Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Tez Talks Radio. I am your host, Marissa True, and today I am joined by Ari Sandoval, more affectionately known within the Tezos community as Hash Brown. He is the artist and founder of Tez Tones and one of the main organizers behind the upcoming TezCon event in Seattle this summer. So how are you doing today? Welcome to the show.

Speaker 2: 0:20

I'm doing. Great Thanks for having me. How are you doing?

Speaker 2: 0:35

I am great, so we always kick off this show with a deep dive into your background and your journey into blockchain and how you became an active member of the Tezos community. So walk me through that story. Like june of 2017, uh, because I was running a recording studio and I had a little disposable income and I was investing in penny stocks and my friend slash producer, friend charlie the cluff, was like, hey, our, my friend logan got in on on east like when it was 17 and it was more than 17 then I think it was like 160 or it was like a 10x or something roughly, and I was like, oh my god, so I started buying like little, little, like shit coins. We called them back then sorry, we can bleep that out, apologies, that's what it's, just what we call them people. It's the wild days. Um, I started buying weird little coins on like liquidio and all that stuff and then I found steam it, which was like a reddit kind of clone where you got like paid in upvotes. There's been a lot of social like kind of like warcast is kind of like that but steam it was way, way back, way back then and there was like a rap contest there's a weekly rap contest and I entered and I started rapping about cryptocurrency because I was like we're on Steemit and I won and it just started being this thing where I was like, oh, I'm going to rap about cryptocurrency. So it started becoming this like kind of thing. And then me and Charlie made a group called Team HODL Some people say hodl the whole debate, I know, but we call it team hodl was our pronunciation. Whatever you pronounce is correct to you and we made like a really kind of cringe but fun music video.

Speaker 2: 1:50

I wrote a song called lambo land that like I just looked at it because I was I was making like a vlog talking about this the other day. Where it's right now, it's like just under a quarter million, that's at 245 000 views, but it like blew up for the time and ended up getting flown to New York to perform and just a bunch of other places and stuff For the Crypto Influencer Summit to 2018, performed at the Neo DevCon, which I was super all in on Neo. At the time I met Dal Hung Faye, the founder, who I was using as an emoji in a chat room in Discord and I was like I met him and he was like, oh, nice to meet you, thanks for writing this song. He was like like a bunch of different random things. But then of all things, a I was running a recording studio in San Francisco, so that was again how I had the disposable income and stuff. And B we were doing that and then we had a landlord move-in eviction notice so I had to tear the studio down and right. Then that was also like right when the cryptocurrency market crashed. So I had like my bear market and like cryptocurrency bear market, which kind of coincided in a good time, and I tore the studio down and like literally took the two by fours from that. And then I moved up where I live now, into the Santa Cruz mountains and like found this like leftover thing of a trailer and ripped out half the walls and rebuilt it up. I have a wood burning stove in here now and we're doing this off the solar power. It's luckily a sunny day, so I have plenty of power for this today. So kind of like a big transition from San Francisco to up here, but it's also been a kind of just natural progression.

Speaker 2: 3:10

And then, as I was getting just more settled in life and getting back into, like you know, researching cryptocurrency and stuff, I kept like hearing all my friends mentioned Tezos for like years and years like just, and I actually started minting in a really small market called Ghost Market which was on Soul, which was actually a really cool community. That just kind of fell apart but like shout out, everyone there, great, beautiful people, and some of those people are still friends to this day that I made a music video with Sixth of Law, who was in Tez Tones last season. I originally met from there so cool community. But then, as that kind of fell apart, I wanted to put out an album I was making called Brother Vulture, which again was kind of about having to tear the studio down and like pick the pieces back up from life and like how vultures. It's actually crazy. They're one of the biggest like raptors, one of the biggest like birds of prey. That doesn't kill to survive and when you think about it like that, it's actually kind of insane. People see them as like a scavenger and a bad thing, but it's like it's very resourceful and I just took it as this like metaphor. There's a lot of vultures flying around where I live up here that I was just these turkey vultures, so I'm just kind of vibing with it. So I made that ep and released it as an artist on tezos and just kept making friends with people and like talking to them and eventually that is also actually in those years, um, that I first moved up here and on Ghost Market and all that stuff I had this whole idea for like this is where the idea for Tez Tones first started. So I was getting more into sports because as an artist and I feel like a lot of artists can relate to this I wasn't really into sports growing up because it was kind of like something I did when I was a kid and I became like a more counterculture artisty person and it's like the jocks over there, the weirdos over here, and I wasn't really into it and I've always been a fan of, like the San Francisco 49ers.

