The Ary Interview

 

 

“In my definition, I’m completely arrogant.” Ary says while we sit at a beautiful location with an overview of Salzburg’s Old Town. The young artist seems very alert while simultaneously being in his own world mentally. He has an extremely calm demeanor and it’s honestly difficult to guess what he is thinking. In our conversation I got to know the artist that I have now followed for a while on Instagram better and apart from having cool facts to his name, he also talks about being a very calculative and disciplined person.

 

Interview by Emily Amaris

21^st of September 2022

 

 

 

 

 

So, who are you?

I’m Ary, creator of Arroganteight, and a creator in general.

 

 

How did you get into clothes and creating?

It’s interesting, when I was little I was very creative, drawing with watercolors all day, getting into individual sports where you got a lot of expressive freedom and so on but when I was about thirteen-fourteen that started to fade and only recently, like two years ago, I turned back into it with a whole different outlook on life and a crazy amount of experience. The reason I decided for fashion was probably because that’s what I been on, I always paid a lot of attention to look a certain way, even if it was mostly basic at first.

 

 

You got on the Arroganteight shirt and the custom Air Force 1 right now, but what is Arroganteight for you? 

Aeight is my first “real” creation, my brand, but I don’t like calling it that, and I am very curious to see what it develops into.

 

 

I noticed you use a lot of symbols and it’s kind of like you tease things subliminally through posts and stories, is that being done on purpose?

Yes absolutely, it’s about creating an entire picture [and I just enjoy doing that], I am looking very deep into things, so I was like, why don’t I put that in my own art, for people that are the same as me that like to look beyond the surface level of things. For example, I had ten crosses in my bio and every month on the 8th I removed one, until the last one was removed on the 8th of April 2022, and it took like seven months for someone to realize, but that made me extremely happy because I didn’t expect anyone to pay attention yet, to have someone already invested with me and what I do means the world to me.

 

 

That’s interesting I didn’t know that, now a question you probably get all the time, why the number eight? 

Yea kind of every time I mention it to somebody new, well, many reasons, there are a lot of ties between the number eight and me, you know how certain days or colors have a certain energy to them?

Yea absolutely.

like Sunday feels like the number eight, so do the colors black and white, it’s also the number of a lot of things like karma and wealth, the Chinese culture knows that too, that’s why they started the Olympic Games on the 8th of August 2008 at 08:08 pm. That’s so hard to me. It’s just my number for real.

 

 

Interesting, you mentioned black and white, your entire drop is black and white too, what’s the motive behind it? 

So, for context, I posted a picture called purpledreams that shows me laying in between a LV Bag and a black fur jacket, the LV Bag representing materialism and success and the black fur jacket representing discipline, the things you need to do to get there, while I’m in the middle on this purple druggy cloud, that represents vision.

 

Then, a few days before the brand dropped, I posted a picture called blackwhitedreams, wearing the fur jacket from the previous post, no LV Bag, nothing, just me in the middle of this black cloud. You are moving disciplined, you realize everything is bland, the work you put in, things not working out and so on, yet you don’t even think about materialism or the work, you just do. That’s also why the drop is called „Protect Your Dreams”, after all this work and love for it do you think I’ll let anyone take this away from me? And eventually through staying in that disciplined black and white state, we will get to the LV Bag, symbolically. Looking back in a few years will create a beautiful reaction, like „damn that was the first drop? Bro knew exactly what he was doing.“ Everything will make sense and complete the picture.

 

 

Yea I see what you meant with diving deeper into things, I can tell you care about details, and I feel like that’s what’s lacking right now. The collection is split in two parts, how did that come about?

Thank you so much, part one „Not Arrogant“ was nearly finished, it’s the main drop, but then I thought, what would be an arrogant way, arrogant in my definition, to extend the drop? So I sat down and created the second part „Arrogant“ in 48 hours.

 

 

Your definition of arrogant? What is it? 

My definition of arrogant is absolute self confidence that was built through consecutive wins. I absolutely despise arrogance by the „real“ definition.

And would you consider yourself arrogant, but the quote-unquote real definition?

What do you think? Am I arrogant?

Hahah no, I don’t think so, at least not by the definition we know, you just seem very invested in yourself.

Exactly, but that’s how everyone should be or not? You are the main character in your life.

