Peel Magazine Interview
April 2007
Published on 3/03/2009
MCA Evil Design interview by Jeremyville.
MCA Evil Design first flashed across my radar about 6 years ago, through his instantly recognizable and unique character style, dry and dark sense of humor on his website, and the nonchalant cool of the world he's created through the simplest of linework. It takes a lot of hard yards to get your stuff that simple, that memorable and that good, and he's done it. He's also managed to get it out there into the world's consciousness since 1991, through many art shows, toys, commissions, street art, and appearances in books, which means he's also very hard working, tenacious and professional: precursors to success in making a living from your work. He's also one those rare artists who has cut through, armed with a seemingly simple character style, but a style which to me is layered with subtlety, complexity and a pathos not usually found in this genre of art. We've been email buddies for the last 5 years or so, and here are some questions I've always wanted to ask him.
-Hey MCA, how's tricks? where are you right now as you're doing this interview?
What up!? Things are good, been busy. Just got back from Taiwan the other day so I’m still all wacked out delirious with my time frame so I figure that’s the best time to answer some questions. I am doing this interview in my living room, hustle & flow is just ending in the background (whooop that trick! - gets stuck in your head) it was pretty good, I missed the first ten minutes, but yea, I liked it. I saw that ‘For Your Consideration’ the other night, Fred Willard is awesome. He is also classic in that dog show movie.
So you've now done over 40 toys with Raymond Choy at Toy2R, that's amazing, how did that hook up first come about?
Toy2R is great to work with. Raymond emailed me one day & said he had seen my site and thought that my style/characters might work well on his toys (qees) and asked if I’d be interested in working on a design or two. This was about four to five years ago. The ones he liked were the ape designs, so that started it all.
-What would be your favorite toy with Toy2r so far?
The Evil Ape figure, just because it is the one that is an original sculpt. Working on Qee designs is fun, but being able to design the full figure is the best. I had never really looked at my characters as 3D. I just drew em flat style I guess for my comics & stickers, so thinking about what the ape looked like from the sides & back was a new thing. It took me a little while to get it right, but it was a fun process & seeing the sculpt come along was great. After many revisions (I kinda was a pain about details, but ya gotta) the Evil Ape came to life, or at least became a cool 3D vinyl toy.
-The Prison Ape is a cool concept, will you be doing more in that series, like a corrupt prison guard or whatever?
I dunno, maybe. I hadn’t really thought about a prison related series of these. It would be funny to do a Barney Fife kinda deputy & maybe a drunk Ape like Otis. I’ll have to think about this. I always have been a fan of the prison jumpsuit look, I have never actually owned an orange one – but those are my favorite, so I had to have the Ape rock one. Then for the classic prison suit, I looked to Mr. Chaplin for inspiration. Oh, and just for the record, I have never spent any time locked up or in lock down or whatever it is that the kids are calling it these days.
-You were recently doing a signing appearance at Toy Expo in Hong Kong with Toy 2R, what's a day like in that sort of schedule? can you give a '24 hours in the life of MCA' while you're over there in HK doing these signings?
Hong Kong was wild, I had a lot of fun. It was my first trip of this kind. A day consists of hanging out with Raymond, eating new crazy (& good) food, drawing on toys nonstop (people stayed in line a half hour after show ended, that was awesome), meeting new people, taking photos, running around Hong Kong & seeing as much as I could in 2 days, going to look at bootleg toys at night market, drinking sugar cane juice (very good!), checking out crazy toy shops all cramped with tons of stuff, buying too many toys at the toy fair to fit in my luggage – it was a good time.
In my opinion your recent abstract stencil work, the way in which you overlay colors, is the freshest wall art I've seen in a long time. I've also see you use it on a deck. is that a new direction you'll be continuing with?
Thanks, glad you like em. The first stencils I did were for the Destroy You, NYC show I did with Magmo at the Orchard Street Gallery. They kind of just happened, I wasn’t even planning on doing any stencil pieces, but I wanted to do a few more things for the show & show how ended up going crazy with stencils. They def are a different way of working for me, which was a good thing. You can get all wrapped up in one way of working & thinking, these freed me up. The first ones were pretty basic simple style, background color and one color for design. When I went back to do more after the show I decided to just make a mess with em & see what happens. This overlapping technique started to get addicting – you never knew when to stop. I did a deck for a charity show in Boston & I did a drum for Vinnie of Less Than Jake – those were fun.
-Any more projects coming up using that style? I first saw it hinted at in your work for the Gimme Shelter show, it showed a real atmosphere and subtlety to your work.
I used this style for my wall at 11 Spring & I got some good feedback on it so I wanna keep going & see if I can add more to it. I wanna do more decks & a series on paper. I not sure what else right now, maybe more DIY Stenciled Qees & stuff.
-You damaged some grass doing those Gimme Shelter pieces. Where was that grass you sprayed on, is that your backyard at home?
yea, outside my door. I usually wait until the middle of the night and go outside to stencil. I don’t mind talking to the neighbors, but sometimes you’re just not in the mood to explain why you are spray painting monkey faces on pieces of cardboard or on records or whatever. I try not to get the grass that bad.
