PEOPLE-FOOD is the brainchild of Daniel Stessen, the collective's Creative Director, who attended the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Center before writing and directing plays in New York and Scotland, self-publishing a book of poems and moving to L.A. There, his vision for an artist conglomerate -- constantly active, each member with distinct talents -- was realized. In early 2006 he met David Stokes (Kansas City Art Institute - Painting) and self-taught L.A. native Weity, two hip and defiant installation artists-cum-web designers. Later that Fall he met The Gray Kid, an emerging solo musician carving out his national niche. By September the boys had their first official hoo-rah - a Video Flyer, promoting the release party for Stessen's second book of poems, More Lonely than Alone, featuring the young bard expressionless beside thong-clad, slow-motion stripper butt cheeks. The Gray Kid prepared a theme song, "Two Two Zero Six," with which to open his live set. Weity installed his framed napkin sketches on the walls. 350 kids sweated their Friday night away and the LA Weekly inked the collective's first public praise, calling the promo materials "the best audio and video flier I have ever seen" while aptly describing the collective as "sincere yet tongue-in-cheek."

While the local following grew organically over the next month, national attention was achieved with the release of "PaxilBack," a parody music video that was featured on YouTube accruing 2 million views and landing The Gray Kid and Stessen a performance at the HBO Comedy Festival in Las Vegas. Prescient, the United Talent Agency signed the collective one day before the spoof made its YouTube debut, assigning agents from nearly every department (motion picture, television, music video, theater, commercial, online and literature) to manage the breadth of ideas.

PEOPLE-FOOD has since been showered with national publicity (Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, The New York Times) and continuing devotion on the West Coast. Their holiday People-Food Drive generated 230 pounds of food for the LA Food Bank. The Gray Kid appeared at this year's South by Southwest and Noisepop festivals and the crew's latest music video, "This is Why I'm Hot - Literal Version," was featured on NBC's homepage. David Stokes and Weity are slated to design a mural for Apple's offices and Stessen will direct the play, Phaedra's Love, that the collective will install in a downtown L.A. warehouse, Hangar 1018, this summer. A pair of screenplays and a television show are in development as well. They have but one philosophy...

MAKE THINGS.

-pf