Multidisciplinary artist and Bodega marketing director Matthew Zaremba discusses creativity and career

00;00;12;19 - 00;00;31;24
Rob Lee
Welcome to the truth in this art. I am your host, Rob Lee. In my next guest is a multidisciplinary artist best known for his minimalistic illustrations, examining the human condition and the intricacies of the head and of the heart. He's also the marketing director at Bodega. Please welcome Matt Zaremba. Welcome to the podcast.

00;00;32;07 - 00;00;33;09
Matt Zaremba
Hey, Rob, thanks for having us.

00;00;33;25 - 00;00;45;02
Rob Lee
Thanks for hopping on. Appreciate you taking the time. You know, as I grow, I'm heading further and further north and I think I'm going to go to Maine, but I think I definitely have to hit that Massachusetts kind of area.

00;00;46;26 - 00;00;48;28
Matt Zaremba
Yes, it's a good area.

00;00;49;14 - 00;01;09;27
Rob Lee
Yeah, absolutely. So before we get into the conversation, the legit conversation, I want to get that kind of introductory, that sort of elevator like like pitch of like. What's what's the Matt story with the Matty Z story? I'm going to call you that a lot. I'm sorry. What's the story? And in it, could you describe, like, maybe your first experience with art or design?

00;01;10;10 - 00;01;22;14
Matt Zaremba
Yeah, it's a great question. I don't know too much about it, but I was raised by, you know, pretty free spirits my late father and my mom.

00;01;24;15 - 00;01;50;29
Matt Zaremba
We grew up in that city, but they had this interesting background where they were very much into the outdoors. My dad's nickname was Bear because he was just like a grizzly bear. He's an outdoorsman. My brother and I, we were we were raised to like, you know, competitive whitewater, canoeing, things like that. We spent a lot of summer in kind of remote places on these long canoe trips and expeditions and stuff.

00;01;51;01 - 00;02;12;17
Matt Zaremba
And so we had this, like, interesting childhood of, you know, my dad played blues music and my mom's a writer and it just like lived creatively, not in like a super hippie way or anything like that. But, you know, they just had like a fun respect for, like, the earth and kind of, I don't know, kind of like being a little bit counterculture to things.

00;02;13;00 - 00;02;40;15
Matt Zaremba
And so from a young age, like, my brother and I were like really inspired by what we were exposed to. So at my dad, you know, he would put us on to like good films and art from like the sixties, like that, that, that kind of embodied the, the, what was happening with music and culture at that time when he was really being affected that in those formative years.

00;02;41;02 - 00;03;22;13
Matt Zaremba
And it kind of like carried over to us. So I think like our first like you know, so that was we were kind of brought up on and then everything that we got into was pretty much through like skateboarding. You know, like the first graphics I'll ever remember are from like, you know, POW, parole, things like that, like skateboard graphics and then like skateboarding really exposed us to, you know, like when you're skateboarding and growing up in the city, like you're going to spots to skate that are kind of, you know, off course or, you know, like heavily trafficked.

00;03;22;13 - 00;03;44;15
Matt Zaremba
So like from there, we would see like graffiti. So like graffiti was like our first, like, I guess you to like a medium that like we really saw and like paid attention to at a very young age. And like any kid in the city, like, you start dabbling in things and you know, we went through like all these kind of like goofy nicknames and tags and total toy stuff.

00;03;44;15 - 00;04;03;21
Matt Zaremba
But I just remember like how much of an effect it had on us, you know, like it was just about skateboarding, riding on things, and we weren't like, bad kids at all. So, like, it wasn't like, you know, something like total, like, we're not going to school and like, we're smashing windows. And it was just like, these things kind of overlapped and like, we're really exciting.

00;04;03;21 - 00;04;34;22
Matt Zaremba
I think it was like this mystery of like, how do you how do you do that? Like, who does this? When do they do it? Things like that. And then as we got older, you know, because I saw like my dad was really into music, we just as like a byproduct of being exposed to that and stuff like and I'm sure like natural talent in some way really got into music, especially me, you know, I started out like playing guitar, but then at a young age was like really influenced by that like early nineties golden era of hip hop.

00;04;34;22 - 00;05;01;17
Matt Zaremba
So yeah, I started getting into like, like, like really obsessing over like turntables that like turntable ism and, and like beat production because I was like, I'll never be like an M.C. I already did graffiti to a degree. I couldn't understand breakdancing like it was just wasn't for me physically or something. So I had the graffiti, but like still toy at this era, just a kid.

00;05;01;17 - 00;05;22;19
Matt Zaremba
And I just remember like at a young age hearing DJ Shadow introducing and I've mentioned this somewhere else before, but like introduce in the album like really flipped my way. Like it was like everything just changed that moment because it was, it was an album that was completely made by samples, bits of music. It was all new music made by stamp, you know, through samples.

00;05;23;06 - 00;05;45;05
Matt Zaremba
And to me it was like, Oh, that's really artsy. Like, I can get down with that. And so like a young age I was getting like rolling Dr. Sample and four tracks and things like that and trying to make, you know, like compositions out of samples and that kind of led to, you know, synthesizers, things like that. So I really got into music and then I actually did end up becoming like very much into emceeing.

00;05;45;05 - 00;06;09;07
Matt Zaremba
And I started like a local crew here in Boston, which I think still does stuff like 20 something years later, I won't name them because I just kind of fell out of all that and but yeah, like soul music was a really big thing. And I think when I kind of like let that go, especially like hip hop stuff, we kind of went back to like roots of like indie, you know, post-punk and stuff like that.

00;06;09;07 - 00;06;33;21
Matt Zaremba
Like writing became a really big part of my life again. Like, it was something I dabbled in. I was younger, but I really got into, like, prose and poetry and stuff like that. Yeah. And just kind of like, I don't know, like mixed media stuff, like collage work. I like, I guess like the point is, is that I, I have always and my brother especially like we have always been creative in some way.

