Interviewer: Anthony Andujar Jr
Interviewee: Aaron Young
 |
| Photo courtesy of Aaron Young |
Hello and welcome to the Artist Ant Interviews People Summer Series! Welcome to another edition to my latest talks with local and global creatives that are alive, hustling and thriving in their respective crafts! Today I have a special guest whom I happen to know through three individuals. My co-writer Jose Sanchez and I frequently collaborate on comics along with our co-writer Willinzy. One comic project in particular (currently in the works) incorporated characters that are based on Jose's friends. One of the characters was based on Aaron. My other friend Johnathan Acosta, is a childhood friend of mine who I tend to stay in contact with. Johnathan is a contributing writer to the website known as Between Villains (BV) and happens to be friends with one of the co-creators of the site named Ethan. Ethan co-created BV with Aaron, which brings everything into a full circle, and as they say, the rest is history! Without further ado, ladies and gents , Bots and Androids of the matrix, please welcome Aaron Young!
Q0. Who are your inspirations?
AY: I think my biggest inspirations that led to me writing is the gaming illuminaughty, most notably GamingEthos. His video essays really inspired me to express my feelings even more through writing. I got the chance to meet him at E3 2018, so hopefully if he sees this one-day, utmost respect to you.
Q1. How did you get into art, most notably writing?
AY: Dragon Ball Z & Video games.
Q2. When did you take art seriously?
AY: I started my art more seriously when I created Between Villains (BTV) with Ethan. I knew then that I really wanted to be more involved with the community & Industry in some way.
Q2.1. You currently have a website called Uncanny Colony. What's the website about?
AY: At the moment it’s a website for the discussion of video games, books, anime, comics & things of that nature. So it’s a blog more or less.
Q2.2. What influenced the birth of Uncanny Colony?
AY: Trial and error! For YEARS I've been trying to create some type of gaming platform for myself from YouTube channels, to a lot of failed attempts on podcast, to a successful then failed podcast. My very first attempt was on my Tumblr, and it was called Gaming Bros. I did it for a month and my friend flaked on me so I gave up. I never deleted the things so its forever archived on Tumblr.
Q2.3. What was the development process like when creating the site?
AY: Fortunately for me a good friend of mine makes websites for a living so he handled most of the building process but I think the hardest part of creating a site is the look. I think the site can be very bland at times, so I try to make it appealing as possible.
Q2.4. What was the goal when creating Uncanny Colony?
AY: The Goal of Uncanny Colony was originally to create a space for people who may be interested in writing but don’t have anywhere to share their work.
Q2.5 What are the challenges with managing the website?
AY: Content. Since I don’t have a team it's hard to pump out pieces of writing for an array of things in a timely fashion while balancing work & a social life.
Q2.6. What projects do you hope to see that could be channeled through Uncanny Colony?
AY: I'm hoping Uncanny & Redraw can possibly Collab more than we already do down the line. I've talked to Jose (Sanchez) about it before and I have a couple comic ideas that I've written. I’ve written one story, but it's not as good as I want it to be so I'm in the process of rewriting it now along with some other ideas.
Q2.7. Do you have any projects down the pipeline in regards to uncanny colony and if so, what other projects should your readers keep an eye out for?
AY: Currently I am trying to resurrect a documentary I started a while back, so definitely keep an eye out for that.
Q3. What drives you in your daily life?
AY: The thought of being stagnant.
Q4. What made you the person that you are today?
AY: Success & Failure, the experiences of life.
Q5. If you could speak to any living creator or inspiration, who would it be, why, and what would talk to them about?
AY: I would love to talk to Togashi Yoshihito and ask about his creative process for YuYu Hakusho and Hunter x Hunter. I’d ask him about how he balanced characters to feel strong but never too overpowered to a point that it makes the story become stale & lastly, when is he going to resume Hunter because I can't take waiting any longer.
