Bright Diaries

bright brighttradeshow tradeshowXVIII XVIII bright tradeshow january january 15th 15th - 17th - 17th 2014 2014 XVIII bright XVIII january 15thtradeshow - 17th 2014 january 15th - 17th 2014

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eric eric wareheim wareheim / neil / neil krug krug x leif x leif podhajsky podhajsky / young / young fathers fathers eric wareheim / neil krug x leif podhajsky / young fathers eric wareheim / neil krug x leif podhajsky / young fathers mike mike joyce joyce / josh / josh cheuse cheuse / andrew / andrew raerae / la / la boca boca mike joyce / josh /marx andrew rae / la boca youri youri lenquette lenquette / stefan /cheuse stefan marx mike joyce / josh cheuse youri lenquette / stefan marx/ andrew rae / la boca youri lenquette / stefan marx

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T H E

B A L A N C E

R V C A . C O M

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BRIGHT INTRO Ladies & Gents,

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welcome to edition XVIII of the Bright tradeshow... we trust life has treated you friendly since the last time we spoke.

Over here, we generally don’t treat music like some kind of random backdrop, like something additional or marginally important, because for us, it’s a necessity – like food or water. And yet talking about music is a bit like dancing to architecture, meaning: done right, it can be a revelation, but in most cases it’s a rather crooked experience (and just not as good as the real thing: the music itself). So that’s exactly why we decided to focus on fantastically executed music-related imagery instead, because as you’ve probably already guessed, the second issue of Bright Diaries indeed has a theme and central topic: MUSIC. Turn up the volume, because we’re happy to present a whole bunch of gifted individuals, whose photography and artwork swings to its own beat – and has stuck with us like a tune you can’t get out of your head, for years.

So, yeah, bang your head to this. And have a safe trip through this cold season.

Yours truly, Bright

BRIGHT IMPRINT creative direction – Marco Aslim / Thomas Martini editor in chief – Sven Fortmann editor – Renko Heuer proofreading – Florian Feyerabend art direction – Tobias Friedberg / Paale Lüdcke / www.aokimatsumoto.com graphics – Jan Münz cover art – Mike Joyce / stereotype-nyc.com printing – BluePrint AG / Lindberghstraße 17 / 80939 München publisher – Bright GmbH & Co KG / Schwedlerstr. 1-5 / 60327 Frankfurt

www.brighttradeshow.com special shootouts to all artists involved; thank you all so much for your contribution and patience … we’re very proud to have you on board for this one.

Neil Krug / Leif Podhajsky / Martine Johanna / Young Fathers / Eric Wareheim / Youri Lenquette / Josh Cheuse / Akira Beard / Andrew Rae / Joe Mansfield / Ben Venom / Bunny Bissoux / La Boca / Mike Joyce / Shea Serrano / Bun B / Reebee Garofalo / Sergio Membrillas / Stefan Batsch / Stefan Marx

EINE STREETWEAR, S K AT E B O A R D I N G UND SNEAKER MESSE IN BERLIN J A N UA RY 15 — J A N UA RY 17 2 014

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B R I G H T C O M PA N Y B R U N N E N ST R . 19 – 21, B E R L I N / M I T T E B R I G H T T R A D E S H O W. C O M

XVIII

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SONGBIRD OF HIS ILLUSTRATIONS

ANDREW RAE

andrewrae.org.uk • nobrow.net

WORDS: RENKO HEUER

“Only boring people get bored,” one of A N D R E W R A E ’s incredible illustrations is called, and he’s obviously not part of this group: A member of the Peepshow Collective, who works for tons of hi-profile clients – ranging from The Mighty Boosh and the biggest newspapers around, to Vice or DC Snowboards –, London-based Rae also has a band (of illustrators) called Owen & The Eyeballs – they “make and wear new costumes for every gig and encourage the audience to have pillow fights and howl like werewolves” –,

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and he’s about to release his first graphic novel “Moonhead & The Music Machine” in 2014 via NoBrow Press: “People have been telling me I should do a graphic novel for a long time but I was pretty daunted about it, but at last I’ve finally got round to finishing it, it’s taken all year,” he explains. “It tells the story of a teenage boy with a moon for a head who doesn’t quite fit in at school. He finds his mind (in fact his whole head) wandering off during lessons and conversations until he meets a ghostboy who helps him invent and make an extraordinary new music machine, which harnesses his skills.

It’s kind of autobiographical in a way, although it’s set in an alternate universe; I wanted to write a story about creativity, day dreaming and music as they’re all things that are close to my heart and part of my experience, so I combined all of that with my love of designing creatures and characters and really enjoyed working on it. I’ve also written some songs to go with it that I’m hoping to record and put out in some form or another, or at least to perform at the launch party with a live Moonhead band.”

Ever-busy Rae, who loves garage rock and recently made an eclectic playlist for Studio Music (studiomusic.fm), also has two illustrated art history books coming out in 2014 – “This is Warhol” and “This is Dali” –, and at the time we spoke, he was already planning a bunch of gigs with his band (one of them with Dave Brown of Ape Inc. and The Mighty Boosh) “to shake off the winter blues.”

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NE V ER INTIMIDATED

Josh Cheuse

Beastie Boys on the set of “She’s On It“ music video, Long Beach NY, 1986

Born in NYC in the mid-sixties, photography heavy-weight J O S H C H E U S E is a textbook example of “right time, right place” – not to mention right approach: After getting into shooting black-and-white photos at age 16, he soon found himself around some of the biggest and most inspiring names in rap, rock and beyond. How he did it? Never intimidated, he just called them up: “Punk rock said we were all the same. I called The Clash from my school payphone and said could I come and photograph them in the studio.

The manager said come. Joe Strummer asked me what I was doing and handed me the

studio polaroid to mess around with.

He shoved me into the studio while Mick was doing a vocal on ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go’. He was using me as a decoy so he and his pal Joe Ely, a great Texas singer, could sneak up behind Mick while he was singing. They jumped out screaming, and Mick was too cool, and he just said ‘Split!’ You can hear it on the record.”

Having shot legendary groups like the Beasties or Run-D.M.C., he worked with MGMT and The Black Crowes more recently and still thinks black-and-white is the shit: “It’s my true love. When I saw D.A. Pennebaker’s

‘Dont Look Back’ with Bob Dylan or the work of Robert Frank I knew. It just has so much more depth to me. I really believe that there was a chemical reaction with the spirit of the subject and the film. But the alchemy of the chemicals is going the way of the dinosaurs and we have to find new ways to find the magic. Color always seemed like a distraction from the real question, which to me is, ‘How are we going to live?’ in this insane world we have created. So much beauty together with so much pain. That’s where music comes in. It gives one a path.”

joshcheuse.com • colette.fr/content/josh-cheuse • morrisonhotelgallery.com words: RENKO HEUER

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ADROCK from Beastie Boys with mural by Cey and Shadi, 21Street New York City, 1984

“Well, to quote a musician friend, ‘the days of drinking champagne out of a cowboy boot at dawn are over.’

Thank God. I’m just glad I’m still here to tell it because so many aren’t.”

– J. Cheuse

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Schoolly D and Code Money in Belfast, Northern Ireland on tour supporting Big Audio Dynamite, 1985.

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27 RUN DMC and Teddy No Neck, Silvercup Studios Queens, on the set of “Krush Groove“, 1985

Beastie Boys on the set of “She’s On It“ music video, Long Beach NY, 1986

RUN DMC's feet under the table at The Fresh Fest Press Conference, New York, 1984.

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Pizza and Soul Food, Hollis Queens, NY, 1984.

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Reebee Garofalo

/

Rock Music Chart

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Genealogy of Pop

Teaching at UMass Boston since 1978, REEBEE GAROFALO has done everything from producing benefit concerts to studying music as a social indicator. His classic “Genealogy of Pop/Rock Music Chart”, reproduced here (and available as a poster at History Shots), covers the time period from 1955 to 1978, including more than 700 artists and over 30 styles of music. Says Reebee: “For me, creating this chart was a labor of love that drew equally from my love of popular music (for content) and my attraction to the contours of “pinstriping” on customized 1950s cars (for graphic design).“

historyshots.com • reebee.net words: Renko Heuer

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OHM SWEET OHM

STEFAN MAR X

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s-marx.de • smallville-records.com • lousylivin.com words: FORTY

Lousy Livin. Cleptomanicx. And then some more. Introducing STEFAN MAR X on these pages would be like teaching an Irishman to drink, since he has left the status of being an insiders’ tip a long time ago already. The same actually can be said about Smallville Records - besides Solomun’s Diynamic outfit Hamburg’s most reliable synonym for blissful hours under the mirror ball. Having emerged from the concept and record store of the very same name, Smallville teamed up with Marx as soon as they were ready to release their first EP. “I got involved because I’m good friends with Stella Plazonja, Julius Steinhoff and Peter Kersten.

When they founded the Smallville record shop in 2005, they’ve asked me for a little logo drawing and a logotype. Before that, I wasn’t really involved in music-related artwork...

I’ve just finished my very first cover for the Isolée album “We Are Monster”, which was released by Playhouse back then. Anyway, since then I do all the flyers and posters for our Smallville label nights, and since we still release records in a physical format I do all the cover artwork as well. Since a few years Just von Ahlefeld partnered up with us, so it is really fantastic to work on record covers and other ideas around Smallville Records. Right now, we’ve just started to work on our 8th album and 37th EP release!“.

Even though this liaison is a success story in its own terms, Stefan Marx’s work for Smallville feels strangely underrated and off-the-radar measured by the wide recognition the majority of his art is achieving. Maybe it’s because it seems to be his most personal and abstract work. Maybe it’s because one wouldn’t connect Marx to club culture in the first place. Or maybe it’s just me who’s on the wrong track here. “My work for Smallville Records is very personal, I sometimes see it as an editioned release of my drawings. I neither write the name of the artist on the cover, nor the title. It is just my work. We do all EP releases in black and white only, the albums sometimes show some colorful works on the cover though.

Also, every single release is so much about the fantastic music, my work is just the jacket, the image to the music, not necessarily connected to the recipient. It is also not pressured by any monetary means, it is very niche. I always have the whole back catalog in mind while thinking about upcoming releases... and I have pretty much all freedom I could ask for to do things. Last year I did my own release on Smallville: a publication on Nieves Books, accompanied by a 12“ record sleeve that contains three folded posters (90cm x 60cm). It is the first release of my band The Dead Sea“.

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A poisoned mind

words / interview: Renko Heuer

ERIC WAREHEIM That awkward dancing, that half-ugly cast (in tight clothes), those over-the-top costumes and insane colors – E r i c W a r e h e i m might be no household name like Spike Jonze yet, but if you’ve seen one of his comedy shows or his mind-bending music videos, you’ll probably remember it – simply because you were laughing so hard (or sat in front of the screen, mouth agape and utterly speechless).

Alongside his partner Tim Heidecker, Wareheim is the Eric in “Tim and Eric” (full title goes: “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!”), that superweird and surrealistic Adult Swim comedy series rightfully described as “the nightmare version of television” by its originators.

