KNOCK K N O C K ISSUE
THRE E
In this, the third edition of Knock Knock, we have really pushed the magazine to be more at home in its online habitat. With more concise content even more featured artists, it promises to bring inspiration to all of us. New to this issue of Knock Knock we bring features on some of our favourite musicians. The breadth of talent in this issue is second to none. They are all magic.
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
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Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
Knock Knock magazine profiles street-level emerging and established Australian and inter national creatives, doing their thing, and doing it well. Founder & Designer: Tom Groves Editor: Ali Groves Music writer: Josh Dinjar Under no circumstaces may any of the content and/or images in this publication be copied without permission. Knock Knock Magazine Š 2012 ISSN 2200-9825 Contributions are our favourite, contact us on Facebook. Like Knock Knock Magazine on Facebook
ht t p : // w w w.fa c e b o o k .co m / k nockkn ockmag
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K NO C K K NO CK Magazine Issue Three
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
PHILLIPA ENID
PHIBS
KAFFEINE
ABYSS .607
SNIK
BENNETT
UNWELL BUNNY
NELIO
CHRIS TAMM
SMC[3]
GINA MAR TYNOVA
VNA MAGAZINE
RUMTUM
JESSE HOGAN
UNITY FLOORS
SEAN MORRIS
FISHING
BEASTMAN
WHEAT FIELDS
Contents
C215
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C215 Stencil Artist Paris
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
I’m not so sure the road tales could be sumed up in a single answer. Art is always something you can not catch, not see or collect, but that you can share... I could speak about number of times I’ve been arrested: NYC, Istambul, Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Maastricht and Rome. In Rome I was painting without authorisation a virgin on the panels of a church, in San Lorenzo, right in front of two cops, who for sure stopped me, but called the priest to check the situation. This priest asked me to continue the next day during the mass; that way he could do a benediction of my piece. The cops came back in civil clothes to see if I kept my word. We took a photo all together...
C215 – Stencil Artist
Globetrotting with a swag of stencils sounds like a dope idea. Can you share some tales from the road?
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Photo: Paul nine-o
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
C215 – Stencil Artist
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Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
C215 – Stencil Artist
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P H IB S Graffiti/ Street Artist Sydney
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
Being part of the Everfresh Studio was the first time I had shared a studio, interacted with other artists, worked as a team on different projects and shared opportunities. I loved it. Everfresh is still ‘home’ to me, being a space that I frequent often.
Phibs – Street & Graffiti Artist
How have you found the transition from Melbourne’s notorious Everfresh studio to the new home of Sydney’s ‘finest low brow’? How have the space, group of artists and city affected your life and work?
It’s really nice being part of ‘creative hubs’ that always have fresh ideas as opposed to being by yourself. At times it’s harder to get inspiration and motivation when working solo. Another great thing with these studios is that these spaces are like a ‘point of contact’ and are shared with travelling artists. I’m originally born and bred from Sydney, so the transition was easy. When living in Melbourne I was often between cities. I based myself in Melbourne for 10 years or so as I felt there was a lack of opportunity in Sydney. There I was able to focus on establishing myself more as a ‘fine’ artist rather than a ‘graffiti’ artist. I feel that Melbourne embraced the arts, where as Sydney was more business orientated.
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Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3 Phibs – Street & Graffiti Artist
It’s nice to come back and be based in Sydney, being part of Higher Ground and have a space similar to Everfresh. It’s different again but I seriously didn’t think I would be able to find another suitable studio space. I really enjoy being around other like-minded creative people. I work from home a lot but its good to have separate space to make a mess. I’m glad to say after moving back to Sydney, things are changing. There’s a bit more creative energy flowing in the city now.
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I feel Higher Ground has a lot of potential. Like Everfresh, it’s a group of different people with different views encouraging a more positive attitude towards what we do (Graffiti, Street-Art, work in public space etc.).
