Binzu97 Conversation
By Nico Pena Austin with Terre Binns. Photos of Terre are by Nico.
So Terré, hahah. That so hella professional, like, “So, Terré!” Yeah, so... Binzu97.
Yup, that’s the brand hah that’s me.
Hah ok that’s you-
And everyone on it hahaha.
Haha exactly you know, just everybody. Now including me,
Yeah! The shirt is nice.
Yeah, you’ll see in the photos hahaha.
So Um really, big question, what does Binzu97 mean to you?
Uh Binzu97, binzu kyujunana, it derives from Japanese, you know. It’s my last name, translated into Japanese. How to pronounce it in Japanese, I wanted to know haha, figured it out. Translated it back through katakana, romanized it. And then um, yeah. And now we have this, and because it’s me and my birth year. My last name and my birth year so, uh... no ones gonna take that from me so it’s pretty nice hahaha.
Yeah cause it’s your shit.
Yeah, it’s a great logo, in my opinion haha. Um, the brand itself, honestly this brand is like my Swiss Army knife, I can do so much. I can do editorial, I can do product photography, I can do, print which falls into editorial, graphic design, photography, I can expand in all of those areas, and, it’s nice. Especially since I’m still a student right now you know, I study studio practice, constantly taking down, putting back together, lighting, all of that in studios. You know, it’s um, it’s also a really big door to other artists as well. So it’s cool? And it gives me a social life? Without it I don’t know if I would have one hahaha. It’s uh, I don’t know, I also like making clothes that I understand. Some shirts are like, it’s cool and everyone is wearing it but I don’t fuckin’ get it. You know?
Yeah like, they don’t even know what it means, they’re just like, “oh, it looks cool.”
Yeah haha. So, the brand is expression, my brand is opportunity, it’s learning the shit, getting to the shit. Find other ones that are doing the same in their respective lanes. Yup, and just, doing, it brings people in.
Another kind of question, is like, I want an answer to these kind of basic question, but in conversation they will flourish. But, you know, what made you really be like, “I want this brand, I want to start this brand, I wanna do this?” You know?
Photo by Nico Pena Austin
Yeah, um, I’ve always been into clothes. I started off in high school honestly, I used to not really care how I dressed, and I used to not really care, I didn’t give a fuck I was just wearing some cargo shorts, wear some vans, got some nike socks hahaha.
Yeah you feel me,
I was also still cool though, and then I like met this dude that was older than me, and I was like, he was like styling, and I was just like, damn. Plus I was, same time, introduced on tumblr, so I started seeing hella fashion, it started to open my mind and all of that so, yeah. So I’ve been into that, fashion and design for a long time, I started doing design back in like, 2013/14, I started getting into it. I took a class in high school too, a fashion and design, really sewing. So I made some shirts, I’ve made pants, I’ve made like fuckin blankets and shit.
It’s just kind of like, inter-wrapped everything, how you understood it?
I learned how, I studied fashion and design, we did a recycled fashion show in high school.
That’s dope.
It was cool as fuck my friends were there. So, I’ve been wanting a brand since high school. And like, I’m about to be 23 next month, so I guess, it’s been like, 5 years and I’ve had this brand for about 3 years now, or about to be 3 years. So I mean, it’s kind of manifested, I’m just trying to see which area does my brand actually belong in, where does it fall, where does it thrive at. But um, I’m using it. Trying to get the name out. Having a brand gives me something to think about other than just, the normal everyday. It’s like, if I get this right, it can fund my entire life hahaha.
Hahah right, like this shit will just be your shit.
And then I can really just hone in on my art shit, and photo and just really indulge myself in the actual scene which would be, fantastic. I would love to do that you know what I mean? To kind of just,
Yeah to just do your own shit, I feel like that’s the big dream for everybody.
Yeah like I have 2 jobs right now, what the fuck??
Which like kills your shit hahah
Yeah it’s be cool, brand is job 3, but it’s still my top. When I’m at work, not at work, zoning out, I’m thinking about this haha.
It’s kind of like your prized possession, sort of? Like of anything you could do,
Yeah man, it’s my main project, I want it to prove itself.
Yeah, to be continuous.
Yeah, exactly.
You know, a lot of artists now and days, they’re everything they wear, it gives off a like, “Oh I want that.” What do you think you get from a lot of your artists? Or like, name artists that like you personally like, do you have any artists that are really like “oh, I want to make something that makes me feel like this,” or that. Like they give you the idea of something you want to make on your clothes.
Yeah, design wise or music wise?
Photo by Nico Pena Austin
I think design wise.
