Artists

ARTIST Q&A : GLAMNATION


Our most recent artist collaboration for February 2012 was with our buddy and fellow Mishka collaborator Glamnation. T&B's very own Star Eyes reached out to Dennis Chow a.k.a. Glamnation, asking him to design her a new logo, which quickly became part of the Star Eyes branding and the shirt you see before you. Check it out HERE!

Also read up on Glamnation in his feature on TheTouristZine.com and go follow him on Twitter / Tumblr.

How/when did you first get involved with trouble and bass? any funny stories or reasons they got in touch with you.
I am familiar with the Trouble and Bass crew through my close relationship with Mishka NYC, I was instantly impressed with their unique cult following, their striking imagery and of course their HEAVY BASS.


What's the story behind your work with Vivian? Tell us about the process of your piece?
Vivian had seen some of my past work and contacted me collaborate with her on a creative project, so naturally I was pretty stoked. Usually my process is pretty standard where I collect points of inspiration, sketch out some concepts and then implement final execution.


Do you have any inspiration for your own work/or this piece?
The Star Eyes imagery was developed on a collaborative effort that took on visual cues borrowing from a lot of things that Vivian was influenced by. Some of these things range from throwback rave flyers, West Coast Chicano art, first wave goth, outsider typography and occult symbolism. All really amazing references for me to go on.

If you're familiar with Trouble & Bass previously, or currently, what are some of your favorite T&B releases?
I'm definitely into Star Eye's no nonsense approach to what I call 'Nouveau-Batcave-Wave'.

What T&B artist(s) do you most relate with?
Other than Vivian's music, I'm also digging Drop The Lime and his uncanny style of music – I really enjoyed his Rockabilly mixtape. The visual identity of T&B is also something I admire very much, it's all closely in tune with the same things I draw inspiration from.
Where do you draw inspiration from? sites, books, etc.
Generally I am inspired by anything occult related, horror, obscure 80's pop culture, comic books, vintage porn, tabloids, silent films– the list goes on.


What projects do you have coming up?
Currently I'm working on drawing some comics, and I plan to make more zines. Generally scheming of more ways to annoy and disgust people as well as make them laugh.


What are some of your favorite projects you've worked on?
Recently I was asked to design a mini golf course for Bright Trade Show in Berlin and it was super fun. I got to step out of my element a bit, bringing some of my odd sensibilities to life. As well, I have continued to complete some really rad projects with Mishka NYC, I can't exaclty say what, but it's something to look out for.

Do you prefer/how often do you work on projects that are music related?
Music related projects are usually the ones I enjoy most, I truly feel like album cover art and the craft of developing visual imagery for bands and artists is a dying art. Being a huge fan of music, I'm dedicated to giving back somehow – this is my way of doing it.

ARTIST Q&A : DROON


As heavily we are into our releases, as you can tell, we are as much involved and interested in the visual aspect and branding of our Label. Which is why I'd like to introduce to you, William Ghysels a.k.a. Droon, long time friend of Drop The Lime, who's been working closely with us over the past year on various record covers, flyers and even some videos! Check out what William had to say about his work with us and some of his own inspration, and go HERE to see some of what Droon has done for us.


And check out his 3D Sculpture for our T&B 5 Year Anniversary art show!

How/When did you first get involved with Trouble & Bass?
I booked Luca the Lime a few times when we were doing the Breakcore Gives Me Wood parties. I always had this "one big family" feel about the worldwide breakcore scene. Luca and MathHead played at our 16/6/6 show which was our biggest ever. Then he got all house-y, which was cool and which I followed with intent. (I even showed up at a 2006 november weekly, where I had my first and thus far only even Long Island Iced Tea. On the house! Tnx guys!) But all this house stuff was nothing I could use anymore. (My sole foray into booking a house music show was a disaster, ask AC!)   Then, when Luca came to Antwerp in... 2009? We had dinner and 'lil in the flesh hook ups often have this effect of propelling things into motion. Trouble & Bass in an awesome brand, It tingles with honest enthusiasm and energy. I was thrilled when y'all asked me to makes some designs. it's an honor to be a part of it!


Whats the story behind your work for the art show? Tell us about the process of your piece.
This 3D printing tech is awesome! I use it at work all the time but, there, my budgets are less constrained, here, i tried to make something as big as possible for as lil $$$ as possible, so that's why it looks all polygon skeletal. The t&b logo is a great form to play with.