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
Phibs – Street & Graffiti Artist
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A BY S S . 6 0 7 Street Artist Canberra
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
The scene here has been on the rise quite suddenly in the past year or so. A lot people pop up and they disappear just as quick, I can’t blame ‘em though. When I was starting up everything I did got buffed basically the next day, it’s quite impossible to stay up on Canberra’s immaculate grey walls. It gave me the drive to keep going though; for my own passion and to really show them the city needs this kind of thing, like a breath of fresh air. I think the council is becoming more lenient towards ‘Street Art.’
Abyss .607 – Street Artist
As a very proactive street artist hailing from Canberra, what’s it like being part of a very small street art scene? Is there room for street art to thrive in the nation’s capital?
Theres definitely room in Canberra for Street Art, I just don’t think we have quite enough people creating and supporting it. But either way it will never go away, it will always exist in some shape or form.
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Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
Abyss .607 – Street Artist
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Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
Abyss .607 – Street Artist
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BE NN E T T Artist Sydney
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3 Bennett – Artist
All that airy negative space heightens the unease in your assemblages. Do you source pieces painstakingly to match these visions, or do the compositions just grow out of your existing collection? Where do you find these little treasures? My art making practice is really quite organic, I try to let things develop naturally and work with what I have at that point in time. So, in that respect I wouldn’t say I search for a certain image to match a vision; rather, create from imagery I already have by trying different combinations and adding other mediums. I really try to capture the moment and mood whilst creating these snap-shots. I usually work on several pieces simultaneously and wait for the magic to happen without pushing or forcing anything. I find this a more rewarding and less stressful approach. Over the past four to five years I’ve been consciously collecting and hoarding old books, magazines, scraps of paper from the sidewalk, signs from the street and other objects I find atheistically interesting. I have stuff from all over Australia, as well as pieces I’ve picked up overseas in places like London, Tokyo, Osaka, New York and San Fransisco. Finding and comparing items from different origins has helpedheighten my appreciation for these little pieces of printed history even more. It also gives my works a subtle foreign quality, which I enjoy.
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Bennett – Artist
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NE L IO Street Artist Lyon
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
Most of the things I create start with drawing. I love to draw, but for a long time I’d do a lot of quick sketches and never really see them as a piece of art. Now that I’m more confident with what I’m doing I’ve changed a bit, most of my sketches are on nice paper and I take more time to make them. They are often the final artwork but sometimes they have an other life with a different technique. Some of them are even transposed a few times. A sketch on paper can become a graffiti on wall, then a screenprint, or it can become a painting on canvas or a wood construction. I like the evolution of a drawing and to show its different particularities with the technique used.
Nelio – Street Artist
Your work has a real zingy geometric and mathematic aesthetic. Do you itch over preparation in the studio, or is closer to organised chaos on the street?
When I paint a canvas in the studio there is not much room for improvisation. I need to make sketches and test colors before, so when I start a canvas I know exactly how it will look when it will be finished. Maybe that will change in the future but at the moment I feel like I need to follow this process. I don’t know why, probably because when I paint on canvas I feel all the weight of the art history, so many great paintings have already been made. The canvas is the symbol of the artist and maybe I’m a bit afraid of it: I respect it too much. So when I have time to paint I need to do my best and push my limits further. But it’s hard to push the boundaries when you can’t go outside a frame! Page 31
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3 Nelio – Street Artist
It’s completly different for graffiti. Except some commissioned walls, all my painting outside is at least a bit improvised or completely freestyle. I like to adapt to the surface I paint – using the angles of the wall, textures, ground and everything that interacts with my painting. Sometimes I’ll reproduce a sketch I like and change some parts of it, deleting and adding stuff to make the painting more integrated with its environment. Same goes for colours, even though I often work with a similar palette I will choose them to go well with the surrounds. Spraycans allow you to improvise and go over quickly if you make a mistake or want to try different colours. It’s really fast to sketch, to fill and dry, so when I paint outside I prefer using this technique. On canvas, I use mostly acrylic because I can work on tiny details and make my own colours.
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I guess my paintings are a bit different if I paint outside or in the studio. My graffiti will be more spontaneous, will have more energy, more mistakes and more relation with the surrounding compared to my paintings on canvas which will be more elaborate and also more independent.
