Vol. 18
March 2022
Featuring Conan Gray on Tour Justus Bennetts
Euphoric Retrospective
Zack Lugo Runaway Kid
Volume 18 March 2021 Euphoric Retrospective Editorial
HAZZE MEDIA www.hazzemedia.com hazzemediainfo@gmail.com
Founder/Editor-in-Chief Ezzah Rafique
Design Director Mohja Filfil
Press Director Orchee Sorker
Website Director Camila Camacho Contributors Stephanie Siau Camila Camacho Orchee Sorker Olivia Tindall Jewel Fiorillo Featured Zack Lugo Conan Gray Justus Bennetts
HAZZE MEDIA
www.hazzemedia.com
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A Letter From the Editor HAZZE MEDIA has the pleasure of having Zack Lugo as our cover story for the month of March. This is our very first cover story where we had our team go in person to shoot and interview, and I'm so excited to be putting this issue out. Zack and his team were amazing to work with and I hope you enjoy the moments captured by our team! Themed "Euphoric Retrospective," this issue is more sweet consisting of two submissions from our creative team members !
Ezzah Rafique Founder/Editor-in-Chief
@hazzemedia
@hazzemedia
@hazzemedia
Zack Lugo
Photographer/Creative Director Jewel Fiorillo @jewelfphoto Wardrobe Stylist Sky JT Naval @sky_is_dlimit HMUA Marina Migliaccio @marinamigliaccio Journalist/Videographer/Creative Director Olivia Tindall @oliviatindall
Thank you for sitting down with me for this interview for Hazze Media. So I'm just gonna ask you a few questions. One, what inspired you to start your clothing line, Runaway Kid Apparel? What was the vision behind starting that? Zack: So as a kid, like, I was always looking up to people, like with fashion, and baggy clothes were really cool to me. Like being a skater like, I grew up being a skater and baggy clothes, and I just like, always wanted to start my own horn line and kind of like, mix it together, and tell a story with whatever line that I drop or send a message. But that's kind of like where it all started is through skateboarding honestly.
So you want to like like emulate the skateboard vibe. Zack: Yeah, like kind of this skateboarding style. And maybe high fashion. See where that goes. So it's my understanding, the motto of it is, "hate, is ugly". Zack: Yes. The first line. Okay, so what was the inspo? Is there like a personal story behind that? Zack: So some of you know, if you do Tik Tok or if you look through the comments, on some videos, it can be kind of toxic. And so I like a message that "hate is ugly" like spreads is kind of like, everyone's beautiful, but like spreading hate is ugly. And that's like the first line that I wanted to drop, because everyone gets hate and it's like, it's gross.
Yeah. Talk is toxic sometimes. Zack: Yeah, very. What's your ultimate goal? If you see far years down the line, what's your like, ideal spot you want Runaway Kid to be in. Zack: So I want it to be like one of one pieces, I think that'd be really cool. Like a person combined like a shirt. Like this is one of one like handmade, super sick. So basically, there's some different than I want it to be different and want it to stand out. How did you get started on Tik Tok? Zack: Like I said, starting skating, I was always making skate videos. And that was like, my childhood dream was to become a professional skater and started a few skate videos posting on Tik Tok and did horrible. So I was like, Okay, I have to figure something out. And at the time, like through the For You pages, you see dancing, dancing, dancing, so I started doing dancing, I started doing POVs, which is
the point of view from someone else's perspective. And I don't know, I just literally tried everything. See, I feel like Tik Tok dances are fire. And I grew up in Idaho, so I was always bored. There's nothing to do. Literally. Small town.
So you just picked that up. And yeah, take off from there. Zack: Yeah, I just had fun with it. And I didn't do it to like, get views I just did it to have fun. I think that's what helped me grow.
Yep, totally. So since then, you've obviously gained a large following of 11 million followers cumulative across social media, which is insane. So what is that like for you? Like, how do you balance that kind of lifestyle with your personal private life? Zack: If you like a look through my page, I don't really post anything like, personal. To be honest, especially with me and Emma, we kept it offline for like six months. And I think it was like the healthiest thing we could do for our relationship. I don't know I just keep my circle small. I only really posted like my true friends and like family like Trey and John, nuts. That's really it, I don't really do much. I'm not like into controversy. I don't start drama.
So you really don't make like Tik Tok videos together? Zack: We do here and there when like it's like a fun, cute trend, whatever, some dance videos but we really kind of just do our own thing. But off-camera we're like, really close.