Speaker 2: 4:48

I'm from the Bay area, san Francisco Bay area, that's my family, that's like I rep that but it wasn't really into sports in general and moving up here I got more into like it's it. As I was younger I thought I was this total radical and I get older I'm watching sports podcasts and getting into this basic guy stuff. I used to have dreads down on the back of my knees. I cut them off and I'm just like I'm just a normal dude now, but I started getting into sports and finding these deep metaphors of the locker room and how people they were talking about. I don't miss the sports so much, but I miss the camaraderie and all that stuff. And I liken that to when I had a band and when I had that in my life back in college, even with like the cyphers and all that stuff in San Francisco, which were like freestyle, like a collaboration with other rappers and stuff.

Speaker 2: 5:33

And I just missed that and I thought, wait, I only like work with people and same thing with a locker room You'll be best friends with someone that get traded and then you're just best friends with the new people that you're there with. Because it's just kind of a part of the mechanics of it. And I thought, wait, like I need this as an artist, like I need more friendship. And how do I do this? It's to try to bring people together and create a context for this and that's what I thought was also cool about sports is it's like it was a really simple quote.

Speaker 2: 5:57

I heard once where they asked like a football player what do you want to do this season? What do you want to do this season. He's like well, my goal for this season is the same as ever I'm trying to win a Super Bowl. And I thought, man, as an artist, if you could just try to like I'm trying to win the Testone season, like if you could just have one thing at the end of the season, do you want to do it again? You can sign up every season. It's not this kind of just endless, but not. And I thought, wouldn't it be cool if we could take some of this stuff and then the collectible aspect of it also, like jerseys and player cards and all those things which I think lend beautifully to digital collectibles and also physical collectibles. So it was just kind of all these things I was getting into and it just kind of whipped itself up into this concept.

Speaker 2: 6:39

Back then it was CryptoFam, which that completely fell apart and I gave up on, which again was part of Brother Vulture, and then in Tezos I was just friends with all these people talking, releasing my music, and I was like I did have an idea back in the day and they're like let's have a Twitter space about it, as all, just you know, let's just have a Twitter space. They said two years later we're this deep into Tez tones. But yeah, I told them the idea of like, hey, what about a sports league for artists? And of course because like Tezos, artists are cool and weird and into fun ideas they were like, yeah, I don't care if I'm not getting paid, let's just do it and see what happens.

Speaker 2: 7:11

And we've been ever since then building, and the first season it was these like live. They weren't live matches, I mean, we moved to live matches. The first season there were four week matches where we gave a theme and all the teams would make a piece. So we randomly assigned visual and audio artists on the teams. We gave them four weeks, say. They were like colors, blue, purple, just random colors and at the end of those four weeks they had a piece, which I thought was really cool. But also we didn't really have the live feel of a sports match. It was kind of just like a competition that we did every four weeks.

Speaker 2: 7:40

So then over this season I had a kind of crazy idea and thankfully everyone came with me, because without the artist it would just be me deleting a lead of one.

Speaker 2: 7:51

And now we do live matches amongst two teams that go head to head and they're like four hour matches, so about three hours of creation.

Speaker 2: 7:56

We have a little halftime and then we like share the pieces afterwards and stuff when, instead of having it be all the teams, you have these two teams.

Speaker 2: 8:03

So we spin a wheel, you get a theme and then right, then you have to okay, brainstorm, figure out what you're making, and we film all of this, where I'm an OBS and I have each team's videos up where we can see cameras of most of the artists not all of them, because of course, it's crypto and some people want to be a non, which we respect or we'll see screen shares of like the audio program or their video program.

Speaker 2: 8:23

Or you know, on my team this season we had Bill Knight who's there in Seattle like doing physical paintings on his screen, and we have Nico who's doing blender work, and then I'm over here trying to commentate while I'm on my team and also like get some raps written in time and stuff. So yeah, I guess that was a really really long answer to that question of how I got specifically here. Answer to that question of how I got specifically here. But it was kind of one of those things that just slowly evolved from my general crypto journey into our little neighborhood, friendly neighborhood of Tezos that we're at these days.

Speaker 1: 8:52

Yeah, it sounds like it very much snowballed.

