We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Chad Fjerstad. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Chad below.

Hi Chad, thanks for joining us today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

The primary conundrum with being a multimedia artist is that you aren’t able to give each of your separate paths the same amount of time and attention that everyone else tends to naturally when they spend 365 days a year pushing or being only one thing. While there is a lot of personal gratification in exploring so many different creative territories, it definitely makes gaining traction with any or all of your output multiple times more challenging. But, I’ve always enjoyed a good challenge – perhaps that’s why I moved from the Midwest to Los Angeles with no money saved and no guaranteed career when I was 24 years old, and why I continue to indulge in ambitious new projects in formats or territories I’ve yet to tackle.

Chad, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

When I was 15 years old my first band took off, and for the next 7 years, playing in bands was my entire personality. When that came crashing to a halt, it took me a while to find the rest of my self, beyond that. For a couple of years, I stopped participating in much creatively, including all musical activity, and I started to grow unhappy. But after that first prolonged period of inactivity as an adult, the next time I began creating again, I realized that it was my literal key to happiness. For lucky individuals such as myself, creation is a form of emotional and spiritual security. Regardless of what happens with people, jobs, inanimate objects, etc – you will always have the ability to create within yourself, and feeling that is one of the most comforting and fulfilling things I have experienced in life.

Since I had this realization in 2011, I have published 4 books, composed the score to a feature film, worked on a dozen music albums and a horde of music videos, and a whole lot more. Regardless of whether or not any of my projects become popular in a mass sense, I’d like to push the point that for all the depressed people, for all the lost souls out there – there is magic and solace in creation, within you, if you open your mind to it.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Though I feel like an especially independent artist as at least 90% of my output is self-released without the aid of any management, record labels, or anything of the sort, I also believe that collaboration is one of the most important parts of thriving as any sort of artist. In the same manner that “letting go” is one of the keys to solace in existence itself, doing the same with your projects can be one of the most surefire ways of continuing to feel inspired, pushing your projects to states of completion, or allowing it to speak to wider audiences. I also believe in the power of self-discipline. If you can keep yourself tamed, you can take the high road through any process.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Personally, I try to push the importance of inspired, sincere, innovative, and emotive media as often as I can, especially to non-artists. There is far too much brainless, formulaic media that makes up the majority of American consumption and I am constantly trying to sway those who don’t think much about it to seek out and value creative, sincere media that is more singular. As tech and A.I. grows stronger, we grow closer to losing human individuality. Part of the threat is that people value that individuality less and less as newer technology is introduced, and if we don’t spotlight the value in actual persona, then we expedite the process of losing what makes us human entirely, much, much faster.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://ephemerolnightterrors.bandcamp.com/merch
• Instagram: instagram.com/fiercedad
• Twitter: twitter.com/fiercedad
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHD_txhfFvxBHq4ZefdDjhw

Image Credits
photos by Meg Charles & Allen Henson