One brand I really like, that I wear all of time, with my brand, is DropDead.
Oh yeah, I see that all of the time.
Yeah so DropDead, they’ve been around for a long time. You have to respect their owner Oliver Sykes, who is also lead vocalist in Bring Me The Horizon, I’ve listened to them since I was in like middle school. But like you know, I took a break from listening to the whole you know, alternative, metal scene, but I’ve recently gotten back into it the past few years, and I’ve been looking at his work recently, he’s gone in some very like, obscure areas. And like, it’s honestly really impressive. I would say if I had a model brand, cause their campaigns are fuckin, the shit.
Like DropDead and, everything they fuckin, yeah. I follow them too, they’re crazy.
Yeah, DropDead campaigns, hahah ayee! Exactly. They push the fuckin norm, they don’t follow any rules, I like that. They just, I respect them and I respect the people that wear that shit.
You kind like how they like what they like,
I like that they have that, that it’s there. And it’s useful, like I have a DropDead beanie on right now, bag, DropDead, it’s cool. I like them a lot, I guess they’re muse but, I don’t copy them. I do me. I make it a very pinnacle point to not allow, like you can be, you can like something, you can be super influenced by something, but do not copy haha.
Yeah cause you’re just like dude, I can buy something like this. Copying off the shit just makes you look like fuckin trash, like you don’t have a thought process for yourself.
Gotta be your own, spew it out, it’s bond, you cannot copy. Speak your language, not theirs you know what I mean?
Yeah, most definitely. What about musically wise? I know you’re very into like, hardcore, some shit like some crazy shit. But it’s like, even as an expression in itself, I can tell it gives off an expression nobody knows, you know, and it’s cool as fuck. It’s your own pathway, so what do you listen to that really gives you a lot of inspiration for your like-?
Well, right now, I listen to a lot of a band called, Power Alone. They just released their album like last week, called Rather Be Alone. And it’s like, it’s so like, you can kind of use it as a base of how to be kind of? It’s straightedge, it’s straightforward, they’re with the shits. Their riffs are fucking awesome. One of the members are a barber at one of the shops I go to occasionally, that’s how I originally found out about them. And honestly, I was fucking blown away by them. Plus they’re a local band too, so they’re here in the Bay Area. So you know, I was like, that shit slaps. It just slaps in a different way.
Ah is that the one show you went to that I FaceTimed you at?
Oh no that was Poppy. Poppy and VOWWS. Poppy is crazy too, she has some slaps too.
Photo by Terre Binns
I’ve seen how she is, it’s crazy cause sometimes she does not identify as anything, like I was watching an interview, do you identify and they’re just like, I don’t know, hahaha.
Yeah, dude, she’s so like, pro being yourself and fuckin, fuck the gender norm, fuck like, you exist you human being. Do you, you’ll figure it out, or you won’t, time will pass, you know? It’s you, what are you focused on? And it’s like, it’s just like, you know? I really like Poppy though, cause like, I don’t know. When I found them originally, I don’t even know how I came across them, and they’re really cool. I got gear from them, I got posters, all that shit. I got some free shit not too long ago, I got a free poster, free shirt, and a CD. I was like what the hell? Hahah. I was like cool!
So, a lot of the pictures you take, they’re with a lot of people, how do you in your own way, how do you find these people that want to take pictures (model) for you, how do you socially ask, it even took me a while to get a picture you know? Do you just find people like? “oh are you down to shoot?” Because when I look at your pictures, it’s such a variety of people, sometimes, all different types of colors, styles, etc. I see skateboarders, I see girly girls, and then I see girls who are just like fuck, you know that’s just the expression I get. So just, how do you find these people?
Uh, just fuckin, going places, being online. Some of them are my friends, some of them are like, I’ll cast one person, then they bring a friend. But because people do that all of the time, especially when they first meet, I always bring another shirt anyway. They end up both modeling, but yeah. Some of them are friends, some are work friends. Some are fuckin, tinder matches, random people I hit up on Instagram, friends of friends. Like, it’s really, I’m glad someone noticed I try my best to have a good variety, I try to be very inclusive. I try to find, but I also try to make sure it fits what I’m doing at the time.
Yeah, I just hate when you look at like major fuckin brands like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and all of this, there’s a certain look to them. But when I looked at your shit, it’s all different types of people, girls, boys, who ever, what they wanna be, you know? They’re doing their own style.
Yeah, all that is free man, you know. You can be yourself, that’s the whole point. That’s why I do it. I gotta express myself before I fuckin explode, you know what I mean? Cause I be like damn, some days I just be sitting there like, “Fuck.” Hahaha.
