While Snuffy is undoubtedly riding a massive career high and seems to be in touch with his emotions and communication skills with others just fine, he’s human just like the rest of us. After observing the modern, hyper-technological world we now live in, Snuffy admittedly felt a sense of burnout due to the addictive, isolating nature of social media and how it can effect your sense of purpose and community, and leave you overstimulated in unproductive ways. With no shortage of creative ideas, Snuffy began to develop the new Web3 project titled Looking In: To Know Yourself, an interactive and collaborative mental health platform that aims to utilize technology and social media in healthy, sustainable, and emotionally enriching ways. 

Read more: Meet So-Hee Woo, creator of the Kid LAROI’s metaverse set

With Looking In, users will first be prompted to answer a host of written and multiple choice questions from real clinical psychological studies to aid in their process of discovering who they truly are. From there, participants will be matched with their distinct personality trait and a handful of personality facets that define their true selves. Through this process, participants will be linked with other like-minded individuals to form their own “tribe” and collaborate on reflective exercises, as well as form bonds and communities through third-party apps such as Discord. Each participant will get a unique identification piece in the form of a tarot-card-style Venn diagram art piece that’s been hand-designed by Snuffy and can in turn be minted on the blockchain. 

Looking In: To Know Yourself is a testament to the power of utilizing technology for good and highlighting the importance of self-discovery and human connection in a world that has not necessarily had those ideas at the forefront of society as a whole. Snuffy spoke to us about creating the project.

What was it about social media and tech addiction that made you realize that healthy changes needed to be made both in your personal life and with society as a whole?

Where I found social media giving me difficulty was my ill-preparedness of seeing how good everyone’s lives are at all times when everything is filtered to show only the good stuff. Whoever is built for that, props to them, but I am not. The other part is that when I found success in my career, I became very accessible to people and how they thought they could approach me. I have this problem where I am a people pleaser and don’t want to let anyone down, so I feel obligated to always answer people [in my DMs] — this places a burden on me because it’s social etiquette to respond. 

However, as an artist, without social media as a tool, I would not have risen so quickly in my career. For that, I owe it a great debt, but with the way that these companies work, we are being trained to consume way too quickly. Leonardo Da Vinci painted 18 paintings in his whole life, but if you don’t put up 18 posts a week today, you’re fucked. What is a real artist who puts integrity and conviction into their work supposed to do besides screaming into the abyss? 

How did you begin creating Looking In: To Know Yourself? Did you source help from mental health professionals as well as experts in the tech and Web3 spaces? 

When I set out to tattoo people, I request that they write me a story beforehand, whether they are a celebrity, civilian, or anybody in between. You’re giving me a piece of you because I’m giving you a piece of me, and at that point, it’s not so much about getting paid as much as it’s about telling a story and sharing that with someone for the rest of their lives. When people come to me for a tattoo, they end up viewing the tattoo as a form of therapy. When I really sat down and analyzed my practice and took a step back, my unique value is not actually the tattoo. It’s the client’s own self-discovery. The tattoo is just the receipt of a cathartic experience.

I have a two-year waitlist for my tattoos, so I wanted to find a way to recreate this experience, therapy and catharsis for as many people as possible — this all led me to create Looking In. I have personally spent all last year analyzing personality facets, creating art and interpreting them visually in my style. 

What was the process of categorizing distinct personality traits and then pairing users together accordingly with the “Tribal” concept you have since developed with this platform? 

The clinical breakdown of this project is based on the big five personality traits with the acronym O.C.E.A.N.: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Within each of those domains, there are six facets — so in total, there are 30 facets. What we have done is give people an output for their input on the five facets they skew the highest toward.

We built a function for you to discover who you think you are and see yourself and then you get to invite your close circle around you to take a test about you to see how others perceive you. I feel like there needs to be something engaging, and we need the fabric of communication, community and just being heard. [Eventually], you find out who you are, and you get this output of unique art that is related to who you are — you also get to connect with your close circle and these domains of people who you can connect with on Discord. 

Speaking of creating unique art, what goes into creating these distinct pieces? 