00;06;33;21 - 00;06;56;21
Matt Zaremba
Like we talk about this still now like I'm 39, he's 42 or something and we still talk about like, you know, if, if there was no Instagram, if there was no platform to get your work out there. You know, we all lived in like bunkers because of some catastrophic event or something, right? Yeah. We would still be doing art and we'd still be making art even if it never saw the light of day.

00;06;56;24 - 00;07;19;18
Matt Zaremba
This is like who we are. We, we like constantly to create in that might be some sort of, you know, self preservation is to combat like other parts of our personalities, etc.. But yeah, like creativity is everything to me, whether that's professionally a personal thing. So and then obviously since those days of kind of diving into different mediums and stuff, certain things stuck.

00;07;19;18 - 00;07;35;26
Matt Zaremba
You know, I definitely have like I've been doing this illustration project for years now and I said paint graphs when I can and for fun. And I do like collage work and other types of painting work, etc..

00;07;35;26 - 00;07;39;11
Rob Lee
So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for walking us through.

00;07;39;19 - 00;07;51;03
Matt Zaremba
Yeah, there's, there's, there's a long history of different mediums and, and like reasons for those mediums or like projects I guess to say a few words.

00;07;51;25 - 00;08;11;14
Rob Lee
Yeah. I mean as a person I'm a definitely relate to it where I wanted to be a comic book artist when I was younger and just, you know, having, you know, an uncle I never met. He passed before I was born, but it was kind of like he cast a long shadow and, you know, family members like, oh, you're going to be just like him.

00;08;11;14 - 00;08;29;07
Rob Lee
And then kind of nudging me to move in and kind of motivating me or helping, giving me the resources to pursue the art I was interested in. And then, you know, that didn't really work out when pan out and it's not that I lost interest, but it was kind of like confidence was kind of like, you know, wavered a little bit.

00;08;29;07 - 00;08;47;08
Rob Lee
And then I went into writing and then, you know, I was making beads for a little while and, you know, high school, it was weird and and still kind of like doodling, sketching and things of that nature. And then I had a period where I was painting and working on murals, and then I got into doing audio and I, I can trace back almost.

00;08;47;22 - 00;09;13;11
Rob Lee
I'm 37, so I could trace back 23 years ago, maybe to maybe 22 years ago that produce podcast, I pull out the frigging recorder like a geek and it's like note to self, you know, or being a being one of those guys walking around talking to the third person because I thought I was the rock and I would ask people questions almost like that yearbook sort of thing, the superlatives and things of that nature.

00;09;13;11 - 00;09;24;21
Rob Lee
And that's that was my earliest experience, but it was always me trying to articulate ideas that were in my head, to communicate, ideas that were in my head, and it was always a creative bent to it.

00;09;25;16 - 00;09;44;14
Matt Zaremba
Yeah, I think that's a good way of saying it. And I often think about like, what is the common thread between all these things that I've always been into and respected? And it really does come down to like communicating. I don't like I kind of alluded to before, like there's certain parts of my life where it helps with like the noise, you know what I mean?

00;09;44;14 - 00;10;13;18
Matt Zaremba
And being able to like get a concept down that you might otherwise fumble over and having that focus, you know, like I'm, I'm A.D.D. so it's, it's hard to it's hard to like break down what you're thinking or feeling sometimes is going so rapid fire that when you find an outlet for me which has always been creativity to kind of give yourself a beat and like pause and work through something like a more constructive or proactive way.

00;10;14;03 - 00;10;30;29
Matt Zaremba
It's super, super beneficial and like I said before, like it's like a form self preservation or like a catharsis, just like work through everything from like positive things like love and like relationships to, you know, challenging things like depression and stuff.

00;10;30;29 - 00;10;49;11
Rob Lee
So yeah, I mean, I'm in my, I have all of my creative stuff concentrated in the home studio. So I have any of the stuff that I elicit joy from, from a creative standpoint. There might be a few bodega stickers in here. We'll talk about that. There's also I have Funko pops in here. I have paintings that I've done.

00;10;49;11 - 00;11;05;12
Rob Lee
And yeah, you're right where I am looking at a painting that I did of my brother and I and he had a he needed a kidney transplant plan a couple of years back and we weren't sure if he was going to make it. And I did a painting of he and I together, you know, it was kind of like just, you know, a monochromatic.

00;11;05;21 - 00;11;27;13
Rob Lee
But it's just like me and him together. And we can always having his back or even just, you know, relationships and things that I'm seeing that, you know, I'm articulating or communicating. Rather, though, those feelings onto canvas, which I haven't painted since, you know, these are these paintings I'm looking at are from six years ago. I mean, that person's just like that's where I was at and I can always return to that.

00;11;28;02 - 00;11;48;15
Matt Zaremba
Right? I mean, that's a really great way of saying that. And, you know, I love the sentiment of you and your brother. I mean, obviously, my brother and I are also super close. But the sentiment of like going back, it's like I think about that a lot lately. I was thinking about that yesterday is I have all, you know, all this experience in different mediums, all these interests.

00;11;48;15 - 00;12;05;16
Matt Zaremba
Like I'm all really interested in things that I don't know if that's like an easy thing or what, but I could go into like a cross store or something in the middle of some little farm town in the middle of nowhere and find something that is super, you know, like, maybe like corny or cheesy to somebody else, you know?

00;12;06;08 - 00;12;24;04
Matt Zaremba
And I'm like, No, you know what? You could you could use that thing like that stamp kit or something to create this, you know, and you could do something cool with it. So I'm overly interested in overly curious and things. And sometimes I'll sit around and be like, Yeah, you know what? Like people really like those paintings. But I haven't done one of those in years.

00;12;24;04 - 00;12;48;08
Matt Zaremba
Why don't I do that? And there is there's something comforting about like, well, I can just go back at any time and do that. But there's also something kind of frightening, which is time and like time passing because you're like, Yeah, but I could go back to that. But I've got all these other ideas like on my phone, I literally and it's the same place where I keep all my illustrations for my kind of daily musings on life is I've got another list that's just all art ideas.