-I hope your rabbit didn't eat any of that toxic grass. How IS the rabbit by the way?
Our rabbit is doing very good, thanks for asking. He’s about 5 years old & getting a little chubby, but he seems to be happy
-Your series of one-off stenciled custom Qees rock, how do you get the stencil to curve around the 3D shape and get the line work so clean? spray adhesive?
Two words: Adhesive Rubber Stencils, oh well three words – but yea that is the way to go to make a mess of curved surfaces
-what's your studio like, describe the room where you mostly work.
I pretty much do all my drawing in my living room, maybe watching a movie or something & drawing. I have my computer in the corner, papers, books, magazines, stickers, toys, pens & who knows what else all piled up all around it. I do my stencils out in the yard. Pretty basic set up.
Do you spend all your working time on growing the Evil Design world, or is there some other secret career you attend to?
Lets just say, right now I spent a lot of my daylight hours around cemeteries and a lot of my nighttime hours drawing pictures.
-So 'a day in the life' again, what does a usual day comprise of?
Some days it comprises of just trying to make it thru till the sun goes down. Other days can start out with coffee & setting up farm animal toys. I try to draw every day. Most days basically consist of me trying to figure out what the hell I should be doing.
-I love the colors and the design of the Yoko Ono poster for the Paradise Club in Boston, tell me a bit about that project. (I also love the way you've drawn Yoko, you've captured her perfectly).
Yoko is awesome. I am a big fan of her music. All that talk about her breaking up the Beatles, c’mon – get over it, the time had come. Anyways, the Paradise was doing an anniversary show & asked local artists to choose a show and create a poster for it – then there would be an exhibition at the club. I actually had gone to that show by Yoko (she performed one of my favorite songs too ‘dub dub train’), so it was cool to be able to do a poster for it. I also did one for a Mission of Burma afternoon show. They kept a bunch to put on permanent display at the club, so if you’re in Boston – stop by and check em out (some good ones by Tadpole up too).
-Your early work with the great Weezer and Mission of Burma has set a great precedent for collabs with bands, is this a direction you want to explore further?
It’s great to work with bands you are into. I was a fan of Weezer when they asked me to do some shirt designs – so that was cool. Rivers had me do three shirt designs before they went on tour, then he asked me to work on more & contact his manager to get em in production while they were on tour. So I had some I characters I knew he liked so I weezered em up & called the manager guy & he was like.. ‘Umm... we have enough shirts’ haha, oh well. It was funny cause Rivers would call & be like “I have that sticker on my notebook of the guy saying ‘can I have a moment of your time’ - lets make that a Weezer shirt!” They were the first big band I had done stuff for so I was all psyched. And c’mon, Mission of Burma – how could you not wanna work with them. ( I even make a quick non-speaking cameo in their new documentary, don’t blink though..) They are def cool & I was able to do different stuff with them, not my little kid characters. The Music Wizard & Death Burma logo are def favs as well as the backwards flip off hand.
-Who would be 5 of your ultimate musicians to create art with?
Well I’d say a collab w/Pharrell, Kayne, The Terikaki Boys & me all conducted by Nigo would be badass. We could design an all over print Airbus A340-600 for Virgin Airlines complete with neon colored patent leather seats & diamond encrusted serving trays to start. Then maybe do a couple hooded sweatshirts w/stuff all over em – I hear the kids dig that, gotta keep it real.
Seriously, bands that’d be cool to work with that are still making music now - 1. Boredoms 2. Beastie Boys 3. Mike Patton (any one of his bands) 4. Andrew WK 5. David Bowie 6. Black Francis
-I love the story of Rivers Cuomo from Weezer buying one of your t-shirts and tracking you down to do some work with the band for their Pinkerton world tour. Does most of your work come to you, or do you actively seek out projects from companies?
Yea, Rivers was a really cool guy to work with. I really should actively seek out more projects shouldn’t I? Most cool stuff I have done, people have asked me – which is def cool & a compliment I suppose. Maybe I would have more cool projects if I pitched some ideas. I have a hard time with that to be honest. I’d rather just send a band or a cool company some stickers & a shirt or something just because I like what they do & maybe if they ever need a design or whatever & dig my style – they can get in touch.
-I was just in San Francisco and I saw a very cool MCA Evil Design skate deck hanging in the window at Kidrobot, I think it was silver. How did that project come about, and who was it through?
That was a deck that was part of the Monkey Skateboards set that was made for the 2005 San Diego Comic Con. The set had people like Shepard, Gary Baseman, Kozik, David Horvath, Dalek, Tim Biskup & a few more. We all had to work with a limited color scheme (silver, black, white, & GID) to connect the series. I was happy with how it came out & as payment I was to get a complete set (which I never got) & a certain number of my own decks (I never ended up with all of em, but they did send some). I’d like to do more decks, but maybe with a different company
-Have you personally met with any of the Kidrobot people in New York like Paul Budnitz, Chad or Joanna Sieghart?