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
Nelio – Street Artist
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S M C [3 ] Street Artist Sydney
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
I do like to work around a theme. Usually a play on words, and images to fit. A theme helps to invent and create new characters, images, colors, etc. Repetition is good to make an image familiar, and instantly recognisable, but I get bored of the same thing and like to change and progress. I have just started putting characters into a story..or a theory. Every character and icon has a specific meaning which all work and link together as mathematical diagrams to explain the theory in imagery.
SMC [3] – Street Artist
Your familiar cheeky characters are iconic within Sydney’s thriving street scene. They often appear to be grouped by style or theme, what do they have to tell us?
Part 1 – ‘the upside-down underground’ is about characters and icons that rise from ‘the underground’ that are flipped at 180 degrees, into above-ground, or ‘the mainstream(rat race)’. The pyramid is the first character to be seen at the moment. The full explanation of the theory will be released before the end of this year. Stay tooned...
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SMC [3] – Street Artist
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Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
SMC [3] – Street Artist
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VN A MA G A ZIN E George Macdonald, Editor London
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
VNA to me has always been about documenting this incredible art movement. From the smallest sticker to the largest mural. I have always just been blown away by people who choose to risk their lives, jobs, friends and relationships just to put a piece of art on the street or on a train for everyone to see and enjoy. As long as we continue to document this scene to the best of our ability then we are still sticking to the original ethos of the zine/magazine. I’m so proud of what we have achieved so far and now we just want to keep doing what we do best and create a collectable printed magazine that shows what the contemporary artist is capable of. There is no good or bad street art/graffiti as long as the artist puts art in the public domain then it’s making a difference. I hate to see people do street pieces only to sell a print of the same piece the next day for hundreds of pounds. Money has become too big a part in this art scene but that’s inevitable. I just hope the next generation of artists bring pure originality and creativity to the street for the sake of the art rather then the prospect of earning money for their actions. Street art is dead, long live street art…
George Mcdonald – VNA Magazine
Your magazine has developed into one of the most widely followed street art based print publications in circulation today. What does the future hold for VNA and how important is the documentation of street art and graffiti to the magazine? P.s We love you.
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Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
George Mcdonald – VNA Magazine
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J E S S E H O GA N Artist Sydney
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We are now in a situation where the majority of our experience and perception of contemporary art/art history is conducted through the sites we browse on the www.net. This has completely, but not entirely, changed the game in art, in terms of our rapid intake of image and documentation and the notion of what we think of as art. Through this experience people’s practice has shifted towards more and more unconscious referencing of ideas and aesthetics that previously was reserved to the consumption of Books and Journals. Books and Journals did not allow for the same type of rapid copy and re-authoring that takes place today. Given this, the Floor Talks Series parodies this process manually, so that the shock/trauma of re-posting and re-authorship is stopped with a simulation of art that is unique and unable to be easily copied. By repainting the documentation of performance and installation the work also becomes a material object unto itself. Once encased in perspex it becomes sculptural. Sculpture is often an arrangement of multi functional objects of utility. Text, fluorescent light, deconstruction and walls all serve their own functions outside of conceptual art. The context in which the material, tool or communication device is placed in ‘is’ what alters its use and creates new meaning. I think the intentions are more complex and interlocked with more layers today than the dawn of conceptual art. In my own work, the Ready made,
Jesse Hogan – Artist
Your recent show at Sydney artist-run-initiative firstdraft aired complex thoughts about the nature of ownership of images and processes in contemporary art. Do the traditional tools of conceptual inquiry like text, fluorescent light, deconstruction and wall-space-interference communicate the same intention today as in the dawn of their era?
and the copy are explored through the retrieval of video and photographic material that is transformed into living documents, more artefacts (to fuel) for Baudrillards’ theory of the ‘Simulacrum.’ However, simulated collages of reality are by contrast incorporated into the dynamics of a sculptural field that consists of new constructed objects designed for the gallery space. Works are equally potent statements as they are artefacts of the creative process inherent in contemporary practice. Using the aid of fluorescent light, a consecrated material of minimalist art, the project works it beyond its mere formal possibilities: maximizing its physical attributes of luminosity and heat in the form of a utilitarian object - such as a lamp, a chair, or a table, a textual reference, or as an alter to the concept of the occult - through these processes, materials are altered in order to convey deeper social and psychological meanings.
