Featured Artist: Renel Vital as Mr. Dax!

This spring, Renel Vital finished his album I'm Mr. Dax; an entertaining and educational children's album with rapping, singing and spoken word poetry. Renel's company, Inner Globe Entertainment, was founded on December 7, 2010; however, he has been creating the wonderful world of Mr. Dax for much longer. Using Renel's vision, lyrics and initial direction, Ryan collaborated with him on a weekly basis to bring the album from concept to completion. Set to release this fall, the album also features female vocalist Rachel Borovik as the voice of Lingua.

This project goes beyond an album as Renel has enlisted several local artists to help him bring his characters to life. Illustrator Ali 'Jersy' Nebel created the posters you see above and he is currently collaborating with 3D artist Andrew Williamson to give each character and their wonderful world Kuru, exciting depth and detail. We are also working on his website which will allow children to send their favorite character messages, listen to the full I'm Mr. Dax album and keep up with what's going on in the land of Kuru.

There are so many possibilities for this incredible project and we at Hink Creations are honored to be a part of it. Stay tuned for release dates and information on how you too can get involved.

Official Hink Questionnaire

If you could go anywhere, where would you like to travel?

If I could go anywhere, I would like to visit Paris and eat classic "French Toast" with two eggs scrambled on the side to start the morning (Yummy). Then tour!

Who is your biggest artistic inspiration?

Growing up, one of my biggest artistic inspiration was KRS ONE. I remember being at St. Mary's Park in Cambridge in the late 1980's and someone was blasting one of his songs. It was so cool. People running ball, others chilling and enjoying the scene hearing a cool beat with KRS rapping.

What artistic tool could you not live without?

Music is the tool I need. It grabbed my attention in my junior year in college when I took a creative writing class.

What was your favorite school lunch?

My favorite school lunch was Sloppy Joe with rice on the side.  I'm getting hungry again. Simply delicious!

How do you want to be remembered?

I would like to be remembered as someone who shared love and joy through music.

Thanks Renel! 

Featured Artist: Jeni Magana - A Voice of Her Own!

Artist Page: http://www.youtube.com/jenimagana

Jeni Magana's voice is one that I could listen to all day and never, ever tire of. I find myself playing her songs over and over again just to hum along. There are traces of Regina Spektor and Nora Jones but there is something just... 'Jeni' to them! Ryan first met Jeni (also Berklee alum) at a party about six years ago. A few years later, while working on a Berklee project, he randomly stumbled across her haunting backup vocals on the song Heart Strings (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbqlnEGmGwA&feature=related) with Will Knox.

I don't remember exactly how we ended up finding it but Jeni had this really great song (http://www.ourstage.com/tracks/UEACAGHKONVV-vertigo) and once Ryan heard it, he was determined to work with her. This led to several collaborations, some can be found on www.ourstage.com/search?search=Jeni+Magana and some will be heard on the soon to be completed Skycase album. She is unbelievably modest about her many talents and is also really nice (bonus!). If you ever get a chance to see her perform live I strongly encourage you to go say hello.

"I had been secretly writing songs for years, but kept finding excuses not to play them for anyone except my mom.  She seemed to like them..so  eventually I decided it was time to branch out to a slightly wider audience."

Please, please check out Jeni's music and ready yourself for the release of her beautiful album early this fall! (http://www.youtube.com/jenimagana)

Official Hink Questionnaire
If you could go anywhere, where would you like to travel?
I want to move to France and work at Eurodisney.  Apparently I'm too short to be a princess but I'm sure I could find something...and eventually learn French.

Who is your biggest artistic inspiration? 
deathcab for cutie. I'm inspired by the idea that you can still sing sweet and care so much about lyrics while being in a rock band.

What artistic tool could you not live without?
Some sort of recording device.  Literally, any sort of recording device.  I have the worst memory in the world.  If i didn't have that, I could still write songs but I would forget them all.

What was your favorite school lunch? 
My first two years of high school I had a strawberry cheesecake muffin and a chocolate milk every day for lunch.  I looked forward to it every day.  ...I have since extended my palette slightly.

Thanks Jeni!

Featured Artist: Shawn Coss...Disturbingly Creative!