Yeah, I’ll just have some trash shit in my head and I’m like, “dude, I gotta fuckin do this or like-“ you know?
Yeah, you gotta find your way.
Yeah, for myself when I’m like thinking about shit, sometimes it’s so hard to keep it in. Like, there’s no other way except to put it out. And it’s like, that’s what I don’t get. So, ...it’s just crazy. I never would’ve imagined myself, doing this, especially with you because you’re family. You know, it’s kind of crazy. You’re the only person I know that does this shit. So, like even today, who can I ask to do this shit? And you’re the only person that really pops up. You know, you’re local, it’s like a 30 minute Bart ride? It’s easy as fuck you know, it’s friendly out here. What do you think like, society does to your shit? Or like, how do you feel that society correlated with it?
Uh, I don’t know. I feel like because this region, area, not much goes on here. It’s peaceful out here right now. I think people see my stuff and are wondering if I’m like, trying to plan to wreck havoc, or some shit. They wonder if it’s like, disruptive in a way. I wish people would be more inclined to say something I guess? I wish they were more inclined to say something. Instead of standing from afar and talking amongst themselves, can’t stand that. Cause, that’s how rumors begin, and that’s how the truth doesn’t get out. That’s how I feel the in person kind of goes around. Online, it’s a rough thing because you want to be this brand that’s very wholesome and is very inclusive, but you know there are definitely streams, avenues that you can take online. That’ll put you up there, but will it put you up there the right way? And will it be able to sustain anything? Will it have any real grounding or you know, foundation? Finding the foundation and maintaining the foundation, is what’s hard. And that’s really just, every company period, no matter what they do, and it’s kind of hard to come by in place where fast fashion exists.
Like fashion nova and all that shit,
Like “oh what’s this brand? I can’t even resell this online? I don’t want this shit, I can’t get anything back.” And I’m like, “But, you gotta help build this so that it’ll appreciate with time and keep this shirt, in a few years it’ll be worth fucking 8 times what you originally bought it for. Hopefully.”
Yeah exactly, like who thought back in like the 1990s when Supreme fuckin started, nobody was like, ‘oh this one day is gonna be, this is gonna be worth like $1,000 per fuckin sweater, $600 per fuckin sweater, make so much fuckin money, no.’ They made shit that they fuckin liked and they did it how they wanted to. And it became more than themselves.
It continued to exist, and opportunities will come upon you, and you’ll meet someone and it’ll work, I guess. That’s what they say but, it only happens till it happens you know? If you really wanna do it you’ll do it but, sometimes certain people can get in the way. But in the end you’ll figure it out.
Do you feel like you were given a lot of opportunities? Because like, I know there’s a lot of people, that like they get that shit. They’re able to get the opportunities, like I have a friend that is able to get like RLP before it even drops, and they get those opportunities to do that shit. And I’m like, ‘dude you can do something like that, go model for them if that’s an option to you,’ but they don’t want to take it. Do you feel like you’ve been given anything? Or do you think that someone kind of carried you, to help you, and give you that knowledge?
Ah I mean, I definitely got some good, from other artists. The online version of, “I see you.” Like, from a distance.
Like a retweet,
A retweet, a like. Instagram, Twitter. I keep an eye on that shit. I told DropDead that I want to work with them like a million times, made a whole ass posts, they liked it. They see me, you know. It’s cool. But it’s also way in fuckin London, I live on the west coast of the United States, like, who’s paying for that flight? Fuuuck ahhahah.
Ahah yeah, exactly. Dual flights? Hahah.
Um, but I mean, you know. Working in the Bay Area, it’s tough. To get those collabs are cool. People here are real supportive, mainly other shops, other artists that want to do shows, they’ll be more than happy to work with you. Like I’m supposed to be working with S.C.R.A.M, which takes place downtown. It’s like, Spring Cleaning, Rummage, and Art Market. It’s gonna be later this month, was gonna have some shirts up there. You know, street vending.
The small shit you know.
Yeah, you gotta build awareness. Let the people know that the brand fucking exists. You can always have a website, have Instagram, if you see that the growth is starting to slow, it’s time to hit the streets.
I feel like a lot of the time it’s kind of like, just crazy. Some people think like they’re gonna go straight for the big, you know? I feel like it’s cool, it’s good and for some it’s dope because they can do it? But at the same time I feel like, it gives such a bad way for everybody to think about. Everybody is just like, “oh I gotta do this crazy thing, or do this, post this, or do something like this to get the big attention. Instead of like, not focusing on the small community.