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Whereas TV was rarely more convincing and unique (and crazy) than here, Wareheim has also been raising the bar of music videography since 2007: Working for the likes of Flying Lotus (“Dance Floor Dale”), MGMT (“The Youth”), Major Lazer (“Pon de Floor”, “Keep it Goin’ Louder”) and Health (“We Are Water”), there was a bit of a hiatus while he was shooting “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie” (featuring Ray Wise, Zach Galifianakis, Will Ferrell, Jeff Goldblum, and John C. Reilly), but in 2013 he returned with two of the best music videos in the history of mankind, when he had Twin Peaks legend Ray Wise (Leland) sing “Wishes” by Beach House (portraying

is a weird thing: showing a funny bit and playing an awesome song are almost the same feeling, you just kind of feel like you’re communicating something to someone else, and you’re seeing it happen immediately.

As for those bands you were in, there are quite a few names floating around: Twelve Tone System, The Science Of, Sola – and then Ink & Dagger. Are those the bands you’re referring to?

Yeah.

a Coach/God figure on a horse) and, only a few months later, blew up twerking to finally implode on itself

Which one was the most fun to play live with?

in Major Lazer’s hilarious “Bubble Butt” video. For our music special, we just had to talk shop with the man.

This band called Sola was probably the best. At one point we had an eight-person band when we played live; we had a percussionist, saxophone player, just a lot of different people on stage, and it was just really this wall of sound groove kind of thing.

Wow. So, did you dance – on stage?

Not really.

I mean, dancing is quite important in your videos, and in everything you’ve done.

Eric, you once said that there was a moment when music was your “entire thing”. Can you describe that “moment”? I guess it was while you were playing in all those bands…

36 Yeah, I was playing in hardcore bands since I was 15, 16. We would play all over the place around Philadelphia, and then I went to college in Philadelphia and started playing in a bunch of different kinds of bands. You know, I went to school as a film student, but I always really wanted to just play music. That was, like, my passion. So I started making some early music videos, just for my bands for fun.

Yeah. We were kind of like just a bunch of white guys, and some white girls, and we had this energy inside of us, but we harnessed it through our instruments, not really through our bodies, you know? It was dance-y music, but… you know, I think about my music videos that way: I was very close to being a raver, I mean I’m technically not skilled to dance, but I’ve always wanted to be able to have a lot of rhythm and groove and to do that kind of thing. So I think a lot of my videos are me projecting myself onto other people that really dance – or dance funny, you know? I’ve always been able to dance really… silly. That’s fun to me too.

And you played the bass in those bands?

You were dreaming of becoming the next Lynch or Kubrick back then, but if you could have chosen between making it in the movies, big time, or becoming the biggest musician – which was the bigger dream in those days?

Definitely musician. Definitely musician.

I played different instruments in all the different bands I played in. I played guitar, that was my main instrument; I played bass, keyboards. I sort of acted as the composer in most of my projects.

I wasn’t always the guy that was the best-skilled guy, but I always kind of knew that I wanted a song to sound a certain way, so I’d take all these parts and mold them into a final composition.

Yeah?

Yeah, I grew up loving MTV and loving bands, and playing live was the coolest thing. Really having that live connection with people rocking out. I don’t think I understood film making while I was in college or even after college; I didn’t even think it was a possibility… it didn’t make any sense really until I started making these videos with Tim and then showing them in a live space. At that moment, it was almost the same feeling as being in a band, it was this live reaction to something. You know, comedy

What about you and Tim, say when you create a new song for a sketch: Who’s usually responsible for which part, and how do you get started?

Well, we usually just sit around, and we’ll literally just sing the theme song to something, and whoever has that original idea will kind of just get it on tape real quickly, like on our phones.

And then Tim will take it and turn it into a real song, but we also have a composer that oftentimes will take our little singing

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E r i c W a r e h e i m in TIM & ERIC’S BILLION DOLLAR MOVIE, a Magnet Release. Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing

and compose it into a real song, using the different styles that we want – whether it’d be a nineties song, a hardrock song or whatever.

stuff, hardcore bands, punk bands, and then more instrumental bands.

Post-rock, right?

And back when you did the first DIY music videos to those early songs you recorded with those bands, did you already dream of making big-budget music videos one day? Or is it something that happened later, after everything took off with Tim? No, I always dreamed of doing music videos. I just never thought it was a possibility; just like film-making, it was always one of these things where I was like, “Oh, I’ll never get there. I don’t know how that would even happen.” And coming back to this MTV thing: When I started making Tim & Eric, I had my own show with name in it, but: When I had my first music video, my The Bird and the Bees video, that aired on MTV, that was a more powerful moment for some reason, because of my childhood, and seeing it on MTV I was so proud of it! It was kind of bizarre.

So before we talk about some more recent videos, let’s go further back in time for a second: The type of MTV stuff you grew up with, who exactly are we talking about here? What kinds of looks and sounds were you into at that early age?

Well, the early stuff was like Poison. I’m trying to think of the earliest stuff that I was into… shit, man.

This was in the early eighties, mid-eighties?

38 Yeah. And Poison, to me the whole outlandish nature of it, I just loved that. I never wanted to look like that, but I just loved the idea of it: This was so crazy, and the colors were so wild, and they’re so silly! These ridiculous characters, I just remember seeing that and being like, “that’s so awesome and funny at the same time.”

You really found it silly? Because I guess they wanted to be serious in some way… and I guess as a kid you usually don’t even get that silly part, right?

Yeah, it was a combination of thinking “that’s awesome” and “that’s silly”. I always knew their looks were ridiculous! And as a kid I never aspired to have teased-out hair and pink spandex – even though I wear a lot of crazy pink spandex in my sketches.

But I think that Poison and all these wild hair metal bands helped inform the later stuff. So that was the early stuff.

Was it just guitar bands you listened to? I’m asking because the eighties were so over-the-top in every genre, really. The whole decade was all about that.

Yeah. I would say it was a lot of hip-hop and rap and metal. Early, early on, for me it was that kind of stuff. And then once I turned 13 or 14 or 15, I started listening to more punk rock-sounding

Yeah, post-rock kind of stuff.

I read that somewhere, Tortoise and such things, but I immediately thought: Post-rock is such a restrained, tight thing – you know, post-rock would still make sense if it was played by guys in uniforms. Whereas your stuff, what you’re doing in these videos and your sketches, it’s pretty much the opposite of that!

I totally agree, and I think the scene that I was in during my younger years, like high school, college, and after college, I was in this post-rock, artistic community. You know, everyone tried to look cool, no one was too flamboyant, all the bands looked exactly the same – they all wore skinny pants, black. And there was always this side of me that is very silly, and very… still thinking about Poison, you know? I never did it in my personal life or in my bands but that’s where I saw things visually happen.

So where do you begin when getting started on a new video? Do you start with the band, the people, whatever they have in them that’s linked to that Poison stuff? The song? Or just some shit you came up with the day before?

The way I work with videos is that usually someone will send me a song, and if it’s a band I don’t know I won’t even look them up. It’s really just inspired by the music alone. I’ve been pretty lucky to work with some really great artists that just totally trust me. They’ve seen my other music videos or they’ve seen my TV shows or my movie, and I usually tell them: “If you want me to do something good, you have to kind of let me be free. Don’t give me any notes. Usually you won’t be in the video at all.” That’s how I prefer it. I mean sometimes, with the Major Lazer stuff, I’ll take elements of the culture – you know, what’s happening in the Jamaican dancehall scene, and take little elements, but then kind of explode them, almost like we’re back in the eighties, with the colors and the outfits and make-up and hair. So it’s really, the way it comes to me is by listening to the song. Sometimes this doesn’t happen, but sometimes it does that there’s this spark; I just see one little moment, and then I keep thinking about that moment, and from that, I write that down, and then other moments will come to me, and then the story will happen – and then that’s it. For example, with the Health “We Are Water” video I woke up from this crazy dream.

It looks like a crazy dream.

Yeah, it’s not exactly what I dreamt about, but it was just this really scary dream of being kidnapped, and that was the release, the moment you get away from your kidnapper. They all come from such small moments, and then you kind of slowly build

them out into a story, and then you add the visual elements to it.

Usually, early on I’m like, okay, I can totally see what the colors are going to be for this, or how the performers are going to act.

Would you say that you’re always looking for something different? Because with a sketch, you’re sort of looking for laughter in the end, that punch line, whereas with a music video… I mean especially some of your recent ones, they weren’t so much about laughter but do you walk away from them going, holy shit what did I just see?

You’re exactly right, the nice thing about music videos is that you don’t have to have this punch line. Sometimes just the mood of it is enough to make you laugh or to make you scared or to create a combination, like the Beach House video, I felt like that one was… or a lot of people also said they feel something in this video, this kind of emotion of these characters trying to make this perfect performance for this God-like coach-character. Those are the kind of things I think about before I go in to shoot them, feeling like “this is going to be lighthearted,” like the Major Lazer ones, or the Health and the Beach House, they feel like I really want to go for a different tone. It’s not going to be a laugh. I just want to create this environment where you feel different. It’s not real life, you know? It’s this fourth-dimensional universe where things are a little bit tweaked but it all sort of makes sense within their universe.

Yeah, and having Ray Wise for example in the Beach House video, that was Victoria’s (LeGrand, the singer) idea after she saw him in your movie?

Yeah, we talked about a video and she was like, “I have a couple of images. I have a horse, and I know Ray Wise has to be in it.”

And I was like, “that’s perfect. I love Ray Wise. He’s been in my movie and my TV show, I could probably get him.” And I knew his performance would fit her beautiful singing so perfectly. He has the skills to bring that emotion. So, yeah, it was awesome.

You know, another thing about these music videos is that they’re actually really fun to do. It’s fun to come up with these ideas and actually see them come through. You know, when I was a kid, I would have some of these ideas but with your dad’s video camera and your high school buddies you’d make something that looked… you know, “okay”. But nowadays, you know sometimes you get a $100 000 to create something which is just crazy.

“let’s try to make something in the future.” And then they finally had a song that they thought would work for me, so they sent me the song – and they’re just a perfect example of just trusting me.

Not giving me any notes on the video and just saying, “Here you go.”

Which is interesting, because over the last couple of records they released, they seemed to become more and more serious about what they do. So if they gave you all that freedom, this must have been a lot of trust…

Yeah, and that was a huge compliment because I know how serious they take their music, and they’re so particular about all their visuals and all their artwork and all of that stuff, so I was just so flattered that they kind of just let me go with it. When you work with any artist, it’s like, they don’t want their record label telling them how the song should sound like, they know the process, and yeah, thank God they were cool enough to just let it happen.

What about the reactions, because I only heard positive reactions to that video – whereas with the other stuff you’ve been doing, you’ll always find someone who’s so weirded out by, that they just go “what the fuck, I don’t get this!” Was it new for you to get all-positive feedback?

That was very, very new. Very new. Everything I’ve ever put out has been very polarizing, which at first kind of sucked. I didn’t understand. You know, you want everyone to love you! But slowly, with the Tim & Eric stuff we learned that not everyone is going to love us, but the people that do get it, they really get it – and that makes it that much more special. So over the years I’ve sort of learned to just live with that and almost appreciate that we have a small niche in the visual world, and it’s the same with my videos. But the Beach House thing, I think, was save enough; it wasn’t, like, booty girls in skinny outfits, it was more traditional in a sense, it was more palatable. I think because of that emotional level, and the fact that the song was so beautiful, I think all those elements led it to be like, okay, this pretty much makes people happy. No one’s going to go crazy on this. You know, a lot of people actually say I ruin the songs because of the visuals, but I don’t think I did on this one.

Hell, no, not at all! How important was improvisation for this one? Because in shooting your sketches, it’s quite an important element, right? Are the music videos more planned out?

Yeah, so, Beach House, is that an old Baltimore connection?

