WESLEY O'MEARA

My name is Wesley O’Meara, I’m 35 and I’m a Hair Stylist. I was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, but I’ve been in New York for around 16 years. Five years ago I was at a different (talent representation) agency and everything I did there was really consistent. I was just doing the work that was sent to me, and don’t get me wrong I was really happy, but I think on a personal level, maybe I got complacent. So fast-forward to now and I’m still with the same agent I’ve had for 8 years, but we’re just with a different agency.

Lately I’ve gotten to do some interesting things and I’ve been able to pursue outside opportunities. I still do the same thing. I do hair! I do a lot of Editorial also some red carpet stuff, and now I tend to do a lot more advertising, which I’m not mad about. But in my job you don’t really hop to another level, you’re just consistent and then you get something really good and you ride on that high for a little while.

That’s the life of any freelancer. You do something really high caliber or that you’d actually pay money out of your own pocket to do, and then you ride off of that high of getting those images. And then something comes along and just shits on that, or there’s no work for a while, and you panic like “Fuck this, I’m going to College. I’m going to go be a Para-legal someplace or something” (laughing). But it’s almost like a drug, you keep coming back and I feel like that’s just what freelance life is like. It’s a rollercoaster. It’s insane.

FF: Do you have formal training or education in your field?

Um… it’s kind of unconventional. When I went to Hair School, it really didn’t work for me. This school was very… well like girls would get stabbed! I’m not even kidding, a girl got stabbed. Not that that stuff would go on all the time, but it wasn’t a good environment for learning. And it was expensive so I knew I was being shot in the foot. I got to a point where I was like, ‘I’m going to have to pay for this whether I stay or not. I don’t want to get my license because I don’t want to work in a salon’. So I left school. I had finished maybe half of it.

I had lived in New York for 7 years at that point, so I knew a lot of people that worked in the industry. I got in touch with a friend of mine, Gray Scott, a Hair and Make-up Artist who had started taking pictures and we just started working together.  He had been doing hair and make-up for so long before photography that he showed me how to do a lot of stuff on-set. We worked together for like a year before I signed to an agency. So I definitely didn’t go the conventional route, but I kind of like that. I approach things a little differently because I’ve had less structured training and I’ve been allowed to be more creative, which sometimes ends up being better and I can save time on set.

FF: Do you consider yourself a freshman, sophomore or senior in your field?

Sophomore! I wouldn’t consider myself a senior because I’m only 35 and you’re supposed to retire at 65. I make this joke all the time… a lot of my job is working on set for clients that can be like 25 years old, so I’m already 35 and I’m totally okay if they’re giving me direction and telling me what to do, but I can’t imagine being 60 and having some 25-year-old telling me what to do. I’ll be 50 in 15 years and I can’t imagine still doing some of the stuff that I do now. I mean my hair’s already falling out! If I have to hustle like this for the next 15 years, I’ll be fucking bald (laughs). When I’m a senior I’m going to have like a product line or other business opportunities that would enable me to be more selective with the on-set work. So now I’m working on trying to set that up so I’m not still doing ponytails when I’m 65.

FF: What was the project or opportunity that broke you out of entry level?

There were two! There was the photographer I talked about (Gray Scott) who took me under his wing. So he was the first. He taught me so much about how to behave on set and from that I was able to get some images really quickly. And from those images I was able to work with other Photographers and reach out to Stylists and get word-of-mouth going.

The other one I would say is my agent, Bianca Balconis. I originally met with her about assisting other people. It was just a speculative meeting, but we just really hit it off! So she would try to send me on jobs here and there, but I was starting to get busy on my own at the same time.

She called me about 2 months after we had started talking and was like “I want to sign you” and I was stunned! I mean this agency was one of the top ones in the country, if not one of the best in the world. So when she said I want to sign you without a portfolio. I mean that’s unheard of! It was huge.

I just skipped years of struggle. So it’s very important to keep in contact with people, without harassing them... just in an organic way. But we just hit it off and we still work very well together going on 8 years now. She’s so great. I hear people complain about their agents a lot, but you have to remember that your agent isn’t there to do things for you; they’re there to manage. And when you start saying ‘why aren’t you doing anything for me?’ you’ve lost the whole purpose of what we’re doing. You need to be putting yourself out there - it’s 80/20. An agent is there to look out for your best interests, to keep my schedule and do my billing. They still get you work, but after 8 years of doing this, I should already be getting my own.

