1. For those who may not know you, or what you do, tell us about yourself?
"My name is Dan Hall, born and raised in Decatur Georgia. I have been working at Standard lifestyle boutique in Atlanta for just over 3 years now. I study Marketing at Georgia State University. I also contribute to some magazines, work with Don Cannon as a project manager and sometimes help make cool videos like this."
2. You run one of the dopest stores not only in Atlanta, but the whole Southern US. Explain the story behind the birth of STANDARD ATL.
"First off, thank you for your compliments. Secondly, Farshad runs the stores (laughs), I just help. But seriously, we are a team, all of us who work at Standard. We really don't have titles because we all just contribute and get the job done. The owner, Farshad Arshid, started Standard a little over six years ago and we have been going strong ever since. I wasn't apart of the team when the store was opened so I can't really tell you how it was came about, but I was the 2nd employee to be hired and frankly im surprised I've been there this long (laughs). Just recently we expanded and opened our doors inside of Lenox Square. I run the blog so it looks like I do all the hard work haha."
3. You have a few other jobs along with working at STANDARD, (e.g.) editor for Antenna Magazine, as well as for Vapors Magazine. What do you ultimately plan to accomplish in life?
"If I knew that my friend I would be well on my way to success. Actually both of those jobs came from working at Standard. I believe in putting yourself in position and setting yourself up. You can't talk to the baddest beauty in the club if you don't go stand near her first. I contribute online to Antennamag.com and I submitted a few articles to Vapors which got published but I kinda just do that on the side, I'm no Maurice Garland (Shouts out to him)."
4. This year you've produced a self-line of yours with the "Decatur Dan" tees. Do you plan to expand of those, and make them widely available?
"I don't know about widely available. I printed up 25 of each colorway which I handed and shipped them out to a few friends, now they are all gone. But yea, I'm just having fun with it, and building a brand on the side. I'll be doing an online release here soon, just plotting and planning, timing is everything."
5. Working in sales in a well known store has its advantages with meeting lots of people. Is their anyone you've met at the store that you would love to work with on a project?
"Again, working at Standard has allowed me to brush shoulders with a lot of good people. It's funny you say that because recently someone asked me how I knew No I.D., they wanted to know the connection and how we got the interview. So I had to trace it back. Well, Don Cannon shops with me at Standard, I started working for him doing some project management and marketing. Through Cannon I met No I.D. and that's the connection. You know who I really want to meet though? Aziz Ansari, he has a house here in Atlanta. I keep hoping he comes in the shop one day and we can do some improv shit while I catch it on camera, make it a Standard commercial or something."
6. What does a typical get-up from Dan consist of from head to toe?
"Simple, 9 out of 10 times I have a t-shirt on from one of the many streetwear brands I respect (if I don't respect it I don't wear it). Raw denim from G-Star, WESC, or Levis. And a pair of Nike's, typically from two years back because I stopped buying sneaks, but my peeps in Portland keeps me laced with current stuff every now and then."
7. With Atlanta steadly on the rise, you guys have a lot of great music in your city, mainstream as well as underground. Name one of your favorite ATL artist.
"That is a really good question. Probably have to go with Mums FP, he's a younger cat that has potential. He's my homie too, but this is no plug because sometimes he be slipping and I gotta tell him. (laughs)"
8. Ok, watching the Maestro Knows Tour Edition Episode 6 really made me laugh. What's the deal behind "Aarlo", the cool green dog?
"Lol haha! It's Arnold actually, Maestro talks too fast sometimes to understand (shouts out to him too!) The dog was a gift given to Farshad for his birthday a few years back and he decided to put it in the shop. Everybody loves it so we keep it there. We're dog people at Standard, people bring their pups through all the time."
9. Three things Dan would never leave home without are:
"Blackberry, Macbook Pro, and Nikon D5000 (literally)."
10. How would you rate http://sidashford.com/ in it's current state?
"Layout is very clean and simple which I am always a fan of. I would aim for more original content opposed to re-posting. But I'm very judgmental when it comes to websites/blogs so if I didn't like it I probably wouldn't be doing this interview (laughs)."
Sid Ashford: I want to thank Dan again for giving me the opportunity to interview him. I know his days can get long from working at STANDARD and also being a student. Follow him on Twitter @DecaturDan and check out the StandardATL site! Also, if you haven't, check out Dan and the Standard store in Maestro Knows Tour Edition Episode 6.
Maestro Knows - Tour Edition (Episode 6) from Maestro Knows on Vimeo.