 

 

That’s true. What’s the idea behind the bullets on the bag that you have on right now, I guess it has to do with the name of the collection?

Yea it’s what I was talking about before, Protect Your Dreams, by working towards them, not sharing them with the wrong people, not feeding them with negativity, and if necessary, protect them with force. The bullets represent that perfectly. Stand on your shit, be proud about it. And the first dream job I had was to be a Special Force soldier, but as I grew older, I noticed that as a soldier you are basically just a slave, so I kept the good things, the discipline, the organization, and an unfuckwithable mindset, but apart from that, I’m good.

 

  

I would have never expected you to say that, but it plays into the whole duality you got going on, the black and white you know. An artist that wanted to be a soldier, two opposites.

Wow that’s true, I didn’t even notice that that’s amazing.

 

 

You told me you kept your IG profile lowkey for everyone around you, what was the motivation behind it?

I never had social media, no online presence at all, until I made this Instagram account. I was like, let me shock everyone, like, „yo that’s Ary?“ and through the reaction I got from everyone that’s close to me, that absolutely worked. Also, I’m just not a social media person, I’m not trying to be mysterious or anything, I literally just don’t care. I put out what I put out, and get off. I even need to remind myself sometimes to record or take a pic.

 

 

You mentioned people around you, do you have other creatives in your circle?

No, I do everything myself, the designs, the fits, literally everything you see me doing is done by me and me only. I simply just don’t know anyone from where I am from, except an old friend of mine that I got into contact with recently that’s on some modeling and fashion shit, but bro is in a different city right now. I honestly like doing everything myself, it gives me full control, but let’s see what happens in the future.

 

 

Do you want to stay in the fashion industry? 

Yes and no, I want to do everything, I’m a creator, the main thing I really want to do right now is album covers and music videos to be honest, my vision is crazy and only working on clothes is limiting. I just want to be great, in everything.

 

  

You don’t say much, and I think this interview will be the first time that people get to know you a little better, why?

Not exactly, I used to drop a lot of advice and real talk through questions on Instagram. First time I did that there were like one or two deep questions and I guess they liked my view on things and ever since then there are deep questions by multiple people or somebody asking for advice but yea you are right. I feel like I don’t have much to say, I’m a very quiet laid back guy, I rather just show you what I do, and I love having nobody know what I am doing or who I am with, I don’t have anything to prove. Also, I am not in a position to talk about certain things. When I get to a certain status and I earn the fact to speak on things, I will.

 

 

Yea I remember some of those question, what makes you look at the things the way you do? 

I feel like I got a unique view of the world, positive beliefs and self-hypnosis while also staying stoic and realistic just creates the best and realest outlook on every situation, I don’t like living in fantasies, I also don’t like anything that limits me or my abilities, and I guess that created my view. The fact that that not only helps me, but also people that decided to ask me a serious question means a lot to me. It’s a lot of vulnerability and trust involved.

 

 

We are here in Salzburg, Austria right now, and you are born here, why do you do everything in English even though it’s not your first language?

I love this question, I mean, it’s the world language, and I learned it from a very young age through the internet and all the music I been listening to, so it was natural. I want to be global, I don’t give a fuck about this city or country, I feel like a lot of people here don’t understand that the world is bigger than the three clubs you go to every weekend and your four friends you talk to everyday, it’s so much out there and I’m glad I noticed that very early and dived deep into it. At the same time, I don’t want to shit on this city, its beautiful... but lame.

 

 

What’s some advice you would like to give other artists?

No advice at all, I don’t feel like I can give any advice yet, I got to get to this point first- ...actually nah, my advice would be, because I know I will get to that point through it: Talent plus discipline equals success. And I’m not speaking about material success or anything corny like that, I mean personal success and artistic success. Material success is just a byproduct.

 

 

You showed me some designs on your phone, they are beautiful and so… different, how come?

Thank you, I want, and I can do it all. And I like to shock people, in a good way of course.

 

 

You are a very interesting and unique person, and I am happy we got to do this, is there anything else you want to add?

Thank you, I really appreciate you for taking your time, preparing the questions and everything, I really enjoyed this. I would like to add that I know exactly what I am doing, even if you don’t get it at first.

 

 

That’s such an arrogant thing to say, but in your definition of course, I love it, thank you!