Collaboration
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.
T&B x Myk31 - T Shirt & Mouse Pad
Starting January 2012 Trouble & Bass is proud to announce our monthly visual artists collaboration project.
Each month we will be joining forces with an artist/designer to create a limited number of Trouble & Bass t-shirts and a pairing piece of merchandise that suits each design. By working with unique and underground artists, we hope to not only promote our own brand with new aesthetics but to also reach out to artists and help publicize their work. As an independent record label we want to help promote visual artists, and to delve into arts outside of audio.
Our first exploration into the project was our 5 year anniversary show sponsored by Mishka and held at the 350 Broadway Mishka store. At this art show we asked our closest friends who are artists and designers to create their own rendition of the Trouble & Bass logo. Each artist took the logo and reworked it in their own technique to create something that represented their personal style as well as the Trouble & Bass brand. Out of the art show we got 3 Dimensional artwork, tarot cards, posters, t-shirts, watches and toys.
So at the beginning of every month keep an eye out for who we team up with next and what new merchandise we start producing! Our first artist is Myk31, (the creator/director of Samo Sound Boy's - "Shuffle Code" music video , which won best video of 2011 by XLR8R Magazine) who designed his own 16-bit version of Trouble & Bass.
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.