THREE YEARS AGO, I WAS SITTING IN A BUS TERMINAL IN BOSTON.

I WAS OBSERVING. Observing idiosyncrasies of human interaction; the intricate  little  details  in  people’s  behavior that indicate their feelings or sentiments during both conversation and time spent alone. I was observing the way that the various products, advertisements, images, pop music, and art were impacting consumers – how they were impacting us and the way that we behave …and  then  it  dawned  on  me. We’ve  given  the  media  so  much  power.  We’ve  granted  it  the  liberty of reserving undying influence on our behavior. And that’s  fine.  The  only  true  detrimental facet of this seemingly-symbiotic relationship is the trivial, vain, un-original, formulaic delivery of overwhelmingly vapid material. Call me elitist, call me uptight, even call me old-fashioned  (I’m  only 22), but what ever happened to anything remotely moving or meaningful within the mainstream media? With the exception of the Video Music Awards, MTV has virtually nothing to do with music anymore. Being

“Catfished”  is  apparently  more  stimulating than watching great videos to supplement some of our favorite songs with visuals. Our creative license for imagery is now limited to how many filters we have on Instagram. Radio is STILL inundated with the same (roughly) 122-beats-per-minute chord progressions and predictable choruses. Every year, the biggest movies are almost completely devoid of any substance or captivating plot. We as consumers have had our tastes so fastidiously tailored to instant gratification, that all it takes to engage us are large explosions and images of Earth’s  perilous  destruction.   Here’s  the  thing.  I’m  a  musician.  I’m  an  artist.  I  LOVE  the media. However, I’m  livid at  society’s  collective  complacency with the current state  of  the  media.  After  all,  it’s  art for  Christ’s  sake.  We  as  human beings have been making music since before 4000 B.C. Of course its progression has been (and will always be) contingent upon our development and mental capacity as a people, but we lost sight of its purpose somewhere along the way. We need art. It is

the most natural human impulse  of  all.  It’s  embedded  within the very fibers of our being; it codes our behavior; it influences how we see ourselves, and ultimately choose to be seen. Art is defined as: “The  quality,  production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.” My  point  is  this:  we’re  capable  of making iPhones. Modern medicine is extending the average life expectancy more and more every  day.  We’re  currently in the midst of plans to put mankind on fucking Mars. As a society and a species,  we’ve  made  so  many  incredible strides by pushing ourselves past the boundaries of our predecessors and asking, “what  if?” Because although we may not know the answer, the mere thought of finding it out makes us FEEL SOMETHING. This  isn’t  about  “good  art”  versus  “bad  art”.  This  isn’t  about what I like being better

than or cooler than what you like,  or  what’s  “In”.  This is about  what’s  out  there.  This is about bridging the gap between Pop  Culture  and  Culture.  It’s  not about me or my opinions. This is about art. Because everything is art. Art is everything. This is about feeling something. This is Compound Magazine. Welcome.

Jeremy Jordan-Jones Editor-In-Chief & Creative Director

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“AN EMPIRE FROM DUST” | COMPOUNDMAGAZINE

I KNEW I TRANSFERRED TO

TOWSON FOR A REASON. But, had you asked during my first semes-

ter as a sophomore, if I had met anyone

interesting, I probably would have said

no…

Shek and I met in a creative writing

course, which was taught on the very same

5th floor where we are now interviewing

him. I’m wearing a Chelsea jersey just to

fuck with him. Shek, a Londoner, is a major

Man U fan. I tease him about their not-so-

swift start to the new Premier League sea-

son. It seems clear that he wants to move

past the small talk and get to the interview,

so instead of carrying on, I help to assem-

ble some of the lights and set up the room.

Shek and I are both seniors now (sort of).

Since our class together, his brand has tak-

en off. Swavor has been mentioned on sev-

eral blogs, has sold clothes through Kar-

maloop, consistently sold out at local DMV

boutiques like Kickk Spott, and can be

seen on the cover of XXL being worn by

Logic, a newly signed rapper to Def Jam

Records. But he is careful to point out: the

success is not all his own.

Despite that, there’s a rumbling of pride

not so subtly submerged in his demeanor

and voice, but it comes across charming –

this is not an arrogant man. It’s the kind of

pride that rubs off on people who come in

contact with him.

I make it a point to tell him: I don’t let

people request these interviews, my friend

and I, Andrew Dejullis, hand-select each

person of interest. Correct Exposure TV,

Compound, and AMI share a common

goal in trying to shine the spotlight on the

artists still in the shadows cast by gigantic

celebrities and brands that are, perhaps,

past their prime. Shek represents a new

era of artistic conquest – both a product

and producer in the information age.