Yeah, bro. They come in, big people. People that can invest, want an ROI. They want a return on their investment, that’s the whole point of investing. If there’s no return, no one’s gonna buy that shit.
Yeah, exactly.
So, that’s why foundation is hella important. We need foundation, we need the basis of it so you can have, so you can progress. So you can grow in size to reach that level of. So now, you can sit up there and have the business talk that you’ve been waiting fucking years for, you know? You gotta. It starts down here, literally.
Have you like, ever seen anybody wear your shit? Like that you didn’t know.
Well I mean, I’m in charge of everything, so anything that sells I see it.
Well do you ever just like, but you’re not expecting to see it. You know?
Uh I mean one time, my homie. I did. It invite him to the party, and he did not invite me, but I popped up and he had my brand on. And that shit was cool as fuck. It was cool as fuck. We were at, fuckin... we went to Emo Nite. Have you ever heard of that?
No.
Emo Nite, they pretty much just play like throwback fuckin, scene music. Hella like MCR, it’s emo music. Yeah, it’s good. It’s nice, little different, just get drunk and listen to rock music, with a bunch of other people that like rock music haha. It’s chill, but um, honestly it’s a great feeling, when you see people just wear your stuff and you don’t have to tell them to wear it. I don’t have to be like oh, rock this for me, at this place. Bro did it because they wanted to, and because they liked the piece. Which is hella cool.
Yeah, it was just like, out of love. Or just, out of, ‘I really like this bro, it’s cool as fuck. I fuck with it heavy. This is my shit, and I’m gonna rock it.’ Yeah, that’s dope.
It’s a cool ass feeling. Honestly, it really is.
I bet.
I love when an order comes in just like, hahah.
I just, your lookbook thing, is crazy as shit. Really like, scrolling through that, like what the fuck. How it started, to go from like 2015 to just.
Yeah, chronologically.
Exactly, you get to 2018, 2019 and it’s like these amazing shots. Fucking crazy. It’s just, what was it like going through that time, working on your art and having to make those different types of decisions? Because I know there’s like 2019 Terré and 2020 Terré, 2016, 2015 Terré. What were the biggest differences between those types of people? You know, between yourself.
Um, I think I’ve done a lot, since then. In the brand and outside the brand. I’ve dealt with feedback, I’ve dealt with fuckin, I’ve dealt with clapbacks hahah. I’ve dealt with it all like, I don’t know. I say the biggest difference between me, then and me now, I feel like... I just feel different than back then. I’ve thought about so much more, on a daily basis. Now than I was thinking back then. I feel like, if I’m awake today, I was asleep on autopilot, then. I feel like I was just, conscious just, just streaming through, coming through. I was just doing it. I just wanted to do something back then, I was tired of just being at fuckin work. I go to school and it’s cool, I like it. I like my classes, if you actually like what you’re studying then school is easy. But it’s like, I felt like, I was supposed to be somewhere else. Like, mentally, physically, financially, I was like I gotta change something I don’t know, hahah. I was like something gotta happen in one of these areas. So initially, I guess you could say, mentally. I mean, I’m still learning, still learning everyday. Still doing it, I have friends that are in the same lane, doing brands too. The drop one design, and it goes further but I’m looking at them I’m like, haha. Alright, that’s cool.
Have you been thinking about doing any collaborations?
Design by Terre Binns and Shumpei Mikami
I’ve done one collab, with my boy Shumpei Mikami, he’s from Japan. I met him in like, 2018.
Japan? That’s crazy.
Yeah, he was going to school abroad out here, studying English. We met at club somewhere and we were talking, and then we were all like, ‘Oh, let’s meet.” And we just ended up doing a design. It’s that Made of Bone design the original one. I just dropped V2, two weeks ago. That’s one of my favorite designs honestly. It’s the most effortless collab I’ve ever done, in my life. It was tight, it was just, it just worked.
What’s kind of like crazy, is to think about how people for different countries like, their study abroad is just out regular America. But when we study abroad from here to there, it’s like, it’s crazy. I feel like, America is such a shitty fucking place right now, like it’s always been shitty. There’s like some cool parts, but when you’re sitting here, living here, every single day, it’s like dude, there’s nothing special about here. There’s nothing crazy about here.
Yeah, when you grow up somewhere, and you spend your whole life there, it’s like bored, bored. You’ve seen it all, you’ve seen these faces, you’ve seen these, numbers, these blocks, buildings, these sidewalks, you know?
Yeah, these types of people, etc.
Yeah you understand, likes sometimes it’s hard to, somewhere new is always nice.