Do you have any inspiration for your own work/or this piece?
Sometimes.. I struggle with that, I'm not a big idea man, more of an executor … I do have ideas, lots, but very few of them are about what to put on a poster or a flyer or a record cover, so usually process leads to results even with minimal inspiration.. :)


What are some of your favorite T&B releases? What T&B artist(s) do you most relate with?
I honestly love all of it. The Deathface stuff obviously syncs up best with my personal brainwaves. I rock some Deathface whenever I do the radio show or when I do DJ sets that drift towards that noisy electro-rave edge, which is where I usually try to take it.  The Zombies For Money stuff it great, love tropical vibes. AC's big bass style really gets me bopping. Little Jinder is a freakishly unfair combo of talent and looks. Luca.. I don't know about Luca. Love his DJ sets, but the band and the getup.. when the talent/looks combo hits you from this side of the gender fence it's a bit.. threatening maybe? Also I don't like looking at bands. Can't dance and look at the same time. I don't like looking at DJ's either, but you're not supposed to so that's ok.. Super personal opinion of course, millions of concert goers luckily disagree with me.


Where do you draw inspiration from? Whats your work/thought process like?
There's designers with big bookcases full of TASHEN sublimations they need to look through before getting down, then there's one trick pony's that call that trick a "style". I do neither but kinda both.. Sometimes I find a trick that I play with a couple of times. Like now I run everything through the same colour grading process which I really like.. I use Lightroom, which is made for photographers, to grade my renders.. and there's this low poly 3d style I've used on quite a few T&B projects which I think looks cool.. these are looks inspired less by other artists then by the possibilities you discover in the tools you use. Of course recognizing that random software option as something that's "cool" is influenced by the vast amount of other cool stuff out there. You see some other low poly stuff in furniture design or something and that syncs you to the currents of contemporary culture . It works more that way I think.. OR.. when you try to copy/steal a style or period or theme, which I also do, it always ends up as something truly your own just by doing the work and going through the process. That also works..
 
What projects do you have coming up?
I bought a house and I need to get that 2k11 worthy, double glazing, insulating the roof. Nice rooms for the kids. That's gonna take a few years. I'm sliding down a slippery slope into the bog of suburban life. Less promotions, less gigs, never make new track anymore, less after hours freelance stuff. It's ok. Feels like growing up.


What's your favorite project you've worked on?
My kid. Fun project all the way through! Very engaging.. And "professional"? Tours. Tours are awesome. I did just enough of them so they never became a drudge..  Your days are so packed full of awesome people and sights and food and music. The shows on tour are better then home because your skill at playing gets better and better because you're doing it every other day. The whirlpool of energy in those 3-4-5 weeks is carbon based life compressed into memory diamonds. The best one was probably Japan-Australia in 2007 but the USA tour in 2009 is a close second.



Do you prefer/how often do you work on projects that are music related?
Flyers/posters/covers are great because apart from what text needs to be on it, they allow total creative freedom. Anything, really anything can supplement music in a way that adds meaning to it. You can develop your own styles and interests over the course of several unrelated covers and flyers. I find it very hard to motivate myself to make something truly personal, "a drone original", I always need a client with a deadline. In music related design, that client/deadline yet total freedom combo is gold!  But.. when you hit a dry spell inspiration wise, that's also a curse. Then making some renders of some architect's already drawn up plans is far easier. If you can't get into that baah-fuck-it-let's-go-boom-tsjak vibe and really crank out something that supplements the music nicely and is insane awesome, then sometimes you don't really vibe with what you've made but don't really know how to improve it. It gets commented on by the "client" in semi productive ways and it gets drawn out and either becomes this lukewarm puddle of compromise, or through frustrating long nights still becomes something nice but maybe not worth all the trouble. That happens. But it's really really up to you as a designer, you can't blame anyone else for failure. Which makes success taste much sweeter.

ARTIST Q&A : MYK31


We kicked off the year with a new monthly artist collaboration series for our Merch. January stars Myk31, Ukraine based graphic design artist and video animator, who's the man behind the acclaimed and award winning Samo Sound Boy "Shuffle Code" music video and now has worked on our first artist collaboration of the year!

Make sure to go grab Myk31's limited edition T-Shirt and mouse pad collab with T&B while supplies last!


How/when did you first get involved with trouble and bass? any funny stories or reasons they got in touch with you?
Patrick (The Captain) hit me up last summer, asking me about my music videos and if I'd like to work on one. I believe the first artist he wanted me to create a video for were Zombies for Money. Then there was a quick change of plans and pretty soon I was working with Samo Sound Boy! That's the whole story really, we went to work pretty quickly. For most of my music videos, I do the whole concept/story side of it myself. But Samo sent me such a detailed script for "Shuffle Code", I was amazed, haha. All I had to focus on is visualizing his story, which I think resulted in better quality, as well as made it a true collaboration.


