Conan Karpinski has been skipping parties to make music since the 9th grade, so it is not much of a surprise that he has built a career revolving around it. From scoring films and producing records to sound design and video direction, his creativity knows no bounds.

Since much of his creative endeavors have been a collaboration between multiple people, he wanted something that was entirely his own. Enter CON THE ARTIST. Being the only voice in control of the project, it allows him to create music however and whenever he wants.

“It was freeing; no one else telling me what’s good or not, I could just do me,” he said. “When I’m scoring a film, there’s this whole framework - it’s like playing in someone else’s sandbox, and you have to stay in the lines. But with CON THE ARTIST, I control the sandbox. I’m just out here making a mess and calling it art. With film scoring or directing there’s always someone else you have to make happy... but with CON it’s just Con.”

In order to challenge himself to stay creative, he lives by a quote his father would always tell him: say yes to the job and figure out how to do it later. He credits that quote for building his career, saying that throwing himself into situations he isn’t fully ready for brings out the best of his creativity.

As an example, his first live performance was booked a month prior with nothing prepared. He learned how to play the songs live, programmed lights and visuals in a matter of weeks. Another example: two weeks before Jon Bryant was set to go on a full European tour, a friend asked Karpinski if he could fill in as a bassist. He had no experience playing bass, but taught himself just before they traveled to places he had never been.

“Saying yes and figuring it out later has allowed me to do some wild things,” he said.

His latest single, “MONEY (on my mind)” was written just before a writing session at Red Bull Studios in Los Angeles. Karpinski had about 20 minutes before his session with another artist, and decided to pick up one of the studio guitars owned by The Strokes’ Albert Hammond Jr. He strummed what is now the game loop heard at the beginning of the song but didn’t think much of it. In fact, he wasn’t even sure if it was going to become anything worth releasing.

“It was just a fleeting moment of messing around, but I kept humming that hook, ‘money on my mind’, for days after,” he said. “That’s when I thought, maybe there’s some magic in it. I never thought I’d release it, but I showed it to a friend, and he told me it was the best thing I’d ever made. I’m not sure if it is, but that was enough for me to roll with it.”

Taking the time to sit down and write is a goal Karpinski sets for himself every day. Even when he doesn’t feel inspired, he’ll do it - mostly because that is all he really knows how to do. When he wants to get out of his head musically, however, he turns to a different medium entirely: building skateboards. He loves doing something so creatively different from music, and has built skateboards from scratch for many of his friends.

CON THE ARTIST is just a piece of Conan Karpinski. He has brought his interests and talents into several mediums, all by saying yes and figuring it out later. With a bold approach and an Avant-garde vision, his music is uniquely his own.