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3 Jesse Hogan – Artist
How does the work in your new exhibition expand upon, critique or usurp this vocabulary?
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It may not be necessary to describe every project, exhibition, or every individual artwork in terms of a new separate piece with entirely new concepts, rather there is an overall analysis that can be spoken of in terms of an ongoing process where different dialogues with art intersect. From one work to the next there may be radical differences. This very aspect of the work is however the concept of this ongoing dialogue and game between artist, art world and audience. More importantly it is this difference that binds certain random practices, decisions, and motives and i.e. can be understood under as an umbrella referencing system‌ You can make connections between things that previously were unconnected.
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
Jesse Hogan – Artist
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SE A N MO RR IS Artist Perth
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
Yeah, I think I actually peaked in primary school; filling my books with drawings of Sonic The Hedgehog, TMNT and that Stussy S. I have no idea how I’m getting away with still doing this stuff as an adult. Dumb luck? Beard powers?
Sean Morris – Artist
Were you super-good at drawing awful shit in the margins of your school books? Replacing margins with solo exhibitions in London, LA and beyond, how did you end up professional at it?
Can we make the ‘new Mambo’ claim or do you get it all the time? Woah awesome, I’ve never had the ‘Mambo claim’ before. Kyle HughesOdgers and I have a theory that Beastman is actually the New Mambo.
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Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
Sean Morris – Artist
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Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
Sean Morris – Artist
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BE A S T M AN Artist Sydney
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
My latest work is not influenced by psychedelia, although it may appear that it is; the work is actually a result of 20 years of drawing and developing my style, and if it were to have one distinct influence, that influence would be nature. The work is fictional and futuristic, the entities or lifeforms featured in the paintings represent the overwhelming idea of nature coming to life in a way we could never have imagined, almost as though mankind was never meant to know or understand what nature could become. The colours in the paintings represent the different elements of the earth (water, fire, earth, air and spirit) while the symmetry, patterns and organic lines reflect those found in nature. Everything else in my style derives from my background in graphic design and my obsession with neatness, symmetry, geometry and use of vibrant colour, I guess it’s these visual elements of the paintings that relate to video games and help make them instantly recognisable as my work. I also like to leave my work open for interpretation, I would rather have the viewer use their imagination and see their own narratives, meanings and relevance in my paintings, whatever one of my paintings might mean to me, might mean something totally different to someone else, and I love that about making art.
Beastman – Artist
Your solo show ‘Cosmic Nature’ at Kind Of last year really got us talking. The fractal-face mystics and dreamscapes are the stuff of the video game of my dreams. Can you tell us about the influence of psychedelia in your new work?
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Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
Beastman – Artist
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Beastman – Artist
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P H IL IP PA E NID Photographer Sydney
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
There are a few photographers that have influenced my style, and I’m constantly admiring and aspiring towards so many talented people in the industry. English photographer Lara Jade has an amazing use of colour and flare in her images – adore! As for Aussie photographers: Corrie Bond and Steven Chee. What drives my interest? The ever-changing fashion industry. There’s so much out to to see and to shoot. You could never get bored shooting fashion, it’s always evolving; and then, simply the love for photographing people. I’ll be a happy if I can photograph people for the rest of my career!
Philippa Enid – Photographer
As an up-and-coming fashion photographer, what has influenced you in your photographic style and what drives your interest?
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Philippa Enid – Photographer
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Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
Philippa Enid – Photographer
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K A F F- E INE Street Artist Melbourne
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
I guess living and working in an area with so much incredible street art made it seem far more of a possibility than compared to how I’d feel if I was living in a place with no street art, or within a culture unsupportive of street art. Melbourne’s beautiful cobbled laneways and service alleys provide gorgeous ‘canvases’ on which to paint; it’s never hard to find a great spot to paint. The quality of Melbourne’s street art is so wonderful that it continually inspires me to improve.
