Gum Studio

Swami Sound + gum.mp3 - State of Emergency (LP)

“Swami Sound and gum.mp3 are leading forces on the cutting edge of dance music. As two-thirds of EldiaNYC, they’ve staked their claim in the underground New York dance music scene with sweaty, packed nights at Mi Sabor Cafe, and burst onto the international scene with their DIY Canada tour, a raucous b2b at MusicBox in Lisbon, and an electric Eldia Summit at Circus in Tokyo. Having clawed their way through the muck with awe-inspiring DJ skills and inimitable production, the two have simultaneously entered a stage of career maturity with their collaborative album, State of Emergency.”

In collaboration with Dame Studio and Marcus Harley (pka Swami Sound)

For the release of State of Emergency, I worked with Marcus Harley to develop a visual language for the album. It’s a forward-thinking breakbeat project that puts a mature, lush spin on dubstep. For the press photos and album cover, we opted for a abstract and cold approach to give the project a mysterious flair.

With this direction in mind, we commissioned Dame Studio to manipulate and texturize photographic collages that serve as the social media assets for the release party and album announcement. With the visual assets in tow, I created press releases and developed verbiage for the project, and connected with journalists like Nathan Evans for coverage. In the Instagram Reel we produced, I starred as the main acting talent.

Tracklist:

1. PLZR

2. Strip Game ft. Leon English

3. DFAL (Break It Up) ft. FiFi Zhang

4. Image of You ft. m.e.h.

5. BLKHISTORY ft. kamaal

6. Second Time Around ft. kamaal

7. Youth Man ft. LIFEOFTHOM

Powered by Gum Studio

Creative Direction by Dame Studio

Cover Photography by Santino Ulloa & Kevin Munoz

Key Visuals by @wauceonline @jaunt.xyz @carter.crtr

Color by @wauceonline

Portrait Photography by Sihan Xu

Co-production on “Youth Man” by disctr4k

Mixed by Jason Park, with additional co-production and vocal recording

“BLKHISTORY” recorded at Temple Sound Studio

Mastered by Alec Ness

Engineered for Dolby Atmos by Shuhei Shimuzu

Distributed by STEM, for Gum Studio.

Swami Sound + gum.mp3 - “BLKHISTORY” ft. kamaal

Swami Sound + gum.mp3 - “Strip Game” ft. Leon English

“Strip Game” is an offering from Swami Sound and gum.mp3 that embodies artistic maturity. With help from hidden gem vocalist Leon English, it establishes their new sound as sexy and futuristic. Already tested publicly with audiences at Lincoln Hall and Market Hotel, “Strip Game” is a proven crowd pleaser. Its rapturous buildup and cathartic release are sure to deliver partygoers from lackluster music, washing them anew in sounds from the future.

FLCL Reanimated: Musical Mechanica Vol. 1 | Soundtrack Contribution

RA.977 Podcast | Resident Advisor

gum.mp3 - Black Life, Red Planet (LP)

Night-Runners | Soundtrack Contribution

Eldia Summit (Party Series)

Art Direction/Event Production

In collaboration with Marcus Harley (pka Swami Sound).

Eldia Summit is a party series celebrating underground electronic music. Built around the EldiaNYC collective (the artists gum.mp3, Dazegxd, and Swami Sound), the event attracts a young crowd of internet-native fans of dance music culture, cutting edge fashion influencers, hardcore ravers and media industry professionals. It’s been hosted at a warehouse in Los Angeles with help from Dublab and Minaret Records, in Chicago at Lincoln Hall, in New York at Elsewhere’s Rooftop and Mi Sabor Cafe, and at Circus in Tokyo.

For these events, I helped coordinate the artistic vision, heavily inspired by gorpcore fashion, outdoorsman lifestlye, and The North Face’s Summit series technical jackets. I created t-shirts, DVDs with BTS video and live audio recordings, and an online e-shop for ticketing and merchandise. I was also our liaison with Dublab, and coordinated with event venues for setup and run-of-show.

Sold out warehouse rave in Los Angeles with 800+ attendees.

A daytime party at Homage Brewing in Los Angeles, with a line down the block all evening.

In collaboration with Marcus Harley, and powered by Dublab.

Gumfest Event Series

Event Producer

Friend’s rooftops, white-walled galleries , and repurposed co-working facilities. This was an underground electronic music event series with an occasional artist’s market. The best iteration of Gumfest took place as a semi-frequent party at New York’s Mi Sabor Cafe. I hosted these parties on my own dime, interfacing with venues and coordinating sound and merchandise sales with help from friends. I created the fliers and the occasion, and supplied the music as a DJ in my own right. This is how Gum Studio came to be multifaceted and amorphous.

Covered in Resident Advisor’s feature on the EldiaNYC music collective.

