angel-and-the-antelope-blog

[angel-and-the-antelope-blog]

Are you sick of negative comments about your ambitions? Geoff Thompson went from floor sweeper to film maker. We reveal how.

Are you stuck, crippled by negative comments like “stop dreaming, you can’t make a living from your passion”? That’s exactly what Geoff was told. He was once a floor sweeper with ambitions above his station. However, he didn’t let their dismissive comments deter him. He wrote his first book on the toilet with no money or resources!

Read on to learn how you can move forward with your goals if you’re willing to pay the price and use your 24 hours wisely.

Geoff after winning his BAFTA with wife Sharon

So who is Geoff to give you advice on success? Well he went from sweeping floors in a factory to the brawling nightclub doors, to standing on stage winning a BAFTA in front of the worlds glitterati. And more importantly he did it with fewer resources than you have at your fingertips RIGHT NOW! As well as award winning script’s, he’s the author of over thirty popular books and was polled the number one self-defense instructor in the world.

Angel: Geoff, thank you for inviting me to your lovely house. Lets jump right in. What inspired you to become a writer?

Geoff: I had lots of depression when I was younger. I had this particular bad depression and it kept visiting me. I think it was because I was root bound. I had all this creative energy and I wasn’t placing it anywhere. Every time I tried doing something with it people would say “Who do you think you are! That’s not for the likes of us. Just be grateful for what you’ve got”.

I had a lot of fear and I didn’t know why. I read a lot to figure it out and none of the books told me what I wanted to know. They were written by people who seemed to be frightened to actually say why they were scared. I thought if I ever discover what this is, I’m going write it down and tell people.

On the Film set for PINK – The spot light is on Geoff

Angel: So you didn’t find the answer in the books, how did you combat your fears?

Geoff: I thought I’m sick of this I’m going do something about it. I decided if I can overcome all my fears I won’t be frightened anymore. So I wrote all my fears down on a pyramid and systematically confronted them one by one. My final challenge was to face my fear of violent confrontation. I became a nightclub doorman and that’s where everything started.

“Bouncer” – Artwork by Julian Kimmings

Angel: Before we go into your experience on the doors, lets back track a little. You say you had a lot of depression when you were younger. Tell me about the things you used to do as a child, what were you interested in?

Geoff: I was one of those strange kids who would go off on my own and dare myself to do challenges. What I was really into as a kid was climbing trees. I had to climb every tree on the estate and they were huge oak trees. I would climb right to the top. I didn’t want to hammer nails in and give myself foot holes. I wanted to find my own way up, a different way, so it’s always been in me to do that.

I used to go scrumping on my own, climbing over garden walls and pinching peoples apples. Sometimes I would be terrified that I’d get caught. I’d be overwhelmed and panic, but I would still go and do it all over again.

“Scrumping” – Artwork by Julian Kimmings

Angel: Was this in your own neighborhood?

Geoff: No I never stayed on my own estate. I was one of these people that enjoyed going off and breaking the boundaries. Hanging around miles and miles from where I lived. I was never comfortable just staying where I was. I always thought there was more. I wanted to break out of that cast and experience all sorts of different things and meet different people. I was overwhelmed at times and I was completely out of my depth, but that excited me.

Angel: What did you want to be when you grew up?

Geoff: I wanted to be a world class goal keeper. When I got to senior school I changed my mind and got into martial arts and put all my energy into that.

Geoff is a black belt in several different martial arts

Angel: What initially sparked your interest in martial arts?

Geoff: Bruce Lee, I watched him and that changed my life. I’m still grateful for that now. He liberated me. It gave me an outlet for my energy and I heavily immersed myself in it. In fact it was like an obsession. It ended up becoming my career. It even took me to the world stage and I arranged to give up my day job, just so I could train and tour.

Angel: What job did you have at the time?

Geoff: Oh god, loads, everything from selling carpets to laying roads and making pizzas. I also worked at a chemical factory, hod carrying, brick laying and floor cleaner at a factory. And then working on the doors.

A scene from Geoff’s film “Clubbed”. Actor Mel Raido who plays the lead character Danny. Photo by Kaush Bharti

Angel: You mentioned earlier that things really started when you worked on the nightclub doors. Why was that?

Geoff: Doing it changed my whole life. That lovely saying by Nietzsche, “You have to be careful that when you hunt the dragon you don’t become the dragon”. I went from being a scared kid and hating bullies to becoming hugely violent and using violence as a problem solving tool. I had become the dragon and I was justifying that. And it was only when I started to write about it that I realized I was in the wrong place. Well, I was in the right place originally, but I’d stayed there too long.

A scene from “Clubbed” actor Mel Raido learning fighting techniques. Photo by Kaush Bharti

Angel: It was very perceptive of you to realize what was happening. What was your next move?

Geoff: I left the doors and that’s when I started teaching. But it was that experience of mastering myself, facing my fears straight on, that’s what completely changed my life. That experience has been my reference point ever since. I remember occasions when guys were attacking me and trying to kill me. I then think, “doing an interview on national TV might be scary, but it’s not as bad as someone trying to kill me. What’s the worst thing that can happen? I’m not going to get stabbed, my life isn’t at risk” and it puts everything into perspective.

Geoff teaching fighting techniques to actor Mel Raido. Photo by Kaush Bharti

Angel: Talk me through the process of writing your first book?

Geoff: When I was working the doors, I was still sweeping floors and would sit in the canteen and tell the lads what happened the night before. It was either very funny or extremely violent or shocking. One of my friends said, “This is great stuff, these stories are amazing, you should write them down”. Of course I’d wanted to be a writer since I was a kid.

“Inspire” – Artwork by Julian Kimmings

Geoff: I would get my work done and then go into the factory toilet and just sit there and write. Interestingly my other friend, who also worked at the club, was going to write a book about the doors too. He had masses of experience and was going to call it “Watch my back”. I said, “that’s a great title”. So I used it as a temporary title. Then when I went to get the book published, I had to ring him and ask for his permission. He said “Yeah, I don’t think I’ll ever write mine” and he never did!

A scene from Geoffs film “Clubbed”. Photo by Kaush Bharti

Angel: It’s a shame that people have dreams and never take any action on them. What was your next step after writing the book?

Geoff: I had it typed and it must have sat on the shelf for a long time. I then met a friend of mine called Ian Mclaina, he was one of those guys who can spin twenty plates; he believed you could do anything. He said “We’ll get it out” and although he didn’t get it published he got my momentum going again. I sent it out to quite a few big publishers and didn’t get anything back.

The Actors from “Clubbed”, (Shaun Parkes,Colin Salmon,Geoff Thompson,Scot Williams,Mel Raido) Photo by Kaush Bharti

I then took it to The Telegraph where Sue Lawry said “Before I read it, I want to tell you. There are fifteen reporters upstairs ALL of them want to write books. They don’t want to be journalists. But they haven’t taken any action. You’ve already gone and done it”.

After reading it she told me “There’s some really nice stuff here. You have an original voice, but it needs expanding, more description”. I went away and followed her advice. I then sent it to a small publisher. It turned out they were actually two lads working from their dads living room. They had just left University. But I was given the impression they were some big conglomerate. At that time they had only published one book. Now, they’re a multi-million pound business.

A scene from Geoff’s film “Clubbed” actor Scot Williams who plays Sparky. Photo by Kaush Bharti

Angel: They had obviously marketed themselves well to give you that impression of professionalism. How did things move forward from there?

Geoff: They told me “We don’t think it will make you lots of money and we’re only a small publisher. You’ll get royalties but we can’t give you an advance”. I didn’t care I was just excited about being published.

They published it and suddenly my whole belief system changed. I was thinking, “right so people like me can write and get published”. Everyone had told me I couldn’t do it. Then the floodgates opened. I wrote five books in a year. I’ve written over thirty since. I thought ”I can do anything”. That’s when I went into writing plays and journalism, everything I fancied doing I would go for it. It was really exciting.

A scene from “Clubbed” (Shaun Parkes, Scot Williams, Colin Salmon, Mel Raido). Photo by Kaush Bharti

Angel: How long did it take to publish your first book and how successful was it?

Geoff: They had it for about 18 months and it sold quite well. They ended up with five hundred left, which they were just going to sell over time. But I said “Look I think I can do more with this, will you let me buy the copyright back?”. And they did which I think they’ve regretted ever since because it’s sold over a hundred thousand.

I reprinted it in hard back. I put it out and started doing courses and teaching and I started printing other books as well. I’d decided to self publish my other books. I looked at what they were doing, and the unit cost of printing a book. I thought, “well I could do this myself”. If I printed it myself and sell it, I can make much more money. I’ve self-published ever since.

Geoff with film extra and fellow martial arts instructor Lea Welsford on the set of “Pink”

Angel: You followed through on your dream of becoming a writer. Why do you think so many people like the journalists at The Telegraph, don’t end up pursuing their dream job?