I was already friends with the manager through some other work I did with some Baltimore bands, this was when I lived in Philadelphia and was still a photographer, before I came out to L.A. and started working in Hollywood. So he became the manager of Beach House, I was, like, a mega fan of Beach House, I heard that Beach House loved our TV shows, and so we just became friends. We started hanging out and we’d always say

Yeah, the music videos are much more planned out than the comedy, unless when it comes to dance performances. Sometimes I’ll let them go, let the moment happen and let them have their, like, inspiration on the day. So it’s a little different than comedy; comedy is like, we’ll set up a scenario, and then Tim and I will riff and improvise until we find the joke, but this is, at least most of the time, more planned out, just for production reasons, like: Okay, we’re shooting in this forest, there’s this monster running

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through the shot, then you got a knife… there’s not much room for improvisation there. But my general attitude is, if something new pops up, we’ll do it. I’m open to ideas. I have the best crew in the world, these collaborators that help style the video and help do the art, the photography; each of them will add their own little spice to it, right on the moment we’ll do something new, and so I’m open to that but it’s a little less improvisation than comedy.

Was it? Because it doesn’t look that way.

“Now do a 69!” And they were like, “okay!” It was fun, but we had to kind of keep it serious on set so that we wouldn’t embarrass them.

What’s the story with the Dutch Boys – and that “Backpacker Bush” video, for example?

Who’s responsible for the costumes?

My first stylist was Amanny Ahmad, who is a good friend of mine. She did the early Major Lazer videos, the Health video, and then for the later stuff I worked with Mindy Le Brock and Diana Contreras. They did my movie, they’ve done some of my TV work, and they’re just amazing artists. I give them a little bit of a start and they take it from there and create some amazing stuff.

Which one was your personal favorite in terms of having fun while actually shooting it?

Well, I got to tell you that the shooting itself is not fun to do.

The shooting of it is always insane and a hundred disasters are happening – every second. Like the “Bubble Butt”, for example, you know there’s this shot where the walls fall down, and then the nightclub is revealed?

Yeah, sure.

40 This was one of the most complicated shots I’ve ever done, it took hours to set that up, and we lost that clip when we transferred it from the camera to the computer.

Holy shit.

Yeah, so at the end of the day, at two in the morning after a full 14-hour day of shooting, we had to recreate that set and do it again. Those kinds of moments are happening non-stop, so I can’t really say it’s fun. I mean the overall experience is fun because I’m so happy that I get to make something and it comes together, but on the day it’s more like, you just have to focus so hard on it… I’m trying to think if there was an easy one where I was like, “oh, this is great.” I mean the early Major Lazer stuff, “Pon de Floor”, that was probably the most fun because I could not believe how talented and amazing these dancers were. Truly, I never saw anything like that, and it was really fun just to be around that and see it.

What about “Dance Floor Dale”? That one looks like it must’ve been pretty funny to shoot.

That was so amazing, but that’s because I’d never directed people before to be so sexual, and they weren’t, you know, very skilled actors, they were just up for it. It was awkward, you know?

Dutch Boys, you know, sometimes Doug (Lussenhop) and I, when Tim & Eric tour, Doug and I will DJ the after party. He’s really musical and I’m really musical; we love to dance, and we play dance music, and while we were in Australia touring last year, drunkenly we came up with this “Backpacker Bush” song.

We were literally hanging out at a backpacker bar, saw a bunch of, like, hairy girls, and so we came up with that. And because we have this YouTube channel called Jash, they financed it; they help fund these projects for us, so we just made it for fun.

I see. There are so many trademark elements to your videos – the dancing, the characters, the costumes, the colors and the editing… – which one is your “pet” thing, the one aspect that’s the most important to you?

It’s really hard to whittle it down to one element, but I guess the #1 thing would be casting. I’m very, very particular – I mean look at “Dance Floor Dale”: Those two people, because they could be serious and not silly, and can translate this real feeling like Ray Wise does; you know, Dale has the same energy as Ray Wise, and Ray Wise is a Hollywood actor. I think I take a lot of care in getting these people, but at the same time it’s every element. Every little piece of clothing; I’m very in tune with the art department, weeks and weeks of sketches and colors… I think it’s really a combination of things.

Do you find beautiful people boring, generally speaking?

Yes. Absolutely.

How ugly or half-beautiful is “just right” then?

To me, beauty is in little interesting things about people. You know, beauty is, like, their personality. Beauty is – a “newness” to people. When we cast people, the first thing is: I never wanted to live within these confines of a Hollywood production. You know, every music video we see features just beautiful people, traditionally, and that just bored me to death. In my world it’s different. Everything is different; it’s just kind of how I would want to see things. So it is a very conscious effort to cast people that are not the ordinary. Sometimes they’re pretty people, and sometimes they’re handsome, but most of the time they’re just interesting or – real. You know, the girls have a couple pounds on them, just like regular girls do, you know? And the guys sometimes are, like, really creepy and funny – that’s a really

important part to it, to both my music videos and the comedies, to have interesting, real people.

How do you do it, you set up a regular casting and then people just show up? Ever had people who were kind of a bit too ugly?

Yeah, I mean just like the costumes are important, having the right producers that know my style and can find the right places to do these auditions. It’s always fun when we find a new person and think, “Oh shit, that’s amazing, I never thought of that.” For example, in “Dance Floor Dale” I was auditioning the girls and a guy, Dale, brought his girlfriend to the audition; she was dancing, and she was okay, but I looked over at Dale, and I saw him, like, bobbin’ his head, really getting into it, and I said, “Do you want to audition?” He was like, “No, no, I’m just here with my girlfriend.” I was like, “No, go for it, you should get up there.” And he went up there and danced – the same way in which he danced in the video, which I’d never seen anyone dance like, it’s this super unique, funny, bizarre thing, and we were like, “That’s our lead!”

So we find people from everywhere. We try to go outside of your traditional casting methods. We go on Craigslist, we pin up ads all over town…

So do you think it’s a good time, generally speaking, for music videos? After all, budgets got so small after 1999, but now with mp3 sales and the industry seemingly getting back on its feet, how are your feelings about this? Do you feel like you’re in a good, or at least in an okay place?

I think it’s a bad place in terms of trying to make a big budget video. You know, the budgets are just so small nowadays; you’re lucky if a band has 50 000 Dollars, that’s an expensive music video. So it’s hard to make really insane, nuts-o, over-the-top stuff, but there’s all these places, for example this YouTube world that I’m in, Jash, they have some money to throw around, and we do things without any notes. So there are pockets of the world where you can still make cool music videos, but generally, because the market is so fucked, the bands just can’t afford to spend it like that anymore – unless you’re like a mega huge band.

What do you think about the audience nowadays? You said earlier you grew up with MTV, and now you have billions of new clips hitting the web every day. Do you hate this kind of competition, or do you think it’s a good thing because it helps raise the bar?

I think that YouTube is generally bad, because there is so much stuff, and anyone can throw something up, and there’s not a special place anymore for music videos, but at the same time it allows for people that don’t have any money to give it a shot, you know? Tim and I came up before the YouTube thing happened, when it was a lot harder – you had to send a DVD to someone –, but nowadays, if you do have a good idea, people are discovered right off there, so I think it’s good in that sense.

There seems to be this three-year gap in your music video output, was that because of your movie? Because you didn’t have time?

Yeah, I would say it had a lot to do with the movie. I get asked a lot to do videos, and I only do the ones that really stand out, you know? I don’t do it as a job, I don’t get paid for them at all. I put all the money into the budget of the video so it’s a passion project, and so it has to be something like the Beach House thing or Major Lazer. Just recently I met with Kanye about doing a video for his new record.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, it was…

Man, I want to see that one!

Me too. It was really hard. It was for this song “Blood on the Leaves”, and the song is really heavy. It’s about some really heavy themes. And I wrote this treatment – I really struggled with this treatment. I wrote a pretty wild treatment, and then I showed it to my girlfriend, and she’s like, “No, you can’t make this. You’re going to be hated by the whole world.” So I kind of shelved it for a couple of weeks, and then I showed it to another friend, this artist who said that I should write something from my heart, and so I went even crazier on it and then sent it to Kanye. He wrote back, “Whoa, I gotta let this soak in.” I’m pretty sure it freaked him out. It would have pushed Kanye to some new level, I guess, he was portrayed as this monster, and some really scary things happened in this video. So I don’t know if that’s going to happen or not, but it was a good experience.

Apart from Poison, I guess, who would be your dream band or artist to work for?

Ha, “apart from Poison”, ahem, that’s a good question. I don’t really know. I mean I’ve always wanted to do a video for Animal Collective. I think I could do something cool with them that’s not as psychedelic as the other stuff. I just enjoy their music on a level that I think I could create something cool.

Personally, what do you listen to anyway these days, because you’ve worked in so many different genres – even with Aimee Mann in your movie?

I’m sort of in a slump with good music. I love the new Kanye record. I love the new Arcade Fire record. I just listen to lots of different stuff. I listen to some electronic music, I still listen to a lot of instrumental stuff, so it’s really all over the place. I’m excited to download that new M.I.A. record today. I heard that’s pretty good.

And I could also see you doing a video for her! One other thing I

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wanted to talk about was your work as a photographer before all this. So you were a Bat Mitzvah photographer and videographer?

When Tim and I were in college, we interned in Los Angeles and we realized quickly that it was such a tough industry to break into, we kind of both went back home to the East Coast, and I started assisting for photographers and videographers. And then I quickly started my own company because it was not hard to do these kinds of things; you just have to know how to edit them. So I would do Bat Mitzvahs, weddings, product photography, I shot for Urban Outfitters doing some fashion photography – it was just a job, just a way to make money. Maybe you could say it was an early way to test out stuff. I always wanted to be a filmmaker, but at least I wasn’t working at Starbucks.

That’s true. It’s been 15 years since you graduated, so if someone had walked up to you back in 1998 and asked you “What do you think you’ll be doing in late 2013?” Did it, back then, feel even remotely possible that things would turn out the way they actually turned out for you?

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Do you guys do stuff like that in real life sometimes?

Well, we do stuff like that in real life, but we don’t go that negative, you know? The whole point of that movie is us fucking with other people, so we had the freedom to go there, but in real life, Tim and I will fuck with people but we’re usually not that mean.

Examples?

From real life?

Yap. We’d do little elaborate prank calls for example. We’d call couple’s counselors, and Tim and I would pretend to be in a relationship, and we keep people on the phone for an hour, just making up these stories. But we’d never sing “no tip” to someone.

So we’re always a little bit more subtle about it – and try not to be mean.

No. Absolutely not. I would have said, “I’ll probably still be a wedding photographer.” Tim and I got so lucky because we made a couple of friends that helped us get into this business and to get exposed. But just to get to that level of being noticed, it’s so difficult and it’s so rare. I was like a realist, I was always like a hustler: I knew I had to make money and live and pay for my apartment and the car; I didn’t have that instinct to lay it all down and, like, die for my art. I was more like “I have to live at some level.” So I would have never even dreamed of this… I mean I wanted it to happen, and some of my close friends predicted it, but I surely didn’t.

How do your parents feel about some of the stuff you’ve done?

You know, they used every penny to put me through film school, so they’re proud that I’ve used that – and that it’s my occupation.