It was an honor to meet with him and

memorialize a few of his thoughts in this

inaugural issue of Compound Magazine. I

congratulate him on his current successes

and wish him plenty more.

So, you have a fall collection coming out [December 1st] with Swavor, would you like to give some details on that?

“Basically every collection we come out

with, we use time periods – so, if you re-

member Fall 2012, with Alexander the

Great, we tried to embody him in his en-

tirety, big battles and other events in his

life. We kinda wanted to roll with the same

theme for the Fall. We try to make every

Fall collection bigger. To me, Fall fashion

is the most important season. We started

off with the Pre-Fall collection. We knew

we wanted to capture Rome – but obvious-

ly you can’t capture Rome in its entirety in

a collection. We sort of narrowed it down

to the essence of Rome, opposed to Alexan-

der the Great, which was way more specif-

ic. The Pre-Fall collection was three pieces

(the zipper tees) and that was moderately

successful. It’s about 16-17 pieces – it’s the

biggest collection we’ve had to date…and

there’s a part 2 as well which kind of ex-

tends everything. In total it’s like 25 pieces

and that’s crazy for a ‘started-from-the-

bottom,’ independent type brand. It’s very

exciting.”

Do you want to talk about the collab-oration process with you and Chris? Do you come up with the inspiration & designs and he manufactures, or do you both do a little of each…

“It’s crazy because I haven’t physically

seen Chris in about 3 years. All the designs

we come up with are done via Skype. I’ll be

sitting down on the train and have a little

sketch or something – I can’t draw or any-

thing but he’s like a master at it. I’ll have

this crazy idea…I don’t know what happens

when artists work with certain video direc-

tors…but there’s like a ‘click.’ There’s a

moment. Like a Hype Williams meets

Kanye West moment where someone just

understands what you’re saying…I’ll send

him a sketch and he’ll send me back an

illustrated version and it’s perfect. He’s

actually a fashion designer, he’s in school

for fashion, and he’s just a bright kid man.

It just clicks. We both have the same inter-

ests – in art and history, we’re both educat-

ed, we’re both very intelligent. There’s this

funny thing we’ll always say, like,

I’M THE VISIONARY AND

HE’S THE ARCHITECT.”

So why didn’t you go to art school? Why did you go to Towson to study psychology? Because we see a lot of influence from art and history…

Initially I was a business person. I went to

school in London and stuff, and I used to

go to this place called Whitechapel, which

is kinda like the stock exchange place/

area. I used to go there and just daydream,

like ‘I wanna be a stockbroker!’ I’d open all

these little fake management accounts.

“THE THEME IS

ROME… IT’S PRETTY

DOPE.”

“AN EMPIRE FROM DUST” | COMPOUNDMAGAZINE

“AN EMPIRE FROM DUST” | COMPOUNDMAGAZINE

...where you can manage fake money.

Then when the brand started I was sup-

posed to just be the business head of it. I

was known as ‘the hustler,’ like I used to

sell sneakers in the hall – play poker and

get money and do all of that.

But somewhere along the line I just had a vi-

sion for the brand. I wanted to do something

that was

T I M E L E S S . In streetwear, what you

see is, a lot of people follow trends.

Camo for instance, was this really big

trend. Camo everything. Like, ‘I want a

camo hat, and camo pants, I want camo

this, I want camo that,’ and these trends

die out. And these brands that have such

an identity with the camo, when the trend

dies, it [the brand] goes away as well.”

I’ve seen some of the older pieces and it seems like you just use the exact image of the paintings. Do you ever run into copyright issues?

“That’s a funny question! Cause every-

one thinks like, ‘You don’t have the right

to use these paintings!’ The thing is, when

you talk about copyright laws and things

like that – a lot of the paintings you see

people use are from like, 1780. “There

were no copyright laws then. Only in the

modern era where you have the Warhol’s

and the Basquiat’s do you have that kind of

problem. A lot of these things are in the

public domain and people can use it. You

can go in a museum, take a picture and

upload it, print it on shirts or do whatever

you want.”

I know there’s a friendship with Logic – you came up with the ‘Welcome to Forever’ mixtape title, he wore Swavor on the cover of XXL, and now he’s a signed artist with Def Jam. Is the friendship still there and is there any future plan to per-haps design merch?