Geoff: I’ve seen lots of my friends who want to be screen writers who end up working other jobs because they have to cover their mortgage, and they lose their way. I discovered a lot of them have this idea only certain people can be successful. It’s not true. It’s just how much you want it.

My book “Elephant and The Twig” is an inspiring book about what you can achieve and “Shapeshifter” is a serious book about how much do you want to achieve it. It’s good to cut through layers of consciousness with people in a nice way and say “look YOU can do it AND have it all”

I think success asks everything. But it doesn’t tend to take everything. There are doors you have to go through, commitments you have to make and some sacrifices. So that book is saying are you prepared to pay the price? Most people aren’t. But rather than say “I’m not prepared to pay the price” they’ll say “it’s a closed door and people like me can’t get in, or I didn’t get my lucky break”. It’s just weak excuses.

Geoff with a copy of Subvert magazine

Angel: So you think they’re making up excuses to cover their fear?

Geoff: Exactly. I scare the shit out of them. One of my students on a scriptwriting course, came up to me and was trying to tell me how tough it is at University. Success doesn’t come on its own you’ve got to keep at it and keep pushing. The common thing people always say is “I don’t have the time” and I say, “well actually you have. You just haven’t got the will!”

I tell all my students “you get the same 24 hours as the President of the United States or the Prime Minister, as Cassius Clay or Muhammad Ali. Whatever it is you’re doing, you get 24 hours. It’s what you do with it. Your 24 hours are filled with something even if it’s filled with nothing. What you have to decide is what you want to fill it with”.

A scene from Geoff’s film “Clubbed” (Scot Williams, Mel Raido, Colin Salmon, Shaun Parkes). The doormen marking their territory. Photo by Kaush Bharti

Geoff, previously we talked about fear, another common condition which tends to hinders people is stress. Why do you think so many people are stressed today?

There weren’t as many neurological stresses years ago. Every time you look around now, there are things which trigger stress. Bright lights, loud noises, lots of traffic, pollution, aggression and violence on the news. We are surrounded by lots of stimulus. People are more infused with adrenalin, because it doesn’t find a behavioral release. The body innately knows it’s caustic. If it doesn’t find a behavioral release, cortisol attacks the internal smooth muscles, like the heart, lungs and intestines. It travels to the brain and kills your neurotransmitters.

A scene from Geoff’s film “Clubbed”, (Colin Salmon). Photo by Kaush Bharti

Stress is a killer. Even little things like a car horn or watching a violent film will trigger the adrenals. There’s lots and lots of ripe stuff out there. People are walking around in a predatory state most of the time. The body knows it needs to find a release for it. So it tries to find any kind of outlet. And the digestion system closes down temporarily. That’s why there’s so much irritable bowl or problems with digestion.

Angel: What can people do to combat stress in their daily lives?

Geoff: Meditation or yoga calms everything down, changing your physiology back to where it should be. Understanding how your body works is beneficial too. You have to recognize that you don’t need to be stressed. Start making a conscious effort to think about what you read, and what you watch on television. So you’re not triggering your body all the time.

Geoff was polled the number one martial arts instructor in the world

Geoff: Currently, most people’s physiology is stuck in fight or flight, and of course, that promotes all sorts of illnesses. Specifically cancer. Mainly because the immune system closes down during this process. If you think back to when we were living in caves. The body was designed to prepare you, for when you encountered a saber tooth tiger. You had the option of stay and fight or run away, and it would have lasted for seconds. But today we’re marinating in it all day. So our immune system is on, then it’s off, and then on again. The door is open so lots of illnesses can get in.

It’s imperative you find a way to physically release that stress. The wrong food, or too much of one type of food, acts as a stressor and will trigger the adrenals. People are constantly wired, and they take it out on whoever is around at the time. It’s good to step outside of all that and think. “I’ll go do some exercise that will get rid of my stress. I’ll change my perception of the world, so it doesn’t have to be stressful. I’ll do some yoga and meditation to change my physiology back”.

Angel: What about diet. How important do you think it is to eat healthy food?

Geoff: It’s just about moderation. I’ve practiced different things from complete abstinence, right through to the other side, where I eat whatever I want. I think the best thing is abstaining from EXCESS. Having discipline. You can indulge now and again, but don’t eat what you haven’t earned. I don’t have anything which is really bad for me. I don’t smoke, I don’t drink alcohol. I do like a cake sometimes, and a curry once a week. But I train every day and I keep myself in great shape.

Angel: Why do you think, even though people know what they should be doing, they often do the opposite?

Geoff: George Ivanovich Gurdjieff said that people have no self control. He talks about the fact that we think we’re free. However, we’re controlled by the opinions imposed on us by others. Someone says your work is good you feel great. Someone says your work is terrible you have a shit day. He talked about self sovereignty. Controlling the self, so you become immune to the slings and arrows, of internal and external phenomena. Only then can you call yourself a true individual.

Photo montage from Geoff’s film “Clubbed”. Photo by Kaush Bharti

Angel: How do you gain this control of yourself?

Geoff: Gandhi believed that if you could control the palette, all other senses fall into line. Once you govern your senses, you gain self control. You literally control the world. This is a man that changed the course of history on that simple philosophy.

People are out there looking for huge philosophies. But really there’s only one thing to do, and that’s to master yourself. For example; being in control of what you eat, drink, listen to, read and watch on television. We become what we allow to influence us. I’m very careful about what I take in, who I speak to, certainly what I read. I don’t read tabloids or porn magazines. It’s not a moral or ethical judgment, it’s just about what is good for me. It’s about controlling my senses.

Behind the scenes on the set of “Pink”. The director Michael B Clifford briefs the stunt man Peter Pedrero

Angel: You mention tabloids. Do you think people have become indifferent to the messages from the media? And the powerful effect it has over them?

Geoff: The fourth fuel of the brain is information. People have an idea about physical food, and may think, ‘this is good for me and that isn’t’. But that’s not the most important thing we ingest. What’s more essential, is the information we take in. Information feeds the brain literally. I think people are being force fed junk everyday, almost every minute, and we don’t realize it.

When you have information it becomes a physical part of your brain. The brain takes it in. These neurons fire back and forth. If you receive the same information enough times, it leaves an indent. A groove in your brain. That’s how it works. So what you’re taking in every day, becomes your reality. It’s unconscious conditioning.

It’s about stepping aside from that and thinking “is this having the effect on me that I really want?” And then you start choosing your own information. There is a plethora of it out there. Library’s are full of great information and everyone has access to them.

Angel: What do you think are the main barriers to people believing they can be successful?

Geoff: You look at people like Leonardo Da Vinci. One of the reasons he was so successful, was because he didn’t know the concept of limitation. Most people have a formal education and they’re told ‘these are the possibilities’. Leonardo didn’t have this type of education. So he came out with all these amazing ideas; the parachute, the helicopter, submarine. He was a mathematician, sculptor, writer, gymnast, weight lifter. He had this amazing polarity of intellect and physicality. He was doing it because he wasn’t taught any restrictions.

How often do we really think about what we allow to influence us?

Leonardo also recognized that most people were scuppered by uncertainty and ambiguity. No one really knows what’s going to happen, if they’re going to be successful or not. He recognized in order to be successful, he needed to develop a high tolerance to both. He became massively successful because he said, “life would be pretty plain and dull if there was no uncertainty”.

https://youtu.be/n0pRCmoIwlE

For news about Geoff’s projects click here

Over to you

So, ambitious readers, just like a plant needs specific conditions to flourish and bear fruit. So do you. Those television programs, those magazines and books, are they positive influences? Or are they having a negative effect on your mood and attitude? The food you’re putting into your body, is it nourishing you? Is it giving you the strength and energy you need?

A special thanks goes out to

Kaush Bharti for the fantastic photographs

Julian Kimmings for the beautiful illustrations

[angel-and-the-antelope-blog]

Jon Burgerman – Master Doodler explains why you don’t need lots of cash or fancy resources to be successful.

Do you tell yourself that there’s no way you can succeed without a wadge of cash, all the best equipment and a bunch of top business people in tow? Well Jon Burgerman is an internationally successful illustrator and he’s here to tell you that you don’t need any of that stuff to be successful.

Read on to discover how Jon’s succeeding in a competitive industry.

Jon Burgerman’s exhibited his colourful artwork all around the globe, he’s published two books, his illustrations have been featured in tons of creative magazine, and if that wasn’t enough, he’s also designed a range of Ripcurl clothing, a series of soya surfboards, and Miss Sixty commissioned him to doodle all over the walls of their swanky Hotel in Italy, not bad for someone who claims “I’m the King of Wing-ing it”

“Koolaid” by Jon Burgerman

Angel: Jon I’m always reading on social media about you jetting around the world doing exhibitions and live drawing events, leading such a busy lifestyle, where do you find the energy? Is exercise part of your routine?

