The Creative Blood Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Welcome to the Creative Blood Experience. One culture-defining creative guest… One passionate host… And a deck of fifty question cards designed to yield incredible creative tips, real life experiences and untold stories from the artists working across the creative industries today!

Shantell Martin is not your average artist. She’s also a public speaker, cultural facilitator, curator, choreographer, songwriter, performer and mentor. And it’s this all-embracing, boundary-blurring approach to creativity and artmaking that forms the basis of this episode.

“For those of us who didn’t grow up going to museums and galleries, the art around us is what people are wearing. For us, the museum is the postcard on your fridge, it’s the t-shirt you’re wearing, it’s the sneakers you’re wearing”.

Originally from Thamesmead in South East London – the iconic brutalist housing estate where A Clockwork Orange was famously filmed – and now based in LA, Shantell is known for her signature, stream-of-consciousness line drawings, murals and ‘who are you?’ slogan. Her kaleidoscopic CV has seen her collaborate with brands including Max Mara, The North Face, Tiffany and Co., as well as institutions MIT, The Whitney and Boston Ballet (where she also choreographed) and establish her own podcast series What’s the Point? She even has her own open source font ‘Shantell Sans’! And that, if you can believe it, that’s just for starters!

Having navigated her way through the murky waters of the ‘art’ world and got to a place where she now has the creative freedom to explore, in this episode she generously and candidly shares her experiences, learnings and insights picked up along the way. From why every artist needs a cocktail of skills, to what feedback to ignore, Shantell shines a light on the practical, proactive mindset needed to thrive within an opaque system.

Follow Shantell @shantell_martin 

EPISODE INSIGHTS

• What you don’t get told about the artists who’ve “made it” (and the hustling involved)
• Why you need to trust in your own vision
• The value of peer support, mentorship, patronage and anyone fighting your corner
• Why art can exist everywhere, beyond the museum walls and traditional spaces
  
  

Thoughts on the episode? DM us @creativebloodworld

EPISODE CREDITS

Hosted by Laura Conway
Produced by Scenery Studios
Show music by Ben Tarrant-Brown

Welcome to the Creative Blood Experience. One culture-defining creative guest… One passionate host… And a deck of fifty question cards designed to yield incredible creative tips, real life experiences and untold stories from the artists working across the creative industries today!

Originally from the gritty favelas of São Paulo, Brazil, Emerson Miller moved to Los Angeles to chase his dream of becoming a photographer. While working at a car wash on Hollywood Blvd, he had a chance encounter with Nicole Muirbrook – the wife of Taylor Sheridan, creator of smash-hit TV show Yellowstone – which landed him the gig as the show’s on-set photographer, rapidly transforming dream into reality.

Since then, he’s shot everyone from Angelina Jolie to Kevin Costner to Dame Helen Mirren and Sam Elliott, with his work appearing in Vogue, GQ and Elle and on billboards all over the world.

The job of an on-set photographer is a little-known, but integral role for any TV show and film, with their photographs used across everything promotional – including billboards, social media, magazines, you name it! Here, Emerson shares his personal experience of how he works on set (spoiler: it may involve interrupting Kevin Costner’s reverie!), how he picks his moments between takes, plus, the charisma, talent and nerve needed to get that shot.

“Angelina Jolie said to me “buddy your job here is literally 99% of the marketing and if you want me to climb a tree, I probably will, because we are helping each other””

Follow Emerson @emersonmiller

EPISODE INSIGHTS

• A window into life working on a smash-hit show
• Learning on the job (fast) and on-set etiquette
• How to identify and capture ‘the moment’
• The value of a mentor
• How personal reinvention can take you where you want to be
• Why a photographer’s job is to remain open to the creative process

Thoughts on the episode? Drop us a DM @creativebloodworld

EPISODE CREDITS

Hosted by Laura Conway
Produced by Scenery Studios
Show music by Ben Tarrant-Brown

Welcome to the Creative Blood Experience. One culture-defining creative guest… One passionate host… And a deck of 50 question cards designed to yield incredible creative tips, real life experiences and untold stories from the artists working across the creative industries today!

Arielle dropped out of school aged 15 to sail across the Atlantic in a vintage boat - an unpopular decision with the grownups in her life and also the dawn of an incredible creative career as a multimedia artist and filmmaker that has seen her exhibit alongside the likes of Nan Goldin, Wolfgang Tillmans and collaborate with rock royalty. 

We caught up with the polymath in a rare still moment at her home in Venice, California where she was nursing a broken shoulder (rather than surfing, kayaking, taking photos, painting or making music videos) to pull ten cards from The Creative Blood Experience deck.

