In our latest interview, we caught up with Lucas G to talk about playing guitar and being a producer, performing on stage, his Sicko Mobb friendship, and much more. Indulge below and make sure to follow Lucas on social.
Introduce yourself.
What’s up, my name is Lucas Greco. I am 25 years old, the founder of Sacrifices Clothing, a partner in MoneyXL Productions, and I play guitar for various Chicago artists.
You play guitar in a few bands, you’re a music producer, and you have your own clothing line. Who or what influenced you to pursue the arts?
That stems from my childhood and being really influenced by music at an early age. As cliche as it sounds, I grew up listening to Bob Marley. He was an important person to me as a child, not just with music, but with the lifestyle. I started playing guitar a little bit at home in fourth grade but then I stopped and never picked it up again until I was 16. Me and some friends joined the high school band junior year. It was me, Timmy V, and our friend Ely and we were possibly the worst musicians in high school. There were three tiers of jazz bands in our school and they had us in the last one. We stuck through it past high school and practiced our ass off though. Even though we weren’t in the top tier band, we stayed motivated to the point where it got us to where we are today.
Why do you think Chicago is such a desirable place to start an artistic career?
Because of all the grit. I think art stems from things that make people emotional. There’s no better way to express yourself than through art and it doesn’t matter if it’s music or painting or clothing. Chicago has a lot of grit and stories. We’re fighting a lot of things right now. We’re going through so much and in return, we’re creating a ton of art out of it.
As you gain experience playing bigger shows with bands and at festivals, which do you find yourself preferring: huge crowds or intimate shows? Why?
I have really bad anxiety. However, as soon as I step on stage, it doesn’t matter how many people are there, all of it goes away. I played a show with Ric Wilson, opening for The All American Rejects at Mississippi State a couple weeks ago and there were nearly 20,000 people. Most people would be nervous in that situation but for some reason it just makes me feel calm. My favorite is doing live TV though. I don’t know why. When you do TV you can only do maybe two to three songs but it’s just a nice environment. We’ve done Windy City Live on ABC, Good Morning Chicago on FOX, the WGN morning show, and JBTV which was a bucket list item for me.
Are you nervous or anxious leading up to the performance?
Everything about it makes me feel comfortable. In high school, some friends and I started the poetry club and I learned a lot from it. It was an amazing experience. From an early age, I was already in an auditorium in front of people to speak these poems that were probably trash, but I honestly don’t recall if it was nerve-wracking or not. I just remember performing in front of people was something that I always wanted to do.
How would you describe the difference between being on stage playing an instrument versus working behind the scenes with an artist in the studio?
I know I said it’s really calm for me to be on stage but the in-studio sessions are much more relaxing. Being on stage, you have that thought in the back of your head like, “If you fuck up, you’re fucking up in front of thousands of people.” But in the studio, you can just go until you get it right.
You’ve worked very closely with artists like Sicko Mobb, releasing a project from your vault last year and a slew of projects since then. How do you form relationships and collaborations in an industry where competition can run pretty high?
Loyalty. Everybody who I work with today, I’ve been working with for years. I have to say that I wouldn’t be where I am today if it hadn’t been for the position that I had with Sicko Mobb. When you meet certain people, you can immediately pick out who is genuine and who is not. If you surround yourself with people who are right and you stay loyal to those people, they’re gonna stay loyal to you. I became a part of Sicko Mobb because I let a stranger sleep on my couch. That stranger then introduced me to Sicko Mobb because he knew I was a fan. After things kind of sizzled down, I stayed in contact with their management who allowed me to meet all these new people. You just have to hold on to people who are genuine.
Let’s talk a bit about Sacrifices. Where does the name come from?
I was actually working on my own album and my album was called Sacrifices. I was going through a lot where I was trying to do everything that I’m doing right now, with all the clothing and the music, but at the same time trying to make the person that I love happy. It was all about balancing my time with them and music. I would miss certain events because of the promises I was making to them. And with the promises that I made to the music, I would sacrifice the music to be with them, you know? I was learning a lot from that situation. I was learning so much that I wanted to write an album about it.
How did you turn that idea into a clothing brand?
Sacrifices’ first line of hoodies was really only supposed to be for the album, but it just grew from there. Before I made the album, I knew I was going to need merch so I made the hoodies. The hoodies had a lot of influence from my best friend and one of the greatest designers in Chicago, Ely Weitzman. The reaction from people who bought the hoodies beforehand was so positive. It didn’t take away from the music or anything, and I decided I should keep going with it.
As you continued to make clothes, do you think your clothes will always reflect the music you’re making?
Not necessarily. How I feel fashion-wise, isn’t always how I feel musically, and vice versa.
You hosted a Back-to-School Pop-Up in August where you requested school supplies for donations. How much planning went into organizing your first headlining event for the brand?
A lot of planning and I give my thanks to a group called Ovrlord, which consists of Westley Parker and Franky Dono. They put their all into that event as much as I put my all into Sacrifices. They are a huge part of the Sacrifices team. All I had to do was make sure that the product was there and make sure that my connections with my barber and my DJs were going to be there. But as far as people who need to be talked to and paid, and the whole event itself, Franky and Westley took care of all that. It was such a beautiful thing. We were putting together an event anyway, and the venue asked what we were going to charge at the door but I didn’t want to charge money for it. The focus of the event wasn’t to make money. Me and Franky thought about it and knew that school was about to start soon so we just had everyone who was going to come bring school supplies. I found a nice organization that works out of the West Side called Dreamchasers United and it just worked out.
Many brands and artists look up to bigger names like Chance the Rapper to bring traction to charities. What’re your philosophies regarding giving back to the community?
Currently, we do what we can with the people and resources that we have. We do fortunately get to work with semi-big Chicago artists due to my background in the music industry and we get to use those platforms to promote better things. Just like the back to school event, we were able to use resources that were available to us like PlayStation and P.B.R. to create bigger awareness for the event and cause itself.
What kind of impression do you want your brand and clothes to make?
At the end of the day, I just want people to be comfortable and look fly and be happy with what they’ve got on. Of course, Sacrifices has a deeper meaning behind it that I feel is relatable to everybody, but at the end of the day, I just want you to be comfortable and like what you’ve got on.
2018 is about to come to a close. What can we expect from you in the new year?
This whole journey has just been a learning experience for me. I’ve seen a lot of failures and successes from it. I’m going to take everything I learned this past year and come out next year a lot more organized and professional with a much stronger presence and try to give back more to the community. Also, I will be dropping my first solo project this year along with an EP from MoneyXL Productions.
Written by: Andrea Carrillo
Chicago Creatives 