For those that don't know you or like haven't followed you. What do you want them to see or notice about your brands? Zack: So, straight from the start, like it's always been a broad amount of like content like you don't see just one really like one thing on my account. I've always tried to keep it that way. So I don't really have like a main niche, but I really just do everything. You see like one day I'll be modeling, the other day I'll be dancing, like the other day I'll be gaming, another day I'm opening Pokemon cards, like, I'm just... Just doing your thing. Zack: Yeah, basically. Cool. So what would you say is like your ultimate career driven goal. Zack: So that's hard, because I've only really been in LA for like, close to two years. And I know that seems like a lot, but it's really not. I'm still testing the waters with tons of stuff. Like, I love to do modeling. But I know there's a lot of other stuff I want to try like acting. So I don't really want to put a stamp on my career. Like, I want to do this, because I really just want to do everything and whatever makes you happy really. . You don't just want to like commit to one thing, right? Zack: There's, like a couple of things. I always want to keep dancing. I want to keep skating, I want to pursue more Pokemon stuff, because that makes me feel like a kid again. It's awesome. And yeah, modeling is amazing. Makes me happy. So I mean, whatever makes me happy I'm just going to keep doing.
So if you could pick one, Tik Toker, like someone that you look up to or like your Tik Tok idols, do you think of one person? Who would it be? Zack: Oh, that's hard. You'd probably be one of my good friend Jean. It's crazy, like, so me and my cousin Trey, back when I like had like 30,000 followers, because Trey's family's, my cousin, and we used to learn Jean's dances, like back in Idaho. And I think that's so crazy. Because now me Jean are like best friends. And like he's been grinding for a long time. And I think he deserves so much better. He's only at like, 8 million followers. But like, he's been doing it for so long. But I'd say Jean, for sure. He worked hard.
So you guys or family? You just started making videos together? And like took off from there. Zack: Yeah. So I mean, I moved to LA around two years ago, I moved here with like, 1.5 million followers. I grew insanely. When I first came out here like the first three months, I had 3 million. And I went back home one time, and I knew Trey was making little Tik Tok videos on his account. And I could tell he could like kind of, kind of dance a little bit. And I was like we should make a couple of videos when I'm back in Utah, or wherever back in the hometown. And he's like, okay, that and then just took off. And I was like, bro, like, this could be insane. And, like, I happened, manifested it and we blew up.
So he moved out here with you? Zack: Yeah. So he started coming out here because he was 12 at the time. He started coming out here like, randomly for like a week, because he's a child. Yeah, he's like a little kid. Zack: Yeah, but he's so mature for his age. He hangs out with like, 18 year olds when he skates because he's a skater too. He just skates with older people. So we just started dancing together. And like 30 million views, I'm like are you kidding me? Yeah. We get a lot of hate too that's why but that's fine. It helps the views. Yeah. For sure. Well, thanks for sitting with me and answering my questions Zack: Always, Thank you for having me.
BRENNA JOHNSON Model Brenna Johnson @_brennajohnson Photographer Stephanie Siau @stephaniehsiau Wardrobe Stylist Desert Gowns @desertgowns
RETRO LOVE Photographer Brett Smith @brettsmithphoto Wardrobe Stylist/Makeup Artist/Photographer Camila Camacho Model Rohail Jafri
With over fifty-one cities planned, Conan Gray begins his World Tour 2022 in the beginning of March. Opening artists for his tour include Bülow for North America and Mallrat for Europe dates. With his authentic and rich vocals, fans await to watch Conan Gray perform live.
CONAN GRAY World Tour 2022
Photographer Orchee Sorker @orchees_photos
His show starts with “Wish You Were Sober” and ends with the famous hit “Heather”. Sixteen songs make up his set, allowing the show length to be approximately 1.5 hours. Photo coverage at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee on March 6, 2022.
With over 135M global streams, viral Gen Z pop artist Justus Bennetts shares the importance of stepping out of the comfort zone, TikTok’s influence on the music industry, tour, and the process and collaboration behind his latest single “Don’t Trip” ft. GAYLE.
Photographer Joseph Governale Interview by Orchee Sorker
Hi, how are you doing? How was your day?
Your latest release “Don’t Trip” is featuring GAYLE. How did the collaboration happen?
JB: My day so far has been going really well. I've had a pretty hectic three weeks. I was in New York for two weeks, and then I was in LA for a week. Now, I'm back home in Raleigh, and I'm just relaxing. I'm trying to decompress a little bit.