Fridays At The Apple Store | Apple Williamsburg

“While You Were Sleeping” | Soundtrack Contribution

Gum Studio x Gaza Thrift | FundRAVER @ The Compound

On Saturday, November 9th 2024 we hosted a 6 hour dance party with a curated market at The Compound in Baltimore. 100% of ticket entry proceeds and 50-100% of market sales were donated to displaced families supported by Gaza Thrift through on the ground mutual aid efforts and personal fundraisers.

We raised ~$3,000 from ticket sales, and $1,000 from market proceeds.

DJ sets by: @gum.mp3 @hiimsydthekid @swamisound @cheekywillie @bmorealien @audiiiit

curated market by: @ziz.inc @reuben.francois.is.alive @blunt.slutz @sprbloom

Photography by Chris Robinson

Featured on Resident Advisor, “Palestine & Lebanon: Fundraisers, crisis aid, resources”

Capacity x Gaza Thrift | Rash Bar NYC

Cult Classic | Cover Story Interview w/ Nia Archives

Gum Studio X All Caps Studio | Community Bike Ride

BBC 1xtra Mix | Tiffany Calver Show

Gum Studio x Mark Sabino | Cycling Jersey + Bike Meet

Brick Magazine | Interview w/ 454

YINYO - Last Call (Single)

Production

Resident Advisor | Essay

Gum’s Gin | c/o Mark Sabino

In collaboration with Mark Sabino

I created my own gin using imported Juniper berries from the Dinaric Alps. It was spiced seasonally with cinnamon and dried mango in the winter, and dried peaches and cherry blossom during the spring. The second batch of the drink, and the most elevated artistically, was bottled in vintage crystal perfume bottles sourced from a defunct perfumery in Italy and later sealed with wax. Created and bottled with my own two hands, Gum’s Gin is a passion project and urban legend.

I worked with Mark Sabino on two ads to promote the work, despite it only being available for friends and family.

Lan Party | madeintheurl x USB Club x Gum Studio

Date: 9/30/2023

Location: Mi Sabor Cafe @ 920 Broadway

Admission Fee: $15

Attendance Capacity: 270

We hosted some of the city’s hottest up and coming DJ talent, and the event was held inside a Dominican restaurant-turned-nightclub – a far cry from more traditional LAN parties. We offered games both retro and modern, single and multiplayer, while highlighting indie games from local developers using the various setups and the USB Club ATM.

USB Club Integration

• Free USBs

• ATM - attendees can peer-to-peer share fan art, videos made with game footage, music,

rhythm game beat files, free download codes, and game demos (if they fit). [200mb Limit]

Special Activities

Bounty Hunt

“Think you’re better than us? Spend $5 to compete (best of 3) against an expert player in Street Fighter 6 and Melty Blood. The first winner for each game receives a $50 cash prize.”

Hi-Score Contest

“Show us your skills! Highest score on THUG2 wins a Tony Hawk themed URL t-shirt at midnight!”

dazegxd & MON - Gospel Overture (EP)

Project Delivery

swoozydolphin & Misery Elliott - Dolphin Soul

Project Delivery/Marketing

dazegxd & gum.mp3 - Girls Love Jungle

Rasheed LaPointe - Denim Family

Marketing & E-commerce

Denim Family (2023)

VHS video, archive magazine collage, animated by hand.

As Jannah Handy of BLK MKT VINTAGE said best, denim is often portrayed in American media as a “raceless” staple of American fashion. Some staples of Americana are recognized as having roots in indigenous cultures by the general public, despite opaqueness. For example, the appropriation of patterns originally created by Indigenous people who lived in North America and use of their caricatured likenesses in sports memorabilia and other clothing comes to mind. While the names of the Nations these patterns originate from are often lost on Americans, it is widely understood that they predate Western colonization.

Denim is largely looked at as having its symbolic roots solely in fiction, ranging from depictions of cowboys (popularized by John Wayne) to the white rebel archetype (popularized by James Dean). These fictional depictions and their monolithic presence contribute to the erasure of the black history of denim and the legacy of young activists and farmers who originally championed it. 

Denim Family is a work engaging with the largely erased history and symbolism of denim as the fabric of black youth and the working class. It is a symbol that represents the rejection of race and gender-based hierarchies. Subjects of focus are the fabric itself, originally named ‘Negro Cloth’, and the Indigo dye from the West African slaves who carried the knowledge of its cultivation to the United States. The rejection of respectability politics found in streetwear today traces back to the black women-run political movements of the 60s, namely the SNCC,  and by extension the black field workers who came before them.

— Rasheed LaPointe

FiFi Zhang - SBSL -REMIX- (EP)

Project Management, DSP Delivery

dreamcastmoe - Sound Is Like Water, 202% THC Remix Package

Remixer

gum.mp3 - Riddim Seeker (EP)

North Carolina's gum.mp3 makes his Spectral Sound debut with Riddim Seeker. The latest in a prolific run for the polymath producer, the EP follows a breakout 2022 packed with city-spanning DJ sets, inspired efforts in academia, and collaborative projects with his Gum Studio community. He sees Riddim Seeker as a form of art-as-research, "an investigation into common threads of rhythm throughout black music." The three tracks access a riddim lineage under a futurist agenda, sending pop vocal cuts — from collaborators Netanya and Leon English and his own — through a wildstyle of house/garage drums, familiar basslines, and funk/jazz-oriented melodies.

