Issuu

ISSUE #6

co n t en t s Ed’s Letter _____________________________________ 08

Dorkzone — Feature Article_______________________ 42

The Deli ________________________________________ 10

Mini Skirt and C.O.F.F.I.N — Double Interview ______ 50

Matty Matheson — Feature Article _________________ 12

George Rose — Interview ________________________ 58

Wade McLaughlin — Photo Essay _________________ 20

Jakob Robinson — Interview _____________________ 64

Jeremyville — Interview___________________________ 30

31 Years of Being a Woman — Personal Essay ______ 74

Boysclub — Feature Article ________________________ 38

Cobra Man — Feature Article _____________________ 78 Paul McCarthy — Interview _______________________ 84

Disposable DisposableReusable Reusableisishere. here.

ISSUE #6

EDITOR'S LETTER.

p until recently, I was living in a one-room shack on the North Coast of NSW. It was an idyllic little spot. The property was teeming with native birds, flanked by bush, and you could almost chuck a rock to the beach, if you were a good rock chucker. In bed at night, my girlfriend and I listened to waves hitting the sand and the sound of green tree frogs croaking in the downpipe. Our setup was primitive – we had an outdoor composting dunny, rainwater tanks and all our power came from a fat extension cord that ran 100 metres from another building on the property. We grew veggies and set up an old spa outside for hot baths under the stars. It was paradise, for a while.

We couldn’t settle on a cover for this issue, so we printed three different versions. The first features Matty Matheson, a bigtime Canadian celebrity chef with an even bigger personality. He’s also a candid interviewee, talking about how he went from being a drug-addled party boy to a family man who runs a hospitality empire and lives on an organic farm. Then there’s Wade McLaughlin’s trippy photo of Ben Weir ollieing a big planter box gap in Melbourne. Wade shot that in the reflection of a mirrored ceiling, creating an arresting image at a gnarly spot. Wade is one of Australia’s best skate photographers and he put together a great photo essay with captions that feel like he’s having a yarn to you in a crowded pub. The third cover is by Jeremyville, an excitable and talented visual artist from Sydney whose work is sure to leave you feeling optimistic and uplifted. That feels very necessary at the moment, as we move from crisis to crisis.

Then came the evil smell. It first hit me while I was having an outdoor shower. I figured maybe an animal had crawled into a nearby bush to die alone. Probably nothing to worry about – just nature doing its thing. Surely it would pass. But each morning, when I went out for a shower, that awful smell returned. It got worse and worse. It developed from a mildly offensive pong into the putrid stench of death. I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. Then one morning I climbed up onto one of the rainwater tanks and peered inside. Three dead frogs were floating in the water. They were all rotting and slimy and gross. One was pretty much a skeleton wrapped in a white ball of rotting frog flesh. It was heavy. Not only had we been showering in dead frog water for weeks, we’d also been drinking it.

We also caught up with George Rose, a talented Melbourne muralist; Boysclub, a Sydney feminist punk band; and the Dorkzone skate crew in Sweden, who explained how to charm the local government and make psychedelic skate videos for kids. There’s also a convo with the master of the American grotesque, Paul McCarthy, and a photo feature with an up-and-coming skateboarder from Ballina, NSW, named Jakob Robinson. On the music front, we’ve also got a double interview with punk bands Mini Skirt and C.O.F.F.I.N, and a feature on the cheesy genius of LA’s Cobra Man, who coined the genre “LA power disco”. And if that all sounds too safe and fun, a contributor who will remain anonymous provides a confronting account of the everyday misogyny she has experienced in her life so far, which is sure to stir some uncomfortable feelings. It’s an important piece and I’m proud to publish it here.

I spent the whole day draining the water and scrubbing the inside of the tank. It was as hot as a sauna in there, and the smell was even more intense. It definitely made me glad I don’t have to clean up dead frogs for a living. Anyway, welcome to Grass Fires number 6. We’ve done our best to chock it full of interesting articles, interviews, photos and illustrations, as well as the usual high calibre design. We used to charge $20 for this thing but we’ve decided to make it free from now on. Hopefully that entices more people to read it.

All in all, GF number 6 is a ripper, showcasing some insanely creative and talented people who are most definitely worthy of your attention. As always, thanks for reading, and watch out for the kamikaze frogs who are out to destroy your paradise.

— Nat Kassel

EDITOR IN CHIEF / ART-DIRECTOR / FOUNDER Chris Bradley CO-FOUNDER / AD SALES Jess Whiteley EDITOR Nat Kassel ADS / ENQUIRIES sales@grass-fires.com marketing@grass-fires.com info@grass-fires.com COVER 1 Matty Matheson photographed by Elie Kimbembe. COVER 2 Wade McLaughlin shot this photo of Ben Weir’s massive ollie in the mirror reflection of an overhead ceiling panel. COVER 3 Artwork by Jeremyville. ILLUSTRATORS Mike O’Shea Axel Aurejac Tant (of BFC)

WRITERS / INTERVIEWERS Simon Luxton Nat Kassel Wade McLaughlin Eddie Zammit Peta Petidis Marty Baptist Jaime Blauvelt PHOTOGRAPHERS Elie Kimbembe Holly Hawkins Nils Svensson Wade McLaughlin Kristian Philipp Alexander Cooke Ben Portnoy Cam Campbell Alex Stevens Nicole Reed Jaime Blauvelt Christopher Blauvelt Brodie Dwyer Mitch Fong Buddy Bleckley Sarah Pardini FEATURED ARTISTS / SKATEBOARDERS / MUSICIANS Matty Matheson Wade McLaughlin Jeremyville Dorkzone Boysclub Jakob Robinson Cobra Man George Rose Mini Skirt and C.O.F.F.I.N Paul McCarthy

MAY, 2021 Issue #6 The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of Grass Fires. Copyright of articles, photographs and illustrations in Grass Fires remain with the contributor and may not be reproduced without permission. No responsibility is accepted for unsolicited material. Thanks for reading. <<< OUR WEBSITE 'N' THAT

ISSN 2651-8791

Illustration— Axel Aurejac

INDEPENDENT

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Ready to take on some shitty weather? I didn’t think so. That’s why you need to buy one of these Indy Crest Jackets. This thing is fully lined and quilted with a zip thru with weatherproof outer and a storm flap snap down. It also has an internal pocket and secret stash zip pocket, in case you need to smuggle some contraband past the police. But these jackets aren’t only for smugglers, they’re for regular people as well. Good jackets.

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Photo — Holly Hawkins

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THE DELI

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FILM NEVER DIE

HEAPS NORMAL

LAST RESORT AB

The Niji is here! Every day thousands of singleuse disposable film cameras get tossed into a big stinky pile of rotting landfill. Luckily, Film Never Die has a clever solution, which comes in the form of an affordable, reusable alternative that doesn't cost the planet. It’s called the Niji, and considering that it’s an inanimate object, it’s very sleek and sexy. Proceeds from each Niji are donated to One Tree Planted, who, as you might have guessed from their name, will plant one tree for every camera purchased. “Niji” means rainbow in Japanese, in case you were wondering. Have you bought the camera yet?

Love the taste of ice cold beer, but hate feeling like a discarded sultana the next morning? Maybe it’s time to grow up and suck back a coupla tins of Heaps Normal XPA. It looks, smells, feels and tastes like an XPA, except it’s got no booze in it. Yep, that’s right, it’s got a crafty tropical and citrus aroma with a lingering and unmistakably beery finish. Only difference is that instead of waking up and feeling like a dropped pie with no sauce the next day, you’ll wake up feeling like the raging bull that you are, ready to gore the world with your massive horns.

These shoes are the brainchild of Pontus Alv, so you know they’re good. If you’re not sure who I’m talking about, he’s the Swedish skateboarder, artist and founder of Polar Skateboards. If that still doesn’t make sense, sit yourself down and watch a video called, I like it here inside my mind. Don’t wake me this time. Anyway, Last Resort AB is Pontus’s newest project — a shoe company that is totally skater owned and skater run. Cop these for guaranteed cultural capital.

$60________________ @filmneverdie

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$139.95_____________ @lastresortab

NIJI

QUIET XPA

VM002

A MONOLITHIC WITH PICTURES FUCKIN’ CREATURE W O R D S — N AT K A S S E L P H OTO S — E L I E K I M B E M B E I N T E R V I E W — S I M O N LU X TO N

MATTY MATHESON

“WHEN DID I TURN INTO A POWERHOUSE? WHEN DID I TURN INTO A MONOLITHIC FUCKIN’ CREATURE?” MATTY MATHESON QUIPS, AFTER BEING DEALT ONE OF HIS FIRST QUESTIONS IN A ZOOM INTERVIEW WITH GRASS FIRES. MATTY IS BREAKING THE ICE, JOKING AROUND, BUT THERE’S SOME HONESTY ENGRAINED IN HIS BANTER. MATTY HAS ENJOYED ALL SORTS OF SUCCESS AND ACCLAIM IN RECENT YEARS, WAVING HIS FREAK FLAG HIGH AND ESTABLISHING HIMSELF AS A FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE NEW SCHOOL OF CELEBRITY CHEFS. LARGER THAN LIFE AND COVERED IN TATTS, MATTY’S NAME HAS BECOME A BRAND IN ITSELF, AND A PRETTY SUCCESSFUL ONE AT THAT. ALTHOUGH HE’S HILARIOUS, CHARMING AND ADORED BY HIS FANS, HE’S NOT SOMEONE YOU’D DESCRIBE AS HUMBLE. WHEN HE DESCRIBES HIMSELF AS A POWERHOUSE, HE’S ONLY HALF JOKING.

ISSUE #6

t all started with a cheeseburger. Matty starred in a short cooking video that was published by VICE’s food platform, Munchies, in 2014, and at the time he was working as a chef in a Toronto restaurant called Parts and Labour. Matty was a big dude with a big personality who had been to culinary school and worked in a bunch of commercial kitchens, but it became clear almost instantly that Matty commanded a certain presence on camera that people really responded to. Matty swears a lot, makes jokes, says stupid, flippant things, makes fun of himself and comes off as both intense and down to earth. He begins the cheeseburger video, “You’re here in my house in Parkdale, there’s kids smoking crack outside, there’s Tibetans having a rally for freedom. I’m about to show you guys how to make a beautiful cheeseburger.” To date, the video has almost 9.5 million views.

“I shot that video and I made $500,” says Matty, leaning in towards his screen. “It was the most money I had ever made in one day. I was like, huh? I just made this funny video and made 500 bucks. As a chef you don’t make that much money. It was like half a week’s worth of work in three hours. So from then I started making videos, which took time away from being a chef at Parts and Labour. All of a sudden I was making about the same amount of money as being a chef.”

“I CAME FROM A WORKING-CLASS FAMILY AND I'VE ALWAYS HAD A JOB, BUT I GOT TO A POINT WHERE I HAD ENOUGH IN SAVINGS. IT WAS THE FIRST TIME I HAD SAVINGS.”

With a taste of internet fame and an extra five hundred bucks in his pocket, Matty decided to pursue the celebrity chef path through VICE, figuring that making videos was easier than the long hours and tumultuous demands of running a commercial kitchen. He explains, “I never had any savings or access to finance. I came from a working-class family and I've always had a job, but I got to a point where I had enough in savings. It was the first time I had savings. So I kinda had this moment where I had financial freedom. I was able to make a decision on what I truly wanted to do, knowing I could live off my savings for a full year and not work. That gave me an opportunity.” Matty took the plunge and, with some good luck along the way, he’s become a wildly successful celebrity chef. These days it’s hard to keep tabs on all the projects Matheson has going at once. He has starred in a whole string of TV Shows: Keep It Canada, It’s Suppertime!, Matty and Benny Eat Out America, Home Style Cookery, Just A Dash and Deadset on Life. He once appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and has written and published two cookbooks, which both became New York Times bestsellers. He co-owns a pizza restaurant called Maker Pizza, a cookware company called Matheson Cookware and during the pandemic he started a popup barbecue restaurant called Meat and Three. Then there’s Matty’s Patty’s Burger Club, a few clothing sponsorships and a podcast called Powerful Truth Angels with Alex 2Tone (the co-creator of clothing brand Born X Raised). He even co-owns an organic farm, Blue Goose Farm, where he lives with his wife Trish and their three children.

MATTY MATHESON

Matherson

ISSUE #6

MATTY MATHESON

One of the reasons that Matty has been so successful with all these different business pursuits is because he has a huge personality and he keeps it at the forefront of everything he does. From the beginning of his career, he has always been candid and prolific on social media, giving his fans a deep look into into his life, and he has now amassed over a million followers on Instagram. He tells GF, “I put up my entire life, I’ve never deleted a photo. You can literally see like my entire life on social media, at least for the last 10 fuckin’ years.” He continues: “You get what you give [with social media]. I don’t think it’s too cringe to show all of your life so I was just posting travelling, Trish, my kids. Now it’s a business and it's… something that we can navigate. But for a long, long time I did all my social media – up until just a couple of months ago. I think people just kind of connected with how real it was.” Matty was posting lots of poo selfies for a while there, but he doesn’t do that so much anymore, explaining how he’s been through all sorts of phases with his online presence. At another point in the interview Matheson laughs, “The internet is my jacuzzi. I’m just splashing around.”

Although Matty’s life story has an almost fairytale quality to it—chefing at restaurants, getting famous and now living on a big organic vegetable farm with his family—he’s been through some shit, too. It’s well documented that for many years, Matty was a reckless party animal who would get drunk and high while he worked various chef jobs. A 2016 profile of Matheson published by Toronto Life reported, “A typical night for Matheson entailed a couple of grams of coke, 10 to 15 beers and lots of whiskey. He also frequently ate mushrooms, took MDMA, dropped acid and indulged in pretty much anything else he could get his hands on. The goal, he says, was to get as fucked up as possible.” In a 2019 article for WealthSimple Magazine, Matheson explained how he worked his drug habit around his job: “It’s funny, I did the drugs the same way I did the credit cards: if you can’t pay your dealer, you find a new dealer. And pretty soon I owed every dealer in town money. I was at the Toronto restaurant Parts and Labour then and I used to invite my dealers into the restaurant. You want a cote du boeuf and a nice bottle of wine? You want to bring your girlfriend in and get the best table? You want to look cool in a busy restaurant? I’ll make you look like a hotshot. Leave me a bag of coke at the end of the night.”

