We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Isak Bailén a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Isak, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

When I started with Evergreen Horrors I had no plans for the future, I just wanted an outlet for my writing and to maybe make friends at the newspaper. After leaving the college newspaper I realized I needed a more concrete direction, and it made me evaluate why I even wanted to keep going. I realized that at the core of my projects and collaborations was the desire to connect with people both at an individual level and as an audience; to take risks and grow from them as I became worthy of the attention I want to receive. I want to leave behind a record of my growth, struggles and successes, a footprint that says I existed even if I have no friends to remember me. It does not feel possible but id like to be missed, for people to feel sightly saddened at my passing and that my works will go uncontinued. I hope people have something to say about my work as I hone my writing and style, that something forms from it that others latch onto, enjoy and replicate. I don’t need anything as grand as making it into schoolbooks, something as small as catching a no name commentators eye and them treating my work as if it has merit would make feel fulfilled in all my labors.

Isak, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m a writer, film artist and voice actor but I got started with Evergreen Horrors just as another writer in the college newspaper at Evergreen State College. That quarter I had room to take an additional class not related to my focus of board game design, so I elected to enroll in a writing class as that was something I enjoyed but felt shy about with English being my second language. I really wanted to challenge myself, but I also wanted to make friends, so I joined the paper to force myself to hit monthly goals and open my work to a larger community with more feedback. Soon after I established a writing group to push myself even further and get critical feedback on my work. The writing group is still going strong even after we have all graduated and it’s a constant source of encouragement that keeps me working. After that quarter I gradually expanded my horizons starting a supernatural podcast where I interviewed Evergreen students about strange happenings at the school, started playing around with visual media, took on other folks with similar interests to collaborate on projects and even got a group together to work on a short film that is still under production. I feel I have grown a lot since I started so I have a hard time showing pride from a lot of my past work as I feel a lot of the growing pains are still evident, even in my most recent story “Crab Tree” as I finished it I identified an overarching hole in my works. I feel that so far while I have a good job playing with language and creating horrors that play on different fears, I have failed to effort into developing deeper themes and ideas beyond fear provoking imagery. I do have a few things in the works I’m very proud of, but internal and external issues have kept me from taking the final steps to releasing them.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I really want to make friends and connect with other creatives to make things bigger than ourselves. I have led a very lonely life and my social incompetence has made it really hard to connect with people. When I collaborate on projects the social guidelines become clearer and that lets me spend more time with folks I might otherwise bore or put off. I also want to keep growing my audience, in life I feel very unseen so whenever I get interactions with my work or my posts it makes me really happy because it makes me feel a little more visible. My hope is to eventually accumulate a few consistent fans I can interact with and hear their opinions on my work. I think the tug and pull between creator and audience is a powerful tool that can really push creators to the next level, I just hope to one day benefit from it.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

I have found that what has grown my audience the most is output. With every story, project and post my audience expands. It was rough at first but over time the number of people who are drawn in with every new endeavor has really grown and I have even become big enough that I started passively attracting an audience, getting a few new followers between periods of silence. Eventually I will reach I point were creating won’t be enough to get more eyes on my work, but I think it will be a while before I get to that point. The road ahead of me is long and I have big plans ahead that are sure to turn a few heads so I’m confident this strategy will keep working in the short term.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.evergreenhorrors.com/home
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evergreen_horrors/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@EvergreenHorrors
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/evergreenhorrors
• Other: [email protected]
  https://open.spotify.com/show/5P6fMoGADc2yqoZEd20Ro3

Image Credits

Isak L for all exept the third picture witch was taken by Elijah O