JB: I wrote the song with some friends in upstate New York quite a while ago. We were sitting in the song for a long time…and before GAYLE had dropped the “abcdefu” song and everything started happening for her, she actually had messaged me on Instagram awhile ago. I actually never saw it until recently when I was in New York. She had messaged me and just said that she loved my music and everything. My management was talking about doing a feature for a couple of weeks. I saw that she was in New York cause I follow on Instagram. I had hit her up while she was in New York, and said we should get together and get in the studio to do it. It was like her last day there, so we weren't able to actually link up. She went to LA the day right after I had messaged her. We had pretty much locked in the idea of a feature, and she went to a studio and recorded her feature out there in LA. Then, sent it back to us, and, you know, it turned out really great. We eventually linked up this past week in LA and did a full photo shoot and music video and stuff for it. It kind of happened fairly naturally.
Music has been apart of your life since you were really young. How do you think music has changed you over the years? Was music something you always wanted to pursue?
JB: I never actually saw myself pursuing music as a full-time thing until about a year ago when I actually started recording myself and releasing my music on a regular basis. It just didn't seem like something that was super attainable. I kept going and the more the music I put out I started doing better. It helped get a better mindset, and everything started changing. Speaking of your music…your songs are really catchy and your songwriting is vivid and expressive which adds to the storytelling that is in your songs which makes people connect emotionally. “Real Life Sux” has been an influential song to myself and probably many others. Why do you think taking the risk and getting out of your comfort zone is important to living fully? JB: I think what I've heard over a lot of the time is that ‘comfort zone' is where dreams go to die because the more comfortable you get, the more satisfied you get with things that are generally average. If you get too comfortable, you kinda stop and you start coasting, and you don't actually try to push yourself harder. Pushing out of the comfort zone gets you to places that you normally wouldn't think of.
What was the inspiration and creative process behind the song? Did you play the guitar section?
JB: Well, so basically when we were making the song, it was just me and like my boys that I make all my music with. We were all just having fun in upstate New York. We rented out a cabin for a week and we had fun and just got ****** up making music the whole time. It was just like a really natural creative process. The whole point of the whole trip was to just have fun and make cool music. I think “Don't Trip” definitely falls into that category of ‘just not caring what everybody else thinks’...like not going onto societal norms or doing things that everybody tells you to do just because people tell you to do that. I didn't, I wish I could play guitar like that. It was my producer friend, Doc…his buddy Amir actually played the guitar on it.
2021 seemed like an altering year for you, with “Bad Day” charting top on iTunes and Spotify and now currently over 135M global streams. What do you think about social media, specifically TikTok, and how it's affecting the music industry?
JB: It definitely has its positives and negatives. For me and a lot of people like it's had a very positive impact on a lot of people's careers. It's given people the ability to put their music in front of millions of people and actually make a career off of what they like to do. It made it more attainable compared to before you kind of posted on Instagram a little bit, but mostly you were trying to play shows and send your music to people and try to sell CDs. On the other side of the coin, a lot of people get down when their music doesn't do well on TikTok. A lot of labels are like ‘we can't really back the song, unless it's going viral TikTok because that's how everything is right now. It's a struggle for a lot of artists that just want to make fun music, and they don't want to just make content for TikTok. And if it doesn't do well on TikTok, then they don't know what they are going to do with their lives. That's definitely the negative side of it, but yeah.
Do you think content creation, like having to make so much in so little amount of time, has affected you?
JB: It's definitely affected me. It's just kinda tiring having to think about it when I just want to be an artist, make my music, and express myself. Having to constantly think about making content and doing stuff to keep people updated in order to stay relevant, because there's so much going on right now can be a little stressful…but it's all part of the job.
I heard you are going on tour with GAYLE this spring and playing at the Bottle Rock Festival. Is this your first tour? What do you love most about live performances? What are you looking forward to most?
JB: This will actually be my first tour. The first show we play in Nashville will be my second official live show. I'll actually have a drummer and we'll be doing it properly. The first time I did a show, it was just a backing track, and we didn't have a band or anything…but we're going to be doing things a little more proper this time. I'm super excited about it. The best thing about live tours is just being able to see everybody, you know, face to face and being able to actually connect with everybody in one room because you can feel the energy and you can feel everybody just, you know, getting down. Thank you again for giving me your time! Best wishes to everything you will be putting out! JB:Thank you so much for having me!
HAZZE MAGAZINE VOLUME #18 March 25th 2022 COVER STORY: Zack Lugo by Jewel Fiorillo
EVITCEPSORTER CIROHPUE
VOL. 18