What's the story behind your new work? tell us about the process of your piece?
Before working on this particular piece, by pure coincidence, I spent about a week casually watching Youtube videos of old Genesis games (funny, since "Shuffle Code" also was all about the 16-bit Genesis style). So when I sat down to make the tee design, I just started sketching something intentionally ridiculous, something that might've been created in the 90's, the whole robot and goblin aesthetic similar to action figures, the mohawk, the big-ass battle axe etc. I wanted the two characters to represent the words Trouble & Bass, respectively. A bass kicker amp turned into a robot made sense, so I figured the other dude better be a living monster. The robot in my original sketch actually had a unicycle for legs — a la Gizmo from Duck Tales, but later I swapped them out for the Johnny 5 style tracks. The goblin character has teeth inside his eyelids and bolts in his neck a la Frankenstein monster, if you look carefully. Also I had to reference Tyrese Gibson for his sixpack, and Francois Sagat for his junk, not kidding!

What are some of your favorite T&B releases? What T&B artist(s) do you most relate with?
I love Samo's stuff, I love Deathface and Ursa Major... The Heavy Bass Champions series is something I can always count on as well. Oh and I really like Willy Joy's EP, especially Gimme Dat!


Do you have any inspiration for your own work/or this piece? Where do you draw inspiration from? sites, books, etc. Whats your work/thought process like?
I draw inspiration from pretty much anything. I do have favorite places to look for inspiration: music, art/design books, tumblr etc... But often I get cool ideas from random simple things, I could get excited after seeing a cool kitchen timer or road sign. Haha.
As for my thought process, surrounding myself with things, sights and sounds I like has become a habit, so by the time I start any project I don't need to set up a mood board or anything — my own mind is a repository of cool stuff by now. My tumblr blog is probably the closest thing to representing what flashes in my mind daily, even when not working on anything. Like, literally, if I closed my eyes right now, that's the slideshow I'd see.

What projects do you have coming up?
Can't talk yet about the most exciting ones! But there'll be at least a few music videos, at least one pretty big tee design, and as usual, quite a bit of random personal work done just for fun in 2012.



Some of your notable or favorite projects you've worked on?
One of my favorite things I've done recently, was the mini collaboration with my brother, Andy Fink, He just sent me this snippet that sounded like something out of a Zelda game, and by the end of the day I had a short video to accompany it. We call it "The Legend Of Sword", check it out, it's pretty silly and fun. Another one I really enjoyed was helping out Greg Enemy with the cover artwork for his release "xtra small". You should also check his music out, I don't know about everybody, but sampling TLC and rapping about Muggsy Bogues is my idea of what's awesome.

Do you prefer/how often do you work on projects that are music related?
I do prefer these and I wish I worked on them more often... Ideally, all the time! It's just a natural type of work in my opinion - I'm a music junkie, so it's great to get inspired by music and then create something that complements it visually. You could say it's like Ying and Yang, best of both worlds, etc.

T&B x MYK31 Artist Collaboration



So in 2012 we decided to collaborate with a new artist each month. For each collaboration we'll be producing a limited amount of t-shirts as well as a random never before made item to go along with the t shirt. For our first collaboration of 2012, we teamed up with Myk31, the director and creator of Samo Sound Boy's "Shuffle Code"music video. Along with the new shirt, we decided to print up some mouse pads to go with his 16-Bit robot and monster graphic!

Get the items over in our Webstore!

Like A Virgin: Star Talk



I've gotten reiki, qigong, psychic readings, tarot and, you know, all that kooky stuff, but I've never had a full astrological chart reading. Big up to the man AC Slater who, for my birthday, got me a reading from this woman named Astrobabe (www.astrobabeonline.com). (It was over the phone, so unfortunately I can’t tell you what an Astrobabe looks like.) Your natal chart shows where the planets and stars were above you at the exact time and place you were born. It’s all very mathematical—the angles and relationships between planets like Pluto, Saturn, and Chiron (a “planetoid”) form things like squares, trines, and sexy sextiles, and this gives more insight into your core personality than you can learn from just knowing your sign. This is my chart below. More earth and water influences than a camping trip!



There is some science here: astrology has been studied since before Biblical times, back to the ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks. Not surprisingly, a lot of the stuff I was told was like “No duh!” including that I’m extra-curious, laid-back, good at writing and speaking, and pleasure-loving. But the in-depth stuff was more interesting, like why you read your rising sign and your sun sign (the first is what you project to the world, the second is what lessons you have to learn in life), where my birth chart is in relation to the present skies of NYC (hard work until next spring at least!), and why my restlessness is caused by something like Jupiter conjunct with the sun and Uranus. But enough about Uranus, if you don’t have the money to do a full reading, you can do it online for free! Both alabe.com/freechart and chaosastrology.net have excellent online birth chart generators that even interpret the results for you. Then you can get super geeked Googling your individual aspects like, say, Mercury in Aries or whatever. But you will need to know what time you were born, though, so call your Mom already! And while you're at it, check out the one like Susan Miller at astrologyzone.com. Totally cosmic bro!