Today we’d like to introduce you to Chandler Carroll.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Chandler. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I guess, in a sense I’m a middle child. Even though I was the firstborn, I was raised by a banker and a nurse, along with two younger sisters. Out of my family I’m the artist. Lacking complete understand because at the end of the day every poet just want’s to be loved. I turned to a notebook and just started writing stories, by the age of 13, stories turned into poetry as I feel in love with hiphop. My father use to take me for rides in his 96 Honda Civic but when my mom wasn’t around, he’d play all the music I “wasn’t allowed” to listen to. Ice Cube, Common, Rhakim, 50 Cent, T.I., Lil’ Wayne, Mos Def, Tribe Called Quest, this list could go forever. My grandfather use to play Sax and was really into Jazz, I didn’t understand as a child but now, wow. (We Got The Jazz, S/o QTip) That eventually turned into me uploading freestyles to Myspace. Everything was cool, then my parents made a business decision and got a divorce. At the time, I didn’t really process any of it. I had school the next day. But, ay I got two bedrooms out of it(crazy thought to have at 14 huh?)
In high school being a sports player and a pretty social/funny kid you make friends and become fairly popular but I started to feel more disconnected from my peers and chose to eat with my teachers instead. After graduation, I went to an HBCU in Little Rock, Arkansas where my dad was from. Growing up in a suburb and a tourist destination, culture was huge. Then it got shrunk down to just my culture but it was weird not 100% fitting in. Then one day I called my dad and said, “Yo, I want to go to Oregon.” My dad’s a very matter of fact man so he replied: “You want to leave PAID school to PAY for school? That doesn’t make sense.” As I was playing football in college at the time. He was right, but for some reason it just felt right. We made a bet and I sent him my flight confirmation after I won saying “See you in Oregon.” In Oregon, I found my tribe amongst black creatives and created a family called Combined Culture. We dropped a few films that got us College Emmy placements and meetings in Portland, Oregon in rooms that at 20 you shouldn’t be in. A few ended up actually working there.
After College, I moved to NYC to intern at Weiden+Kennedy and moved all around NYC. Buschwick, Ridgewood Queens, Long Island, Queens, Marcy, Harlem, and Williamsburg. As my internship was coming to an end and we were having discussions on if I was staying, school called and told me I had to retake a class due to my financial aid. Long story short, college is supposed to get you a job and college ended up taking a job away from me. I moved back to Oregon and started hustling on my own doing freelance work. Then ChiatDay/LA gave me an opportunity to move to LA. Why not? After being there for a while and feeling stuck, I started to realize. If I’m my age and completed the things people 8-10 years older than me dream of completing, then why am I not trying to do this by myself? So as things came to a close, I went to a different route.
This leads me to wanting to put my pen everywhere, music, editorial, fashion, anywhere I could. It’s been exciting because growing and failing creatively is what my life has to become. Failing, stretching, and growing in all facets.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Easy? nah, nothing’s ever easy. There’s a lot of sayings. Life’s a pendulum and it’ll swing back and forth, everything returns 360, the yin and the yang. I think it’s all about perspective. Is your cup half empty? Or is it really half full you just aren’t satisfied with drinking water?
Somedays I’m really depressed but I wrote a beautiful song. Somedays I’m actually happy and I get nothing done balance.
Transitioning to LA was by far the hardest thing. A lot of shit happened. I rap about it on the second track on a project I hope to put out in October called ‘The Cost of Success” (a song about more so about what your willing to sacrifice/live without, oppose to what you’re willing to give up, there’s a difference that hits different) I moved nine times in a year and a half, I grew expeditially but never had time to stop and look at HOW I was growing. Just because you get to your goals doesn’t mean it was the best way to go about it. Moving here, I was truly by myself. Family in Orlando, Fl. Sisters getting boyfriends, parents redesigning the house, dog no longer a puppy, mom working in Texas, all your homies looking up to you. Lost my best friend due to my mistakes. But, when you are by yourself the beauty is you have to deal with yourself.