I have met Paul for like two seconds, I think he had to run off to meeting about a new Kozik toy. I’ve met Chad briefly a couple times, def seems like a nice guy. Nichole is the Kid Robot crew member I know best, she came out to the Mr.T doll show I was in (curated by Mr. Lobster Roll), that was the first time we hung out, she has a crazy toy collection. They did give me good coverage in the ‘I Am Plastic’ book, that was cool.
-Is face time important for you in your projects, or is email enough to get by?
Sometimes email is all ya got, but that is def better than it was before the computer machine was around. It’s kinda funny to think of before computers, it makes you seem like one of those old guys talking about a 5¢ movie or when there was a lamp lighter that came around & lit the street lights. I didn’t have a computer when I did that Weezer stuff, I’d just draw, xerox & fax ideas over – which seemed so high tech for me at the time. Back to the question, it is nice to meet & hang out with people that you are going to work with so that you can get a feel for em, see if you even like them. I don’t wanna do work for someone I can’t stand - right?
-How often do you make the trip to New York from Massachusetts?
A bunch of my good friends made the move from Boston to New York years back, so we try to get there like once a month or at least once every other month. If there is a show or something I’m in or wanna see – we make the trek. I was kinda bummed out I missed the Ron Mueck show at the Brooklyn Museum – his stuff looks insane! Yea, New York is the best.
-I love how you're big on trading stuff. I'm actually wearing one your tees I got from you as I write this. What's some of the best stuff you've got as a trade?
I’ve always been into trading. We’ve traded for all kinds of stuff from toasters to t-shirts to sneakers to stickers. Toy trades are always good, just got the JLED Sluggadon – that Kaiju for Grown-ups series is pretty cool. I gotta get the new Kozik Bunny Godzilla mix. Someone once sent me the head of one of those big Pee Wee Herman dolls, that was kinda funny.
-I've seen your great work on tees, decks, stickers, books, toys, posters, sketchel bags, buttons...what other products could you see your work appearing on in the near future?
I’d like to do all kinds of stuff. I recently watched a documentary on Big Daddy Ed Roth & it made me want to learn how to work on cars & work with fiberglass to create the ultimate Wizard Wagon?. I want to get WZRD Ski Masks made for this winter. We might have found a really good manufacturer in upper Canada – so we’ll see. An Evil Ape mascot uniform/costume would be nice to get made, like the San Diego Chicken style. I dunno, if anyone has any great ideas - call the office!
-What products would you never be associated with?
A rabbit fur vest. I hear there is a biker gang that travels the country called Dead Hare Devils & they all wear rabbit fur vests and they have the bunny ears hanging off the back of their bikes. So if they asked me to do a new club logo or something that would be embroidered on the back of those vests, I’d have to say no. Umm... Even though I like those fast food kid meal toys, I don’t think I’d do any. McDonalds is just plain horrible. I hate when like one of those places doe s a cool toy & then you go in to try & just buy the toys and there is a crotchity old lady working that yells ‘You have to buy the MEAL!’ - so lame. Once I think Burger King was doing Universal Monsters and Damaga & our friend Space Jockey went in the North Station BK & walked out with a burger bag full of monsters. I’m not sure how they did it, but to quote Ice Cube – it was a good day.
Do you see your stuff becoming a global brand like say a Paul Frank, or would that go against the Evil Design ethos?
I think if your happy with what your doing – who cares how crazy it gets. Would WZRD pajamas be that bad!? Some folks might think that’s lame, but on the other hand it kinda hilarious. Didn’t Paul Frank get kicked out or fired from the ‘Paul Frank’ enterprise or something – that’s nuts. I think when stuff gets that big you need to be careful & watch your back or you’ll end up with a guy like that guy in Billy Madison that wants to take over the dad’s company – bad bad man. Money can make people wacky. I was just reading on David Horvath’s blog that he was getting flack for all the products they are producing around his Little Bony guy in Japan – basically saying he is just using a TV show character to get parents to go out and spend money on stuff designed around the show. His answer was that he understood the concern, but all the stuff they were making in Japan was just too cool. The Evil Design ethos (not like I really sat down & gave it real thought) is just to have fun, make a few folks laugh or smile at least. I am not against making stuff, products, if they are cool. I collect all kinds of stuff & love little toys, stickers, whatever – so I think if some guy that seemed cool to work with wanted to go crazy with my Evil Ape character or my Wizard guys - I probably do it. A Winged Wizard balloon at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade is just around the corner!
-Shepard Fairey helped you with the first Evil design t-shirts you did around '90, '91, do you see this clothing part of your output growing in 2007? What are the plans if any, to grown the Evil Design apparel?
