Gum Studio

gum.mp3 & Swami Sound - State of Emergency (LP) 2025

Art Direction/Acting Talent

In collaboration with Dame Studio and Marcus Harley (pka Swami Sound)

For the release of State of Emergency, I worked with Marcus Harley to develop a visual language for the album. It’s a forward-thinking breakbeat project that puts a mature, lush spin on dubstep. For the press photos and album cover, we opted for a abstract and cold approach to give the project a mysterious flair.

With this direction in mind, we commissioned Dame Studio to manipulate and texturize photographic collages that serve as the social media assets for the release party and album announcement. With the visual assets in tow, I created press releases and developed verbiage for the project, and connected with journalists like Nathan Evans for coverage. In the Instagram Reel we produced, I starred as the main acting talent.

“Swami Sound and gum.mp3 are leading forces on the cutting edge of dance music. As two-thirds of EldiaNYC, they’ve staked their claim in the underground New York dance music scene with sweaty, packed nights at Mi Sabor Cafe, and burst onto the international scene with their DIY Canada tour, a raucous b2b at MusicBox in Lisbon, and an electric Eldia Summit at Circus in Tokyo. Having clawed their way through the muck with awe-inspiring DJ skills and inimitable production, the two have simultaneously entered a stage of career maturity with their collaborative album, State of Emergency.”

 Individual Track Posts for Social Media

Party Series Flyers for “Crash Course”

FiFi Zhang - So Beautiful, So Lonely (EP) [2024]

DSP Delivery/Project Management/Booking

FiFi came to us with a desire to reach her intended audience, and to do it with an effective and organized release strategy for her EP So Beautiful, So Lonely. Together with my long-time partner Marcus Harley, we created a strategy to release her focus singles and two already finished music videos. We used my platform as the artist gum.mp3 on Instagram and Twitter to drive attention to her upcoming work, and created a foundational fanbase that she could then build on. We created mailing lists for journalists and media outlets, issued press releases and created conversation around the work.

We reached every goal on this rollout — high profile bookings, editorial playlisting, domestic and international press, and an exponential rise in all metrics.

urLAN Party v1.0

Creative Director/Event Management

In collaboration with madeintheurl and USB Club

Date: 9/30/2023

Location: Mi Sabor Cafe @ 920 Broadway

Admission Fee: $15

Attendance Capacity: 270

We hosted some of the city’s hottest up and coming DJ talent, and the event was held inside a Dominican restaurant-turned-nightclub – a far cry from more traditional LAN parties. We offered games both retro and modern, single and multiplayer, while highlighting indie games from local developers using the various setups and the USB Club ATM.

USB Club Integration

• Free USBs

• ATM - attendees can peer-to-peer share fan art, videos made with game footage, music,

rhythm game beat files, free download codes, and game demos (if they fit). [200mb Limit]

Special Activities

Bounty Hunt

“Think you’re better than us? Spend $5 to compete (best of 3) against an expert player in Street Fighter 6 and Melty Blood. The first winner for each game receives a $50 cash prize.”

Hi-Score Contest

“Show us your skills! Highest score on THUG2 wins a Tony Hawk themed URL t-shirt at midnight!”

Eldia Summit (Party Series)

Art Direction/Event Production

In collaboration with Marcus Harley (pka Swami Sound).

Eldia Summit is a party series celebrating underground electronic music. Built around the EldiaNYC collective (the artists gum.mp3, Dazegxd, and Swami Sound), the event attracts a young crowd of internet-native fans of dance music culture, cutting edge fashion influencers, hardcore ravers and media industry professionals. It’s been hosted at a warehouse in Los Angeles with help from Dublab and Minaret Records, in Chicago at Lincoln Hall, in New York at Elsewhere’s Rooftop and Mi Sabor Cafe, and at Circus in Tokyo.

For these events, I helped coordinate the artistic vision, heavily inspired by gorpcore fashion, outdoorsman lifestlye, and The North Face’s Summit series technical jackets. I created t-shirts, DVDs with BTS video and live audio recordings, and an online e-shop for ticketing and merchandise. I was also our liaison with Dublab, and coordinated with event venues for setup and run-of-show.

Sold out warehouse rave in Los Angeles with 800+ attendees.

A daytime party at Homage Brewing in Los Angeles, with a line down the block all evening.

In collaboration with Marcus Harley, and powered by Dublab.

Photos by Morgaan Babcock

Gumfest Event Series

Event Producer

Friend’s rooftops, white-walled galleries , and repurposed co-working facilities. This was an underground electronic music event series with an occasional artist’s market. The best iteration of Gumfest took place as a semi-frequent party at New York’s Mi Sabor Cafe. I hosted these parties on my own dime, interfacing with venues and coordinating sound and merchandise sales with help from friends. I created the fliers and the occasion, and supplied the music as a DJ in my own right. This is how Gum Studio came to be multifaceted and amorphous.

Covered in Resident Advisor’s feature on the EldiaNYC music collective.

Minnowz (Animated Short) [In-Progress]

Director/Producer

Minnowz is a crime-comedy animated short film loosely inspired by the scrappy and independent culture of 80s and 90s direct to home video Japanese animate films called OVAs. It stars a nameless young fishmonger as they get lost in the big city, and subsumed into hijinks with a rowdy group of skateboarders.

I wrote the screenplay, and brought on a team of 2D and 3D artists to help realize this passion project. I oversee cinematographic aspects, filling is as storyboard artist when necessary, and compiling reference materials for composition styles. I interfaced with potential financial partners, and handled all legal aspects of the project. We produced original promotional merchandise with Angeltype to fund the project.

Character Designs & Merchandise

Gum’s Gin

Art Direction

In collaboration with Mark Sabino

I created my own gin using imported Juniper berries from the Dinaric Alps. It was spiced seasonally with cinnamon and dried mango in the winter, and dried peaches and cherry blossom during the spring. The second batch of the drink, and the most elevated artistically, was bottled in vintage crystal perfume bottles sourced from a defunct perfumery in Italy and later sealed with wax. Created and bottled with my own two hands, Gum’s Gin is a passion project and urban legend.

I worked with Mark Sabino on two ads to promote the work, despite it only being available for friends and family.

gum.mp3 - Time Traveler (Animated Music Video)

Creative Director

Time Traveler is a concept album produced under the gum.mp3 stage name. It’s a time-travel story that explores the genealogy of black music. Character artist and animator Alejandro Andres brought the story to life for the music video, turning the iconic Gum caricature into a funky action hero.

Halcyon.txt Magazine

Founder/Creative Lead/Editor-in-Chief

In collaboration with several community members from the Halcyon Palace Discord server.

From 2020 to 2023, I hosted a Discord server named Halcyon Palace after my album of the same name released under the gum.mp3 alias. We created a community e-library of pirated and categorized literature across a number of topics. At its largest, the Discord server held over 1,000 members.

Alongside 20~ recurring contributors, I spearheaded a magazine project dedicated to internet culture, counter-surveillance, and art philosophy in the modern day. We had designated Editorial and Visual teams, with myself as acting EIC and overseeing visual brand continuity and public facing social media engagement. The project ran for 4 issues, accumulating tens of thousands of clicks, and over 300 physical sales for our limited print runs. In addition to day-to-day operations, I also handled shipping and logistics.

This project is complete, and the Discord server is no longer operating. The library can be found on this website in a minimized form.

gum.mp3 - Virginia Creeper (Album Art)

Art Direction

In collaboration with Rasheed LaPointe

Inspired by slasher movies, Virginia Creeper is another concept album under the gum.mp3 alias. Rasheed LaPointe’s work on the cover art is inspired by horror magazines, and features a custom Virginia Creeper wordmark. For the subject of the collage, I posed and photographed an action figure modeled after me. Rasheed later used my images as the basis for the cover art.

gum.mp3 - McFly (EP)

Art Direction & Merchandising

In collaboration with dyinginkyoto

Assorted Album Art for gum.mp3

Art Direction

Vinyl Packaging