Have to say this I only came across this artist because of SoggyApplepie who told me I should check his work out this artist is quite big in the Banano community and has his own project quite like cryptomonkeys where he gives most of his away for free .
Hey bro how's things?
Pretty good getting some stuff done today... hbu?
Oh cool is project work?
Yea just social media stuff mostly today I have a few projects I am involved in
Well misssoggyapple recommended I reached out to you so she must be quite impressed with you . What projects you involved in?
I have a project that is mostly for fun called AKU WORLDS that one is where I make my own NFTs used to be just WAX but now I do a few things on eth and polygon too. We have a discord faucet game that is pretty in depth we made up where you win my nfts mostly they win $VITC , $BAN, and $WAX tho in small doses other than that, I am the Twitch streamer for cryptomonKeys which I am sure you know is soggys project also I do some community work there and run events in Banano also just recently was hired for some community consultant work in blockpack.io
Oh course I know that big fan of banano coin and the team behind it . So your expanding yourself out what made you start creating?
Oh definitely I just do things I think will be cool and fun I want the web3 space to be a positive environment
What is the idea behind your project?
AKU WORLDS is about being your true self and remembering to be kind. In the community of Banano, I felt and became accepted for being exactly who I am. the anonymity allowed me to be who I am in my heart and not have the normal meat worlds blowback... I decided to make a place based on that feeling of acceptance and to make sure it was always at the core . You know... scared about how communities can turn toxic if money is involved... AKU WORLDS is only about fun . That is also why I love and admire SoggyApplePie and crpytomonKeys so much with their motto of free distribution
That's great to here its the reason I like wax its a family and we support each other?
Yes! Wax is the best place for that imo so our game isn't a LFG or anything is only to be fun and to spread the love to explore the cool things we could do to integrate discord and wax but I also love eth as that what got me excited about crypto in the long long ago... the smart contracts .. amazing so I had to make some stuff on there too . Oh I should explain the game briefly
MOFF MOFF DRAGUM is a discord bot based game where each week players move around the map rolling the "majic d20" at the end of the week there is a battle with the DRAGUM each player contributes hits against the dragum until he is defeated rewards are sent to dragum slayers
Oh cool so its like a DnD game?
Yea DnD inspired but the mechanics are all automated with our bot wizard Deem about 100 weekly player right now having certain AKU NFTs boost your abilities and stats in game
Oh cool so your NFTs are like the players powers?
Yea limited at the moment but we are just building as we go all volunteer by people who enjoy the game or NFTs or my face or whatever they enjoy lol oh that's our motto.. WE ARE AKU! because AKU is the truest form of yourself and we are all one humanity . When I became AKUaku I realized there was a world of love I had not known that we could all tap into . Did soggy tell you I'm an insane person?
Ah we are all insane lol its half the fun so when did you launch your project?
last year in May.
Oh wow when did you launch your first NFT?
Hmm I will look on wax it was I think March 2021 I started making NFTs in an older collection but launched this one after for more organization to be whitelisted.
Ah so this is your second collection?
Yep akubananolab that was my first akufishheads that's my current for wax at least.. the Opensea collection is just called AKU WORLDS.
And is akuabananolab dead now?
R.I.P. Yea I wont mint any more there sometimes I do burn events though where you burn old collection NFTs and got a pack from this collection
https://wax.atomichub.io/explorer/template/akufishheads/289975
Everyone who burned a certain number of the old collection was airdropped one of these inside were tribute cards so my favorite stuff from that collection could live on lol.
Oh cool so the collection you are running now what was the first NFT from there?
https://wax.atomichub.io/explorer/template/akufishheads/167656
It looks like it a blank space with my signature but its a video anyway.
How did the community react?
They didn't exist lol at that point I made a few more NFTs meant to help people become inspired to make their own this one is my favorite.
https://wax.atomichub.io/explorer/template/akufishheads/197112
In the metadata, it explains how to make it and my logo I designed.. I made into a more realistic sort of self portrait in this one
As compared to the logo people like that one has music too.
So then I made a silly one based on the pepe meme frog but with my horns and blue called him Akubebe.