Jon: I’m pretty unfit but I do manage to get to the gym a couple of times a week if I’m not traveling. Exercise is good for the brain as much as it is for the body. Also if you work a lot on your own (say in a room on your own) you can get depressed quite easily so exercise, going out and sweating, doing something completely different is healthy for you and can keep you happy. Your body, whilst hurting and hating you for making it sweat also releases tiny pellets of golden happiness orbs into your soda-blood-stream (this is a scientific fact).

ISPO (Trade Show In Munich) Drawing

Angel:You mentioned working on your own, tell me about your process for coming up with new work can you be creative on demand?

Jon: I used to be able to but things are slowing down a little these days. Sometimes I need to have a break from work, go away and do something else for a while. It’s never good to force it if inspiration isn’t forthcoming. Just relax, try not to stress and come back to it after eating some salad.

“I had no cash or fancy resources. You don’t need it”

Angel: Talking about stress, a lot of people get frustrated with the lack of resources or other obstacles they have to overcome have you experienced any particular barriers?

Jon: I had all the normal deficiencies but kept working anyway. For about three years I sat on a crappy wooden chair in my tiny bedroom, using my pillow from my bed as a cushion, working on an old PC with a dial up internet connection shared between three people.

I had no cash or fancy resources. You don’t need it (to do the kind of things I do). Just work hard! Enjoy working hard! Don’t get drunk every night, don’t complain, eat vegetables, enjoy! Work! Enjoy! Draw! Sleep! Listen! Read! Work!

Angel: Did you take to this career path naturally, did you have confidence in yourself that you could really do it from the start?

Jon: It’s all I ever wanted to do and all I knew I could ever do so whilst the path has had its ups and downs it’s all been pretty OK – but then I don’t really know any other way. But nothing good is ever really easy, it has been hard work but worth it of course.

“I’m the King of Wing-ing it”

Angel: You’re absolutely right it does take a lot of effort, did you ever write a plan of what you wanted to achieve?

Jon: I’m a terrible planner, even if I make them I seldom stick to them. I’ve never made a business plan or anything like that. I’m the King of Wing-ing it, I make it up as I go along, change my mind a million times and then get distracted and forget all about what I’m meant to be doing.

Concrete Tag Show – Artwork by Jon Burgerman

Angel: Were you encouraged to pursue life as an artist by those around you or was there any opposition?

Jon: A bit of both, most people have been very encouraging and a few art tutors along the way were disparaging but I think you have to expect that. If you can’t stand up to criticism and argue your case at that level you’re probably going to crumble when confronted with any real criticism you may face outside of an educational institution.

Heroes of Burgertown Mini Figures by – Jon Burgerman

“Treat all your early jobs as learning experiences”

Angel: Did you have any particular people who helped mentor or guide you when you started out?

Jon: Not really but lots of professionals I emailed did kindly email back offering bits of advice here and there. You pick up advice where you can and treat all your early jobs as learning experiences – always ask plenty of questions.

Angel: That’s great advice, too many people are scared to ask questions and it’s an important part of learning. You mention emailing some professionals for help, can you tell me who has been particularly helpful to you?

Jon: The Association of Illustrators are really helpful. I wish I’d invited other artists out to lunch to quiz them about their practices but I wasn’t clever enough to think of that at the time. I did kind of work in a vacuum for a while.

Monsters – Artwork by Jon Burgerman

Angel: What things do you find challenging or scary about being an artist?

Jon: I’m afraid of everything – what if it’s crap and people hate it? What if I hate it? Exhibitions are probably the scariest things, which is why I like doing them the most.

Angel: That’s great, so you’re saying – face the challenges head on. Tell me more about your thoughts on fear, does it help or hinder you?

Jon: As it’s all in the mind you can choose to let it limit you or force you to push on and conquer it. If you want an excuse you can happily find one in almost everything.

Angel: How often do you find yourself failing at something or abandoning a piece of work?

Jon: I fail at lots of things, you should of seen the porridge I made last weekend. Failure isn’t to be feared. Everything is just practice for the next time you’ll attempt it.

“Always offer a little more than is required”

Angel: Apart from good culinary skills, what does it take to be a successful in this industry?

Jon: You need to be ready to learn, be nice to people, work hard, be reliable, have ideas, be clean and tidy and have some common sense. Someone told me to always offer a little more than is required. Be enthusiastic too, no-one like a sullen sad-sack mopping about the place. Offer to help with things and to make tea every so often.

Pens Are My Friends – Book by Jon Burgerman

Angel: Is life in the public eye what you thought it would be when you set out?

Jon: I’m hardly in the public eye – I draw for a living, it’s not like you get to sleep with supermodels and drink Champagne from glass slippers, I’m not Gary Baseman you know! It’s strange if someone recognizes me at an exhibition or something but that’s quite rare and I often run away before I can get embarrassed (or indeed embarrass myself).

Angel: We’ll have to ask Gary about those supermodels, but until you reach that point what would you say are the biggest benefits of this type of life?

Jon: No boss to answer to, you’re in control of what you do and when you do it, and it’s fun!

Some wise words there from Jon, so now it’s over to you, if you were the King or Queen of wing-ing it, what would you do? Well here’s your chance pretend for a day you are and see what you can achieve.

Check out more of Jon Burgerman’s brilliant artwork and see if he’s coming to a town near you.

[angel-and-the-antelope-blog]

Laughed at by your family for wanting to follow your passion? Success is the best revenge. With David Horvath

Have you ever felt like you’re not getting the support you need to succeed, especially from the people closest to you? Then you need to read every word of this interview with David Horvath. Co-creator of the globally successful Uglydoll brand. This is one of my all time favorite interviews.

I have a lot of respect for how amazingly generous and open David is. He shares the struggles he faced and overcame to follow his childhood dream. A dream that, it seemed no one else wanted him to achieve. Read it, learn from it, take action on what you learn. And don’t ever let those who don’t have the courage to follow their own dreams, prevent you from following yours…

Uglydoll Kaiju

Angel: David, with the widespread success of the Uglydoll you are being hailed as one of the top character designers in the world, but did you have this passion for toys as a kid?

David: When I was 12 the class was going around discussing what they wanted for Xmas, etc. The boys wanted Atari, footballs, etc. I already had all of that in my garage so I said I wanted GOLION, a die cast metal Japanese robot. Many of the kids laughed until I explained that it said “ages 13 and up” on the box, meaning they weren’t old enough to play with it just yet. Then they kinda just stayed away. So in a way, the cool kids became the outsiders and I stayed put.

The Cool Kids Became Outsider And I Stayed Put

Angel: So it sounds like you chose to follow your own path from an early age. Did you get any support from the people around you?

David: My mother was a designer at Mattel for many years. I wish that had helped me some but the honest truth is, she wasn’t permitted to discuss her job with me and she stayed loyal to that golden requirement. The only way I knew she still worked there was through catalogs and purple He-Man errors brought home. But those catalogs were inspiring. I always knew that I wanted to tell stories through toys.

Bossy Bear

The resistance came from my father, who told me that surrounding myself with toys and quitting Art Center to go work at a toy store would never amount to me making my own toys. He would tell all his professional contacts and co-workers about his waste-of-life son locked up in his toy room, working at a toy shop. He made many a famous or well known professional in the art and design world shake their head at me (being told his version, not mine). So there was resistance. Luckily, I didn’t care. He wanted to be a photographer more than anything in the world, but went into advertising because it seemed more stable to him. Avoiding your life passion out of fear is a no-no in my book.

When he would freak out over why I had so many toys (over 40 of them!) I would ask him why science majors had beakers and slides all around their room. He didn’t get it. Anyway, when I was 19, I did indeed quit advertising at Art Center so that I could go work at a local boutique toy shop, to learn the ins and outs of non-mass market toy distribution and observe moms, dads, and kids buying toys in a retail environment. That job also got me into toy fair, and got me deep into the side of toys I knew would prove to be very important if I wanted to make my dreams come true and go at it on my own.

Making toys means nothing if you don’t have any clue what will happen to them once their done. Now I hear my father clips articles and such, but from my early teens until well after we started Uglydoll, he told me toys and those stuffed doo-dads were a waste. It’s easy to get behind your kid when he’s in the paper, but with our daughter I want to be sure to be there for her during the process, not the irrelevant outcome. I hope I can use my past run in with this resistance as a life lesson so that I can do better than he did when raising my own child.

Uglydoll Cinko

Angel: So your love of toys was a hard path to follow then, but what about your growth as an artist?

David: I didn’t set out to be an artist. I still draw the same way I did when I was 10. Is it art? I don’t really care but I did see a certain path I wanted to take as someone who spends their time working on their own toys and children’s books. It was mostly mental maybe? I knew this is how it was going to go, as I wouldn’t have it any other way. Many months on my sister’s floor in the early days, and skipping meals sometimes when things got serious at the start. But that stuff is always thrown in to test how dedicated you are. I always say if someone from the future travels back in time to tell you your life long dream will fail 100%, and you still go for it anyway, it will work.