In the episode Arielle references Julian Schnabel’s outdoor studio  which you can see in this film by Nowness, one of her favourite photographers Bill Henson who she connected with on his socials and the Language Transfer App she’s using to learn Italian at speed.

And take a leaf out of Arielle’s playbook and connect with her on Insta.

After you’ve listened (or even whilst!) take a closer look at her Archipelago series, the first ever show at LA’s renowned fashion and art space, Just One Eye.

This episode was created in partnership with the brilliant humans here Creative Blood and Scenery Studios. 

Say hello @creativebloodworld

Music by Ben Tarrant-Brown
Producer Lina Prestwood
Mixed by Rob Martland

Welcome to the Creative Blood Experience. One culture-defining creative guest… One passionate host… And a deck of 50 question cards designed to yield incredible creative tips, real life experiences and untold stories from the artists working across the creative industries today!

Over twenty years Jesse Simon built a MASSIVE career managing the careers of some of the biggest models in fashion including David Friend, Ethan James and Gabriette Bechtel via the leading magazines and fashion houses, including YSL, Dior, Dazed, i-D and Vogue.

Considered one of the most innovative talent agents Jesse built a reputation at Ford Models LA for seeing that the future was in killer brand strategy and by redefining the terms of what ‘talent’ truly means. Then, two years ago, he jacked it all in to officially transform Other People’s Children, the art collective he’d been co-running since 2017 as a side project into a living, breathing management company, representing a roster of musicians, writers, directors, and artist who are excited to help bring creative solutions to the table, in front of the camera as well as behind the scenes. 

Recorded in his office, with the OPC team working around him, mere hours before our plane back to London was due to take off, Jesse pulled these cards from The Creative Blood Experience question deck.

Follow OPC and Jesse on instagram

Jesse’s on a mission to make grappling an Olympic sport and has launched The Grappling Network which is now available to watch wherever you are - P.s. no, we didn’t know what grappling was either and so glad we weren’t afraid to ask! 

This episode was created in partnership with the brilliant humans here Creative Blood and Scenery Studios. 

Say hello @creativebloodworld

Music by Ben Tarrant-Brown
Producer Lina Prestwood
Mixed by Rob Martland

Welcome to the Creative Blood Experience. One culture-defining creative guest… One passionate host… And a deck of 50 question cards designed to yield incredible creative tips, real life experiences and untold stories from the artists working across the creative industries today!

With the paint barely dry on their most challenging project to date we sat down with the retro-futuristic duo behind some of the world’s most beautiful murals, Low Bros.
In our Shoreditch studio, the real-life brothers opened up in the most beautiful way about the perfectionism behind their complex, painstaking analogue work which is known for its dopamine-inducing palette and iconoclastic attitudes to consumer culture.

With a prolific output that spans painting, screen prints, super-scale murals, light installations and soon even jewellery the brothers are deeply driven by a strong values compass in their digital-esque work which is, in fact, rendered entirely by hand.

Of course, you can connect with the Bros here, on Insta and be sure to step into their “Miami sunset-hued” world (our words) here.

To bring the episode to life this is the tennis court that had them calling their agent in despair and here’s that photo of the boys as youngsters.

There’s mention of a pivotal article by Juxtapoz magazine - turns out they’ve been writing about the boys for a while!

For those - like our host Laura - who are intrigued to see what their collab with the German Post Office looks like, imagine no more.

This is Studio Cult the jewellery brand the Low Bros are collaborating with - we’ve seen it, we’ve held it; it’s incredible.

And, finally, we’ve asked our very own Director of Operations and AI artist John Noi to render a screenshot of [the Low Bros perfume ad that never was].

This episode was created in partnership with the brilliant humans here Creative Blood and Scenery Studios.

Say hello @creativebloodworld

Music by Ben Tarrant-Brown
Producer Lina Prestwood
Mixed by Rob Martland

Welcome to the Creative Blood Experience. One culture-defining creative guest… One passionate host… And a deck of 50 question cards designed to yield incredible creative tips, real life experiences and untold stories from the artists working across the creative industries today!

Pauli’s in a hotel room in Edinburgh, getting ready to hit the stage with Harry Styles, the news of Tina Turner’s death has just been announced and he’s about to pull ten cards from The Creative Blood Experience deck -  so just another day for this artist drummer, musical director, composer, DJ and NASA collaborator whose creative prowess has just helped land one of the biggest tours in history and whose collaborators include Damon Albarn, Kindness, FKA Twigs, The XX, Alicia Keys and NASA.

