What happens when bands and artists create together at Outside Lands?
Published on August 21, 2017
Watching artists create together is inspiring—especially when they influence each other to try something new and unexpected. It’s always fun when bands invite friends to jump onstage and jam.
But we were curious to see what might happen if different kinds of artists—painters, dancers, bands, and chefs—could combine their talents and take inspiration from each other in real time. So at this year’s Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, we asked some of our favorite creatives to try an experiment with us.
On Saturday, artist duo Shelby & Sandy painted a collaborative installation at the festival inspired by the band Young the Giant’s music. As a way of representing the band, the artists, and Dropbox coming together from different places, Shelby and Sandy gathered sand from their respective home bases: Orange County, Santa Monica, and San Francisco. On Sunday, the band joined Shelby & Sandy to help finish the painting by applying the sand to the 8’ x 20’ installation they inspired.
“We draw a lot of our inspiration from our childhood. We had a really happy, brightly colored, wonderful childhood… We try to put a lot of that in our paintings.” — Shelby & Sandy
“Sometimes [getting in the creative zone] is like a frantic race to try as many ideas as possible… Sometimes it's just sitting there and being okay with feeling uncomfortable and waiting for stuff to come to you.” —Young the Giant
It was exciting to see how collaboration can transform sounds into shapes. Sometimes that co-creative energy comes out in colors. Other times, it makes you want to move. Before the concert, Amymarie Gaertner collaborated with the band Joseph on choreography for a dance inspired by the trio’s music. At the event, Amymarie taught the dance to the band, and recorded it live.
“The way I interpret music is exactly how you're seeing it. It's just raw and right on the spot. I throw on the song, and how I'm hearing it is what my body does.” —Amymarie Gaertner
On Friday, food bloggers Brothers Green met with Sean Vahey, co-founder of cult ice cream makers Humphry Slocombe, and bonded over their mutual love of food. They explored the food offerings at Outside Lands, and created a special recipe just for the occasion. The folks at Humphry Slocombe shared recipe ideas with Brothers Green using Dropbox Paper and together, they devised some delicious concoctions.
“We’re mostly inspired by the seasons… We're inspired by all of the farmers that were around at the farmers market at the Ferry Building. We're also inspired by pop culture, so we do a lot of partnerships.”—Sean Vahey, co-founder of Humphry Slocombe
Stay tuned for interviews with our Outside Lands collaborators in the weeks ahead. To explore all the ways Dropbox can help your team create together, check out dropbox.com/paper.