When I was a photographer, I remember my Mom being like, “Why did we sent you to film school if you’re a wedding photographer now?!” I was like, “Yeah, you’re right. Give me some time and I’ll try to figure it out.” Overall they’re pretty proud. They’re also very embarrassed of some of the extreme stuff that’s in my movie and in some of the music videos, like they don’t even know about all of my music videos because they’re just too scared of them. They’re just pretty conservative when it comes to that kind of stuff, but overall they think it’s pretty cool. I mean Tim and I were on The Simpsons, or I was on The Office, those are the little things they can show their neighbors, “Look, my son’s on TV.” That’s what they’re into, but the deep stuff that I’m really into, it scares them a little bit.

So they wouldn’t like that “no, no tip” scene from The Comedy?

Yeah, I hope they’ll never watch The Comedy.

timanderic.com

No More Tears (2013) / 75” x 79” Hand-made Quilt, Used DenimJeans, Fabric, Batting, Thread

It’s actually not that easy to live by the D.I.Y. ethic these days when new shit is available 24/7 and just a mouse click away, right? It is most likely that those who still do, have spent more than just a summer flirt with punk, metal, indie and basically every handmade kind of music that’s best when recorded in the red. San Francisco based artist BEN V EN OM grew up just north of downtown Atlanta, where he did his fair share of going to punk rock shows during the 90s and learned to appreciate the trial and error approach of aforementioned technique.

“Throughout graduate school I was combining screen printing and sewing but decided to teach myself how to quilt as a way to push my art in a new direction. I literally bought a Quilting 101 book and would ask lots of questions every time I went to the fabric store and met someone else that knew how to sew. I never let my lack of knowledge or skill prevent me from completing a project.

Mistakes are part of the work. “Venom basically operates in three different worlds through his embroideries and mind-blowing quilts: Fine Art, crafting and and heavy metal. Through his work he contrasts the

predominantly testosterone-filled genre with an art form that almost stands as the epitome of North American feminine artistic expression. Tough, loud, and bigger than life versus soft, quiet and crafty, triggered by the idea that machismo is shot near lightning speed towards quilting to create something new and different from the explosion.

“I try and use mostly recycled t-shirts and denim/leather donated by friends and family. Bands like Kylesa, Black Cobra, and Valient Thorr have donated piles of shirts for me to use. By doing so the work takes on everyone’s personal history within the donated item. It becomes their unexplained stain, tear, or memory. I like the idea that people viewing my work can see a piece of themselves woven into a larger history. I still use some of my own shirts but am running very low on supply. Ha! I regret cutting up my Testament “Trial by Fire” shirt only cause I had it since I was a teenager. It was like destroying part of my childhood. But it lives on in a large quilt that more people will see versus the shirt being stored in my closet. Plus, it was so threadbare you could see right through it. Not very metal!“

FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK

BEN V ENOM

benvenom.com words: Forty

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In to the Sun (2013) / 83” x 59” Hand-made Quilt, Heavy Metal T-Shirts, Leather, Fabric, Batting, Thread

In to the Night (2013) / 71” x 59” Hand-made Quilt, Harley Davidson T-Shirts, Leather, Fabric, Batting, Thread

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In to the Night (2013) / 71” x 59” Hand-made Quilt, Harley Davidson T-Shirts, Leather, Fabric, Batting, Thread

“If the band sucks... the shirt sucks, too!

You will not see any Korn, Limp Bizkit or Nickeback on any of my quilts.“

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All Bets are OFF! (Quilt) / 59” X 109” Hand-made Quilt, Heavy Metal T-Shirts, Denim, Leather, Fabric Bill McRight (wearing Diamonds are Forever Jacket) Scotty Smitherman (wearing Scorpio Rising Jacket)

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Perhaps the only coloring book (raplovin’) dads are going to spend more time with than their kids, BUN B ’s and S H E A S E R R A N O ’s “Rap Coloring and Activity Book” essentially features 48 pages of hip-hop-themed family fun.

A true wizard with his pencil-case, we asked 10-year-old Bruno Muntendorf from Berlin to add some color to ODB’s and Chance the Rapper’s countenances – while Shea Serrano gave us some details about the book (which also features Wiz Khalifa, LL, Big Boi, Talib, Ice-T and tons more).

“I was actually coloring with my sons one day, and that was hella boring so I started drawing pictures of other stuff to color.

I drew a couple pictures of some local Houston rappers and then posted them on Twitter. They spread around a little bit, so I figured if we did rappers that everyone knew then they’d spread even more. I talked to Bun about it and he was all for it. So I taught myself how to use Adobe Illustrator and about a month later started a Tumblr for it. A week after that it went viral. And then a couple weeks after that publishers started contacting me. It was a little more than a month from the first post to us getting a book deal.

It was way too easy. Working with Bun has been dope. He’s very smart, as you might imagine. He doesn’t draw any of the pictures or anything, but he always has good advice and that’s definitely more important than knowing how to draw. Also, seeing people in the book help promote it or say it’s cool is neat. Like, Common, Ludacris, ?uestlove, all these dudes are on Twitter telling people to go buy it and that’s just unbelievable.

And people send us pictures of them with the book or with pages they’ve colored or with someone from the book signing their page and my brain just wants to explode.

We haven’t really planned anything yet, but I want to do another one and Bun wants to do another one and the publisher wants to do another one, so we’ll likely do another one.

There are still a lot of rappers that need to be colored!”

rapcoloringbook.tumblr.com • abramsbooks.com words: Renko Heuer

COLOR THEM BADD

Bun B / Shea Serrano

It was a little more than a month from the first post to us getting a book deal.

It was way too easy.

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STEFAN BATSCH

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STEFAN BATSCH a.k.a. SKISM was the very first name that popped-up in my head as soon as it became clear that we’d love to show some exclusive imagery based on the relation between a specific style of music and drugs in the second issue of this fine publication... not necessarily because he did his fair share of both - I mean, who didn’t, right? - but because he’s one of the few graphic designers around that permanently succeeds in surprising the public with rad and pretty badass visuals.

When he’s not walking over hot coals as the art director at Place Magazine and CLR Recordings, he’s probably busy compiling new mixes or dancing his ass off either in front or behind the turntables in one of the many happening clubs in Berlin.

So, yeah, catch him if you can... or simply check the goods at the listed URLs below. juice of 1/4 lemon juice of 1/4 orange 1/2 tea spoon powdered sugar Burgundy wine 2 drops Lysergic Acid Diethylamide

cosmic traveller soundcloud.com/skism • skism.info/#! words: FORTY

Shake juice of lemon, juice of orange, and powdered sugar and strain into a highball glass, fill with Burgundy and stir well.

Fill into a burgundry glass and add two drops of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide.

Decorate with a juicy slice of orange and serve. Escort drink with Brainticket‘s Cottonwood Hill/ Psychonaut, Walter 1/4 lemonTarot or any Cosmic Jokers Wegmüller‘s record. Cool off with Celestial Ocean.

juice of juice of 1/4 orange 1/2 tea spoon powdered sugar

Place a few ice cubes in mixing glass. Add vodka, Armagnac and syrup; stir to blend and chill. Tip coke into Martini glass and strain mixture over it. Add an ice cube and top with Champagne. Garnish with cocktail cherry. Alternatively present with coke sugar rim Serve with Black Devil Disco Club, any Sylvester, Moroder or Cowley record or some good Italo Disco.

APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION

1/2 oz Vodka 1/8 oz Armagnac 1/2 tea spoon cherry syrup 150 mg 70+Cocaine (hcl) Ice Cube Champagne

1/2 oz Vodka 1/8 oz Armagnac 1/2 tea spoon cherry syrup 150 mg 70+ Cocaine (hcl ) Ice Cube

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1/2 oz rum 1/4 oz cheap whiskey 1/4 oz port 1/4 oz gin 1 oz Jägermeister 10 oz beer 1/8 oz pig blood (factory farming) black pepper 15 mg amphetamine

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1/2 oz rum 1/4 oz cheap whiskey Simply pour all alcohol in no particular 1/4 oz port order into a plastic glass. Drip pig‘s blood1/4 oz gin over foam top. Serve hand warm. Crush oz Jägermeister black peppers, mix with speed, kill1it and spill down the drink. Smoke a lot. Listen 10 oz beer to Venom‘s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik 1/8 oz pigor blood (factory farming) Live in Leipzig by Mayhem. Beginners can start off with The Feel Good Hit Of Theblack pepper Summer by QOTSA on repeat for hours.

15 mg amphetamine Simply pour all alcohol in no particular order into a plastic glass. Drip pig‘s blood over foam top.

Serve hand warm. Crush black peppers, mix with speed, kill it and spill down the drink. Smoke a lot.

Listen to Venom‘s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik or Live in Leipzig by Mayhem.

Stray MDMA and 2C-B into a longdrink glass. Fill with ice cubes and pour vodka and peach juice over it. Add prosecco and Club Mate in a 1:2 ratio. Stir well, serve with a straw. Alternative: mix with 150 mg Ketamine for some advanced dissociative fun. Best accompanied with False‘s 2007, a far out James Holden set or Rub‘n‘Tug‘s Better With A Spoonful Of Leather mix.

tunnel of

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1 shot vodka 2 table spoons peach juice Club Mate prosecco 80 mg MDMA 20mg 2C-B ice cubes

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MACHINERY OF BOOM

Joe Mansfield

getondown.com words: Renko Heuer

One of the tracks JOE MANSFIELD helmed as a young hip-hop producer is called “I Got To Have It,” and even though it was the rapper Edo G aka Ed O.G. who spat lines such as “To replace waste with a taste, just in case“ over Mansfield’s beat, it’s been “I Got To Have It” ever since for the Boston native: What started with a fascination for drum machines in the mid-eighties, soon turned into an obsession – and has brought forth a stunning collection of 150 beat boxes over the last 28 years. “I fell in love with a drum machine before I ever knew what it was,” he writes in the introduction to his 200-plus page “Beat Box: A Drum Machine Obsession” book that just came out via Get On Down. It’s a stunning book in which he finally shares his treasured instruments (or rather 75 examples thereof) with the rest of the world.

Featuring incredible photos of the machines, shot by Gary Land, and a foreword by Dave Tompkins (author of that Vocoder book “How To Wreck A Nice Beach”), Mansfield’s book also includes various ads, in-depth interviews with drum machine legends, and pretty much just everything about drum machines produced between 1950-1990.

What makes “Beat Box: A Drum Machine Obsession” so special is that it doesn’t offer a glimpse of a cold, shrink-wrapped collection that has never been used. Mansfield, who co-founded Get On Down in 2010 (an imprint dedicated to hip-hop reissues), has indeed used them – he is able to play them, program them, and obviously tell you everything about them. Another track he produced for Ed O.G. in the nineties was called “Be A Father To Your Child”: Mansfield is that father, and his kids, the beat boxes presented in the label’s first foray into the publishing world, have seen and experienced quite a lot over the last three decades.

A true fanatic, he’s still hungry for more: “Even all these years later I still get excited when I come across a cool drum machine for sale. So if you hear of anyone selling any, let me know...”

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Higher state of consciousness

words / interview: Forty

N ei l K r u g & Lei f P o d ha j s k y Psychedelic - in both imagery and music - sure has come a long way since the original counterculture collapsed under its own excess. The creative uprise against established conventions unfortunately started to eat itself in the early 70s, as more and more of its brightest shining stars bit the dust which in return can be almost paradoxically seen as the kind of linear sense this art form originally turned its back from - and a lot of celebrated names moved towards a more ‘progressive’ direction... or unfortunately lost themselves on the way, as consciousness raising substances got traded for hardcore drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

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And even though people had to discover once again that the human psyche isn’t unitary at all as a result, this particular dissociation from the codes of the mainstream generated a lasting impact on pop culture.