Above Just a few of Matheson's gigs.

ISSUE #6

MATTY MATHESON

But of course, it all caught up with him eventually. When he was 29 years old, a three-day bender ended with Matheson having a heart attack. He was in bed with his wife Trish and he complained that it felt like his heart was being squeezed in a vice. She drove him to hospital. Five days later he was discharged and ten days after that he went back to work, promising that he would stop doing coke and drinking hard liquor. The compromise was that he would stick to beer. By this point, his friend’s band The Cancer Bats had written about his struggles on their album Deadset on Living, dedicating the title track to Matty and his recovery from the heart attack. Even still, Matty eventually slid back into his old habits of cocaine and whiskey. A year and a half after the heart attack, his friends held an intervention, which ended with Matheson getting sober. These days, one of Matty’s biggest inspirations is his children. “Children are an uncompromising force,” he tells Grass Fires. “I’m starting to get in the zone where I can hopefully build all of this up and just stay in at the farm, grow some veggies and hang out with the kids and wife. I wanna bring my kids up right and make sure they don’t turn into duds, ya know.”

There were long periods where Matheson was travelling relentlessly for work. He got to have all sorts of adventures, from learning the cultural and culinary practices of First Nations Canadians in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba to getting flown to Hawaii by RVCA to cook for 200 surfers, including Kelly Slater. Of the latter, Matty explains, “I come from Canada, I don’t really know surf culture… It’s very interesting, where I fit in. Why do I fit in? I think it’s more of a mentality than anything. It doesn’t really matter what you do, it’s that we’re cut from that same cloth.” Essentially, Matheson has been all over the world and done all sorts of interesting assignments in faraway places. “Before this, I was on the road for like five years straight,” says Matheson, reflecting on how COVID really put the brakes on things. “It took me a minute to really see where my place was at home — being a dad full-time and being a partner to my wife full-time. It was a trip for Trish and the kids, us all being home together.”

“I’M STARTING TO GET IN THE ZONE WHERE I CAN HOPEFULLY BUILD ALL OF THIS UP AND JUST STAY IN AT THE FARM, GROW SOME VEGGIES AND HANG OUT WITH THE KIDS AND WIFE...”

Talking to Matheson, it’s clear that spending time on the farm with his family brings him a lot of joy. “It was something that I never expected: the spirituality of it, the warmth of it,” he explains. “Especially in this last year, which has been particularly traumatising, with isolation and this constant fear of not knowing what the fuck is happening — to have something so literally grounded to the earth, it made things very simple. It made me feel like everything is ok. Honestly. Having a morning coffee out there with my kids running around, and that morning sun,” Matheson let’s out a small gasp. “It’s fucked how nice that is.”

SCAN TO KEEP UP TO DATE WITH MATHESON STUFF >>>

McLaughlin.

ISSUE #6

WADE MCLAUGHLIN CUT HIS TEETH SHOOTING FILM PHOTOS AT HIS LOCAL SKATEPARK AND THEN DEVELOPING THEM IN THE DARK ROOM AT HIS HIGH SCHOOL ON QUEENSLAND’S SUNSHINE COAST. THESE DAYS HE MOSTLY SHOOTS DIGITAL AND HE’S ONE OF THE BEST SKATE PHOTOGRAPHERS IN AUSTRALIA. BETWEEN HOLDING IT DOWN AS THE TEAM MANAGER FOR INDEPENDENT, SANTA CRUZ AND STREET MACHINE, HE’S BUILT A PHOTOGRAPHY PORTFOLIO THAT MAKES MOST SKATERS DROOL. HE’S ALSO TOURED WITH BANDS LIKE THE CHATS AND PIST IDIOTS, SHOT AN ICONIC JACKSON PILZ BOARD GRAPHIC, AND HAD HIS PHOTOS AND WORDS PUBLISHED IN JUST ABOUT EVERY SKATE MAG WORTH ITS WEIGHT. IN FACT, WADE SHOT ONE OF THE COVERS OF THIS ISSUE OF GRASS FIRES – THE PHOTO OF BEN WEIR OLLIEING A GAP OVER A PLANTER BOX, SHOT IN THE REFLECTION OF A MIRRORED CEILING. WADE HAS BEEN BEHIND THE LENS FOR MORE THAN A DECADE, WHICH MEANS HE’S SPENT YEARS OF HIS LIFE TRAVELLING IN TOUR VANS, SLEEPING ON COUCHES AND FLOORS, AND PERCHING UP AT STREET SPOTS TO NAB SOME GREAT PHOTOS. THE NEXT NINE PAGES SHOWCASE WADE’S TALENT, WITH ACCOMPANYING CAPTIONS THAT REVEAL A POSITIVELY DOWN-TO-EARTH BLOKE WHO LOVES THE CRAFT AND HAS ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD FOR HIS MATES.

—Nat Kassel 22

Barney Page is from England but he did a stint living in Melbourne for a few months. He’s pretty particular about the tricks he chooses to do and what he wants to put out. I suggested this 50-50 ollie into wallride to him and surprisingly, he was actually down. He did it easy as piss but wasn’t psyched at all and never even used the clip, even though no one else is doing that shit. He’s crazy. I really like this photo because of the backdrop and the bikies. I love the rundown train station with the tags all over it. And those bikies aren’t PhotoShopped in – that was exactly where they were when Barney was doing this trick.

WADE MCLAUGHLIN

BARNEY PAGE BACKSIDE 50-50 OLLIE INTO WALLRIDE

It’s pretty hard to shoot this spot in its entirety so I went up on a bridge nearby. There’s not much run up and the wall is higher than it looks in this photo. Jesse Noonan had to use his staunch, muscly, bodybuilder legs to barge up the wall into a frontside five-o. It was pretty cool that there happened to be a pigeon flying by at the time too.

ISSUE #6

JESSE NOONAN WALLIE 5-0

WADE MCLAUGHLIN

EXTENDED

CAPTIONS

SERGIO REINHARDT 50-50 ROLL IN

I shot this photo of Sergio in Melbourne city, before he moved back to Italy. He's always on the hunt for new spots or new ways to skate old ones. Take this sequence for example – this spot is in plain sight in the middle of Melbourne but has never been touched. The glass wall and handrailing make this ledge extremely narrow and then there’s the steep and sketchy roll in. It takes a crazy brain to have the vision to see this as a skateable spot. We bloody miss you and your crazy brain Serg!

This rail is massive, it’s shoulder-height at the top. There’s also a little split in the rail that you have to gap past or you'll hang up. And then the rail is a super thin piece of sheet metal, which makes it weird as well. On every go, he was getting fucking hammered. Eventually he snapped the tail off his board. We asked if he wanted to borrow a board but he just turned his board around and popped off his nose. That was one of the first times I’d met him. It was fucking gnarly. I’m glad this photo is finally going to see the light of day because Shmorey is hella under-appreciated and this feeble is ruthless.

We were in Melbourne one day shooting some promo photos for a clothing company. The boys started doing some tricks , but nothing too serious. Then B o y d Yo u n g s t a r te d kickflipping the gap and he broke his fucking leg. We were all sitting there, wondering what to do, until Ja mes Moore suddenl y decided that he wanted to feeble this thing. He just started going for it.

ISSUE #6

JAMES MOORE FEEBLE

WADE MCLAUGHLIN

I shot this photo of Andrew Currie at The Tannery, which is a DIY spot in Melbourne. Cuzza has put his fucken hear t and soul into the place and he’s had a hand in most of the recent pieces of construction there, working with a big crew to take it to the next level. He’s been one of the main driving forces behind it and he rips it to fucken shreds as well. We were just hanging out one day and Cuzza was doing slappy back lips so I asked if I could shoot one. He actually landed it to fakie, but then he wanted to come out forwards as well. He tried it a few times and then stuck on one and smashed the back of his head on the ground pretty bad. There was no blood but he had a big egg on the back of his head. Thankfully, he’d landed this one first and we’d gotten the photo.

ANDREW CURRIE BACKSIDE LIPSLIDE TO FAKIE

ISSUE #6

WADE MCLAUGHLIN

KIERAN WOOLLEY FRONTSIDE JUDO

UNA FARRAR SLAPPY NOSESLIDE DROP DOWN

ISSUE #6

Una Farrar is originally from British Columbia, in Canada, but she’s been in Sydney living with her girlfriend Poppy Olsen for the past few months. She’s one of the few people I know who has actually managed to get a travel exemption and travel across the world amid the pandemic. Una is intelligent, driven and she’s got great style, so it’s always a pleasure to shoot with her. She did this slappy noseslide drop down in a line a bunch of times until she got the one she was happy with. First of all, I don't understand how you slappy a faceless wall, let alone dopping it down and popping it out like a boss. Una rips.

WADE MCLAUGHLIN

BEN WEIR FRONTSIDE NOSESLIDE

This ledge is so fucking long, I struggled to figure out how to shoot it. It’s really busy, there are bushes everywhere, and it’s hard to isolate the skater from the noise of the background. But there was a construction site directly across the road and I knew I needed to get up there for the shot. I jumped the fence, climbed up a tree and onto some scaffolding, and then climbed inside. I found a door into the building and then walked up a few flights of stairs. I was six stories up, poking out the edge of the unfinished building. I’d just gotten this photo of Ben’s incredible frontside noseslide and then Tommy Fynn started trying to backside tail it. While that was happening, two police cars rocked up and parked directly below me at the bottom of the construction site. I was dead sure that they were there for me, so I started running back down the flights of stairs, looking for another place to exit. I got down to the bottom, opened up a door and a hella loud alarm started going off. I was like, “Fuck!” The cops were on the other side of the fence, about ten metres away, with the alarm going off. I was freaking out. I ended up leapfrogging the huge fence somehow, with my camera, out of pure adrenaline. I landed behind a big pillar where they couldn’t see me, and then started walking casually, as if I was a bystander, just walking past. When I got around the corner, I hit the legs and ran off. So then I called the crew and asked them about it and they were like, “The cops had no idea you were up there, they just told us to stop skating.” I think that was the closest I’ve come to shitting myself in my adult life. Actually, I did shit myself once, but that’s another story.

ISSUE #6 Right Imaginary Friends. Series of ongoing portraits. 26 x 40 inches each. Ink on paper.

J E R E M Y V I LLE I S SO M E W H E R E BETWEEN BONDI BEACH IN SYDNEY AND BROOKLYN IN NEW YORK. IT’S THE CREATION OF THE ARTIST JEREMY ANDREW – WHO FOR THE BETTER PART OF 30 YEARS HAS BEEN BUILDING AND EVOLVING THIS DESTINATION POINT IN HIS HEAD. JEREMY – BETTER KNOWN AS JEREMY VILLE – IS A WILDLY IMAGINATIVE CREATOR, INTERESTED IN THE COLLECTIVE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS AND INNOVATION. TOGETHER WITH MEGAN AND NEIL OF STUDIO JEREMYVILLE, THEY’RE AN UNSTOPPABLE ENERGY, USING HUMOUR AND POSITIVITY TO BRING THEIR THOUGHT-PROVOKING CONCEPTS TO LIFE. THEIR ART IS THE DRIVING FORCE. JEREMYVILLE’S ADVENTURES HAVE TAKEN HIM ON A WILD RIDE TO DATE AND THERE’S NO DOUBT THE HUSTLE OF NEW YORK HAS HELPED PUSH HIS WORK ETHIC – ESPECIALLY IN SUCH AN AMBITIOUS CITY. THE THING ABOUT JEREMYVILLE IS THAT EVEN THOUGH I HAVE KNOWN HIM FOR 15 YEARS, I AM HIM. HIS CAREER IS LIKE A PUZZLE THROWN DOWN ONTO A TABLE AND MY OBJECTIVE HERE IS TO PUT IT FINDS A WAY TO MAKE HIS WORK FUN, WITH GOOD COMMUNICATION AND ENGAGING CONCEPTS. CUE SUNSET.

INTERVIEW — EDDIE Z AMMIT

TOGETHER. JEREMY VILLE ALWAYS

P H OTO S — C/O — J E R E M Y V I L L E S T U D I O S

STILL LEARNING NEW THINGS ABOUT

“I APPROACH MY ARTWORKS MORE LIKE WRITING A SONG THAN CREATING A DRAWING.”

ISSUE #6

What should someone expect if they were to skate down the streets of Jeremyville? You’d have a feeling of freedom, wind in your hair, acceptance for all the weirdness in you, a feeling of belonging and inclusiveness. The feeling that anything is possible.

hard in Sydney, it’s just that while living in Bondi Beach, the ocean used to beckon every day. I undoubtedly had a great lifestyle in Sydney, but New York does offer relaxation too. I have a place out on Long Island, New York, in a village called Northport, that reminds me a lot of Rushcutters Bay or Watsons Bay in Sydney. Lots of sailing and outdoor activities.