You have to hustle yourself. It’s New York-fucking-City, if you’re not going to do it yourself, then your agent will have 10 other people on their books and someone that’s hustling harder is going to come in and eat your dinner!

FF: What is your dream creative project?

I don’t know if it’s so much a creative project. I guess I would like to work in a parallel field. I would like to work in product development. It doesn’t even have to be my product line because I don’t think I have that status where I could have a namesake product line. Let’s be real, those people have been doing this a long time. But just to work on like a small boutique product line and see if it grows. That’s ultimately where I want to end up.

FF: What's stopping you from it?

I’m very self-aware so I know exactly what’s stopping me. I wouldn’t have to jump right to product development. I could start small with a website or something and then hopefully it grows exponentially. To get that started would be very cheap, it’s only going to require help from a couple of other people, but then it’s going to have to be on-going. That’s the hard part! Once I get started on that path I have to be willing to dedicate myself. Like, there goes lying on the couch watching Netflix all day! Part of me is a little scared to give up that part of my life - or maybe not scared, but just procrastinating. I think I’m at that weird age where I’m done going out and partying, but I’m not ready to get fat and pregnant or settle down. I’m getting close to wanting that, but it’s New York City so we’re all kind of perma-25. 

FF: Who are three people whose thought process you'd like to learn more about?

I don’t even know how to answer that! In terms of artistry, I would say Pat McGrath. I don’t know where she gets these concepts from, not so much her editorial stuff, but her runway work. It always makes total sense and it’s always so on-point for the collection and I can see exactly what she means. I know she carries around suitcases full of books for reference, but I just don’t understand what exactly made her think of that. I mean, I know the creative process and have to come up with things myself, but it’s also difficult to garner the level of trust from the people you work with the way she does. Like, this is a bad example, but if I were to say ‘I want to do blue eyelashes’, then someone else on set would say ‘no I don’t think blue eyelashes work’. Even if I just know it’s going to work, nobody will say yes. But she’s gained that much respect that she could say ‘it’s blue eyelashes’ and people just trust her because she’s just on that level. To be in her brain, not the story of how she worked from the 90s to where she is today, that’s pretty self-explanatory, she clearly worked her as off, but just how she links that ideas process. Other than that I don’t know. I can’t name 3 because

I always think of that quote, “Good Artists copy, great Artists steal” but I never really want to be like that, so I try not to reference too much current stuff.

It’s really annoying when I look through a magazine and you can see the trends, so the trend in hair is still wet hair, it’s not even wet it’s like greasy. It’s like did I just drag all my stuff here to just squirt water in her hair and she's in a fur coat? I’m over it. It was great the first time someone did it, but I’m not going to do it for the millionth time. I try to argue for something new. There’s too much referencing what’s happening now and it slows everything down.

FF: Why do you think that is?

I think there was more freedom before the recession because advertisers didn’t dictate everything as much as they do now. So there’s the trickle down-effect. Editorial lives off advertising (financially) so it’s like, it worked, it’s safe, so they’re going to ask for it again and again. So now with the shows that have just been, the trend is very 70s, and that’s already referential and who knows how long we’ll get stuck there. Maybe I’m just being kind of cranky because I’m not as bright eyed and bushy tailed and new to the industry. But in some ways that cranky side, or the fact that I feel like I’ve already seen it all can be helpful, because then I can be like ‘I don’t want to do that anymore’. And usually when you voice that and say for example, I don’t want to do wet hair anymore, it clicks with people that it’s already done.

FF: If there were a retrospective of your work, what would be your favorites to include?

