justina x danny | interview

a danny in the wild

 Usually I find art and then become interested in the person who made it. With my new homie Danny, it was the other way around. I stumbled across his Instagram, and immediately wanted to know about this boy with the fluffy hair, insane nature photos, and propensity for cuddling with cats. I got him on skype, and we talked about the internet, eyebrows, and what I haven't done since I was eleven.

Justina:  Do you have a favorite hashtag?

Danny: Honestly I don't really use hashtags - lately just the #Suedeponytail one.

Well that's a perfect segue to the next question - what's up with the ponytail thing? There's no story behind it?

There isn't! I just really like ponytails.

 I was going to get ~involved~ and try to do a ponytail and then I realized that I'd kind of look like Sonic the Hedgehog.

Hey, that could have been cool. 

Other people get really into it! They love you on twitter, and then yesterday I swear I got off and came back and your twitter drama had gone through the roof. Does that happen a lot?

Not a lot, maybe just like...every two weeks? 

And that's not a lot?

Not really. I think - people meet me in person, and they think "oh he's a nice guy", and you know, I'm not on Twitter sometimes. I'm not mean, but it's not how I am in real life at all. It's all easier when you're sitting on one side of a screen. You're trying to be someone, you've got to play the part. Act cooler than you are, you know?

It gets pretty intense, there are people saying some nasty stuff.

I know, it's not usually that bad but..whatever. I mean, I'm doing my thing.

Well now that we've got the light fluffy stuff out of the way, let's get serious: Instagram. Do you have favorite accounts?

Hmm. I follow the account of this guy named Joe Greer and Cory Crawford (@coryacrawford). I met Cory through my band a while ago, and he just goes on these crazy adventures, and his instagram is the coolest. Joe Greer does kind of the same thing - they just adventure and take amazing pictures of the places and people they meet. They're both really classy dudes. Then there's people I just follow because they're my homies. Carlos - he's this dude I just met on tour, he's probably the coolest human I've ever met and he's doing the same thing, just taking photos of his travels, sneaking into abandoned buildings and stuff.

You take some pretty amazing photos yourself - what does your editing process look like? Or are they just come-as-you-are?

Well on tour I usually take the photos with my camera, then use the wifi to connect it to my phone, edit it in the photoshop app, then post it. Usually. Otherwise, I'll put them on my computer, edit them with Lightroom or Photoshop, and Dropbox them to myself. It just depends. 

If you could go photograph on tour with anyone, who would it b-

Reliant K.

Really?

Yes. They were my first concert in like the eight grade. I did three weeks in public school, came home and said "I'm never going back" and I didn't. I started online school, and for like three years -my brother had downloaded all their discography ever, so like all their albums, singles, everything - that's all I listened to. Three years. It never got old. I waited three hours after their concert to meet them and get a signature. I have signed drum sticks! Other than that - Five Seconds of Summer, Bieber, anything like that I'd really enjoy, because when I shoot a concert, the thing that will make the photos is the lights.  If there's really good lights, and a lot of them, I can get the coolest pictures out of it. Those massive tours have lights everywhere, it'd be great. Justin Bieber's tours are insane, the stuff they do.

Have you been?

No, my brother and I actually went and saw his second movie on Christmas, and it was awesome.

Well that's a another thing - people seem to skate on your brother (Crown the Empire drummer Benn Suede), but you guys do different stuff.

It's half and half. I'm as well known as I am because of him, he's the one who brought me out on tour. I don't think it's a bad thing. I'd be stupid to be like "Oh I don't want to piggyback off my brothers success, so I'm just not gonna do anything". So it's an opportunity, and I view it as that. We have a great relationship, and it's a perfect situation.

Was there a tour stop where you felt like you took the best photos?

California was just cool - we had a buck of dates, but LA was sick, we ended up having two off days, and we shot a music video, so that was a lot of fun. Other than that, Boston, Houston, New York, those we my favorites.

Do you have a favorite place in LA?

I wouldn't say I have a favorite place, just all the people, artist, musicians. It's just cool. I'm not comfortable in public usually, just in like crowds and stores and stuff, but in LA there's just so many weird people that I don't feel weird about myself. You could be the weirdest person, and you're still normal there, because there's so many people weirder than you. I like that.

TRUE.

Lightning round:

What's the best advice anyone has ever given you?

It wasn't really spoken advice, but just from watching my brother do his thing, he's inspired a lot. If there's something you want to do, just do it, work as hard as you can, be positive, no excuses.

I like that you two work together so well because you do separate things.

 Yeah, we're a really good team.

What is your hair routine like?

Zero. I literally don't do anything. Once in a while I'd man-bun it, but it's too short now.

That's unfair.

My brother is usually in there with like the blowdryer and stuff and I'm just like nah

What's your favorite place in the world?  

I'm a traveler, so I'm all about going everywhere I can go, and seeing everything I can see. Honestly, I probably haven't discovered my favorite place yet. I went to Belize for three weeks, on a mission trip, and fed people and lived with them and that's probably one of my favorite places. Or just on a mountain, with a gorgeous landscape, and the quiet, looking out at creation. That's my favorite place.

You might almost convince me to go camping - I haven't been since I was eleven.

That's sad. That's an outrage.

We have a camper van and everything too. 

See, I have a little hammock and I'm all about that, I just take my little hammock and hang it up, sleep in it. Those are the best places. No cell reception, no people. It's amazing.

You're a pretty positive person. Any Oprah-esque tips?

I used to meditate a lot. I spent a lot of time in my head being chill and just clearing my mind. I used to have a lot of anxiety, and now I have this mentality that whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen, so it's no use worrying about it. I'm gonna be dead one day, and nothings worth not being happy.

Final one: Cheese Its or Goldfish?

Regular cheese its, but flavor blasted Goldfish.

  
Adventure into Danny's world via instagram  (@danny_suede) and twitter (@danny_suede). You can also order prints of all his work on his website www.suedephotography.com/. 

x J



follow A Bent Piece Of Wire on twitter|facebook|bloglovin