Richardine Bartee
Blurring genres is his thing. Now, he’s ready to share his debut EP with the world
In September, there was an artist that I connected with in ways that I hadn’t in the past. He’s the vanguard of a Los Angeles-based pack called the Funeral Crew. Before I started to watch his video blog I didn’t know what to expect. In hindsight, I am glad that I took the time to do so. At the time of our call, he didn’t know it, but his answer to a question of mine has helped me get past a personal dilemma. Frankly, death isn’t something any of us can escape. Luckily, it isn’t something that keeps me up at night, but a lot of us don’t know how to respond to someone when someone loses a loved one.
I asked Jez Dior, the vanguard of the Los Angeles-based pack called the Funeral Crew, what he thought.
“For me, and a lot of people that I know, I don’t think you should ever be scared to talk to somebody about that. Evey time I’ve experienced something like that I’ve closed [myself] off into my room until I want to come out. Having friends and family that reach out is what gets me out of that zone the quickest. I love when people reach out to me. It’s not the same for everybody, but what I would say is to just show them, love. Reach out to anybody you know that’s dealing with that.”
In an unpopular human way, I think the concept of death is vital to anyone who understands life for all organisms and order. I’d like to think that I have a skilled notion of time and purpose. Therefore, I like to waste none. Furthermore, your time here isn’t all about death nor the afterlife. It is about Jez Dior’s forthcoming EP release. So far, he has confirmed that there will be four songs on the project. He had a lot of fun working on the music he is set to release. He was in a good place when he created them. In particular, the songwriter didn’t think the tracks—outside of ‘Sober’—would work for his album.
Sober is an uptempo record about wishful sobriety. Look, I am the wrong person to ask about what it feels like to be drunk. I am a light-weight. I couldn’t confirm if it feels like your vehicle is driving itself, but it appears so in the ‘Sober’ video. It’s a well-executed music video. Take a look at it before you leave this page.
Music also helps him a lot when mourning or trying to heal from a loss.
“I guess from listening it’s a subject that I talk about a lot. For me, music has always been an outlet. It helps me get through things like that.”
Next, during our short phone conversation, I learned that Jez Dior is his government name. I knew that the name ‘Dior’ is French, but I couldn’t think figure out the Jez part. In fact, the Thousand Oaks-native shared that his mother wanted to name him Jesus.
This is a funny question because I was at dinner with my mom and my family last night in San Francisco, and some of my family members didn’t know the answer to that question, he expressed.
He continued, My dad wanted to name me Jagger. And somehow, some way they came up with Jez. In the middle of those two.
The last part of his name—Dior—comes from his father’s stage name. His middle name is Tyler, after Steven Tyler, the lead singer of Aerosmith. Jez Dior and little sister are the only members of the family to have Dior as a name. Bringing our conversation back to one of the scenes I watched in his video blog I asked him if he had any more tattoos.
He replied,
I got another face tattoo. Yeah, one the side of my face. It just says 90s baby. Also, I was at my friend’s house the other night. He brought a tattoo gun. He was messing around with it. Then, he asked if he could tattoo my leg. I said ‘Sure, yeah.’ He was like, ‘What should I do?’ I said, ‘Do whatever you want.’ He thought it would be funny to write ‘fuck’ on my leg. His gun broke in the middle of it, so it just says ‘FU.’
Dior shared that he got more tattoos, too. When I asked if he was going to leave it, he admitted that he thinks it makes for a better story. I agree.
And last but not least, I asked the artist what he thought about the name of my publication before we hung up. Here’s what he said, “I thought that shit was awesome when I first heard it because I see you guys post online and stuff like that. I mean, I think of a frosted cake with Kurt Cobain’s face on it. I like that shit.”
We both laughed, hysterically.
Be on the lookout for Jez Dior’s debut extended play: Vices by Midnight. It comes out this Fall; Features production from the usual suspects, Matt Rad and Chris Wallace. He says that there are two new music videos underway for “Late Night” and the first single from his album. Until then, stream his music online and watch his videos.
