TisaKorean Interview
Photographer // Halimotu Shokunbi
Stylist // Twizei
So the first time I heard of you, I saw you at this show that Yung Jake threw, it was in an art museum, you were performing on top of a cage that the audience was in with an RC car track around the outside of it. It was actually pretty crazy. How was that show for you?
That was so dope for me it was a totally different experience. That actually inspired me for how I do my shows now. He has some cool ideas, I respect his creativity. All of his stuff is really cool, but just from that show I was fucking with him. That’s all it took. I don’t talk to him on a regular basis, but I would love to have a friendship with him.
I know you were a pretty creative kid. What were you into growing up?
When I was a kid, I was into dancing,
My dad was and everybody in my family was on the same thing, if we were in the house, everybody would get up and move.
So I’ve had rhythm since a young age, I guess that’s why I try to put some rhythm in everything I do.
But yeah I was dancing, but my dad, he was also into the computer. He would teach me stuff on computer and then we would watch movies together. So the whole time we were watching the movie. I’m thinking to myself, I’m gonna be a young director, I just wanted to be the director. I had this feeling from a young age like an energy in me, that always made me go,
You know what? I’m going to make something, doesn’t matter what it is.
Do you remember any family gatherings that stand out, where everyone was dancing?
My mom, she had a, uh… I actually wasn’t supposed to be there. My mom had a party, I was supposed to get picked up by my cousins to go somewhere but they never came and got me. So I just stayed in my room, when I walked out of my room and through my hallway,
I was like, Dog, what is going on in here?
[Laughs] It was a reggae party, they were playing a bunch of Jamaican music and reggaeton. But I knew from the music and from the energy, I was like, yeahhh, this is it, this just paved the way for me. They were playing Buju Banton. I can vividly see those images from the party. That stuck with me.
Being, somewhere you shouldn’t be. That’s always how you find out about things.
[Laughs] Oh yeah.
You said you wanted to be a director when you were young. You ever think about directing a short film or anything like that?
That’s one of my goals that I wrote down. Yeah this year I do want to do a short film. Really, I‘m a cinematographer, so I like to deal with lenses and angles. Ultimately I want to be a director and be behind the camera. I always try to mimic films in my videos.
I want to do a bit of it all. Another thing I’m pretty big on, is this thing that I’m doing next in 2021. I’ve been calling #2027.
I want to damn near guesstimate. What 2027 will look and sound like, and try to bring it here in 2021. Like people in the future will be like
“You remember when Tisa was doing this?” We trying to do that now!
Look at Twitter. Twitter wasn’t going on in 2010 and now it’s like the biggest thing ever. If you told somebody about Twitter back then they’d look at you crazy. I don’t have to be correct but that’s how I’m trying to approach things.
Stay ahead of the curve. What are some directors you look up to?
Wes Anderson, Christopher Nolan, JJ Abrams, M Night Shyamalan…oh the Wachowski Brothers, I’m a huge fan of The Matrix. I can’t remember dudes name, he directed The Shining…
Stanley Kubrick
Yeah Kubrick, I was just watching some Kubrick movies.
You ever watch 2001: A Space Odyssey. That’s a crazy one.
Nahh I haven’t, but the internet’s always telling me to.
What is your favorite Christopher Nolan film?
I like the Batman trilogy. I saw the trilogy and I just fell in love with it, it’s crazy I was young and I was so attracted to this movie. But aside from the point that he was Batman, I didn’t love it just because I really loved Batman. I guess that’s why I started to watch it but I stayed because of Christopher Nolan. I love that movie because of what he did to it.
What are some of your favorite music videos?
I’m kind of biased towards this cause Pharell Williams is my favorite. I like the Number One video with Kanye West.
With me, it’s all a feeling. Everything is about feeling. It’s not about the quality. I know when I watched the Frontin video with Pharell it gave me a feel every time I watched it.
I’m not even the biggest on effects. The videos I like the most are the videos with no effects. In the Frontin video, they’re skateboarding inside of his house and that told me more of a story than anything I’ve ever watched.
Pharrell’s been around for so long and has worked with so many people, he’s standing in the back of every music video. Are you a fan of N.E.R.D.?
[Laughs] It’s interesting but my favorite artist is Soulja Boy, I love Soulja Boy, when he came out, around 2008, that’s around the time Seeing Sounds came out, and I fell in love for real.
Then I heard “Fly or Die” I instantly was like, yeah, he is the truth. So yeah I love N.E.R.D. “Fly” or Die” is my favorite, was my favorite. It’s just funny how you can like the complete opposite thing of something else you like. Soulja Boy and Pharrell.
Two different sides to the same coin. What’s your favorite song that you’ve made?
It’s a song on my second project called “Chili Dog.” It’s the second part of the song at the end of it. So it was completely opposite of what I was doing at the moment. What I did was put in a bunch of sounds from everything that I have made before.
I ended up making up damn near my own genre.
I just took sounds that I’ve accrued over time and made that situation.
Is the glass half empty or half full for you?
I look at the world positively, as positive as I can. Every time, every outlook is always positive.
Whatever I put out is what I’m going to get back, that’s just really how I look at it.
One of the things I do is I tell myself, I’m already happy. Meaning looking at everything I got right now and appreciating that. Me not wanting nothing else. I don’t want to say the wrong thing, but I’m not motivated. I don’t have no motivation for anything.
Everything I’m doing is off my willpower. I just have a will to do things.
I don’t have any desire anymore. I don’t have a fear of anyone. I don’t desire anything it’s just me creating. I don’t have a desire to get nobody on my side.
I just have the willpower to do things. That’s coming from me and I get that from already being happy. So I tell myself, you already happy. I don’t need anything at this point. I’m grateful for everything. You ain’t gotta confine to anything, do what you want to do and do it how you want to do it.