00;12;48;08 - 00;13;26;26
Matt Zaremba
And it's, it's like it's heavy. And these aren't just like, you know, like a subject for a painting or something. They're full out, like conceptual, like pieces. And some of them have like extensive. I'm not the right word to say, like, they're just like extensive ideas. Some of them are multilayered and and so it's like, yeah, I could go back to those paintings or something, but like I could also tackle this projects that I've never touched before and, and, and fail because we all know, like when you touch a project, like when you start something, you're often going to fail over and over and over.

00;13;27;21 - 00;14;02;06
Matt Zaremba
And it's kind of about like sticking with it. Like, do I believe in this idea enough to keep getting up and like keep taking that breezy? My ego and and the most creative the the the the worst self critics I know I'm there's not a day that goes by where I'm like, what am I doing? And it's weird because, you know, we're mentioning like we're talk about accolades before recording and it's like, yeah, you could be like in a magazine, you could be on TV, you could do like all these awesome things, get awards and still feel like, awful about what you're doing because.

00;14;02;28 - 00;14;31;03
Matt Zaremba
Because when your mind's going that fast and you do have the ability or like the to I don't know, like to me you have the potential to do so much every human does. But when like you know it and you have the ideas down stuff and you just haven't brought them to light yet, it's like everything. It's kind of tripping you up, kind of makes you a little bit more hesitant to break that other one out or you know what I mean?

00;14;31;03 - 00;14;44;02
Matt Zaremba
Like, it's, you know, it does it does hit the ego and it's more than like a, you know, the kind of superficial idea of what ego is. And it's more about like the aid or like identity of self. So pretty interesting.

00;14;44;28 - 00;15;06;18
Rob Lee
Yes. And it brings me to this. This question is now I'm just free jazz. And that's what we're doing at this point. I came to this point when I was telling you about this, describing this series of interviews that are outside of home base. Right. And I remember talking to someone that I respect, you know, I looked at as a mentor that is in the whole radio world, in the podcasting realm.

00;15;06;18 - 00;15;25;15
Rob Lee
And and he was like, Well, I would keep them in the same feed. You know, like, he don't want to break these out. You know, people who if people trust you, people trust what your tastes are, people trust what you're doing. You've had years of establishing goodwill, and I just followed it because I didn't know what to do in that particular situation.

00;15;25;15 - 00;15;47;18
Rob Lee
And ultimately, that was driven in some in some ways by. All right, I have all of these other great ideas. Sure, I could do this, but I have all of these other great ideas that I want to explore because continually curious. So I'll ask you when you're kind of stuck in like a spot where you're not sure because it doesn't seem like you have a problem with ideas.

00;15;47;18 - 00;16;05;00
Rob Lee
It seems like you hit you. Well, I guess I'll ask. You don't have a problem. It doesn't seem like I have a problem with ideas. But do you run into a point where you're like, All right, I don't know which idea to go with or which ideas and how to go about it. And if so, is there a person that you go to or how do you go about getting past that?

00;16;06;16 - 00;16;33;24
Matt Zaremba
Yeah, I mean, to answer the question, yes, all the time, I think. I mean, my brother's like my best friend and the person that I talk to the most about creativity. And it's weird because I think other creative people in our lives kind of in a way, I sense or or it's been said to me, like they kind of reach out to us because we are always just kind of brimming with creativity.

00;16;34;19 - 00;17;02;11
Matt Zaremba
They'll kind of hit us up to like run things by us and and it's, it's kind of ironic because I always exhaust myself with the same questions they're asking me. And so, like, I go to my brother a lot with this kind of bouncing off each other and ultimately it does come down to you. You know, there's been plenty of frustrated conversations I've had with him, with Nick, where, like, I don't feel any better, if not worse, coming out of our conversation because, you know, we've got like a little bit of competitive spirit.

00;17;03;05 - 00;17;30;06
Matt Zaremba
We're brothers, you know, but he's my older brother. And so it's kind of like little bro me in certain ways. And so it's not like those conversations necessarily help, but it is helpful to kind of externalize what I'm already dealing with inside or like, you know, kind of ruminating on it. But ultimately it comes down to yourself and for me, kind of taking the next step forward, it's kind of really pragmatic.

00;17;30;06 - 00;17;52;18
Matt Zaremba
It's like, Well, what can I get away with? You know, like what? What do I have the resources do? Some of my ideas are just like, so, like extensive, like I said that it's just not possible to fund my life whether from like, you know, would take X amount of additional capital to make happen or I need a bigger space to do it in or blah blah blah.

00;17;52;18 - 00;18;17;19
Matt Zaremba
And again then that comes back to like, you know, how can I take a hit if I try to do this giant sculpture, for example? I know I'm going to feel at that over and over and over, but that's an expensive fail over and over and over, you know. And so I'm kind of pragmatic and I think I think at the end of the day, like the best thing that I've found to try to process those moments is just a little bit of time.

00;18;17;22 - 00;18;43;25
Matt Zaremba
You know, it's hard, especially for me. I'm super, like impulsive or I mean, that's not the best word. I just really want to get things going and like to just jump on things. And, and so like for me, taking a B in, like sleeping on it or something might give me like a little bit more clarity or like an idea as to how do I maybe just dip my toe in a little bit and see if that's like the right move.

00;18;43;25 - 00;19;02;03
Matt Zaremba
But again, like I have like even a drawing that says it's like I have a way of getting in my own way, you know, and, and I think a lot of creatives do. But the one track that I've found is like having a little time and zooming out, you know, like seeing things from a different perspective. And I've been saying that a lot lately was like, zoom out.

00;19;02;23 - 00;19;21;20
Rob Lee
Yeah. And I think, you know, and I'm hearing similarities there. Like, I think big picture, it's, you know, it's kind of like, all right, I'm going to the next thing. And one of the things that I encounter in doing this and doing these series, I try to think of feeling like evergreen content. I try to think of doing timely content that makes sense.

