House Of The Young Recap: The Edward Buckles Interview

The Point Guard of such an important night of events deserves a large amount of credit. E Buckles, the film maker, the event planner deserves just that.

I had the pleasure of chopping it up with Buckles following HOTY, and the homie gave a super in depth interview, mad appreciative.

TheRadioShaq: Why House Of The Young? Where does the inspiration for that idea come from?

E Buckles: When I first began to coordinate events in 2011 I called this event Sounds of the People. My goal was always to target a specific market - college students, young artists, & inner city youth,  but also make everyone feel wanted and welcomed. After doing a good number of shows I noticed that my peers began to get the wrong perception and idea of my vision for the show; I even began to lose focus on  what I envisioned for the event. I felt that the reason for this was largely because of the name. I didn’t want people to think that my event was a “snap snap” poetry event. Not that anything is wrong with those types of events because we always feature poetry but I wanted the event to be much bigger. I wanted flashy lights, dope music, dancing, and just lots of energy to be present in my events and I just felt that the name “Sounds of the People” wouldn’t attract that.  Sounds of the People is a great name and I still use it for my more mellow and intimate events but I just felt that “House of the Young” appealed to the market that I was reaching for with this particular show. I also felt that it looked better in writing and on merchandise.  The inspiration for the idea of House of the Young came from a place of just wanting more for my peers in New Orleans. I was honestly tired of going to the same types of parties and events. Everything was the same. Same music, same people, same pointless long ass lines, etc. I wanted to create an event that would be an escape for the guests. I wanted to create a new design for parties, art shows, and concert experiences. How did I do that? I put them all under one roof. It was also important that I created a platform for young aspiring artists to come out and show their work. The city lacks that. There is not too many places in the city where a rapper, singer, poet, or visual artist with little status and popularity can go and present their talents in front of a large audience of their peers. I just wanted House of the Young to be that place. If you’re a dope artist and make good stuff, you deserve a chance. Everyone has to start somewhere. I wanted that somewhere to be House of the Young.

TheRadioShaq: What challenges you about your everyday grind?

E Buckles: My biggest challenge would probably have to be staying focus on the “bigger picture” and ignoring temptation. It’s hard when all of my friends are going out to have fun but I have to stay in and work on a film or work on planning a show. I’m in college man. I’m surrounded by fun shit 24/7. I constantly remind myself that I have a mission to complete and I have to work twice as hard as the next man. It gets hard though. it’s kind of like when Drake said “All of my friends are out partying, but I’m just home making all the music that they party to.” The only difference between that line and me is that I’m just home making all of the events that they party at. But my reward is seeing how much people are affected by my hard work. That keeps me grounded for the most part. That feels better than a few hours of partying. Still and all, the temptation is real.

TheRadioShaq: What keeps you motivated?

E Buckles: The struggle. Cliche right? It’s true. I don’t come from a very positive place. I grew up around a lot of negativity and bad habits. I truly believe that I made it out of my situation for a reason. I don’t want to be preachy but I feel that if I stopped grinding and creating, I would be stabbing GOD in the back. Struggling is what keeps me motivated. One cannot appreciate the light if he never saw darkness. I feel that being motivated in the struggle helps people to work harder and produce more meaningful products. For me personally, it gives me more drive and forces me to want better for myself and my family.

TheRadioShaq: Does the turnout, and success of HOTY inspire new ideas in you?

E Buckles: Of course. Any turn out forces me to search for newer ideas. Small turnouts just make me search for what that particular HOTY lacked in comparison to previous shows. It also inspires me to want to add newer elements to the show. Bigger turnouts inspire me to remember exactly what I did to make that show a success and capitalize on it.

TheRadioShaq: What’s your vision for all of your career endeavors?

E Buckles: I just want to be a voice for my generation and for my city. I may not always speak popular opinion but thats ok because thats the point. Alot of us don’t. We have that right. I want to use House of the Young and my films as a platform for this new creative class.

TheRadioShaq: How does Filmmaking relate to event planning? In what ways do the two differ?

E Buckles: Filmmaking is way more challenging than event coordinating. Period! Filmmaking takes a lot of patience; being in touch with your creativity and thought process; and being able to do one of the most hardest things in the field which is to tell a good story. It’s way harder than event coordinating in my opinion. Events are challenging too though.

TheRadioShaq: Which artist(s) in the city would you say you’re a fan of?

E Buckles: Ummm lets see….. Ok here’s a list of some of them and this is not in any particular order: DJ MUSHATT, Tony of AA, Ciel Rouge, Vance Homme formally known as Marz the Superior, Mailk 95er formally known as Mars Finesse and the rest of the 95er’s camp, Mykia Jovan, MidcityAB, Daniel Heartless, Chad Charles, LG, Paasky, DeepNSpace, Chase N. Cashe, NoClouds,  DJ Cousin Cav.. Visual artists: Bmike, Jae Skyline, Kara Marie, Bryan Brown, Patrick Melon, Alex Glustrom… & A LOT MORE!

TheRadioShaq: Do you feel like you’re in the center of New Orleans’ Art movement?

E Buckles: I don’t feel that I am directly in the center but I do feel that I’m important to the movement and so is House of the Young.

TheRadioShaq: How do you feel about the current state of New Orleans’ Art Scene?

E Buckles: The current state of the New Orleans art scene is in a great place. Once upon a time in New Orleans, if someone wanted to be an actor, painter or even a rapper he would be laughed at. Now the art scene is here and it’s just as serious as any other career or occupation. Film, music, theatre, visual art, culinary, etc. It’s all here and the spotlight is on it like never before. There’s finally a market for more than JAZZ and Blues in New Orleans. Do you realize that there is a large market for bounce music now? Thats crazy. I would have never thought that I would see the entire world listening and dancing to bounce music. Our art scene is in a great state and it’s getting out to the entire world. NO Limit and Cash Money started getting our voices out and we are finishing it with our unique ways of creating.

TheRadioShaq: On a scale of 1-10 how much do you enjoy planning HOTY?

E Buckles: 100

TheRadioShaq: What was the best part of the most recent HOTY?

E Buckles: The best part was seeing so many newer faces come out to the show. There were so many people that I had never before seen at a HOTY event. Aside from that was having such a great bill for the show. The performers were awesome!

TheRadioShaq: What do you have planned next for yourself?

E Buckles: I am just working on films and always trying to take House of the Young to new levels and heights. I also graduate at Dillard University in May 2015 so I am pretty excited about that.