{"id":1013,"date":"2019-06-03T20:03:29","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T20:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/platinummind.net\/?p=1013"},"modified":"2019-06-04T18:27:04","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T18:27:04","slug":"blog-interview-matt-strong-everyoneeverything-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/2019\/06\/03\/blog-interview-matt-strong-everyoneeverything-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog interview: Matt Strong, everyone+everything"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello Matt, how are you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am doing ok thanks Del, I hope you are too. I\u2019m working hard to keep well. Thanks for getting me back for another interview. I really appreciate it.<\/em><\/p>\n

It has been over a year since we last chatted about IDST. A lot has happened. What has stood out for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, indeed. It is all going by so fast, as Ferris Bueller said: \u201cIf you don\u2019t stop to look around once in awhile you could miss it\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I think for me the things that stood out the most was the love and support I got from the IDST book & exhibition.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s quite a brave thing to put yourself out there as an artist in a gallery environment and say hey everyone come and have a look at my work I\u2019m a photographer.<\/em><\/p>\n

But to also say to everyone \u2013 hey I do these photos and films which I really hope you like but also I have a mental illness and my life is a struggle is quite another ball game altogether. It worked, but it was nerve wracking.<\/em><\/p>\n

I took some hits doing so though by being so open about it all. But it was worth it.<\/em><\/p>\n

I am so proud to have raised close to \u00a310,000 for the Maudsley Charity, CALM and SANE charities the work they all do really does impact people’s lives.<\/em><\/p>\n

The amount of family and friends that came to the private view on a cold winter’s night and bought a book is something I\u2019ll never forget.<\/em><\/p>\n

And to hear feedback about my photographs \u2013 images that span 20 years and are all just personal work for fun \u2013 was humbling. I am deeply grateful to my supporters.<\/em><\/p>\n

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You are currently on the next phase of your project, tell us about \u201cEveryone+Everything\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

IDST is my legacy, you know? My bucket list. It\u2019s taken many years to get to this point where I feel I have a plan for my creative urges. I am just so excited about where it will all take me, I can\u2019t say too much about the future of IDST but believe me it will be really cool.<\/em><\/p>\n

For this next project I wanted to do something that will touch even more people’s lives.<\/em><\/p>\n

everyone+everything is going to be a festival for like-minded people. It\u2019s a celebration of all that is good in this fragile world and has an aim to help raise positive mental health awareness and to continue the fight of the stigma of mental illness.<\/em><\/p>\n

I am slightly shifting the focus on this project to talk about suicide awareness in particular as the stats are shocking. It needs to change, and if I can have a tiny impact on someone’s outlook before they reach crisis \u2013 Then my project has been a success.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mental illness is an invisible illness and is a disability \u2013 You can\u2019t see it, so it gets left behind, but it is very much there.<\/em><\/p>\n

everyone+everything will include work from many disciplines from photography, music, graphic design, health and more over a 3 month programme of events and there will also be permanent work at the venue.<\/em><\/p>\n

I want the space to be a safe, open, creative hub & a space to chill out, work and get inspired.<\/em><\/p>\n

My source of inspiration was a documentary called Beautiful Losers \u2013 it’s about a small art gallery in New York and a bunch of artists\/skaters creating exciting work together under one roof for themselves and how they then got discovered and became very successful creatives from just doing work that they wanted to do naturally.<\/em><\/p>\n

This became my mantra and inspiration behind everyone+everything.<\/em><\/p>\n

Right now I am setting it all up and slowly getting ready to apply for funding and sponsorship. This will be the hardest part. but I\u2019m confident I will secure funding and then it’s all hands on deck.<\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/vimeo.com\/327578336<\/p>\n

In curating this what do you think has made the most impact on you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the plus side, I have over 40 people pencilled in to become part of this festival, and they all are diverse, interesting exciting and talented. I can\u2019t wait to see it all become real. They will make the project come alive. I have so much love for them to be honest. Some are established and some are new which is perfect, and come from as far as Australia, New York, Barcelona and of course London.<\/em><\/p>\n

To also have the 3 charities (Maudsley Charity, CALM & Sane) on board again is fantastic too. I couldn’t have asked for more at this concept stage of the project.<\/em><\/p>\n

I think the downside has to be struggling to get much support from the films and posts about it all, I get it there is so much content out there and I\u2019m still finding my voice and getting noticed with the project. It takes a lot of time and effort to do all this work for free, as well as be a good father and working full time \u2013 so it hurts when nothing seems to be really having an impact right now but I will keep going Del. There is lots to do with very little time. It\u2019s all good mate.<\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/vimeo.com\/328604526<\/p>\n