His personal story is too lovely to share in the show notes - you’ll need to listen for that – but suffice to say it takes us from Edmonton to Times Square and, from Socrates to Skepta, Pauli’s cards take us into some unexpected and delightful creative spaces.  Word of warning - don’t let the chill vibes fool you; this man - whose own musical output as Pauli The PSM spans industrial house, R&B and ambient - knows how to bring the best out of the people he works with and himself and that it isn’t always easy - but he’s more than happy to share how he does it… because that’s just the kind of guy he is. 

Oh, and you might want to take your shoes off for this one. 

Put a wafer in this episode and check out Pauli’s Ice-cream Chronicles and follow his insta for where you can check out his fam art and get a scoop of his Monday Meditations and Motivations.

Stay tuned for Pauli's next single release Milky Way, and grab a ticket for a date on the upcoming Saucy Tour. 

This episode was created in partnership with the brilliant humans here Creative Blood and Scenery Studios. 

Say hello @creativebloodworld

Music by Ben Tarrant-Brown
Producer Lina Prestwood
Mixed by Rob Martland

Welcome to the Creative Blood Experience. One culture-defining creative guest… One passionate host… And a deck of 50 question cards designed to yield incredible creative tips, real life experiences and untold stories from the artists working across the creative industries today!

Lea’s in LA wearing sliders and socks and more colour in one outfit than our host Laura has probably worn in her entire life. So far, so typical for this self-taught photographer and artist who has become one of the defining image makers of her generation.
 
The very embodiment of chutzpah, for the last decade she’s beaten her own path from unknown backstage photographer at Paris fashion week to becoming a sought-after frequent collaborator with the very biggest brands and houses in the industry.
Over the last couple of years she’s turned her back on the fashion capitals of the world and returned to her roots in Cape Town where, under Casa Colombo her trans-atlantic fine art career has gathered pace.

Rule-followers be warned: Lea insists on pulling 11 cards and boy are we glad she did - they allow us to cover about how she balances her eye-wateringly impressive commercial portfolio with her visual art and the art of setting boundaries in an always-on world and she offers up some pretty candid insights into how she navigating the next stage of her career.

Check out Lea’s instagram and 'Colours of My Body' courtesy of System.

This episode was created in partnership with the brilliant humans here Creative Blood and Scenery Studios.

Say hello @creativebloodworld
Music by Ben Tarrant-Brown
Producer Lina Prestwood
Mixed by ORO Audio

Welcome to the Creative Blood Experience. One culture-defining creative guest… One passionate host… And a deck of 50 question cards designed to yield incredible creative tips, real life experiences and untold stories from the artists working across the creative industries today!

Chad Hinson is the creative leader and driving force behind the world’s most iconic denim brand, Levi's. He never, ever gives public interviews. Until now.
 
A gigantic lover of culture along with an iconic list of creative collaborators past and present, Chad’s career began at the tender age of ten when he volunteered at his mother's interior design business and discovered the magic and freedom of being able to create something out of nothing. A degree in fashion design at the University of Texas at Austin revealed that, whilst he loved fashion, he hated sewing and so he bought together a love of culture, music, architecture and art, and channelled these passions into a career that has seen him working with some of the top global retailers. And this is how he’s incorporated his passion for marketing, store design, styling, right through to art curation, music development and so much more.

This episode was created together with the brilliant humans here Creative Blood and Scenery Studios.

Come say hello:
www.instagram.com/creativebloodworld
www.creativebloodagency.com

Music by Ben Tarrant-Brown
Producer Lina Prestwood
Mixed by ORO Audio

The Creative Blood Podcast is for anyone who is in, or who is interested in, the creative industries at any stage of their journey and is looking to be inspired or re-inspired - the creators, the industry, the next generation and those who just want to know.

For those that want to embrace and feed their creativity. 

Back in April, David Bowie’s pianist and collaborator, Mike Garson gave us too much material for one episode (yes, a first world problem!), so we decided a bonus episode dedicated to his Bowie anecdotes was the only way to go...

You’re about to hear stories about a friendship that only those who were in the room at the time can share. Yes, Bowie was a game changer for us artists and music lovers, and he was also an innovator, with bigger questions around creativity just like we all have. This episode is a huge gift from Mike and is dedicated to our Creative community, just as Bowie himself would have wanted.

As the holidays are upon us, we would like to take the opportunity to wish you all a peaceful festive period and a rock’n'roll year ahead. And To my friend, Mike Garson, A gigantic thank you. YOU ROCK.

Say hello on Instagram @creativebloodworld

Learn more about Mike via his site.