Written by Mayah Cantave, College Life Editor

Fashion Week: The Visual Album, released on Feb. 18, seems to be a visual masterpiece. The album created by artist Zaena and Jason Maek, contains elements of art, dance, and many other forms of visual arts. The album contains a collection of 10 songs including individual videos for each song. Some of the songs include “Birthday”, “Get up”, “Texting You” and much more.

Maek and Zaena have not only mastered music but they’ve seem to master many other forms of arts. Their album includes instrumentals, fashion, art and dance.

“In this project, we were more than musicians, we were designers or that’s how we wanted it to feel,” Maek said.

For this album, the two channeled Fashion Week. Zaena and Maek contacted fashion designers and used some of their techniques.

“We wanted it to feel like it would come down a runway versus come through a speaker,” Maek said.

For each song, a mood board was created with various clippings, images, and textures much like how fashion designers create their lines. Mood boards is how designers create concepts for their looks.

“Instead of normal songwriting process, we talked to a lot of different designers around the world to get an understanding of what they go through to create the garments and lines that they do.”

The album was not created in one setting. The album was recorded anywhere they could set up their equipment. The duo were equal partners in the whole process of recording and directing the videos for the album.

“The project was done on the go. We wrote it, we recorded it, we executive produced it, we engineered it,” Maek said.

“Anywhere we could set up our equipment,” Zaena said.

Many of the scenes in the videos are not what they seem. Like movies and other videos, the album has been masterfully edited.

“Most of the things you are seeing is movie magic…you have the million dollar ideas on nickel budgets,” Maek said.

For the release of the visual album, the duo held a live streaming party that allowed fans to stream their reactions to the album. This allows the artists to connect with their audience and make them feel as if they are part of the experience.

Hopefully, with the success of their visual album, there will be much more from this creative duo.