Q6. If there were any deceased creators, actors, singers, writers, etc. that you would want to speak to, who would it be, and why?
AY: Phillip K Dick. I would talk to him about Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and how he personally felt about the Blade Runner adaption. I’ve heard that he liked the film.
Q7. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
AY: Japan. I just really like Japanese culture and media and I'm more a manga guy. I’m more into manga than I am into American comics.
Q8. What is one thing that you fear?
AY: Failure.
Q 9. If you had a superpower what would it be and why?
AY: If I were to have a super power it would be lightning. I have always loved characters who could wield lightning or swords and if they had both, it was a plus like Zenitsu from Demon Slayer.
.
Q10. What catches your attention when you meet people?
AY: They’re energy. Negative energy flows in a room super-fast, so it's hard to ignore.
positive energy is a lot harder to spot in my opinion.
Q11. What is one word of advice that you would impart to your younger self?
AY: Stop waiting and just do it. If you don’t, someone will.
Q12. What are three books that you always remember or return to, and why? How did they shape you?
AY: Halo: New Blood. Halo: New Blood stars Alpha 9, the squad from
Halo ODST and follows the endeavors after the game. I always come back to this book because Halo ODST is in my top 3 Halo games and I really liked the characters .
Berserk: Its Berserk. If I go into further detail it will end up being too long.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep: It’s the original source material for Blade Runner so naturally I love it.
Q13. If you could continue or remake a movie, or franchise, what would be your film of choice?
AY: Blade Runner without a doubt, in my mind, it's my favorite movie franchise. I didn’t know I loved that film until around the time Blade Runner 2049 came out. I tried watching it in high school but couldn’t get into it. I watched the original three times in one week. The setting, the characters and theme of the movie really resonated with me, along with 2049 & its promotional material. It all really helped to build on the extended universe and got me more excited for more. There's still some stories to be told in the BR universe.
Q14. If you were to make a film, novel, or comic book based on an
album, what album or artist would you pick?
AY: I would make a movie based on the album Los Angeles by Flying Lotus. The album always gave me a Cyberpunk feel. The Cyberpunk genre is one of my favorites.
Q15. Who In this life, has motivated you to stay true to what makes you who are?
AY: A lot of people. My parents, of course. But I think a lot of the credit has to go to my Uncle Robert. I've never once felt uncomfortable talking about my hobbies with him.
Q16. Where do you hope to see yourself in five years?
AY: Not sure to be honest. Hopefully still doing what I love with bigger opportunities behind it.
Q17. What are three albums or songs currently, that you listen to on
repeat? And why?
AY: “One Thing” by Jeff Williams (ft Casey Lee Williams). I really like a certain melody from that song, especially when they introduced a character from RWBY as DLC for Blazblue crosstag. So I've had that song on repeat since the trailer dropped.
“Under the Sun” by DreamVille (ft Da Baby). It's hard to go super in detail for why I like this song. It has some nice flows, and rhymes. Also, the beat is sick.
I can't think of another song right now.
Q18. What color speaks to you the most and why?
AY: Blue speaks to me the most I'm not sure why but it's always been a beautiful color to me.
Q19: What is your greatest weakness?
AY: Self-Doubt and Anxiety. Like many others, I assume never feel my work is good enough and that’s what really holds me back from releasing more work and fully going through with other ideas.
Q20. What is your greatest strength?
AY: I’d say my greatest strength is my persistence. You can ask all my friends whom I converted over to PC Gaming.
Q21.What's one thing that you're proud of?
AY: Knowing that I’ve been the same person all my life.
Q22. What is a mantra that you tell yourself?
AY: Stop letting other people live your dreams.
Q23. What is success to you?
AY: Success to me is someone feeling the same way I feel when I see someone who inspired me or geeking over something that I created the same way I do for things I like.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Aaron Young |
You can follow Uncanny Colony on these sites:
Their website: http://www.theuncannycolony.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment