PRODUCER / FILM MAKER
MAESTRO KNOWS

Text: Zen Yoshifuku
Images: Brooke Dombroski

URL: maestroknows.com



“When people hear the title of my show they think I’m arrogant, like I know everything. That’s not what it means. It means I understand and know where I want to go,” says Levi Maestro, the creator of the hit Internet show Maestro Knows. “It’s not a video blog or a video diary or anything like that, and it’s definitely not an interview thing. It’s just my perspective on life and the people I associate myself with.” What started off as video clips of Maestro shooting hoops in his limited Nike Air Yeezys, and later skating in them, has now turned into video episodes with huge influencers of our culture like Mr. Cartoon, Estevan Oriel, Bun B, Anthony Hamilton, 9th Wonder, and many, many more. Recently, he has been all around the globe documenting all of his destinations and has a bunch of interesting projects in the works. On a recent trip to Hawai‘i, Contrast was able to spend some time with Maestro, to see where his storyboard got started and where he plans to take it.


Contrast: So you were born in Arizona then moved to Las Vegas?
Levi Maestro: Yup. I grew up in Las Vegas. I moved [out of Las Vegas] a week after I turned 18. Then I went to San Diego for about a year and a half, and then made my way to LA.

What made you go to LA?
I moved up there on good belief in myself that I could intern for a certain director [Dave Meyers] that I wanted to. And after a few months of consistently calling his assistant they ended up finally letting me come and intern. So I did that five days a week. And then I worked at two different restaurants six nights a week. When I first went up, I just made sure that I at least had one goal so that way I wasn’t just moving to be somewhere new, I was actually moving with a…

Agenda?
Absolutely. ‘Cause if I were to go for college, I would be moving to go to college, so to me that was my college. It was like, ‘Okay, I need to get the internship.’

Were you always into filmmaking then?
Yeah. I wanted to direct music videos. But what got me into everything was skateboarding. I started filming my friends, and then filming myself, then editing all the stuff together. I loved skate videos, but music was always real close to my heart. So when I had a TV, all I would watch was music videos. It was a song that had a little film to it. So I really like them. Then all the money ran out for making music videos right when I moved there [LA], so it was kind of like, ‘Okay, maybe I’ll direct commercials or something like that.’ I like short form stuff.

So you were always skateboarding. How did you start getting into the fashion thing, and the street wear scene?
Geeze, that is a really good question. When I was around 17 or 18, I got into sneakers. And then, I started realizing, ‘Okay, well with the shoes, you gotta kind of have nice denims to make it feel right.’ So sometimes I’d wear jeans, and they didn’t fall the right way on the shoes. And I’m like, ‘Oh wow, you can’t wear a certain shape of jean with a certain shoe, or vice versa.’ It was like a natural progression. And then when I got nice jeans—I bought a pair of Paper Denim jeans—I was like, ‘Wow, what a difference!’ I had no idea there was this option. So from there, I started figuring out different brands that were cool. Then of course being in LA, being around certain events, and again, the skateboard crowd, it was just kind of there. When you’re around it, you attract whatever you put out. So I’m sure my interests were attracted back to me, or at least that’s how I fell into them further.

