people chase money, they can sort of pull them back a bit, you know so. So, yeah, I did that.
Speaker 2:And then 2004 played in Dubai and I saw a bit of a gap in the market. I saw it was gonna, there's gonna be some, some, some big change there. Yeah, but it was. I think it was a I worked out was about two years before it would actually sort of have its boom, because the rules and regulations around Alcohol and things like that were still quite tight at the time. But I knew where the direction was, that they were going, because They've run out of oil. So they were gonna have to look at the tourism market, you know, and they were invested in hugely in it and, yeah, I went out two years later. I think there's certain degree perfect timing as well. But yeah, the market was, was just ready, red, like it was just the right timing for everything and things happen very fast, maybe too fast at times, but you know, you just got to go with the flow at times, you know.
Speaker 1:I think I think one of the things I admire about you is your ability to just go after the things that you want. I think there are a lot of people that have these dreams and aspirations in the back of their mind but sort of leave it to the side. They're like I need to just get a degree, get a job, but you've said F that's the degree, f that's the regular job. And being entrepreneurial In your art, in the stuff you're doing now and also in being a DJ. How do you think something like that sort of mindset something you gain or something that's innate to your personality, something you're born with to just go after the things that you want and fully back yourself?
Speaker 2:I think it probably comes back to the two points that I've just made. So being brought up with a parent that supported you and gave you the self-confidence To then take that on in life, and I also, I really hate following trends or doing things that the ways are supposed to be done, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:And yeah, that can be a gamble at times, but even with my art, I Just I went in a complete opposite direction to how Stereotypically artists or the industry does stuff. You know, I think I like that challenge and, like I said, there's there's been failures along the way doing it, but when it comes down to my, my drive and my, and also the excitement of the, the self-belief, you know that I always would, yeah, I think, I believe, I think I think from the, the swimming days, them, and the psychology side, they, they do really gave me the cement of self-belief. You know, and and sure. But what you also can't be in life is just too confident or, to, you know, free reign to do what you want.
Speaker 2:You know, and certainly, as I've got older in life, I choose the people I spend my time with now and I listen a lot more than I used to, probably when I was younger. But I really, I really learn from, from people in all forms, let that be business, family, life, whatever. You know that that if I see something that I'm inspired by them, I'm interested to learn from them. You know, and a Lot of my very good friends are slightly older than me or but most of them are sort of successful in their own ways. You know, and yeah, just Interest. I'm interested in people as well, you know.
Speaker 1:Speaking of speaking of people, you're not only, as you are, unbelievable, as you can hopefully see, in the background there and online, and even inside the Royal Palaces, but you've created this Incredible list of clients and friends and people that you know that at the top of their fields, ruling countries, leading industries, I mean. One of my great aspirations is to build a similar network of people that I can rely on, work with and Generate a positive net benefit for the world. So how have you been able to get into these circles and and how? What's your advice for other people wanting to do the same? And you know, try and be the best they can be in front of the right crowd.
Speaker 2:Networking for sure. There's obviously so many Other tools for networking. So certainly we like the sort of the top-end social media LinkedIn type stuff. Mine was done completely Out and about networking, you know, on a social level. So Dubai, especially, was seven days a week Hosting meals.
Speaker 2:Networking like that, you know a lot, a lot, a lot of time and effort to build relationships. In a certain way London's very much the same, but that also comes with parcel of late nights, depending on the choice of the person drinking, eating stuff like this, you know it's, it's. It obviously comes down to whatever each individual the desperation is, you know. But certainly social networking, even through the right friendship groups as well, not going to a meal with friends and talking about business all night. But if you do have the opportunity to talk about something that you can then follow up on the next day, make the most of that opportunity.
Speaker 2:If you meet anybody, certainly make sure you've got always got your details on hand. Follow up with it, you know. But also make people invest in you. You know, I think that's probably been my strongest asset is selling myself in a way that people not only invest in whatever you're offering them but they see an investment in the person that you are. You know and, yes, to a degree, be as genuine as you can, but also think about the way that you market yourself and how you come across in a way which kind of hooks them in, you know, with like a fish you know, and also the best thing I have found with my traveling is each person you'll meet around the world.
