David Cash: Hello everybody, and welcome back to NFTS.WTF Live. My name is David Cash, we are here in sunny Miami, Florida, for Art Basel, and I’m joined with the incredible Chloe Janicki. How are you today?
Chloe Janicki: Hi, I’m good.
DC: You’ve had a week! You’ve had a hectic week.
CJ: I’ve had a flippin’ week, yeah. I think all of us have. It’s just been crazy.
DC: So, just to let the people know because obviously, we are here in Miami. What were you up to this week? Chloe works with Mau5trap and Deadmau5’s team on the NFT side. Let the people know what was going on this week. Such a big event.
CJ: Yeah, so I run all things NFT and blockchain for Deadmau5 and 720mau5. So there’s a lot of things going on. This week we had a couple of activations. Thursday, we launched our One Million NFT project. Which is we are releasing singles so, music as NFTs. So similarly how you buy an iTunes download for like a dollar ninety-nine, we’re doing the same concept but on the blockchain. So we released that with Mintbase. It’s been doing well so far. That was a crazy, crazy go-live day. And then, the other thing we did was last night here at the Sagamore Hotel in the gallery space; we did minting in real life. So essentially, we took physical paintings which were being made on the spot by gallery artist Gregory Siff and we were taking images of those and turning them into NFTs literally on the spot. And that was on the Solana blockchain using the metaplex protocol, yeah.
DC: Might as well do it live. I love it. And I feel it’s really important for people to see that process in person. Especially those who buy NFTs to see what goes behind it.
CJ: Totally.
DC: And I knew you were doing it on Solana. How did you start working with Solana? What was the idea behind that? I know many people watching are probably really interested in the Solana chain right now. What pushed you over the edge?
CJ: I mean, I saw that they were doing some stuff, but nothing like too crazy that was getting a lot of notoriety and, you know, we saw the protocol as an opportunity to help them maybe and then also maybe have them help us in terms of, we’re trying to expand how many blockchains we use. We are blockchain agnostic, so we are down to try everything. So it just felt like a perfect fit. The timing of it all worked out, and the first time we did the IRL collection, cause it’s an ongoing collection in different locations around the world. So first we filmed Denver, this was Miami, and potentially next will be Vegas, we’ll see. To be continued. But, you know, we thought it was the start of a fruitful partnership and, yeah, it’s just been great so far and working with metaplex this time around was awesome, and yeah, it’s been great.
DC: So, I know right now, we’re in the battle of the proof of stakes solutions right because as this is still in its growing pains stage, you know, a lot of solutions are popping up. So maybe for some people who are toying with it right now, I know you’ve minted on many different chains at this point.
CJ: Yeah.
DC: So what’s something you like about Solana? From doing this project or working with them now for a little bit?
CJ: It works like it’s quick. It costs fractions of a penny to be able to mint and activate and be able to do lots of things on it. And it’s just really reliable. I have never had any problems with minting something where it didn’t go through or, you know, some sort of metadata issue. So yeah, I just think it’s been a great experience. And also, the actual foundation and also metaplex as a company have been communicative.
DC: Cool.
CJ: Which is not something you get from all the blockchains.
DC: Absolutely.
CJ: I mean, not trying to bash any of the blockchains, I love them all. Again, agnostic. We love to try everything out. But just overall, Solana has been great.
DC: I think Solana is doing a great job, and it’s awesome to see.
CJ: Yeah.
DC: You guys and Steve’s team and a bunch of other people championing, you know, really more elegant solutions. So yeah, it’s been cool.
CJ: Yeah, thank you.
DC: Seeing you guys doing this.
CJ: Yeah, it’s exciting, you know, we just wanted to do something a little bit different. Like all NFT galleries and NFT expose and stuff, it’s cool because you get to see the art in real life, you know, on screen. But that’s pretty much the extent of what you’re doing when you’re going to an NFT party or gallery or activation, right? So we wanted to take the idea of, you know, seeing something in real life and having it be a moment that you’re connecting with the artist and a moment that you’re connecting with the team that’s helping your mint. And it’s also an educational component to it.
DC: For sure. It’s a lot of onboarding.
CJ: That bonding moment, it’s just irreplaceable. You can’t get that from showing an NFT; you have to build the NFT with the person.
DC: And I feel a lot of that is, you have a collaborative nature to the work you like to do.
CJ: Yeah.
DC: You like to collaborate with artists and integrate with the community. And I feel that’s one of the reasons that you and Joel and the team have been successful in the space. So many people try just to enter and kind of shove their way through the door when you guys are like, hey, let’s collaborate, let’s work together.
CJ: Yeah. Absolutely.
DC: So maybe talk a little bit about the collaborations that you’ve done with Deadmau5 and some of the artists, and what’s your thought process behind that?
CJ: There’s been a lot.
DC: A lot, a lot.
CJ: In my time with Mau5, yeah, we’ve done stuff with Smeerballs that we just released, you know, an avatar project, five thousand five hundred fifty-five heads on the polygon blockchain, which has been an awesome experience as well. Smeerballs is amazing. Wooden Cyclops was one of the artists who helped with this fine artwork, the one million NFTs.