00;19;21;23 - 00;19;49;09
Rob Lee
So, you know, if I'm going to interview a bunch of people in a span of, let's say, three months, right. And I might talk to four or five different people who are filmmakers. I'm going to try to put those together, you know, in do it and do it well, but put it together all in kind of like my timeline because I want to move to the next thing is like this is important, but I want to move it to now post-production and maybe start looking at these photographers who are looking at, Oh, I should do a series in Boston or what have you.

00;19;49;09 - 00;20;11;05
Rob Lee
And it's not a matter of being focused and unfocused or anything along those lines, at least in my mind. It's more of a I have so many ideas and it is this kind of indication of I have limited time, limited resources and I don't know how long I'm going to be able to operate off of this degree of inspiration, this degree of like strong work ethic.

00;20;11;18 - 00;20;26;12
Rob Lee
So let me ride that wave. And that's something that I've been saying a lot in the last year. I was going to ride the wave and when it comes down, then we'll see what happens. But, you know, riding this wave and it's not it's not swept me in the wrong direction yet.

00;20;26;21 - 00;20;48;08
Matt Zaremba
So, yeah, I also have a fear of, you know, because people say like, yeah, you've got all these ideas, you know, like I've made a career off of that and ways and, you know, ideas are priceless. You know, I think like anybody can be trained to do a role like a task or even be a pilot, you know what I mean?

00;20;48;29 - 00;21;15;15
Matt Zaremba
People can't be trained to have ideas, are like be original in some way. But I always kind of have this fear of like, what's the fine line between, like being an editor or like an ideas man? So to speak, and then being like an ideas man and kind of like a con, not like a condescending, but not the most positive way because, you know, like sometimes an ideas man can just kind of be, Yeah, yeah.

00;21;15;15 - 00;21;33;19
Matt Zaremba
Like someone who has like ideas, but they don't come to fruition. And that's like a dangerous line to walk because on one hand, it's like you've got the idea, but you also don't want to be the person who's like, Damn, I wish I like invented the lawn flamingo or something. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I could have thought about this, like, yeah, you could have thought about that.

00;21;33;19 - 00;22;05;18
Matt Zaremba
Maybe you did think about it, but you didn't put into action. So like, that's what I find now because, you know, a dad of two little boys and just like so much going on, like career wise and art career wise and stuff, like it's, it's hard to find time. And that's what I was thinking about, like having ideas, but like fleeting time, not like an existential way per se, but just like, yeah, time goes fast and how do you take those ideas and put them like and also like respect what you've already done.

00;22;05;18 - 00;22;30;04
Matt Zaremba
Like, I've had crazy ideas and I've had people that really trust you. Like y like you've got a good thing going on with, with what you're known for in art, never mind like career stuff. And it's like, why try to, like, strike? Why try to like go for it? Like big again, you know, like, do you think you could start another project and get tens of thousands of followers and stuff like that?

00;22;30;04 - 00;23;03;19
Matt Zaremba
And it's like, well, that's not necessarily the gauge. First of all, it's about like my personal happiness. But there is something to be said about that. It's like, yeah, like at what point is it? I don't know. Like at what point does it kind of just get like not greedy, but I don't know. Like when I was growing up, I was really like I was really fascinated by like the old days where like somebody and I'm not even going to name a historical figure at this point because like, you know, like you always go back like, well, that guy was actually kind of an asshole.

00;23;03;19 - 00;23;23;01
Matt Zaremba
Yeah, but I think like some of these, like, classic figures in like American history, for example, like they were, they were politicians and inventors and doctors and lawyers and they had like there were so what's that word that people always it's like a buzzword now.

00;23;23;20 - 00;23;24;22
Rob Lee
That's like polymaths.

00;23;25;16 - 00;23;49;03
Matt Zaremba
Yeah, well, that's like a that's a good word for what it was that more buzz word people call each other like, oh, multi-hyphenate. Oh, God, yeah. You have a right. You have, like, a more accurate description. So, you know, these guys said every day, men and women, I should say, but they did so much. And I always grew up looking at like them.

00;23;49;09 - 00;24;22;03
Matt Zaremba
That's my brother always says it's like, dude, you're into everything you do everything. Like, I can go to you for every day. You know, something about like all these things or you do all these things. And it was always kind of like a joke. My family that's now doing this and I was like, Dude, I don't know any other way to be like, Yes, I want to make music, but I also want to shoot photography because I was so DIY, you know, I'm 39, we're from the same generation was like the cusp before the Internet took over existence completely.

00;24;22;15 - 00;24;43;09
Matt Zaremba
And it was like if you were in your room making beats or like making an EP or something, my thing was about like total empowerment. Like, I want to, I want to I want to produce something and then I want to rap over it and then I want to shoot or design the cover of the CD that I'm going to burn myself, hundreds of them, and hand out myself.

00;24;43;09 - 00;24;46;06
Matt Zaremba
So I'm doing my mom marketing and, you know, like everything that.

00;24;46;06 - 00;24;49;03
Rob Lee
I'm going to promote a party that I'm doing as well with it, you know what I'm.

00;24;49;03 - 00;25;03;15
Matt Zaremba
Saying? So like everything was a totally DIY and I have that spirit in me. It's like, well, I'm not going to let anybody I want to do it all. I want to know how to shoot and I want to know how to do video. I want to know how to write the copy. I want to know how to design the thing.

00;25;03;15 - 00;25;07;19
Matt Zaremba
Like, you know, like I yeah, it's, it's a mentality.

00;25;07;19 - 00;25;40;09
Rob Lee
That's, that's, that's a thing that I think it's important. It's almost a version of like quality control. And I got a few questions about Bodega B before, before we wrap, but it's like a conversation around like quality control where if it's a unified vision, I think when you're touching each part of it in a way that the way that I started looking at it, because my background is in business and marketing before really kind of diving back into art and I do analytics, that's what my day job is and you know, and looking at it, I'm like strategically thinking, how does one do this?

00;25;40;22 - 00;25;59;11
Rob Lee
And you know, I always joke, I'm always able to get out goals or maybe roles go, maybe falls, go, I don't know. Fool's gold, who knows? I'm able to get good content with almost no budget, right? And because I'm doing all these different things, it is out of necessity. So, you know, people would say, well, how are you doing all of this?