Speaker 2:If we take nationalities, for example, you've got to adapt to them in a different way, like for an Arab, you've got 30 seconds to get their attention or you lose them. You know a Dutch person. You might be there for two hours.
Speaker 1:Sorry, while you're giving this example, you know you said you capture someone in 30 seconds. How do you capture someone in 30 seconds? What do you do? Getting a masterclass right now? Yeah, do you give them numbers, you give them people. You just show them your art.
Speaker 2:Well, like I said, it's been different things throughout the years of what I would do. It's just how your knowledge and understanding of the person that you meet, how you can adapt to them as fast as possible without losing their attention or the option of ever doing anything with them again. That's not something I'm probably just answer in a, in a, in a wanna Sure, sure, but yeah, just in general. Like I said, like an older person you might have to approach, compared to a younger person, a different nationality to another one. But again, that comes from experience of meeting people before and actually thinking, oh, I didn't capitalize on that last time. I'm going to make sure next time I do that I approach it in a different way. Or come, come, come up with something which will, will, will grab their attention in that, in that window that I'm going to get. You know that will fall down to the yourself or the person who's doing it, but just always see everyone as the golden ticket. That do I, even if I don't, even if we don't ever do anything again, let me still it see if I've got the opportunity of following up on something you know and I think I think if you approach stuff like that and you're eager and you're keen, like I said you, you'd be stupid.
Speaker 2:Not, I went private school. You know me mentioning my private school I can't remember how many times has been a benefit to, to a certain thing, or or the way somebody's accepted me, you know, or the fact of where I came from because of my accent Northeastern people, jody's you know they. They are just a likable sort of bunch of people you know, and and so many times that'll have been brought in the context and whereas I don't normally speak such broad, jody, I can quite easily, if it's going to make somebody laugh or something you know. So I think I think, use your own benefit, what, what you have, or you have been very fortunate to have experienced or been to, or or things like that you know. Or if you've got a famous parent, something at one harm to drop it in us.
Speaker 1:And maybe I need to get adopted by Bill Gates or something. Maybe that will help. Oh, I'm, I'm 14. I'm not a kid or something, but who knows? That's amazing. So, but one is probably one of your I don't say most impressive feet, but you know, I was talking about the background as well. There's that incredible background of art right there. You know, you've become this insane artist and had the privilege of being able to see some of those in person and truly spectacular. What's your, what's your actual process for developing a piece of art? And I've seen that you've, you've mentioned you tried to make each piece unique. So how do you both create something unique, whilst also following a process or not following a process?
Speaker 2:So, just going back to what I said before, which was trying to break the mould of the way that the art industry was was going down the route of, most artists are a bit like the music industry back in the day, controlled by the galleries, and their job is to create art. They don't necessarily know how to market or sell. When I came back to art, I, and with my experiences of the Middle East and the people that I dealt with, I had an idea of how I, who I wanted to sell to and how I could create art for that type of customer. So I've always made art with a with a target market in mind, as opposed to, maybe, other artists that just do stuff because they're passionate or or it's the direction they're going at at the time. So my idea was to offer something that you couldn't buy in a gallery, which was a bespoke piece of artwork or a piece of artwork tailored to an individual client's needs. So we would go to the house, we'd look at the colour scheme of the house, the lighting of the house and actually make something specific that fits perfectly in their property. So I've been doing that sort of for the last 10 years and that's been great. But what it? What it did do was it gave me a lot of diversity, but it actually didn't give me an identity as an artist. So if we take Banksy, for example, you see a Banksy piece, you know it's Banksy. Yeah, he's got an identity, he's got a look, he's got a feel.
Speaker 2:My work's been so sporadic that I didn't actually have an identity.
Speaker 2:So in the last few years, when I had my baby daughter and I didn't have eight or 10 hours in the studio on my own every day, I started working on a sort of a brand, as opposed to diversity, like I've done before.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying that I won't diversify at times, but that will be more specific projects when I pick and choose to do them. But I've actually been working on a series and a brand for two years now, which I haven't put to the market until about a month's time, but it's a full body of works, like a whole career of an artist works would be, you know, like a sort of a warhol series or Banksy series. Imagine if we hadn't put them out one at a time and there was a whole series to put together. So that's what I've been doing for the last two years and then working on an investment platform around these works, because what I've never done is I've only ever done unique one off pieces. But the market now in the world, 80% of the art market, is actually the additions market. So we're going to do sort of a high volume of additions of all my works as well, which obviously is a slightly different series.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you'll do a balloon series or something like that.