Angel: You clearly had passion, did you set any specific goals from the beginning or did you wing it as you went along?

David: There was no winging it and the plan was always very specific. We get tons of emails asking how to do XYZ, which is great. I pretty much reply the same way each time, that in my experience, taking the same path someone else did results in getting close but never where you want to end up. Ignoring those paths and making up your own route leads you to where you really belong, wherever that may be.

I Use This Now Pretty Much Scientifically Proven Method By The Hour And It Works

Angel: Can you share any techniques you use to help you focus on achieving your goals?

David: Ugh I wish you asked before the “Secret” came out, but actually I have always believed in the law of attraction since I first read about it many years ago. I use this now pretty much scientifically proven method by the hour and it works. Your mind effects the universe, and it also creates it. Your thoughts absolutely determine your reality. How you generally feel inside and what thoughts you generally carry in your head is what’s going to keep coming at you. This is a huge part. The biggest. The rest is all minor detail, actually.

Uglydoll Wage Green Kaiju

Angel: What about the excuses many people have for not following their creative dreams; no money, time, credibility, support etc. Did you ever confront these same doubts?

David: Those aren’t excuses. Those are hurdles. Just need to jump. We had zero help. Zero cash. Ah but we had a needle, a scanner, a pen, an old borrowed digital camera, and a mac lap top which I got by selling my 2 older macs from when I had a job before. That first sewn doll sold for $30.00 And then the next one sold. Soon we had $3000!. So we used that to make more and keep it all growing. I had one design-ish art job after graduating from Parsons with Sun-Min. It didn’t last long. The first few weeks were great and I had a lot of fun animating in Flash until the boss told me to change a color to purple, and that was it for me. And I was super zapped by the end of the day anyway, too tired to work on my own stuff. Lesser paying jobs, be it retail stores or coffee houses, are great because you get so pissed off that your dream work comes out no matter what. But a “real” job with co-workers wanting to hang out and drink, late hours, weekends, and comfortable money coming in, is a dream killer.

When we decided to start for real, I slept on my sisters floor for 9 months eating not much more than cereal, plain white bread, and salads, and then moved to a tiny illegally erected bedroom within an industrial building in the then very scary DUMBO, Brooklyn, surviving on a daily menu of egg on a roll in the morning, a bagel and coffee for lunch, and really good $3.00 chicken legs from a local corner stand at night. Rent was a few hundred bucks, paid for by selling everything I owned in LA, keeping 5 days of clothes and not much else. I bought an air bed but had no table, so the computer was on the bed. $5.00 a day was the food limit. Laundry was once a week, and monthly subway passes were $80. I had nothing else and often went with out the coffee. A Japanese magazine shooting “famous artists” homes came to do a shoot, and elected to take photos of someone else’s much nicer room in the building just to avoid wasting a whole day. They even dressed it with our dolls. ( I tried to tell them.)

Uglydoll Babo

One Guy Called Me A Millionaire, On The Day I Had To Skip Lunch To Survive

I lived this way for the first 2 years of Uglydoll when everyone was calling me a millionaire. One guy called me just that on a day I had to skip lunch to survive. Then Sun-Min [my partner and co-designer] and I basically lived on the road when we went into full production and sales grew. Until we were married, we lived in hotels, traveling from trade show to trade show, driving across the US, stopping by small towns to find small shops.

Get As Much Input As You Can And Then Don’t Follow Any it

Angel: Did you ever go out and actively ask people for help and advice?

David: I realized when I was much younger after calling up Gary Baseman for some very good advice that I was getting great advice on how to do things a way they had already been done. The best advice I can give is to get as much input as you can, and then don’t follow any of it.

Angel: Now you’ve been in the industry for many years do you find it easier to call on your creativity at will? Do you have any tips for being more creative more often?

David: I just make what comes out. For the Ugly Guide books, there’s no sketches. I draw and write with a pen. No eraser, so it’s all a mistake. As for how to be more creative more often, sit down and work. Done deal. Even if crap comes out, sitting down and getting to work is what matters. Read “The War Of Art” by Steven Pressfield. That will help with the procrastination, if that’s the issue. That book was a great help and I am pretty sure the above is a quote from that book. It’s ingrained into my brain, so plagiarism not intended.

Icebat Kaiju

Angel: How do you keep your energy up with all the work required to make it in this business?

David: Meditation. Avoid all drugs and late week nights out. Basically be what losers call a “loser”. Stay home and make stuff for other people to go do. Avoid the “scene” and avoid hanging with the top artists in them. Scene-sters and others trying to “make it” like to keep each other in check and hold each other back, and they hate anyone who breaks away.

Angel: And your views on fitness?

David: Mental fitness is just as important as physical. Food is important. No soda. I quit all soda. But what’s most important is monitoring your daily, almost hourly mindset. Do you carry “Life is tough, life sucks” in your head all day? Then it will be. Careful, because the music, movies and games you repeat over and over too often can keep you in a certain mindset, good or bad.

Angel: What about the rock and roll lifestyle of being a hip artist and designer?

David: If you’re living a rock and roll life style, you get your photos in the backs of magazines only you and your buddies read and not much else.

My title is : Nerdy Japanese robot collector and strong believer in UFOs, ghosts, and the paranormal. The artist part is helping me save my pennies so I can switch over to UFO research full time. For real. See my blog for more on that. It’s boring though, so careful.

Angel: Ghost hunting aside, how often in your creative work do you find yourself doing things that you are afraid of?

David: My daily routine is wake up, do things that make me afraid, eat, sleep, draw, repeat. If you’re afraid, you’re on the right track. Keep at it! Just don’t discuss it or dwell on it.

Fear is fine but don’t use it as a way to not do what you need to do. Talking about your fear can lead to a weekly Friday night talk about your fears while drinking beer. Forget that. Do your work, then drink.

Angel: How often do you find yourself failing at something or abandoning a piece of work?

David: The real failure is not starting. So, never.

Angel: Isn’t it a shame they don’t teach that approach in school!

David: Math was my favorite art class. I used to fill in my test answers with UFO drawings. I got an F but was I wrong? That’s the key. But if you get all A’s in school, what does that mean? Good job little Johnny, you memorized what we told you to and filled in the blanks. Maybe it’s better to fail. I want to send our daughter to a school where they have a good balance of math, science, nutrition, financial planning, no tests, and David Icke. So basically home school.

Early on I taught a class, once a week, at Otis Art School for one year. It was supposed to be a flash animation class, but I turned it into a self help class. The class was called “quit, get your tuition back before the deadline, and use that money to make your dreams come true, because this place is simply training you to work for someone else”.

UMA (Unidentified Mysterious Animals)

Don’t Reveal Your Plan To Anyone

Angel: Are there any lessons you’ve learned about money that you’d like to pass on to other people just starting out?

David: Money! I’ll never forget our second year at Toy Fair. Many designer toy production houses set up booths after seeing how well we seemingly did the year before. As I passed the booths, one of the guys was rubbing his hands, literally, and told me “well, I’m ready to make a million dollars!” I looked back and said “You mean spend a million dollars, right?” He looked at me with a sort of ghost face, and sure enough, he didn’t set his booth up the following year. There’s nobody out there making instant cashola. There’s no “All you got to do is ________”. Even the guys you think hit it rich, did so well after you thought they did. A few smarty’s make it SEEM like they are making it big time, with hopes of selling their brand or company and its “perceived value” to larger companies looking to grab up a “hip, hot property/brand”, but no…its going to be a lot of work and nobody with some magic money wand is coming.

Hopefully. When the money comes in, save it! Or better, grow it. You’re going to need most of it to keep it all going. Making a lot of money costs a lot of money! And according to the music videos, when you make it big time, being a millionaire means buying nice cars and big houses, right? Well turns out, those are expensive!!! But the money is not as important as the “starting out” part… START! That’s all you have to do. Really. You’ll be surprised to find how few people do. Don’t tell ANYONE what you’re up to either. Don’t reveal your plan to ANYONE! Not because it’s a secret, but because something in the universe happens when you tell us what you’re going to do instead of just doing it. The universe takes it all away and you never start. Tell us what you did, not what you’re going to do. Then you’ll be fine.

Angel: With success comes more attention, is life in the public eye what you thought it would be when you set out?

David: Some kid posted a self made animated movie up on one of those movie sharing websites with characters that looked just like ours. So we made him take it down. Sad, because he was very talented and got a million hits. He called us evil and posted that we are evil all over the internet. Many fans of his movie called us evil too. Should we see him in person, who knows if there’s a danger. But the truth is, if a giant entertainment company or toy company is looking to rip us off (and they are) and sees a kid with imitations of our stuff, they copy THAT instead of ours…and when we go after the said big company, they claim that our stuff is not unique, using those copy cat works as examples. And if we don’t go after everyone, they can claim we are selective. And there’s a lot of copy cats. We work very hard to stop them. So we make a lot of enthusiastic kids with a lack of understanding in the copyright & trademark realm very upset. I don’t like that part. That kid was very talented and the animation was a college final. His professor should have told him way beforehand.