Speaker 1: 8:55

So you started off just as, yeah, I think many like the way many of us start off just as an investor into this space and sort of just dabbling and seeing what sort of wealth creation opportunities you could find.

Speaker 1: 9:08

But then it seems like there was like this serendipity or this perfect moment where you saw, you know, this interaction between what this technology was capable of, the community that you were sort of looking for online and the skill set you had within the music space. So then just trying to figure out where all of those intersected into something that you could produce and actually enjoy building I think many people resonate when it comes to the social element, like this idea of community online and realizing that you know, especially after COVID, so many of us worked in isolation for so long that we forgot how critical it was to actually find friends and be with them and build things with them and experience new things with them. So, to focus in on Tez Tones a bit, from what I've understood of what you've shared, it's kind of the Super Bowl of music within the Tezos community.

Speaker 2: 10:01

We're trying to work our way there. You know we're hoping people will eventually feel that way. But yeah, it's really just trying to have fun and that's the thing too is trying to like bring fun back into it, which is funny, because when you tell people, hey, you're competing, making art fun, isn't necessarily the first thing people think. Because competition and art and trust me, I get it, you know other other than like battle the bands I did in high school. I generally think the idea of competition in art is super goofy. It's art, it's subjective. You either like it or you don't. It's one piece that loses isn't necessarily worse than the other piece. But it's like playing a board game or playing any game. You know it's like you agree to the rules and at the end of the day you can have a good game and still lose, you know so it's. It's really embracing that and just really enjoying the collaborations and meeting people you never would have collaborated with and a on your team but be in the league.

Speaker 2: 10:50

Like you know, podoxino is one of my best friends over there in greece and we're both grumpy as hell and we were like trying to mint on object one day.

Speaker 2: 10:57

I think it was 10 or 12 hours, because every time we'd upload it it would like fail and we were like, and we're just sitting there like dying and hating it, but like the camaraderie you get of everyone doing it.

Speaker 2: 11:06

And again it's for the league, it's for us together and it's something that, like you know, we've we've done a decent amount of sales. Don't get me wrong. We haven't been like vastly hugely successful selling out all of our pieces, but I think just the camaraderie it's built and keeping people around and the friendship is like again for me not just because, not just because COVID, but because I moved out of San Francisco and I live off grid now like I missed my studio and I missed my friends. That came through, yeah, because they were my friends, but because I had a recording studio and we were recording. You know, like we had a reason to hang out and I think as artists we get so locked in our creative worlds that without that reason to hang out, we'll just be like, oh, I'll catch you later. I'm doing this right now. So it was kind of snapping us all out of our worlds by building a new collaborative one.

Speaker 1: 11:54

And I also think a key thing there is that, I think, people forget that this space is allowed to be fun. Yeah, I think I mean, especially now and given this year hasn't panned out the way many expected it to. Fun doesn't seem on the cards Just because it's a very, very stressful atmosphere.

Speaker 2: 12:05

So we got to this point. You know it's like I can't pay you but I can have fun with you. Like that's sorry, that's it's all I got. But yeah, you know, it's one of those things where it's like what is in our control and what isn't in our control and we can choose to have fun. We, we can, like we can still stress about and worry about and build and find ways to improve what we're doing, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't have fun and a lot of artistic movements and a lot of movements. The second you lose that and it becomes and I'm guilty of this myself, especially with the season of Tez tones, because I was trying to run live matches and be the commentator and like I was so busy just running the league I didn't focus on fun. So like you know big words but I need to walk my own talk. So you know, it's something I've realized myself. It's like how do we walk this line of ambition but fun and it is a hard line to walk.

Speaker 1: 12:56

Was that something that you wanted to incorporate into its design, or was that just like a natural benefit to what it was you were producing?

Speaker 2: 13:04

Honestly, a little bit of both Like. It's one of those things where you can hope it happens, but it's like growing a plant or something or anything Like. You can plant the seed and you can water it, but you know like it was. And there's these weird little moments of of like. Like, for example, I think it was retro and was it six? It was, it was. It was two people, it was jpz and retro. I think it doesn't matter who it was actually. No, it was tizo and six and they had like won previously in a match and then they were in a like a twitter space.