These days psych-informed imagery and music has lost a lot of its rebellious character and mystery, which is basically owned by the permanent place it has achieved in the public eye. And maybe that’s why a lot of the contemporary output in this field isn’t trying too hard to conceal that it’s much more a copy of a copy instead of an original interpretation of its influences. Luckily, Los Angeles based artist NEIL KRUG as well as the London

residing artist LEIF PODHAJSKY prove though, that

groundbreaking art can be affected by an era long

gone and still be clearly rooted in the here and now.

Krug is a filmmaker, photographer and visual artist that might be known best for his two “Pulp Art Books“, which he realized together with his wife Joni Harbeck. Particular publications compile stunning imagery that’s clearly influenced by B-Movies, West Coast symbolism and visionary artists like Alejandro Jodorowsky. It’s not surprising really, that both books come in a 12“ format, since he isn’t only a big music aficionado himself, but is also responsible for great cover artwork for bands like Boards Of Canada, Canyons and Ladytron. Australian artist Podhajsky is a visual maestro that found his way to London via Melbourne and Berlin, from where he creates altered realities for record labels such as Modular, Warp and 4AD. His abstract art is a very significant and instantly recognizable one, which plays more than

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just an underpart in the success stories of bands/ projects like Tame Imapla, Shabazz Palaces and Bonobo.

You don’t have to call an elaborate expertise on arttheory your own to connect the dots and consequently draw the conclusion that these guys will probably appreciate each others ridiculously well-crafted work a lot. In the past they already tried several times to join their creative forces for certain projects, which then unfortunately weren’t put into effect due to their hectic schedules. We are very honored

where there was ridiculous money and power behind major records labels.

N e i l : Who knows... I suppose in another decade we could have been high rollers at every party, but that’s not the most important thing for me. Also it’s irrelevant to base things on what came before when you’re talking about monetary concerns.

That being said I always want for more cash to pour into projects, but being a shoe-string budget forces you to really think about how something can be done.

L e i f : I actually went to a talk recently titled ‘40-years-of-disruptive-cover-art-and-design’ at Virgin Records. On the panel were some heavyweights like Roger Dean who designed the first Virgin logo. It was interesting to hear their stories and made me slightly regret missing that time. Wild parties at Richard Branson’s and lack of catering to specific market research that shows people aged between 25-30 like blue so can we have more blue on the cover. In saying that I couldn’t think of a more interesting time to be creating, the internet allows us to break free from physical formats and play with an array of exciting new techniques. Music and art have always gone together, it’s key to connecting with an audience and sharing a story. It’s only a matter of time until we move away from the lingering physical to digital transition and music and art becomes alive with motion and new methods of interaction. I predict thumbnails wont be static for very long, I’m really into the idea of having objects and color that shift and morph as you roll over them. There will always be a place for the physical, it will just become more and more niche and therefore more interesting in my eyes.

Leif, I remember you telling me once about your dad playing Pink Floyd’s “The Gnome” to you...and if I don’t mix things up, there’s a similar incident with Neil’s dad, which involved an old Uriah Heep album. So how important is your dad’s record collection to your work and musical taste?

N e i l : For me it was entirely fortuitous. Once the projects presented themselves I jumped in and figured it out as I went along.

L e i f : It was more accidental. In the beginning it was mostly about exploring and pushing my own creative practice and seeing how far it could go.

N e i l : My dad’s record collection was pretty instrumental in who I am today, and it’s hard to imagine it any other way, really.

Terry Gilliam said in an interview that growing up with the radio forced him to imagine the scenarios being played in his mind, rather than seeing them on a television set. In a way, the same can be said about mind-expanding music. I remember listening to “Castles Made of Sand” in my parents ‘ living room and seeing the lyrical narrative being played out like a movie in my mind. I still do that now and it ‘s one of the things I enjoy about music.

L e i f : Same for me, I love that analogy of being forced to imagine scenarios. That’s exactly what music did and still does for me also. My dad used to sing me the “The Gnome” before bed, and read me “The Hobbit“ and C.S Lewis novels which was a huge influence in imagining other worlds and spaces.

Speaking of the music industry: do you sometimes think about how great it would’ve been to do the job you do 20-30 years ago,

Would you say that you’re re-creating a specific vibe and aesthetic of forgotten times or are you interpreting it?

(and obviously happy) to got both of them together for the first time ever to talk about their influences and career for the second issue of the Bright Diaries.

When you started your career, did you consciously start to push your work towards the music industry or was it more accidentally that you ended up designing a lot of cover artwork and CI’s for bands?

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N e i l : I generally dive into things based on interest and don’t get too analytical about “what does it mean?” or “where did this come from?”. I’ve always been inspired by things from the past but don’t wanna get trapped in a bubble. A couple years ago , I became serious about matte painting and landscape compositions , which opened an entire new medium to pull from.

L e i f : I think we are tapping into universal ideas and feelings, from both the past and the future. For me it’s about the process and re-connecting with certain elements I think we are missing in today’s society. Both our work features a lot of organic, natural worlds which are full of myth and magic which we have moved away from. Someone recently said ‘We have become prisoners of comfort in the absence of meaning. A people without a unifying myth’... this is an interesting thought which I think creativity and imagination can escort back.

For me it seems as if both of you guys work in phases of topics and stylistic execution... what are the criteria from which you decide that a particular phase - or chapter - is closed, even though it might be just temporary?

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N e i l : Generally I try to switch things up from project to project so I don’t get bored or stuck in the same frame of mind. If not you find yourself taking a step back after a few projects and realizing they all sort of look the same. Sometimes you want the phase to be closed more than ever and people keep asking for the same thing. At the end of the day, it’s nothing I get too concerned about.

L e i f : Same for me, i just get bored and want to experiment and push into new areas. I think we both get lumped into ‘album cover’ guys sometimes, which isn’t a bad thing as it’s a great place to get work seen. But at the end of the day I think we are both artists that want to work with and push our mediums as far as they can go ; Neil is a director, has done his own books, had exhibitions, works with film and 3D and I’ve done a lot of different things also, I even designed a mini golf hole for you at Bright a few years ago, ha! I’m also about to put my artworks onto a range of allover print tees, sweatshirts and scarves, so the phases just seem to present themselves and you just have to decide if you’re ready to take it on.

Under which aspects do you decide to work with - or for - a certain band? Is it essential for you to like the music? What if the music is super rad but the members of the band are total assholes? What if the music and band members suck but the payment is just too good to be true?

N e i l : Fortunately I’ve been blessed to not have too many projects that presented that dilemma. For me it’s not essential to like the music because sometimes a job is just a job. I’m honored to be asked in the first place and don’t want to come across like I’m doing anyone a favor. I’m from Kansas and try to keep my head down for the most part. If a situation has a big pay day attached, then try and look past the bullshit and keep it about the work. A

great opportunity should always be investigated... but then again I’m no guru.

L e i f : I’m also pretty open about it, as long as there’s something to connect with and an interesting direction to explore.

I’ve also been super lucky in that I have really liked most of the music for which I create. I like to work with lots of different sounding artists as it forces me to do new things... so, Beyoncé, if you need a cover hit me up.

Did you ever experience that - even though people obviously come to you because they love your work - a job takes forever because all of a sudden there’s more than just one idea for improvement regarding your artwork?

N e i l : It happens all the time. I consider it part of the process, haha.

L e i f : Shit, man, no comment.

Leif, you come from a graphic design background but recently directed a video for Mount Kimbie. Neil, you originally come from a more cinematic background but basically became very well-known for your photography. How easy - or challenging - is it for you guys to switch between jobs and “genres” within a rather short amount of time? Is there any form of artistic expression that’s been on your list for ages, but wasn’t realized yet?

N e i l : It only becomes difficult when deadlines are looming. I don’t have a problem bouncing back and forth when things are running smoothly. It’s only when I’m generating CGI pieces that I get stressed because the renders can be brutal when you’re up against the clock. There’s never enough time in the day it seems.

Regarding unrealized ideas, I’ve been collecting odd pieces of equipment in hopes of building a camera for a specific shoot I have in mind. I did something similar last year where I bought a bunch of custom underwater camera gear for shooting on land. It had a great effect for my taste.

L e i f : I find it quite easy to switch between mediums, for me the hurdle is when I have a great idea and I can see it in my head, but I don’t have the required technical knowledge to make it happen. Working with video is like that for me, I’m still learning and everything takes way longer than it should. But this in itself is interesting because you are forced to try new things, I find a lot of my work is me doing things the ‘incorrect’ way because it generates weird and interesting results. There’s a number of new mediums I would love to work in, I have a list of ideas for sculpture, painting, installation, 3D and video, which will hopefully one day get the time they deserve.

You obviously share a lot of the same interests and appreciate each others work a lot... why wasn’t there an official collaboration yet?

N e i l : Leif and I tried to team up for the Deluxe Edition of Tame Impala’s “Innerspeaker” but the project was simplified last

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Goo Goo Dolls - N e i l K r u g

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Young Magic LP-Cover - L e i f P o d h a j s k y

Canyons - N e i l K r u g

GoLD MotH - L e i f P o d h a j s k y

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Tame Impala - N e i l K r u g

Bat for Lashes - N e i l K r u g

minute over something outside of our hands. That would have been cool though. There’s been a few other occasions when I was approached about a compilation series that I wanted Leif and I to collab on... but that project was also terminated. When he and I have a truly free moment we’ll crank out some madness. I look forward to it.

L e i f : We are always talking about a collab, it seems like it will truly happen when the moment is right... both being so busy and living in different places also hinders our working together.

We haven’t even met in person yet! But over the years we have always stayed in contact which must mean something. Definitely going to drop in unannounced at Neil’s LA crib and demand a couch to stay on. Hopefully next year.

Tarkovsky or Kubrick?

N e i l : God, I don’t know. If you say Tarkovksy then you sound like a cool arthouse geek, but Kubrick was so far ahead of his time technically. Probably Kubrick.

L e i f : Definitely Kubrick.

Woodstock or Altamont?

N e i l : Woodstock, for sure. Sly and the Family Stone performed and nobody died. More bands and more LSD. L e i f : Woodstock. Santana.. Soul Sacrifice. With the insane drummer that looks like Kevin Bacon.

What are you guys working on at the moment?

Scrambled eggs or sunny side up?

N e i l : At the moment I’m deep in the weeds editing a video I can’t mention yet. Also wrapping up new work with Chromeo, The Glitch Mob, Foals, and the new White Flight/Ratatat project. Towards the end of December I’ll begin work on a big animation piece that I’m excited about.

L e i f : Pixar? Toy Story 5? I just finished a project with Nike, more album cover stuff for Bonobo, Young Magic, Tensnake, New Scientist illustrations, another exhibition is also in the works. I’m also slaving away on my own range of clothing and scarves which will hopefully launch soon.

N e i l : Sunny side up. I enjoy a big mess.

L e i f : Scrambled. I like when things are scrambled.

Perfect, that’s it. Guys, thanks a lot for having taken your time for this interview!

Yellow Submarine or La Planete Sauvage / The Fantastic Planet?

66 N e i l : Both are great but the soundtrack to Fantastic Planet is so brilliant.

L e i f : Yes. Fantastic Planet. So surreal.

Storm Thorgerson or Roger Dean?

N e i l : Both are legends and equally influential...