It’s just so crazy to see like, Oakland, like we don’t have anything culturally done. Like Japan has been over there for like thousands, thousands of years, China, different places, Europe.
They’ve been around for centuries,
Exactly! And they’ve really been building,
Yeah, from the get go.
European ass, white men, Spaniards, like ducking coming in here and just like, they destroyed all our culture, that was building, we had a culture, and that was Native Americans.
That’s what I’m saying, they didn’t start building, building like fuckin, building homes and shit, making this all modern and all of that. But what I was gonna mention, what you were saying for these other countries, like China and Japan, how they’ve been around building for more than centuries, had whole ass fucking dynasties, they’ve been around from what the Bible would say B.C. and shit, which is tight. Cause they have all that, right there in that one place. That’s cool.
Exactly, like they don’t have to go out and search, they just have it right there. It’s written right there in their books, that’s also easy to obtain. They can learn about theirs so easily.
But then with America, and then on top of that, the people, the newcomers, as I will say, come here, and then they try to portray this, with the birth of photography at the time, cause you know I’ve studied the history of photography too. So, at the birth of photography, they come here and they try to paint a picture literally, to make the Native Americans and the people of these lands look like, they’re not modern, like they’re not smart, like they’re stuck in their ways. That they cannot progress, like they couldn’t become what would be considered modern society at the time. Because they think that their, Easter, western.. well I guess at the time you’d call it eastern, coming to the west, the eastern philosophies and all of that shit. And they would see it as like, the superior, because they thought it. Where as that way of thinking is understandable, it makes sense, because if you think, of you think really hard about something, you think about for as long as you fucking can and you come up with the answer, and say, I see no flaws. When someone tries to battle that, you’re gonna be like, “shut the fuck up, I’ve been thinking about this for fucking years, fucking decades bitch,” you know? So I feel like, that’s the mentality, they cane there with, and they pressured that upon them, to the point to where there was no communicating with these people in an effective way, they’re not here to understand, they’re here to tell, and take over. You know?
Okay, got it. We kind of got off track, but,
Haha, I like talks like that.
That’s understandable, one of the biggest things though, that I really wanted to ask you was like, every drop comes with a certain amount of photography. It’s not a drop without it, it’s photography, and the drop.
The brand is lead by photography most definitely.
In what ways like, when you think of photography, what is that to you, what is photography to you? What does it mean to you?
Photography is just like, some people say photography is a nostalgic thing, where you can look back, but I hate photos that look nostalgic. You know? I like it when it looks there, when it looks like the now. It’s a crisp, it’s a clean clear photo.
I feel like that’s what videos are for, for nostalgic.
Yeah, photography for me, is like, it’s just what I see. It’s what’s around me, it’s what’s here it the reality, of what I am. It’s what my surroundings are. What I see, what I like. It makes me pay attention, to my surroundings a lot more. It makes me look for connections, patters, angles, it makes your brain look at everything differently. Especially when you study in a modern world. This country is like capitalism, you’re gonna look at things that market, aesthetics, all of the time. You’re gonna see it, you’re gonna see it in everything. That’s what this country is, that’s what this country is found upon, it’s based on that. That is what it is, I say it opens your eyes too, to a lot. Where you go from originally capturing things that are cool, but then you start to see, you start to understand the undertone conversation that’s happening too, by other people in the community that are like, awake, as well. It’s good to see.
It’s kind of crazy to think about it, like when you think about a picture, there’s RAW, I think that word in itself in a more general sense is more than just RAW. It’s everything, the fucking clarity, the mushiness, the fucking cleanses, just the fucking death, but the birth, you know? It’s, everything, you know? Start and beginning, you know, just like photography. It captures everything, like, RAW. What it’s meant to be.
Yeah, I shoot in RAW. RAW files, always shoot in RAW. Bigger files, if you ever wanted to expand your image, like in print, you can. And all your details will be there. RAW is awesome.
Yeah, well, we kind of went over all bases.
Cool, that was a good talk. I definitely appreciate it, it means a lot. It’s cool as fuck.
Dude, you like legit allowed me to become someone and the way I think about photography, and you’ve definitely helped me with that. A reason I really wanted to hang out with you because I knew you could show me what to do. Like, to look for more than just the regular thing. And that’s why I really thought of you like, oh Terré, Binzu97. You know? It’s the shit. When I think of cool ass shit, I think of your shit. People, variety, and girth, the fucking start.
That’s means it’s awesome, that means a lot. Thank you haha.
It’s not even a point where like, I see you as family, but at the same time I see you as this person who is really controlling their shit. You’re making what you wanted.
Hell yeah, fasho fasho.
Fasho.