Speaker 2: 13:32

It's like oh hey, how are you doing? And it's kind of like the head nod you see, of athletes when they're on different teams. They respect each other. But there's that little bit of like oh, a beach. And it's like these weird little like, these moments when Fendel, who's the most wholesome person in the world, like starts like kind of like trash talking a little bit. Oh, watch out, team Bigfoot's going to come through and stomp on you guys, and it's like it's that. It's those little things where you can set it up, but fun guys care about each other, build lifelong bonds. You can't force that on people.

Speaker 2: 14:07

But I think, ironically, the stressful grind of Teztones is what builds those bonds thing was due I was messaging everyone like a tyrant Just be like, I don't care, get them in, if they're not done, they're not going to be minted Like I was being the biggest jerk and I was like no one's going to sign up again and somehow I think like everyone, but maybe like one or two, signed up again and I was like what, the what and it's one of those things where like no-transcript now to really just try to push myself out but it's this thing where I'm good at promoting for us but not for me.

Speaker 2: 14:56

And it's trying to like leverage my own weakness in that sense into like hey, I'm not going to promote hash brown but I'll promote tez tones because it's for like 30 artists, it's for all of us. So it was a little hack into my own brain also, but it was beautiful to see other people like latch on and have fun and and care, people losing and getting upset and like like you know what guys like I'll talk to you later but like, like in the quarterfinals and once you get to the semi-inals and stuff and you lose, like people being me being upset and it's like it's crazy that we care about it and that's like again, I hate that people got upset but I appreciate so much that we care enough to get upset and that's that magic. That's like you can't make people care and that's what's been really cool to see is that both sides of that coin is the stress but the fun and how they're almost necessary to kind of balance each other out in a way.

Speaker 1: 15:46

I mean, I think the power of community is that there's always this, I guess, emotional investment, like otherwise, why would you be there? And, to the point of, you know, providing too much structure. I think there's always creativity born out of chaos, so I think that's also perhaps part of the messiness. Is what created so much fun and great art. At the end of the day, what edition of test tones are you in or working on now, because it's been going on for a couple years?

Speaker 2: 16:11

you said yeah, so we had, we had season one of the like the four week matches. Season two we just finished january 4th, I think it was, was our final match, and then we're about to start season three, probably like mid, like july-ish or some somewhere around there. Um, just because it kind of works good with the the yearly cycle for winter and all that stuff and my weather.

Speaker 1: 16:31

Is that something people can still sign up for if they're interested?

Speaker 2: 16:34

we're actually I've been giving myself a decent amount of time to decompress because, I'm not gonna lie, this last season was like very I. It's one of those things where you sign up for and then we're like you, you can't do that, that's gonna be too much. You're like, yeah, I, I know, but then halfway through you're having like a nervous breakdown. You're like I'm gonna quit and then you're like, okay, just get to the end. So I'm finally like I think I'm finally at the point where, like I like tes tones. Again you're like, yeah, yeah, it's fun, guys, I like this. So, so we, we really need to start having like and that's the thing too is words.

Speaker 2: 17:02

It is very communal run where, even though I have my ideas and I, I personally think the live season was like the greatest idea ever it's time to now check in with all the artists and be like hey, are you guys willing to do another one of these like is this did you? Did you? Because there was some artists who did leave and it was stressful and they didn't break through and find it's this very interesting thing where it's like, if, if you treat it like a game, it can be fun. But I think there's and not in a negative way, but I think there's a certain ego where, where people really curate themselves as an artist and what they put out and they don't want to put out like work in progress is or like game art they want to put out their pieces.

Speaker 2: 17:37

So I think, for different perspectives and how people want to like, represent themselves, like Like we gained some but we lost some. So, yeah, this off season everyone is welcome. We usually have weekly meetings every Tuesday at 11 am Pacific time. We're going to probably start those back up again soon and, yeah, it's really just very, very public Like we vote on things. If, because I didn't even want the name Tess Tones, I got outvoted for the name Tess Tones and we've been writing it since then, it's like, okay, guys, fine, that's, that's the name, let's, let's do this.

Speaker 2: 18:04

So what was the name you proposed. What was the name? Honestly, I'm just, I'm like a real stick in the mud. I had a logo already from back in the day. That was crypto fam, which cringes like I'm so glad I got outvoted. But we had a sick logo. It was like a, c and f. That was like the, the san francisco giants, but like it was a really cool logo which I ended up making the Ted Stones logo and it's okay also. So I like it. But yeah, and again I'm really glad I got outvoted there.

