Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to Tez Talks Radio. I am your host, Marissa True, and today I am joined by Mark Fendel, a saxophonist and music producer, who's also one of the key people behind TezCon, a physical gathering of Tezos communities in Seattle, which takes place on June 28th this year. But before we get into all of that, hi Mark, how are you today?

Speaker 2: 0:21

Fabulous. How are you, Marissa?

Speaker 1: 0:23

So I have heard your name floating around the Tezos community for the past few months, or at least the past year, and so I'm very happy that our paths have actually finally crossed. As is customary on the show, I would love to get kind of an insight into your personal backstory and you know, what is it that brought you to Tezos to begin with?

Speaker 2: 0:42

I got really deep into Tezos from my very close friend, mighty Moss, who you may have seen around the community as well. He's an amazing creative designer and artist and illustrator and he got me into Tezos and to early Hick at Nunk days and he just presented it to me as an. You know, this is the way. You know that digital ownership is going to go back in 21 and and you know we've been friends for 20 plus years and so this was a really like I don't know I there was something about that that really resonated with me for the possibilities, especially, um, especially for music.

Speaker 1: 1:29

Hopefully there's some amazing changes, you know, for musicians with web3 and specifically with tezos what was the thing that made ownership feel so important to you at that point in time, like why was the concept of digital ownership particularly appealing?

Speaker 2: 1:46

Because, early on, like I understood that I could price my work for the price that I wanted to. You know price it for and you know the idea of being paid at the time of sale and me choosing a royalty percentage. You know being paid in perpetuity. These are, these are the things that I'm with. Three I think of. I think of things in a musician's. You know terms, you know a lot, but personally, you know, I've always wanted to pair my music and sound design with art. I've always wanted that and the possibilities for me.

Speaker 2: 2:26

Personally, like at the beginning, I was so exciting for me because I've always wanted this, I always wanted to work with artists, and I've just never had that real opportunity. And this is, you know, for me. I'm already doing it, like I'm already fulfilling that, you know so, and it came at a very interesting time during COVID. You know where we were inside a lot more. I was able to kind of reconfigure my tiny like home studio, so a lot of things made sense for me personally, you know, you know the beginning of my kind of Tizzo's journey and Web3 and in trying to understand a new technology and, yeah, I onboarded maybe like 25, 25 musicians in 2021 and 22. And I got to onboard my favorite artist.

Speaker 2: 3:32

You know that I know personally and work with her, ann Gergich.

Speaker 2: 3:33

She's a collage artist and like I was like in 2021, 22, were like that was such an exciting time for me because I was Tezos was solving these problems, I was getting to work with artists and I was getting to work with my favorite artist and I own several pieces of hers, physical pieces of hers and she's kind of like fallen off a little bit off of Tezos, you know like a lot of people have in the last couple years, but she'll be back, she's around, you know.

Speaker 2: 4:11

So, like those are the things that like were really exciting for me. You know like, and I just feel like I got to pair my music with my favorite artist in the Pacific Northwest and I've been collecting her work since 1997. And all of a sudden, we're working together. That was that was like that was like a dream come true for me, you know. And we did like 30 collaborations together on Tezos before the collab contracts ever even existed, you know like. So it's kind of funny like I feel like a lot of my music the in the early days of tezos it's kind of like hidden you know it's kind of hidden away.

Speaker 2: 4:58

It's not like you really would have to dig for it. You know to find it, but I, whatever anyway. So, whatever, anyway. So that's kind of like my, that's kind of like my intro and kind of my yeah, why I really loved, really really loved Hicket Nunk. You know like in the early days and was, you know, very motivated to mint NFTs. You know music NFTs mostly paired with art with other people.

Speaker 1: 5:29

So it wasn't just the principles of the technology, in terms of what it would allow with regards to ownership and royalties, but it was also like you saw a very clear opportunity to start collaborating with artists in a way that I guess you didn't necessarily have as robust a framework for in the beginning, or it just gave you more access to a community of artists who would be willing and open to collaboration, I think, which is a wonderful thing, because so many people use Hicket and Unk, as that means of sort of getting tuned into the community, understanding sort of what movement was taking place and then finding their own position within it.