You’ve lived in New York for more than a decade now, what have you learnt from your experiences over there as opposed to growing up in Australia? I think my work ethic and time management skills have increased here in NYC, just because I’m much busier with multiple projects all at once, and I’ve had to really step it up. Not that I didn’t work

Why did you leave Australia? I will always call Bondi Beach home, but I’m here for my art career. At first, I used to travel back and forth from Sydney about three times a year but I found it hard to keep up the momentum of an international career, so I made a choice to stay in NY. That’s been my experience anyway. Of course, it’s definitely possible to have an international career based almost anywhere in the world, especially in wonderful Australia. Oz would have been the smarter option during these

COVID times, that’s for sure. I’ve also found that a lot of projects in New York come about from faceto-face interactions: like a chance meeting at a gallery opening, or a coffee with a potential client, or a studio visit from an art collector. There’s a lot to be said for that physical interaction, and the feeling you get from someone, and the vibe they get from you. An email or Zoom call just doesn’t reach that level of connection. You seem to have a glass half-full perspective. How do you maintain your inner-positivity and push away that glass half-empty feeling? I’m definitely someone who experiences all shades of the human condition, but I use my art to resolve a lot of the problems I face, and the outcome can often be construed as positive. Personally, I feel that each piece has that struggle embedded within it, on some level. When I look at my own work, I don’t only see the positive in it, I see the struggle that I went through to arrive at that solution. I also try to be as concise as I can in my delivery of the message, but concise does not mean simple. You can be complex and nuanced, and still concise, at the same time. A lot of my art process is to actually remove lines and the superfluous, rather than add them in. I see myself more as a storyteller, or say, a songwriter, than a traditional artist per se. I’m more influenced by the way Neil Young tells a story in his music and lyrics, than by how a painter paints a flower. I approach my artworks more like writing a song than creating a drawing. How many Community Service Announcements have you created to date? Which message – above all – is the most profound and why? Perhaps around 3,000 so far. If my art practice was an album, the #JeremyvilleCSA project would be the hit single for as large an audience as possible. But on the record, I might also have a moody instrumental piece, or a more complex ballad. Or perhaps there’s an obscure track on there that most listeners might not like, but the hardcore fans will get it, and I personally needed to have recorded it, for my own reasons. While I draw CSAs almost every day, I will also paint a surreal landscape, or create a sculpture. It’s all a part of my output. If it feels right, I create it. The best CSA is one that brings up a lot of thoughts or feelings for me, and hopefully for the viewer too. There’s a CSA message I drew called “Suddenly Thinking of You” which is a person’s head in the form of a cubed pool with a diving board, and someone has decided to jump into the water. It’s up to the viewer to decide who that someone is.

Above You and Music Forever (CSA) Right Page Suddenly Thining of You (CSA)

JEREMYVILLE

To me it could also be about the loss of a friend or lover, and how the randomness of thoughts allows for them to simply and suddenly enter your mind during the day. It’s a feeling of lacking control over our dreams or daily thoughts, an intrusion, pleasant or unpleasant. Yet the pool is a contained space, so they must soon come up for air, and leave the water, leave our thoughts.

“I LOVE THAT SPACE WITHIN THE ACT OF CREATING, WHERE YOU’RE UNSURE IF YOU’LL FAIL SPECTACULARLY, OR JUST SOMEHOW PULL IT OFF.”

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Tell us about the new sculptures you’ve been creating. They’re made of wood, right? How has your art practice led to this point? The #JeremyvilleSculptures series on Instagram shows all of my large-scale sculpture work, especially large public sculptures around the world, and these #StreetsofJeremyville wooden, one-off, hand painted sculptures, are a new addition to this series. They’re meant to be the opposite of say, a plastic toy in the thousands of units. These are singular, one off pieces, and I hand paint them all myself. My aim is to gradually populate a long, endless pavement from the Streets of Jeremyville, with all these characters in various stages of movement on the sidewalk. My favourite thing to do is to just walk the streets of the city, taking in the energy, thinking, and listening to music. This simple act inspired this ongoing series of sculptures.

You have a work called ‘Dreams Become Real’. What is your ultimate dream and has it become real? My ultimate dream is to be truly me. I always feel like I’m living at about 8% of who I can truly be. I’ve got such a long way to go, but that awareness is what keeps me going. I’m actually a highly flawed human; my hard drive has been wired poorly, so I’m constantly trying to upgrade the operating system, to fix the glitches. But I’ll never get there if I don’t have a dream, a plan, and a daily practice to try to fix it. An answer is only reached by asking the right questions. I’m always trying to ask the right questions, daily. The bravest question we could ask ourselves is: Who am I? It’s brave because it’s really difficult to arrive at an answer. Once asked, it can’t be unasked, or left unanswered. My life is mostly based on just trying to be as me as I can be.

SCAN FOR A TRIP TO JEREMYVILLE >>>

Your latest exhibition and first solo show in LA is aptly titled, ‘The things I think I need and what I really need’. Tell us about the ethos of the exhibition concept. What do you really need? It’s about reassessing what’s important in life; stripping back our existence to its essence. Love, nature, happiness, gratitude, simplicity, touching the earth lightly. Giving rather than just taking. An inner journey. Art has always been my key to open the door towards a new way through. I simply turned the key to open that door. I painted and drew a lot during the 2020 COVID lockdowns here in the US, and this year I’ve created about 120 works from January 2021 to early March 2021. During those two months I lived full time at my new loft studio space, got obsessed and just drew, painted, worked on sculptures, tried new techniques, new mediums, listened to music, drank lots of peppermint tea with fresh ginger. The 90-piece exhibition contains some of these new works.

Where is Jeremyville leading us to? Besides a sunset. To always change and grow. The art I was making five years ago is different to today, and will be much different in five years, hence I’m constantly growing. My greatest dislike in art is finding a formula and repeating it endlessly. The future of Studio Jeremyville is to become just a feeling.

Top Right Sunshine on the Other Line (comic)

Tell us about your team. We have a core team of Megan, Neil and I. Then another close layer after that, which is our regular team of animators, artisans, fabricators, freelancers and makers. Then the next layer: our agents, curators and publishers around the world. Then another layer: the clients who help share the messages we create, by collaborating on global or community projects. Then the final layer: the customer, the collector of our art, the viewer, anyone who connects with our art. All of these layers make up the team, they are all equally important, from the barista that makes our daily oat latte, to the CEO of Apple. I’ve interacted with both and both connect with my art. Each is intrinsic to the overall team effort. I thank them and value them equally. I love how entrenched you are within your own art practice and imagination. How do you escape Jeremyville? How do you escape the world you have created? Actually, making my art and listening to music is the escape device I use to leave the grind of daily life behind. I created a painting about this feeling, for my recent show, called ‘Endlessness’. It’s about that feeling of an endless night of painting or drawing, ‘til the small hours, listening to music, and going on that long journey over the horizon, into the unknown. That’s the time I come close to a feeling of eternity, when I’m lost on the journey of discovering myself through my art.

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Above Endlessness. 2021 18 x 24 inch screenprint. Signed edition of 100. Based off an original acrylic on wood painting.

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“I STAY AWAY FROM TRYING TO COMPARE MYSELF TO OTHER ARTISTS. IT’S A DEAD-END ROAD THAT LEADS NOWHERE.”

Left Details of Jerremy's small, hand painted sculptures

How do you swim against the status quo in your career? If I’m bored by my art, then others definitely will be too. But if I remain excited, engaged, experimental, then the viewer will be excited too, and come along for the journey, even if just to see if it fails or succeeds. I love that space within the act of creating, where you’re unsure if you’ll fail spectacularly, or just somehow pull it off. That tightrope walking is how I’ve navigated much of my career, and I’ve definitely fallen down many times. My failures have been my greatest teachers; I hold them dear to me.

Has the idea of ‘doing it yourself’ been integral to your success? I never went to art school, because I wanted the joy of figuring out what art is, all to myself. I didn’t want anyone telling me what they thought art was. The way I see life and art is that if you’re being truly yourself, doing what you’re passionate about, that comes close to being an artist. And no one can tell you how to be you. What have been some of the obstacles along the way? Myself. The greatest obstacles have been my own limitations in my mind, my fears, worry, or negativity. I’ve found when I get out of the way of myself, I get a lot more done. That took me a while to figure out.

How have you developed your current career path? You’ve come such a long way. The way I see it, I’ve never really had a real job. Actually, I’m quite unemployable. Luckily, I knew that I’m completely unsuited to a regular job from an early age. I had no choice but to build a life around the few talents I had. I tried to overcome the multitude of flaws within me. I figured this out when I was 18 while I was drawing and thinking at a Darlinghurst café one day. I drew two columns. In the first column, I listed the few things I could do reasonably well. In the second column, I listed all the things I sucked at, and that was a huge list, and an awakening just through writing it down. I’m screwed, I thought. I figured I’d better get going on finding ways to solve that second column. I’m still going on that. But I finally worked out that the best career to have is when who you are becomes your career.

Who are you chasing? Which artists are ahead of you? A lot of the great things you want in life are attracted to authenticity, individuality, truth and uniqueness. Great things like life partners, success in a career, great friends. You might even attract a love and respect for yourself. I guess I’m chasing this better version of myself, but I know I’ll never truly get there. I stay away from trying to compare myself to other artists. It’s a dead-

end road that leads nowhere. If younger artists ever message me, saying they want to be me, I always tell them: Be yourself, tap into your own experiences, and make the weirdness and difference in you, your art. That strange thing about us, which we see as a flaw, can actually be turned into the individuality and uniqueness in us. Turn it into your art. Own your strangeness. Andy Warhol has been an integral influence in your work. What have you learnt from his body of work and applied to your own? He’s the embodiment of owning your strangeness. He turned his flaws into positives. Andy Warhol’s greatest artwork was creating Andy Warhol. I loved also how he explored many disciplines in art, from commercial work, to publishing, painting, film, music producing and experiential events like the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. The power of celebrity. He was a very 21st Century artist, even though he existed in the 20th Century. He still fascinates me to this day. What I’ve learnt from him is to be as Jeremyville as I can be.

JEREMYVILLE

Above The Earth. 2021 36 x 48 inches Acrylic on 4 canvas panels.

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BOYSCLUB

BOYSCLUB ARE ONE OF SYDNEY’S NEWEST PUNK BANDS AND THEY’RE RIDING THE FIRST WAVE OUT OF PANDEMIC LOCKDOWNS. THEIR SINGLE, ‘BEST FOR YOU’, IS SELF DESCRIBED AS “DELIBERATELY WEIGHTY; PURPOSEFULLY HEAVY; SHARPLY MISERABLE,” WHICH IS AN INDICATION THAT BOYSCLUB SONGS DON’T SHY AWAY FROM THE ROUGH AND UNCOMFORTABLE PARTS OF LIFE, FROM DOMESTIC VIOLENCE TO QUEER EMPOWERMENT TO SUBSTANCE ABUSE. RESIDENT MUSIC WRITER PETA PETIDIS CAUGHT UP WITH ONE QUARTER OF BOYSCLUB, LOU HARBIDGE, TO CHAT FEMINISM, STAGE NERVES, COLLABORATION AND FLUSHING THE DUNNY.

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e’re Zooming from two “We formed just before the pandemic, different states. Lou, and I remember us making jokes Boysclub’s bassist like ‘is this a real thing?’ turns out it and current bowls club is a real thing.” patron is blowing her punk girl cover straight off the bat. “I’ll apologise in The pandemic has definitely been advance,” she says. “I’m currently a barrier for any new band trying out, sitting by the womens’ toilets, if to book shows and get heard, but you hear a flush, it’s not me.” Boysclub have done an excellent job at transcending some of the #Killtheboysclub is the slogan the Lou’s at her local and before we setbacks. They’ve already won a triple girls use across all of their socials even start talking about the band I j Unearthed competition, nabbing the and website. It clarifies the irony can already tell that she’s different opportunity to co-write with Aussie of their name, nodding to the to how Boysclub portray themselves music legend, Nick Littlemore (PNAU, irreverent, anti-establishment roots in their grimey, punk-oozing video Empire of the Sun, Vlossum) and of punk-rock. Lou jokes that if they clips. She isn’t wearing any makeup, have already managed to book a tour stuck to the usual arrangement of she’s laughing at herself with a of the East Coast. punk bands then, “we wouldn’t be countenance of embarrassment Boysclub we’d just be ‘Boy.’” and she’s saying sorry, a lot. She Having said that, Boysclub are still feels bad for forgetting our interview easing into their live set. The group The concept of the boys’ club, and she’s being self-deprecating supported Johnny Hunter for his where a group of bros tend to about her lack of administrative headline at The Lansdowne last informally keep each other in professionalism. September. It was their first live positions of power, is still kinda performance as a band and they everywhere, particularly the music “Skarlett usually does all this,” she were shitting themselves. scene. But the band is really fucking confesses. Skarlett Saramore, the grateful to have the opportunity group’s drummer, is the main go-to “We played two sets that night and to support and be influenced by for their press duties. She’s also the the first one was sort of… it was a tonne of ultra-talented femme mastermind behind a bunch of their good? But by the second one, we rockers across the biz. Lou assures creative pursuits and video clips. were like, YES!”, says Lou, fist me that they’re not doing Lou says she’s the one that “cracks pumping. “Learning how to share anything revolutionary by the whip”. the stage with each other and see slandering the inherent how everyone else moves and sexism in the industry, The constant flushing from the interacts – it was a learning curve they’re just making more noise, adjacent toilet cubicles just but I feel like we’ve got it.” trying to re-energise and level the out of frame from Lou’s Zoom playing field. screen tends to break any jitters Lou talks me through their growth early on in our exchange. She’s as a group and as women. They’re “We’re not necessarily breaking any starting to warm up to me and the business owners and creatives who sort of mold…it’s unfortunate but ridiculousness of the scenario is really fucking love punk music and we still have things to say… there the perfect distraction from Lou’s wanted to rock out even during a are a lot of people out there with introduction to talking to the media. pandemic. Despite the resulting many different stories, it’s just who physical distance of the last 12 in society we allow to talk.” “I haven’t left the state in a while… months, they’ve forged an incredibly I haven’t left my room in a while,” smooth operation. Making music I ask her who the loud talkers in she admits while relaying the first collaboratively through demo society are, who she envisions big announcement for the band. exc hange s , B oysc lub pride epitomises the boys’ club. Boysclub are preparing for their themselves on their ability to share initiation into east coast touring. Their their musical contributions evenly. “If I think in terms of current affairs following and reach have thrived over it’d be Craig Kelly on the drums, the year since their inception. With a “We’ve all been in bands where Israel Folau up front on the vocals… solid handful of singles online already, there’s been a ringleader, but it’s not Scomo on the bass, who else is they managed to regularly release really a band, it’s you know, ‘So and giving me the shits at the moment? songs and film clips over the worst so and the so-enettes’… We wanted I dunno let’s make it a three piece… year for the entertainment industry. a collaborative project. So we’re It’s basically men who are asserting Along with Skarlett, Sara Doll and very mindful of letting everybody have themselves with nothing constructive new addition, Kristen Adams, Lou their voice and their input and getting to say, who are damaging and who Harbidge and Boysclub have found everyone to write their own parts.” don’t think beyond themselves.” their feet in a short space of time.