Speaker 2: 18:28

And I've been outvoted in other things where it's like thank you guys so much, like it's great to crowdsource because and then every once in a while I'll have to be like be off-season test match, you know, and I'll be a little pushy and gratefully, and it is one of those things too, though we're even going from last season, the pre-season, to the season. Everyone's like I don't, we shouldn't do it, let's just do another pre-season match, let's not. And then the second we do it, everyone's like, oh, this is so great, I'm so glad we did it. So it's one of those things where it's like slowly turning the ship and my guys, we're gonna turn. It was like I don't think we should turn guys, we're gonna turn. I don't think we should turn guys and then you just yank the turn. It was like, oh, that that wasn't that bad. We should have turned a while ago. Come on everyone. So it's this fine. But also, again, I'm crazy and I have this like we could be the the nfl of. Like I have this crazy what I think it should be, and I have this like kind of unhealthy sometimes.

Speaker 2: 19:21

Drive to get there as soon as possible, and sometimes you do need a more like gentle slope for people to get from point A four week matches to the live matches and everything. So, ideally, we're going to do another season of live matches. I want to promise that to the world, and if everyone comes with us, we will. But yeah, there's just there's a bunch of options. I do think the live matches are amazing, though, though, as far as the entertainment, and some of the stressful moments are some of the best moments and it's I love it. So that's that's the idea. So, yeah, if anyone wants to message at tez tones, I should get a form up soon. I will get that going.

Speaker 1: 19:54

Oh yeah, so that's the plans bridging from tez tones into tezcon, which is happening this summer. Was there an overlap between these two initiatives or was Tezcon sort of born independently and you know what can people expect of this next edition?

Speaker 2: 20:12

Yeah, Tezcon was legitimately, because one of my friends, someone I didn't even know before Teztones signed up halfway through the season the first season at PMCC25, goes by NFT NFT terrorist Worst name ever. We need him to rebrand that. Okay, Everyone, I'm with you. Okay, I don't like it either. Dude in Ireland, great friend, and he just bought a ticket. He was like I'm going to come visit you. And he bought a ticket to come visit me and like, come up on the mountain and help me build stuff, because tiny home and all that stuff. And I was like, well, if you're going to visit, tiny home and all that stuff. And I was like, well, if you're going to visit, we might as well like throw an event and get more people together and maybe do something in the Bay Area. And we talked about that. He's like, yeah, yeah, let's do that. So then we reached out to Tezos Commons for some funding. And then Fendel and Jacob Kuna up there in Seattle were like let's throw an event in Seattle. And then they were like to a family emergency. Patty didn't even end up flying out. I had to drive back from Seattle completely separate, by myself.

Speaker 2: 21:08

It was like a lot of things didn't work out, but a lot of things did work out and because of it we just really realized like, yeah, why don't we hold this down? And a lot of events are kind of like more tech based and more this, where, like arts and NFTs are kind of the corner over here, or there is like East or like different NFT and art events, but they're in New York or in Miami and we're here in California and that's like really far away and hard to get to for a lot of us. So it's like why don't we hold this down for the West coast and have a Tezos event and just call it like Tezcon? Like just goofy, I just threw that name out there. We voted. It was like, yeah, TezCon, that's so, just to the point. And the whole point was to really make it more about like bringing different communities in. And we had a bunch of screens and we said, hey, who wants a screen? And they're like, pay us $50 to get featured on. And like no, we got the thing covered. Just bring an artist in having live music.

Speaker 2: 21:59

We had an after party at Fendel's house. We were all just jamming in his like living room. It was. It was amazing and it's like it's the kind of thing that me, as a musician, I want to do and experience the art side and just meet people. It was so crazy, these people that you've been seeing as like screen names and little bubbles, and I did a documentary so I saw them on like video. But to just meet someone and hang out with them and like eat the food they cooked in their house you know, Fendel hosted us in his backyard. It was just gorgeous. Oh, it was beautiful.

Speaker 2: 22:27

So yeah, it was almost completely from just the Teztones connections and us being like let's throw an event. And then it was like let's not just do a Teztones event, open this up, because again, that's I don't want to say a problem, but it's so easy to get in your bubble where it's like let's throw just our event. So it's like let's make this bigger and invite in as many people as we can. So that was last year. This year we have an amazing place called Kenyon Hall. That's like it's got, I think, like a church organ, like a pipe organ built in. It's a lot more music based, because last year it was that the nft, the seattle nft museum, which is downtown and there's more of a museum. It wasn't really set up for sound this place is set up for, like. Like we're gonna have a rock. In time, we're gonna have some great music.

