Highsnobiety Interview –
Ever since ruffling the feathers of the music industry a little less than a year ago, hip-hop anti-heros, Odd Future, have defied convention with their sound, smashed business protocol with their approach and burned page after page of music industry constitution with their persistent unorthodoxy. Most notable among these transgressions is their continuous redefining of what it means to be a rap group.
As a talent showcase, Odd Future is every bit as nebulous today as they were a year ago—moving more as a mishmash gang of contributing homies than the traditional, band-member-centric model. Sure there’s definitive front men and media darlings like Tyler, The Creator, Earl Sweatshirt, Frank Ocean and Hodgy Beats, but alongside them is an army of hard-to-quantify, non-musical, but often equally as prolific featured artists like Taco Bennett, Jasper Dolphin and others who continually make the lines between members and non-members a total blur.
On November 16, Odd Future got even blurrier with the release of Golf Wang—a two hundred plus page coffee table photo book chronicling the last year or so of their lives through a shmorgishborg of live photos, raw, point-and-shoot tour mayhem and an assortment of the otherwise gonzo imagery that’s come to define these youngsters’ crude and unrefined aesthetic. Odd Future photo lieutenants Julian Berman, Sagan Lockhart and Brick Stowell along with comrades Vyron Turner, Wolf Haley, Lucas Vercetti and Taco Bennett all have photos featured in the book alongside unofficial OF general, Tyler, The Creator.
Golf Wang contributors Julian Berman and Sagan Lockhart shared some of their photos that didn’t make the cut, gave us their thoughts on the ones that did and revealed the stories behind some of their favorite featured images. Here’s some of what they had to say.
After flipping through, it doesn’t seem like Golf Wang was a premeditated concept. Did you guys set out to do this book or did it just kind of come together naturally?
Julian Berman: Tyler had had the idea for a while. All I can recall is us having a business meeting at Swingers. This was a while ago. It might have actually been one of the first times I met Brick [Stonwell]. We were with this dude Nick from Adult Swim. After that meeting everything seemed like a go. Then I met with the publisher, Michael Schmelling. I dropped off my negatives and then all of a sudden, before I knew it there was this two- hundred-plus-page book full of all of our work.
Sagan Lockhart: I think Tyler had always wanted to do a book. Julian and Brick are actually real photographers, but then there’s the rest of us who all just kind of take photos for fun and shoot with whatever we have. It was cool because between everyone taking photos the book was pretty much already there. It was just a matter of putting it all together and getting it made.
How did you first get involved with Odd Future, Julian? What do you do with them currently?
Julian: I met the dudes back in 2009. I went to school with Taco [Bennett] and I met Tyler at a Supreme warehouse sale. It’s cool how everyone has different styles in the crew with photography and other jobs. Brick and Lucas [Vercetti] just went on tour. I couldn’t go, I had school or something, but those fools do a lot of the point-and-shoot stuff or the goofy stuff or tackle the live photos. I like my photos to be sharp, crisp, and constructed well. I have such a habit of making sure everything is perfect as the photo is shot, whether it be lighting, framing, or whatever. I suppose out of everybody in the group, I probably take the most time to actually ‘set up’ a well composed shot, but always battle to retain this sense of candidness.
What about you, Sagan? How did you get involved?
Sagan: I met Tyler and Taco back when I worked at Diamond on Fairfax. They would come in and we’d just be hanging out at the store all day.This was before they were famous. I didn’t even know they made music back then. I think I noticed Tyler had a lot of Facebook friends or something dumb like that. I asked if he made music and he said, “yea.” I looked him up on my own. He never really put it out there that that’s what he and everyone else did. I just knew them as Fairfax lurkers. I didn’t think they did shit.
What about your photography, Sagan? It seems like a lot of the stuff you shoot almost has an Instagram-like quality to it—like it has a more spontaneous, unrefined, here-and-now feel.