Your photography has inspired many people to get creative, what do you think about that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Has it? I don\u2019t know about that mate. But if it has then thats just simply amazing. I think being creative is a gift and if you don’t share your gifts with the world then that is fine but don\u2019t moan about your life not working out for you, but if you do share your work \u2013 you will reap the benefits tenfold.<\/em><\/p>\n

I really do what I do to amuse myself, I am not really a very clever person I just see and think things that sometimes make me want to keep what I have seen or thought about forever. Does that make sense?<\/em><\/p>\n

I finally now say I am an artist, not a commercial creative and it just fires me up no end to think this way now. I don\u2019t have to conform to anything. It\u2019s endless, you know?<\/em><\/p>\n

A DJ friend of mine said to me once, if you can have an impact on just one person with something that you have made, then you have done what you set out to do \u2013 because that one person may then tell another and then another and then another\u2026and so on.<\/em><\/p>\n

You have been remastering your old cassette tapes \u2013 are there any particular gems that you have rediscovered?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes as you know we share a couple of big things in common \u2013 Star Wars and Music.<\/em><\/p>\n

Music will always be part of my work, for either inspiration, to escape my thoughts or to be part of my projects.<\/em><\/p>\n

I recently uncovered a box of tapes in my parents house and have been going through them slowly and digitally remastering them all to preserve them for a new generation via Vimeo at the moment. It is all for fun.<\/em><\/p>\n

It has been great to hear them again its like a music history lesson, I have loads more to do in the coming months \u2013 but so far a couple that stood out was a DJ set from the late Frankie Knuckles at Trade in Turnmills London from 2001, and also DJ Shadow Live at Homelands festival from \u201999.<\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/traintrackstapearchive.tumblr.com<\/p>\n

You have used video for the next round of promotion for IDST, and you also did the voiceover for one. How did it feel putting that together?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s great that I can do all the promotion material without having to out source it to a designer. I taught<\/em>\u00a0myself Adobe programmes back in 92\/93 where I first used a Mac in art college. I still remember using Photoshop and Illustrator for the first time it was a game changer in how I made my work. I worked in TV and freelanced as a designer for many years so it all just feels good to be able to have an idea and excute it myself. I enjoy it and thats the key. I have a few more short films to make for the everyone+everything\u2019s promotional material \u2013 I knew from research that if I was to be taken seriously for funding and sponsorship then the project has to look amazing from the get go.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s all building up to something, much like a DJ would take you on a journey in a 2 hour set.<\/em><\/p>\n

The video you mentioned was always going to be the hardest one to make and share, I had to really explain what everyone+everything is all about so it has a meaning and context. It is a risk to be so open about the subject that is spoken about in the film and I definitely felt a change in how people spoke to me or looked at me but like anything the dust settles and people move on\u2026 except I don\u2019t as I have this condition forever. I used my own voice as I wanted the viewer to hear what I had to say as though they were speaking with me face to face about it all.<\/em><\/p>\n

To say the words \u201cI have made 3 attempts to end my own life\u201d out loud and to play it back was an upsetting thing to hear as I really have never said it so clearly before. It was emotional.<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s all about breaking down the barriers of mental health problems, make some noise about it all and fight for what is right.<\/em><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know why I feel I need to say all this as I am generally a very private person \u2013 it is just a safer way to self harm, you know? Thats the idea.<\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/vimeo.com\/334508980<\/p>\n

What are you looking forward to most in the next year?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have a goal of everyone+everything to be launched next summer \u2013 2020 \u2013 it may not happen exactly then but it is a good amount of time to get it done \u2013 if it takes longer that is fine too.<\/em><\/p>\n

What I am really looking to is getting funded and sponsored and then working with all the amazing like-minded people to make everyone+everything become a reality.<\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/vimeo.com\/336633785<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

FB @everyonepluseverything<\/p>\n

Twitter @mattstrongLDN<\/p>\n

Insta @everyonepluseverything<\/p>\n

Tumblr – everyonepluseverything.tumblr.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Email everyonepluseverything@gmail.com\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello Matt, how are you? I am doing ok thanks Del, I hope you are too. I\u2019m working hard to keep well. Thanks for getting me back for another interview. I really appreciate it. It has been over a year since we last chatted about IDST. A lot has happened. What has stood out for … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[96,95,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mental-health-awareness","category-photography-mental-health-multimedia","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1013"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1015,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1013\/revisions\/1015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}