My favorite work is always my next job. But I think what would be interesting and hilarious would be to do a show of everybody’s first work, their test shots. So all the great hair and make-up artists working today, you could see where they started. Because in the beginning we all do the same thing where we’re just so excited to be working that you pull out all the stops and it’s just a shit-show. The images are terrible. It’s like so much hair, so much make-up and then the poor stylist could only get like American Apparel leggings or something. All the stuff that was unpublished because then you get to see the then versus now. 

you can follow Wesley's work on instagram.
as told to: Kylie Johnston // photos by: Nick Blumenthal

BODEGA BAMZ

This week we chat with Spanish-Harlem rapper BODEGA BAMZ and OH LA of TAN BOYS in anticipation of their upcoming album release Sidewalk Exec. on April 14th 2015. Bamz and his brother / manager Oh La reminisce on their struggles, dish their unexpected musical inspirations and speak on late legend and close friend A$AP YAMS' influence to them and why people should always show gratitude.

BB - My name is Bodega Bamz, I'm from Spanish Harlem, USA. March 17th 1985 is my birthday.
OH - My name is Oh La, I'm from Spanish Harlem, USA. I was born February 27th 1986, that's the Dominican Independence day.
FF - What were you guys doing five years ago?
BB - Selling drugs.
OH - Yeah, I had a 50 thousand dollar car with 24 inch rims, I had three TV's inside.
BB - And we were rapping too. Yeah five years ago was actually hard because our parents got divorced and then my pops kicked us out of his crib, so we had no where to go. From there we went to my Grandma's to stay, we were there for about a good six to twelve months…
OH - That's actually how I lost my car! He took me off his insurance so I was driving the streets with no insurance. I actually sold my rims, everything and that's how we got the studio. That's when we started taking music seriously right?
BB - We were just trying to put our pain in the writing. We found a spot in Washington Heights, and when we went there everything kind of changed because we went through so much turmoil in the months leading up to that, that

our backs were really against the wall, we really had nothing. We put all our cards on the table

and even that was a struggle because things weren't working out with the people we were meeting but by the end of 2010, the beginning of 2011 was when we really put our foot down… My son was about to be born then too so we took it really seriously and little by little shit started picking up.

Then we met Yams in the end of 2011 and after that it was a wrap. When Yams got in my corner, I didn't give a fuck about a co-sign.

I didn't care if a DJ or a legend said Bodega Bamz is next… I would be honored they do and appreciate it but I didn't give a fuck if they did or didn't. Because I had someone like Yams who impact me in a way, not only musically but personally. He'd tell me I was going to make it. When you go through all this shit and you get this one dude, he aint got millions of dollars, he's just a regular guy with influence and intelligence and a heart full of gold, when you meet someone like that and your whole life starts changing so fast… what bigger impact am I going to have? I'm going up, everything is a ladder now, I'll meet bigger people, I'll meet more important people but I'm never going to meet someone that has an impact on my life than that man, ever. He was just a humble spirit, the light. It was about him, the person he was. That man was put on this earth to help people and put people in positions, that man is one of the reasons why I'm able to support and provide for my family.

Before he came in the picture I was a struggling artist. We had the drive, the work ethic, we have the talent that God gave us, we just had no vision.

We were just shooting, we weren't aiming anywhere. Yams showed us how to aim and once we got that down packed it was over, now we had a vision, now we know how to move it, now we know where to go with it. Now he aint here no more, so now it's up to us to make it even bigger.

Our whole come up is just proving people wrong.

I love music, we came from music… we came from gospel, came from worship, we came from preaching in front of a congregation. I'm still preaching, just the delivery is different.
OH - I used to produce, I don't produce any more. But I learned how to engineer by watching the engineer and asking questions. I never got taught how to do things hands on I just watched. When I eventually sold my car and we bought studio equipment, I learned everything on my own. Music is a feeling. It's not just bopping your head, you should feel that through your whole body. And we kind of got that in church…

BB - So music is always in us. But we really got a fire under our ass because a lot of people really didn't think we're going to be where we're at.

The message is overcoming all the negativity and overcoming all the people that said you weren't going to do it

and overcoming every body that had negative things to say and didn't believe in you, just to overcome that and really make a success out of nothing. Another message is the empowerment of our culture and our people, because during those times we were also consumers and we were seeing that we weren't being represented correctly.

So we told ourselves that once we have the light on us we were going to really push our culture forward and really show that pride and that powerfulness.