Speaker 2: 23:11

The next day that's actually my birthday, june 29th we're gonna have like a backyard show. That's gonna be in the sweet backyard in seattle. Like it's, it's just gonna. It's like what I want as an artist and a weirdo. It's not necessarily going to be this huge tech event, but it's like let's lean into again. Let's lean into having fun. We may not have all these other things and all these powers that be, but we have beautiful people. We can have fun. We're amazingly talented artists where we can have live art, live musicians, live shows. Just leaning into all that and, yeah, trying to remember to have fun. This TezCon, what you can expect is, hopefully, fun and a lot of live art and music.

Speaker 1: 23:52

So art, music and community is very much at the heart of this entire initiative. I mean, we can't forget that it's all basically powered and brought together by Tezos as a technology. So how does that factor in or feature in the event itself, or is it very much? You know, this is this is sort of what's come out of all of us finding one another on a tech platform yeah, a little bit of both, where it was brought together because we knew everyone from tezos.

Speaker 2: 24:18

but then, like, teia cafe sponsored it last season, last year sorry, I'm like tez, so I referred everything as seasons, which is weird Last year and Teya Cafe is a project that he's built, that's like for showing and seeing art and more music-based curation and stuff like that. So it was a natural fit and we actually minted playlists for all the pieces. That was like playlists of pre-made pieces that you then make into the playlist and then those were what we were showing on the screens which we had. It's like a huge technical difficulty with that, but we showed as many of the pieces as we could. But, yeah, it was both the like, the thing that brought us together, but then also the tool that we use to show, because a lot of us make art on Tezops. It was the easiest way to actually get all that art together. So, a little bit of column A and a little bit of column and be there.

Speaker 1: 24:59

And then, given you know, unfortunately, that it's a fairly stressful time in the space right now, how do you think an event like Tezcon's really going to sort of uplift morale for everybody, you know, beyond the art and the gathering?

Speaker 2: 25:14

You know, I can't speak for the rest of the community because people are going to feel how they're going to feel and I think I honestly think everyone's pretty justified. But just like, again, we can worry about all that and we can just maybe remember to have fun. It's just, it's like, it's just a reminder. Just a reminder. Hey, guys, we can have fun. Hey, remember those like backyard shows you miss from high school, college, your thirties, whatever window of your life. You experienced that, like, we can do that. We can make the good old days. These, in 10 years, will be the good old days. So don't sit around reminiscing like make the memories, you know.

Speaker 2: 25:48

So I guess that's the takeaway is is I can't change the economy. I live off grid, I don't have a ton of resources, guys, but I can make art, I can have a fun time and I can spit you some. As, as Mac Dre from the Bay Area says, I can spit you some raps. Anything else, not my job. Like I can, I can throw you a good party, anything else. Like this is what I'm bringing to the table, guys.

Speaker 1: 26:12

So yeah, mentioned before we, before we started this interview, that you are working on quite a few other projects, so what are, what are the other areas that you're investing your energy into, and what can we potentially be looking forward to from?

Speaker 2: 26:25

you I'm just too much stuff. This is well actually like the one thing I'm really stoked on right now, which is kind of a ridiculous undertaking, especially because I'm well, I'm trying to not even say this anymore that I am. I've always identified as an introvert and I generally think I do like, get like I don't get charged from social interactions, I get drained from them. So I guess, on that base level, but yeah, I've been, that's. One of my problems also is that I I do like, like I have a CNC machine with manufacturing and I made Teztones hats and oh, I don don't do I have anything around me right now. This hat I made and wore last last TezCon oh, it's getting out blurred and it got signed by like all everyone who was at TezCon. That's also a great memory. But yeah, just like I've been getting into manufacturing more.

Speaker 2: 27:09

I started a company with my friend called Madrone, manufacturing MadroneMFGcom. So trying to work and then bring again that to Tez Tones but also to Tezos in general, like I was talking to Mech, who's an amazing artist out here and making little like Honko stamps that are out of his art that I could engrave and we can make stamps and really going into all that stuff. Filmmaking is really enjoyable, making my own music videos. I've gotten into blender a lot in 3d animation so I do all the motion graphics and all the intros and stuff for tez tones. I like I was, I was like this close to starting a sci-fi shorts and like animation series and the tez tones happened and like the 3d models are just sitting there staring at me, and their characters too, so they're like anthropomorphically staring at me. It's terrible. So yeah, just just just a bunch of things, which is why I've started and this is weird, because I stumbled into it and I hate this word even. No, I don't, I used to hate it. There you go, we can reprogram ourselves.