Speaker 2:So each. So if there's a series of the balloons, but then each piece will have 100 limited additions as opposed to just one piece.
Speaker 1:So if you within like NFT or like actual physical art.
Speaker 2:No, all tangible.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:And the NFT market. Still, it's very sort of great area at the moment. It may boom and when it's most we're ready to do it, but completely taken, taking focus off that and back to physical assets and, like I said, most, most of my clients are 50 plus anyway, you know they're, they're not looking at it anyway. So, but with the limit additions market, obviously, the price points are a lot lower than an original piece of work, which also means that I can appeal to a much wider demographic than I have done before as well, you know. So, yeah, very interesting with that, and that's going to be done massively through social media marketing, internet sales, online gallery, which is an area when it comes to technology, is not my strongest field, but what I've done is I've, rather than trying to learn stuff myself, is just create a team of experts in all areas and, yeah, really exciting.
Speaker 1:So, exciting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're probably about six weeks away from launching it all as well, so oh, very cool.
Speaker 1:What's why I find it really incredible is, although you said you don't care about money, is that you know, even just hearing your ability to network and adhere to potential clients needs and what they want, as well as being able to have this business mindset. You've got this you know firm business mindset behind everything that you do, which I think is really impressive. You have like a sense of direction, which I don't mean I don't actually know many artists, but I would presume is pretty different than people that just create art and that's enabled you to do this for a living.
Speaker 2:What I've done with this new company is I'm basically created a platform where I can put my expertise and my knowledge and be able to do it for the artists, so they kind of kind of get control of their artwork again, even though they fit under the platform that I've built for them.
Speaker 2:You know, and like I said, when we we look at the financials around them selling a piece of art or a hundred editions of something, everything like they're all like they can't believe it. You know, but for them to have actually started going down that route would have taken time away from their creativity. So what I want to do is allow them just to be creatives and then fit under this platform, and then what they can do is they can reinvest in themselves, because a lot of it falls through ad advertising Google ads and different platform advertising. They can reinvest into themselves by spending more money on their own individual advertising as well. So it gives them the opportunity to sort of self manage themselves. So, yeah, I'm really looking forward to that and I'm looking to support quite a lot of the artists in Jersey, where we're from, because it's an amazing talent here. There's just not really the opportunities I think out there for them. So, yeah, looking forward to that and what's your motivation behind helping people?
Speaker 1:I mean, as well as doing this and hopefully be a profitable venture, but it sounds like the artist at the heart of it, and you've also done a huge number of other philanthropic projects I'm saying that correctly including helping the Jersey Hospice, I think, rebecca's House, amelia's Trust and way more, and the Darl Zoo. Where do you think that sense of wanting to help other people come from? Yeah, where does it come from?
Speaker 2:Weirdly, I think it comes from being an only child. On that lie, I found this incredible word about when my daughter was born, and that's balance. I know it's been in my life all the time, but if you look at balance in everything in a life whether or not life's going well or not so well you can find a balance in everything from your relationship to your family, to your work, to your gym, to your whatever it is going out party and whatever. Now you find a balance on everything, then you can bring stuff back in and make sure everything works.
Speaker 2:You know, I think for me, I've been very fortunate in the life I've lived and family support that I had. I just, you know, I'm just not a selfish person and I like to give back and I like, I like to educate people. I just I've always loved kids and I do quite a bit with autism and special needs and the elderly as well. I wish I could dedicate more time to it, but I can't. If I can do something that supports whilst also being a creative, you know, it's perfect for me and it gives me self-drive as well, knowing that I've done it, you know. And yeah, and also I've got a two-year-old daughter, who I want to be a role model to and for her to be proud and see me as superheroes. So you know, just being a general good person to the world makes me get up every morning.
