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| Chilling in his own line, as always, with style via Somaphony |
I had a chance to interview Nate Lewis, owner of Somaphony, a locally owned line of bizarre and interesting clothing. It's funny, after spending time talking to Nate I'd have to say that he's not a geek in the traditional sense. After meeting him and seeing his passion and the unique strangeness of the idea that is Somaphony... Well I couldn't resist. So, take a seat. Like he did. Let's see what's in that mind of his. (We opted out of brain leeches and alien probing this time. We decided to go with the ancient ways of mouth sounds, sometimes called talking)
Me: How did you come up with the idea of Somaphony?
Nate: I just started doing art about a year and a half ago. I know that's bad, well not really. I started in my orientation when I started working in ICU. Actually about 2 years ago. The only way I could stay awake was by doodling. Each doodle I started kept getting better and better. Then after I stopped and didn't revisit it. Then I started working at a different ICU a year and a half later. So I was like, I gotta stay awake. I started drawing and drawing and thought, "Wow, this is better than last year!" I showed it to my sister and she said, "Wow, that's pretty good, I'm impressed!" So I got some drawing supplies and the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain." I went through every single exercise, by the end I could draw. So I continued to draw and get practice. I drew a few portraits, they looked nice. Then I went out and drew a river. It sucked. I thought, "This blows." I didn't want to draw landscape, it was horrible. I wondered what I wanted to draw, it was a mystery to me how people get started drawing, and find out what they like to draw. A lot of artists have this style and I didn't know what mine would be.
The first thing I did was draw red blood cells. I wanted to get a necklace for my friend, ended up being a necklace made of red blood cells. The necklace was from Etsy and I thought, "Wow, how did she come up with making red blood cells into a necklace..." It was clusters of them, it looked really good. After that I drew red blood cells.. A friend was like, "How about it coming out of a pipe?" I tried to imagine what was wrong with the patients I was seeing, visualize what was making them sick. I ended up sitting with this guy who had some kind of lung disease, I tried drawing his diseased lungs and ended up drawing lungs coming out of a trumpet. I listened to a lot of jazz. I pictured someone playing a trumpet so hard that their lungs came out. Someone once told me, "Shouldn't the trumpet be in front of the lungs, blowing into it?" I thought, "Oh... yeah... but that's not how I pictured it..."
I got really good feed back. I was like, this is a good concept, something that I've never seen before. I had friend who did t-shirt lines. I was always into fashion, and I was always into t-shirts. I wore a lot of t-shirts. I was like, "Hey, I could make a t-shirt line. Let's start a t-shirt line." My sister's an artist, I got a lot of inspiration from her. So I went at it the first round. I was impatient, I just really wanted it. I added a few more concepts, like a heart guitar and I went at it. The first line was pretty much drawn and scanned into a computer quickly, then got them screen printed. The company that first printed them didn't care about the quality, just took my money. I was like... ok this is not what I want. I didn't release that to the general public, just some friends and people I worked with. They loved it but I wasn't proud of it at all. People really liked it. Then I went at refining it for 4 or 5 months, just honed everything, then I had a brand imagine/style. Kinda a whole look.
Me: What made you want to actually turn this into a company?
Nate: I've always been a set person, since I was in 3rd grade. I was like, I'm gonna go to college, graduate, I'm gonna work in the ICU for a few years, and then go to anesthesia school, then BAM a graduate program. But I kinda came to a point where I came to realize some things. I wanted to not know what I was going to do in life. I had just been so set, I felt like I didn't give any space for... something else to happen. For something else to have control of my life. So it was kinda like, instead of going to schcool, I'm gonna start this t-shirt line. And I was like, I'm gonna be very serious about it. Only because it was a new concept, music and anatomy, two amazing things, did I think it was gonna work, that people were gonna like it. It was cool, I didn't know where I was gonna be. I wanted to have that mystery in my life.
Me: Where do you want Somaphony to be in 2 years?
Nate: This is very rough... one step at a time... Really, I have no idea. It'd be cool if it was sold in stores. It'd be cool if it developed a following. A lot more concepts involving instruments and anatomy. For it to be a go to thing for musicians. Have them say, "I really want to get my Somaphony shirt." I want to hear "He really flips music with anatomy. He makes these amazing images that really show how deep the music is."
Me: How did you come up with the name Somaphony?