First, I will study a facet of a character trait or domain, and then in the same way that I design a tattoo, I will sit with what I have read and then hone in on a specific part. From there, I collage my art and blueprint it in Photoshop, and once I have that blueprint, I will draw them out, scan them in, and separate them into layers. In my fine art practice, it’s the same thing. Since there are 30 [total] facets, I wasn’t going to leave my artistic thumbprint up to a [computer] generative project. There is a balance to strike between the two where I can still have my DNA in a project that is still generative. To me, phase one of this project would have felt inauthentic to do it [computer generated]. All my artwork is intentional, there are 30 facets and 30 pieces of artwork. What becomes unique is your five combinations of art. All of the art is how I want it to be — there is no mismatch.

Then Twitter took off, with artists trading in those small, curated communities for a global platform that meant a single post could reach billions, rather than just a few die-hards. It made business sense, sure, but in the years since, it’s become increasingly more difficult to post about loving a band without some stranger jumping on to tell you exactly why they’re terrible and you’re wrong. At the same time, more and more artists are pulling back from posting exactly what’s on their mind — worried about backlash or being misunderstood. As the 1975’s Matty Healy told Pitchfork, “I’ve thought about every single word on [upcoming album Being Funny In A Foreign Language] for two years; I’d think about a tweet for 20 seconds. My album’s gonna go out to, what, 10 million people, but a tweet could go out to a billion. The maths doesn’t work out.”

Read more: How Little Miss memes took over our social media feeds

To combat that, bands such as YUNGBLUD, Weezer and Cassyette are turning to Discord to recapture that sense of community, while musicians such as Mark Hoppus and Against The Current’s Chrissy Costanza are using Twitch.

Bury Tomorrow’s Davyd Winter-Bates started streaming on Twitch in 2019 but really found his footing during COVID-19-enforced lockdowns in 2020. The Calpol Club Discord soon followed, with Winter-Bates describing the platform as “the beating heart of Twitch.”

“It’s a community of like-minded, free-thinking people that are allowed to do and say what they want,” he starts before explaining they have just one rule: “zero tolerance on any form of hate speech.” Because Discord owners set their own rules and have the power to remove people for violating them, The Calpol Club has been allowed to become “a completely free space for people to be themselves.”

Due to the way the feed works, Twitter and Instagram are better used for making statements or voicing opinions. It’s often one-sided, whereas Discord, according to Winter-Bates, “champions open discourse.”

Read more: Meet Natalie Chapple, the makeup CEO who made wet liners take over TikTok

It’s one of the reasons Softcult use the platform. “We started our Discord because our band is all about creating safe places, fostering communities with like-minded people and encouraging activism through music,” vocalist/guitarist Mercedes Arn-Horn explains. “Discord is a good way to do that, without it becoming overwhelming or confusing.”

Their Discord has several channels, ranging from Music and Cinema to Politics and Trigger Warning, a place that allows people to “share stories they might not feel comfortable talking about elsewhere.” The duo have a close friend monitoring the Discord so “no trolls come in and ruin the atmosphere of what we’re trying to build.” With the band in control of what is and isn’t allowed, Discord gives them and their fans “a layer of privacy, safety and accountability.”

Hours before Scene Queen talks to Alternative Press, she shares an example of the abuse and death threats she gets on TikTok. Her fans also occasionally receive unprompted hate, just for liking Scene Queen. “My fans are the coolest people in the entire world,” Scene Queen says. “They’ll defend me to the death, and they’re really behind the movement, but some people are not down for what I’m making. It’s nice that there’s a place like Discord where we can talk about random things without worrying about people diving in and bothering us.” 

Growing up, Scene Queen was an active member of Tumblr fan pages for bands like the Ready Set, but a majority of those community interactions happened IRL, at shows. Her Discord also spun out of her live show, but with an eye on making the growing community as accessible as possible.

Read more: How TikTok allows artists to take direct control of their own narratives

Earlier this year, during her U.K. headline tour, Scene Queen initiated a handful of fans into her sorority, Bimbo Berta Pi, making them official delegates of the Scene Queen community and ensuring that everyone at the show felt welcomed.

“Honestly, I had no idea what the genuine effect was going to be,” she says before explaining how, after every show, she’d be introduced to new best friends. “There are loads of problematic things about sororities, but the idea behind them is super rad; a bunch of women that get together every week and do philanthropy events? What’s not to like?”

