INTERVIEW: Saint Motel’s A/J Jackson launches new eyewear brand
Photo: A/J Jackson is the creative force behind AVIEW, a new eyewear brand. Photo courtesy of AVIEW / Provided by Scouts Agency with permission.
A/J Jackson, the lead singer of Saint Motel, has stayed busy during the pandemic. By total coincidence, his band had finished up a tour right before the world hit the pause button in March 2020, and they had also recorded a new album called The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. So when the COVID-19 shutdowns began, Saint Motel was able to take a well-deserved break. Jackson decided to get creative, and his efforts paid off with a new eyewear brand called AVIEW.
AVIEW allows those who wear eyeglasses to use interchangeable color lenses, depending on their mood or perspective on a given day. Right now the company is offering everything from yellow to green to brown — and more.
“These were glasses that I needed, and they didn’t exist,” Jackson said in a recent phone interview. “And it kind of blew my mind. So I’ve been wearing glasses for most of my adult life and just didn’t like carrying around glasses and prescription sunglasses, so I kind of gravitated toward clip-ons, which was kind of a first step toward this. Then when I started getting clip-ons, I started looking through shops to find other colors of clip-ons that would work with my glasses. I started trying out different colors, and then once I experienced different colors, then I realized that I wanted more colors. And then when I would lose my clip-ons, I realized that there has to be some sort of easy way to experiment with different colors in the same frame. That’s where it all came from.”
The brand AVIEW is minimal, modern and forward-thinking, according to press notes. The company is after “customization” of the real world, allowing people to see their environment through different lenses — both literally and metaphorically. Prospective purchasers first choose a frame color, and then they choose a lens color. But those who are interested should choose wisely. For example, the rose color is all about happiness, peace and serenity, while black is protection, purity and clarity.
“Each pair of the glasses sits with these nonprescription clear optical lenses in them, and then there’s another slot in front of those,” Jackson said. “That’s where you slide in your color sunglass lenses, so if you want to put prescription lenses in, you just swap those clear ones out with your own prescription and you’re off to the races.”
The launch of AVIEW centers on round frames, which is a personal favorite of Jackson’s (he called them Andy Warhol glasses), but there are plans for square frames and other options in the future.
“During the pandemic I kind of decided to take it to the next level and get it manufactured,” he said about his ambitions. “If anything, it’s a learning experience to see what it would be like. … We have been live for a couple months now. We have the round frames in three colors: the clear, brown tortoise and black. We have six colors: red, rose, green, blue, brown, yellow and black. So that is our flagship launch offering, and we’re kind of experimenting now with some more colors, like looking at violet and orange. Today I was messing around with pattern prints on them, so you could slide in some cat eyes or stars, not just solid colors. We’re slowly expanding the line, but they are officially out and launched with our first line.”
Even though Jackson is currently focusing on AVIEW, he definitely has not given up his music career. Saint Motel is still planning for the future and how best to emerge from the pandemic. The singer plans to build upon his impressive musical career, which includes tours with Imagine Dragons and Panic! at the Disco.
“We were touring right up until the shutdown, which was fortunate, so we did get a few months of touring before everything went silent,” he said about Saint Motel. “But, yeah, I think the biggest thing is the uncertainty of it. Can you play the show? What is the level of risk? Should you go here? There are just so many new things to tackle that make it a challenge, but it was an interesting year. I think we’re excited to get back out there. … I think the goals have always been pretty modest, just continue to grow and continue to be able to do what we love — so far so good.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Click here for more information on AVIEW. Click here for more information on Saint Motel.