Speaker 1:You know what sort of advice do you have for for young kids? You know that aren't sure what they want to do yet, but want to be incredible, like yourself. I mean, I would say for your daughter that she's quite young at the moment, but for young kids maybe they're eight, nine, twelve, thirteen, aren't sure what they want to do, still really young, but want to be successful. They want to be a DJ, want to be an artist, they want to be an entrepreneur, they want to be anything a football player. What advice would you have for those kids that are still so young and still so, you know, still learning?
Speaker 2:Life experience is, is, is absolutely crucial. Social media, on the other hand, I don't think is, a, is a is a positive for people. You know. So, if anything, get out and and explore life. Not try and believe what you think's out there, because you know life isn't perfect. But if you work hard at something, you know you never fail. Even if you do fail, you know, because you you committed yourself to to putting the best into something that you can do. You know what I mean. And having strong friends and people around you make sure that they are, you know, always supporting and letting you know how you are getting on. You know, ask for advice of people. Like I said, that's what I've always done.
Speaker 2:And yeah, listening, listening is something that, even as I get older, I still need to embrace more and actually take a tick into account. You know, you know University, I, I, I, personally, I went to University and only lasted a day. You know, I think University is great for certain certain, certain paths of life or certain educations or stuff like that. But also travelling is amazing. You know, as many people I speak to, I always think maybe going travelling in between school and uni would be great. You know, did you travel at all? Oh, you've gone straight.
Speaker 1:No, I went a year off, but for different reasons. Yeah, yeah, it's something I want to do perhaps after university is travel around a bit, and in the summers as well would be good things to do. I wanted to ask you know, obviously you've got amazing clients, but also probably a lot of friends. One we've mentioned in the past was Avicii. What was your relationship like with him? What was he like and how did he inspire you to become a better person?
Speaker 2:He was the most humble sort of person ever. I knew him from when he like his first few DJ gigs, you know. But even then he was always he was an introvert. He wasn't an extrovert and to stand on stage in front of a million people or just tens of thousands of people every night, you know, absolutely you know, was like a pressure and a comfort zone that he just didn't have as a musician. He just had a gift and a geniusness that certainly I like. Even I was like completely blown away by you know what I mean, to the point where it was like I was producing music at the time and I was like, yeah, maybe I just give up on this one, but look, what he's created will last forever.
Speaker 2:He's actually the reason why electronic music broke in America. You know electronic music is people have gone there for 20 years to try and break it. It used to just be completely inutile R&B, like you wouldn't hear a dance song anywhere and he completely and utterly flipped it in the entire country. You know, to now you barely would hear R&B anywhere. You know it's quite insane, the power of doing something like that, you know. And, yeah, sad loss.
Speaker 1:But you'll know what you think was the source of I keep. I'm always really interested in these people like yourself, in hearing whether they think their skills were just something born with this mindset or something they learn his geniusness. Was that something you think he was born with? Do you think he just thought differently or did he work really hard? I mean, I don't know him well at all.
Speaker 2:So look now, I've seen loads of successful people that didn't have natural talent. You know, just grafted an array and working hard. I've seen it in sportsmen before as well. You know, if you are, you also get people that are massively gifted. Don't have that drive. So yeah, with him now. His was blood, sweat and tears, you know, but he taught himself locked in. He's a bit like Ed Sheeran, locked himself in a room for two years and and was a bit of a recluse and just worked hard. And I think with music is you never know if the sound is. You know he wouldn't have known he was making this unique sound. You know it was. It's all trial by area. You know, same as an artist. So yeah, it's just experiment.
Speaker 1:Why is that? Why? Why is that?
Speaker 2:Because someone else can be doing the same thing, or no, because nobody had made a sound like him at the time and although he was embarking on this new sound of his own, there was, there, was there's, no, there was no recipe that it was going to be successful. You know it. Just it happened. It was successful and then he built from it, you know, but in no ways did he set off with a, with a game plan or a sound that he wanted to make. It was spontaneous, and then that was unique to him. You know, same as an artist, you know. You know the freest it's like like any other sort of creative you can. You can tell a mile off if they're heavily influenced or or have sort of built themselves around a certain look or style, before you know, and then you get ones that are just groundbreakingly unique and different and yeah, then everyone else will copy them, you know.
Speaker 1:When was that? When was that point for you you just mentioned about? You know, a Veechie didn't know if his music was going to be good or unique and then suddenly start booming with your art. When was that point in time for you that you you were like I've got this idea, I've done it. You started doing it and like, wow, this actually works. And then you started to grow to the most incredible clientele and create the most incredible pieces of art for people.