FF - What do you have left to do until you feel like you've made it?
BB - Just to be on a mainstream level, just to get that same light as people who are signed. To be where we come from I think…
OH - It's an achievement! The thing is we live in an era where people shit on having a deal because of what others have been through but at the end of the day who doesn't want a record deal?! Who doesn't want to walk in the building and your picture is on the wall and ten-fifteen people are working for you…
FF - And it's also about the fact that if you have this message that you actually believe in, why not make it reach its maximum audience?
OH - Exactly. A lot of people have done it without a record deal. Like Tech Nine, that guy is one of the richest rappers right now and he's straight independent. But what might work for him won't work for us. But I'm pretty sure in his road to perdition he wanted a record deal but he just found what worked for him. It's like making the NBA though…
BB - Yeah! Right now we're in college, under ground is college ball. The NBA is record label, that's the bottom line. We put in so much ground work independently and underground that when we do get a record deal it's going to be on our terms, we know what we want. A lot of people get deals and they don't know what they want they just want to sign. We can go in there and be like this is what I need from y'all…
OH - We ask them what they can do for us, because this is what we can do on our own, this is what we've been doing.
BB - That's the conversation we have when we go into record labels. Our talent, our look, our message… underground puts a ceiling on it. It needs to be every where.
FF - What are a few things you wish you knew earlier?
BB - I'm not giving any one advice anymore because most people if you tell them how you feel they'll brush it off. There's certain people who will appreciate it and you'll get that connection by talking to people.

When you're a person that always wants to hold things inside, it definitely puts you in your own box and then you could be missing a good person that might change your life.

And God forbid, people get lost and people pass on and you'd be like damn, I wish I had a conversation with my man to see how he really felt. It's sad because sometimes people should have the courage and the faith to open up in order to get better, but a lot of people don't really see that. People don't realize that you should make people feel like that… just express gratitude!
FF - If your life was a movie what would be on its soundtrack?
OH - There's this song by Moby, it's called When it's Cold I Would Like to Die… that song! It's so unexplainable, it can be a sad song, it can be a happy song, it can be a redemption song. It all matters to what scene you're putting it in.
BB - I'd have Secret Garden by Bruce Springstein, Phil Collins Another Day in Paradise. Definitely the Eagles Hotel California. Nirvana's Something's in the Way… Just real emo shit man. First of all, let's make this clear… I'm not influenced by rap, only my friends that make music and a few selective artists that are undeniable. But as a whole this shit is whack. I might sound like I'm contradicting myself because I am a rapper too but I just take my influence from years like '98 to 2002.

We're more focused on being relatable than likable.

We know it's easy being likable but some body else can come along and look better than me, talk better than me and you're going to like that person… that's human nature. But if I relate to you and have a connection with you, you'll always look at me as number one.
OH - …You're ours forever. From what we listen to, the shit he raps about, we want people to have a connection. The last guy to really have a connection with his fans was probably Tupac. You could connect with Tupac when you put him on. I'm not a fan of his whole discography but the songs that I can name they really touched me. And that's what it has to be about, it has to be relatable, it has to speak to people and that's how we treat the music.

you can listen to TanBoys' music here, and follow their instagram.
as told to: Olivia Seally // video: Olivia Seally

DAI BURGER

Hi! My name's Dai Burger, I'm from Queens, New York... but I run New York City!

FF - What do you do?

DB - I am a hip-hop, rapping, singing, trapping, lovable, performing artist. I just do it all... I hit stages and shut shit down. And make cool music along the way! I started as a back up dancer for Lil' Mama. Some people know that, some don't, but I always say that because it's how I started. And from there I started just doing more shows in the Lower East Side and Brooklyn and hosting parties. And I haven't really gotten a break since then (laughs). I love dancing! In high school every one knew it was either dancing or fashion, like if I wasn't going to be in fashion, I was going to be a dancer. You know... going to school, getting new Jordans, showing up... I customized my belts to match the latest Jordans. I kinda paint too so I would paint some stuff on my shirt or on jeans and people would always come to me in high school! I was kinda the jeans girl... I would put their name down one side and some splatter paint on the other, like do the back pockets, like what Jordan's you got? Ok I have pink paint! Oh you got the New Balances?! I got yellow! (laughs). It was fly! It was lucrative for me too, like a little side cash out.