Speaker 1: 6:05

But beyond, you know just the art and the music and minting your first works, there was also a leap where you started to organize community in-person events. So what was that step that took you from, you know, just creating to actually gathering people?

Speaker 2: 6:25

you from. You know, just creating to actually gathering people. That's something that I'm already, like, very accustomed to is is organizing. I used to run a music school here for some years, the Seattle Drum School, georgetown branch so I'm used to organizing large groups of people. Already I'm also a long distance hiker and I've done some national scenic trails and I'm used to planning large, long expeditions with a lot of details and and a lot riding on it. You know, like our lives, so I'm used to plan, I'm used to um, I'm used to already used to planning. So we're helping organize Tezcon easy. You know, this is a, this is easy for me. And the connection that I just can't tell you how great the connection is like with the Tezos community meeting new people and then having you know TezCon and then meeting people in real life and getting to know people and that's really I think that is really the goal, you know, is not just this online community, which I just love, but having these events and really getting to connect with people.

Speaker 1: 7:34

So tell me about the origin story of TezCon. Why was it originally organized, sort of? What was its mission and goal?

Speaker 2: 7:41

Well, that originally started with with tez tones, which is a you know tezo's art and music, that there are teams and we play each other just for fun, and we had talked about organizing an event and and you know these kinds of you know events.

Speaker 2: 7:59

This is easy stuff for me to like put together and and uh, and I was like, why don't we just have it at the nft museum? You know, unfortunately, that that facility, you know that, didn't work out and they had to close, but we just wanted to like have a fun music and art event, you know where we could showcase tezos, artists or other blockchains too I mean not specifically Tezos, but that's really like our focus, obviously, and it kind of started, the ideas kind of started there. And yeah, there was some other places too, but that was a great place because they already had the screens, you know, in place. The one thing that is nice about this year we're having it at a different place, kenyon Hall here in West Seattle, and it's a lot more music, kind of centric of a place to to host the stage, there's a grand piano and we're gonna bring the screens in.

Speaker 2: 9:03

so and and you know this is open to. If anybody is watching. You know this is open to any, any of the artists, if you want to be part of it. We want people to be part of.

Speaker 1: 9:13

So what can people actually look forward to during the event? So obviously there's a huge musical component, as you just shared. But for an artist who's potentially let's say they're new to the community, they don't really know anyone just yet, but they've heard about this event. You know what can they expect by coming?

Speaker 2: 9:30

Yeah, they can expect to see some amazing digital art. We're going to have. I can't remember how many screens, probably 15 screens. There'll be lots of physical art too. We want to kind of connect the physical and digital art so people can see that there are physical pieces that are minted as digital pieces and the music is going to be all throughout the afternoon and evening. There'll be music nonstop and it'll be fully catered and, just like last year, and it's just going to be a great meet and greet and be really nice to. There's going to be a ton of great artists, obviously, and musicians, and I'm just so excited to see, you know, see everybody again and meet new people, and it's going to be really, really fun.

Speaker 1: 10:20

So I hope people come through. This is the second edition.

Speaker 2: 10:24

Yeah, yeah, this is the second.

Speaker 1: 10:26

So how did the first edition go and sort of, how do you see the community having grown since its first?

Speaker 2: 10:33

There's definitely more musicians who want to play for sure. We haven't quite put it out, the call for the art, but that will be, and so I think there's a lot of people who want to perform. The nice thing is this year there was so many people just the first talks of it we're still five months away. There were so many people who contacted me that wanted to perform that we're actually going to do a Sunday. The Sunday afterwards we're going to have a music. We're going to have like a music showcase at just up the street from the event, at a friend's backyard who hosts all summer and it's all like. They have nice sound system and so more people can.