Speaker 2:It was I literally, again, I looked at, I looked at materials that other artists won't work with and experiment with them to try and create something that looked different to what other people were doing. It came together quite fast actually and, like I said, I had this clear. I had this clear idea and subject matter and focus in place. In more of a business and sales way. I didn't do what artists were doing, which was building something. It was, my mind, was quite some military mentality and thought, and then you gradually do more pieces and trial different things and then and find your, your happy medium, you know, but what I also was doing I was even though I only came back to art when I was 30, I wanted to explore where I could go and how I could stretch my creativity.
Speaker 2:What I struggled to do is something again and again and again. It's just not really the way I've cut saying that this new model. I've had to do that, but it was always about experimenting and trying something new to push myself as a artist and as a person as well, you know. And then I want to make them bigger and then I want to try something new. So that's what gets me up in the morning. That's what makes me tick, not because I'm getting up, because I'm being paid to do another picture, or you know something like that.
Speaker 1:Do you think you would do it anyway, even if it never took off? Or do you think you would have then transitioned to something else and try and be successful in another field?
Speaker 2:I would have. I would have, I would have moved on Sure.
Speaker 1:You would have moved on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was at a point in life where, after having, like, nightclubs and restaurants and stuff, I was a bit in limbo of what to do next. I didn't want to go back into that world. It's quite a toxic world to be in, but I didn't really. I've never worked a night the five in my life. I was in this sort of limbo. My mother was very sick so I was looking after her and she was my priority.
Speaker 2:But I was trying to work out what path I wanted to go down, and what I did was again, I brought it back to what I'd done earlier on in my life, rather than trying to learn something new from scratch. I was trying to think, right, let's not waste anything in life, let's go back to something that I was passionate about and I enjoyed, with a view of how to market and sell it. From my other project Two birds, one stone idea, you know. But yeah, if it had, if it hadn't worked, no, I don't. I don't think I would have been a Just yeah, just working away at it. No, it's not really the way I do stuff go hard or go home.
Speaker 1:So what's the? I mean Relatively? I still think you're quite young. I mean there's some actors that like 70 and become World famous. Do you think you'll you'll continue with your art the day you die or do you see another Transition that will occur and you'll go and reach the top of another field In the future? I mean, you've got your. You know the platform you're building. Do you think they'll run alongside or is the gold and moving into something else and Smashing that as well?
Speaker 2:No. So the platform now is all ready to go. It said it should actually self-manage it and, like I said, I would like to just bring on more. I'll. I'll create the choice of the artist that I bring on board, but I would love to be the creator of building a platform with lots of different artists. Me personally, once that's set up, it will manage my works for me and then I will pick and choose when I bring new works into it. But my I would like to focus more on some of my international, really large-scale projects that I've got in the pipeline, sort of the really big ones that you see with governments in sort of Large parks in London and places like that, but with them I'm really working on a carbon neutral angle. So you've got an educational part to these big projects and I think that's where I'll want to dedicate more of my time, whilst over overlooking that the platform.
Speaker 1:So we was the platform. What was the platform called and how can people find it? Having watched this episode, I know it's out in like a month's time, but what? What's it called and how can people go about and find it if they're interested?
Speaker 2:so, yeah, it'll be an online gallery called Appreciation Gallery and Then the investment platform will be a phase two. It'll be like a fun style, fun type project, where You'll create statistic based analysis on the sales of additions which then can increase the price of Top end versions or originals, which you can normally only do with Dead artists at present, because living artists don't tend to have this sort of accounts setup or sort of Sort of financial documentation of all their works, how they can build it into an investment platform.
Speaker 2:But all of this has actually come from living in Jersey and being around all the fisheries, all the family officers and that's. I've been around that for five years now and and Slowly gathering information from friends, from colleagues, of how all that works to then put it into Sort of a platform that could fit around the artwork as well. So again, networking, speaking to people soaking up stuff as I've gone along and gradually, just slowly, it all came together and I'm very excited for you know for when that comes out.