“It’s the coolest thing I could have done, and I wanted to be able to carry that on,” which is where Scene Queen’s Discord comes into play. “I wanted to make my sorority something that everyone could join, regardless of financial status or where they’re from in the world.”

She explains that her Discord attracts the “die-hard fans, the ones who want to take the extra steps,” and that the platform requires artists to put the work in. “It’s not like TikTok where the algorithm is working for you, when you’re not around.”

Read more: Peach PRC makes “depression-pop” anthems you can dance and cry to

Winter-Bates believes many new artists are turning to Discord to create communities because the old ways aren’t viable anymore.

When Bury Tomorrow started, they “followed the Enter Shikari roadmap of club shows and played absolutely everywhere. At one point in 2009, we did a three-month tour of the U.K.,” which helped them establish long-term fans because they were putting the effort in. “You just can’t do that now. It’s impossible for bands, just based on petrol prices alone. But Discord does the same thing by creating this pocket community.” Unlike Twitter or Instagram, which are much more individual-led, Discord is similar to a live show. “Everyone’s the same, and you are one of many.”

It creates something genuine as well. Years ago, when Arn-Horn was in their previous band, the major label had a meeting with them about social media. They discovered that when she posted something emotional or vulnerable, it got better traction. Instead of realizing that people react to artists being genuine, it was suggested they fake it.

Discord takes place away from the like-based currency of most social media platforms, meaning there’s nothing to be gained from faking it. “You can be a little more down to earth without worrying about all of that,” Arn-Horn says.

Read more: Meet Abby Roberts, the rising pop star and beauty TikToker who landed an opening slot on Halsey’s tour

Discord gives fans a more direct way of connecting with their favorite artists, without having to resort to spamming or abuse, but there are benefits for the artists as well.

“Artists want a connection with their fans,” Arn-Horn adds, who says the Softcult Discord has been an “education” for her. Her only experience prior was a Canadian-based Vax Hunter Discord that she used to locate where and when COVID-19 vaccines were available, but she quickly discovered the Softcult one “helped me get through the pandemic and allowed me to reach out to our community.”

“Our fans are so talented, so passionate and so intelligent. I just feel proud,” Arn-Horn says. “It’s inspiring on a whole other level.”

“You can just use social media to promote yourself and nothing else, and that’s totally fine, but it’s so hard for someone to become a die-hard fan if they have no idea who you are as a person. I know I’m more drawn to artists that seem like good people. The more of yourself you can share, the easier it is for people to get emotionally invested with your art. As the artist, why wouldn’t you want that?”

“Discord allows you to have conversations and support each other,” Winter-Bates adds. “And that’s all a community is, isn’t it? Community and support.”

It takes passion, perseverance and hard work to make your dreams come true, and luckily, Saunders knew this better than anyone. He jumped through all the hoops and followed all the right paths — paving his own when necessary — to get where he is today: a Radio 1 DJ.

Read more: Lorraine Petel’s Famous Last Words and the future of rock radio

Now a name synonymous with the station, Saunders is one of the leaders in broadcast media. Every day, he combines his love for the radio with his desire to connect fans with talented artists who they have never heard of before.

In a world where radio is overwhelmingly pop-oriented, Saunders manages to cut through the noise and now has an earlier time slot for his shows so he can reach more people and positively affect anyone who decides to tune in.

Congrats on your new time slot for your show! Tell me a bit about what “Future Artists” is and what you hope to accomplish with it.

I present on BBC Radio 1 here in the U.K., a show called “Future Artists,” Monday to Wednesday, and then on Thursday, we switch it up into “The Indie Show.” So, it’s all about alternative music, and across the four days, regardless of what type of show it is, it’s all about new music.

I just love supporting new bands. I love discovering. I love the excitement that brings, the thrill of it, the nurturing process involved in that and telling that narrative and building the story of these bands and artists. It’s such an amazing move for me but also just the show in general that me and my producers have worked so hard on since September of 2018. 

When I joined Radio 1, we were on [from] 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. — right ol’ graveyard shift — but we had the freedom out there to essentially do whatever we wanted and play whatever we wanted. The audience was really receptive to it, and, because of that, we’d been moved forward [to] 10 p.m. to midnight.