Artist Page: http://skinpupcoss.deviantart.com/

A recent graduate of nursing, Shawn keeps busy working as a full time Merch Designer for the popular webcomic Cyanide & Happiness as well as co-owner of the new brand Any Means Necessary (www.facebook.com/pages/Any-Means-Necessary/120445951333213)" with fellow friend and akronite Michael Nemitz. We met Shawn through Mikey a few years ago in Akron and were immediately impressed not only by his talent but by his creativity. The creatures that come out of this guy are absolutely mind-blowing!

Be sure to check out the links below and show your support for truly great art.

The History: 
I was born in England on an US Air Force base, I have been drawing since as far as I can remember. Being the typical geeky kid with bottle cap glasses and awkward thoughts, you tend to have a lot of time on your own so what better way to waste time than to draw. I started off with dinosaurs, moving on to video game characters, and finally got enough courage to let out the creatures that were hiding in my head.

Being severely ADHD (diagnosed, not self proclaimed by the way haha) I am constantly flooded with thoughts and images that tend to be having a massive orgy in my mind until I can finally get them out onto paper.

I have a healthy problem of starting too many pieces at once and trying to finish them all as quickly as possible so that I can move onto the next. My work lately has been focused on religion , politics, and realities real and surreal.

Official Hink Questionnaire 
If you could go anywhere, where would you like to travel?
I would love to travel to New Zealand. Or Heaven, I heard they have great massages there.

Who is your biggest artistic inspiration? 
I find it hard to claim one inspiration as art is created and inspired by the culmination of our influences. My stew of influence include: Tool, Alex Pardee, Menton, Scott Versago, Chet Zar, Derek Hess

What artistic tool could you not live without?
My mind

What was your favorite school lunch? 
Fiestada pizza on fridays. That shit was fucking awesome.

How do you want to be remembered?
I would like to know that my art helped someone through a time of their life, whether it made them smile on a sad day or prevented them from harming themselves. Contrary to my themes, they all have positive messages of hope and I wish that all people could live without pain and suffering.

The Plug: Keep your eyes open for Shawn's new merch coming soon! Here are some of the links you need to check out... now!
http://skinpupcoss.deviantart.com/
http://explosm.net/
http://www.facebook.com/ShawnCossArtrocities
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Any-Means-Necessary/120445951333213

Thanks Shawn!

Featured Artist: Dan "Young Jedi" Adams!

Artist Page: http://flavors.me/young_jedi#efc/linkedin

We met Dan over a year ago while recording Skycase's album at The Bridge Sound and Stage. He is an incredibly talented engineer and we are excited to introduce him today!

Originally from New York, Dan “Young Jedi” Adams moved to Boston in 2007 to pursue his recording career. He went to school at CDIA @ Boston University in the Audio Production Program and after several studio internships, Young Jedi was lucky to land at The Bridge Sound and Stage.  Thanks to Owen Curtin and  Janos “The Arcitype” Fulop, the owners of The Bridge, he has had bunch of cool opportunities to work with handful of artists including assistant engineering for Jordan Knight of New Kids on The Block, recording Amanda Palmer Live @ The Bridge, as well as mixing Keane, David Gray and Sheryl Crow Live @ The Bridge for 92.5 The River.

"Right now I've been doing a lot of work with Classic Records. We got a lot of exciting things happening and in the works. January we released VICEVERSAH’s Shine not burn. We also just released AR Classic Records Presents: The B-Side which is a free EP and we are working on finishing up The High Life First EP and Dominik Omega’s first full length Album A Moment in time."

Find him here: http://flavors.me/young_jedi, here http://www.arclassicrecords.blogspot.com/ and here, http://thebridgesoundstage.com/"

You can also follow him on Twitter @darealyoungjedi

Official Hink Questionnaire 
If you could go anywhere, where would you like to travel?
I would really like to go to Europe. It be cool to travel with an act doing live sound for a couple months, being able to see a bunch of countries in short a period. Can’t be away from the studio for too long. Haha

Who is your biggest artistic inspiration? 
I would have to say working with talented people. I have been doing a lot work with AR Classic Records and I gotta say working with those guys is just plain fun. It’s always a plus when the music is dope too. When artists bring their A-game I think, as an engineer you gotta step your game up too

What artistic tool could you not live without? 
A good microphone

How do you want to be remembered? 
As a good engineer who made dope music.

Thanks Dan!