Kaff-Eine – Street Artist
Hailing from Australia’s ‘art capital’ of Melbourne, how has living in this city motivated you to produce ephemeral work for the street rather than solely for institutions?
I probably do more commissioned work than street work, so I guess I also work for ‘institutions’ while doing the more ephemeral street pieces. I think it is important for me to do both: the commissioned works provide me with income, and sometimes make me create images outside of what I’d normally come up with. They also allow me to take my time making polished artworks, and I get to meet a whole range of great people, so that’s all neat. The exhibitions and other gallery spaces allow my works to be seen and appreciated by a broader range of people than if I only painted in laneways and forgotten spaces, which is also neat. On the other hand, the street work is challenging in a different way, super-fun with an edge, and it offers me complete freedom to paint whatever I want whenever I want. Page 71
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
Kaff-Eine – Street Artist
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Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
Kaff-Eine – Street Artist
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S NIK Stencil Artist Rutland
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
For me the process is a part of the finished piece. It is all one thing, granted when people see it they don’t know what has gone into it, but my work isn’t painted just for the public, it’s painted for myself as a personal project.
Snik – Stencil Artist
Your mind-boggling stencilling technique allows you to create near photorealism in your images. What continues to motivate you to put hundreds of hours into hand cut pieces, when some might say the same image could be more easily painted with a brush and tin of paint?
Many people often ask why I don’t just use a laser cutter to do all the cutting for me, but again this is a personal choice and challenge. Machines can do anything these days, but it leaves the final project without a soul, without the energy of hours and hours of hand cutting. There are photorealistic graffiti artists out there who achieve insane levels of detail, and much quicker, but thats not my aim with what I do; if speed was my issue I would learn much better can control than I have. I love the element of WTF when people realise it’s a stencil and not just standard graffiti. The stencil art scene right now is incredible, with people pushing so so hard, and always doing bigger and more detailed works, it’s this constant push that I thrive on and that always causes me to keep going and not take a step back to stop for a second. Page 77
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Snik – Stencil Artist
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Snik – Stencil Artist
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U N W E L L BU NN Y Street Artist Melbourne
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
In my opinion, it’s people that make being creative or artistic so worthwhile. While travelling, I met people both randomly and through contacts, sharing stories and talking about what’s important and so on. It’s these conversations that lead to painting things. People are the best part of art.
Unwell Bunny – Street Artist
As a well-known street artist having recently travelled abroad from Australia, how did you find integration into new street art circles in foreign cities? Was it difficult to get in contact with like-minded artists?
Travel and art seem almost like one and the same thing. Travelling through Europe stirred up senses that were loose. Once you found materials in each city you travelled to, it was just a matter of figuring out what to do with them. Sometimes the lack of materials added to the creative process. It is really a thrilling way to make art, and an incredibly productive way to make art.
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I have loved meeting international artists – it changes your outlook on things, and wakes you up to why you do art in the first place all over again. It also exposes you to ways of doing things and styles and ideas that can only come through experiencing different cultures. It reminds you not to get caught up and worry about small things, because there’s a big wide world out there that is doing things at an incredible speed and sharing everything. So don’t hoard ideas and experiences, give them back to the world and make it positive: add and contribute. At the end of the day, it isn’t really your art, or your ideas; it’s something for everyone else, where you also get to enjoy something from them.
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
Unwell Bunny – Street Artist
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Unwell Bunny – Street Artist
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C H R IS TA MM Street Artist Sydney
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
I will be a bit of a dick and talk about me instead. Just to show where I came from so you can see what I’m into and explain a bit about the Crash Corporation. I think probably the Sydney scene changed me and my tastes more than any changes. But the biggest changes are probably more public awareness, easier to get opportunities and an increased professionalism as more artists have gone career. What gets up on walls is still the most fun, everything else is just like the movie of the book.