Speaker 2: 28:06

People Vlogging, which is such a cringe sounding word. But I realized, like I've been, I'm so like inaccessible and up here on a mountain and just doing my own thing and like oh, I'll get to you guys later that I've been really trying to push it out there and do this thing where, like I can capture in a day like me making a song or me doing my manufacturing or me working on test tones, where I can't really have like one channel or it's hard for me to run all these channels separately. So I'm trying to.

Speaker 2: 28:33

My main thing right now is trying to unify and bring in all these creative endeavors and realize that I can share my story a little more, which sounds terrible and stupid to say, but yeah, that's, that's I guess. My thing is is what am I? I think we're 19. Today's gonna be the 19th like and they're daily vlogs, which is again ridiculous. Trying to do that daily like shoot and then edit. But I'm I'm shooting for like a year of these. I want to say we're like 19 in for like a year of these. I want to say we're like 19 in.

Speaker 2: 28:58

I don't know if I'll be able to do them during the test tone season. That might be again one of these like life choices that I'm saying now and then in four months I'm going to just hate everything. But yeah, like lately, I'm just trying to, I guess, be a little less passive in general and like hope things come to me and that goes to the ecosystem also in test tones, where it's like waiting to get grants and hoping that this is going to work and like, no, I need to start this manufacturing company and I need to start all these other things where, if the vlog blows up or, if this happens, like I can bring people in and just trying to manifest my own stuff, as opposed to like sitting here and just waiting like hey, is this going to take off? And feeling helpless. So more or less just all the things I've been doing, but really just trying to manifest them. It's like a more unified front of outreach.

Speaker 1: 29:41

Well, I mean, I don't think anyone can say that you're not busy. It sounds like you have a finger in every single pie in terms of creative endeavors and project ideas, and I mean, I think there's always this you know this slim intersection across all of them. So I think there's a clear to to bring them into one big picture that I think you're sort of mentally composing yeah which is awesome, and I guess you know people need to.

Speaker 1: 30:06

People just need to follow your journey and see what comes out. The other side, and I also think you know blogging is like vlogging sorry, I should say as a medium is also like a self-accountability tool and that, once you put it out into the universe and if people are watching, it gives you this bit of a feedback loop into making sure that you actually pursue the thing or, if you do decide to leave it behind, it's with good reason rather than just you know it you losing attention for it yeah, and there's so many windows like I like I told you I ran the recording studio in san francisco.

Speaker 2: 30:39

I was like I was a crypto rapper and what do I have to show for those? Like a video here that like very, because I was I've been camera shy my whole life, so I just didn't record anything. And it's like our looking back, it's like, man, I wish I had more than, like, a news article here or a random thing there. So it's just, yeah, I, I, I, I, if I like me, then why don't I share me with the world a little more? You know, why don't I share me with myself a little more? Looking back at it? So it is this weird journey of like, self-accountability and self like, reflection of like, what do I want to film? What don't I want to film? Why don't I want to film that Like? Should I just figure that out in my life. What's that say? You know, it's like it's all these things. So yeah, um, and it and it's pulling me out of like again with tez tones.

Speaker 2: 31:22

I get so into tez tones that I I don't post on my socials, I don't do anything, I'm just like it's all or nothing and that it's like almost a feeling of desperation, or like that is my only social outlet, that's my only you know like. I think it's unhealthy in a way, the way I kind of like workaholic into and then okay, I'm gonna work on madrone manufacturing. It's just like this little corner that I just burrow into and if that doesn't work, it's like okay, now I'm gonna burrow. It's like these like little, like frantic burrows and it's like all right, let's add a little sunlight onto this, let's expose this, let's let's even show people that we're working on these things. If I'm working on Tez Tones but no one knows I'm working on it, or I'm working on Madrona, no one knows, it's like. So yeah, it's been a weird catharsis to just kind of shake off some of these self-infliction represent everything that you've built.

Speaker 1: 32:19

I think the only unfortunate thing about it is that we always run out of time when we speak to Tezcon's community members and just how diversified all the things they're bringing into this ecosystem are. But for those people who are interested in either signing up for Teztones or want to know more about Tezcon, where should they go for more information?