Speaker 2: 11:21

There was so much, there were so many people who wanted to play right out, right away, that I wanted to like, try to like, have another like event. So we're going to do another event on the Sunday from two to six here in West Seattle. Anybody can feel free to do another event on the Sunday from two to six here in West Seattle. Anybody can feel free to DM me about about details, but I'm happy to share that totally free event and it'll feature a ton of the great musicians from Tez Tones and, again, more art I really really want. This is I haven't told anybody this, so this is, this is just for you and this conversation but one thing that I really want is like some huge canvases, you know, and just let artists just go, just go crazy, you know, in the backyard of this beautiful house, Anyway, that's, that was like a dream of mine, so I'm going to try and make that happen.

Speaker 1: 12:15

Anyway, that was like a dream of mine, so I'm going to try and make that happen. So it sounds like it's basically bringing together people who probably might like they mainly know each other online, and so it's kind of bringing that physical connection back into the space and also letting people appreciate one another's arts in real time and together all at once. So I think that's something that we often overlook. When we talk about the consumption of digital art or even music. We rarely take the moment to realize that there is a huge difference in the experience of whether we're there physically and in front of it versus, say, listening through a pair of headphones or staring at a piece of artwork on a screen via our laptop. It's kind of overcoming those little boundaries and barriers and getting you to experience it in a whole new way. When it comes to what you want people to feel or what you want people to take out of this event, let's say, on behalf of the artists and the musicians who come to perform, what is that?

Speaker 2: 13:15

I just, you know, I just want them to, I want them to have a really, really fun time here in the Pacific Northwest, enjoy people's, enjoy people's company, and just to create more connection.

Speaker 2: 13:29

You know, personal connection and and this goes, you know that personal connection just builds. You know, I've noticed that throughout the year. You know just and and feel that love. You know that joy. You know that you know that we try to bring you know in the digital world and then you know we've got like this little, this little time, you know, to enjoy each other's company and like I hope that they feel that vibe, you know, and wanna be there and wanna participate. And next year we're even talking about like building it out to more, like kind of like, maybe like a place where musicians can stay and, you know, make art together, you know, like a kind of retreat. It's been a lot of talk and some really exciting possibilities with that too. So that's something that I would like to make happen for next year, but we've already talked about it and there's just some beautiful places here close to Seattle that would just be incredible for that kind of thing.

Speaker 1: 15:01

It's. It's also sort of coupling your love of the outdoors as well in terms of the way you see this playing out in the future in terms of developing almost like a creative, a creative retreat for people to come together and just cross, collaborate and and see what comes out. The other side so is that is that sort of the future trajectory you see, for tescon is like you know. You're starting with these community gatherings. Last year was the first. This year you're sort of scaling it up and focusing a bit more in the music and then next year onwards you're looking more into how you can use it as a means of encouraging artists to creatively express themselves at that point in time, rather than just exhibiting existing works.

Speaker 2: 15:41

Exactly exactly. And you know, I think one like one of the exciting possibilities would be hosting at Fort Worden State Park, which is in Port Townsend, which is about an hour and a half from Seattle. You have to take a ferry which goes all the time, but it's a beautiful facility and you could have 200 to 500 people easily and it's beautiful and they have a ton of space and it's a very artsy community already. They have a ton of space and it's a very artsy community already. So you could, theoretically, you could actually like meet, make the art and then even present. You know there's lots of possibilities, especially here because there's space to do it. Yeah, lots of possibilities.

Speaker 1: 16:34

I kind of want to build it out you know year by year. So, yeah, it sounds like an incremental growth sort of trajectory. But then if you were to forecast, let's say, five or ten years from now, what would be your dream outcome for Tezcon in terms of what it can become?