Chris Tamm – Street Artist
With your Crash Propaganda poster series spanning well over a decade on the facades of Sydney; what changes have you observed over the years in regard to the street postering scene?
In the early 2000s I was pasting up three nights a week under several names and styles and brands for several years. It was the style then to constantly create new brands and styles and try new media. Everything was more anonymous without the web and blowing thousands of dollars a year on photos was normal. Most of us were also DJs or electronic musicians too. CRASH! was a shared brand and I have continued to thrash it on exhibitions, posters, stickers, paste ups, zines, books, stamps, shirts whatever I was doing. Probably inspired by John Heartfield, Dada, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger. Ed Kupers collage and stencil comics and Seth Tabocman stencil comics in the 80s. Page 89
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3 Chris Tamm – Street Artist
It was, in part, political Agit-POP poster art that brought me to Sydney. BUGAUP was a great influence and it was cool being a fill bitch and helper on the MAY’S panel. Sydney has some great political art. I do see more people being token ‘political’ in art more often because it’s a genre cliché – rather than having done anything to help their communities or aid any cause deeper than their wallet. I’m getting old and less angry and mysteriously I’ve lost interest in shock or my ability to make any big changes to the world’s fate. Now I’ve been in Sydney long enough that lots of local Sydney folk I’ve known have since left. The Movement loyalty royalty thing suffered a bit as artists fragmented and had different career goals, and most just straight up paint more. The current up and coming generation have lots going for them and have really good attitudes so I wish them all the best. It’s good seeing lots of new artists pasting strange new stuff.
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GI N A MA R T Y N O VA Artist New York
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
I approach all projects in the same manner. For Deux Leux I started with watercolors and small paintings, which where eventually scanned in and then turned into motifs for the textile repeat. The idea behind my art is for it to be able to translate to fashion seamlessly and the Deux Lux is a perfect example of this.
Gina Martynova – Artist
How do you approach your illustrations for fashion prints compared to your fine art work? Are they both made with the same vision or do you separate these practices as art and design?
My new scarf line ‘Starry’ will be launched in October during a one night pop up show and mini runway event. The scarves were inspired by Asian textile prints. The scarves are direct reproductions of paintings from my Starry Reawakening series. The idea is to be able to wear my art and has it be affordable and functional. I initially attended the London College of Fashion because I wanted to be a fashion designer only to become enticed by the life drawing and mood boards. Now its come full circle since I am a painter, footwear accessories designer and fashion illustrator.
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Gina Martynova – Artist
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RUMTUM Musician/ producer Seattle
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
Releasing digital tracks online is a total instant gratification. There’s always an urge to release anything I do for free, kind of my childish enthusiasm. It’s kind of like cleaning your car, it just feels good after it’s all done. Although, there is always the debate on free art degrading the artist...? Depends on your purpose for making the art...
RUMTUM – Musician & Producer
Do you find releasing music independently via Bandcamp to be particularly empowering for emerging musicians? Do you like releasing your music for free?
On the Real to Reel, put your stuff out! See if people will blog it, see if people will jam it. Go home happy with a few more hits and maybe get a review from your favorite music blog. If you will it, they might listen! http://rumtum.bandcamp.com/
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U N IT Y F LO O R S Band Sydney
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
The lo-fi thing is funny, we get tagged with that a bit – don’t get me wrong I don’t think it’s a bad thing, I guess we just never really thought about it. There was never a ‘let’s start a lo-fi band’ conversation or anything like that. We would just jam at my place, recorded with what we had (which wasn’t much) and things kinda just went from there.
Unity Floors – Band
What has most inspired your sound in regard to your lo-fi aesthetic?
Both of us are big on the whole DIY approach, so that probably has a lot to do with it. We try to keep it amongst friends – now our mate Nick Franklin helps us out with recording and we’ve been friends with him since before we even started playing music together. http://unityfloors.bandcamp.com/
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Unity Floors – Band
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Photos: Miles Martignoni
F IS H IN G Band Sydney
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
Using samples doesn’t really change the process dramatically for us. Although finding a sample or sound usually sparks the initial idea, we try to avoid letting a single sample become the basis for entire songs. So we use samples more as a palette for our songwriting. Most of this consists of listening to tapes and records and searching for solo instruments, or parts of songs where the arrangement isn’t cluttered, where there is still potential to expand an idea to something that it never was.