“The situation with Logic is interesting

because this is not just some random per-

son I have business dealings with. This is a

friend of mine, know what I mean? So to

watch him just explode and get signed to

Def Jam is just like…it happened too fast. I

thought it would’ve been slower a little bit

you know? Two years ago he was picking

up his care package from my basement…

he had holes in his shoes. It’s crazy to see

the transformation. I think the last time I

saw him was at the Fillmore and he pulled

me to the side and just said, ‘Yo man, look

at this. Look what we did.’ Swavor has had

amazing growth and his fan base acceler-

ated that growth and I’d be a fool to say the

Ratt Pack and the Bobby Soxers [name giv-

en to Logic’s fans, taken from the Sinatra

era] didn’t help us out, that’d be child’s

play. Logic has been an influence on the

brand, for sure. In regards to the merch –

if I ever end up designing merch for him,

I’m sure it would be dope. We’re two dope

artists. Swavor’s obviously dope but he’s

dope as well. If it ever happens, it’ll hap-

pen. I’m open to it. *looks at camera* I’m

open to it. Right now…I don’t think so, but

hopefully.”

Any other artists you would be will-ing to collaborate with? Like, are you ‘open for business?’ Or just sticking to Fall and Spring collec-tions?

“First of all…the people we sponsor…we

don’t sponsor a lot of people…um, I think

we’ve got Logic, Kevin Sinatra, and this

new dude we’re messing with named Ko.

But that’s probably it. And the reason isn’t

because we don’t like new artists, there’s

just a certain quota we try to fit. There’s a

thing we designed for Kevin Sinatra, 2

hoodies, and they came out great. People

are praying those are in the collection, but

unfortunately they’re not. But yeah…

we’re up for business. If it’s a dope idea, if

it’s cool, we’ll do it. I’ll run it by Chris, we’ll

talk about it, and if we both approve on it,

that’s how it goes. Because you need 100%.

Because there’s only 2 of us, so if 50%

doesn’t like it, that’s a failing grade.”

So…I wanted to ask: any plans for women’s fashion? I know you are a…uh…fan, of women. Is women’s fashion something you plan to get in to? And if so, are there any brands you would try to model yourself after?

“Women’s fashion is different. I say this

because there is a responsibility that

comes with women’s fashion that doesn’t

necessarily come with men’s fashion. I

think that women look at fashion and

think, ‘Yo! This is who I have to be!’ Like,

when I go into H&M and see David Beck-

ham in underwear I don’t look at him and

think ‘Damn man…I feel like less of a hu-

man being because I’m not like David

Beckham.’ I mean, I just think women take

fashion a lot more seriously, like the beau-

ty aspect and everything. There was a mo-

ment when we could have done women’s

fashion, but the responsibility is just too

much. There’s an image of what your

brand is supposed to be when you choose

women or you make clothes for women…

so we stalled on that for a while, but our

woman fan-base…they probably rep hard-

er than a lot of the guys do. So when I’m

looking at the receipts, and I see a lot of

women, like ‘Oh man, there’s a market for

it.’ But yeah, we’re coming out with a

women’s mini-capsule collection to kinda

test the waters in the Spring. It’s actually

going to be in our pre-Spring collection for

2014.

“AN EMPIRE FROM DUST” | COMPOUNDMAGAZINE

Tarawallie in a modest contemporary remake of Andy Warhol’s “The Silver Factory”.

“AN EMPIRE FROM DUST” | COMPOUNDMAGAZINE

I know Chris is excited about it cause he

does couture and all that stuff. I’m pretty

excited, I’ve done three designs already. I

don’t have the final number on how many

pieces there will be just yet…just trying to

step in the ring with brands like Louis

Vuitton and Givenchy. Just trying to fi-

nesse our way in as opposed to coming

out with a full lifestyle-type brand for

women.”

What is success for Swavor? I don’t want you to define success; I feel like definitions limit meaning, so

what, in terms of the fashion indus-try, would be a success for your brand?

“I don’t really know what success is for

the brand per say, but on my own, person-

al, selfish level, would be to have numer-

ous critiques, to have a claim from the

legends like Vogue…you know we already

got Complex to give us a little bit of a co-

sign, but you know to have every blog, the

moment we drop something, just ex-

plode…people going frantic like Supreme

has…that would be on some level a suc-

cess.

I want to be the first billion-

dollar streetwear brand. The

first, legit, streetwear brand to

not sell out…like the first people

to be in Neiman Marcus with

roots of streetwear.” - JEREMY BOYD ASSOCIATE

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

“AN EMPIRE FROM DUST” | COMPOUNDMAGAZINE