Speaker 2: 16:53

I think all of that you know, like a long duration of making art and music, it could be. This could get so incredible. You know, adding some of the really nice studios, really nice studios, you know, to record music. I mean, I love my home studio, but there's some beautiful places here. That would be amazing. I would love to take over the entire convention center. That would be. That would be my ultimate. You know there's a brand new. Those of you who don't know there's a convention center here. It's beautiful. They built a new one and it's only been open for like two years and it is unbelievable Like the place is all glass windows. It overlooks the entire city. It's got multiple ballrooms. If we filled that place with all of Tezos I think that would be the end for me. I think that would be one of the ultimate goals to have it super blown up like that and to basically just take over the whole convention center because it is so gorgeous. I mean, I'm sure everything.

Speaker 2: 18:10

And I have some other ideas too. There are some other ideas too, like there are some other places too here.

Speaker 1: 18:14

It's an exciting time here because there's a lot of like new construction here in town and and a lot of buzz, so it sounds like it's about growing that community and so every year incrementally bringing in more people and not only just sort of celebrating existing Tezos artists, but inviting new ones to participate.

Speaker 2: 18:35

Yeah, yeah, and and actually like an involving people that are way outside web three, like I want people to be easily, like you know, um just included, you know in um these kinds of events. You know it shouldn't be hard, you know to explain what we do, why we like it and and, and let them just be able to share that, communicate that effectively. You know, I would love, love, love to see that.

Speaker 1: 19:06

What do you think it will take for us collectively to grow the Tezos community? So I think you know, when it first started, one of the catalysts was fortunately unfortunately the pandemic in terms of everyone was sort of forced online and began interacting with one another without borders, sharing their creative works, and it sort of created this natural momentum. And then, once the world opened up again, people kind of got back to their usual business, but they still sort of had this natural momentum. And then, once the world opened up again, people kind of got back to their usual business, but they still sort of had this you know online community that they could come back to. So as the world kind of gets busier, we get more distracted. It gets harder and harder to maintain. So what do you think it will take to to keep this growing rather than sort of fading away?

Speaker 2: 19:53

I think, more connection with people outside, outside web three, really, you know, I think it's really important that we have physical works you know and put on in real, you know, irl, you know, like events, you know, I think, think that is, I think that it's a really important component of this because people already have a lot of screen time. I've noticed that people my age they are not willing to learn anything new. It's unbelievable. So it's very hard to, you know, talk to anybody about NFTs or Tezos or Web3, anything you know, and AI, and there's been a lot of, obviously, you know there's been a lot of, there's been a lot of like negativity for, you know, for Web3, because of a lot of reasons, you know, and a lot of bad players, you know, and you know just some nefarious people that have, you know, that have made it so that people have preconceived notions of what we do and what it is and what it could be.

Speaker 2: 21:10

People don't understand that, like that Tezos is whatever we can imagine it could be. People don't understand that, like that tezos is whatever we can imagine it could be, you know. So I don't think I I don't know we need to have more like connection, real life events. It could be tez tones presents, and it's just a gig, you know, of musicians, and then we try to like sneak people in. You know, to explain what we do. I think that's probably going to be the best right now.

Speaker 2: 21:43

The other thing, my other idea, is that is more innovation, you know, and that's why I really feel like, and that's why I really feel like the folks at Object and Taya specifically, are doing really good work, because we have ideas of things that we would like to see and they're actually lit.

Speaker 2: 22:09

So the innovation, we're close. We're really really really close. If we want the music component, if we want regular musicians to participate in Web3, we need to have the CD baby or the band camp of Tezos. That is actually what we need to have the, the cd baby, or the, you know, or the band camp of tezos, you know. That is actually what we need. We we need, like, the, the spotty of tezos, whatever that, whatever it is, whether that's streaming, probably not, I'm not like super into it, but whatever it is like, there needs to be a specific component that is for the musicians and I think that when we get that, I think that the onboarding will be, I think it'll be easy. So I think we need to mask it. I think we need to mask all of the web stuff, honestly, like and make it super simple for people you know.

Speaker 1: 23:13

So there's basically like two streams that you've sort of painted a picture of, one of which is we just need people to experience, I guess, the benefits of what this technology brings without having to understand the technology itself and, to your words, sort of like hide the Web3 component.