Nate: I went back and forth on different names. I kinda wanted it to have a Greek sounding name. There was this store up in Boston called Salamagundi. I liked the ring to it. I wanted it to start with a S and have two parts to the name. Then I went online and looked for things in Greek that have to do with medicine and music. I found soma, which means body and phony, which is music. It was really cool, it almost sounds like symphony. The ecosystem, the sun and the moon, everything works in symphony. It's Somaphony, it has a nice ring to it. I like the ring to it. I like the mystery about it.
Me: At what point would you say that you've really made it? Like, the way people always say "Man, I've made it."
Nate: Man, there's different levels of you've made it. There's respect, and then there's being known, in the t-shirt world... in the music world, monetary, and in my own peace of mind. Being, wow, this is awesome, and amazed I made it this far. That may not be at the point of "wow I've made so much money", but the impact that I've had on other people. A huge part of this whole thing is for this to be a showcase so that my sister can really showcase her talents. She's an amazing artist, my favorite artist. She's able to wrap her head around making anything, any medium, it amazes me how she does it. By getting this out there, she could really showcase her talent.
Me: How is your sister involved in Somaphony?
Nate: So far she's given me many suggestions in the images, "you might want to do this", " you might want to change this". At first she collaborated on some of the images. They were my concepts, but she did some of the art. I'd like her to continue to do some of her own concepts, also another friend of mine to do some of hers. I'd like to continue the brand, with a couple of different artists. I want Somaphony to be more than just a t-shirt line, but a general thing.
Nate: I just started doing art about a year and a half ago. I know that's bad, well not really. I started in my orientation when I started working in ICU. Actually about 2 years ago. The only way I could stay awake was by doodling. Each doodle I started kept getting better and better. Then after I stopped and didn't revisit it. Then I started working at a different ICU a year and a half later. So I was like, I gotta stay awake. I started drawing and drawing and thought, "Wow, this is better than last year!" I showed it to my sister and she said, "Wow, that's pretty good, I'm impressed!" So I got some drawing supplies and the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain." I went through every single exercise, by the end I could draw. So I continued to draw and get practice. I drew a few portraits, they looked nice. Then I went out and drew a river. It sucked. I thought, "This blows." I didn't want to draw landscape, it was horrible. I wondered what I wanted to draw, it was a mystery to me how people get started drawing, and find out what they like to draw. A lot of artists have this style and I didn't know what mine would be.
The first thing I did was draw red blood cells. I wanted to get a necklace for my friend, ended up being a necklace made of red blood cells. The necklace was from Etsy and I thought, "Wow, how did she come up with making red blood cells into a necklace..." It was clusters of them, it looked really good. After that I drew red blood cells.. A friend was like, "How about it coming out of a pipe?" I tried to imagine what was wrong with the patients I was seeing, visualize what was making them sick. I ended up sitting with this guy who had some kind of lung disease, I tried drawing his diseased lungs and ended up drawing lungs coming out of a trumpet. I listened to a lot of jazz. I pictured someone playing a trumpet so hard that their lungs came out. Someone once told me, "Shouldn't the trumpet be in front of the lungs, blowing into it?" I thought, "Oh... yeah... but that's not how I pictured it..."
I got really good feed back. I was like, this is a good concept, something that I've never seen before. I had friend who did t-shirt lines. I was always into fashion, and I was always into t-shirts. I wore a lot of t-shirts. I was like, "Hey, I could make a t-shirt line. Let's start a t-shirt line." My sister's an artist, I got a lot of inspiration from her. So I went at it the first round. I was impatient, I just really wanted it. I added a few more concepts, like a heart guitar and I went at it. The first line was pretty much drawn and scanned into a computer quickly, then got them screen printed. The company that first printed them didn't care about the quality, just took my money. I was like... ok this is not what I want. I didn't release that to the general public, just some friends and people I worked with. They loved it but I wasn't proud of it at all. People really liked it. Then I went at refining it for 4 or 5 months, just honed everything, then I had a brand imagine/style. Kinda a whole look.
Me: What made you want to actually turn this into a company?
Nate: I've always been a set person, since I was in 3rd grade. I was like, I'm gonna go to college, graduate, I'm gonna work in the ICU for a few years, and then go to anesthesia school, then BAM a graduate program. But I kinda came to a point where I came to realize some things. I wanted to not know what I was going to do in life. I had just been so set, I felt like I didn't give any space for... something else to happen. For something else to have control of my life. So it was kinda like, instead of going to schcool, I'm gonna start this t-shirt line. And I was like, I'm gonna be very serious about it. Only because it was a new concept, music and anatomy, two amazing things, did I think it was gonna work, that people were gonna like it. It was cool, I didn't know where I was gonna be. I wanted to have that mystery in my life.