Therapy is great, try it. Even for something as simple as moving, even if you’re a moving master because at this point your truly a nomad. Similar to The Alchemist. Go talk to somebody.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
My business, that’s an interesting question.
The best way to describe my business is, it’s me. “I’m not a businessman, I’M a businessman.”
My main source is Advertising. I graduated from the University of Oregon with my degree in Advertising as a Creative, specifically a Creative Writer. From this point of view I create everything from build-outs, to build boards, to commercials. I like to help businesses grow within their community, my next focus is helping restaurants social presence. The last opportunity I had was to working Sean Combs and his creative team on his spirit brand Ciroc I got to help launch the latest Summer flavor Summer Watermelon. I contributed to the team by ideating and writing the script for the two social spots along with billboard copy and wheat paste, the activation at Chella along with other things for Combs Enterprises and my short time there. I got to help my guy King Combs with a few launches for his singles, What A Time To Be Alive. Prior to that I got the opportunity to work in two renowned agencies in the business and work on brands like Vitamin Water, Gatorade, Jordan Brand, and Sprite amongst others.
Second stream is Editorial writing. I had a goal of putting out four articles by the end of 2019 and so far we’ve put out 3. 1 with NiceKicks called “What Should Nike Give Boogie In The Bay” 1 with 7|X called “Album of The Year” about mental health and another with HypeBeast. I love documentating the butterfly effect of culture, specifically music and how it affects us. I’m currently working on the 4th and final one.
Currently, I use those two avenues to fuel my lane of creating for Jst A Product. Everything in this world is Just A Product, I use this similar to Virgil’s “Airquotes” because calling a short film a product, a song a product, a t-shirt a product, it’s not a lie. But I believe our view//perspective of product allows a more interpersonal connection to said piece and basically calling everything a product gives me the freedom to create anything.
A quick example:
Tyler The Creator makes a song called “EARFQUAKE” by reading the title you have a preconceived notion of what he’ll be talking to/about. But on the same album notice how the features are unlisted. You have to listen and decipher how and what you feel for it opposed to knowing “EARFQUAKE Ft Lil’ Uzi” I bet if you knew Uzi was on it you’d probably say to your homie: “BRUHHHH, this about to slap my boy.”
This idea of calling anything product just allows me to make and you enjoy, that’s it. Even a DJ Radio mix I did called “Black History Year” that I made for Combined Culture Radio to a TShirt I made based off The Autobiography of Malcolm X called “Not To Be Sold.” To now me working on an EP called “This Jst Kinda Happened” It’s Jst A Product and I’m Jst An Artist. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s about keeping the freedom. I want to produce the Soundtrack to my own indie film one day, that’s the ultimate goal.
What were you like growing up?
TAHAHha. All over the place. Between the parent teacher conferences and groundings. My parents didn’t know what to do with me.
For my kid, if I ever have one(knock on wood). I want like a glass sliding door with expo markers so they can just draw. I mean, they’re going to draw on the wall anyway right? But as I kid I felt like that would of been me, just drawing on the wall. I’ve always been physically present but mentally just thinking about like car light design. When I moved to NY I got this itch for just taking photos of car curves, I hope this makes sense.
But I’ve always loved sports, science, comics, rocketships, I wanted to be a cartoon growing up Bugs Bunny was just like a crazy idea to me, which makes sense as to my love for DeadPool.
Even now, I find the perfect description for myself to be:
“I’m just a kid in an apple orchard who doesn’t know what apples are, but is running from tree to tree tasting and taking notes.” So I’ve always been pretty curious and want to learn to how figure things out, problem solve and then enhance the solution. “Okay, that’s dope, but now BETTER!”
Contact Info:
- Website: chandlerjrdcarroll.net
- Email: ccarroll1225@icloud.com
- Instagram: jstanartist
- Twitter: @jstsirchan_
Image Credit:
@brillant007
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