FF - How did Patricia Fields happen?

DB - My homeboy brought me into the old store, it was my first time. And the manager at the front asked if we were Lil' Mama dancers, we were like yes... how did you know?! She saw us at the Heatherette show we just performed and she was like you're so cute, your style is so cool, do you want to work here? And I was kind of hesitant like I was still dancing and stuff but I kept coming back and they're like girl, just come on! I was like alright! You got me! And we've been married since. It's been a while, almost as long as the music... they kind of go hand in hand.

FF - Are you signed for your music?

DB - I'm not! I have management now. I don't even have a project out right now and I'm super booked up so once I put a project out, who knows what could happen! I feel like I've been on the underground for so long, and you know how sometimes you hear a name like it's hot, it's hot... then a couple months later you don't hear that name anymore.

I just feel like I've been consistent for so long that someone has to recognize here, it's not a roller coaster, I've just been smooth sailing for all these years. So I'm just ready to, like you said, have a platform so I can share it on a bigger plateau.

FF - Are you working on a project?

DB - I am! It's almost done! So it should be ready soon, and it's going to be released overseas as well!

FF - What's the goal / What do you want to add to the world?

DB - I'm just tired of people taking themselves so seriously, I'm so free spirited.. I don't know, people should just let loose sometimes.

I feel like everyone should just loosen up, be themselves and experiment, you know? Try new things! Everything doesn't have to be a race, or so serious like if you're doing you, that's enough!

I do me and I'm not competing with anybody and I feel fine! And just being smart, using the brains we have to do anything positive. All that negativity is just tired... negativity is tired, it's last year! Stank attitudes are a thing of the past! So 2013 (laughs).

you can follow Dai here and check out her music here.

As told to: Olivia Seally / Photos + Video by: Olivia Seally

ELIJAH RAWK

I’m Elijah Rawk from Phony Ppl, I’m 23 freshly and I was born in Brooklyn, New York. Aja from Phony Ppl, the keyboardist, I met him the first day of high school that was like my first friend ever. He was in a couple bands, this other band called Lunar Station and Phony Ppl. Originally Phony Ppl was Elbee and Aja and they were a band to play Dyme-A-Duzin’s music. From then Ian got added, the other guitar player, and then PJ came and then Matt. And Bari never played bass before, he was the only one out of all of us that didn’t go to school for music. He had to play bass because there was no other bass player so Aja was like my brother will do it. We were horrible as seniors, we cut class every day. Bari’s older than us so he had his own apartment by then and we’d go to his house and smoke and not go to class. We figured it out perfectly… fourth period was when they took attendance for the day so we’d go in for fourth period and leave.

I was in School of Rock as well for all of high school. I joined freshman year and then we were doing All Stars so we did all these tours and went to Germany and stuff, so I didn’t really care about high school as much. All my friends at School of Rock, what was cool to them, was reading and movies and music and in high school we weren’t learning that. So in senior year the dude that made School of Rock built a house out in Long Island, called Studio House and his idea was to build a music college. As the first students we would be the professors. And it was obviously a risky thing but it sounded cool and I was seventeen. So I left after a long argument with my parents and it was a bunch of craziness. At first there were no chaperones at all so it was a bunch of 16-20 year olds in this house, in and out, it wasn’t even a consistent bunch of people and nobody supervising. All of my friends were older than me and they’re all like punked out white kids that are really good at their instruments. And it was weird, it was a bunch of mushrooms and acid and drugs… like three of them would be on mad heroine and I had to watch that. I was like 15 and they’d do heroine all the time and it just sucked, they’d be vomiting all the time. Eventually me and one of their girlfriends had to go super hard to stop that shit, it was crazy. The chaperones didn’t come for a little while.

We would learn how to record and do all that kind of stuff. it was cool we had nobody else, We got to write our own rules

and we started figuring out our own formulas for stuff and the people that were originally there just to smoke and jam they had to leave and we really started to get work done. Real artists would start to come in the house and we would record them and do all this interesting stuff. Studio House eventually got shut down… one day it was up and the next day we got a call and all the electricity was off and they were like it’s over.