Me: Where do you want Somaphony to be in 2 years?
Nate: This is very rough... one step at a time... Really, I have no idea. It'd be cool if it was sold in stores. It'd be cool if it developed a following. A lot more concepts involving instruments and anatomy. For it to be a go to thing for musicians. Have them say, "I really want to get my Somaphony shirt." I want to hear "He really flips music with anatomy. He makes these amazing images that really show how deep the music is."
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| The Tri-Nate-Varate via Somaphony |
Me: How did you come up with the name Somaphony?
Nate: I went back and forth on different names. I kinda wanted it to have a Greek sounding name. There was this store up in Boston called Salamagundi. I liked the ring to it. I wanted it to start with a S and have two parts to the name. Then I went online and looked for things in Greek that have to do with medicine and music. I found soma, which means body and phony, which is music. It was really cool, it almost sounds like symphony. The ecosystem, the sun and the moon, everything works in symphony. It's Somaphony, it has a nice ring to it. I like the ring to it. I like the mystery about it.
Me: At what point would you say that you've really made it? Like, the way people always say "Man, I've made it."
Nate: Man, there's different levels of you've made it. There's respect, and then there's being known, in the t-shirt world... in the music world, monetary, and in my own peace of mind. Being, wow, this is awesome, and amazed I made it this far. That may not be at the point of "wow I've made so much money", but the impact that I've had on other people. A huge part of this whole thing is for this to be a showcase so that my sister can really showcase her talents. She's an amazing artist, my favorite artist. She's able to wrap her head around making anything, any medium, it amazes me how she does it. By getting this out there, she could really showcase her talent.
Me: How is your sister involved in Somaphony?
Nate: So far she's given me many suggestions in the images, "you might want to do this", " you might want to change this". At first she collaborated on some of the images. They were my concepts, but she did some of the art. I'd like her to continue to do some of her own concepts, also another friend of mine to do some of hers. I'd like to continue the brand, with a couple of different artists. I want Somaphony to be more than just a t-shirt line, but a general thing.
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| via Somaphony |
Me: What things do you do that's nerdy / geeky?
Nate: My most nerdy thing is... drawing red blood cells. I played video games when I was younger, then when I went to college... I just studied. I just didn't do anything while I was there.
Me: I think your type of style would hit it off with the geek crowd. I've seen a lot of nerds wearing... mini pieces of art on a t-shirt. What do you think?
Nate: I think a lot of different realms of people can appreciate it. From little kids, to your high school student that just wants to wear something different, to a college student that might really like music, to scientists. I've sold them to people I work with. People stop me and ask me about the shirt I'm wearing, about how much they love it.
Me: That's gotta be a good feeling, having people stop you and let you know how much they appreciate something you've worked on.
Nate: That's the most encouragement that you can get, have someone you don't know buy this stuff and appreciate it so much. I don't want to do anything unless people like it. That's just how I am. I have a realm of impatience and if I'm putting all of this time into this I want to know that other people are liking it. Seeing people buying it is the most inspiration and encouragement that I could have. Verification.
Nate: My most nerdy thing is... drawing red blood cells. I played video games when I was younger, then when I went to college... I just studied. I just didn't do anything while I was there.
Me: I think your type of style would hit it off with the geek crowd. I've seen a lot of nerds wearing... mini pieces of art on a t-shirt. What do you think?
Nate: I think a lot of different realms of people can appreciate it. From little kids, to your high school student that just wants to wear something different, to a college student that might really like music, to scientists. I've sold them to people I work with. People stop me and ask me about the shirt I'm wearing, about how much they love it.
Me: That's gotta be a good feeling, having people stop you and let you know how much they appreciate something you've worked on.
Nate: That's the most encouragement that you can get, have someone you don't know buy this stuff and appreciate it so much. I don't want to do anything unless people like it. That's just how I am. I have a realm of impatience and if I'm putting all of this time into this I want to know that other people are liking it. Seeing people buying it is the most inspiration and encouragement that I could have. Verification.
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| If they ever do an album, this needs to be the cover, via Somaphony |
Nate/Somaphony is having a show this Thursday on 9/29/2011 at 8 PM up in The Dunes, in DC proper. Here's the info about it. Why don't you stop by and check it out. Say hi to him for me. In case I'm a not able to make it.
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