Shepard was a big help back in the day. I met him in the early 90’s, he had an art/screen printing studio in Providence & I wanted to do more shirts, so he def made it possible to do more than I would’ve done with a regular screen printing company. He knew it was tough to get going & most kids couldn’t afford to do cases of shirts – I just wanted to do a few dozen of a few designs. So I owe him a ‘thanks a lot’ for helping me out. Some of my character shirts had thin outlines which means tough registration – so he’d make sure he printed those himself (not the interns) to make sure they came out perfect. Def a good guy. Now I have my own equipment & print all my own shirts. The output of shirts over the past year has slowed down, just because I’ve been busy with toy stuff, etc & haven’t had the time to print up new batches. Hopefully ‘07 will bring a bunch of new designs, I’ve been working on some & trying to schedule shirt printing time - so be on the lookout. I also may be working with some folks so that we can do more than just t-shirts – a full line.
-Your big on myspace and flickr, what sort of time do you dedicate to these sites? Have you found it's a good way to get your art out there to the fans?
Probably too much time, they get addicting. I think they are good though. You meet a lot of folks you may not have met otherwise. I like hearing feedback on work & with a site like Flickr you can draw a picture, scan it, post it on flickr & within a few minutes get some feedback from kids – I think that’s wild. Like, I draw a bunny or something at 8:15pm & by 9 o’clock a kid from the Ukraine that I have never met before tells me he loves it or hates it, either way it is great (& kinda crazy). They both can be deadly time stealers too. You log on myspace to check messages & two hours later your still clicking around looking at belladonna’s page or something.
-Marc and Sara Schiller from the great Wooster Collective in New York are big supporters of your work, how long have you known those guys? They had great things to say about you when I visited with them in 2003.
Nice to hear. They are really nice & have helped a lot of folks by showcasing their work on the Wooster site. So many kids look at their blog to see what’s going to in other parts of the world & get inspired to go out & do stuff on their own, which I think is the best. Anyways, I met them first through email in maybe 2001/2002, can’t remember exactly. I was in a show curated by Upso called 8.5 x 11 in NYC & Sara wrote up on Wooster how she liked a piece w/a masked guy saying ‘hurt me’ - but didn’t know who did it. I emailed em & said thanks – told em that it was mine and that’s how we 1st made contact. Since then I have met them & been in shows that they have done like the Hollywood Remix show & the most recent at 11 Spring St. which was def an honor to be asked to take part in. That show was insane, a lot of fun.
-I can envision a solo book dedicated to all your stuff, do you see something like that happening in the future?
I think that’d be fun to do. A few people have brought it up, but nothing solid as of yet. I’ll havta hook up with you & get it done!
You've got a lot of new toys coming out, like the Teddy Troopers series 2 WZRD Theme with Flying Fortress, The Love Original project with Red Magic in HK, a drawing collab with me for my new book, a design collab with Wrecks, what other stuff's about to drop in 2007
?
2007 we have a bunch of new toys coming out which is good. There will be a few more variations on the Evil Ape & they’ll all be coming with accessories which was fun to do. I will be doing some other collaborations with Toy2R that I am very excited about, but it is too early to talk about them. The first WZRD Crew figure will be coming out thru the Love Original project with Red Magic: Haack the Winged Wizard. It had been delayed & delayed, but I think they have all the bugs worked out and this will be see early this year. I also did a wzrd SAM for them as part of the Sam Artist Series. Jamungo asked me to be a part of the BUD series #2 line up – which is cool. Great line up of artists in the series – you’ll see & I am doing a bigger guy with them too that’ll be out end of the summer. I might be doing some collabs with Jellymon. Wrecks & I have been talking about doing a zine for awhile (Sleep When You’re Dead!), I just need to get to work on it. There will be some Cupco action at some point in the next year, which will be wild. The dolls they make are crazy. The Teddy Trooper Series #2 has been slowly getting released, I think Adfunture is going to release a few at a time instead of a big series all at once, which I think is a good idea – gives ya a chance to slowly grab em all. I’ve been a fan of Mr. Fortress for awhile, so it was nice to be included in the series. Niko Stumpo & myself may be working on some interesting things soon, if you haven’t checked out his shop yet – def do – HANA ZUKI! There may be some stuff with KOA, new stuff with Circus Punks, a collab with Bee Jellyfish & stuff with Mimoco, we’ll see. I’m always looking for good projects & good collaboration, I hope to do more skate decks & do some sneakers this year too. Oh yea, WZRD CREW cartoons will happen!!
-Keep pumping out the awesome work MCA, any shout outs to some peeps who's supported your work in the early days?
Early day support shout outs to: James Brown, Damaga, Tadpole, AIR, K-Swiss, Magmo, Space Jockey, Brandwashed, Shepard, Bellz, Godzeero, Sumo Santos, Sunshine Boy, Dipstick, Ronnie Hiromi, Pearl, GB, Chris Jackson, Sookie, Carmine, all the kids that answered my Slug & Lettuce classifieds & traded zines & stickers with me. Lots of friends & kids I didn’t even know helped a lot when I was just starting & that made it a lot more fun to do.