00;25;59;11 - 00;26;21;18
Rob Lee
I'm like, Well, you should see me with a budget. And part of that is, I think in doing all of it, you're able to occurring over there kind of DIY, I mean touching every piece of it. You're able to ensure quality control when you're able to work with collaborators, when you're able to bring someone in or even collaborate with somebody in a in a sort of differences in like a partnership and things of that sort.

00;26;21;29 - 00;26;38;24
Rob Lee
And that's kind of the stage I'm at now when I'm able to hire someone and bring someone in to help with some of the more administrative work. That frees me up that, you know, I can do interviews like this and not have to worry about, oh, I need urban edit or I need to hurry the schedule a bunch supposed to go out and so on.

00;26;39;05 - 00;26;39;18
Matt Zaremba
Yeah.

00;26;40;06 - 00;26;58;22
Rob Lee
I think you can't really you can teach some of those things but you've got to have the right person. But I think you've got to understand what you're doing first, you understand why you're doing it and be emboldened in that and that just take that comes from that natural kind of you described doing all of these things and having a DIY approach.

00;26;59;16 - 00;27;23;15
Matt Zaremba
And it's hard it's hard to let go of control. You know, I like with work, for example, like my old job, which is also in the quote unquote streetwear industry is like I manage a lot of people as a director there and I just like I was always doing stuff in the weeds because like I just didn't, I didn't know how to let go.

00;27;23;15 - 00;27;44;06
Matt Zaremba
Control at certain points is like, I don't know, like it's a lot of trust, you know what I mean? And like getting people to understand the vision or like, you know, it's like a baton. It's like when you're relying on other people, you're waiting on somebody to pass the baton and they have to be up to speed and like, you know, they got to they got to run it well.

00;27;44;06 - 00;28;05;17
Matt Zaremba
And like, but if you're doing yourself, it's like I can I can monitor, like, my health the whole run, you know, I can I can like monitor everything. I'm in full control of the situation. And I if I'm going to if this is going to fail, it's going to be totally on me. And I kind of like like that in some sort of like weird, like, sadistic way.

00;28;05;17 - 00;28;23;03
Matt Zaremba
You're like, I don't know what that is, but, you know, and the same thing with like my current role is like I got like, I got a lot less people. Like I'm like, I have to manage directly. And my goal was like, I don't want to manage anybody. Like, I just want to have my role and do that.

00;28;23;03 - 00;28;57;20
Matt Zaremba
But it works because, you know, the people I'm working with now, like a couple of them are from that same company and like we already know the deal working, you know what I mean? Like it's we're kind of like cut from the same cloth in terms of like work ethic and stuff, so, or like get it done. But yeah, like, you know, I guess as a transition from like the creative stuff and DIY and having troll or like that vision control over your vision to like work stuff, you know, which obviously you're aware of like what I do.

00;28;59;06 - 00;29;00;09
Matt Zaremba
Yeah.

00;29;00;09 - 00;29;14;26
Rob Lee
So let's, let's, let's talk about it a bit. What is it about that role working within that, that brand of bodega that really resonated with you like initially and Will continues to kind of keep you interested and engaged and excited.

00;29;15;26 - 00;29;43;05
Matt Zaremba
Is a good question. I think so. Like, you know, our generation, I grew up like my, my, my experience with what they at least used to call streetwear, like sneaker culture was like kind of that like that. The period of where it kind of originated from on the East Coast side of things. And that was very much rooted in like skateboarding and like hip hop and stuff and just kind of like counterculture.

00;29;43;05 - 00;30;16;09
Matt Zaremba
And I would say counterculture because like you could have been punk and like totally into original streetwear and stuff. Like that. I mean, Sean Stussy essentially started the entire thing and yadda yadda but you know, so like when we skateboarded and did all those things as kids growing up, like small brains started popping up because there were just alternatives to like wearing J.Crew or The Gap or something like that, you know, like just what normal people wore because that wouldn't look cool on scale.

00;30;16;11 - 00;30;41;09
Matt Zaremba
So you had basically a lot of skate companies and then just random, independent brands popping up that were just streetwear is things to wear that if you're just like into cool shit and that's like my take on where this all came from. It's like it was just an alternative clothing for people to wear as a uniform to what they were doing.

00;30;41;09 - 00;30;56;22
Matt Zaremba
It was no like, Yo, check out my shit, no one. Like if you said that stuff back then, like, yo, check on my outfit. People like, what's wrong with you? Like I'm saying, like, there was nothing. No one ever thought of the word fashion or anything in. Like in retrospect you can see style and I really separate style and fashion.

00;30;56;22 - 00;31;20;26
Matt Zaremba
That's to me the two totally different takes. And you know, so like this is like pre hyper consumerism of streetwear. This was just about like I'm a deejay, I'm a B-Boy, I ride grass, I skateboard, I do these things. And this is just like the stuff I wear, which is I'm not going to wear those like dork chinos, right?

00;31;23;10 - 00;31;41;19
Matt Zaremba
And so like that's how I grew up and I didn't know anything else. I never would have thought that would be a big industry one day where you could work in and make money and and, you know, have a house and cars and stuff off of that stuff like working within unless you own like one of the brands and it got big like, you know.

00;31;41;19 - 00;32;02;27
Matt Zaremba
So it's always been kind of fascinating to me. So like my first exposure in a professional sense when I came back from Brooklyn was working for dot com and I knew like the owner of Karma Loop, which was like one of the first big streetwear in coms, it was also a brick and mortar, but it kind of really blew up in e-com before.

00;32;02;28 - 00;32;33;15
Matt Zaremba
Like there really was many e-com marketplaces, especially for streetwear and I knew like the owner from just the scene in Boston and stuff and got a job over there in marketing and then rose up to director of marketing and bodega. They were like, you know, they opened in 2006 and we all knew like all of our one of the owners, we came up in the same scene.