Gum adds, "The aesthetic and story idea for the project is that of a futuristic shaman, consulting with ancient tomes and musical relics that speak to a common thread of magic throughout his people's cultural history."

In its sonic and philosophical seeking, which coincides with several university lectures for Dirty Bird in 2023, the EP deals with riddim, the Jamaican Patois pronunciation of the English word "rhythm," and its various forms, from dancehall to dubstep. He positions vocals above the beats like an in-house MC delivering bars over the riddims.

On the lead track, "Cellphone," Gum's smooth cadence at the mic and keys weaves through patterns of hyper-percussion. Next, he hands vocal duties to his childhood friend Netanya, in her first-ever recording, for "Love You Better," a shuffling club cut-up of breakbeats, hi-hats, and an effervescent synth line. The rhythm bounces, skitters, and exhales on the closer, "Furious," featuring the soulful falsetto of Leon English, a frequent collaborator between Gum and dazegxd.

The EP’s accompanying artwork, by Rasheed LaPointe, embodies the music's fusion of historical motifs with modern sensibilities. The "R" logo evokes "both a submarine and a mystical mark one might use in ceremony," says Gum, alongside a serif text treatment that lends an overall air of fantasy.

By engaging the origins of dance music to find new understanding, Riddim Seeker presents Gum at his most intentional. It's a compelling leap forward from a shape-shifting artist as his ascent aboveground continues.

Logos by Rasheed LaPointe

Photos by Chris Robinson

Mastered by Torin Clay

Featuring Netanya and Leon English

via Ghostly International / Spectral Sound (SPC-153)

FiFi Zhang - So Beautiful So Lonely (EP)

Marketing Consultation, Bookings/Events, Project Management, DSP Delivery

FiFi came to us with a desire to reach her intended audience, and to do it with an effective and organized release strategy for her EP So Beautiful, So Lonely. Together with my long-time partner Marcus Harley, we created a strategy to release her focus singles and two already finished music videos. We used my platform as the artist gum.mp3 on Instagram and Twitter to drive attention to her upcoming work, and created a foundational fanbase that she could then build on. We created mailing lists for journalists and media outlets, issued press releases and created conversation around the work.

We reached every goal on this rollout — high profile bookings, editorial playlisting, domestic and international press, and an exponential rise in all metrics.

Minnowz (Animated Short)

Directed, produced, and scored in-house @ Gum Studio

Minnowz is a crime-comedy animated short film loosely inspired by the scrappy and independent culture of 80s and 90s direct to home video Japanese animate films called OVAs. It stars a nameless young fishmonger as they get lost in the big city, and subsumed into hijinks with a rowdy group of skateboarders.

I wrote the screenplay, and brought on a team of 2D and 3D artists to help realize this passion project. I oversee cinematographic aspects, filling is as storyboard artist when necessary, and compiling reference materials for composition styles. I interfaced with potential financial partners, and handled all legal aspects of the project. We produced original promotional merchandise with Angeltype to fund the project.

Halcyon.txt Magazine + E-library

A collective effort, initiated by gum.mp3 and produced via Gum Studio and the Halcyon Zine Team.

From 2020 to 2023, I hosted a Discord server named Halcyon Palace after my album of the same name released under the gum.mp3 alias. We created a community e-library of pirated and categorized literature across a number of topics. At its largest, the Discord server held over 1,000 members.

Alongside 20~ recurring contributors, I spearheaded a magazine project dedicated to internet culture, counter-surveillance, and art philosophy in the modern day. We had designated Editorial and Visual teams, with myself as acting EIC and overseeing visual brand continuity and public facing social media engagement. The project ran for 4 issues, accumulating tens of thousands of clicks, and over 300 physical sales for our limited print runs. In addition to day-to-day operations, I also handled shipping and logistics.

This project is complete, and the Discord server is no longer operating. The library can be found on this website in a minimized form.

gum.mp3 - Virginia Creeper

In collaboration with Rasheed LaPointe

Inspired by slasher movies, Virginia Creeper is another concept album under the gum.mp3 alias. Rasheed LaPointe’s work on the cover art is inspired by horror magazines, and features a custom Virginia Creeper wordmark. For the subject of the collage, I posed and photographed an action figure modeled after me. Rasheed later used my images as the basis for the cover art.

Animated by @jwiigg

gum.mp3 - Time Traveler (Animated Music Video)

Animated by Alejo Andres

Time Traveler is a concept album produced under the gum.mp3 stage name. It’s a time-travel story that explores the genealogy of black music. Character artist and animator Alejandro Andres brought the story to life for the music video, turning the iconic Gum caricature into a funky action hero.