The Ugly Fun - Control, Creativity, and Connection

In this episode, Jack Dawkins connects with a friend, The Ugly Fun. They discuss balancing creativity with controlling a schedule, as well as the value of human connection.

Cold Hearted Love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-DR48APGSk

A Slow Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY3yWomKs-c

ABOUT THE UGLY FUN

Toronto-based genre-defying producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist The Ugly Fun is breathing new life into his music with a fresh name, vision and approach. His music is cherry-picked from indie, garage and pop elements, with a unique guitar-led and progressive spin. His process is one that thrives from collaboration; constantly seeking fresh and innovative ways to tap into new avenues of creativity, and often incorporating other artistic sources to spark inspiration - most recently connecting with the work of art photographers to ignite refreshing musical and lyrical ideas.

He has come far from his days of recording on an old tascam Portastudio that his father would rent for him once a year. In a flurry of youthful creativity he would use his two week rental window to scrape together crudely recorded tapes, later gifting them to whoever would listen. A talented multi-instrumentalist, he began his instrumental journey playing piano and drums, and later at the age of 12 found the love for guitar when discovering a battered fake stratocaster and giving it a second chance at life. In 2015 he launched indie garage trio The Sleepovers, playing shows and recording a few EPs until the trio eventually went their separate ways. Inspired by the abundance of voice notes left unfinished on his phone, he is now injecting new life into old ideas under solo and collaborative rebrand The Ugly Fun. The result is daring, guitar-driven, lofi-injected garage pop.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/704XB2afcAvvfUjLFbS3QI?si=kDsmsO2KTzKFxzgjy52CLQ

https://www.instagram.com/theuglyfun/?hl=en

ABOUT JACK DAWKINS 

Jack Dawkins is a storyteller, a rapper, and a poet. He also cooks good food and runs really far. His use of the English language has been compared to Michael Phelps’ performance on Saturday Night Live: Wildly entertaining for none of the reasons you would expect. He is, at his core, and in his music, deeply human, and a lover of excessive comma use. Most importantly, he loves you. 

www.jackdawkinsraps.com/linktree 

ABOUT STAGE DIVE 

“The stories behind your favorite artists. Stage Dive sheds light on the beautiful and precarious process of creating and sharing art with the world.” 

🤔 Thoughtful Questions 

🥹 Vulnerable Answers 

🤓 Much Nerding 

Music: https://open.spotify.com/track/5TMLeqJiL2WMPoAcWKhGZz?si=4e6748ab641b46bc 

SHOW NOTES 

0:00 Intro

1:49 Being in Your Head & Meditation

10:37 Creativity Versus Regiment

19:56 Making Content

31:44 Connecting With People

38:09 Imposter Syndrome

53:13: Being Different

1:04:22 Weirdness, Fear, & Figuring It Out