“...WE’RE VERY MINDFUL OF LETTING EVERYBODY HAVE THEIR VOICE AND THEIR INPUT AND GETTING EVERYONE TO WRITE THEIR OWN PARTS.”

Boysclub aren’t just thinking about themselves. They’re speaking for those who don’t have the oomph to scream on stage or bash together loud instruments – the women who aren’t considered, listened to or acknowledged by the masses. The only kicker is that these women, loud enough to project on behalf of many, still sometimes can’t stop apologising for themselves. They still can’t completely shake off the shackles of our conditioned femininity – our submission to the patriarchy. “You have to at least pretend like you’re not afraid,” says Lou. “You have to represent an entire sector or sex, whereas men don’t have to be like that as much. It’s like, I’m a woman who plays rock music [so] I have to be the rock chick, I’ve got to be vulgar or whatever, but really I’m still apologising all the time! For even not being punk enough!”

in the industry have to be separated from their male counterparts in the process? Are we still tied to the male-idioms of a genre so much so that we need to change its name if we want to talk about female perspectives of domestic violence, suicide, drug abuse and how shit it can be to be a woman?

I congratulated Lou on ‘getting on’ with our interview from the dunny of a bowlo and she seemed pretty chuffed at herself. She suggested the header of the article could read, ‘Lou in the Loo.’ It was a treat to talk to someone without their guard up. An artist who didn’t carry their art with them; somebody human enough to engage with the discourse that surrounded their creative direction and music without needing to promote it overtly. She said sorry a fair bit but heck, I’m used to it.

The punk-game is a hard one to crack, especially as women. For Sara, Skarlett, Kristen and Lou, it’s about making it as real as they can, in as many creative ways, collaboratively, even if they’re uncomfortable in the process. Lou “You’ve got to be honest, you’ve got tells me about her discomfort when to be able to say what you want to the band shot and produced their say,” says Lou as a nearby toilet video clip for Villains. They dressed flushes in the background. “You’ve as rebel school-girls and paraded got to be able to just flush when you around a uni campus wearing want to and not hold back.” chokers and dark lipstick.

“It was something we had been working towards for a long time so you just have to do it, you have to Playing punk and femme-punk put on the school girl’s outfit and music can be likened to being like a be 16 again, be your 16-year-old “superhero” says Lou. It makes me witch, it’s natural… Sometimes when think about why the label ‘femme- you’re nervous, before a show or a punk’ even exists. Obviously punk job interview, you just have to get music is about speaking openly on with it.” and righteously out against the status-quo, but why do the women CHECK OUT BOYSCLUB ON BANDCAMP >>>

FOR SKATEBOARDERS, MALMO IS UNDOUBTEDLY ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST DESIRABLE CITIES. WITH A LOCAL GOVERNMENT WHO ACTUALLY SUPPORTS AND ENCOURAGES SKATEBOARDING, LOADS OF SKATEPARKS AND SKATEABLE ARCHITECTURE, AND A PROPER SK ATEBOARDING HIGH SCHOOL , IT SOUNDS LIKE A SKATE UTOPIA. IT MAKES YOU WONDER, HOW DID A RELATIVELY-UNKNOWN CIT Y IN SWEDEN COME TO BE SUCH A RENOWNED SK ATE DESTINATION? TO ANSWER THAT QUESTION, I SPOKE TO NILS SVENSSON, AN OG SWEDISH SKATE PHOTOGRAPHER; MIKE O’SHEA, A BRITISH ILLUSTRATOR; AND PHIL EVANS, AN IRISH FILMER. AMONGST OTHER THINGS, THEY TOLD ME ABOUT DORKZONE.

P H OTO S — N I L S S V E N S S O N

I L LU S T R AT I O N S — M I K E O ' S H E A

W O R D S — N AT K A S S E L

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DORKZONE

orkzone is an inherently difficult thing to describe. Visually, it’s a skate video series that showcases strange, experimental and slightly psychedelic vids that are partly animated and partly filmed. With trippy little cartoonish characters patched over streetscapes, interdimensional doorways and a bunch of cutty, stylish street skateboarding thrown in, the Dorkzone videos are a cross between outlandish kids’ TV entertainment and arty skate videos.

“We discussed this idea of doing an anti-Supreme video,” says Phil Evans, the filmer and editor of the Dorkzone videos, referring of course to the iconic NYC skate shop videos which have very much been in vogue for quite a few years now. “Yeah,” says Mike O’Shea, animator and co-creator of the Dorkzone videos, “just trying to make something that’s a bit different and not uber cool.” While the first iteration, simply titled Dorkzone (2018), contains a storyline, with voice-overs that follow a basic narrative adventure, the second edit, Dorkzone 2 Le Boxx (2020), takes more of a visual overload approach, flooding the screen with moving imagery interspersed with skate clips, leaving the viewer unsure of where to focus. But it’s the third of the series, Darkzone (2020), that is probably the most captivating, blending visual overload with a dynamic edit that is equal parts dreamy, retro and dramatic. If there’s a common thread that shines through with all the videos, it’s that they’re unashamedly about having fun. Rather than showcasing the heaviest hammers, masochistic trick battles or run-ins with security guards, Dorkzone is evidently a platform for illustrations, experimentation and above all else, creativity. They’re skate videos, but they’re not just about skating.

Left Sondre Mortensen jams a 50-50 and yanks it off the wall, as seen in the first edition of Dorkzone

“It’s not just, ‘let’s film skating and put some clips together,’” says Mike. “It’s trying to do something different each time, trying to do something a bit more creative and interesting, not just the same old thing.” When I catch the three men behind Dorkzone on group a video call, they all look freezing. It’s mid-winter in Malmo and Nils Svensson, Mike O’Shea and Phil Evans are dressed in hoodies and beanies, looking stoic and serious. Nils is Swedish, Mike is English and Phil is Irish but these days they all live in Malmo. They’re in an office, with a big whiteboard behind them, and in the next room is an indoor skatepark which is apparently one of the best in Sweden. With frequent rain and snow throughout the long winters, an indoor skatepark is an important asset during these colder months. As we chat over Zoom, it’s clear that in order to understand Dorkzone, you need to understand Bryggeriet, which is a Swedish skate organisation that Nils founded way back in 1998. These days, Bryggeriet works in collaboration with the Malmo local government to build numerous skateparks across Sweden and run all sorts of comps, art workshops and different events. Over the past two decades, they’ve opened a gallery space; created the Dorkzone brand and video series; and even founded a proper skateboarding school, which is the first of its kind in the world.

“THE DORKZONE VIDEOS WERE ABOUT PRODUCING SOMETHING CULTURAL AND CREATIVE THAT WAS IN CONTRAST TO THE COMPETITION CIRCUIT.”

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DORKZONE

Left to right Eliott Toiminen launches over Moa Zander. Sondre Mortensen balances a picturesque nose manny. Sondre grinds a backside slash on a Swedish waterfront fishing spot.

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The city of Malmo has been described in other magazines as “a skate paradise”, “skate utopia” and “the most skateboard-friendly city in the world” and this is largely due to the work of Nils and the crew at Bryggeriet. Nils is a skate photographer by trade, shooting countless photos with Sweden’s best over the years, including the infamous artist, skater and founder of Polar and Last Resort AB, Pontus Alv. Nils tells me things really kicked off in Malmo in the late ‘90s when he and some others formed a skate association, which became Bryggeriet. “Yeah, I think this whole Bryggeriet platform that we’ve created is maybe the base of it all,” says Nils. “Before Bryggeriet it was pretty miserable here. I mean, we had a great time, but for skating and the development of skating it was pretty grim. “We didn’t really have anything. Malmo has its seasons and in the winters it was down in the garages and in the summers there wasn’t much happening here. We were kind of outside the whole Swedish skate scene as well, everything was focused in Stockholm. So we did our own thing down here, we connected more with Copenhagen. But we got connected with Bryggeriet. We were a little group of skaters.”

Top to bottom Nils Svenson Mike O'Shea Phil Evans

That was the point where they got organised, or at least, more organised than they had been before. “Really early on, we started an association. It’s a big thing in Sweden to create an association and then you can get some support from the government. That’s a crucial thing to develop and go further as an organisation,” says Nils. “It’s not very common for skaters to get organised,” Nils deadpans. “But I think we had some good people helping us who made it really easy for us to still be unorganised. They handled the organisation and we could still be free.”

Perhaps the most monumental of Bryggeriet’s achievements is the fact that they have infiltrated the local government with a skateboard advisor. His name is Gustav Eden and his official job title is the Skateboarding Coordinator of the City of Malmo. Gustav does all sorts of skate related things while representing (and getting paid by) the local government, from organising skate comps like the Vans Park Series to building new skate spots and parks in the city to liaising with Bryggeriet to run workshops. Nils describes Gustav as “our main man on the inside”, telling me that, as far as he knows, Gustav’s job doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world. Another of Bryggeriet’s big achievements is the school they created, which is called Br yggeriets Gymnasium. Nils ex plains , “ We, as Bryggeriet, created the school organisation and then hired the principal and then the principal hired teachers and so on. It started in 2006 and it’s a so-called free school, so it’s outside the government. We get funding from the government to run this free school.”

DORKZONE

Left to right Mimmi Leckius plants her hand atop a Malmo volcano. Gabbe Viking and Amandus Mortensen clowning around. A backside flip for the man in the mirror.

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The students still have a regular curriculum, doing the core academic subjects that you would have at any school in Sweden – English, Swedish, Maths, Science – but there are physical education classes dedicated to skateboarding. In the art department, there are subjects for skate photography and skate videography. The campus contains a huge skatepark, and students can skate during lunchtimes. Among the school’s alumni are the best skateboarders to come out of Sweden over the past decade: Oskar Rosenberg-Hallberg, Didrik Galasso, Karl Berglind, Sarah Meurle, Fernando Bramsmark, Herman Stene and others.

“WE REALLY WANT SKATERS THAT ARE INTERESTED IN THE WHOLE [CULTURE], NOT JUST SKATING AND DOING BETTER TRICKS.”

we provide is arts and photography and filming and all that sort of stuff. We really want skaters that are interested in the whole [culture], not just skating and doing better tricks.”

As Nils, Phil and Mike explain how the skateboarding scene has evolved and blossomed in Malmo, I wonder if it ever feels like these projects detract from skateboarding’s countercultural roots. If you’re getting encouraged to skate by your teachers and your local government, does that shape skateboarding into more a mainstream ‘sport’, rather than a rebellious art form?

Phil explains that the kids at the school simply love skateboarding and it being on offer as a school subject doesn’t seem to make skateboarding any less appealing. “I teach one day a week of film studies. I’m teaching skate film production, which is hilarious, considering my school was just miserable,” he laughs. “But the kids, they just want to skate all the time. They want to take a skate break.”

And this all brings us back to Dorkzone. What do these psychedelic, experimental, kid-friendly skate videos have to do with this massive organisation that builds skateparks and schools and works with the government? Nils tells me that for a while there, Bryggeriet was doing so many events and competitions that it was missing some of the cultural side to skateboarding. The Dorkzone videos were about producing something cultural and creative that was in contrast to the competition circuit.

“Bryggeriet is a really big organisation and our goal is to provide a really good skate scene and we feel that the skate-cultural side is a huge part of that,” says Nils. “[Dorkzone] is the start of trying to bring that side up again.”

LEARN MORE ABOUT DZ AND CHECK OUT THIER CLIPS >>>

Zone. “In this time that’s been leading up to the Olympics, that has gotten me a little bit worried about people seeing this place as a kind of training facility or career thing,” says Nils. “But I don’t feel that. The skaters that are here, they’re just normal skaters. But I can see that that could be an issue, that it could attract elite, career skaters who are only interested in excelling at skating and they don’t really care about the rest. Because ideally, what

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(IN THE STUDIO WITH MINI SKIRT AND C.O.F.F.I.N) P H OTO S — A L E X A N D E R C O O K E

ITH CRISP, CLEAN RIFFS AND LYRICS

GOT A BIT CAUGHT UP IN THE HUSTLE AND BUSTLE OF

T H AT R I P I N T O T H E S O M E T I M E S -

THE SHINING STATE CAPITAL AND STAYED UP UNTIL

F U N N Y,

GUTS

AT LEAST HALF AN HOUR AFTER MIDNIGHT. LUCKILY

OF AUSTR ALIANA , MINI SKIRT ARE

NONE OF US TURNED INTO A PUMPKIN, BUT WE WERE

AMONG THE BEST GARAGE PUNK BANDS WORKING

SLIGHTLY CRUSTY WHEN WE ROLLED INTO THE STUDIO

IN AUSTRALIA TODAY. C.O.F.F.I.N ARE AN EQUALLY

AT 11AM, FEELING SORRY FOR OURSELVES AND

POWERFUL FORCE IN THE AUSSIE MUSIC LANDSCAPE,

WHINGEING ABOUT WHAT FUCKING MAD DOGS WE WERE

THOUGH THEIR GUITAR-HEAVY PUNK SOUND AND DARK

FOR STAYING UP SO LATE. WE WERE EMBARRASSED

SOCIAL COMMENTARY ARE A BIT LOUDER, DRUNKER

TO SEE THE REAL ROCK’N’ROLL DOGS, C.O.F.F.I.N,

AND MORE ABRASIVE. WITH A MANIACAL DRUMMER-

WERE ALREADY RIPPING INTO A COUPLE OF FULL-

SINGER, THREE GUITARISTS AND BASSIST, C.O.F.F.I.N

STRENGTH CASES AND VARIOUS OTHER PERFORMANCE

HAVE A MASSIVE STAGE PRESENCE, AND YET THEIR

ENHANCERS. I FELT LIKE THIS SET A PRETTY GOOD

LYRICS ARE OFTEN POETIC AND POIGNANT. THESE TWO

TONE FOR THE RECORDINGS AS A WHOLE.”