L e i f : Hmm,I’m going to go with Roger Dean this time around as I heard him talk the other night. Thinking of stalking him and turning up at his - what I imagine - bizarre, rounded house and having a cup of tea and chats. Sven, can you make this happen?

Alejandro Jodorowsky or Kenneth Anger?

N e i l : I prefer Jodorowsky, probably because he was one of the first visual artists I really fell in love with in my early twenties.

Plus I had the rare opportunity to meet him in person in 2011, so I’m probably a bit biased in that regard. Kenneth Anger is such a visionary as well. I would include Dennis Hopper alongside those guys, too.

L e i f : Jodorowsky. Started reading his book “Psychomagic“ the other day, which seemed very interesting... but my friend took it back to Australia before I could finish.

www.neilkrug.com www.leifpodhajsky.com illustration by M a r t i n e J o h a n n a www.martinejohanna.com

BACK TO THE FUTURE

SERGIO MEMBRILLAS

Alan Aldridge. Illustrations on vintage Penguin paperbacks. The Eastern European school of conceptual graphic design. All these played a quintessential part in shaping the visual style of the 60s and 70s. And while the majority of us aren’t immediately familiar with noted names and characteristics, Spanish illustrator SERGIO MEMBRILLAS sure did his homework. “Man, I love all the Eastern European and UK maestros... they definitely are my biggest influence. I especially love all the anonymous works made during the 60s and 70s. I think there were brilliant things happening at that time.

I always loved those references but since I finished my studies I obviously had different phases trying to get to the point I am right now.“ Membrillas splits his time between Valencia and Berlin these days, from where his rather prominent illustrations - touching modern themes via glorious retro-aesthetics

- find their way into magazines, books and on the streets for a whole bunch of various clients. Lately, his most popular work apparently is closely connected to music to an extend, where illustration and graphic design could almost be considered to being just a second love of his. “Haha, totally.

Music for me is as necessary as my pencil or my computer. It’s like if it was a piece of furniture in my studio. I definitely need it as much as my desk in my everyday work.

It inspires me a lot. And it helps me to get the best part of me. It’s definitely important to me to like the bands I’m doing posters for... on the other hand, getting into a band’s universe just because you have to do the poster is really interesting as well. It’s a great challenge and I like it. So far I am quite lucky because I’ve liked every band I’ve been working with... and I love doing gig posters as much as I like going to the actual show!“

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sergiomembrillas.com words: Forty

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MOUTHFUL OF FRUIT

LA BOCA

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Artist: Nightmares On Wax Title: 195lbs Label: Warp Records (UK) Year: 2008

“We still enjoy fruit,” it says on LA BOCA ’s website, and we’ve been addicted to the kind of visual fruit baskets they’ve been coming up with for the longest time. With about ten book appearances and just as many awards under their belt, the West London-based design studio has been responsible for some of the greatest album cover art in recent years: working for DC Recordings (e.g. The Emperor Machine, The Oscillation), Ninja Tune, Warp, Normals Welcome and Versatile Records, they also did the Simian Mobile Disco logo, and made Booka Shade’s album

laboca.co.uk words: Renko Heuer

look sweeter than that proverbial forbidden fruit. “I see it as our responsibility to create imagery that performs a visual link between the music and its audience, so it’s necessary to understand the ingredients before starting to cook,” Scot Bendall, one of the founders of La Boca, explains. “Working with DC Recordings and The Emperor Machine was always special for me, their encouragement and enthusiasm when we were starting out really helped La Boca develop. I guess good memories are connected to our favorite sleeves, not just how they look. We’ve

been lucky to always work with nice guys somehow - Kelpe, FaltyDL, Booka Shade, Padded Cell, Zombie Zombie, I have a whole list!” Cosmically psychedelic, mad colorful, and retro-futuristic at once, it’s quite telling that Scot prefers “vintage wine to fresh grape juice.” Still suckers for all things fresh that nature has to offer, the La Boca guys rely on some colorful classics while cooking up new designs for their clients: “I think it’s hard to beat a good, fresh strawberry? But unfortunately they’re not always consistent. A good honest Banana is usually a reliable friend.”

Artist: Booka Shade Title: Eve Label: Embassy One (Germany) Year: 2013

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Artist: The Orichalc Phase Title: Respond In Silence Label: DC Recordings (UK) Year: 2006

Artist: Shout Out Out Out Out Title: Spanish Moss and Total Loss Label: Normals Welcome (Canada) Year: 2012

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Artist: FaltyDL Title: She Sleeps (Vinyl 2) Label: Ninja Tune (UK) Year: 2013

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MIKE JOYCE

Mike, what triggered the great idea to turn usual tour posters for (almost) forgotten heroes into a platform to play around with the concept of Swiss graphic design?

Basically punk rock and typography are my two favorite things. I grew up completely inspired by punk and would later find that same inspiration in Swiss graphic design—more specifically the International Typographic Style. I always liked that these two art forms seemed at odds with one another in that punk has an anti-establishment ethos and Swiss modernism is very structured. And at the same time there’s a common thread between the two—the Swiss modernists purged extraneous decoration to create clear communication, while punk rock took on self-indulgent rock and roll and stripped it to its core. So I thought it would be an interesting study to combine the two

stereotype-nyc.com • swissted.com words: FORTY

and see what happens. And I’m really glad that you mentioned many of these bands have been virtually forgotten. I really wanted to honor all of the bands and especially those who flew under the radar and never got the recognition they deserved.

As I understood, these shows actually happened... how much research do you have to invest for each poster?

Yeah, that was one of the few rules I gave myself for the project—every show had to have actually taken place. Finding all of the original flyers was more fun for me than it was research. There’s a lot of amazing original punk, hardcore, and indie rock show flyer collections online. And because most of the collectors got the flyers locally, it naturally created a really nice archive of the regional music scenes—Los Angeles, Orange County, Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis, Boston, New York City, etc. There’s also a great book on flyers of the American underground scene called Fucked Up and Photocopied.

That book was priceless for the creation of Swissted and I recommend it to anyone who’s interested in punk and/or art. The one thing I did have to research for nearly all of the designs was the year the show happened.

Most flyers and posters don’t list the year since that would be a given at the time.

How come you’re having such a soft spot for post punk, new wave and hardcore? Is it the music you grew up with or are you still worshipping these bands?

Oh yeah, I grew up listening to punk and hardcore since I was about 13 years old. It was pretty much all I listened to. It sort of stemmed from skateboarding and reading Thrasher magazine. Thrasher would not only bring me the news of all the great skaters from around the world, it would serve as a road map to hundreds of great bands I

never heard of before. And as influential as Thrasher was for me, Flipside fanzine was even more so—this was my bible in high school. Every issue featured dozens of my favorite bands while introducing me to new stuff each month. Growing up in the homogenized suburbs of Upstate New York, I never saw anything like it. And yeah, I still listen to punk rock on a daily basis.

I was wondering if some of the bands or (remaining) members of these are following your project? Did you experience reactions of people that don’t get the idea at all?

A bunch of bands and record labels have reached out to me to let me know how much they like Swissted. It’s probably the most humbling and flattering thing that came out of this project. My favorite response was an email from Bad Religion’s guitarist and Epitaph Records founder, Brett Gurewitz.

He wrote me saying that during a break from recording the new Rancid album, he and the band were combing over the Swissted book and reminiscing on all of the shows that they either performed in or attended. I also received a great letter from Robbie Fields, the founder of Posh Boy records. Posh Boy was one of the most influential record labels of the late 1970’s and early ‘80s L.A. punk scene. Robbie later wrote a great quote for the inside of my book. A few other bands and labels that come to mind who like the project are Jawbreaker, Heatmiser, Angry Samoans, Superdrag, American Standard, Sub-Pop, Amphetamine Reptile Records, and Kill Rock Stars. And yeah, I’ve definitely heard my fair share of criticism too—but luckily never from the bands. It usually stems from fans of the music who feel I’m trying to white-wash the grittiness and rebellion of the genre—which definitely isn’t Swissted’s concept or my intentions.

FAR FROM NEUTRAL

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It seems like an odd love at first: punk rock and the International Typographic Style that was developed in Switzerland in the 1950s.

While one celebrated the possibilities of D.I.Y. ethics through raw and rugged energy that gets channeled into outspoken songs with a speeding run-time of two minutes, the other is a fine example of an elaborate form of artistic expression that emphasizes cleanliness and objectivity. New York based MIKE JOYCE though - founder of the fantastic Stereotype Design office and creative mind behind a whole bunch of great cover artwork, t-shirt graphics and whatnot - combined these two in an ongoing personal project where he redesigns show flyers from the heydays of that musical movement into countless “Swiss Style“ posters... and later into an oversized art book published by Quirk Books. Bright Diaries talked with the outstanding graphic designer in early November 2013.

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tuesday september 26 1989 admission $5 all ages / 6:30 pm

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lemonheads

lemonheads

lemonheads

lemonheads

lemonheads

lemonheads

lemonheads

at the eagles lodge 916 state street / schenectady, ny

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It’s rather rare these days to meet an artist and we’re not talking about the omnipresent kind of aspiring daydreamers here, but the true and gifted ones - who don’t have any ambitions to conquer the world, but confidently prefer to stay well grounded instead. These people are generally referred to as being “the artist’s artist”, and, yes, San Francisco based AKIRA BEARD certainly falls into this category, even though he clearly is so much more than what this attribute is able to cap. He’s teaching Fine Art painting and fashion illustration at Frisco’s Academy of Art University and is holding workshops for the elderly through non-profit organizations. In-between he somehow still finds the time to work on his epic “Self, Cultural, Nature” series, which decontextualizes America’s iconic pop culture figures (and beyond). “All the artworks I have created in the last decade have been part of a series that is near completion. The title and idea of which is “Self, Culture, Nature”.

The exploration has evolved naturally in this order, and during the cultural exploration, I used strictly cultural iconic figures of celebrities and historical figures. Recently , I have evolved into a more boundless exploration beyond the walls of culture, which is nature. Nature being the nature of mind. This is a deeper exploration into the heart of the human experience... you know, about what it is that binds us all. Some of the figures I have painted have been spiritual teachers that devote(d) their lives to this understanding. These folks however tend to be less known, as the subject itself is less familiar to modern people, that being the audience which my work tends to reach.

Other portraits in this exploration are not recognizable at all. My paintings of anatomical heads for example, that are compositions of skull, veins, and muscle void of surface recognition (skin color, age, etc), aim to express that deeper nature of the complete global family, as opposed to any individual.

I always begin with the idea of the piece and make creative building decisions (medium, image, etc.) after. I was inspired to make a piece celebrating the liberties inherit to all Americans , for example, so I felt Abe Lincoln is iconic in terms of such an expression. It’s a matter of form follows function, I guess.”

AKIRABEARD . c o m words: FORTY

A NEW KIND OF AMERICANA

AKIRA BEARD

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The africanized hiss

words / interview: Renko Heuer

y OU N G f a t her s In 1914, Britain saw the rise of a short-lived modernist movement called Vorticism: Announcing their own arrival, artists and poets like Ezra Pound and Wyndham Lewis released a magazine entitled BLAST, and their manifesto, printed in the first issue, included statements such as, “It is Chaos invading Concept and bursting it like nitrogen,” or “We are Primitive Mercenaries in the Modern World.” Listening to Edinburgh-bred avant-hip-hop sensation Y o u n g F a t h e r s eerily feels like a modern(ist), sonic update to Vorticism’s anglofuturistic approach, because it sounds like they’re fighting for a cause, making it new – like Primitive Mercenaries in a post-everything world.