Angel: So how do you handle negative attention?

David: After an art show with Dehara at Giant Robot, a boyfriend of one of the employees, who was apparently helping out, came over to let me know that he hated my work, and that he believed my work missed an opportunity to “say something” to the viewer. (I made drawings of sad fat little kids raised on junk food emerging from video game packaging and internet browsers.)

I was fine with his comments, and after listening as intently as I do to the good comments, I started to move on with a sort of “Thanks for sharing your thoughts” polite kinda way.

Uh but he kept at it, sort of chasing me around and started to add insults such as “if someone gave one of these to me as a gift, I would throw it away” (which is a horrible thing to do, I think. A gift is a gift, good or bad.) Anyway I soon realized, sadly, that my first true live and in-person critic had turned out to be not much more than a drunkard heckler who only wanted to somehow lift himself up by trying to bring me down. I then realized he really was helping out there and his job was to take photos of anyone who bought the art. I always buy a few of Dehara’s pieces when he has a show so as he took my photo, he said stuff like “try to look like you care.” Etc to try to get a rise out of me. I didn’t say anything, and I thanked him for taking my photo. There’s no come back to drunken jealousy, so you should never try. It wastes your energy.

I’m human and a few things bring me down. But a joker like that never could. I felt embarrassed for him, because I know what makes people say such things. It’s the rot you feel when you don’t do your own work. When you don’t do your work and let fear take over for too long, you begin to hate seeing others get theirs done and up on the wall, page, screen, etc.

I only remember him because nobody before him or after him has said anything negative about my work to me in person. Uh, except for some of my past art teachers. If you do your work, and know you gave it your all, and if you live your life the way you really know you were born to, other people’s negativity seems to roll right off.

For news about David’s projects click here and go say hi on G+

Over to you

[angel-and-the-antelope-blog]

Find Your Own Voice And Go For It, By Rock Journalist And Author Anthony Bozza.

You have passion, you have ideas, all you need now are the guts to go for it! Anthony Bozza, former journalist at Rolling Stone and author of several influential rock autobiographies including “The Life and Times of Eminem”, tells us how he gained success as a writer by finding his voice, following his passion and most importantly trusting his instinct.

Angel: Anthony, how did you originally break into music journalism?

Anthony: My first and only real job was at Rolling Stone magazine where I started as an intern in the now-defunct book publishing division, then I was a research assistant in the library. Yes, Rolling Stone has its own library, which is pretty cool! And finally I was an editorial assistant in the Music Department.

From there, I worked my way into the magazine by volunteering for any unclaimed writing assignments. Whether that meant writing captions, tracking down members of Sly and the Family Stone to talk about “Hot Fun in the Summertime” – not an easy, but definitely rewarding task – or interviewing bands of the week for the Charts page. I then graduated to writing and editing the “Random Notes” pages and finally got my big break writing about a white rapper that I’d been begging my editor to let me cover since the first time I heard him, which was about a year before he was signed by Dr. Dre. His name was Eminem.

Angel: What did you do at Rolling Stone to make yourself stand out from other writers?

Anthony: I’d always tried to bring something new to whatever I did at Rolling Stone magazine. Growing up, I didn’t read the magazine regularly and I hadn’t been to a journalism school, so I think I approached writing for Rolling Stone a bit differently than my peers.

During my tenure as a research assistant I spent more time reading the frail, yellowed, original issues I found encased by plastic in ‘The Vault’ than doing what I should have been doing, such as compiling data for advertising sales representatives.

I wasn’t earning myself any gold stars in the eyes of my boss, the head librarian, but I did get a primary source education in magazine and history of pop culture writing. Rolling Stone really was the institution that started it all, bringing together the rebel energy and idealism of the hippie generation with the idea that politics, music, art, lifestyle and strong opinion should exist within the same pages.

Other magazines like Playboy had done this in a more mainstream way, but none had taken the Rock & Roll, counter-cultural stance at a national level before Rolling Stone. In those issues, the subject matter may have been dated, but the spirit was still inspiring. Reading Hunter S. Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” as it originally appeared in those pages was amazing. It was also incredible to read Cameron Crowe chronicling the 70’s, Chuck Eddy’s incendiary pieces from the 80’s, as well as Kurt Loder back when he was still a print journalist – something I hadn’t realized watching him on MTV.

Angel: It sounds like you thoroughly researched the magazine and really understood its history and point of view. Tell us how you made your mark on the magazine and what value you added?

Anthony: When I got the chance to write my first cover story I wanted it to be as exciting as the articles were in the magazine’s hey day. When, as Cameron Crowe depicted in Almost Famous, reporters were in the thick of it. I’m lucky to have landed an assignment that unfolded precisely that way.

Anthony’s first book was Whatever You Say I Am: The Life and Times of Eminem. Illustration by Robin Boyden

I caught Eminem just at the top of the roller coaster, and we got on well enough for me to be able to report on the real Marshall Mathers, just as he greeted the world. My experience with him was great material, but I still had to put it out there for all to read. I wanted to do it justice and and in doing so, I took a bit of a risk – I turned it in without showing it to a mentor of mine who had up until then, seen everything I’d written for the magazine before I turned it in to my editor.

This mentor helped me get assignments and prepped my writing for publication but as I got more confident I started to realize that a lot of the changes this person was making weren’t so much to suit the magazine’s style because they were tailored to read as if they had written it, not me.

Anthony joined forces with Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, for his autobiography Tommyland.

Angel: How did you deal with the pressure, especially as this was your first major assignment?

Anthony: The week I wrote my first cover story was harrowing to say the least. I went right from my time in Detroit in the freezing cold, to covering the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in New York City. That night is a story that deserves its own chapter. In the issue where my first cover story appeared I also wrote an extensive feature on the ceremony as well as Random Notes, meaning that I was responsible for about half of the full length articles in the magazine that issue.

Paul Rosenberg Eminem’s Manager, David Saslow from Atlantic Records, Dennis Dennehy Eminem’s publicist and Anthony Bozza

I was scared because it was more pressure than I’d endured and more writing than I’d ever produced for print in so short a time. As nervous as I was, I was also determined to succeed on my own. So rather than show my mentor or anyone else my first cover story, I turned it to the music editor exactly the way I wanted it. And, aside from some minor tweaks, that is exactly the way it was printed. It was a huge success and if I had to choose one moment that made my career, that would be it.

I remember Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner coming out of his office with the issue in his hands and coming up to my desk, saying, “You’re Anthony right? This is the kind of story we need more of. Excellent work.” He said it loud enough for the entire department to hear, which was completely embarrassing but awesome at the same time.

I’ve written in many styles and in many other people’s voices since then, but that moment taught me to never, ever doubt my instincts when it came to writing.

Angel: You’re now a very established writer, what has been the most important factor in developing your writing skills?

Anthony: The most important lesson I learned was finding my own voice. I think it’s the most important facet of any creative art. There are some artists who come out of the gate knowing exactly what they want to do and how they want to do it, but that isn’t typically the case.

A young Anthony Bozza

Back in school I started to realize that, unlike many of my friends I really liked writing essays and I liked reading whatever was assigned even more. I’d also write for myself, mostly in journals, which piled up as I got older. I still have a few boxes of them and if I ever need to be reminded of the importance of honing your craft, I can open any one of them to any page.

Angel: So once you discovered your voice and started developing your writing style, how did you overcome the fear of ridicule, in order to publish your work?

Anthony: I’ve only taken one creative writing class in my life. It was a continuing education class at New York University. The class I joined was taught by a man who had published a number of paperback mystery novels. I don’t remember the story I wrote but the observations and pointers he and my class mates gave me, as well as the writing shared by my fellow students, obliterated any fear I may have had.

A number of them had been published and although my work was more or less torn apart, I knew that no matter what they thought of it, considering what I thought of their writing, I should have no problem getting published. It made me feel that there must be somewhere out there for everyone in publishing. It was definitely a good exercise to have my work dissected in front of me, in this case, by a room of people I didn’t feel that I had much in common with.

Anthony co-wrote Slash: The Autobiography. Illustration by Robin Boyden

Angel: Tell us about your relationship with your audience and how you interact with them?

Anthony: The first time I realized that there were people out there really reading what I wrote was when a college student who was doing a paper on my writing, contacted me for an interview. That was special. She sent me a copy of the final result and it was really good – I think she got an A. As someone who truly enjoyed the process of researching and writing papers when I was in school, to see my own writing dissected and discussed in that same forum was fantastic. That definitely changed my perspective on what I do and made me feel like I could be a guide and inspiration, directly, to up and coming writers.

And thanks to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter I’m more in contact with fellow music fans and fans of my writing more than ever and I really enjoy it. Having that kind of conversation with people makes you feel, in a genre which is kind of a ‘solo sport’ like golf, that you’re not just doing it for yourself.

