I've always been a musical person since my early childhood. It was easy for me to recognize melodies and rhythms at an early age, but I didn't come to realize it until I began to see music as a passion. 8th grade was when I began to venture out and listen to more than the same 5-6 singles I had downloaded. I have since ventured out into a million different directions and listen to a little bit of almost everything. My favorite music is anything experimental, weird, or different. I consider Ween to be my favorite band because they do a little bit of everything and mix in their ccrazy sense of humor along with experimentation.
I started playing guitar not to long after and picked up the bass as well. I have been playing them both since and have gotten the chance to make my own music, play with other people in bands, and cover songs that I personally appreciate.
This album was the first full album I listened to and it remains to be one of my favorites. The noisy instrumentation and aggressive vocals in a lot of the songs were mind-blowing to me when I first listened to it and I consider it to be their best album with Incesticide following right behind it. Favorite Track: "Milk It"
This album is highly influential me because of the emotional rawness behind the simplicity of the songs. Daniel Johnston wrote it during a mental breakdown he had in the early '80's and a lot of the lyrics reflect that. Its quality isnt that great considering it was recorded on a jukebox on a cassette tape, but his writing and performances make up for it in my opinion. It is considered to be one of Kurt Cobain's main influences as well and was seen wearing a shirt with the album cover on it to try and give it more attention. Favorite Track: "Walking The Cow"
(I plan on getting this album cover as a tattoo soon)
Another emotionally raw album with a catchy folk-punk sound. A lot of the themes are relatable to shower thoughts and stuff you think about when lying in bed late at night. Ever since I found it a year ago, I have listened to it at least once a week since. It's not that well known as the artist self releases his discography on Bandcamp and rarely performs and in the UK only, but is a hidden gem for those looking for new music to listen to. Favorite Track: "Momento Mori"
(This one too)
Drawing
Drawing has always been a hobby of mine ever since I started to get bored in class. Its always been a distraction to keep my mind occupied and would eventually be a great source of self expression for me. I have always loved watching cartoons growing up and still currently prefer to watch cartoons over anything else on TV. I tend to rewatch favorite shows or YouTube videos I used to watch to look for inspiration. Anything creepy, surreal, wacky, or detailed is what I often look. Some of my favorite artists are David Lynch, Junji Ito, David Firth, John Kricfalusi, and several artists I follow on Instagram (@teethmeat, @hikikimori_scribbles, @lauvdahl, @jaxdavarts, and more).
Here's an example of one of my inspirations:
(Video made by David Firth [2008])
My favorite thing to draw is toony and detailed faces. I will often give characters horrified, contorted, or just silly faces as these were my favorite shots of characters while watching my favorite cartoons. I also like to create horror scenes or landscapes as well. I use my favorite set of Bic mechanical pencil to sketch a basic figure/shape and will either ink it in with a ballpoint pen or a set of varied black pigment liners to form the actual picture. I rarely use color because I prefer a black and white color scheme. I try to make my outlines bold and my shading scratchy, but with also a touch of realism. When shading, I set the darkest points as the regular ink tone and then to get a lighter shade, I tilt the pen to its side, it applies less pressure, which creates a lighter tone that looks gray.
(Examples of my art style)
My goal is to eventually get into animation and create my own video(s). I would also like to create more comics, whether they are just short clips or it's a whole graphic novel. My friends and I have brainstormed ideas of animated skits and show ideas that would work with my style and would like to attempt to turn it into a web series and maybe even into a TV show.
Follow me on Instagram @michaeljosephweida.rt if you're interested in seeing more.
Writing
I usually only write to help deal with emotions or whatever I have going on. Most of the time it is in the form of poetry. I like to use simple rhyme schemes, but I use space and placement of words to create a more vivid and emphasised story. My friend Jake Harmon has started a group where me and a couple other people submit a piece of writing every week based on a weekly theme that somebody comes up with. He calls it the "52 Stories Challenge". I try to remain as active as I can with it and submit something weekly. There is a diverse amount of writing styles among us, consisting of horror, dark emotion, slice of life/harsh reality, fantasy, and drama/action.
I do not consider myself to be a huge movie buff, but I have a lot of respect and appreciation for films. I usually stick to horror, thrillers, and comedies, but if I hear that a movie is good enough, I will check it out. My favorite director is Wes Anderson, the director of movies such as Fantastic Mr. Fox, Isle of Dogs, Moonrise Kingdom, and The Royal Tenenbaums. His quirky and premeditated style is why I appreciate his stuff so much. I love how he centers his shots, the funny and dry dialogue, and the stiff and premeditated movements of the actors. It is so unique and original and appeals to my weird sense of aesthetic.
I'm a fan of surreal, weird, and dark themes in movies and David Lynch is the master of all of these in cinema. Eraserhead takes you on a weird and obscure journey that just needs to be experienced instead of questioned.
This movie combines my love of the Scott Pilgrim comics with Edgar Wright's fast paced and humorous movie direction. It's filled with hilarious dialogue, witty visual humor, and awesome fight scenes.
Another dark and surreal movie I like for its great camera work, its amazing plot, and its well fitting soundtrack. It is not as strange as Eraserhead, but many of the concepts and visuals need to be seen more than once before you can fit the pieces together.