DC: Nice.
CJ: Who else? Yeah, we’ve done Gregory Siff, we’ve done OG Slick, we’ve done Mad Dog Jones, we’ve done a lot of– I feel like I’m going to miss some, which I don’t mean any disrespect by missing any of you guys, but it’s just been, you know, crazy. So in addition to collaborating with artists, we’re collaborating with different devs teams, you know, collaborating with metaverses. In terms of partnerships, you know, with the sandbox and decentraland, it’s just that we’re full on. We want to talk to everyone and want to hear from everyone. So if you’re seeing this video now and want to find out more, reach out to me. You know, there’s always something that we can work on together.
DC: No. And it’s really important to hear that coming from you guys. Especially because, you know, as a lot of people enter this space, there is the learning curve.
CJ: Yeah.
DC: It takes people learning from examples and seeing what you are doing. The collaborative nature of this space is really important and especially being in an open sort of space where we can connect, and where we can work with each other directly. I feel like in the traditional entertainment industry, which you also are very aware of and you worked in. There’s this huge disconnect happening between the talent and the talent, who works with who, who is allowed to work with who, who is allowed to talk to who. But it’s, you know, we’re making this a lot more democratic in the space now, and you know, talent can work with talent and create really beautiful work. How did the process start for you, like when you joined the team? Maybe a little bit of back story, like when you joined the team, what was the first collaboration?
CJ: Well, I mean, yeah, I was working in the music industry for a little while. That experience was great. I learned a lot. I met many great people but, like you said, yeah, it’s very restrictive in terms of what you can and can’t do. Brands, you know, depend heavily on the angle you take with certain things. I mean, that’s still true in the NFT space as well, but it just felt restrictive. I guess in the digital space, because where we are now, we’re so early in the whole, you know, ecosystem. Everyone is just down to just work with each other. It’s like the most collaborative moment in time. I think you do. The human race has ever experienced it. And so, you know, my first collaboration, I think we did something with our sync company B-House.
DC: Cool.
CJ: And so, they do licenses for TV and stuff, and we did that with Chemical Exent and UK Active.
DC: Cool.
CJ: So that was an awesome experience as well too. And that was on Foundation, so just getting to, like, dive in right away was cool. And yeah, we just keep building on top of that, so, yeah.
DC: Amazing. You’ve been doing such a great job in the space.
CJ: Thank you!
DC: It’s been lovely getting to know you over the past few months too.
CJ: Yeah. You as well.
DC: Seeing so much happen. I’m also just wondering, now, given the context. Metaverses are incredibly important. You’re working on this avatar project. I’d just love to hear from your perspective. I know you guys also did Metaverse Music Week and many other metaverse activations. What’s next in terms of pushing those further into the metaverse from your perspective?
CJ: Well, I’m coining the term Mau5verse.
DC: I love it.
CJ: So we’re building out an ecosystem within an ecosystem that will branch out to other ecosystems. We just want to be as immersed as possible. Like you can’t go anywhere without seeing Mouse kind of thing. So that’s what we’re building out right. Obviously, with all the different blockchains and then bridging that will come probably next year with a lot of blockchains, I think it’s going to become much easier to, you know, cement yourself in certain areas and make sure that you branch out but, yeah I guess the Head5 Project has been our primary focus really because that’s a way for the community to identify with, you know, us and be able to see the upside of being a part of the community. So yeah, just focusing on pushing Head5 further and branching out into all these new applications that are coming about.
DC: Totally. So just for people watching. If somebody wants to invest in the future of DeadMau5 and the metaverse, where can they find Head5? Tell us just a little bit about the project.
CJ: Yeah.
DC: So that folks can kind of check it out.
CJ: So it’s spelled H-E-A-D-5. So like how Deadmau5, you know, spelled with a ‘5’. Dead-mau-5. It’s head5 dot ‘io.’ You can still mint there, and if you wanna check out someones that have already been minted, you can check out opensea. Our official collection is there. We’re verified with the blue tick, so make sure you purchase from the right collection.
DC: Go to the right one. Go to the right one.
CJ: Yeah. And any other information you can find on Deadmau5.com
DC: And last but not least, of course, we have to, you have a million things to do over the week.
CJ: Yeah.
DC: What’s next? Better yet, what are you allowed to talk about? (laughs) What’s coming next that people could be getting exciting for coming into 2022?
CJ: There is a major partnership launching in the coming weeks for an enjoyable place where people, you know when it happens, it stays there.
DC: I love this play.
CJ: I don’t know if that will resonate with many people, so our little hint. And then, in addition to that, we’re also partnering with a major platform that’s going to be launching in the new year.
DC: Super cool, super cool. Well, we can’t wait to see it.
CJ: Thank you.
DC: As always, it outright signifies you’re doing such cool stuff.
CJ: Thank you.
DC: I appreciate you taking the time to chat. And yeah, this has been Chloe Janicki. I’m David Cash, an NFT Evangelist. Thank you all for taking the time.
CJ: Thanks! Bye!
