Aaron The Unknown: Thousand reasons to embarace the unexpected
Bershka’s Autumn-Winter 17 campaign presents “The New Kids”, a new Project born out of the need to showcase young emerging talent on an international level.
Don’t expect any usual conversation wih Aaron. Beside his modelling career, this fresh face with Spanish roots from South London has surprised everyone with his freestyle rap dubs. Discovered by his colleague and chilhood friend O’Shea Robertson, Aaron has modelled for Givenchy, Dior Homme, Giorgio Armani and Versace. Now, he is the face of the new Bershka campaign, but not only for his tremendeous beauty but for his amazing and flourishing personality. A spontaneous one take video for SBTV’s Warm Up Sessions seen more than 2 millions times opened new scenarios for him. Neither expect the typical rapper song. Hippie at heart, Aaron the Unkown uses music to express himself and do good.
You come from Fucking Young, right?
Yes… I worked for that magazine some years ago, I did a shoot in London with Eva K. Salvi…
Was it one of your first works?
Yes… actually I was really Fucking Young. (giggles).
But you are still Fucking Young… How old are you now?
Twenty Three.
Where do you live?
I live in London, in South. I’m staying in Brixton at the moment. It’s amazing for me, because Brixton has a very caribbean culture, and I love the food, I love the music… I’m a hippy.
Are you a hippy?
Yeah, yeah. Look at me, I’m wearing (Birkenstock!) sandals… (smiles again).
During the shooting for Bershka you were wearing a jumper with the word “Success” printed on it. What does it mean for you to have “success”?
When I was younger it used to be having money, having the biggest house and whatever… but now, my new perspective now – that I have gained from traveling and meeting so many people with an open mind – it’s just about happiness. And happiness isn’t about money. And even now that I have money, I’m not necessary happier than in the past. It’s about the choices you make. For me it’s about family, and enjoying life, and the sentimental things, not necessarily the material things. Those things make things better but for me it’s not success. For me success is spending time with the loved ones and travel the world…
How do you see the world around you?
Beautiful! There is beauty everywhere, you just have to see it. It’s all about your mind state, if you can see the good in everything you will always be happy.
But, what do you think about the news, there isn’t much beauty there…
I understand what is happening, but there are so many good things happening in the world. And they never show it. And for me it is very sad. Because I traveled the world, and I’ve seen these amazing things that should be on the news, but they’re not. And that upsets me because, I’m just a small voice, and these media platforms are reaching millions of people with the wrong perspective. I try to change that using my platforms, I’ve Instagram, I’ve other social media platforms, so I can now show the amazing things. It doesn’t have to be a competition, it’s just: “look at this, this is amazing”. And then the people can forget the bad stuff.
Share with us one of these amazing things you are talking about…
Sometimes is just people that doesn’t have anything and you can just see in someone’s eyes that they are happy. I’ve been to Tokyo, to South Africa, México, Europe, all this places. And I’ve seen happy people and people that love life and love each other, with no expectation. A lot people in London now, they want to do something good to receive something good in exchange. But you have to do it from inside, without expecting anything. Do it for yourself. I’m a really positive person.
You talk about the need to look inside… is it important for you?
We always talk to search something to being successful, being successful is a journey of accomplishments. Gain a qualification for example, you are always reaching for something. But I thing the miss in education is teaching people to value yourself for who you are, not necessary what you look like, but to look inside, to explore your mind and figure out what you really want to do. Everyone is different, there is no way that everyone in the world wants to be rich. What for…? It doesn’t make any sense. It’s very important to find what you enjoy and try to do that, and then if the money comes, it comes, but you will be happy. Believe me. The money will come anyway. If you really love what you do, and really have that feeling for it, then you will attract all the other things naturally. And this is just how it happens.
And what makes you happy now?
For me it’s music. I do music. I write lyrics, poetry, rap… whathever you call it. I don’t really have a box, I just love to express myself.
When did you start with that?
Ten years ago, it was quite good. Because I was in the back of the class and I was always so distracted and never focused, I had my headphones pretending I was studying while I was writing my poetry. And thats when I learned that this is what I wanted to do. And even from back then I say to my self I’m gonna do this, but I want to do it to show good and let people feel what I really feel. Because most of the time we aren’t saying that things. We are not saying what we really feel. This is my scape to say this is really me. And even with the modeling and fashion I can express myself with my movements, but it’s again my visual perspective, so no one can really know what is in here (points his chest). So I think it’s important to show people, this is who I am, and that’s what I’m doing now.
If you had to choose three important songs that have helped you to shape your own style?
There is a very important song for me Nas and Damian Marley “Patience”. It’s like a reagge kind of rap. It’s a rap song, but the music is really spiritual, it really take you somewhere and the lyrics are amazing. Carlos Santana, “María María”, there is just a remix of the song DJ Khaled and Rihanna, It’s an amazing song, but I prefer the original. Also there is an Eminem song that it’s really important to me, “When I’m Gone”.
And if you could choose one singer, alive or dead… Tupack. Now that there is a hologram of him. I’ve seen it in a video. Apparently it’s exactly like him. Dr. Dre comes out, Snoop Dogg comes out. 2pac for me changed the world. He felt something that he believed in and he went for that, even the people said don’t do that, do this, he said, no, I’m going to do this. He believed in. And for this he deserves respect.
Why is important music in life?
Because vibrations are everywhere. The universe, the people… we are made of vibration and sound.
Do you have any favorite sound?
Yes. I love saxophone. I can get lost…and for me that’s a form of meditation. Good music. I meditate myself, but for me doesn’t necessarily is the ommm, for me it’s music. My meditations could be phones up and moving around.
Do you have some important plans for the years to come?
Yes. This year I will release my EP. Four, five songs. Also I’m launching my brand which is Unknown, that it’s my artistic name: “Under New Knowledge Now Overcoming World Negativity.” I think it’s a very important acronym and I’m gonna take it into clothing and other fields.
Can you describe your style?
I would say I’m unpredictable. Style and personality changes with your mood. And my mood changes every day. Being creative is always like this. And my style definitely changes. One day I can be really colorful, other day I’m feeling anti-social, and I’m go total black. But I don’t think it’s a conscious choice, it’s subconscious. I’ts another form of expression I think. And people have to realize that there isn’t a certain way to dress. You have to dress the way you feel. My style is open, that’s the word.
More about THE NEW KIDS on www.bershka.com