S O M E T I M E S - U G LY

BANDS ARE PROOF THAT THE AUSSIE PUNK SCENE IS GOING STRONG IN 2021. TO PUNCTUATE THIS POINT,

BOTH JACOB AND C.O.F.F.I.N’S SINGER- DRUMMER

MINI SKIRT AND C.O.F.F.I.N RECENTLY CAME TOGETHER

BEN PORTNOY ARE TALENTED LYRICISTS, SO IT’S NO

TO RECORD A SPLIT SEVEN INCH IN SYDNEY.

SURPRISE THAT THEY CAN ALSO HOLD AN INTERESTING CONVERSATION. WITH THAT IN MY MIND, WE GOT THEM

AS MINI SKIRT’S SINGER, JACOB BOYLAN, EXPLAINED,

TO INTERVIEW EACH OTHER. ON STAGE, BOTH JACOB

“LIVING IN A SEMI-RURAL AREA, THE MINI SKIRT LADS,

AND BENNY ARE LOUD, INTENSE AND INTIMIDATING, BUT

INCLUDING MYSELF, ARE PRETTY GOOD AT DRINKING

OFFSTAGE THEY’RE SWEETHEARTS WHO READ POETRY

MID - STRENGTH BEERS AND BEING IN BED BEFORE

AND TALK THOUGHTFULLY ABOUT THEIR SONGWRITING

MIDNIGHT. BUT THE NIGHT BEFORE RECORDING WE

PROCESSES. SO, GO ON, TURN THE PAGE. RIP IN.

— Nat Kassel

M.S & C.O.F.F.I.N

Ben Portnoy — C.O.F.F.I.N vocalist & drummer

Jacob Boylan — Mini Skirt vocalist

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M.S & C.O.F.F.I.N

Jacob Boylan: So Benny, we had a belter time hanging out with the C.O.F.F.I.N lads in Sydney the other weekend. It was a good balance of work and leisure I reckon. It felt like everything came together pretty quick. Does stuff normally come together pretty quick for you guys once you’re in the studio? Ben Portnoy: It was damn good. I think we were all longing for a bit of a focused project with friends. With gigs not being a thing lately and no tours, we’ve been really missing that swell of excitement and energy you get from that type of collaboration with other artists. You forget how important that time between shows is – shooting the shit, showing each other places, laughing, discussing ideas. We sorta half wrote the last album in the studio, and that was over about eight days, so I guess that’s sorta quick if you consider all the direction discussions and duels. But previously it’s been rare for us to have the facilities to record live together. Having played as a band so long, I think we do that really well, and knock it over pretty quick. So it was solid to do that this time. Also, we tried to have our shit together and not look like buffoons in front of you lot. Jacob: I know Cam [Campbell, Mini Skirt guitarist] did a lot of the organising of this thing from our side, how did this little project come together from your perspective? Benny: Bullshit, I did all the work! [laughs] Nah, Cam was definitely gripping the shepherd's crook, but I was his offsider. When you guys came to Sydney for a sit-down show a few months ago at The Vic [On The Park Hotel], Cam and I dug in a bit deeper and realised how much our interests and passions overlapped. I already felt pretty connected to you, and friendship with Jesse and Jacob [Pumphrey, bassist and drummer in Mini Skirt] just felt easy and immediately comfortable. The next day Cam and I were texting each other and at one point one of us just said, “Let’s do a split.” I can’t remember exactly who, probably because we were both angling towards the same outcome. From there, we had a bit of back and forth about how we would do it and pretty quickly agreed it would be mad fun to meet up and record it together at the same place over a weekend. The C.O.F.F.I.N crew were hell down on hanging, and I think it’s a really good way to do a split. You have all that shared energy and vibe, but also you actually get it done. You’re accountable to each other in that space of time and aren’t able to let your side of it drag on.

Jacob: What do you reckon are the major zones where we cross over in terms of what our bands do? I think some people will be maybe a bit confused at us putting out music to gethe r bu t I see some major similarities. Benny: I reckon we both grapple with the archetype of white blokes from the Northern Beaches and The Shire while being relatively white blokes from Queenscliff and Cronulla. Something about having a lot of love for a place which equally holds a lot of what we’re really put off by and ashamed of in this country. I’ve had both your songs and, in particular, ‘Bag Of Bones’ stuck in my head since we recorded. I think that’s a damn good indication of a song’s success. Pace, drive, and emotion are key in our songs. Jacob: You showed me a really beautiful poem that had influenced you in writing one of the songs that you recorded. Do you read a lot of poetry? Benny: Yeah, it was ‘12 Ode to the Yellow Bird’, by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. I really like reading poetry, partly because poems are often only a few pages and I have a short attention span. But I also like the abstraction, the range of interpretations that are possible [and] the immediate imagery. I enjoy language as an art form, particular words together, sounds side by side, the fact that something short and stubborn written by a teenager can be as profound to me as a piece of lengthy verse written by an English professor.

In terms of other things that influenced me, I’d say listening to ABC Radio National and BBC Radio. My mum had a boyfriend who is unbelievably knowledgeable, he’s taught me heaps and can have an in-depth conversation on just about anything. He says he owes most of it to listening to those stations while driving cabs in Sydney after migrating to Australia. I’ve done a lot of labouring and braindead jobs while saving to travel and tour. Listening to those stations non-stop while doing them made me feel a bit less shit about them. Jacob: You guys have been a band for 100 years now, I would speculate that the bands you play with and the kind of scene around you would have changed a lot? Benny: I think we feel like we’ve always straddled a few scenes, or perhaps never quite been included in any of them. Although maybe that’s because we’ve been playing together so long and scenes seems to come and go, or re-shape, and so have we. That is something noticeable though: The punk, hardcore, rock, alternative, and indie scenes seem to share a stage a lot more now. I remember jumping the back fence to Hardcore ’08 with Arty and a lad mate of ours; it was a very bro hardcore fest in Sydney. We were underage and our mate was a bit smaller than us, but he was fiery as fuck and pretty fearless. Heaps of the crowd were ridiculing him for being a lad. They kept pretend kicking him and all that nonsense while doing their dancing. One dude was being particularly annoying and repetitive with it. Eventually our lad mate just dropped him and the windmills went away. Now hardcore crowds are full of lad looking types.

ISSUE #6

M.S & C.O.F.F.I.N

Overlay photos by Ben Portnoy and Cam Campbell

ISSUE #6

Also, the scene appears to want and encourage diversity way more now. It’s a way better vibe which is making the music expand and the crowds more fun. Jacob: Where do you hope to see our 7 inch in 30 years? Benny: Mum and Dad collections that are being riffled by youngsters while their friends are over. And in a good record collecting shop somewhere in Europe or Asia while on tour. Or in Texas. Anyway, I think it’s about time that I asked you some questions. What’s your go-to meal you cook to impress? Like, for example if your partner’s parents are coming over. Jacob: I’d have to say either halloumi tacos or a cheeky pasta. I’m not very good at cooking. I make a really good peanut butter toast though. Benny: When I say, “Think of a sick riff,” what riff is humming in your head? Jacob: I’ve had the riff from Sleepy Silver Door by Dead Meadow stuck in my head for weeks now. It’s not usually my kind of listening but I love that song. Benny: How do you go about writing lyrics? Is it a long struggle? A fast crack? Jacob: Sometimes I’ll really think about something and pain over it for ages, but it usually changes pretty quickly once I’m in the room with the lads. I’ve started to notice more that our songs can be divided into two categories. There are the ones where the lyrics have led the structure, or vice versa, where I fit my lyrics into a structure. In the latter category I usually have a few phrases written down that I haven’t been able to tie together and that’s usually where I can use these one-liners. When I’m stuck, I usually have to take a phone recording away and sit with it for a while until I can make it work. I hate feeling like I’m relying on old tropes when I’m coming up with lyrics, it feels lazy and like I’m cheating a bit. I hate throwaway lines and I do my best to avoid putting words in that don’t mean anything.

Benny: I really dig the critique you provide on what I describe as putrid Australia. It doesn’t preach and it’s not pretty and it can be tragically humorous. Was this your style from the get-go with the band or did it develop out of necessity once you guys started to write more seriously? Jacob: Well, when we started I had never been in a band before and after the first few songs we wrote, I pulled myself up and was like, “What the fuck do I actually wanna write about?” I realised that most of the music I liked, I liked it because of the lyrical content. So I just started writing about what I thought was worth people hearing instead of just, “Yeah, yeah, yeah bongs and beers and shit.” Benny: How do these two new Mini Skirt songs come to life? Musically, C.O.F.F.I.N is quite collaborative. We’ll jam randomly in our practice room until something we like forms, then build on that feel. How does it work with you guys? Jacob: I’m learning that we actually put them together in what’s becoming a pretty standard writing procedure for the Skirt. We wrote ‘DIY Nightmare’ a few months back in a big shed in Federal, which was real fun. We had also written another song out there that was meant to be on the split but we—Cam—decided the song was no good. So a week out from coming down to Sydney to record with you guys we put together a new song in a state of panic and somehow pulled it off. But like you said, we kinda get in the studio and fluff around for a bit until something sticks. It definitely works best if we’re all in there together. In fact, it’s the only way anything gets done.

Benny: You’re quite the visual artist too, mainly screen printing, but other mediums as well. Do you do all the visuals for Mini Skirt? Jacob: Yeah, I take care of most of the visuals. The other Jacob is a bit of a Photoshop wizard too though. It’s pretty good having an in-house art guy, for everyone except me [laughs]. Nah, I love it. Benny: You mentioned that poem by Neruda that helped propel my writing for one of the C.O.F.F.I.N songs on the split. Do you find you take notes of phrases and words that catch your attention? Jacob: Yeah, for sure! There’s a line at the end of ‘Bag Of Bones’ that I stole from a great Australian movie, Wake In Fright. One of the characters says, “All the tiny devils are very proud of hell.” I love that line. I definitely collect little phrases and notes in my phone that I try to build off. Benny: Being good at surfing seems to have a direct link between being successful in the music industry. There’s Goons Of Doom, Ocean Alley, Jack Johnson and all Metallica’s albums from St Anger onwards. Who is the best surfing band from the Northern Rivers? Jacob: Parkway Drive, without a doubt. Also, I not-so-secretly love St Anger. Also, also, do you reckon Drake can surf?

ISSUE #6

P H OTO S — N I C O L E R E E D

INTERVIEW — EDDIE Z AMMIT

The Blooming AS EACH YEAR ROLLS BY, GEORGE ROSE INCREASES HER PROFILE AND HER WALL SIZES. SHE’S HER OWN COMPETITION NOW AND WITH BOLDER GRADIENTS AND BRIGHTER COLOURS, SHE’S READY TO TAKE HER CAREER TO A NEW LEVEL, ONE BRUSH A TIME, ONE SPRAY CAN AT A TIME. GEORGE HAS BEEN WORKING FOR THE BETTER PART OF THE LAST DECADE, REFINING HER MURAL SKILLS AND, WITH A LIST OF CLIENTS THAT INCLUDES INSTAGRAM, SAMSUNG AND TIKTOK, QUICKLY TAKING HER CREATIVE AMBITION TO NEW HEIGHTS. GEORGE HAS WON AWARDS, ESCALATED HER CAREER WITH SOME GROUNDBREAKING CLIENT WORK AND SHE CONTINUES TO DEVELOP MEANINGFUL PERSONAL PROJECTS. SHE KNOWS NO LIMITS AND SHE’S FIRMLY PLACED HERSELF – EVEN IF SHE DOES NOT KNOW IT YET – AMONG AUSTRALIA’S BEST ARTISTS. THE FUTURE IS WHAT I’M EXCITED ABOUT. THE BEST IS YET TO COME.

Truth.

“IT’S IMPORTANT THAT ANYONE WHO COMMISSIONS AN ARTIST UNDERSTANDS THAT THEY DON’T GET TO CONTROL THE ARTIST’S HAND.”

GEORGE ROSE

You’re very ambitious. Where does your drive come from? I like a challenge. I thrive on it. I’ve always wanted to create work that people are drawn to and are impressed by, I want to affect peoples’ lives with my art. I’ve always suspected that I don’t have the temperament for a nine-to-five vocation, so I’ve had to make my passion viable. I had a lecturer at university once tell me that, “You’ll either be huge, or nothing,” and there’s nothing like the fear of failure to ignite your ambition.

Tell us about your distinct style. You seem to have developed a set of different directions and signature traits. I’ve developed three pretty distinct styles, but they can and do overlap at times. For ease, let’s call them “abstract expressionism”, “stylized” and “naïve”. The abstract expressionism style is where I use large gestural brush strokes and mark making in the murals. These marks are initially created in my studio using ink with brushes, rollers, sticks, and fingers, then recreated to an expansive scale on a wall. The stylised work is frenetic and utilises confident, bold line work and usually depicts flora or fauna. Then the naïve is far simpler and uses flat colours with no outline and is created using cut paper or clean shapes. Sometimes my work includes brush lettering or type, though I’ve been moving away from typography. As a rule, my work almost always includes the use of sweet, sweet fades or gradients. Most of my work is pattern based. I don’t create scenes but usually take up the whole wall, applying a design similar to wallpaper.

You are very process driven. Is the journey better for you than the destination? For me, the process is a huge part of the artwork. From the initial research and concept development to the building of a design and finally painting onsite. I don’t think the result is the entirety of the artform. I believe it’s an artwork but I think there is so much beauty in the enacting of an artistic practice. I think this is truer than ever when you’re painting in public because you’re essentially on show all the time. It’s like a theatre production – the process has to be a part of the spectacle. The final result is just the conclusion.

Truth.

Your body of work is very clearly split between commercial and personal projects. Is one more important to you than the other? There’s a place for commercial work as well as personal projects and I find they influence one another. A personal project can morph into a commercial project and vice versa. Where personal projects help to evolve and shape an artist’s individual practice and direction, commercial commissions not only help to pay the bills, but can also help refine public artistic language. I enjoy commissioned work. I like the problem-solving aspect to the limitations within briefs and having something to respond to. In my personal work I am only responding to my own whim so my ideas can get pretty convoluted. Working with a client helps to refine ideas into succinct and manageable works.