Speaker 2: 32:33

I don't know if we have a Tezcon site up yet. I know they're working on that. For right now you can just message us at TezTones itself, which is at TezTones itself T-E-Z-T-O-N-E-S is TezTones, and that'll probably get you the most comprehensive. Or message me at the one hash brown, t-h-e the number itself, one and then hash brown. To anyone who's out there listening, you know where to go. Hashbrown slash, ari, I mean.

Speaker 1: 33:04

I have to ask why the alias or, like what, the genesis of the alias were right before we go. But do you have any story?

Speaker 2: 33:11

to share on that. Honestly, like I wish I remembered. It's one of those things where, like my early college years, I had some really bad rap names that I would like try on for size and like, like I, I remember what was one one was gonna be. I didn't want to say it out, you know what, I don't know if I've said this ever before. Let's hear a little little. I think one was gonna be like, and it was. It was based off see, I need this, how embarrassed I am. I need to preface it. It was based off enki do from g Gilgamesh and they called him the amazing wild man. So I was like and I think my girlfriend in college like made me a shirt that said the amazing wild man.

Speaker 2: 33:44

Like it's so cringe looking back at it, but I had very terrible names. And then, I don't know, one day I was like you know what I love? I love hash browns and you know I don't dislike the substance with the same name of half of that word and I'm half brown. I like the substance with the same name of half of that word and I'm half brown, I'm half mexican. So I'm like, I'm half brown, I'm hash brown, I'm, you know, like all these things just kind of came together and it was.

Speaker 2: 34:04

It was also something where I realized as an artist, like I was like oh, I'm so underground I. I was a little like very idealistic and whatever, which I'm very glad I went through that phase and all that. But it was a way to like knock myself down a peg and like you can't take yourself that seriously when your rap name's hash brown. So it was a way to like dude, just like, just have fun. And then also like a year later I was like wait, q-tip ice cube.

Speaker 2: 34:27

How many people are named after completely random items? Like two syllable random items. It's kind of weirdly like a hack to a decent rap name. So it's like you know, like. And then it's one of those things too where the more I had it, people are like oh, like I really. And also with crypto rap there's hash rates. So once I started making crypto rap, people were like dude, that's such a genius name hash brown, hash rates. And I was just like yeah, that's why I did it, like I'd had the name for years, never put it together. But it was one of those like happy, stumbling things.

Speaker 1: 34:55

But so it's something that started out as a rap name, built off of an uncontroversial, highly loved breakfast food, sort of evolved into something that just really lended itself to crypto rap, and I guess ever since it stuck yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 35:10

and again a good reminder. Just like, do your hash brown? Like I can't, I can't really criticize anyone for their artist name, I can't't really. It's like, just come on, dude, just relax a little bit. And also with that name, as someone who loves hash browns, you'd be amazed the amount of people like, oh, you need to try. I didn't know about. In San Francisco, arts Cafe had hash brown sandwiches with hash brown filling hash brown. So having that name, you get introduced to some wonderful hash brown delicacies so kind of a blessing that came along with it.

Speaker 1: 35:41

It's a new life experiences off the back of a very peculiar name choice.

Speaker 2: 35:47

Yeah, sadly, this is the best name I ever got, so you know what we're. Just we're calling it here.

Speaker 1: 35:51

Well, I mean, if you love it and the people love it, then why change it? And it's fun, which goes to your core principle of everything you're trying to do, so let it live on, I guess.

Speaker 2: 36:02

Yes, yes, thank you.

Speaker 1: 36:03

Well, thank you for sharing your story today and everything you've worked on with TezCon and TezTones, and I know they're two very highly loved community activations, so I'm sure plenty of people will be excited to learn more about it and how to get signed up and get involved. I'm sure plenty of people will be excited to learn more about it and how to get signed up and get involved, but you'll have to let us know how it goes when we chat again in the future, but until then, thank you so much.

Speaker 2: 36:26

Yeah, thank you for having me. And yeah, artists, please reach out. Testtones is nothing without artists, and you can help shape this next season. We haven't decided it yet, so if you want to be a part of it, please feel free to reach out and get tapped in when we have our meetings, because it's it's an us thing, not a me or a we thing.

Speaker 1: 36:41

So well, you heard it there. Sign up, get involved.