Holiday Issue 2016

the place I decided to try and I love it. I’ve been there
almost ten years now.
You’ve created your own venue in Bushwick -
Brooklyn, New York, which is an outlet for the art
and music called, “Unit J”. Many artists in Tampa
Bay would love to do something like this. Where did
this idea come from? I had one week to move out of
my apartment in Brooklyn and had no leads on a new
place to move to. I only had a part time job at the
time and New York is a very expensive place to live.
It’s a scary feeling. A student told me about this
warehouse he shared with others way out of Brooklyn.
I thought it was too far to travel. But three days
before the move, I called about it and I took it. I was
very skeptical. I was going to be living with five
strangers. When I saw the vastness of the space I
began thinking of what we could tdo there. It wasn’t
all roses. I mean, living with six people is a nightmare.
We had dark times. I came into the loft one night and
one roomate had let some random people stay for like
a week. There was a giant pile of clothes on the floor
with a TV siting on them and they are watching “Game
of Thrones” re-runs; and there was some chick in one
of the rooms addicted to drugs. That was it! I just took
it be the reigns and slowly kicked out all the people
who were not on board. If you weren’t going to
contribute, make art, help out, put on s hows, you had
to go. Fast forward three years and we were just
nominated for Best Live Music Venue in Brooklyn. We
can host up to 120 people and at our last show,we sold
out before the doors opened. We won’t be able to
compete with larger venues, but it’s a relaly unique
place where you can be at a concer venue and in
someone’s living room at the same time. People that
BUZZ MAGAZINE NOV/DEC 2016 / 33