It can be a painful process painting in public spaces because you don’t have much control over what happens to your art after its completion. It might last one day or ten years. My ethos is that when I finish a wall, I relinquish control. I have to let it go. That’s a pretty major adjustment mentally for any artist. That’s the beauty of painting on the street, it’s ephemeral and I love that.

ISSUE #6

What has been the biggest challenge of your career to date? This last year has been extremely challenging. Not being able to maintain a workflow or keep to project timelines due to the COVID restrictions has been really difficult. I usually thrive on the pace of my work and 2020 was a disruptive and uncontrollable force I’ve had to adjust to.

ruth. You’ve previously stated that you want your work to be gender neutral, why is that? It's less to do with gender being an identifier of my work but rather a reflection on my work being seen as independent of me or my gender. Unfortunately, in the modern art economy I’m no longer just an artist producing work, but ostensibly I am also a brand. It’s always been important to me that people value my work for the strength of my style and not judge my work on the basis of my gender. It’s disappointing that questions around being a woman and painting urban art are all too common – that I can’t be interviewed without my gender being a part of the discussion. I want to know – would you ask a male artist what it’s like to be a man painting?

Yeah, that’s a fair point and an important one. Where has your work taken you globally? Why is travel important to you personally? I’ve always struggled to sit still. My resistance to inertia is one of the reasons why I’ve ended up in such a multifaceted career that involves a lot of travel. I’m always genuinely excited and grateful for any opportunity I get to travel. My painting has taken me all over Australia, to Bali, Europe, to Taiwan and multiple trips to The States and Mexico but there is still a lot of the world left to paint! Travel is important to me because it facilitates exposure to alternative perspectives, diverse artists and different people. I love new experiences but I hate travelling without a purpose. What I love most about overseas travel is the combination of meeting other artists, painting in new locations and experiencing different cultures. There is something really special about painting in a different country. You tend to meet people who are just going about their everyday lives and gain a genuine sense of the community and an appreciation for it.

“UNFORTUNATELY, IN THE MODERN ART ECONOMY I’M NO LONGER JUST AN ARTIST PRODUCING WORK, BUT OSTENSIBLY I AM ALSO A BRAND.”

GEORGE ROSE

ISSUE #6

Photo — Holly Hawkins

GEORGE ROSE

What do your commercial clients need to understand more about your art practice? That I am not a designer. Sometimes commercial clients will want to heavily dictate a design or play art director. It’s important that anyone who commissions an artist understands that they don’t get to control the artist’s hand. Creating an artwork for a commercial project is still an artistic expression and uses a unique voice. There can be some negotiation, but when it comes down to it, art is quite simply different to design. What’s the difference between graffiti, murals and street art? Where do the misconceptions start and finish? All these terms refer to forms of expression that fall under a more general description of urban art. There is no short answer or definitive meanings for these expressions and we should keep in mind that urban art is a movement that is constantly evolving. Each expression you’ve listed is also an umbrella term for further sub-genres. Graffiti, for example, is a broad term that is used for anything from tagging to pieces and productions, to bombing, which may or may not involve an element of vandalism. Modern day graffiti is widely acknowledged to have stemmed from the New York subways and hip-hop culture of the ‘70s and ‘80s but you can find examples of graffiti in [the ancient city of] Pompeii. Street art can refer to – but is not limited to – paste ups, yarn bombing, chalk drawing and painting on the street, and the term mural is pretty specific to paintings done on walls. All these art forms exist independently but there is cross-pollination between disciplines. It’s a common misconception that they are all the same and share similar origins so it’s easy for people to use the wrong term when describing an expression. I like to think that they’re more like cousins in that they’re all related but not necessarily derived from one another.

How do you think the global street art circuit could be improved? International festivals are generally unpaid. Obviously art isn’t always about the money and I don’t do festivals for financial gain, but it can get hard to survive financially if you’re constantly on the road painting for free. It’s always a balancing act. But I can foresee that if artists are paid for festivals and travel, then visas will become more difficult to obtain. Maybe it would be good to lobby for easier artist visas for artists who travel by the seat of their pants. You ride the wave of summer with your work. How did you cope with COVID lockdowns over the past winter in Melbourne? Terribly. It’s fair to say that I really don’t deal well with the cold. I’ve pretty much survived by sitting on an oil heater last winter. When it became apparent that I was to do my first full winter in over eight years, I bought a jacket camouflaged as a sleeping bag – I’m pretty sure it’s designed for Canadian winters. I look like a grub when I wear the thing. As painful as the lockdown was, I’ve been forced to pivot my mural practice into a studio practice. I use this time productively, evolving my art in different ways, so there’s at least a silver lining to surviving a Melbourne winter in lockdown.

You've done murals on over 200 walls. What’s the big picture of what you’re aiming for? I want to paint skyscrapers. I want to create large and impressive artworks and collaborate with public institutions like the NGV and the NGA. I want to be in the canon of Australian art history. I am gearing towards having a solo show in Australia. I have a list of dream projects including finding someone to work with on large installations and collaborating with brands who also like to blur artistic boundaries. I can’t wait to get back on the global street art circuit and show internationally. I’d love to do a really large-scale wall, high in a city, using a drop stage. I’d love to collaborate with a paint brand such as Resene to develop my own colour range. I also want to expand my practice to painting larger, more obscure canvases, like planes and boats.

Truth. I suspect fitness and health is an important part of your work, especially for the more large-scale walls. Painting is a really physically intense activity – you’re on your feet all day, moving around, climbing and carrying equipment. I love that it’s so physical, but yes you do need to build up stamina and strength in order to maintain a mural practice. When I’m painting back-to-back projects I don’t really exercise or go to the gym, I’m too busy painting. When the weather is good, I’ll easily paint around 10- or 12-hour days but in summer I might paint longer, depending on the project. It can be pretty intense.

“I HAD A LECTURER AT UNIVERSITY ONCE TELL ME THAT, ‘YOU’LL EITHER BE HUGE, OR NOTHING,’ AND THERE’S NOTHING LIKE THE FEAR OF FAILURE TO IGNITE YOUR AMBITION.” 65

ISSUE #6

A COUNTRY BAND PLAYS LOUD, THE GOOD FOLK ARE UP DANCING AND THE FIRE PIT BURNS BRIGHT. IT’S 7PM ON A SUNDAY NIGHT AT THE SHAWS BAY HOTEL IN BALLINA, NORTHERN NSW. JAKOB ROBINSON, AN OLD NORTHERN SOUL (ALBEIT BORN IN 1997), WEDGES HIS SKATEBOARD BETWEEN THE BAR AND HIS STOOL. HE’S GOT A BOOK IN ONE HAND AND A BEER IN THE OTHER, YET HE STILL SOMEHOW MANAGES TO TWIST UP A ROLL-YOUR-OWN CIGARETTE. HE TAKES A PEW AND SETTLES INTO THE CONVERSATION THAT FOLLOWS.

INTERVIEW PHOTOS

—

MARTY

BAPTIST

KRISTIAN

PHILIPP

—

JAKOB ROBINSON

et’s start at the beginning. Where were you born? I was born in Lismore, NSW but I grew up in Ballina, a small coastal town about 20 minutes south of Byron Bay. I've just recently moved to Byron but Ballina will always be my home.

Wow, Ballina is a beautiful place, what was it like growing up on the East Coast? I loved growing up here. There's something in the water on the east coast; I really couldn't imagine having been raised anywhere else. I really appreciate living so close to the ocean and so close to the bush. You get the best of both worlds. There isn’t a whole heap to do in Ballina but growing up, my friends and I would always find something. We spent a lot of time in the water, exploring the beaches and nearby waterfalls, camping, drinking and skating. I'm pretty lucky to have skating though. There's a lot of small-town bullshit going on here so it's quite easy to be sucked into the drama. For a while, I definitely was. I see a lot of good people get drowned in the fishbowl. W hen did you star t skate boarding? I started skating when I was six. My mum and I went to see Spider-Man at the cinema. It was my favourite movie as a kid and as you walked in, they were giving out raffle tickets. I ended up winning the raffle, and the prize was a Spider-Man gift pack. It had a shirt and one of those sticky hand things and also a skateboard. I was so stoked on the board, I wouldn't get off it. A few days later my dad was trying to show me how to ollie and snapped it. I was off it, so he took me down to the skate shop and bought me a proper board. I just took to it straight away and never really stopped.

“...I’M JUST REALLY TRYING TO GET BACK TO SKATING THE WAY I WANT AND DOING WHAT I WANT. I THINK IT’S VERY IMPORTANT TO BE YOURSELF IN SKATING, ART, MUSIC OR WHATEVER YOUR MEDIUM FOR EXPRESSION IS. ”

ISSUE #6

It's often the case that small towns or isolated places seem to produce some of the greats in art, music, skateboarding or whatever. Do you think your environment has influenced the way you skate? I haven't really thought about that before, but I guess in ways it has. There was a rad crew here growing up that I was influenced by, but I guess it’s a lot different to growing up skating in a city where there’s such an abundance of skaters and different styles. I’d read some mags and watched some skate videos growing up, so there were definitely people I looked up to, but I was also just busy being a kid so I don't think I was ever trying to skate a certain way or dress a certain way. I just skated, so I guess the isolation of my environment did shape my skating a lot. As I've gotten older, I’ve become quite anxious and doubtful. At times I've tried to skate different and be different. I’d see other people doing things and think I had to do them. I still feel like that at times, so at the moment I’m just really trying to get back to skating the way I want and doing what I want. I think it’s very important to be yourself in skating, art, music or whatever your medium for expression is.

about that, not just for skating. How many great artists never get their chance because of where they live, or how much money they have, how many people have to give up on their dreams to make ends meet? I think social media has opened the doors. If you’re a good skater or a rad artist you now have a platform for your work and the whole world can see it. Although, I also think that social media has been the death of purity. If you have enough money you can push whatever you’re selling. Now anyone can be famous, and that doesn't necessarily mean they are great at what they do, it just means they can market themselves well. I know times and tastes change, but it feels like there’s a decadence to it all. If you push something hard enough, if it’s in peoples’ faces all the time, they start to think it’s good. That doesn’t account for all people but people can be easily persuaded by media. I guess back in the day, if you were good at something you pursued it and if you weren't good at it well, you didn’t do it. Anyone can be anything they want now, and that’s great but it's not honest. I believe social media is somewhat destructive of creativity.

In the past, a lot of people have been overlooked simply because of their geographical location. Do you think social media has been a positive thing for people to get recognised for their talents? For sure! There are so many guys from around here alone that were overlooked just because they were from a small town. It’s so easy for great people to never get their chance, it’s sad. I always think

JAKOB ROBINSON

Fine form on a front blunt.

ISSUE #6

JAKOB ROBINSON

Left A hefty slob fastplant over the gap at Pizzey.

“I THINK SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE INTERNET AS A WHOLE ARE TAKING A BIT OF THE MAGIC AWAY FROM SKATING. I DON'T THINK PEOPLE APPRECIATE THE HARD WORK THAT GOES INTO SKATING, FILMING AND SHOOTING PHOTOS AS MUCH.”

Yeah totally, people are famous for doing nothing now. I guess that started with reality TV a while ago. It’s sad that for some people validation depends on how many followers someone else might have. It’s all watered down and especially now that these social media companies are directing content to the viewer through algorithms. It seems like the journey and the magic of finding something new, like a good book or a record, isn’t so common anymore. What have you found and been reading or listening to lately? I'd love to say I don't get too wrapped up in social media but I sort of do and it gets me a bit down sometimes. I would completely Many people embody t hat remove myself from it but I know in ‘skate or die’ attitude, but there order to keep sponsors happy you is so much to life outside of need to maintain some social media skateboarding. What else do presence, which is understandable. you hold close? But I think social media and the I appreciate the skate or die internet as a whole are taking a bit attitude and but it’s definitely of the magic away from skating. I great to have other avenues. To don't think people appreciate the be honest, over the past year, hard work that goes into skating, skating has consumed me a filming and shooting photos as much. Back in the day, when a new lot. I’ve been quite stressed out magazine or skate video came out, filming and shooting so I've been everyone was so excited. Like you trying to get back into some other say, there was a journey to finding creative outlets. I really enjoy it. Now it’s like the thrill is gone. It’s writing, and for a while I wanted just so easily accessible and there’s to pursue some sort of creative so much of it in your face all the time writing, but I started becoming that it goes un-appreciated. a bit rigid and writing like I was someone else, so I decided to There are a few books I'm getting leave that for a while. I’ve started into at the moment. A Bukowski getting back into it a bit lately. I book—Notes of a Dirty Old Man, feel like I’ve learnt a lot in the that Hunter S. Thompson book past year or so and am ready to you gave me and also a book write more honestly. I also enjoy my girlfriend lent me called The playing a bit of guitar and trying Paradox of Choice: How the to write little songs. I'm not too great at it but that doesn’t matter, Abundance of Choice Robs Us of it’s just a bit fun. Most of the time Satisfaction. It goes over some of if I’m not skating, I just enjoy the things we’re talking about. When being around good people. I love I’ve been skating lately, I've been spending time with my girlfriend, listening to Molchat Doma, New we skate a lot, and have similar Order, The Cry, Eight Dayz, Devo tastes in films, music and art so and a few Australian bands like it’s nice to be able to share all Mental As Anything, Mondo Rock that with someone. It’s great to and Warumpi band. When I've been be doing exciting stuff all the time chilling out, I've been listening to a but I’m definitely someone who lot of Roy Orbison, Sinatra and Chet appreciates the simple things. Baker. I like to mix it up a lot. I don't One of my favourite things is really have any favourite genres or just walking or riding around my musicians. I like a bit of everything. town. I like sitting at my local pub watching people walk by [laughs].