Interview by Jeremyville
April 2007
Published on 3/03/2009
MCA Evil Design interview by Jeremyville.
MCA Evil Design first flashed across my radar about 6 years ago, through his instantly recognizable and unique character style, dry and dark sense of humor on his website, and the nonchalant cool of the world he's created through the simplest of linework. It takes a lot of hard yards to get your stuff that simple, that memorable and that good, and he's done it. He's also managed to get it out there into the world's consciousness since 1991, through many art shows, toys, commissions, street art, and appearances in books, which means he's also very hard working, tenacious and professional: precursors to success in making a living from your work. He's also one those rare artists who has cut through, armed with a seemingly simple character style, but a style which to me is layered with subtlety, complexity and a pathos not usually found in this genre of art. We've been email buddies for the last 5 years or so, and here are some questions I've always wanted to ask him.
-Hey MCA, how's tricks? where are you right now as you're doing this interview?
What up!? Things are good, been busy. Just got back from Taiwan the other day so I’m still all wacked out delirious with my time frame so I figure that’s the best time to answer some questions. I am doing this interview in my living room, hustle & flow is just ending in the background (whooop that trick! - gets stuck in your head) it was pretty good, I missed the first ten minutes, but yea, I liked it. I saw that ‘For Your Consideration’ the other night, Fred Willard is awesome. He is also classic in that dog show movie.
So you've now done over 40 toys with Raymond Choy at Toy2R, that's amazing, how did that hook up first come about?
Toy2R is great to work with. Raymond emailed me one day & said he had seen my site and thought that my style/characters might work well on his toys (qees) and asked if I’d be interested in working on a design or two. This was about four to five years ago. The ones he liked were the ape designs, so that started it all.
-What would be your favorite toy with Toy2r so far?
The Evil Ape figure, just because it is the one that is an original sculpt. Working on Qee designs is fun, but being able to design the full figure is the best. I had never really looked at my characters as 3D. I just drew em flat style I guess for my comics & stickers, so thinking about what the ape looked like from the sides & back was a new thing. It took me a little while to get it right, but it was a fun process & seeing the sculpt come along was great. After many revisions (I kinda was a pain about details, but ya gotta) the Evil Ape came to life, or at least became a cool 3D vinyl toy.
-The Prison Ape is a cool concept, will you be doing more in that series, like a corrupt prison guard or whatever?
I dunno, maybe. I hadn’t really thought about a prison related series of these. It would be funny to do a Barney Fife kinda deputy & maybe a drunk Ape like Otis. I’ll have to think about this. I always have been a fan of the prison jumpsuit look, I have never actually owned an orange one – but those are my favorite, so I had to have the Ape rock one. Then for the classic prison suit, I looked to Mr. Chaplin for inspiration. Oh, and just for the record, I have never spent any time locked up or in lock down or whatever it is that the kids are calling it these days.
-You were recently doing a signing appearance at Toy Expo in Hong Kong with Toy 2R, what's a day like in that sort of schedule? can you give a '24 hours in the life of MCA' while you're over there in HK doing these signings?
Hong Kong was wild, I had a lot of fun. It was my first trip of this kind. A day consists of hanging out with Raymond, eating new crazy (& good) food, drawing on toys nonstop (people stayed in line a half hour after show ended, that was awesome), meeting new people, taking photos, running around Hong Kong & seeing as much as I could in 2 days, going to look at bootleg toys at night market, drinking sugar cane juice (very good!), checking out crazy toy shops all cramped with tons of stuff, buying too many toys at the toy fair to fit in my luggage – it was a good time.
In my opinion your recent abstract stencil work, the way in which you overlay colors, is the freshest wall art I've seen in a long time. I've also see you use it on a deck. is that a new direction you'll be continuing with?
Thanks, glad you like em. The first stencils I did were for the Destroy You, NYC show I did with Magmo at the Orchard Street Gallery. They kind of just happened, I wasn’t even planning on doing any stencil pieces, but I wanted to do a few more things for the show & show how ended up going crazy with stencils. They def are a different way of working for me, which was a good thing. You can get all wrapped up in one way of working & thinking, these freed me up. The first ones were pretty basic simple style, background color and one color for design. When I went back to do more after the show I decided to just make a mess with em & see what happens. This overlapping technique started to get addicting – you never knew when to stop. I did a deck for a charity show in Boston & I did a drum for Vinnie of Less Than Jake – those were fun.
-Any more projects coming up using that style? I first saw it hinted at in your work for the Gimme Shelter show, it showed a real atmosphere and subtlety to your work.
I used this style for my wall at 11 Spring & I got some good feedback on it so I wanna keep going & see if I can add more to it. I wanna do more decks & a series on paper. I not sure what else right now, maybe more DIY Stenciled Qees & stuff.
-You damaged some grass doing those Gimme Shelter pieces. Where was that grass you sprayed on, is that your backyard at home?
yea, outside my door. I usually wait until the middle of the night and go outside to stencil. I don’t mind talking to the neighbors, but sometimes you’re just not in the mood to explain why you are spray painting monkey faces on pieces of cardboard or on records or whatever. I try not to get the grass that bad.
