Listen Now

My guest today is creative community builder, Kate Lesta.  Kate was brought up around art, theatre, and non-traditional education. Raised in both Boulder, Colorado and Ibiza, Spain, Kate followed a natural inclination towards creating intercultural expressions in order to build new platforms. Her artist cooperative that she commenced just at age 16 later evolved into event production work devoted to the intersection of digital technology, electronic music, immersive experience, and progressive mediums. She has executed hundreds of successful events, both large scale and local/private, over the course of the last fifteen years. The Communikey Festival, which Kate founded and directed, lead her to involvement with festival networks that span the globe. These include Decibel Festival, MUTEK Montreal, Club Transmediale Berlin, Unsound Krakow, and ICAS, to name a few. With a unique understanding of diplomacy, the music industry, and curation, Kate continues to facilitate sustainable systems, safe spaces, and interpersonal growth via community connectedness. She is well-versed in talent buying, budgeting, building code and compliance, US immigration bureaucracy, and pre-/post-production.  In this episode, you'll hear: Why Kate got involved in community The role empathy in Kate’s work Kate’s draw to creative community What Kate learned from CMKY How creative arts lead to personal transformation Kate’s experience at Meow Wolf Kate’s take on why Mutek has maintained it’s integrity How franchise models can potentially scale creative projects What Kate learned from supporting the community affected by the 2016 Oakland warehouse fire Kate’s advice for people who want to create creative community

Why make art? Angelo sits down with audio-visual pioneer and experimental artist Gary James Joynes (aka Clinker) in this episode of the Something Else Podcast and dives deep in to the creative process, including: Why and how Gary sees himself as a visual or audio artist first What’s the difference between fine art and commercial art Curiosity as the force that drives Gary Why it’s critical to create for yourself more than anyone else What makes the work worth trying to succeed Who’s the most imporant person to make your art for What’s the drive behind making art Why the creative process in so precious Gary’s top secret next project

Angelo gets renowned graphic designer Karl Hebert to open up about his very personal reasons for getting into design, Karl's conflicts with being a designer, and the possibilities for a new frontier, including: a Louisiana dad's encouragement to make money from drawing realistic pictures when and why Karl began making original work the critical role of Erykah Badu and Cee-lo the dilemma of the courage to sell clients on something original the key elements of the most creative teams Karl's vision for the ideal creative team

Angelo acts out in his most immature and adolescent form to interview his buddy and world-class toy designer and now brand architect, Galen McKamy. Galen gets real with Angelo about:  how rollerblades inspired Galen's design career how Galen's studies in sculpture led to industrial design and ultimately experiential design the thread of Design Thinking that runs through everything Galen does the importance of owning a point of view that opens the aperture of a client's ASK  the coolest project of Galen's career in Barcelona with Samsung while serving as Creative Director of Kid Robot why Galen now builds goat hotels as his artistic passion project the impact of fatherhood on his creative career, capacity for empathy, and leadership ability how Topeka, Kansas and social worker parents affected Galen's worldview  the shift from seeking out new things to seeking out a new way of approaching and focusing on what's directly in front oneself

In this episode, Angelo interviews Co-founder and CEO of Ello, Todd Berger. Their unique conversation covers Todd's personal history from childhood to CEO of Ello, including: elements of Todd's childhood that have most impacted him as an adult, the drive for change, tension, and being uncomfortable, the relationship between nature and art, the difference between between the paths of artist and designer, the unexpected rise Ello and Todd's reasons for pursuing it, the role of focus in creating, what young creatives most frequently ask Todd and his response, failure and iteration in every element of life

In this episode, Angelo interviews world-famous photographer Andy Mann and discovers how Andy decompresses between trips to the edges of the earth; the impact of marriage and fatherhood on Andy’s career; how Andy made connections with so many scientists, athletes, and researchers; how being flexible and always saying ‘yes' helped Andy build his career; the tensions between being an artist, businessman, and father; when and why Andy will work for for free; why Andy did an art show at a small local gallery; how and why he’s partnered with Keith Ladzinski, and the most important thing aspiring photographers should focus on...

Something Else founder Angelo Keely takes a few minutes, with his daughter on his lap, to tell the story of and reason for the Something Else Podcast.  Create Your Life! www.somethingelsecreative.com