Seems like travel is still going to be restricted for some time. Was there a time where you saw yourself living in the USA in 2021? To be honest, I could never actually picture myself living in The States. I’d love to stay there for an extended period skating and travelling but there are a lot of other places I’d rather be. The skating world is opening up and you don’t necessarily have to go to LA to chase the dream, which is cool. It’s rad to see Australians and Europeans making it big by just skating their homes. The idea of travelling at the moment seems so far-fetched. I feel like this is the new normal. I’d love to be out travelling the world but I feel like we’ve all gotta settle in for a while. Hopefully I'm wrong but I'm not getting my hopes up at the moment.

Skater built, Owned & Operated

Owner Tony Chavez Photo Graeme McDonald

truckstopsk8.com.au TRUCKSTOPSK8

ISSUE #6

Left Wallride melon under the shadow of Mount Wollumbin. Right Jakob lights up a backside tailslide nosegrab at Nimbin.

Some people treat skating as a sport, while other see it as a form of art. What’s your take on that? I think skating is whatever you want it to be. You can treat it as a sport or you can treat it as an art. For me, skating is all about expression. When I’m angry it shows; when I’m sad it shows; and when I’m happy it shows. The way I skate changes quite a lot depending on how I feel. I don't focus on the same things all the time. I do think there is a strong artistic side to skating. When I watch some video parts, they’re like a great song; the structure of lines and trick selections that perfectly complement a spot. Even just the poise of someone’s arms and body as they do a frontside slash grind, it's beautiful. Totally, that’s the beauty of it at the end of the day, there are rules but there are also no rules, it’s all good. [Laughs] who makes the rules though? I get that there are things you should and shouldn’t do, but fuck, if you’re having fun who cares? Push mongo, mall grab it, call it a frontside indy. Don’t worry about the crowd.

“I GET THAT THERE ARE THINGS YOU SHOULD AND SHOULDN’T DO, BUT FUCK, IF YOU’RE HAVING FUN WHO CARES? PUSH MONGO, MALL GRAB IT, CALL IT A FRONTSIDE INDY.”

Yeah totally, some people take the whole thing so serious. They can't help but get bitter or burned out. Everyone seems to have their own opinion on what’s cool or not, when its actually all cool. Yeah definitely, skateboarders can be so elitist. I definitely have my own tastes on what I like and don't like. You don't have to love everything, but if you rag on other people for what they're doing, it’s pretty wack. Just keep it to yourself. Let people do whatever they want, dress however they want, skate however they want. Skateboarding likes to act like it’s such an all-inclusive, accepting community, but a lot of the culture is the complete opposite.

But then skateboarding seems to have a real generous spirit as well. Do you remember anyone early on that gave you a kick on? To be honest , my greatest supporters have always been my mum and my dad. Oh, and also my sister, they’ve been there for me from day one. It’s hard to really name other people, I’ve had so many people that have believed in me since I was a kid. All the guys I skated with in Ballina would hype me up, I have so much respect for everyone’s support over the years. As I've gotten older, I’ve had a lot of support from all my sponsors, especially Tony Chavez from Truckstop and you, Marty. There have been a few times that I’ve gotten jaded and doubtful about skating but you guys and my dad have always been there to kick me back into gear, so thank you. Last question, what’s a typical day for you in Byron Bay like? Lately I've gotten back into the bad habit of sleeping in. I don’t have a job at the moment so it's pretty easy to just keep sleeping. Most mornings I'll just cruise around the house for a bit, listen to some music, watch some skating or go down to the beach for a swim. Sometimes I help my girlfriend at work. She cleans holiday houses. Most of the time we’re just keen to get to go skate so I’ll help her smash out a place or two so we can get a good roll in. We usually skate Mullumbimby or Bangalow for a couple of hours and I’ll drink a few beers then we’ll head home. Through the week we keep it pretty chill, then on weekends I’ll head up the coast and go shooting and filming or go catch up with my friends in Ballina for some drinks.

Right Always time for a quick bastard plant at a Gold Coast DIY.

JAKOB ROBINSON

en ou gh (31 YEARS OF BEING A WOMAN)

IN RECENT MONTHS, WE’VE SEEN A GROUNDSWELL OF WOMEN SPEAKING OUT AND MARCHING TO PROTEST AGAINST THE EVERYDAY INEQUALITIES THEY FACE. IN THIS PERSONAL ESSAY, AN ANONYMOUS WRITER SHEDS LIGHT ON SOME OF THE EXPERIENCES THAT LED HER TO PARTICIPATE IN THE WOMEN’S MARCH 4 JUSTICE AND DEMAND BETTER FOR WOMEN EVERYWHERE.

I L LU S T R AT I O N S — TA N T [B R O K E N F I N G A Z C R E W ]

WARNING THIS PIECE DISCUSSES RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT.

ISSUE #6

’m seven years old and I want to wear my black dress with spaghetti straps to the shops, but Mum won’t let me. I’m huffy and indignant. “It’s not safe, baby.” She starts crying and I don’t really understand what’s going on, but I love my mum so much and I don’t want to make her sad, so I hush up real quick and put my yellow sunflower t-shirt on instead. *** I’m 14 years old and a bunch of us are having a sleepover at a friend’s house. She’s got big brothers, and one of them is having a slumber party too. Once the lights are off, an older boy sneaks in and lays next to me on the floor. He starts kissing me on the lips and I start panicking. Maybe if I just keep pretending to be asleep, he’ll go away? He tries for 10 minutes or so, then eventually gives up and moves onto another girl. ***

I’m 15 years old. The boys who once told me I was so flat I make the wall jealous now brush up against my breasts in class. At parties, I watch the popular guys prey on girls who are younger, drunker and less socially adept than them. Often the only “consent” given is just an absence of no: the girls are half-flattered to be chosen and too intimidated to actively resist. One friend – stumblingly intoxicated – is taken to a bedroom by someone from the year above for her first sexual experience. His mate goes in afterwards to “tag team” her. Another has a guy ejaculate all over her face in the garden. A third gets filmed without knowing it in another bedroom. I vow not to get drunk until I finish school. *** I’m 17 years old. It’s Schoolies and, for the first time, I’m a lot more than tipsy. The boy I’ve had a crush on since year eight messages me and tells me to come up to his hotel room. We’re making out on his bed and I tell him I don’t want to have sex yet, but all of a sudden, I feel a stabbing pain in my vagina and spurt blood all over the bedsheets. At that same moment, his friends burst into the hotel room; I yelp, get up, get dressed and leave. His friends call me Bloody Mary for the next five years.

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) offers 24-hour confidential counselling and support services for people experiencing violence and/or abuse.

I’m 18 and I have a boyfriend now. It’s my birthday and I’m at the casino talking to an old friend in the lobby. Suddenly, the security guard walks over to interrupt us. “You need to come and pay for the light in the bathroom.” I’m confused. My boyfriend appears looking sheepish but resolute with bloodied, bandaged knuckles. “I smashed the light because you were talking to that fucking guy. I don’t date sluts.”

I’m 26 years old and I’m interstate with a group of male friends. “I’ve got the funniest thing to tell you,” says one. “Max was rooting the ugliest chick in our hotel room last night, so I decided to go and film it. But when I went to burst in, they’d locked the door!” Aghast, I tell him that it’s illegal to film someone having sex without their consent. “You’re a lawyer. You should know this.”

***

I’m 20 years old and a friend is having a party. I used to date him when I was 16, but now we’re just mates. Towards the end of the night, his ex-girlfriend rocks up drunk and wailing. Everyone is mocking her, but she’s too absorbed by her sadness to notice. A bunch of boys hide in a wardrobe and film as my friend leads her to his bedroom and has sex with her.

I’m 27 years old and I’m out for dinner with six of my girlfriends. Someone asks what everyone’s first memory is, and the table goes very, very quiet. One girl gets teary. Another mumbles something about an uncle. The question asker changes the subject. ***

*** I’m 21 years old and I’ve landed my dream job. My boss throws a small party, and I’m nervous, so I drink too much and put myself to bed in the spare room. I wake up at 3am with someone’s fingers inside me. I can’t really tell who it is in the dark, but I resist and roll over, eventually falling back asleep. The next morning, I’m in the shower when my boss knocks on the door. “Was it okay, that he came in? He said you’d been making eyes at him all night, so I sent him up to bed with you.” I don’t remember even speaking to him at the party, but I must have given him really clear signals if he came and got into bed with me. Right? *** I’m 25 years old and I write a story about a fast-fashion retailer not providing fair working conditions for the women in sweatshops who make their clothes. It goes viral, clocking millions of views in a week. My inbox fills with rape threats and death threats from men who are offended by my feminist outlook.

I’m 30 years old and I’m helping a friend file a police complaint about the mishandling of multiple domestic violence claims. Her ex-partner was abusive and, of the many times she called the cops, they only showed up once, two hours later, and told her to “grow up”. At the station, we’re told there’s no record of her ever having lodged a complaint, and that the independent state watchdog that assesses the police for misconduct has been defunded. They tell her they’ll conduct an internal investigation instead. A few weeks later, she gets a letter in the mail assuring her that no misconduct was identified.

I’m 28 years old and I attend a wedding with an old school friend. After the reception, I flop into bed *** on a fold-out couch with him, top and tail. Several times in the night, I’m 31 years old and I participate in I wake to find him up my end of the a Women’s March to demand our bed, gyrating his hips into me from Prime Minister does something more behind and rubbing between my than steam clean the couch after a legs. I chastise him, swat him away woman alleges she was raped on it and switch sides. After what feels like close to an hour of him attempting this, in Parliament House. Though I live in a regional area, hundreds of women I’m exhausted from saying no, and my march with me, but I only count 17 body starts to respond – albeit against my conscious mind. “Fine!” I hiss. men. I write an article about it for an “Hurry up though. We’re not kissing.” online newspaper. Random men I have never met take my story as a personal I roll onto my belly and we have sex attack. One tells me my pretty face for two minutes. He ejaculates on my reeks of entitlement. Another claims back and falls straight asleep. I feel that the most disadvantaged group in sick for days, and don’t hear from society are sexless men over 40 who, him for nearly six months. When he like him, have to settle for “fatter” or finally calls, he apologises for being so coercive. “You know the worst part “older” women. He tells me I’m wrong to assume rigid gender roles are a about that night though?” he asks. “I driver of violence – it’s not having a had to break up with my girlfriend. I girlfriend that makes people like him realised that if I was cheating on her with people I don’t even care about – risk going to jail, because they have nothing to lose. I get scared and stay no, no, I don’t mean it like that, you up until 1am putting all my social know what I mean – I mustn’t really media profiles on private. love her.”

Photo — Sarah Pardini

ISSUE #6 COBRA MAN

COBRA MAN

THEIR VERY OWN GENRE: LA POWER DISCO. EMBRACING SOME OF THE CHEESE OF ‘80S POP, THEIR SONGS ARE SYNTHY, UPLIFTING AND SOMETIMES EERIE. UP TO NOW, ALL THEIR MUSIC HAS BEEN WRITTEN AND RECORDED FOR SKATE VIDEOS MADE BY THE WORBLE CREW (WHICH ARE CULT CLASSICS, BY THE WAY). BUT COBRA MAN ARE MORE THAN A SOUNDTRACK BAND, THEY’RE CONSTANTLY RISING TO THE OCCASION AND

–

BELIEVING IN ALL POSSIBILITIES.

N A T K A S S E L

P H O T O S – B U D D Y B L E C K L E Y & S A R A H PA R D I N I

W O R D S

BORN OUT OF A WILD WAREHOUSE PARTY SCENE IN EAST LA, COBRA MAN HAVE COINED

ISSUE #6

“IT WAS GETTING TO THE POINT WHERE AFTER EVERY SHOW, THERE WOULD BE LIKE THREE HOURS OF CLEAN UP.”

n a pocket of East LA, a band called Cobra “I think when he did that kickflip it Man started putting on shows that became was a turning moment. The energy notoriously lawless and chaotic. Andy Harry, got to a level that I have never one half of the LA power disco duo, lived in an experienced before,” says Sarah illegal warehouse with a bunch of skaters, and Rayne, the other half of Cobra Man. he and his friends started throwing these raging “That was a legendary moment for parties with bands that he knew. They were DIY sure,” Andy agrees. events with high production value, involving big art installations, spray paint and confetti canons. Manramp’s provision of plywood People would break holes in the walls and break for crowdsurfing was an idea that the toilet. For Cobra Man’s first show, they had a stuck, and it became a thing that 12-foot tall, homemade Trojan horse installation people would do every time they made from wood. Three people were inside it, saw Cobra Man play. When the walking the horse out into the crowd. band transitioned from playing warehouse parties to playing bigger Andy explains on a Zoom call, “We had a shows at legal venues, this became recording we’d play of a WWE style announcer a bit of a problem. telling the crowd, ‘You’ve just unlocked a Trojan horse,’ with this ominous, abrasive music.” He “Eventually, we started showing up to laughs, “People were crowd surfing on a piece venues and they were like, ‘You guys of plywood and then riding it over to the horse, can’t have anyone bring plywood then getting on the horse and jumping off the top in tonight,’” says Andy. “I was like, of the head. It was getting to be crazy… Nails and ‘I can’t control that.’” They would screws were sticking out.” have a dude at the door looking for kids with sheets of plywood, and A guy named Manramp — who skateboarders somehow people would sneak ‘em may know from Worble videos and for his in. They would do it every time.” appearance on the 2018 King of the Road — had brought a sheet of plywood along to the show Eventually these stage antics had and had initiated the plywood crowdsurfing. Then to be reined in. Andy says, “It was a pro skater named Ducky Kovacs climbed atop getting to the point where after the plywood with his skateboard and, standing every show, there would be like above the crowd’s heads, he popped a kickflip. three hours of clean up. Then venue People went berserk. owners would be pissed because there would be confetti glued to the floor.” But by that point, Cobra Man had a cult following, not just because of their wild live shows, but for their unique sound and their connection to skateboarding.