-I hope your rabbit didn't eat any of that toxic grass. How IS the rabbit by the way?
Our rabbit is doing very good, thanks for asking. He’s about 5 years old & getting a little chubby, but he seems to be happy
-Your series of one-off stenciled custom Qees rock, how do you get the stencil to curve around the 3D shape and get the line work so clean? spray adhesive?
Two words: Adhesive Rubber Stencils, oh well three words – but yea that is the way to go to make a mess of curved surfaces
-what's your studio like, describe the room where you mostly work.
I pretty much do all my drawing in my living room, maybe watching a movie or something & drawing. I have my computer in the corner, papers, books, magazines, stickers, toys, pens & who knows what else all piled up all around it. I do my stencils out in the yard. Pretty basic set up.
Do you spend all your working time on growing the Evil Design world, or is there some other secret career you attend to?
Lets just say, right now I spent a lot of my daylight hours around cemeteries and a lot of my nighttime hours drawing pictures.
-So 'a day in the life' again, what does a usual day comprise of?
Some days it comprises of just trying to make it thru till the sun goes down. Other days can start out with coffee & setting up farm animal toys. I try to draw every day. Most days basically consist of me trying to figure out what the hell I should be doing.
-I love the colors and the design of the Yoko Ono poster for the Paradise Club in Boston, tell me a bit about that project. (I also love the way you've drawn Yoko, you've captured her perfectly).
Yoko is awesome. I am a big fan of her music. All that talk about her breaking up the Beatles, c’mon – get over it, the time had come. Anyways, the Paradise was doing an anniversary show & asked local artists to choose a show and create a poster for it – then there would be an exhibition at the club. I actually had gone to that show by Yoko (she performed one of my favorite songs too ‘dub dub train’), so it was cool to be able to do a poster for it. I also did one for a Mission of Burma afternoon show. They kept a bunch to put on permanent display at the club, so if you’re in Boston – stop by and check em out (some good ones by Tadpole up too).
-Your early work with the great Weezer and Mission of Burma has set a great precedent for collabs with bands, is this a direction you want to explore further?
It’s great to work with bands you are into. I was a fan of Weezer when they asked me to do some shirt designs – so that was cool. Rivers had me do three shirt designs before they went on tour, then he asked me to work on more & contact his manager to get em in production while they were on tour. So I had some I characters I knew he liked so I weezered em up & called the manager guy & he was like.. ‘Umm... we have enough shirts’ haha, oh well. It was funny cause Rivers would call & be like “I have that sticker on my notebook of the guy saying ‘can I have a moment of your time’ - lets make that a Weezer shirt!” They were the first big band I had done stuff for so I was all psyched. And c’mon, Mission of Burma – how could you not wanna work with them. ( I even make a quick non-speaking cameo in their new documentary, don’t blink though..) They are def cool & I was able to do different stuff with them, not my little kid characters. The Music Wizard & Death Burma logo are def favs as well as the backwards flip off hand.
-Who would be 5 of your ultimate musicians to create art with?
Well I’d say a collab w/Pharrell, Kayne, The Terikaki Boys & me all conducted by Nigo would be badass. We could design an all over print Airbus A340-600 for Virgin Airlines complete with neon colored patent leather seats & diamond encrusted serving trays to start. Then maybe do a couple hooded sweatshirts w/stuff all over em – I hear the kids dig that, gotta keep it real.
Seriously, bands that’d be cool to work with that are still making music now - 1. Boredoms 2. Beastie Boys 3. Mike Patton (any one of his bands) 4. Andrew WK 5. David Bowie 6. Black Francis
-I love the story of Rivers Cuomo from Weezer buying one of your t-shirts and tracking you down to do some work with the band for their Pinkerton world tour. Does most of your work come to you, or do you actively seek out projects from companies?
Yea, Rivers was a really cool guy to work with. I really should actively seek out more projects shouldn’t I? Most cool stuff I have done, people have asked me – which is def cool & a compliment I suppose. Maybe I would have more cool projects if I pitched some ideas. I have a hard time with that to be honest. I’d rather just send a band or a cool company some stickers & a shirt or something just because I like what they do & maybe if they ever need a design or whatever & dig my style – they can get in touch.
-I was just in San Francisco and I saw a very cool MCA Evil Design skate deck hanging in the window at Kidrobot, I think it was silver. How did that project come about, and who was it through?
That was a deck that was part of the Monkey Skateboards set that was made for the 2005 San Diego Comic Con. The set had people like Shepard, Gary Baseman, Kozik, David Horvath, Dalek, Tim Biskup & a few more. We all had to work with a limited color scheme (silver, black, white, & GID) to connect the series. I was happy with how it came out & as payment I was to get a complete set (which I never got) & a certain number of my own decks (I never ended up with all of em, but they did send some). I’d like to do more decks, but maybe with a different company
-Have you personally met with any of the Kidrobot people in New York like Paul Budnitz, Chad or Joanna Sieghart?