00;32;33;15 - 00;32;59;19
Matt Zaremba
It was all like music and art and stuff like that. So he was around and was part of our extended part of our like art collective, which was called Project US and Jay, one of the other owners, he was just this like very cool guy around Boston and he owned some other smaller, you know, small businesses and just a really like great guy and supportive of the scene and involved in other ways.

00;32;59;19 - 00;33;27;00
Matt Zaremba
And then the other owner, Dan, was just super connected through art and stuff like that. So we all knew each other like naturally. And so I was like, Come look, four years and I remember talking with all of our about like they wanted to grow bodega like e-com, you know, they had done such an incredible job with like the brick and mortar and their whole like model attitude in plain sight and was like, how do we grow the brand bigger?

00;33;27;00 - 00;33;51;04
Matt Zaremba
Like, how do we get that feeling and like the stories we're trying to tell and blah blah blah to a global audience. So my like end of my tenure at Karma Loop, I just joined them over there, which was awesome because I was just kind of like kind of super stressed out. It was super stretchy and like it just got really sour after its heyday.

00;33;51;04 - 00;34;09;17
Matt Zaremba
And so coming to Bodega was like, okay, now I'm like, I don't want to do, like, twilight years. Like, I'm a young, like the young. I felt like, okay, now I can take a breather and like, let me look at this thing from like a holistic 316, you know, view. Like, what do they got going on here? Because I've always just been friends with the company.

00;34;09;24 - 00;34;32;14
Matt Zaremba
Yeah, from day one I remember like when they're putting the floors in the original store and I was like, okay, now I'm like inside and like, what have they been up to? And I was just like super impressed. The team has always been like super talented from day one. Everybody like you've been through on day one when it was like just one shop in Boston and like no e-com and everybody that worked there was like special in some way.

00;34;32;14 - 00;34;57;12
Matt Zaremba
It was like an artist was a graffiti writer, was doing photography. So to come back over there was like, All right, cool. Like, now I can focus less on, like, business for business sake and more like, how do we just harness what we've already always been up to and like also tell cool product stories and get stuff out there for people to like buy.

00;34;57;12 - 00;35;30;07
Matt Zaremba
But also like, how can we flip that narrative a little bit to like try to give people a vibe as to why they should care about what they're buying, you know, and what it all means? Because I'm really big on that and I know it's kind of an old head thing to you. Like, Yeah, if you're going to wear supreme, you should know like where it started from, who was involved with it, why it got big, you know, like what happened when it went from like New York to Asia and back, you know, like what were the phases that made these things like big and pop and it's not to like talk down anybody anything

00;35;30;09 - 00;36;04;16
Matt Zaremba
about at all. It's like I just get so excited about things. It's like I want them to know, like what I learned over the years because I saw it all as like a reference point. Like, Okay, now I know these things. How do we build on top of this in like a respectful way? Like how do you pay respect to the past knowledge, those who like paved the way and then like build on that and like hopefully makes that seem like something that's, that feels like good holistically and not just, like, hyper consumerism because, like, if you said to me like 15 years ago, 20 years at like 20 years ago, like someday people are

00;36;04;16 - 00;36;27;08
Matt Zaremba
going to line up for sneakers and like fight each other for them. And it's gonna be raffles and this and that. Wow, that's crazy. That's crazy. You could walk into, like, any, you know, place like downtown Manhattan and pick up some dumb clothes or whatever you want, you know, like, it just wasn't a thing. It was like, what we wore, and it was about being, like, resourceful to find cool things, like the whole, like, army surplus and all that stuff.

00;36;27;08 - 00;36;43;15
Matt Zaremba
That was from Army Navy stores. Now you have companies selling essentially Army pants for like 500 plus dollars, you know? Right. If you knew what you were getting into, you'd be like, Oh, well, that's just army surplus. And like, yes, they've done this and this to them and they're obviously like a lot more tailored and blah, blah, blah.

00;36;44;01 - 00;37;03;03
Matt Zaremba
But if you're resourceful, you could also just get some army pants from the surplus store and like have them taken in and altered or like teach yourself like, I don't know, sewing and like add on your own stuff. Like that's just how it was back then. It was about like being resourceful and that wasn't just like a streetwear hip hip hop thing at all.

00;37;03;03 - 00;37;24;11
Matt Zaremba
That was, that was really it's like there's a lot of punk so that there's a lot of like this straight up counterculture that, that spans like so many genres of style and like music and culture. So that's not like something that's exclusive to streetwear in any sense. You know, like that's just, that's just fashion. But, but rooted in like a counterculture like that goes back to hippies.

00;37;24;11 - 00;37;51;18
Matt Zaremba
And before, you know, it's like they just want to take what was like the Zeit guys and like switch it up and like create a new wave. And I feel in a way, like, we're kind of losing that as a culture because I guess of accessibility, you know, like everybody's just exposed to too much. But what they're exposed to is and what we were exposed to, which came to us naturally through like kids in the neighborhood or mentors or things that we research now.

00;37;51;18 - 00;38;10;26
Matt Zaremba
And what's coming the people is what the algorithm thinks that they want to see. So like, it's almost like nobody has free will anymore. It's like unless you're total Luddite, like, unless you're not on social media, you don't really like use the Internet, everything that you see on the Internet. And I know because I'm a digital marketer, it's like you're being fed what it thinks.

00;38;10;26 - 00;38;28;15
Matt Zaremba
All the ads that you see online, they're not there by coincidence, honestly. And I love when like old people are like these ads are phony. I was just talking like, you know, a new pillow and now I'm seeing pillow as it was like. Yes, because one of your many devices picked it up and now or you looked at a site and now you're being retargeted, too.

00;38;28;15 - 00;38;51;15
Matt Zaremba
So like nothing about the reality of online and social media. And I think that's such an important message for kids, especially like in a creative sense, like artist is like everybody is hanging their hat on like Instagram and like how many likes and how many followers and this and that. But none of it's real. And it's getting increasingly less real because they keep changing the game.