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WHAT BEGAN AS A MID-TEEN HIP-HOP TRIO UNDER A DIFFERENT NAME (3-STYLE), YOUNG FATHERS TOOK ON THEIR CURRENT MONIKER IN 2008, AND FOR THE LAST TWO YEARS, THEY’VE BEEN BLOWING MINDS AND BLASTING PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS ABOUT HIP-HOP WITH EVERY TRACK THEY RELEASED: NOW IN THEIR MID-TWENTIES, ALLOYSIOUS MASSAQUOI, WHO WAS BORN IN LIBERIA AND ARRIVED IN SCOTLAND WHEN HE WAS FOUR, KAYUS BANKOLE, RAISED BY NIGERIAN IMMIGRANTS BETWEEN EDINBURGH AND THE US, AND EDINBURGH-NATIVE GRAHAM “G” HASTINGS DROPPED AN EP ENTITLED “TAPE ONE” IN 2011, WHICH WAS SOON PICKED UP BY ALT-HOP HEAVYWEIGHT ANTICON FOR A RE-RELEASE. “WE WERE IN THE GUTTER

G, how’s life in late 2013 – with your awesome first album all wrapped up and ready to be released, and on a new label as well? You guys already thinking about what to wear for award ceremonies and stuff next year?

We’ve already won. There’s no point with the competition. If we don’t win, it’s wrong. They tell me nothing. The only thing to gain is the exposure so as many people can hear us. Any time spent with the record machine always comes with a sense of sticky guilt.

SINGING,” EXPLAINS G. “I HAD THESE SOUNDS STOCKED UP BUT NEVER PUT THEM AGAINST EACH OTHER, THEN AGAINST US.” ABOUT A YEAR AGO, IN EARLY 2013, THEY RELEASED “TAPE TWO,” COMING FROM AN EVEN DARKER PLACE BETWEEN PSYCHEDELIC LULLABIES AND POST-POST-MODERNIST RAP, FIGHTING THEIR OWN ANGST WITH A SONIC ONSLAUGHT THAT FEATURED THE RAWEST BEATS AND THAT SWEET STING THAT LURED YOU

So, what are you going to wear for that BRIT award show, that Mercury Prize party etc.?

For a piss up with ghouls? Needs consideration. Something waterproof for the stickiness. Baby wipe top pocket.

INTO THEIR WORLD AND IMMEDIATELY GOT YOU HOOKED. THIS YEAR THEY’RE ABOUT TO BLOW UP: FOR “DEAD”, THEIR PROPER DEBUT ALBUM FOR BIG DADA, YOUNG FATHERS HAVE CAPTURED A MOTHERLESS SHIP FULL OF PUMPING BLOOD AND TRIBAL GUANO, NAVIGATING IT TROUGH DYSTOPIAN SEAS WHILE SINGING THE PRAISE OF MERCILESS SELF-EMPOWERMENT. IT’S AN AFRO-RURAL CALL TO ARMS, COMPLETE WITH RAISED FISTS AND CLAPPING AND CHANTING AND HUMMING AND WAILING (AND DANCING), INVADING THE VERY CONCEPT OF HIP-HOP AND BURSTING IT LIKE NITROGEN. IN SHORT, THIS IS A BLAST OF AN ALBUM. ACTUALLY, WE WEREN’T EVEN SURPRISED THAT A LARGE PART OF THE INTERVIEW WE DID WITH G SOUNDS – AND FEELS – LIKE A MANIFESTO.

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WELCOME TO THE VORTEX.

Speaking of attire: I just saw this photo of you guys from early 2009 – quite a long time ago. And I have to say: you guys looked way more, well, “hip-hop” back then. What’s the story?

There is a story. I like it now. I never used to, because it got in the way. It doesn’t make sense. We have a bright and colorful past with the almost pop breakthroughs and bad advice, then we changed. Then in the future we will change again. Because we get bored, and we would rather be pushing than being cool. Cool is easy. We have no home to represent. Like when you have just fallen in love with someone and then they say, “I’m leaving, come if you want”.

No home to represent? Isn’t Edinburgh – the Bongo Club, Drylaw, Bojangles etc., where everything started – that place?

We represent nowhere or everywhere, you can choose. I have no pride in areas of land, only people. Wherever there’s kindred spirits is where home is. You can find it on tour or at a chicken joint down the road.

Still I want to hear some more about that “bright and colorful past”. What did you learn from those almost pop breakthroughs, from hearing bad advice – you’re talking about everything that went down between 2003-2008? What were the main lessons?

Worst moments? Worst decisions?

We listened too much. Coming from a city where musically and culturally it’s a barren landscape, and having very few people who could have made sense of a group like us, we got involved with people who had no clue but pretended they did. We were suckers. Despite all that we still got our foot in the door with “Straight Back On It”. We done TV. Toured. Featured on albums.

A low point for us would have to be a two-day session with a big name producer who in the space of two days awakened us to all the most depressing things you could find out about the industry.

Number 1s up the yazoo, but he never listened to what he made

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at home. He preferred Radiohead. Every stage was thinking about radio and the middle-aged woman on her way home from work in her car. He called rap “edgy” but didn’t want the vocal to be too aggressive. He had a clean Eno-like studio, which I hate too. All perfectly organized with staff in the next room editing the day-before session with whoever was in that day. Ready to be churned out, hoping the publisher will pick that one to be a hit. He reminded us that everywhere he went his songs were on the radio, and he had rich man skin. We love pop music and have a fascination with how pop music is put together, but we hated that. You gotta have a soul.

So how do you feel when listening to that old track “Way U Move” now?

Like a 14-year-old in an all-white Nike tracksuit with new trainers and wet-look gel in my hair, with the fringe flicked up with a comb, and some guy tells you he can make you big and you believe him, and even though you hate the song, you do it because you believe him and it’s better than homework. Then the choreographer for the video can’t dance but he says she’s the best and you believe him. Then you get into an argument because there’s old-age strippers at the video shoot and you’re thinking “we’re 14, this isn’t right,” but he says it’ll look good and you believe him.

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But why feel that “sticky guilt” about any of this? I don’t quite get what there is to feel guilty about!? I mean you were kids! And you’re YF now!

I think you misunderstood where the sticky guilt comes from.

Here’s an example: I gave our manager Tim my ticket to go to the MOBO Awards and sit in VIP at the tables with all the industry bad haircuts and suits. There was a point in the night when Doreen Lawrence – the mother of Stephen Lawrence, a boy who was racially murdered in the early 90s in South London – was being awarded for her dedication and strength. This is a woman who has campaigned to get her son’s killers behind bars for 20 years, and against the corrupt police and justice system. In my view this is one of the very reasons why awards shows should be there. To recognize people like Doreen. When she walked to receive the award, the paying public all gave a standing ovation, while 95% of VIP carried on drinking and never even stood to applaud. They barely noticed. Tim walked out after that. They are the “sticky” people. Fucking soulless ghouls who need their fingers in everything. You need a hot shower after even being near them.

Yet, aren’t you, in a weird way, even thankful for everything that happened over the last ten years? Because I guess it made you become even more uncompromising, self-reliant and willing to push boundaries?

It’s been a long road for us because we don’t latch on to trends

or been in a crew and never desired it. There is no scene for us.

We dip into things, take what we want from it and leave. Use hip-hop however we want. Use pop music however we want and have no bones about tearing it apart and putting it back together again. We can be anything but traditional. It took us a while and certain voices before definitely did not help at the time, but with the encouragement of people like our manager Tim to make yourself learn and to just do rather than wish it. Pick up a camera because you can be better than someone who has studied film for years at college. It’s the ideas.

So, how important were hooks when you first started recording stuff with that old karaoke machine some 10 years ago? That hook-lovin’ pop sensibility was already floating around in the room then?

It’s the reason why there’s the three of us. The sweetness is what we all liked. More than the bravado or the seal of approval from an underground scene. We’d go up and do dance routines with arranged songs at rap battles to rebel against it. It wasn’t fun enough for us to go up and rap and call people “faggots” and cup the mic with your hood up staring at the ground. Most of them were middle-class boys who thought it was the way to get tough.

We saw right through all that from the age of 14. We still have it now. We’ve grown to realize that what is obvious to us isn’t actually obvious and no one else can do it.

There’s something almost voodoo about some of your new tracks – “Paying” for example –, does it look like a wickedly wild voodoo ceremony when you’re recording such a track?

It is a ritual. Casual everyday ritual. I have no idea how others would view it. When I listen back to the tracks, they look exactly how they sound. If someone’s wailing in the tracks in the background it’s because they are actually in the corner wailing.

Once I put a rhythm or noise down I turn the mic on before the first play to everybody. Before you start thinking. We had to convince Kayus that his verse on “Paying” was great. He lost his rag and wasn’t comfortable with it. But that’s his verse.

So that seamless melding of so many different elements and sounds into one heavy, dense song, is that something that happens “in the moment”, or does some of that happen later by putting various ideas and bits together?

We finish the bones of the song by the end of each night. Do a mix and move on. We are cutthroat with songs, no filler. Start all over again next day. We do the mixing and mastering process later on, but the song is 90% done by the end of the day.

Is too much thinking the natural enemy of great, raw, gut-wrenching music?

The balance is vital. Dumb enough to keep attention. “Don’t

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think – eat!” Prime time advertising, thought long and hard about by some ad exec, but in the end so stupid. What you call “raw, gut-wrenching music” can be fed by trash; sometimes it’s the best food. The enemy? Think polo club, playing the game, team sport, dress-down Fridays, love manuals and buttoned-up religion. Think all the wrong people deciding what gets heard on the airwaves. Think about all those well-educated idiots who never touch the gutter but who make laws for you and me to be guided to our miserable deaths by. Soul-suckers, sonic reducers, literalists, council officials with volume measuring machines, people who should be selling insurance insisting on getting involved in our world. Vicar-DJs. Dancing politicians.

Politicians with wives who want to be pop stars. Politicians.

Sportsmen. Enemies.

ence, because we care. We’re going to be rich all night knowing that you know we exist.

That’s also how it sounds on the album, because there’s so much, well, immediacy, emphasis and oomph in the way you deliver both the sung and rapped parts, it’s almost like hearing an update to a modernist manifesto from 100 years ago. Do you hate vagueness? Do you generally, on a day-to-day basis, have quite strong opinions?

A strong opinion is part and parcel. None of us are slackers who are just in it for the ride. We have arguments on the regular. It’s healthy because no one’s putting up with something they don’t like. It’s all out in the air if someone has an opinion. We’re a family band in essence. Everybody gets a turn to be Sly.

Sportsmen?

What kind of arguments do you have? Ever fought about a girl?

Yeah, the false importance of sport and sportsmen gets in the way – arguments about football teams, the UK’s great cultural gift to the world, an excuse for fascists to organize. Blind eyes turned. Playing is completely different. We play. Ally, for example, plays with passion – as he does everything –, but he’s no bullying soldier boy, playing war games on a grassy field. He plays as he dances, yes, with a competitive edge, but in the end, to make great shapes.

Back to thinking vs. no thinking: So if there’s no or not much thinking involved, it’s gotta be about where you come from in terms of influences, unconscious stuff you’ve been exposed to…

It’s a pick’n’mix world! Short attention span, low boredom threshold and finding the nice blue color in the black and white.