Speaker 1:But I wanted to mention the environment and even in the introduction mentioned OCW carbon neutral International standard. That you reach that. What does that mean and why is that unique and why is that important to you?
Speaker 2:So I'm the first ever artist in the world. It's collaboration with one carbon world and the UN. So what they've done is they monitored Everything that I've done for the last two years, let that be any sort of energy use, from flights, hotel rooms, my house, petrol, everything. You know, everything that affects the planet. They've, they've catalogued and they've worked out a footprint around that. And what they are going to do is they offset against that in new generational projects you know, planting of forests, other things like that you know. So it creates a sort of a Credit of what I've used and then they get to offset against Sort of positive projects around the world. And then the new companies, which will obviously use huge amounts of energy and things like that, everything like that, and every artist that we Transport are around the world, or the packaging we put it in. Everything's going to be carbon offset. So it's also going to be a strong marketing and Investable point of view for customers as well.
Speaker 1:So is that it's not quite an expensive thing to do? You know, offset everything, and I could. The no, the listener hearing you doing this amazing feet. Is that something that the average person can realistically do, or is it very financially expensive to be able to offset everything that you do?
Speaker 2:yeah, so I Been very fortunate that one of my very, very close best friends actually has this company and he only normally deals with companies like the formula one or the API tennis tour and literally countries, you know. So, yeah, I have been very fortunate because I would have been far too small of a fish for them to have Invested this time and effort into it's. It's just been a benefit of, of, of a friendship for a long time, but also the projects that I've got coming up. They want to use me as a showcase at cop this year and and I'm also introduced me to government-based Projects which do want to educate all sure, sure the knowledge on on the environment and where it's going. So there's a, there's a big phase to to it, but they've invested in me to give me this opportunity as well. You know, with the bigger picture, do you?
Speaker 1:ever think? Do you ever think you know, because I like someone, like I show them. I can't really give any examples because I'm not an art history major or specialist in this. But what? To what extent do you think politics and things you know, you could you put the environment as a subset of that but political Messages and ideologies, to what extent you think that should be portrayed through art, and have you ever used art as a means for portraying a political message?
Speaker 2:Well, certainly, banks is the leader of the game of that, you know, I'm actually makes a political statement through one of these pieces and no matter how much press or country trying to Put that out, his piece of artwork can create a Reach to a different age group, demographic and an understanding in such a simplistic way, you know. So I think, done in the right ways, yeah, it's absolutely, absolutely priceless. You know, is there enough of it out there? I, that's a hard one to To answer. I, I like controversial people, I like controversy. I think it's interesting. As you know, I did a series of Pieces for one of my very closest around, donald Trump, with a bank. See asks like strong Opinion. It kind of sat on the fence a bit as opposed to being one way or the other, you know. So it had. It has a clever sort of balance of Tongue-in-cheek meets strong, strong point as well, but nothing too heavy, do you?
Speaker 1:elaborate on on the two contradicting ideas of the negative and the positive of what you were trying to Get across with an image like Donald, donald Trump.
Speaker 2:Well, look, let's be honest, he's. He's my, my other people and I've met in Florida, and when I say people love him, they, they literally would die for him, you know. And then you'll get everybody the other side who absolutely hate everything for him and his values and what he stands for. I have no, I've actually never known a character with that is so equally split, you know. But, yeah, find them interesting. I'm not lie, I don't necessarily agree with everything, but when he's not in the news there isn't anything Anywhere near as exciting as when he is, or what's he gonna do next, you know. So, yeah, but there's plenty of characters out there that are controversial or stuff. But but you know, it's the same as religion in art or something. You know it can be. It can be. It can be either very positive or or or or misconstrued completely. You know it's. It's to the discretion of the artist and you know what it is without.
Speaker 2:I Really don't pass comment on other people's art, because if there's somebody out there that likes it, then the person's done a good job. You know who am I to have an opinion. I can say if I like something or if I don't like it, but it's kind of why I left university on the first day. You know you'll have a lecture at university critiquing people on art, but they're not in the art world. They're teaching something around 30 years ago. It's different compared to somebody who'd be teaching biology or medicine or something you know. That's fact, you know. But in a creative context for university, you know the people that teach and you need to be current. And who's stopping an incredible creative who had some wacky idea from exploring and becoming the best ever at that because their tutor told her or him that it was crap at the time? You know what I mean. It's just like that for me. I'm a little bit sort of unclear whether or not it's the right or wrong direction.