Now we’re 8 p.m. till 10 p.m. in an amazing slot where people are, at that time of day, engaged and listening. I have so many more messages than I usually do coming through, just being like, “Oh, my God, I’ve discovered this. I love this. I can’t stop listening to this.” It’s so great, and it really feels like we’re able to properly blossom and nurture that little following that we had before into something really exciting.

You are also essentially one of the main people ushering in a new era for BBC and helping evolve the definition of modern radio.

Yeah, it’s in a really interesting moment. We’ve lost Annie Mac. We’ve lost Grimmy [Nick Grimshaw] recently — they’re still alive; they’re just not on the station anymore. They obviously were pillars of the station, in synergy with the name.

Over the last few years, Radio 1 has gone through a real transition phase. It’s gone, in the last 10 years, from having roughly 10 competitors to now over 50 in various different formats and media. Trying to keep up and maintain that attention is a really difficult thing in such a competitive landscape. It’s very much is still in a transition phase and really always will be [because] the way that youth culture moves is inexplicably quick. It’s up to me and every other presenter on that station to keep up with it and make sure [Radio 1] is at the forefront of the ever-changing youth sphere.

Obviously, the music is important, but another big aspect is the connection. How do you form genuine connections with your listeners?

Some presenters will just play the music and move on to the next one, but for me, it’s about establishing that connection. You’re playing new music to people that have never heard it before, so you have to give them a reason to love it.

It’s a noisy world. They’ve got so many other distractions and things that they could be doing in their lives, so you’ve got to give them a reason to tune in. You’ve got to give them a reason to love the music that you’re playing. Because Monday to Wednesday, we play every genre as well. You’re not gonna be able to please everyone. Let’s just say you play a new metal track, and you’ve got a whole load of people who love R&B music listening to the show.

I’ve got to somehow find something that connects them to that music, and I really love that challenge. It’s been made easier and easier by these newer bands coming through and being so ambitious with the music they’re making.

What was your quarantine experience like being in both media and music spaces, and did you have to adjust how you connected with listeners?

I went headfirst into combating the pandemic. I built my own PC. I invested in a whole setup. I basically [have] a studio in my house now. I did quarantine karaoke on Instagram, and we had [artists such as] HAIM, Ashnikko [and] Alex [Gaskarth] from All Time Low come on and do it.

I took that to Twitch, and that morphed into this “Feedback Friday” thing where I’d come on, and bands and artists would send me their music, and we’d listen to it on [the] stream, and then I’d [give] feedback as to whether I thought it was good, what they could work on, how I can help them.

There was a real community around it, and I built this community over lockdown via a Discord channel that I started. So, I adapted over lockdown, and that community is even stronger [now]. I know my audience far better than I did beforehand. We were just there for each other and bonded [because of] the show and the streams.

You know better than anyone, so what artists have you been following recently that readers need to check out ASAP?

KennyHoopla feels like a real game changer to me. There’s this new collective that I’ve just come across over here in the U.K. called R U Init? Sad Night Dynamite are really amazing. They [have a] really highly textured, colorful early Gorillaz [sound].

There’s this wicked band out of Glasgow called VLURE. They’re like apocalyptically rave-y, like a horror movie but a great horror movie.

Another one we had on the show [recently] who I really liked was Hollow Sinatra, and “My Favorite Hierarchy” is the track we had on the show. He’s just a great artist who feels really creative.

This interview appeared in issue 399, available here.

The solo music/NFT art hybrid project is expected to be released on streaming services and the Tezos blockchain.

Shinoda teased a 12-second preview of ZIGGURATS on social media.

New music: #ZIGGURATS coming December 3 pic.twitter.com/rBESnl86sg

— Mike Shinoda (@mikeshinoda) November 20, 2021

 Lplive.net recounted details of Shinoda’s announcement of the project via Discord.

Read more: AltPress, Clay Mates, and SpaceBudz team up for unprecedented NFT covers

“I’ve been off Twitch and social media a little bit here and there because I have a couple little projects I’ve been trying to spend more time on,” Shinoda says. “The primary one is a music + NFT idea, and it’s coming out great.”

