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Kickin’ It with the ’Terns – No Pain, No Fame

One of the great crimes of late-period capitalism is the erosion of the entry-level job. We no longer pay our youngest workers to do the tasks we don’t want to do; instead we offer them class credit. At VICE, we might not be able to offer our interns...

One of the great crimes of late-period capitalism is the erosion of the entry-level job. We no longer pay our youngest workers to do the tasks we don’t want to do; instead we offer them class credit, or shrug off the idea of “compensation” almost completely, replacing it with such unquantifiable terms as “contacts,” or “experience.” That’s bullshit. At VICE, we might not be able to offer our interns money, but we can give them something better than most tradable currencies: the sweet, sweet taste of fame. With that, welcome to VICE’s newest column: Kickin’ It with the ’Terns, where we interview our interns about the things that matter to them.

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Meet Andrew Nicholas Nunes de Oliveira. From a style standpoint, he takes the idea of being ahead of the curve and breaks it in half. He is so far ahead of the curve that the curve might as well not exist. He has bleached-blonde hair, diamond-studded earrings, and a tattoo that says “NO PAIN/ NO FAME.” That alone made me want to know what this kid’s deal was. So, I interviewed him.

VICE: What is your full name?
Intern: Andrew Nicholas Nunez De Rivera

Where are you from?
Brazil.

How do you like interning at VICE?
I had a few shitty internships before, and this has definitely been miles ahead.

Tell me about your T-shirt.
This is a T-shirt my dad got for me. He got two of them, he got one in black, one in white. It’s got Obama—does this one have Rosa Parks? I think it does. Is that Rosa Parks? One of them has Rosa Parks.

That’s Rosa Parks.
I can’t tell from this angle. And then Martin Luther King. I don’t know, my dad has an interesting sense of style. Not at all like mine, but I’ve been learning to adopt his sense of style after he always threw clothes at me like, “Wear this, wear that.” This is a really exemplary bit, something more that I would wear, in general. So I was really happy that he picked it out.

Explain your tattoo.
It’s actually one of two tattoos. I got this last year, and this one I’ve had since I was 15.

Does that say “sexy”?
Yeah, but it’s fading now. It was the guy’s first time doing a lip tattoo. I was at some shitty tattoo parlor in Brazil. It’s all crooked, and the first time he did it, it wore off in a day. And now it’s lasted ever since. But this tattoo [points to arm], I mean, it’s not like a drive in life to be famous, but the original expression was based off was obviously, “No pain, no gain” and I wanted to make it a little bit more specific, about something that I think will satisfy me, if I achieve some sort of fame. It also has to do with being like an only child and having expectations and shit on you, like I only feel I will repay my parents if I do something and become big enough for them to feel it was worth putting me in art school and shit.

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How would you define your personal brand?
If you go on my Instagram, my About Me says I have no personal brand, so I don’t really know right now. I’m just trying it all out.

Tell me about growing up in Brazil.
Here’s the deal. My whole family is Brazilian, but I was born here, and throughout my life I’ve been back and forth. I’ve spent a couple of years here, a couple of years there, my parents couldn’t really decide where they wanted to be. Growing up there, the culture’s mad different, there’s a lot of young girls getting with dudes who—they’re like 13 getting with dudes who are 22 and shit. And it was kinda weird because I was always the younger kid, but I’ve always hung out with older dudes, and it would kinda suck. They’d be like, “Yo man, you’re gonna get a lot more ass when you’re older, blah blah blah, this is how it works here.” All this shit, but then I moved before I got older, so I’ll never know if that’s true or not.

It’s a big culture shock. All the style there is a few years later than here. I remember I was rockin’ a Hollister shirt one day or some shit, and they were all like, “What’s HCO, is that like chemical formulas or some shit?” and like two years later they were all rockin’ it, and that’s also when I realized that Hollister and all that stuff… I’m not down with that shit. So yeah, style is different, hookup culture is different, fuck. Everyone’s dating, everyone’s serious. To fuck a girl, you gotta get kinda serious with her there. It’s very different than Boston, which is where I grew up here.

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Are you wearing Timberlands?
Yeah, they’re Timbs. It sucks, you always think you’re ahead of the game. Like, I got these like last year, middle last year, and I was like “I’m a bring ‘em back, I haven’t seen ‘em rocked in a while, since dudes were rockin’ Girbauds and shit in middle school.” But then I got them, and then like four months later, I see mad people rockin’ Timberlands that weren’t rockin’ Timberlands before. I still wear them, though, because they’re not completely fucked up yet.

How would you describe your fashion philosophy?
Yo. Try to predict what’s gonna happen and don’t do it. Do something else that you think could potentially happen after your prediction. So be ahead of the predictions, basically.

What should I be wearing?
You should be wearing a fur coat, jeans with stripes on them, and any fuckin’ shoes, I don’t really know about shoes that much.

Why fur? I’ve seen like Kanye and Wiz and Ross rock the fur.
Oh shit, oh shit.

Furs are like coming back around.
Yeah, I guess, but, it’s weird because a lot of the ways that people are rockin’ fur coats now, they rock it like fur coat and then super tight jeans and boots or something, so think if you can mix like the elegance of a fur coat with something maybe a little more streety. I think a lot of fashion now is also just appropriating something, but making it combine with something different. But you also have to have a good eye to make it combines and not look like shit.

When you say jeans with stripes on them, you mean like JNCO style?
That part I was a little hesitant about. I guess I was kind of envisioning Girbauds, they had like that stripe right here, like sporadic stripes. Not completely striped, through, you’d look like you’d be in the circus or some shit.

Do you consider yourself a hipster?
Do I consider myself a hipster? I think especially around the people I hang, that I guess would be viewed maybe like the way they dress maybe less hip. I guess I would then be the most likely to be a hipster I guess? Fuck it, I don’t care.

@drewmillard