Angel: Your work has inspired many emerging writers, how important do you think it is to encourage and motivate others in your field?

Anthony: Well, I started Igniter, a publishing company with Neil Strauss who is author of The Dirt and The Game, as a way for us to champion up-and-coming writers and put out interesting books that we think the publishing industry may have otherwise overlooked. A lot of our ideas and some of our writers even, came to us through interacting as directly as possible with our fans. Both of us feel very strongly that interacting with our fans and listening to their interests is key to what we want to do with the company. So really I mean it, I welcome all correspondence. We writers do like to write emails too, you know!

Angel: How important do you think the Internet is in publishing and distributing work?

Anthony: The web and digital domain are essential to all creative fields at every level and it can’t be underestimated. The pace of creation, the font of information and the exchange of ideas that are now possible thanks to the Internet is nothing short of incredible. As someone who grew up at a time when all of that became a reality in every day life, I feel lucky to have known what it was like before.

There are elements I miss, like having to hang out at record stores or dig for fanzines to find out about an underground band you liked. But overall, the ability to research an interest or discuss an issue at a moment’s notice with someone on the other side of the world is akin to magic. However, I do think that the instant-gratification of the Internet has been detrimental to art forms like music and film as well as to the undervalued virtue of patience.

The Internet accomplished what television started: it has made us all ADD, given us the memory retention of a goldfish. Still, I somehow feel that this was inevitable. I think the Internet is a human-driven evolutionary anomaly on the path the human race has cut for itself to run through time. There is always something lost when a species evolves but I’d like to think that something equally valuable is also gained.

Angel: You feel the digital age has affected the process of our evolution, can you explain this further?

Anthony: There are so many facets to our existence that can be analyzed to gauge the effect of the digital domain but since music is very important to my general well-being I’ll use that as an example.

When I look at a band like Radiohead, who came through the traditional system and released rock records that were always unique yet identifiably rock, before completely leaving that form behind to make cutting edge records that embrace the possibilities of the Internet and digital media in form and content, I think we’ve made progress. They exemplify exactly how it should be done by a band at their level.

For younger bands, the Internet has allowed them to connect with fans all over the world, which in turn allows them to book tours, and become an operational business much sooner than they otherwise would have. All of this means faster change and more of it. The Internet also allows people in creative fields to form collaborations with people half a world away. In music, artists can collaborate on a track without being in the same city. I think that opens everything up to the limits of human imagination, which is exciting.

Angel: How has this impacted journalism and the creative writing industry?

Anthony: In terms of my own field, I think the Internet has made written communication more important than ever. That doesn’t mean that there is more good writing out there necessarily but there is more writing and reading going on. I think writing is a vital form of human communication, one that bridges the old and the new and anything that allows more of that, I see great validity in.

Unlike the immediate gratification of photos or video, writing tells a story the old fashioned way – by engaging the reader’s imagination. It takes the reader on a journey but allows them to fill in their version of the details. Good writing tells you just enough to paint a picture but not enough to leave you with a cut and dried snap shot. And if there is a medium like the Internet to bring that very vital, very rewarding, very human tradition to more people at once, I’m glad. If a medium can bring us all together no matter how far we live apart, then despite its flaws, it’s inherently good.

Anthony’s book Why AC/DC Matters is an analysis of the legendary rock band. Illustration by Robin Boyden

Angel: Can you tell us about that final leap of faith when you decided to leave the confines of Rolling Stone Magazine and become a fully fledged author?

Anthony: After seven years at Rolling Stone I had reached the top of the food chain as far as staff writers went, and realized that I was also at the top of the salary chain. I then realized that I was going to have to make a choice. If I wanted to make more money and get some career insurance – because staff writers are often the first to go when editorial regimes turn over – I was either going to have to focus my efforts towards becoming an editor there or at a competing magazine. If I wanted to expand my horizons as a writer I was going to have to make less money and cut myself loose to freelance.

I wasn’t the greatest at playing office politics so becoming an editor full time, particularly at Rolling Stone, probably wasn’t going to work for me. So I opted for a contributing editor’s contract which would afford me a salary for a year but allow me to work outside of the office where I could pursue other writing opportunities.

I had been angling one for over a year and when it was finally offered it was for much less than what I knew other contributors were making. Contributors who’d achieved equal and in many cases less than I had at the magazine. That came as a huge surprise to me since I had produced well and done whatever else was ever asked of me during my time as a staff writer and associate editor.

Angel: What went through your mind and how did you decide what action to take next?

Anthony: It was a slap in the face but it lit a fire under my ass and reiterated that I could rely on no one else but myself and it gave me something to prove. I thought that maybe I’d made the wrong decision and went on an interview or two for editorial staff jobs at other magazines. But it didn’t feel right, so I relied on what I knew and tried to sell a book.

And I did – it was my first book, ‘Whatever You Say I Am: The Life and Times of Eminem’, which sold both in the UK and USA and landed on the New York Times Bestseller List, as well as remaining a top five bestselling book in England for three straight months.

That experience taught me that taking risks I believed in had its advantages. It showed me that you have to do what you feel is right for you, not what is expected of someone in your position. Even if it’s a huge gamble, if you are true to yourself you’ll have no regrets.

For news about Anthony’s projects click here

Over to you

So Anthony said “you have to do what you feel is right for you, not what is expected of someone in your position. Even if it’s a huge gamble, if you are true to yourself you’ll have no regrets.” Is there a decision you are putting off because of the doubts other people are filling your mind with? Are they advising you to go in a direction that doesn’t feel right? Focus only on what YOU want and what feels right to you, take one action today to start the ball rolling.

A special thanks goes out to

Robin Boyden for the amazing illustrations

[angel-and-the-antelope-blog]

Peter Hook, Joy Division & New Order Legend On Keeping control of your career & creative freedom

Are you fed up of working in an unfulfilling job, being told what to do by a boss who doesn’t appreciate you? Do you want to pursue a creative career and work with people who share your vision? That’s exactly how Peter Hook felt when he decided to form a band called Joy Division. Hooky also realized that you can keep control and publish your creative work without signing away your rights…

Joy Division, inspired by Do It Yourself punk.

Peter Hook made his success as a prominent member of legendary band Joy Division who developed a sound and style that defined the post-punk movement of the late 1970s. Joy Division has influenced scores of musicians including Moby, U2, The Killers, The Charlatans and Mogwai. Hooky had no formal musical training. But his success stemmed from; hard work, determination and a burning ambition to succeed on his terms.

Peter, your journey has been epic to say the least! So let’s start at the beginning. How did you get together to form Joy Division?

In the summer of 1977 I had a really shit job. I was working hard all week and going out at the weekends. At the time music wasn’t a very big part of my life, but I used to read the music papers and I just started reading about Punk. It really interested and excited me. Then The Sex Pistols played in Manchester at the Lesser Free Trade Hall. My mates and I, all went along and that was it. That very evening, we decided we were going to be Punks and form a band.

Sex Pistols at the Lesser Freetrade Hall. Illustration by Jed Collins

It seems naive to me now because I didn’t particularly think about music. We didn’t consider that we would have to buy instruments, learn how to play, form a group and start performing. It just came from seeing the Sex Pistols perform and going “Come on, right we’re in a group now! Yeah!”.

At the start none of you could play any instruments, so how did you go about learning and developing your skill?

Bernard had a guitar, so I had to play the bass. It was that easy. It was a complete process of elimination. I bought a book called “Palmer-Hughes Book of Rock & Roll Bass Guitar”. However, it was pretty shit. So we just started playing. The thing about performing in a group is that one rehearsal is generally worth 10 of you playing on your own. The quicker you learned the better. Because you wanted to take advantage of the things that were being offered to you, like all the gig opportunities.

Illustration by Jed Collins

So you learned from necessity. But you went beyond this and actually mastered the bass guitar. How did that feel?

I always think of incredible musicians as people like Johnny Marr, who started playing the guitar when he was seven. It’s quite unusual to find someone who doesn’t start playing until they’re twenty one, but who ends up playing in two hugely important groups in the history of music.

You’re famous for playing the bass in a very unusual manner. How did you develop your style?

I didn’t set out to be different, a lot of it wasn’t planned, the style just evolved the more I played. Personally, I think if you write and perform great music it’s impossible to fuck it up. Because great music will always live on, whether you publicise it in a national newspaper or not.

So going back to the early days, how did you feel when you performed for the first time?

I can recall getting ready for it, but I don’t remember the rest of it at all. I was extremely frightened. I can’t even remember coming off stage! However, it’s a great thing that first performance. The rest of your career you find yourself chasing after that excitement. It’s like your first drink or your first sexual experience. But you’re never going to capture that feeling you had at the very first one.