00;38;51;19 - 00;39;13;02
Matt Zaremba
And it's not like, Hey, I like Rob's podcasts. I can't wait to. It's like, the only way I'm naturally exposed to the podcasts is if I'm already listening to these types of podcasts and it's suggested to me or in a less rare way. I mean, in a more rare way. It would be as if a friend was really into it and told me.

00;39;13;02 - 00;39;21;13
Matt Zaremba
But again, we're all subject to these issues like mental games. So it's harder for even my friends to come across things organically.

00;39;21;28 - 00;39;39;07
Rob Lee
And that's that's the thing that that really kind of gets me where, you know, having that background and, you know, not really doing a lot of digital marketing was more marketing and analytics and it was just like, Oh yeah, we're just gonna hire a bunch of people with like site degrees and things of that nature because we're really focused on consumer behavior.

00;39;39;07 - 00;40;01;15
Rob Lee
We're really focused on this sort of persona research, and we're going back to like 27 and 28 and, you know, for like a big telecom company and you know, that's what they were doing a better position, let's say, content. And this is kind of we're seeing that now more and more that if I want to watch an episode of Miami Vice, I can't find it anywhere.

00;40;02;00 - 00;40;19;04
Rob Lee
And it's like they know I want it, but they're going to tell me I want something else, you know, whether it be when I log into Paramount plus when I log into HBO. Max, the thing that I'm actually looking for, I have a harder time finding it. The thing that I just watched, I have a harder time finding the things that they want to push forward.

00;40;19;16 - 00;40;40;04
Matt Zaremba
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And so when they want to push for like videos on Instagram, they're going to throttle static images, you know what I mean? And like that makes it harder for the majority of artists because I'm not a video artist. I'm not going to change everything to be like a video. Like I'm not going to learn something because I want to keep up with technology that is not serving me.

00;40;40;04 - 00;41;05;24
Matt Zaremba
It is not serving anybody that has a cultural bone in their body because it is is is like, you know, it's a computer system and the people behind it are corporations. That's the other thing. And I mean, I know like while I'm at this point, but I love it. I love it. But like, I want to say something about like there's something else wrong with this generation in terms of like glorifying billionaires.

00;41;05;24 - 00;41;29;16
Matt Zaremba
You know, nothing cool about there's nothing cool about Elon Musk, the dude peddles in Gen X conspiracies. He has like blatant disregard for people of all walks of life. You know, he's just like, not a good dude, in my opinion. And, you know, I'll give him the credit that of course, he's great at business. He's he's proven that he's proven is great at business.

00;41;30;01 - 00;41;55;19
Matt Zaremba
But that doesn't define people in 2022, like, oh, you made a great business like, Okay, yeah, Jeff Bezos made a pro-business crush, all these other small businesses and put a lot of people out of a livelihood. Is that something to admire or is it something I admire that this dorky guy has all this money and he's not doing any good in the world to to help other people who are less fortunate, especially at the hands of companies like them.

00;41;55;25 - 00;42;04;10
Rob Lee
The only the only good that really came out of that for Bezos, for instance, is his wife getting divorced and just saying, you know what, I'm going to do the things that you're not doing.

00;42;04;10 - 00;42;21;23
Matt Zaremba
Right? Right. But you know what I'm saying? Like when I was a kid, like if you were a rich person, like you used to see like graffiti in the street, just like the rich and stuff like that. Financial system, right? Like, I don't know when this, like, glorification of, like, capitalists became a thing, it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

00;42;21;24 - 00;42;49;02
Matt Zaremba
Like, we're talking about very rich people that go to extreme lengths to ensure that you don't get a leg up like, no, no, you should boycott all that stuff. And, and like, I like to take that mentality to me with work is like no matter what, like we're just like street level and we're going to just tell stories pertaining to the trough that we carry and the things that we're into.

00;42;49;02 - 00;43;09;11
Matt Zaremba
That's why, like when we do an editorial or something, we're not necessarily just like using a budget to get a big name to like wear the clothes and shoot that. Like we work with like people like me, artists that we like and know and hang out with the offices like, you know, I mean, that's like a big part of the ethos is just like, well, no, we're like community rooted.

00;43;09;11 - 00;43;29;15
Matt Zaremba
And, you know, I have like kids hit me up about things or people, I should say. And like sometimes I get so excited about things that like, I'll just hit them off with like, you know, like a pair of shoes before they come out when they should probably like buy like, you know, in a business sense, be go into like some big influencer or celebrity or something.

00;43;29;15 - 00;43;48;19
Matt Zaremba
It's like, Nah, man, I want to give it to people who are like genuinely excited about product and like ride, you know what I mean? I think that's like kind of like what separates us is like we're staying on that level, you know what I mean? And, and even if it like one of the things that do like about Supreme, it's like there was a lot of controversy.

00;43;48;19 - 00;44;11;29
Matt Zaremba
They're like, you know, they're owned by the Carlyle Group and blah, blah, blah, but at least from a creative standpoint, like they still utilize the same team of people for like design and video and everything. And so most people I know and that's cool because they're putting young kids, you know what I mean? And like, I don't know, it's important to like use whatever platform you have to keep it rooted in.

00;44;11;29 - 00;44;20;12
Matt Zaremba
Like whatever this thing was originated from, you know, because otherwise you just turn into like a box brand or like another brand owned by corporation or board, you know?

00;44;20;23 - 00;44;54;19
Rob Lee
Yeah. And I and I guess that's pretty much all we're going to have for, for that piece. But at least want to throw these two observations in there, which I think the line which you're saying before I get to these rapid fire questions I got for you. So yeah, that that last point that you made really resonates with me because that is the sheer thing that Netflix did and the sheer thing that Instagram and Instagram was a photo sharing site and now it's focus on video as you touched on and Netflix, you know, you can buy the package that you have to worry about, commercials and so on, instead of being able basically the way

00;44;54;19 - 00;45;10;21
Rob Lee
that Netflix was presented to me in an early adopter was, oh, you can kind of get whatever you want, you can get DVDs, you can do this, you can do that, and now a content provider and I don't spend a lot of time on Netflix and they've worked ads and they found ways to kind of make ads a thing.

