The Witzard

"'Delicate Empires is about the fragility of power and looks to the story of Genghis Khan for inspiration. Genghis saw the weakness in a way of life that was removed from nature and confined by stone walls and governed by greed, the rise of the Mongol Empire was enabled by this realisation," reads part of a statement I recently received from Daniel O'Toole AKA Captain Earwax AKA EARS. O'Toole is an Australian-based multi-disciplinary artist who over the course of the last decade, has done work as a street artist, curator, gallery operator, esteemed painter, musician, and music video director. I actually met Daniel O'Toole because of one of his latest collaborations, Jonti & Steve Lacy's "Scrood," which was the basis of this very interview in its infantile stages; little did I know, EARS was a world-renown graffiti artist and multi-instrumentalist readying his latest full-length album as Captain Earwax, Delicate Empires. An esteemed musicia...

"The "Scrood" video was directed by @captainearwax [Daniel 'O Toole] . He makes videos similarly to how I make music, by meshing together analog and digital layers to create a certain feeling or mood; in contrast to my other videos, which are more straight-forward narrative-based. It was a super fun process and I'm blessed that we got to do this," @jontidanimals wrote within a heart-felt March 16th Instagram post. "Scrood" is Jonti 's first proper single in over five years and his first piece of original material since submitting beats for "BARBELL," "Laguna," and "Turkuoise," which appeared on long-time friend and collaborator Hodgy 's 2016 Columbia/Odd Future Records debut, Fireplace: TheNotTheOtherSide . I've spoken with Jonti pretty regularly over the years passed since his last album-length mixtape, Sine & Moon (2012) and I know's been diligently working on this as-yet-untitled Ston...