Inspiration comes - Bladee ff.

day 2.

The next day I'm back at the studio for our first official project meeting with Bladee. I'm waiting for him to show up, sketching random objects in my notebook with my headphones on.

Last evening definitely went well, so I shouldn't be nervous again, but this is a serious situation after all. I surely can't say I know him very good based on one talk, for which I - and most likely him too - was quite tipsy.

I shake my head to force these worrying thoughts out of there, and focus on the music instead. Minutes pass by, until suddenly someone lifts one side of my headphones off my ear, which makes me jump in surprise. I look behind me, only to find Bladee in the most horrific looking jeans, which look like he pulled them out of the trash and a grey hoodie, hood covering his messy hair of couse, looking at me suspiciously.

"Were you listening to me?" he asks fake seriously. I try not to give away the answer with my facial expressions, while also calming my nerves down.

"Um what? No" I say, surely not convincingly.

He looks at me with his arms crossed. "Then what song was that?"

"You wouldn't know, it's kpop" I reply quickly, turning away from Bladee and back to my notebook to end this conversation as quickly as possible.

Why does he have to put me in this situation right away? Or is he actually this self-centered?

"Anyways," I speak up, shifting the topic as he takes a seat across me. "I did some brainstorming last night, here, you can take a look at the sketches while I explain."

He takes the notebook I push in front of him, and examines it while we talk.

"Wow, you came up with all this last night?" he asks me.

"Yes, why?"

"Just asking..."

I watch him for a moment as he immerses himself in the pages, looking almost in awe.

"So first I started thinking about the characteristics of both you and me, mainly overall themes or concepts we are drawn to. Then I tried to translate these concepts into ways of self-expression like fashion, music and visuals, basically any mediums we use to communicate values we want to express. I mean the notes and sketches speak for the vibe itself, but my whole idea is to find this middle ground between your way of seeing the world and mine. I know they may seem like opposites at first, but the more I thought about it, the more obvious this overlap is to me. The general maximalism in your art can be overwhelming at first glance, but the vibrant and loud colours give this strong unworldly or ethereal feeling to it. Although my colour palette is rather toned down and earthy, I lean into maximalism through patterns, textures and accessories. Over all, I feel like we both try to create something without a genre, something that feels like it couldn't exist in this life to get as close to reaching whatever is beyond as we can."

Bladee keeps his eyes on the book for a bit longer, slowly starting to nod after I finish my monologue.

"I fuck with that."

"Hm?" I raise my eyebrows as his statement catches me off guard.

"I mean I like your ideas" he elaborates. "It seems like we have more in common than I first thought. I only have one condition."

"What is it?"

"We have to do something new. Something that's new for both of us."

I tilt my head to the side while trying to interpret what he is saying.

"Okay... do you have any particular idea, or you just mean experimenting?" I ask him.

"I mean..." he leans back in his chair, pondering on my question. "Experimenting yes, in a rather spontaneous way. I have a rough outline of what i want to try, like something different with my hair, or different editing styles to try expressing me, the same message through a different channel."