The band have coined the genre “LA power disco” to label their sound, and it describes them pretty well. They make poppy, cheesy anthems that sound like they could have been produced in the ‘80s, but it somehow transcends those labels with its instrumental layers and synthy brilliance. It’s high energy and uplifting, and each song is an epic. “The feeling of power disco to me is rising to the occasion and crushing whatever you’re doing, not to sound cliché,” says Andy. “It’s inspiring this notion of believing in all possibilities. That’s what I’m trying to invoke. It’s a larger than life, universal conscious feeling, as foo foo as that might sound, that’s what we put into it.” “That was beautiful,” says Sarah when Andy finishes his description. Cobra Man have the obscure claim of being the first band to have formed in order to create a soundtrack for a skate video. Among those skaters who Andy was living with in the warehouse were Tom and Dave Mull, who are part of a crew called The Worble. They had been filming for a video that they wanted to premiere on Thrasher but they needed to use music that they owned or could license. They ended up asking Andy to make a soundtrack from scratch. He had just met Sarah and

COBRA MAN

Photos — Buddy Bleckley

Photo — Buddy Bleckley

ISSUE #6

COBRA MAN

“WE’RE NOT JUST THE WORBLE’S BAND, BUT WE CHOOSE TO MAKE MUSIC FOR THEM BECAUSE IT’S FUN. AND IT WORKS, PEOPLE LIKE IT. I THINK PEOPLE REALLY APPRECIATE OUR COLLABORATION AND IT’S JUST SOMETHING REALLY SPECIAL.”

and some others will be featured in The Worble’s next video. She says that they actually have about 15 songs that are done, but they’re just releasing them as singles for now. ‘Light Me Up’ and ‘Heatwave’ are the first two singles from the new album, which would probably already be out by now, if it weren’t for COVID.

they came together to write some songs. The process began with Andy making music alone in his room. He explains, “I kind of go a little crazy and lock myself up in a room and start working on something until I have a track, which then I bring to Sarah who gives me a lot of feedback. Then we start bouncing back and forth.”

When I speak to Andy and Sarah, LA is still pretty locked down. They tell me they had a sold-out show and a tour planned right when lockdown began, and since then, they’ve just been laying low, doing what they can under the circumstances.

Their first songs were used in a video called New Driveway, which came out in 2017. Andy and Sarah made the entire soundtrack, which is essentially the first Cobra Man album. People loved the video and the music – both became instant cult classics.

Andy says, “I can feel myself slowly going crazy. I just hole up and tinker with cables. This is how I live now: I don’t see anyone and I tinker with cables.” Sarah says she’s been building catalogue music, doing vocal tracks that will become samples. “I have some vocal work that I do – a few little jobs here and there, so I’ve been really lucky,” she says. “We just kinda work and stay in our little rooms and play music.”

The Worble crew’s next video was called Toxic Planet, which came out in 2018 and gained even more notoriety – both for the skaters involved and Cobra Man. There are hundreds of comments on the YouTube video, most of which are laden with unfiltered praise. My personal favourite: “That was a spiritual experience. And I also bought the Cobra Man album. It's like Ariel Pink got stuck in a haunted house with nothing to survive on but mescaline.”

A week after our interview, I message Cobra Man on Instagram to ask some follow up questions. I learn that the Trojan horse is gone for good. Andy writes, “We eventually had to burn it cuz no one had room to keep it.” But he’s upbeat and still dedicated to making Cobra Man shows as fun and ludicrous as he possibly can. Andy says, “At our last show we tricked the crowd into chanting, ‘Eat! My! Ass!’”

He continues, “We’re not just The Worble’s band, but we choose to make music for them because it’s fun. And it works, people like it. I think people really appreciate our collaboration and it’s just something really special.” Sarah goes on to clarify that some of the songs on their upcoming album will be released independently,

CHECK OUT COBRA MAN ON BANDCAMP >>>

At this point, Cobra Man have transcended the label of being simply a band who make music for Worble videos. Toxic Planet (the video) has over 100,000 views on YouTube, but some Cobra Man songs have over a million plays on Spotify. When I bring this up with Andy and Sarah, they seem to want to downplay those numbers. Sarah laughs with slight discomfort. Andy says, “We try not to think about it like that. It’s a collaboration. We’re two separate things and we choose to work with each other.”

ISSUE #6

W O R D S — J A I M E B L AU V E LT PORTR AIT PHOTO — CHRISTOPHER B L AU V E LT

OR THREE YEARS, I WORKED AS THE IN-HOUSE

HAIR PILED UNDER A DETERIORATING

PRODUCER FOR THE PERFORMANCE ARTIST

BALLCAP, AND BUSHY WHITE FACIAL HAIR

PAUL MCCARTHY. TO ME, WALKING INTO PAUL’S

UNDER TORTOISE SHELL HORN-RIMMED

AEROPL ANE HANGER - SIZED WORKSPACE

GLASSES PROVIDING MOST OF HIS SELF-

IN EAST LA ALWAYS FELT LIKE I WAS ENTERING A

EXPRESSION. HE HAS A THUMB THAT WAS

PHYSICAL REPRESENTATION OF HIS MIND. EVERY DAY, I

BROKEN AND NEVER PROPERLY SET, SO

WATCHED HIM GRAPPLE WITH AMERICA’S ID: DEMENTED,

IT SITS DIFFERENTLY ON HIS HAND. HIS

LARGER-THAN-LIFE PHYSICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF

RIGHT ARM DOESN’T LIFT ALL THE WAY

DISNEY CARTOONS, MACABRE RECREATIONS OF OUR

UP AS THE RESULT OF SOME WRECK OR

MOST TERRIFYING POLITICAL FIGURES. HE WAS IN

ACCIDENT. HIS BODY HAS BEEN TWISTED

HIS 70s WHEN I MET HIM, 50 YEARS INTO ONE OF THE

UP BY THE FEARLESS APPROACH HE’S

MOST PROVOCATIVE CAREERS IN CONCEPTUAL ART,

TAKEN TO HIS WORK AND LIFE OVER THE

PROGRESSING BEYOND THE SHORT PERFORMANCE

DECADES, LIKE HE’S CAST HIMSELF INTO

PIECES OF HIS YOUTH TO CREATING INSANELY VIOLENT,

A SORT OF LIVING SCULPTURE.

FEATURE LENGTH FILMS. I WATCHED HIM DON A PHALLIC PROSTHETIC NOSE TO CAST HIMSELF AS A VERSION

WE STAYED IN THE SHADE AND TALKED

OF TRUMP OR HITLER, BEFORE PROCEEDING TO SOAK

FOR MORE THAN A COUPLE HOURS

HIMSELF AND HIS CASTMATES IN GALLONS OF FAKE SHIT,

ABOUT HOW HE CAME TO THIS PLACE—

PISS, VOMIT OR BLOOD. I HAD A RINGSIDE SEAT TO THE

WHAT DRE W HIM TO CALIFORNIA

MASTER OF THE AMERICAN GROTESQUE WORKING IN

AND WHAT KINDS OF MOVIE SETS HE

AN ERA WHEN AMERICA WAS AT ITS MOST GROTESQUE.

PREFERS IN ORDER TO SHOWCASE HIS MONUMENTAL WORKS OF SACRILEGE,

PAUL IS A BUTCHER’S SON FROM UTAH, BUT AFTER

LIKE HIS MOST RECENT METICULOUSLY

DITCHING THE VIETNAM DRAFT IN UTAH AND HEADING FOR

CONSTRUCTED OBSCENITIES, A SERIES

CALIFORNIA WITH HIS WIFE KAREN, HE ARRIVED IN LOS

HE MADE WITH THE GERMAN ACTRESS

ANGELES IN 1970 TO LEARN HOW TO BECOME THE PUNK

LILITH STANGENBERG HE’S CALLING THE

ROCK BOMB THROWER OF A SO-CAL CONCEPTUAL ART

A&E DRAWINGS—AS IN ADOLF HITLER AND

SCENE THAT HAD ALREADY PRODUCED OR PROVIDED SAFE

EVA BRAUN, OR ALTERNATIVELY, ADAM

HAVEN FOR ALLAN KAPROW, JOHN BALDESSARI, JUDY

AND EVE. PAUL’S WORLD HAS ALWAYS

CHICAGO AND WOLFGANG STOERCHLE, ARTISTS WHO

BEEN UPSIDE DOWN AND INSIDE OUT—

COMBINED RANDOM CHANCE WITH EVERYDAY MATERIALS

HE’S EITHER TRYING TO SHOW THE REST

TO CREATE WHAT THEY CALLED “CONCRETE ART”.

OF US THE WORLD AS HE SEES IT, OR HE’S TRYING TO DISRUPT THE MORE SINISTER

“I THINK THAT FREEDOM OF EXPERIMENTATION WAS

PL ANS TO SHOW US SOME THING

MORE PREVALENT IN ART SCHOOLS IN THE EARLY '70s,”

SUPPOSEDLY ATTRACTIVE.

MCCARTHY TOLD ME. “KAPROW ENCOURAGED THE BLURRING OF MEDIUMS.”

“THERE ARE FILMMAKERS WHO EVERY WORD AND EVERY ACTION HAS TO BE

I MET PAUL AT A FRIEND’S HOUSE IN PASADENA, A

EXACTLY FROM THE SCRIPT,” HE SAYS.

BLOCK AWAY FROM THE HOUSE HE’S SHARED WITH

“BUT FOR ME, IT’S IMPROVISATION: I’M

KAREN FOR OVER 30 YEARS. AT THIS POINT, HE’S

INTERESTED IN THAT.”

PERFECTED HIS DIGNIFIED SCRAGGLE, WITH HIS WHITE

PAUL MCCARTHY

ISSUE #6

Right Page A&E Drawing Session, Santa Anita, 2020 Drawings, performance, video, photographic series Photo: Alex Stevens © Paul McCarthy C/O the artist and Hauser & Wirth

You were born in 1945 and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah in a Mormon family. How did you come to art? My parents were outside of the religion but growing up in Salt Lake City in the suburbs in the ‘50s, you grow up knowing that religion. I don't remember there ever being an art book in the house. I remember my parents had a large book on formal English gardens with layout designs. I was really into the gazebos and the benches and the formations of gardens. I think that was important in some way. When did you start making art? Do you remember drawing when you were a kid? I drew all the time as a kid. The first drawing I remember doing is a Santa Claus in his sleigh with reindeer. I drew it when I was in the third grade. My mother kept it. This drawing of Santa Claus is interesting to me because I've made so many pieces about Santa Claus in the past twenty years. Where did you go to college? I started at Weber State, a school north of Salt Lake City that would let anybody in. I had a teacher named Doyle Strong. He was an interesting person; I liked his work. He painted anti-American, anti-commodity, pop paintings. They were paintings of consumption and privilege, crazy paintings. While I was there in 1964 and ‘65, they had a student show and I showed a cash register as a sculpture. Another student showed a car door. It was the beginning of my interest in philosophy and critical thought. There was a student named Bob Arentz, and I helped him steal sheets from our dormitory. I asked him why and he said it wasn’t about stealing the sheets— it was about hiding them. We hid them all over the dormitory, mostly above the ceiling. He did several actions like this. He referred to them as

poetry. He said, “once you see everything as poetics or as art, it's a blinder to seeing things in another way." I transferred to the University of Utah and I was there between 1966 and ‘68, during the war in Vietnam. The art department at the University of Utah was political, Marxist. The Peace and Freedom Party was formed in the art department. When did you get drafted to go to Vietnam? I never registered, so they didn’t know where I was until I graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1969. They found me, and I was drafted. During my physical, I refused induction and they sent my wife Karen and I back to Utah for a year. The draft board asked me, “If the enemy was coming in your house, what would you do?” And I gave a punky, smart-ass answer. I said, “Well, they’re not.” A lawyer’s organization defending conscientious objectors placed my case in a class action suit before the Supreme Court. So Karen and I left Salt Lake while we waited to find out what they were going to do with me. You ended up going to USC in Los Angeles. You once told me that you applied to both the film and art department, which I thought was interesting. Theoretically, you could be in both, but I was never fully accepted into the film school. The film school was conservative and the work I was doing in film was all quite experimental. In my studio, a friend and I made a rectangular hole in the wall so you could see through to the outside. It was a window, but also a projection from the outside to the inside, and I said it was a film. It didn't go over well in the film school at all—they thought it was super cynical and lazy.

I was thinking about your use of intuition— what do you think intuition is and where does it come from? I think it’s often a reaction. The script is a starting point, a structure to hang onto when needed, but it’s a matter of wanting improvisation, action and the words to start to flow. It can feel like its own altered reality. Along with the script, the objects and the other performers in the environment can be stimuli to interact with. I sometimes start talking, saying the same thing over and over to myself about the situation. I start moving back and forth, rocking until something begins to happen. Something can start becoming—what started as a narrative or a type of unexpected reality flows into formation. It can carry on for a while, and then simply comes to an ending. The action that I didn’t expect might have been something I had thought about. I might have thought about sticking my head in the toilet and then it happens in the improvisation but with unexpected intensity. The divine accident. And for me it is the unexpected, something you don't see coming—that’s what I want to happen. Working on a clay sculpture, I'm not happy with a hat on the head that we've made, I spontaneously cut it off. I can’t care that it’s taken weeks to make it. I just know I hate it; it’s a spontaneous gesture, a provocation, a risk. I cut off the top of the head and there happens to be a 5-gallon bucket on the floor and I put it on what’s left of the head and bingo, “Pothead.” It's a spontaneous act. I can't question it. It’s done. Perfect.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity by Steve Marsh. The full interview can be read at our website.

PAUL MCCARTHY

ISSUE #6

Above Tokyo Santa, 1996 Performance, video, b/w and color photographs, drawings, installation Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan © Paul McCarthy C/O the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Right NV, Night Vater, 2019 Performance, video, installation, photographic series Directed by Paul McCarthy and Damon McCarthy Photo: Alex Stevens © Paul McCarthy C/O the artist and Hauser & Wirth

PAUL MCCARTHY

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TOO GOOD TO BE WASTED Introducing the Heaps Normal Quiet XPA: a full-flavoured non-alcoholic beer without the hangover

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