We recently had the chance to connect with Seanine Seven and have shared our conversation below.
Seanine , so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What makes you lose track of time—and find yourself again?
My imagination
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am a musician, filmmaker and overall creative based out of Vista, CA in San Diego county. I was informed by both the lo-fi hip hop craze of the late 2010s and classic folk to create a specific brand of music I like to call “beat-based folk.” My themes are centered around the little observations I see living in San Diego, and how they relate to broader existential and societal ideas, all underpinned by my natural child-like sense of wonder and excitement for learning.
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
I remember being a very curious, energetic and wide-eyed child with a very vivid imagination. Because my inner world was so strong, it was oftentimes hard to gauge what my peers expected of me, both socially and interest-wise. From this, I realized that my sense of taste was very self-contained, but as I grew older, I found that this very individualized sense of taste was a blessing instead of curse, because I had the ability to create things that were unique and unlike anybody else’s work. I think the world told me to be less eccentric and more amicable, but in the end I learned to be amicable, and truly like being sociable without losing my eccentricity.
When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
To me it was learning how to harness my emotions of yearning and melancholy and aestheticize them. It was learning how to be sensitive to what colors, sounds and other affectations were best at expressing these emotions and trying my best to execute them in my work. For example, I oftentimes will not like a song just for its whole, but will pay special attention to the specific sounds of an instrument that induces a specific emotional feeling in me. It’s almost like using these sensations as a language; specific qualities in them translate to specific emotional states I’m trying to express, and even more expansively, whole ideas or concepts can be contained in them if composed right.
Whatever pain I may carry, even in a work that is seemingly innocuous, comes through the presentation of the work. It contains all the experiences and emotions that unconsciously inform my inclinations, as it does with anybody.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? Where are smart people getting it totally wrong today?
That the more you can justify your position rationally, the more correct you are. Not to say that all smart people are oblivious to our unconscious sway, but those who aren’t don’t realize how much our gut instincts already makes up our mind. We really only use argument to justify these instincts after the fact. This is why art is so interesting to me; you almost have the ability to swim upstream to a more primordial element in our thought-making process. We become moved by the sensations and gestures first, then start to formulate an opinion in rational terms.
This is why personally I lose patience with art that feels overly ‘considered’ or intellectually meticulous, because art isn’t supposed to be intellectual really at all; it’s before intellectual, it’s primal! In an ideal world, I think art shouldn’t have this air of stuffiness that intimidates outsiders who may feel like that world is pretentious or inaccessible to people without a college degree. No, art should be the opposite! Anyone should be able to experience it because it can affect people on a more emotional, instinctual level rather than a purely intellectual one. Really the biggest barrier is just deciding to have an open mind about it.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. When do you feel most at peace?
When I am walking along the ocean late at night, with the streetlights dimmed and the breeze lightly brushing along the waves.
When I am out early in the morning in the high valleys of east county, with no one around expect the flora and fauna, and when the heat raises the smells of the forest and I get a full nose of ponderosa pine and sagebrush.
When I am able to go on the internet and search for something that makes me laugh or excites me with its beauty, finding new things to learn and feel.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.seanineseven.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanineseven/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@seanineseven
Image Credits
Kristina Lee, Quinn Miller