Sagan: Yea, definitely. I feel like we’re all a part of that newer Internet generation. Even people who are just a little bit older than us didn’t have some of the tools to shoot and share that we’re using. I can’t really speak for everyone else, but for me I just got a camera and started shooting everything that was going on. Some of them come out cool and some of them don’t. It’s just fun to go crazy.
Do you have any other jobs with Odd Future aside from contributing photos?
Sagan: I started to become part of the group just through skating and being friends with everyone. As time went on I just naturally started working for them—going on tour and doing a handful or random jobs. I do all kinds of random stuff behind the scenes. Kind of like Lucas [Vercetti]. He handles so much different jobs on the company side of things.
Looking at the book, as an outsider looking in, it really feels like there’s an authentic sense of camaraderie and genuine homieship among everyone in Odd Future. Is that an accurate way of describing things?
Julian: It’s funny how everyone has become friends with each in some way or another. People know each other through school, they’ll know each other through skateboarding or just from going to Fairfax and hanging out or whatever. It’s definitely a huge circle of friends. It’s pretty neat.
Sagan: When people think of Odd Future they most likely think of the music side of the group. Odd Future to me is a big group of homies and everyone has something they bring to the table whether that’s art, music, photography or whatever. Everyone has got something going on.
How much of that lifestyle and companionship shines through in the book?
Sagan: There’s everything in the book. It’s almost overwhelming with how many shots there are. It almost seems more of a documentation of our every day life. There’s certain aspects of the festivals, the city, architectural shots or people eating, but there’s also pictures of people grabbing boobs, skating and throwing stuff. It tackles pretty much every aspect of being on tour and being a musical group.
Julian: The guys are going pretty much twenty-four-seven. They’re crazy, they’re annoying and they’re loud. It never ever stops. It’s awesome. Everyone is unique. Everyone is humorous—picking on each other and messing with each other. If you’re with them and connected, you’re definitely prone to being attacked. You will fall victim one way or another.
It seems like the book’s cover shot really epitomizes everything you guys are about. Who shot the cover? [Note: this is not the cover above]
Julian: Vyron [Turner] shot it. There’s actually a cool story there. We were all downtown skating. It was one of the biggest crews we ever had that day. We were at the car wash banks and Vyron hopped up on a fire hydrant and fired that picture off with some dinky point-and-shoot disposable camera. It’s so weird how I can remember a lot of these shots. I remember exactly having that photo taken.
Sagan: Yea, exactly. We were just out dicking around that day, having fun and skating. That day was just like being a little kid again. Who knows how long that shit’s going to last. It’s not like everyone can just go skate down the street anymore. Who knows if a day like that will ever even happen again. That was definitely a good time that day.
What’s your favorite photo from the book, Julian?
There’s this one shot that’s a digital six-by-six. Me and Tyler were in this one parking lot one day right off of Rosewood. It’s a fish eye shot, cropped and he’s wearing this green mask. He’s sticking his head right in front of the camera. The colors are super vivid and he’s wearing this crazy Supreme jersey and there’s this upside down cross on his beanie and you can see the gap in his teeth super vivid. It’s great. I think that’s one of the most awesome shots in the book. It was also used on the back cover of the Goblin Deluxe album.
What’s your favorite photo you shot from the book, Sagan?
Sagan: It might be this photo I shot of this fucked up little kid from the MellowHype video. He looks all evil and shit, but he was actually complaining to me about his contacts hurting his eyes in this really cute voice while I was shooting him. It’s funny to look at that picture now and remember what was going on when it was being shot. He’s starring blankly into the camera looking all evil, but it’s really because his eyes were hurting. It’s funny.
What’s your favorite photo overall?
Sagan: All of Brick’s black and white shit is really awesome. But the best photo is probably this one Julian shot of Taco and Tyler in the ski mask—the famous bubble head shot. That’s probably the best one I’d say. I also really like Vyron’s cover shot. Again, that takes me back to that really fun day. It was definitely a day to remember.
