Meet Isla Hinck

We had the good fortune of connecting with Isla Hinck and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Isla, do you have a favorite quote or affirmation?
This is probably a bit gauche, but I made a joke once that has accidentally gone on to inspire me a lot. I saw a guy at LACMA wearing a shirt that said something like “never stop creating” and I just thought it was funny that he was wearing that at the art museum so I came up with a joke version: “Make mediocre art with alarming frequency.” I even made it into a t-shirt of my own so I could wear it to artsy places. But the more I thought about it, the phrase actually started to kind of inspire me, not that I hope to pump out shocking volumes of mediocrity, but as a sort of method of practice it’s really freeing. It’s not an original notion by any stretch, but just that freedom to create things and see how it goes, free yourself from perfection, and just have fun with it! I try to approach things with a certain humor, not detachment exactly, but I try to let things flow out and I shape the good stuff and move on from the things that don’t seem to be working.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My life has been defined by juggling various separate but related projects at all times. I like to keep busy, work efficiently, and then take breaks with I get a migraine aura and have to lay down.

For the past many years I’ve been working in games media through the company I co-own called Easy Allies, this involves making videos, doing livestreams, podcasting, and playing lots of video games. Not a bad gig if you can get it. This has been great because I get to use my filmmaking background all the time to make videos, be creative, and try to keep all our gear from bursting into flames. Simultaneously, I’ve always been working on music, I used to fold this practice (make mediocre art with alarming frequency!) into my weekly show at Easy Allies, I’d make a song and a little music video almost every week. It was a great way to get in the reps for practicing Ableton and seeing which ideas I liked and didn’t like so I could use that in music production in the future.

I’ve long had an irresponsible love for synthesisers, and a few years ago I built a music studio into a friend’s art collective warehouse space and now my little analog children have a nice little soundproofed space to call home! For a few years now I’ve been working on an album of music that is very near to being finished (the person mastering it actually just texted me as I write this!!) And I’m a little over half-way finished with making a music video for each song on the album. I’ve also used the music videos to get my chops back up for being on set and doing more serious filmmaking, as I have a short film I hope to make later this year. The short film will then in turn hopefully serve as an on-ramp for a small scale feature film I am planning for a bit later. Which will then hopefully help build into the higher budget features my writing partner and I have written.

I guess the throughline here is that everything supports everything else. Even when things aren’t directly related I try to have them overlap as practice, or as an opportunity to meet and work with a new collaborator, or to inspire another interesting way to get something done, to build into the next project, to keep that engine running.

Looking backwards it’s easy to see how things have built on top of each other and led me to this point. I grew up in a tiny rural town in Wisconsin (I still miss the trees) and felt different all my life but didn’t really put the pieces together until I was much older. Realizing I was LGBTQ dawned on me slowly over many years, but now I think back and laugh at how obvious it was since I was a little kid. My teen years were shaped by a deep and constant depression which rolled in like a black fog coincidentally right when I hit puberty. While my brain learned derealization to protect itself, I spent those years making movies with our Sony Handycam and being in multiple bands with my friends. The music was pretty depressing, but the movies were surprisingly goofy. That blend of humor and darkness has kind of become my brand. I half-jokingly refer to the genre of music I make as Grief Wave, but that sort of existential absurdist bent is in all my stuff.

Putting it in fast-forward, the intervening decades have seen me move from Wisconsin to Chicago to LA, lose both my parents, meet and marry my wonderful wife, and grow into the best version of myself I’ve ever been.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
The Museum of Jurassic Technology is number one on any itinerary I plan for a friend visiting LA. The less you know about it the better, just go and experience it.

I also love to hit the Huntington Gardens up in Pasadena, catch a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse, grab a bite at Manuela or LA Cha Cha Chá, and pop in to see if they’ve got Discs of Tron back at EightyTwo. (Bring it back you cowards!)

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Whoa, this is a huge question, not sure I can limit a shoutout to just one person! I feel shaped by so many people, in all the various areas of my life. My parents and sister and friends all helped make me who I am.

For Easy Allies, our games media company, it’s been a wild ride defined by chance, hard work, and various companies bigger than us firing us and acquiring us and firing us again, so I guess for Easy Allies I’d love to thank the fickle asset management of large corporations! And of course the other allies, we help each other out a lot and we’re basically a family at this point. But obviously as a fan supported company there’s really one main group to thank and it’s the people who make it possible in the first place!

With regard to my music I’d shoutout all the band and choir and music making friends I’ve had over my life, and for film I’d shoutout my writing partner Matthew Walden, and the countless collaborators I’ve had and have.

Also I of course thank my wife Sofia in all things!

Website: http://www.islahinck.com

Instagram: ihinck

Youtube: https://youtube.com/easyallies

Other: https://bsky.app/profile/islahinck.bsky.social

Image Credits
Bloody image, and image with dancers from an upcoming music video. DP Nicole Valencia https://www.instagram.com/zikohl/
Sexy Beetlejuice picture by Taylor Kathleen https://www.instagram.com/tays_photaygraphy/
The Norway pictures were taken by my wife Sofia Hariz.