For those of you who are mainly interested in hearing the new music, Shinoda ensured fans can still listen to ZIGGURATS.

“If you’re not into NFTs, you’ll still be able to check it out for free,” Shinoda says. “I hope you enjoy it. If you want to buy one, it’ll be on Tezos.”

As for the exact format of ZIGGURATS, Shinoda gave his description of his “generative mixtape.”

“I’ve described it to some people as a ‘song that’s not a song,’” Shinoda says. “But it’s also an EP that’s not an EP, an NFT that’s not an NFT and an art project that’s more than just a picture.”

ZIGGURATS will be available for streaming Dec. 3, with NFTs minting Dec. 2.

The video remix pioneer made the move into crypto art last December after watching a friend make a similar move and enjoy early success. That friend, Beeple, went on to make history with successive historic sales, first with CROSSROAD at $6.6 million in February and then with Everydays — The First 5000 Days for nearly $70 million in March. 

Read more: NFTs are igniting a digital art explosion– here’s how

“We’ve known Beeple for about 12 years,” Eclectic Method says, who turned his Beeple remix into an approved NFT last January. “We knew about crypto art, but when we saw him make the move, we thought, ‘Why not?'”

As an artist who remixes video live, Eclectic Method naturally put music and rhythm at the center of their digital art. Instead of sampling movies and television shows, they now make their own movie clips in Cinema 4D for original pieces found on leading platforms such as SuperRare, Hic et Nunc, KnownOrigin, Rarible, OpenSea and Foundation. 

Eclectic Method is also a major collaborator in the scene. Just last week, they announced a collab with Jonathan Mann of “Song A Day” fame that will include remixes for 10 songs paired with visuals from world-class animators such as Bryan Brinkman, Banankin and Everfresh. The minted works will drop April 27 on Rarible. 

Other collaborators have included London-based XCOPY, Mexican animator Miguel Garest and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame musician Bootsy Collins (Parliament-Funkadelic, James Brown). Eclectic Method originally bonded with Collins over the “With The Bass” remix, so when they asked if he wanted to collaborate on an NFT, “he said yes straight away, not really knowing what it was.” 

Though a rising star in the crypto art scene, Eclectic Method has produced media art that many people saw without knowing who it was. Past performances include a live all-star jam on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, and various remixes appeared on The Late Late Show With James Corden, The Colbert Report and even during a live TV interview with Matthew McConaughey, who was asked to comment on this viral remix. Official works also include remixes for Childish Gambino, Snoop Dogg and Fatboy Slim, and Eclectic Method even appeared in an Apple commercial in Europe.

Read more: Pete Davidson channels Eminem again to explain NFTs on ‘SNL’—watch

Eclectic Method had early cred in the crypto community because many of its top stars already knew the video remixer, so the two worlds came together naturally. The artist is even doing a crypto art-centric video remix set every Friday at 1 p.m. EST for the Token Smart channel on Discord, a digital distribution platform for online communities. 

“It really does feel like there is something to celebrate every single week,” Eclectic Method says about his art drops and remix sets, “and we get to celebrate there with all our friends.” 

For more, follow along on Twitter @cryptokid901.

Earlier this week, the Reddit thread r/WallStreetBets encouraged people to pile into GameStop’s stocks in an effort to stun Wall Street firms who were betting these stocks would fall. Then, Elon Musk soon joined in on the action, causing all of this Wall Street drama to finally unfold. Now, Musk is further explaining why he backs Reddit’s recent moves.

Read more: Chase Atlantic’s new album ‘Beauty In Death’ arrives sooner than you think

Once Elon Musk caught wind of what individuals were doing on the r/WallStreetBets Reddit thread, he tweeted out a link to it. The move was seemingly in support of the individuals who were boosting GameStop’s stock shares.

Gamestonk!! https://t.co/RZtkDzAewJ

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 26, 2021

As a result, many of those on Wall Street were left stunned. According to CNBC, shares of GameStop were up more than 60 percent in after-hours trading on Tuesday following Musk’s tweet. The stock ended up closing up 92.7 percent on Tuesday.

Due to the sudden spike, big bets short-sellers on Wall Street who thought the GameStop stock would fall are now facing billions of dollars in collective losses.