Speaker 1: 23:31

And that's also where the physical gatherings will help is because people can just they don't need to come in with a preconceived notion or like set of ideas or to have studied to participate, they can just experience it and also just the continued development of products that are going to support artists. I think musicians in particular have sort of been waiting in the wings for a lot of products to cater specifically to that art form, just because a lot of the focus was on visual art for many reasons, one of which being I think it was technically easier for a developer to build a product for. But as more and more musicians flock to the community, it's going to set sort of a bit of momentum behind the teams who want to build something specifically for a musical artist as opposed to a visual artist. Is that right? Yeah?

Speaker 2: 24:22

yeah, it's going to take a lot. I'm not saying that this is an easy thing. I mean one of kind of did it a little bit in the quincy jones um tezos platform, um, but really that was only for, like, the big artists. Basically that was just big drops, you know, for the already signed artists. But that's not what Tezos to me, that's not what really it was about in the first place. It wasn't about that anyway.

Speaker 1: 24:51

Yeah, it was about finding the grassroots artists that were remarkably talented but would not have otherwise been recognized by traditional institutions in the same way. So it sounds like you're working on a lot and there's a lot of planning that's going into Tescon this year. But beyond the event itself, I think my last question for you is what's the thing that's really motivating you? What's the thing that's really exciting you about this year in particular?

Speaker 2: 25:19

I think just seeing people again. I'm excited to see my friends. I talked to them all year and now we're going to get together for you know, for this weekend and hopefully it'll last a little bit longer. I would love to just like have four days in the studio with you know several of these folks, but Ash Brown especially, who's kind of the leader of he's the owner of Ted Stones. He and I have done some collaborations together, but yeah, it's really about the connection for me. I mean, I'm looking forward, obviously, looking forward to the art tremendously, and the music as well, and just seeing people like, yeah, do what they do best and enjoy each other's company. That is one thing that I really love so so much is planning for events and then kind of just standing back and just kind of watching it happen a little bit. That is one thing that I truly enjoy is just seeing other people have fun truly enjoy is just like seeing other people have fun.

Speaker 1: 26:25

So it's all about a year of bringing people together and also not only sort of reuniting with old friends, but seeing what creative potential that develops or whatever it generates, and then hopefully you'll have even more artwork for the following years to come yeah, I, you know, know, you know TezCon could be so many things you know, and I'm curious to see, I'm curious to see what people resonate with.

Speaker 2: 26:50

I think that this year, I think this year, will be a lot easier. Last year at the NFT museum, it was a really beautiful, really beautiful space and it was really fun to be downtown. A lot harder of kind of logistics to put on an event downtown, just you know, like getting there and parking and you know, and moving stuff this year Way easier, easier and um, and so I think that there's. You know, I kind of want to like see from other people, you know, this year, what they would like to where they would like to see it go. You know, yeah, and and you know, since it is a small relatively, you know, in comparison to a lot of the nft events, this is a pretty small event, you know, and's not all. It doesn't have all of the hype. You know it's kind of, you know it's very grunge actually and all of this and all of this.

Speaker 2: 27:51

I've always compared, you know, tezos and early Hick at Nunk days to early grunge days and that's why I moved here from music school in the mid-90s, because this place was the best place in the world for music at that time, you know, and it was an easy decision because I'm already from Portland three hours south. So I hope that people get that vibe, you know that kind of like just that indie rock kind of vibe. You know with with tezcon because it is smaller and and you know, you know the tezos community we're like, you know there's, we're a wily bunch. You know there's a lot of great people in the in in this community, this community and and um. So anyway, I hope people, I hope people come and enjoy it. Um and um. I can't wait.

Speaker 1: 28:52

Amazing. Well, thank you so much for sharing everything about Tescon, and also just you know what keeps your passion alive within the space, I think. I think it's always refreshing to hear why people are still so dedicated to this community. Thank you so much for your time, mark.

Speaker 2: 29:06

Thank you, Marissa. Yeah, super nice to meet you and yeah, we get a chance to hang out again.