I have met Paul for like two seconds, I think he had to run off to meeting about a new Kozik toy. I’ve met Chad briefly a couple times, def seems like a nice guy. Nichole is the Kid Robot crew member I know best, she came out to the Mr.T doll show I was in (curated by Mr. Lobster Roll), that was the first time we hung out, she has a crazy toy collection. They did give me good coverage in the ‘I Am Plastic’ book, that was cool.
-Is face time important for you in your projects, or is email enough to get by?
Sometimes email is all ya got, but that is def better than it was before the computer machine was around. It’s kinda funny to think of before computers, it makes you seem like one of those old guys talking about a 5¢ movie or when there was a lamp lighter that came around & lit the street lights. I didn’t have a computer when I did that Weezer stuff, I’d just draw, xerox & fax ideas over – which seemed so high tech for me at the time. Back to the question, it is nice to meet & hang out with people that you are going to work with so that you can get a feel for em, see if you even like them. I don’t wanna do work for someone I can’t stand - right?
-How often do you make the trip to New York from Massachusetts?
A bunch of my good friends made the move from Boston to New York years back, so we try to get there like once a month or at least once every other month. If there is a show or something I’m in or wanna see – we make the trek. I was kinda bummed out I missed the Ron Mueck show at the Brooklyn Museum – his stuff looks insane! Yea, New York is the best.
-I love how you're big on trading stuff. I'm actually wearing one your tees I got from you as I write this. What's some of the best stuff you've got as a trade?
I’ve always been into trading. We’ve traded for all kinds of stuff from toasters to t-shirts to sneakers to stickers. Toy trades are always good, just got the JLED Sluggadon – that Kaiju for Grown-ups series is pretty cool. I gotta get the new Kozik Bunny Godzilla mix. Someone once sent me the head of one of those big Pee Wee Herman dolls, that was kinda funny.
-I've seen your great work on tees, decks, stickers, books, toys, posters, sketchel bags, buttons...what other products could you see your work appearing on in the near future?
I’d like to do all kinds of stuff. I recently watched a documentary on Big Daddy Ed Roth & it made me want to learn how to work on cars & work with fiberglass to create the ultimate Wizard Wagon?. I want to get WZRD Ski Masks made for this winter. We might have found a really good manufacturer in upper Canada – so we’ll see. An Evil Ape mascot uniform/costume would be nice to get made, like the San Diego Chicken style. I dunno, if anyone has any great ideas - call the office!
-What products would you never be associated with?
A rabbit fur vest. I hear there is a biker gang that travels the country called Dead Hare Devils & they all wear rabbit fur vests and they have the bunny ears hanging off the back of their bikes. So if they asked me to do a new club logo or something that would be embroidered on the back of those vests, I’d have to say no. Umm... Even though I like those fast food kid meal toys, I don’t think I’d do any. McDonalds is just plain horrible. I hate when like one of those places doe s a cool toy & then you go in to try & just buy the toys and there is a crotchity old lady working that yells ‘You have to buy the MEAL!’ - so lame. Once I think Burger King was doing Universal Monsters and Damaga & our friend Space Jockey went in the North Station BK & walked out with a burger bag full of monsters. I’m not sure how they did it, but to quote Ice Cube – it was a good day.
Do you see your stuff becoming a global brand like say a Paul Frank, or would that go against the Evil Design ethos?
I think if your happy with what your doing – who cares how crazy it gets. Would WZRD pajamas be that bad!? Some folks might think that’s lame, but on the other hand it kinda hilarious. Didn’t Paul Frank get kicked out or fired from the ‘Paul Frank’ enterprise or something – that’s nuts. I think when stuff gets that big you need to be careful & watch your back or you’ll end up with a guy like that guy in Billy Madison that wants to take over the dad’s company – bad bad man. Money can make people wacky. I was just reading on David Horvath’s blog that he was getting flack for all the products they are producing around his Little Bony guy in Japan – basically saying he is just using a TV show character to get parents to go out and spend money on stuff designed around the show. His answer was that he understood the concern, but all the stuff they were making in Japan was just too cool. The Evil Design ethos (not like I really sat down & gave it real thought) is just to have fun, make a few folks laugh or smile at least. I am not against making stuff, products, if they are cool. I collect all kinds of stuff & love little toys, stickers, whatever – so I think if some guy that seemed cool to work with wanted to go crazy with my Evil Ape character or my Wizard guys - I probably do it. A Winged Wizard balloon at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade is just around the corner!
-Shepard Fairey helped you with the first Evil design t-shirts you did around '90, '91, do you see this clothing part of your output growing in 2007? What are the plans if any, to grown the Evil Design apparel?