We are second-hand specialists. Boot sale ninjas. Ally sees glory in a bus ride on a rainy day. Kayus will pick up your old chewing gum and find taste in it. I search through haystacks of reverb to find the moment when my heart leaps. Specifically? When others are looking for the untrodden hipness, we are already buried in the bazaar, smoking the kif of African cassettes and camp New Orleans twerkers and noticing... noticing... the breath on the mirrors as they shake their booties, the way the African tape hiss sounds different from the European. It’s about not giving a damn in the most meaningful way possible. Fuck you and your meanings, really, really fuck you. Imagine the most beautiful death at the hands of a killer who loves, really loves killing you.

It’s a holy rite. So sweet, you will be happy to be sacrificed. You will pay for the privilege.

Why “fuck meaning” if it’s about not giving a damn in the most meaningful way possible?

It’s a kiss or a hug in front of a trad-hip-hop crowd while they’re shouting “battys” at you, or shouting in the face of the teeny-boppers in the front row at a show in a shopping mall. Unplanned, but if there’s something in the air, it’s telepathic. Fuck the audi-

No. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. No. I don’t argue. Ally and Kayus argue, but that’s their business. We are very, very democratic in the most unspoken way. It’s just unsaid. And three is a good number for votes.

You also said in some interview that you think it’s good to feel uncomfortable… in which kinds of situations do you need that feeling?

If you’re getting a gut reaction out yourself and you’re the one causing it, then something strong is happening that can be relayed. Someone said that they couldn’t listen to “Low” alone with the headphones on because it was “too imposing”. They didn’t like it but it’s a big compliment. They got the fear and that’s one of our prettier songs.

Creating a sense of fear in the listener is something quite hip-hop – think gangsta etc. –, but “Low” for example seems to go way further back than everyday shit to be afraid of, almost to some ancient human past, involving marching, chanting, structuring, ritualizing, to something we’ve long lost. What are some of the events in the history of mankind you find fascinating (for how incredible or horrible they were)?

Ally won’t talk about the war in Liberia from which he fled with his family... Any wars in Europe have been more than matched for deaths and ferocity in Africa. But, for fucks sake, we’re young. Not scared of history. Young men go out into the world and become history. If you hear some kind of primal thing in our sound that’s just because our channels are particularly open, not clogged up with emulsified fat of over-living. We’re pretty Spartan. So that young man initiation flows through from ancient times. We just dress in mad made fibers. We were sent out to starve or kill an animal like our ignorant, star-watching ancestral brothers. Sent out on to the shitty streets, knowing we can always go back and hug our mothers and feed up if it really

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comes down to it. We march and chant for effect. It works. It’s not some kind of “everyone join in” festival thing, it’s all about impact. It works because of the mix. It’s not nazi hand-waving, line dancing nazi cowboys keeping everyone in line, it’s a ragged join-in for us – we’ve got a big PA so we don’t hear you even if you do join in. It’s just for us. It’s our version of power chords.

Our own traveling drugged-up gospel choir. Musical effect.

Really we are very pure in that way.

Chanting, marching… and you mentioned those rituals earlier.

Apart from music, what kind of rituals are you guys into? Any other routines and rituals that feel as good as making music?

Going to a place to dance is something we always do. But not like “put your fucking hands in the air” dancing. Just moving. It’s getting harder and harder to find a good spot to dance. Too many nights stick to one thing. That’s why we, every once in a while, find a place that’s not a club and just get some loud speakers and play what we want and get friends across for a family get together.

So who’s the best dancer in the group?

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Kings and Queens want crowns. We just want to move. It looks like nothing to us because it’s been embedded. We met for the first time as we were dancing, it was too loud to talk and the walls sweated with army camouflage nets hanging above. It was the first time I really ever danced outside my bedroom. Discos I went to before, no one would really let go, they’d run around and punch each other because they were uncomfortable; so when we met it felt like this is how it should be. Ally and Kayus could express themselves with no repercussions at their school. I loved how it was respected and encouraged, the top boys, whereas I got a dead arm for being at the hip-hop club on Monday at school.

“What you going there for? You think you’re black?” Yes, 100%.

there and South America, filled with a generation under 25 years old. Where the system runs on a mobile-to-mobile basis, where info is exchanged at human rates, where electricity isn’t taken for granted, revolution simmers next to the streets where the rich live and where a transformation will take place. As long as the people can leave the dragging weight of what the west brought behind.

And more... in Africa, where technology sinks into the dayto-day and isn’t worshipped but used, to its limits, where old and new technology is just useful shit, modern music becomes re-invented. As in Jamaica, where they eat their old sounds with samplers and fire off the rip and the roar of the toasters of yesteryear, in Africa, choirs, once recorded at EMI’s Nigerian studios decades ago are spun in, syllable by syllable, into the new tracks which will bypass vinyl and go straight to mobile, via cassette. Nothing wasted. The future.

One other thing about the album: Why call it “dead” if it’s so fucking alive? Who’s dead?

It’s alone. With no one to hold its hand. It’s double ugly, sounds like dread. I was really scared to die making this album, now it’s over. So we can say it out loud with no juju on me. DEAD DEAD DEAD. What comes after dead?

The best kind of nothing you ever had.

Who are some of the beat-smiths you can never get enough of?

And what about their art grabs you?

Lee Scratch Perry, Martin Hannett, Phil Spector. They scraped the barrel for something original. They are proof a lot of stuff is worth trying. It’s strange how the futurist thing has mutated.

Kraftwerk were known for streamlined, futuristic arrangements but when you listen back they actually sound really melodic and soulful and funky. Just because we have a streamlined, modernistic attitude doesn’t mean we will sound cold and tidy. Remember, we have African blood. The future is in Africa, where our past is also. The beautiful sound of the future is no longer the machine sounds of war – now it’s the drums, being played by humans, quantized by the heart.

“The future is in Africa”… can you elaborate?

It’s the youngest continent on earth now – literally, the future,

young-fathers.com

BUNNY BISSOU X

Since she moved to Tokyo in 2011, BUNNY BISSOU X has often mentioned bands like Sabbath or Napalm Death in conversation, usually to explain what Birmingham, the place she was raised, is famous for, since “most people here only know about London.”

Calling herself an “obsessive fanatic” (e.g. she loves metal, “especially 80s thrash,” pro wrestling, Japanese idols and Korean pop), the Leeds-born artist and illustrator was more than happy to create the “Home of Metal” map (shown here), because it combines more than one thing she’s obsessed with: “‘Home of Metal’ is a project which celebrates Birmingham and the West Midlands as the birthplace of Heavy Metal music through an online archive and a series of events and exhibitions. I was commissioned to produce the map as a kind of family tree connecting the members of the five main bands the project originally centered around.

The idea was inspired by a similar map I had drawn in 2007 connecting the members of the line-ups of Hair Metal bands. My work as an artist often features my personal interests and obsessions, but this was a dream job combining my love of Heavy Metal and pride for the region where I grew up!”

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HOME OF METAL

Corpse Paint Creatures – also available as print at bunnybissouxart.com

homeofmetal.com • bunnybissouxart.com words: Renko Heuer

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PUNK NUGGETS

YOURI LEN Q UETTE

I can only assume that it must feel a little weird to look back on a rich and overall successful life as a professional photographer - don’t get me wrong, he obviously still works in this field, so there’s more great things to come from this place - and still people tend to define your work through one image that basically got larger than life due to unexpected dramatic events. In the case of YOURI LEN Q UETTE it was the image of Kurt Cobain pointing a gun to himself in what turned out to be his very last photo session before he decided to end his life.

Currently splitting his time between Paris and Dakar, Lenquette collaborated with some of the biggest artists on this planet during the last twenty-five years, which brought his iconic imagery on countless magazine and record covers. Initially a journalist before he decided to call it quits and focus on photography full-time, his personal taste in music might have shifted from all sorts of energetic rock’n’roll to Cumbia and Latin music lately, but you can easily tell by his direct and outspoken way that he’s still a punk at heart. Until the 21st of February, Paris based Addict Galerie is celebrating the art of Youri Lenquette with an exhibition that puts the focus on his early years (from 1977 − 1985, to be precise), when punk was rising above the codes of mainstream culture. Bright Diaries had the chance to talk to Monsieur Lenquette two days before the vernissage on November 16th 2013.

How ‘s the exhibition coming together at this point?

It’s been quite a long process, to be honest. I guess it’s because I’m not really used to do exhibitions since I mainly work in the fields of magazines and record covers. There’s many decisions to be made, it’s a really unusual process for me: the prints, the frames, the arrangement on the wall, the invitation... also, this exhibition is focusing on the years before I became a professional photographer, which unfortunately means that we’re talking about a time - and that´s before 1989 - where my files actually are really really messy. I spent days to go through photos and negatives which unfortunately weren’t arranged in any way. The exhibition is covering eight years, so you get an idea how much work I had to invest in finding the right images for it. It was archaeological work, almost.

yourilenquette.com • addictgalerie.com words: FORTY

(laughs) Everything after ’89 is accurately filed though, you can ask me about any artist portrait or project and I can point my finger at it immediately. So I’m quite happy that my next exhibition is focused on the portraits series I did with Kurt Cobain right before he took his life... it doesn’t need too much preparation from my side.

How did that trip into the past feel for you?

It’s a rather ambivalent thing, to be honest.

Back then I was always thinking about the next photo I have to do. One shooting followed the next. I didn’t find the time back then to actually stop and really look at my work... you know, figuring out what’s relevant and what needs improvement which I would actually highly recommend to any young aspiring photographer. A lot of my recent work isn’t really rock’n’roll anymore - even though it always will be my first love. Punk for me was just another way of playing rock’n’roll. Back then I had a huge record collection: MC5, The Cramps, The Ramones, etc., and in between there was still room for a James Brown album.

The exhibition covers the days when I basically was just a music fan with a camera, over to the early 80s when I became a rock journalist for Best magazine, up to 1985 when I became a professional photographer. I came to the point where writing was becoming a little frustrating for me, because I felt that lack of responsibility since you were always doing things on another person’s life... which can be interesting if it’s done well, no doubt about it. But since not everybody can be Lester Bangs, well, you know... fair, well-educated, skillful rock journalists. I think that photography somehow always felt closer to my heart, you know, it’s my own pictures, it’s my story or the way I understood that story. It was important to me to make that switch, to make people understand that I’m not a journalist that owns a camera, but a full-time photographer. The rhythm of photography doesn’t really match the rhythm of writing... it’s two completely different things. Back then it came to a point where I was taking care of photos in the daytime - making phone calls, going to the lab, etc. and of writing articles by nighttime, which obviously had a very destructive effect on my private life. So I had to make this decision to turn the side-project into the main one.“

Youri Lenquette - “Punk Nuggets“, Original Artyfacts 1977 − 1985: the exhibition is on display until February 21st at Paris’ Addict Galerie : 14/16 Rue de Thorigny, 750003 Paris, France

On March 14th, Addict Galerie will host another show on Youri Lenquette’s amazing work, which exhibits Kurt Cobain’s very last photo session before he murdered himself

Joe Strummer - The Clash, second punk festival of Mont-De-Marsan 1977

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Bryan Gregory - The Cramps, Montpellier #3 1980

The Cramps Poison Ivy & Lux Interior, Père-Lachaise cemetery Paris 1984

Lux Interior the Cramps.

L'Eldorado #4 Paris 1984

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The Cramps - Bryan Gregory, Lux Interior & Poison Ivy, Montpellier #1 1980

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