Angel and Hooky. Photo by Tash Willcocks

It’s also a confidence thing. I did a ‘Question & Answer’ session in Canada for the documentary film about Joy Division called “Control”. This kid was asking questions and he said to me “Can you tell me why for 30 years of your career, the first 15 years you never said anything and then for the last 15 you wouldn’t shut up!?” I went over and punched the fucker. But he does have a valid point. I think the thing is, everything changes. So for the first 15 years I’d say I wasn’t very confident, and for the last 15 I was.

How did you come to work with the legendary entrepreneur and record producer Tony Wilson?

I’d seen him around before, we all went to the same concerts. He looked like he was from another planet, he dressed differently to anybody I’ve ever met. Tony had started putting on concerts in the Russell Club and he asked us to perform there for a while. He then decided to make a four-group compilation record and he invited us to record two tracks.

Peter Saville’s designs defined the look of the band. Copyright Peter Saville

After that, we were looking for a proper record deal, one where somebody would actually give us money. But Rob Gretton our manager decided it would be better to keep control. He wanted to keep it based in Manchester and for us to sign with Factory records, which was Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus’ label. Rob was impressed with Tony’s ideas, we were just kids so we didn’t know any better.

From left to right: Peter Saville, Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus. Copyright Kevin Cummins

I don’t think we had the vision to think about the business side of being in a band. But as a manager, Rob had the foresight to realize: “Right I can really do something different with this band and we can still keep control”. Because the thing that appealed to me about Punk was that it was all about doing things your own way and not compromising. Getting what you believe in and pushing it as far as you could. Not adhering to any strict rules and no one telling you what to do.

This was quite a new way of thinking, especially for the music industry. What was the benefit of working for an independent label that operated in such an unconventional manner?

The great thing about signing to Factory Records was that no one told us what to do, there was no planning at all. If we finished the track Tony would listen to it and go “Nice, we’ll record that and put it out next week”. It wasn’t like “Here’s a calendar for next year, we can’t clash with “Girls Aloud” or any major bands, and we’ve got to go on tour after”. Most record companies would never release a single if the band haven’t got an album ready and they haven’t got a tour planned.

Tony Wilson and Peter Saville. Photo by Danny North

Tell us about your first time in a recording studio?

We were very overawed, excited, and out of our comfort zone, so we were scared. I was very lucky as a musician to have a producer like Martin Hannett. He taught us to look beyond a song, to give things depth and time that lasted and things like that. Even though the guy was extremely difficult to work with, he did give us a gift that I’ve used personally for years and years.

So given the creative freedom you got from Factory Records how long did it take for Joy Division to gain popularity?

That’s an interesting question. As Joy Division we were playing the same songs to no one, and then six months later we were playing the same songs to thousands of people, so it’s difficult to judge where it actually happened. It just grew through us playing and establishing ourselves as a live group. I remember the first time we played London we had to chip in for petrol, and we didn’t even get any money off the door because no one came. There were only seven people in the whole place! I don’t think that you can really bypass that. But as long as you put on a great performance for those that did turn up, then it’s great.

Joy Division on the road. Illustration by Jed Collins

Did you enjoy going on tour in the early days?

We didn’t tour for a while, not like bands today who tour straightaway. We were still working and just playing odd dates whenever we could get them. It’s a different industry now. We grew at a much slower rate than a lot of groups today. They just go from nothing to hundreds of gigs. We had to work it around our day jobs and that’s what paid for us to tour.

Did you feel that you benefited more from doing it that way?

I think it kept us more grounded and a bit more realistic. But there were a lot of things that kept us down to earth. We didn’t really start making money until we’d been in the group nine or ten years. Everybody thought just because we co owned the Hacienda (nightclub) that we were loaded. In fact it was the opposite. Because we had the Hacienda, that’s the reason we didn’t have any money! But I do think that it did pay off, we had a level head and weren’t spoiled.

I think things like X-Factor make the music business look exciting and glamorous. But when you look at it realistically, you’re up at 7.00 am and you’ll do an interview with a major TV station, then there’s a PR event, and then a signing and several personal appearances. It’s completely different to what it seems like on the outside.

But what we did was very different because we rebelled against all of that. I joined a group because I wanted to tell everyone to fuck off and do things my way. To me that was the great thing about being in a group where you’re not being told what to do.

Photo from a gig in Amsterdam.

How did you cope when success really hit, how did you handle the attention?

We’ve never really had that huge overnight success. It was a very gradual curve, it wasn’t like the Beatles, all screaming girls and hysteria. We were a very workman like band and people realized we were pretty much the same as them.

Of course, just as Joy Division were gaining world wide recognition Ian tragically died, and you decided to re-form as New Order. How did the band handle that tragic situation?

We didn’t really think about it. We were still very young, we were only 23 and we were desperate to carry on, so we didn’t really change anything. We just wanted to get on with it. This was our way of dealing with the grief of losing Ian, throwing ourselves back into it. The new sound evolved because we didn’t have Ian, plus the technology and line up had changed. Bernard was a completely different vocalist to Ian. So we had to adapt to the situation.

Can you remember your first review?

My first review was “Joy Division are grim, I grinned” that was the first line of it, which was a real slag off.

How do you handle negative criticism?

Well, you get used to it. The thing is that 30 years on, people can write what they like. That’s the wonderful part of our society and it doesn’t have to be true. It’s only their opinion. So as long as they don’t really insult you personally or your family they can get away with it. It always hurts, but you know, it’s water off a ducks back. You just have to get on with it. It’s like your report at the end of school, you don’t pay too much attention, because it’s not going to effect the rest of your life.

Hooky DJing at a Hacienda revival night 10 years after the club closed. Photo by Andy Golpys

Tell us about the highlights of your musical career, is there anything in particular that stands out?

The fact that I could live off music for 30 years is pretty much a highlight for me. Also I still get an incredible kick from watching a TV program and one of our songs comes on.

New Order were a huge group. We were doing concerts in America for 25,000 to 30,000 people when we decided to stop. That’s bigger than Oasis and the Spice Girls ever were. Nobody in England thinks about New Order as being that successful in America, Canada and South America. But we were huge everywhere.

House Music revelers, photo by Andy Golpys

You mentioned earlier the Hacienda, whose idea was it to buy a nightclub? Why did you get involved in such a big project?

It was our managers idea along with Tony Wilson to open it. It was out of necessity really. We could go to gigs dressed as punks, but you couldn’t go to a nightclub. Manchester was very old fashioned at the time and clubs were strictly suit and ties. The Hacienda broke the mould because you could go dressed however you liked, there was no dress code. It was opened for people like us so we had somewhere to go.

What was the biggest challenge of running it?

The interesting thing about the Hacienda is that it wasn’t opened to make a profit. The idea was that the profits would be ploughed back into the business. It was like a hippy culture thing and it wasn’t intended to make loads of money.

But it was a huge enterprise and if we’d looked at it from a realistic point of view, we would have said “It’s too big, it’s too overstaffed and it’s too risky”. However, we didn’t have a clue what we were doing, so we did it anyway. Luckily we had a lot of money, or Factory Records had a lot of money from our records and they very kindly invested it for us.

Illustration by Jed Collins

The Hacienda and the music it showcased had a huge impact on club life and culture, but it also had a reputation of drugs and violence, tell us what was really like?

DJ’s at The Hacienda played dance music and acid house, which has had a big influence in clubs all over the world. It’s sort of portrayed, quite wrongly, that the only way to enjoy yourself is to get off your head on drugs. It was funny because when they did a survey in the Hacienda, they worked out that barely 10% of people were actually on drugs. Most of them were just high on life, that was absolutely true. But the thing is, drugs were sold there and gangsters do make a living out of selling drugs. It had a fantastic reputation, but equally terrifying and intoxicating at the same time.

You mentioned how the music industry has changed over time. One big change has been the impact of the Internet. Do you see online music promotion as a positive move?

I do! It’s quite funny though because I think the Internet business can be over-hyped. I remember some time ago, I was doing a tour of America and I was reading about the Arctic Monkeys being big on the Internet. My son had played me some Arctic Monkeys songs and I thought it was brilliant. I thought I’d take some of their music with me, because they’re big online. I got to America and everyone was like “What the fuck is this?”. I realized at the time the Arctic Monkeys were big on the Internet in Sheffield in England. Not the rest of the world.

Just because a band has the ability to upload their music online, doesn’t mean that anybody is going to download it. You still have to do things the normal way, like getting publicity, playing gigs, having bottles thrown at you, being told to get off stage, doing your friends wedding… the music business is still primarily about selling music.

Your right, you still need to do the ground work, but bands have the facility to distribute records themselves, and they can gain popularity even without the backing of a record company. This gives them a lot of creative freedom. So this must be having a negative impact on record companies?

Absolutely, record companies have made a lot of money over the years so personally I don’t feel very sorry for them. They’ve made millions at the expense of artists for a very long time and they’ve got plenty of money.