Speaker 1:Could you? I think this can often be quite ambiguous or unclear what is art? Could you define art for me, or what is art to you, taking any direction that you want?
Speaker 2:Art to me or art in general, both Art is just an expression of personality. You know what I mean. You know it's a unique identity of what somebody wants to portray to whoever would want to see it, love it or hate it. You know, like some people make art to be controversial. You know what I mean. Some people make art to cause emotion in a certain way or another. You know. But the whole world is full of so many different people you know what I mean With different mindshots, with different views or in certain mental places in life. You know what I mean. I think it's amazing.
Speaker 2:What I'm really liking is there was this big boom two years ago and everyone was saying art was dead. It's all going in the digital way, it's all going in NFTs. Nobody's going to have a physical bit of artwork in their lives anymore. It'll be in this metaverse house, where it'll be worth more money. And to see it come back to physical, tangible art again so quick there's been yeah, that's a nice thing, and I'm not lying.
Speaker 2:I was a bit worried when it also had that boom of where it was all going. You know, yeah, I'll say. But what it did do was I'll give you one thing, arts tends to be normally 30 plus age groups when people really start getting into their art. You know, what the NFT market did do was get a lot of younger people interested in buying, selling or purchasing artworks. So it actually opened up a completely different demographic, you know. So that was a very strong positive of it all, certainly for the industry in itself, you know. And now with the social media platforms like tick-tock on that, you know. You see, you know artists do like sort of 30 second paintings and starting to get a million hits and sort of stuff. You know, if people can monetize or use that sort of content and the market that they're reaching to into a benefit for themselves, the world's oyster, you know.
Speaker 1:Definitely. I've got like three last questions. I often know of an overarch, but my first of the last three questions is you briefly spoke about this before, but what do you want your legacy to be when you die, hopefully in a long time, and what's the goal moving forward, what's going to be your footprint on this, on this planet and this society?
Speaker 2:That's a tough one. Well, first of all, my footprint needs to be a way of creating a life and a security for my daughter. But if I could create with my new brand so an identity that they could go on and continue to sell post my passing I think that's the mindset to do and then ideally, have sort of a sculptural presence throughout the world, I think that's my main goal right now.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Second last question what's the greatest lesson and or greatest piece of advice someone has ever told you that you've learned from?
Speaker 2:I've had a lot. Let's come back to that one. Let's do one more. Let's come back to that one.
Speaker 1:We'll do this one and we'll go back to that one, and the final question is someone listening to this could be around from five years old to 75 years old. Rich, poor, doesn't matter. What's one takeaway that you want those people to get from this podcast, or one thing that you wish that they learn from you, from your background, or that you want them to know about you?
Speaker 2:I think, self-belief and not take a risk in life. Like I said just, there is no risk. If you explore or experiment in something that you're passionate about or you feel that you can achieve it, just always come back and don't. Whereas I said that I wouldn't go down the field if I hadn't been successful in the art, that was just the age that I was in life. But never give up. I think fighting for what you believe in is probably the most important lesson that I could give.
Speaker 1:I hit two birds with one stone that you wanted to save it. You knew what I was going to ask you. Thank you so much. This has been an absolutely incredible conversation. I hope to continue it again in the future.
Speaker 1:Learn from someone that's literally reached the pinnacle in three, four, five fields from being an Olympic swimmer to a DJ, to an artist, to an entrepreneur, going from having a very irregular routine in the DJ world to being able to consistently work eight to 10 hours a day, doing your passion, to being a father. I've also found it really fascinating to learn about this incredible network that you've built and how that you didn't have the typical mind of an artist and just creating things, but really keeping the customer in mind, which doesn't just relate to art, but also to business as well. I'm also very impressed with your philanthropy and hope that continues throughout the future and that young kids and people around the world continually are inspired by you and your story and also by your amazing mindset. I know that you'll continue to do amazing things and I feel privileged to be able to spend this hour learning from you, so thank you so much for speaking to me today.
Speaker 2:No, mate, it's been an absolute pleasure. And, yeah, I wish you all the best at uni as well. Take care bye.