Fishing – Band
When making sample based music, do you find that the samples you come across determine most of the songwriting process?
It’s a really fun thing to start off with a sample that never really was intended to be a groove, like a really simple instrumental intro or outro or something like that, and then flesh it out into a complete song in its own right. Sometimes it sounds like the performers on exotica records and stuff like that might have had a bit of freedom to play something that wasn’t totally part of the song’s written arrangement in the last 4 bars or something like that, and it’s fun to turn those little flourishes into the basis of something when they were added into the original songs more as a cadence. It’s kind of like a game of exquisite corpse where you’re given one single idea that ended one song, and have to make an entirely new song from it. Most of the time we just sample single notes or drum hits, and use these sounds to make songs from scratch, just a regular guy. Page 103
http://www.fishingsounds.com/
W H E AT F IE L D S Band Sydney
Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3
Your music is dreamy, psychedelic and lo-fi at once. How did you come to record this 7” and from what influences did you draw these sounds?
http://wheat-fields.bandcamp.com/
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The synth line right at the end of Heaven is a Place is really similar to a bass line in a Bound Stems song; part of the vocal melody resembles a Slowdive track; hell – the whole B-side track is a virtual rip-off of Souvlaki Space Station – ha. Remember when all those old jazz dudes (I’m not about to compare us in anyway at all to those guys by the way!) would play a run from somebody else’s track in their own and it would be like a tribute – a way of acknowledging how awesome another artist is – that’s kinda what I feel like we’re doing here. We originally named the project after Bound Stems’ second album ‘The Family Afloat’ so it seemed fitting that after we chucked this under the Wheat Fields banner that we give the second track on the 7” the same title. I feel like we’re firm believers of the notion that the more music you listen to the better music you make.
Wheat Fields – Band
The track originated from a variety of places and sounds but essentially it started with josh and I wanting to start a dream pop orientated band with a great friend of ours Maddie. At the time it was intended to be a separate project to Wheat Fields. The tracks were written primarily by Josh although our principal concern with the single was the sound of each instrument. At the time we were listening to a bunch of different bands (Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, Mazzy Star, Bound Stems, Memoryhouse, Beach House, Swervedriver, The Black Ryder and a shitload more) all of whom have a real unique sound and when we set out recording the single we had a lot of these sounds in mind. The production on the single was a really strung process because of this. We spent ages tinkering with pedals, different tones and layers of guitars. It’s not as if we were looking for perfection; I think we just wanted authenticity.
T H E E ND Magazine Issue Three
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Knock Knock Magazine Issue 3 Credits & Links Page 107
Abyss .607: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Abyss-607/100966116684258 Beastman: www.beastman.com.au/ Bennett: http://www.b-e-n-n-e-t-t.com/ Chris Tamm: http://www.facebook.com/konsumterra C215: http://www.flickr.com/photos/c215/ Fishing: http://www.fishingsounds.com/ Gina Martynova: http://www.ginamartynova.com/ Jesse Hogan: http://www.artabase.net/artist/525-jesse-hogan Kaffeine: http://kaffeinestreetartist.wordpress.com/ Nelio: http://www.flickr.com/photos/neli0/ Phibs: http://www.phibs.com Phillipa Enid: http://www.philippaenid.com/ RUMTUM: http://rumtum.bandcamp.com/ Sean Morris: http://www.illsean.com/ SMC[3]: http://smc3.net/ Snik: http://www.visualdirt.co.uk/ Unity Floors: http://unityfloors.bandcamp.com/ Unwell Bunny: http://edbechervaise.blogspot.com.au/ VNA Magazine: http://verynearlyalmost.com/blog/ Wheat Fields: http://wheat-fields.bandcamp.com/