(soggy calls the yellow ones bebes)
I made a bunch of those and that's what people liked first I think
But then I started drawing in a little different style so I made up akuTOTS which are more to my current hand. So far just a few these are made with a blend from one of the original akutot blended with something sometimes its an old NFT I made a while back to blend.. sometimes its a new one
Ah so would you say these are your Cryptomonkeys?
Yea so to speak but not all are freely distributed like CryptomonKeys some are but gotta pay the RAM man and I don't have the volume on secondary to keep making stuff so sometimes they are a wax drop and you can always buy a basic Akutot for a few wax from the ongoing drop I like it that way so that I don't have to shill too much .
So at the moment your RAM is being fueled by the secondary market . Have you tried to do 1 of 1 special auctions?
Usually if I make a drop it pays for enough to keep it up but I have tried ETH auctions I think I tried a wax auction and the demand was underwhelming
Really?
No surprise at that time because the wax market was flooded with p2e things my stuff is meant for fun and I don't really garner much attention from hardcore collectors ya know
I think there has to be happy medium between p2e and collections?
Kind of a build it and they will come and sharing with folks along the way I agree with that p2e is fun and very crypto but as I said earlier, where there is money involved out comes ugliness cant be avoided really unless you circle the wagons beforehand that's what we strive to do in CryptomonKeys and AKU WORLDS prevention and cultivating a community of tolerance and peace a safe place to be you.. to be Aku to be your best monkey
Do you draw each NFT?
yes unless it was for a contest.. we have contests sometimes where there community makes art and is included in the NFT but yes I make all the art digitally usually with my iPad and procreate with an apple pencil just like soggy .
How long does each NFT take to create?
Usually several hours and then maybe a few hours of fine tuning after I finally like it lol but actually then there is the minting and whatnot id say on average 10 hours each but its time I spend of my own accord doing something I love
How many NFTs have you created?
28.9k in Akufishheads under 202 templates + 12.2K in Akubananolab with 90 separate templates...+ 1 in BSC + 1 in Polgon and 3 on ETH. Here is one of our community NFTs .
Have you done any collabs?
Yes, I have done a few.. a bunch I guess CREEK is my most well known collab
Oh wow is there a dream collab on wax for you?
My dream would be to have a collab with SoggyApplePie but I want to wait until I'm really good LOL drawing is all practice and patience with yourself.
So is soggy your favorite artist?
Undeniably.
What has been the best part of doing your project?
It is always the best to see others having fun with something you made up.
What's been the hardest part of your project?
This question is the hardest thing I've done in this project so far.
Really?
I don't know what is really hard... I guess making sure there are enough eyes on the project to keep it relevant I am a doer, I feel... and it doesn't come exactly natural to be a promoter of my own self but the input I've had from my Jesters (project helpers and team) has made it something that is taking off by itself so that part is way easier to get excited about and share without feeling like a shill yea this whole thing has been a journey for me and learning so much has kept pretty much every step of it fairly nice
What you like to unwind?
Drawing especially is I'm just doodling around on nothing I like to just draw on a blank and erase it away.
Tell us something random about you?
I have had many fish tanks including a cool reef tank and many of my NFTs have photos of them mixed in the drawing... like the welcome NFT everyone gets when they arrive in the discord as a member that one has a video with my own emerald crab I grew from a baby.
Where's the best place to keep up with your project?
Discord https://discord.gg/FxYgA43793
or twitter if you use that
https://twitter.com/akubanano?s=20&t=omk6Jqr6VmUTsEHvHCqghQ
Where the best place to buy your NFTs?
https://neftyblocks.com/c/akufishheads/drops/109869
Buy a couple akuTOTs and the rest of my drops are posted on Neftyblocks.
Before we finish up is there anything you would like to add?
I would like to specifically thank the Banano community especially for all the support and let others know that I am looking forward to connecting with many more! And I appreciate you doing this and look forward to it coming out Oh also if anyone needs some help in modeling their communities around what we have talked about here, let me know because I am looking for good web3 projects to work on.
Thank you AKU it was a pleasure and we actually had him on the show just over a week ago the plan is brilliant check it out .
Here just a small competition that you can win 3 of his NFTs and dont forget to check out his discord and twitter