So you started kind of getting into clothes. From there, how’d you evolve into getting a Hypebeast blog?
That came after—basically all this Internet stuff started kicking up, and I started making viral content for brands like 10 Cane Rum, Belvedere Vodka, New Era, Nike… The Belvedere thing was really heavy though. Then I went on tour with Anthony Hamilton—the music artist—because I had done a behind-the-scenes for his video and he really liked it. He offered me to come on the road. I went on the road for six weeks, and we went to 25 cities, and I had the experience of my life ‘cause I looked up to that guy previous to ever meeting him. And I was like, ‘Wow, man, I just made that happen for myself.’ And it was all because of being in LA. I never would’ve met him had I not been there. And when I got off the tour, it was such a crazy experience that I was like, ‘Okay, this is it, this started, these are my dreams.’ And I had a few friends that were on reality TV, so I was like, ‘Man, I’m gonna make my own TV show. Why not? I can do it, the platform.’ I just had to figure out how to package it. I was like, ‘Man, this is amazing. I have all these talented friends. Los Angeles is this wonderful place of opportunity, and no one’s really representing those positive factors,’ so that’s what I wanted to do. Then of course I thought, ‘Okay, cool, I can pair up with a person and show the people my friends’ different lives.’ A lot of my friends own brands, own stores, design… I wanted an outlet to where I could reach people right away ‘cause I knew I was going to be making something good, I didn’t want it to just sit there and not be found, so I hit up Hypebeast. They had one or two people on the West Coast, but they didn’t have anyone young. They were all older, established dudes, and I was like, ‘That’s cool, but with me, I’m someone your viewers can relate to because I’m the same age. They’ve never heard of me, I’m just out here, and I’m working hard. They’re going to be interested because they’re interested in everybody that I know.’ So it’s a funny story, man, they actually told me no at first, and then I put my trailer out. The next day they hit me back, and was like, “Oh, we decided we want to offer you the blog.” It was funny.

You kind of pulled away from the blog and Hypebeast? How long were you doing it for?
Six months. Six months, and then I was a little bummed because it just felt like it was reaching the same type of people. It was catering to the same crowd. I’m not trying to feed this same pigpen of consumers because they’re always going to know how to access it. I need to figure out how to get it to those who are completely unaware. This [Maestro Knows] is for them, more than it is for us, and that’s what Hypebeast was to me. It was for us.

So you started your show in March 2009. Has it been a rollercoaster since you started, or was everything kind of planned out?
No, it definitely wasn’t. When I first started, I didn’t even know what I was going to call a season, or that I was going to do these off-seasons and things. But what I did know was that it was my life. As each week progresses, I find out, ‘Oh, I’m going to be around this person next week, so I can shoot one with them.’ You know, I call it a show because that’s what it is, but at the same time it’s really just constant documentation of my life, which is funny because you’re so familiar with the term “day in the life.” I actually really hate that term. I did a Tour Edition, a NYC Edition. I’m going to do these little dedications to show people what this is like. They got to see what tour life’s like, they got to see New York City in detail. I don’t even know the next thing I’m going to do yet, but geeze, since I’ve started, in the last nine months, I think I’ve been to 35 different cities domestically and internationally—I’ve shot in probably 15 to 20. Africa, Germany, Japan and all that stuff. It’ll be interesting to see what it all ends out turning into.

You said you’ve been to 35 cities, is that the most you’ve traveled in one year?
Yeah. 2009 has definitely been my most—it’s been my most successful too. This year I’ve completely spent all my efforts doing what I love. Yes, I work hard. I have a hard-work ethic, but the work that I do is very enjoyable, so I feel like I’m on a vacation right now in Hawai‘i. But I essentially always feel like I’m on a vacation because that’s how powerful it is to enjoy what you do, man.





You mentioned that you got a bunch of projects coming up? More travel?
Yeah, a lot more travel. I’m going, from here to Chicago, then Las Vegas, then Houston, then back to LA. Next month I’m heading to Europe; hop and skip around out there.

More work, shooting?
Yeah, work, and shooting my show, and then I’m starting this new website with this kid 13th Witness, who’s a photographer. And it’s basically a collaboration, housing all the work that we’re going to create ‘cause we both just want to get more stuff out there. My show is really fun, but at the same time, I just want to make more projects that are going to further me as a filmmaker. And with the way the Internet’s going, all the stuff that’s going to really be successful and continue to thrive is original content. So this is to kind of push people to start creating instead of copy-pasting. And we got some cool things lined up. I’m definitely going to have brands involved. This is by no means a ‘for fun’ project. This is what we do, and this is how we make our living. It’s called mk13th.com, for Maestro Knows and 13th Witness.

Will that be up pretty soon?
Yeah, then I’m going to be focusing on working with some really great brands, and doing, more viral stuff. I’m not the happiest that the world is transforming into the web, but again like I said, if it is, then I at least want to make sure that I’m being the best part of it that I can be. And I think there’s a good possibility that I’m going to be working my way into consulting [for brands] real soon as well.