Shepard was a big help back in the day. I met him in the early 90’s, he had an art/screen printing studio in Providence & I wanted to do more shirts, so he def made it possible to do more than I would’ve done with a regular screen printing company. He knew it was tough to get going & most kids couldn’t afford to do cases of shirts – I just wanted to do a few dozen of a few designs. So I owe him a ‘thanks a lot’ for helping me out. Some of my character shirts had thin outlines which means tough registration – so he’d make sure he printed those himself (not the interns) to make sure they came out perfect. Def a good guy. Now I have my own equipment & print all my own shirts. The output of shirts over the past year has slowed down, just because I’ve been busy with toy stuff, etc & haven’t had the time to print up new batches. Hopefully ‘07 will bring a bunch of new designs, I’ve been working on some & trying to schedule shirt printing time - so be on the lookout. I also may be working with some folks so that we can do more than just t-shirts – a full line.
-Your big on myspace and flickr, what sort of time do you dedicate to these sites? Have you found it's a good way to get your art out there to the fans?
Probably too much time, they get addicting. I think they are good though. You meet a lot of folks you may not have met otherwise. I like hearing feedback on work & with a site like Flickr you can draw a picture, scan it, post it on flickr & within a few minutes get some feedback from kids – I think that’s wild. Like, I draw a bunny or something at 8:15pm & by 9 o’clock a kid from the Ukraine that I have never met before tells me he loves it or hates it, either way it is great (& kinda crazy). They both can be deadly time stealers too. You log on myspace to check messages & two hours later your still clicking around looking at belladonna’s page or something.
-Marc and Sara Schiller from the great Wooster Collective in New York are big supporters of your work, how long have you known those guys? They had great things to say about you when I visited with them in 2003.
Nice to hear. They are really nice & have helped a lot of folks by showcasing their work on the Wooster site. So many kids look at their blog to see what’s going to in other parts of the world & get inspired to go out & do stuff on their own, which I think is the best. Anyways, I met them first through email in maybe 2001/2002, can’t remember exactly. I was in a show curated by Upso called 8.5 x 11 in NYC & Sara wrote up on Wooster how she liked a piece w/a masked guy saying ‘hurt me’ - but didn’t know who did it. I emailed em & said thanks – told em that it was mine and that’s how we 1st made contact. Since then I have met them & been in shows that they have done like the Hollywood Remix show & the most recent at 11 Spring St. which was def an honor to be asked to take part in. That show was insane, a lot of fun.
-I can envision a solo book dedicated to all your stuff, do you see something like that happening in the future?
I think that’d be fun to do. A few people have brought it up, but nothing solid as of yet. I’ll havta hook up with you & get it done!
You've got a lot of new toys coming out, like the Teddy Troopers series 2 WZRD Theme with Flying Fortress, The Love Original project with Red Magic in HK, a drawing collab with me for my new book, a design collab with Wrecks, what other stuff's about to drop in 2007
?
2007 we have a bunch of new toys coming out which is good. There will be a few more variations on the Evil Ape & they’ll all be coming with accessories which was fun to do. I will be doing some other collaborations with Toy2R that I am very excited about, but it is too early to talk about them. The first WZRD Crew figure will be coming out thru the Love Original project with Red Magic: Haack the Winged Wizard. It had been delayed & delayed, but I think they have all the bugs worked out and this will be see early this year. I also did a wzrd SAM for them as part of the Sam Artist Series. Jamungo asked me to be a part of the BUD series #2 line up – which is cool. Great line up of artists in the series – you’ll see & I am doing a bigger guy with them too that’ll be out end of the summer. I might be doing some collabs with Jellymon. Wrecks & I have been talking about doing a zine for awhile (Sleep When You’re Dead!), I just need to get to work on it. There will be some Cupco action at some point in the next year, which will be wild. The dolls they make are crazy. The Teddy Trooper Series #2 has been slowly getting released, I think Adfunture is going to release a few at a time instead of a big series all at once, which I think is a good idea – gives ya a chance to slowly grab em all. I’ve been a fan of Mr. Fortress for awhile, so it was nice to be included in the series. Niko Stumpo & myself may be working on some interesting things soon, if you haven’t checked out his shop yet – def do – HANA ZUKI! There may be some stuff with KOA, new stuff with Circus Punks, a collab with Bee Jellyfish & stuff with Mimoco, we’ll see. I’m always looking for good projects & good collaboration, I hope to do more skate decks & do some sneakers this year too. Oh yea, WZRD CREW cartoons will happen!!
-Keep pumping out the awesome work MCA, any shout outs to some peeps who's supported your work in the early days?
Early day support shout outs to: James Brown, Damaga, Tadpole, AIR, K-Swiss, Magmo, Space Jockey, Brandwashed, Shepard, Bellz, Godzeero, Sumo Santos, Sunshine Boy, Dipstick, Ronnie Hiromi, Pearl, GB, Chris Jackson, Sookie, Carmine, all the kids that answered my Slug & Lettuce classifieds & traded zines & stickers with me. Lots of friends & kids I didn’t even know helped a lot when I was just starting & that made it a lot more fun to do.
Interview by Jeremyville