00;45;10;21 - 00;45;29;21
Rob Lee
Even though I'm not paying for the ad, you know, I'm paying I know ads account. So it's is interesting when a brand kind of switches what it got on and what they kind of got that goodwill from and will use whatever you know you see the pandemic whatever to basically try to get more money it's a cash grab and that's just.

00;45;30;04 - 00;45;46;10
Matt Zaremba
And that's what it is it's just it's no mystery. It's like how it happens. It's not like, I don't know, maybe there got some new leadership and these things just kind of change with this. And it's like, you know, at some point someone decides like, hey, this will us a bunch of revenue, right? Because what they're banking on is that they're smarter than you.

00;45;46;10 - 00;46;06;08
Matt Zaremba
And that's the saddest part is like when these things are successful, that means that enough people fell for the trick and that people didn't question it. And I mean not to go off course, but like, it's exactly how politics works. It's like, can you get enough people believe a bad idea for enough people to not care and kind of force through a bad idea.

00;46;07;15 - 00;46;11;25
Matt Zaremba
And we're also seeing that for many years now. So it's it's interesting.

00;46;12;07 - 00;46;31;05
Rob Lee
Yes. And I think I think that's where we we'll wrap on on the real questions. Yeah, I think I think there's a lot in there. There is a lot in there that we were able to go through. And and I think it's interesting where you not only are you getting the perspective about the way you go about your work and all of that, what you get was baked under.

00;46;31;05 - 00;46;52;17
Rob Lee
It was the thinking that goes into it. And I think that that's very valuable. So so thank you. And with that, I want to dove into three quick Rapidfire questions in the last few moments we have here. So I'm very interested in what creative people eat. So what is a lazy night meal for you? You've had like a long day.

00;46;52;17 - 00;47;01;00
Rob Lee
You got to 2 to 2 kids. You know what is like, right? I'm going to make something to eat. What is that lazy night meal for you?

00;47;01;16 - 00;47;03;00
Matt Zaremba
Is it just have to be made?

00;47;03;25 - 00;47;08;00
Rob Lee
You can make it whatever it is. Because I've heard some people say, you know, I just do ramen, I just heat of the water.

00;47;08;14 - 00;47;24;04
Matt Zaremba
Yeah, I I'll go I'll go mad because like, obviously take us is too easy. If I was going to get takeout, my favorite thing to eat the burrito chicken. All types of different toppings or fillings. I will switch it up, but if I was going to make something on a lazy night, my wife put me on to this.

00;47;25;07 - 00;47;55;10
Matt Zaremba
We make homemade pizzas, but lazy style would be you actually get like those non slots which is, you know, non bread but you get like slots and they come in two different sizes like small. I think it's the bigger ones and I mean you just hit that with some of the some pasta sauce and mozzarella and some basil or a, you know, you know, and toast it like you put it right in the toaster or the oven and just yeah, it's really like I've been saying lately.

00;47;55;10 - 00;48;02;19
Matt Zaremba
Like I actually like it more than like pizza from the shops because something about the non it's like especially we like the garlic non oh.

00;48;02;19 - 00;48;03;10
Rob Lee
My gosh yes.

00;48;03;23 - 00;48;11;26
Matt Zaremba
It's nice low garlic and like when you're a parent to like little kids three and five, it's like, all right, that's easy. It's real quick.

00;48;12;25 - 00;48;30;00
Rob Lee
Oh, let's see. This is the last one I got for you, because I always like to throw, you know, something as resonant to the, you know, one of the things that a person does so and this is this might be hard if you could only wear one pair of sneakers for the rest.

00;48;30;00 - 00;48;30;13
Matt Zaremba
Of your life.

00;48;31;06 - 00;48;32;13
Rob Lee
I don't I go double.

00;48;33;11 - 00;48;34;17
Matt Zaremba
Oh, it's going to be dunk clothes.

00;48;35;09 - 00;48;39;26
Rob Lee
Any particular color describe them in.

00;48;39;26 - 00;48;51;02
Matt Zaremba
I have like so many colors. I mean I guess I would say I mean, I was just I just sort of think I can type these for like I chose that as my shoe model to talk about and I've.

00;48;51;02 - 00;48;54;10
Rob Lee
Never seen it.

00;48;54;10 - 00;49;12;24
Matt Zaremba
I'm just trying to think like I'm wearing something now. But they're not long. They're like the new, like gray, gray. I don't know what they call them. I just go by like what they look like. Okay, I guess like all time, like pandas. Although they're having, like, a big moment right now and they've kind of been like appropriated by all types.

00;49;12;24 - 00;49;29;05
Matt Zaremba
You move aren't even into sneakers per se. Yeah, yeah. Just the dunk low. And I like, like if I had my way, like something like more earth tones, but I would just say like pandas if I'm going to okay, that's legit. And that just goes back to my roots of streetwear. I mean, that just goes back to skateboarding.

00;49;29;13 - 00;49;52;07
Rob Lee
Yeah. I mean, I mean, I pulled that up because sometimes was like, oh yeah, I know these shoes. I've seen everybody wearing these and they look like pandas. So yeah. So with that, I want to thank you for, for coming on to this podcast and spinning a yarn with me and indulging me. And in the, in the last moments, I want to open up the floor to you, to, you know, kind of telephone folks, where to check you out, check out any of the work that you've done.

00;49;52;21 - 00;49;55;19
Rob Lee
And yeah, the floor is yours. So share way.

00;49;56;15 - 00;50;16;28
Matt Zaremba
And I appreciate you having me on. People can check out my art on Instagram at Mathews or I'm sure be included in the credits for the episode or Matt Zaremba dot com and be sure to check out bodega BTG a store dot com.

00;50;17;08 - 00;50;38;24
Rob Lee
So there you have it folks I want to again thank Matt Zaremba for coming on to the podcast. And yeah, there's art and it's community. It's a community that they're in and around your neck of the woods. You've just got to look for it.