At that point I was in Phony Ppl so I just went right over. And we played some shows, we were chilling harder. We were all out of high school and Ian and Tammy went off to college but we were still doing it. We played this show at Colgate University, it was our first show outside the city, Matthew Trammell got it for us – that was his first booking as our manager, and we were opening for Theophilus London and that’s how we met Theo. We played our show and him and Dev Hynes just watched the whole show from the sound check and then we went home and Theo’s manager at the time, Knox, was like we have this Brooklyn Museum show if you want to play it. That was a really fun time and I learned a lot from that whole period and a lot of access and opportunities that I’m still benefiting from right now, but at the same time it was kind of difficult because we really felt compelled... like we grew up with Phony Ppl, those were our boys and we were never giving 100% because we were so distracted and every other week we had to go somewhere else with Theo.

It got to this point where I had to make a decision and Bari had to make a decision and it was either go on tour with Theophilus London or go on tour with Phony Ppl.

And I eventually chose the Phony’s and Bari chose Theo.  Then we kind of kicked the other three members out, it was six of us now. And we had to write stuff but didn’t feel like we could write music anymore because Dymez was on like every song we wrote. So we just started all over.

That was 2013 that we started to write a new album and we were like if this album and this year doesn’t work out for us we all have to reconsider what we’re doing. We started writing it and we got this call from Matt’s friend Adrien and he invited us to play at his friend’s birthday. So we went up to Montauk, had a fun time and we told Adrien where we were at, like we just kicked these guys out. He was like what are you trying to do? Are you trying to get signed? And we said no, we didn’t want to deal with anyone so we told him that and he loved it for some reason so he was like Why don’t you guys just make it here? And he has everything! So we did. Our management, Plain Pat and Kas, had nothing to do because we had nothing out; we needed it mixed, we didn’t have it mastered and we had no budget for the entire album and we just surprised them. Ben from Rubber Tracks loved what the album was so far and he would let us come to the Converse studio after it was closed and run stuff through the board. And this other dude, Zac from our publishing company, was like I’ll mix it for you guys.

All of a sudden we had all these resources from people that really helped us, just off the strength of believing in it. And then we put it out in January and it was awesome.

When the band went from nine to six it felt empty and now it feels super right, the spacing is right and traveling and just communicating. I think ‘I Wish I Was a Chair’ was one of the biggest moments for Phony Ppl. That song, for some reason still to this day, hits girls real hard, maybe guys too. But every show we play the entire crowd sings it so it’s got to be the biggest song, our managers literally told us we can’t not play it.

FF – Do you consider yourself a freshman, sophomore or senior in your field?

ER – I consider myself a sophomore. I’m a little bit past the freshman stage of being a musician and performer because a lot of experience in the last couple of years. But I have a lot of growing to do and I want to get way better as a guitarist, musician, performer and expressionist. I need to practice more and I need to be more disciplined with creating routinely. I like Kanye’s story where he made five beats every day for a summer and I just need to be on that kind of grind. I grew up a lot on rock music, and being in the School of Rock, I just loved 80’s punk rock shit like Misfits and Minor Threat and Dead Kennedy’s and Bad Brains and that kind of stuff so

I’ve been making a secret punk album in my bedroom.

When I was a kid and I first started wanting to play music and performing live, it was always way more about traveling than it was about money. I want my band to be one of the few artists/bands that have longevity. I want a career like Prince’s or Earth, Wind and Fire’s, where you can’t even hate on it, it’s just a legacy and like an art exhibit that you either get or you don’t get. I don’t think even right now that Phony Ppl is in a place where people can say they hate it… you either get it or you don’t get it. And

I just want it to continue like that and I want to continue to affect people in these different places,

with these different people rather than hella money in my account… I’d die way happier I feel. Even to get that kind of money or to just be in that wealth percentage you have to do some pretty heavy shit to get there, some shit that’s probably going to leave you on the other side not the same. I definitely want to be the same as I am right now, smiling and playing PS4.

you can follow Elijah on instagram and can listen to Phony Ppl on their soundcloud.

as told to: Olivia Seally // video: Olivia Seally