NBC NEWS: Short-sellers lost $14.3 billion today alone on GameStop stock, according to S3 Partners

— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) January 28, 2021

Read more: All Time Low return to the ‘Last Young Renegade’ world in new comic book

Since all of this, a lot has happened. Robinhood Markets, Inc., an American financial services company, has restricted trading in GameStop, an action that quickly caught the attention of many. U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that this action really only benefits one group of people.

“This is unacceptable. We now need to know more about @RobinhoodApp’s decision to block retail investors from purchasing stock while hedge funds are freely able to trade the stock as they see fit. As a member of the Financial Services Cmte, I’d support a hearing if necessary.”

This is unacceptable.

We now need to know more about @RobinhoodApp’s decision to block retail investors from purchasing stock while hedge funds are freely able to trade the stock as they see fit.

As a member of the Financial Services Cmte, I’d support a hearing if necessary. https://t.co/4Qyrolgzyt

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 28, 2021

Read more: Dr. Phil had to convince a woman she wasn’t really Bret Michaels’ fiancée

Meanwhile, Musk called out the gaming messaging app Discord after they banned the Reddit group who started this whole situation. However, according to The Verge, Discord has since lifted that ban and is now helping the r/WallStreetBets team moderate its new server.

Even Discord has gone corpo …

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 28, 2021

Now, Musk is further explaining why he is backing Reddit’s Gamestop stocks ploy. On Thursday, he shared a tweet saying hedge funds shouldn’t be allowed to control the financial apps that blocked people from buying any more stocks. Their attempts to make those stocks plummet so they wouldn’t lose any more money is wrong and a “scam.”

u can’t sell houses u don’t own
u can’t sell cars u don’t own
but
u *can* sell stock u don’t own!?
this is bs – shorting is a scam
legal only for vestigial reasons

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 28, 2021

A lot of hashtags and phrases have begun trending because of all of this. #EatTheRich and #HoldTheLine are a few of the recent hashtags to grow in popularity. However, Fyre Festival is also being brought into this Wall Street situation all thanks to Ja Rule.

On Thursday, he tweeted that Robinhood limiting GameStop stock trade is a crime and that they all need to continue to hold the line. Of course, his tweets went down exactly as you’d expect. Many are reminding the internet that they probably shouldn’t take financial advice from the investment advisor of Fyre Festival.

Yo this is a fucking CRIME what @RobinhoodApp is doing DO NOT SELL!!! HOLD THE LINE… WTF ?

— Ja Rule (@jarule) January 28, 2021

Exactly!!! #Holdtheline https://t.co/KT0Fyrm2Ld

— Ja Rule (@jarule) January 28, 2021

Made for a great documentary so I thank him.

— Staxofbills | Devin (@staxofbills) January 28, 2021

Read more: It looks like Frank Iero has even more musical projects in the works

Signed Ja Rule, Fyre Festival organizer. https://t.co/Xk49anQPBK

— Andrew W. (@falseminus) January 28, 2021

If your business advice comes from the guy connected to the Fyre Festival … you might be investing wrong pic.twitter.com/tiK8wz3Hic

— Jeremy Ross (@JeremyAdamRoss) January 28, 2021

Hey look! It’s Fyre Festival headliner and investment advisor, Ja Rule https://t.co/MCV5Sxuy5V

— Bill Weir (@BillWeirCNN) January 28, 2021

Read more: Did Hayley Williams just confirm those new solo album theories?

Senses Fail‘s Buddy Nielsen also shared his thoughts on the situation. He touches on the internet finally coming after those Wall Street billionaires who will likely get bailed out by the government in the next few days.

The internet has fucked over every industry except Wallstreet so it’s nice to see them get a little taste.

— Buddy Nielsen (@buddythechud) January 28, 2021

Watch these hedge funds get bailed out before the entertainment industry , gonna happen in literal weeks https://t.co/8ALNXVyb3C

— Buddy Nielsen (@buddythechud) January 28, 2021

As of noon PST on Thursday, Jan. 28, GameStop stocks have fallen 28 percent.

What are your reactions to a Reddit thread influencing GameStop’s stock? Let us know in the comments below.