Ballantine’s Scotch whisky have teamed up with world-renowned graffiti artist Felipe Pantone for their True Music Series. Pantone will use the vibrant and colourful artwork he created for this year’s Ballantine’s Finest and 12 Year Old True Music Series limited editions to create visually stimulating spaces that inspire and foster True Music artists to produce, perform and play the music they love.
Last month, Nii played host to the first True Music Series space after undergoing an inspiring transformation for local artists to perform the music they love. Home to Gost Zvuk, one of the most influential underground record labels in Moscow, Nii is a music community that works collaboratively with homegrown producers, artists, sound engineers and musicians. As part of the True Music Series takeover, Felipe’s artwork connected to sound reactive projectors, creating its own equaliser and allowing musicians to experience a visual representation of the music they produce and play within the space, ensuring a performance experience like no other for the artists and fans alike. The True Music Series space in Moscow has hosted a series of special events all aimed at pushing the boundaries of the local music scene through art-led music experiments.
Ballantine’s has a long-held dedication to music. Tom Elton, Head of Music at Ballantine’s, helped to develop the True Music Series, with his input across the various Ballantine’s True Music platforms, something he’s been keen to be involved in for years: “I’ll never forget the first time I went to Glastonbury when I was a kid…seeing the power of music unite thousands of people in such a positive way, it stuck with me forever.” To be able to take one of my biggest passions, music, and turn it into a career that sees me travel the world to get under the skin of the amazing scenes, well, that’s pretty much the dream.” The choice to previously collaborate with likeminded companies such as Boiler Room soon became an clear one for Elton, who explains that “the key reason is because Boiler Room is so unique and fits our Ballantine’s brand ethos of ‘Stay True’ seamlessly. Moreover, no one else matches what they do on a global scale – Boiler Room gives us incredible reach, so we can bring True Music to fans all over the world. Overall, it is a hugely collaborative partnership with a long-term vision.” This eye to the future is something crucial for Elton, who sees the future of the True Music Series as being just as important as the present: “With True Music Series our aim is to create credible campaigns so we can shine a spotlight on upcoming artists and cultural scenes while connecting with whisky and music fans around the world, providing them with new and exciting experiences.”
With this in mind, working with Pantone was an easy choice for Elton. There are few artists who are really making waves internationally while creating forward-thinking and truly striking art, but Felipe is definitely one of them. With a passion and affinity for music as well as art, Felipe was an obvious choice for us and we couldn’t be happier with the bold, music-inspired limited edition gift packs he has produced.”
We caught up with Pantone about the project, his art, and who he is listening to right now.