It’s just changed. In particular record companies don’t nurture bands like they used to. When a band signed to a label they would sign for five albums or eight albums. The record label would stick with them for the whole eight albums, even if the first one wasn’t a huge success, but nowadays they don’t.

Some people would say that’s realistic, but the thing is you lose a lot of bands with potential. They only do one record and because it doesn’t sell they get dropped. But their greatest record may have been the second or third album. X-Factor contestants get dropped, never to be heard of again. That’s because they sign a £1million contract, but that’s £100,000 for your first album and £100,000 for your next nine.

But there are some great new independent acts coming up who know how to use the web effectively, and freedom on the Internet has to be a positive thing.

For news about Peter Hook’s creative projects here

Over to you

Are you using the internet to it’s full potential? Uploading something to a blog or website, isn’t enough you have to promote it. Contact some popular blogs in your industry and offer to write a guest post, add valuable constructive comments on social media profiles who have big audiences, and consistently put out content on your blog or website and promote it in as many ways as you can.

A special thanks goes out to

Jed Collins Kevin Cummins Danny North Andy Golpys

[angel-and-the-antelope-blog]

Are Your Mistakes Holding You Prisoner? How To Break Free With Jonah Matranga

I caught up with the charismatic singer, songwriter, and guitarist Jonah Matranga, frontman of legendary band Far.

The first time I met Jonah, was at one of his onlinedrawing gigs, he literally picked me up and swung me around, ending it off with a bear hug. That’s what I call connecting with your audience.

Jonah’s been named as a key influence by a number of bands, including My Chemical Romance, Biffy Clyro and Blink-182. In this interview you’ll hear how he navigated some of the scariest moments of his life. And he describes a unique way to break free from the negative grip of mistakes….

Overcoming Fear

Angel: Jonah, I’ve seen you perform in some really intimate settings, where the audience are almost sat on your lap, and I’ve seen you perform at the other end of the scale in huge venues. What strikes me is you always look relaxed, confident and happy, but is that how you’re feeling underneath, or do you ever get nervous before a gig?

Jonah: I was singing at a benefit for Chi [Bassist for the Deftones, who was in a bad car accident and tragically died sometime later]. It was a big crowd, and we hadn’t rehearsed at all. In fact, one of the songs we were singing, we’d never done together. No practice, no sound check, no nothing. So there was a whole lot of opportunity for major screw-ups. On top of that, my voice was feeling weird, definitely not at 100%. The only thing I’ve ever done in those situations is simply take a breath and go.

Jonah Matranga by Brian Krijgsman

Angel: Can you remember an occasion when things went wrong for you? How did you deal with the situation and what did you learn from it?

Jonah: I really think that seeing things as going ‘wrong’ or ‘right’, or not seeing things as wrong or right at all, is the most important choice. When I think of the scariest moments of my life, they range from finding out I was going to be a dad, to mistaking a friend of mine for her sister and then lying to try and cover it up when I was embarrassed, to bands splitting up, to my voice breaking, to arguments I wish I’d never had. All of those moments had within them moments of denial, moments of fear and anger, and ultimately, surrender and moving through.

I still fail and make mistakes and get let down all the time, of course. I guess I’ve just really come to see that stuff as inevitable, and therefore not ‘bad’ or ‘good’, but rather more like the wind or the sun or something. Those things exist, but how I react to them is the only thing I get to control. It helps me stay in the moment and not get whisked away by fears or worries. One of my favorite axioms ever is also one of my favorite pop choruses ever: ‘Surrender, surrender, but don’t give yourself away’. Genius.

Angel: Can you remember a time when you learned an important lesson about developing your musical talent?

Jonah: I remember very clearly knowing that I had to figure out for myself whether I sucked or not. I knew I couldn’t trust my friends or family or whatever to tell me. I thought a lot about that in high school. When I came out of that pensive period, I knew that I wasn’t Prince or Dylan or anything, but I also knew that I had something worth offering, some sort of spark. That let me make stuff without getting too stung when people didn’t like it, or too dizzy when they did.

Illustration by Joel Millerchip

Angel: Has there ever been a time when you had doubts about your skill and did that ever stop you from seizing an opportunity?

Jonah: I’m sure I wrestle with doubtful whispers all the time, I think that’s what stops all of us from doing so much. That said, I really did figure out at a young age that I thought I had something to give, and that has remained solid for me over the years.

Angel: Did you ever seek out any technical advice to help improve your skills?

Jonah: I had normal guitar lessons early on, I’m not sure how much those helped, but I remember them being pretty fun. I had traditional vocal training at university, that definitely helped me learn to breathe, learn about my head voice and chest voice, basic things that have helped in different ways. Beyond that, it was really just hearing noises I liked, whether on a U2 record or in my head, and trying really hard to make them.

Jonah Matranga by Jacqui Sadler

Enjoy connecting with your audience

Angel: You have a very loyal and committed fan base, how did you go about attracting fans in the early days?

Jonah: It’s always been about the little things. Make the postcard, write the letter, meet the gaze. Just show up. And of course, give everything when I play. I really just always try to remember what I loved about seeing other performances, meeting other performers. I try to give that, pass that along.

Angel: Have you observed things that other bands or musicians get wrong when it comes to attracting an audience?

Jonah: I don’t know about ‘wrong’, truly. All I know is that I’ve seen a lot of people, whether they’ve had more success than me or less, I’ve seen them lose that light in their eyes, that thing that started them on their way. That 14-year old air-guitar madness that drives us. I think when a band or a person loses that, whether they ‘attract fans’ or not, they’ve lost what makes any of it matter. That aside, I just think that bands worry too much about having millions of fans rather than really appreciating 10. They get managers and agents and focus on getting in front of the most faces possible, as opposed to just having fun and doing it themselves. Honestly, that manager strategy might attract more fans sometimes, but I just don’t think it’s much fun.

Illustration by Joel Millerchip

Money Management

Angel: Did you ever experience a turning point in your career when it came to understanding money and how it works?

Jonah: Yeah. When I found out that I was gonna be a dad. I remember going to the guys in my band Far and saying that either we’d have to start making more money somehow, or it’d have to just be a weekend thing or whatever. I had no desire to be a starving artist with a kid. Then we got signed, and while it wasn’t a ton of money, it was enough to get through and keep going.

Angel: A lot of bands, and creatives, tell us that they’ve had to pack it all in because of poor money management. What have you found to be the most important things to spend money on?

Jonah: The most important thing to spend money on is the making of the music, and the facilitation of making that available to people. So, simple quality recording, simple professional packaging, a good website. More important than anything is to keep everything else cheap, to keep the pressure on making money as low as possible, so you can just focus on making things that feel pure to you.

Jonah Matranga by Joel Millerchip

Angel: Today it’s common to hear about bands giving away their music for free, and you introduced a sliding scale when it came to people purchasing your music. What areas of a bands creative work do you think they should be focusing on and adding extra value in order to make money?

Jonah: I think it’s about asserting the value of art. And I think it’s about making art that’s worth it. I don’t at all like the idea of getting music for free when you buy a frappuccino or whatever. Now, if I make a song I love, and I decide I want to give everyone a free cup of coffee when they buy the song, that’s more reasonable in a way, as long as the focus stays on the art. Really, I like just making something I love, setting a fair price range for it, and seeing who wants it. The sliding scale was about making that transaction more interactive and human, and also ensuring that someone who wants the music doesn’t get deprived of it for lack of money. It’s been really fun.

Angel: You’ve self published a lot of your music or used independent record labels. What are your recommendations to emerging artists?

Jonah: Do as much of it yourself as possible. Record yourself, make the package yourself, put the CD in the envelope yourself, build the website yourself, lick the stamp yourself, go to the post office yourself, sell it at the merch table at the show yourself. Not only does all of that save money initially, it connects you directly to the sale of your art, which I’ve found to be so important and scary and satisfying.

The power of the Internet

Angel: How important do you think the Internet is in the creative industries going forward?

Jonah: Pretty much immeasurably important. It has so much potential for so many things that matter so much to art. That said, it’s of no importance whatsoever, because making stuff is still making stuff, and selling it is still selling it, and saying hi is still saying hi.

Jonah Matranga Artwork

Angel: Did you devise a strategy or have a rough plan of how the Internet could work for you?

Jonah: No strategy, just curiosity and ideas. That heart/question mark thing I made up, that I draw all the time, one of the things that’s about is being in love (heart) with ideas (question mark). I’ve used the internet to stay in touch with people around the world, to make my ideas available to people in ways that feel personal and interesting to me.

Angel: What do you think is the most important thing a band can do to have a strong online presence?

Jonah: Be curious about whatever comes along, but always maintain your own website. Use all of the MyBook FaceSpace TwitTube stuff to invite people back into your world, where some big company isn’t making money off of the art you’re making, or at least if they are, you’re getting some of it in a legitimate way. Making your own website is owning your house; counting on Facebook or anywhere else is renting from a slumlord that will evict you at the drop of a hat, in a building that could become vacant and uninhabitable just because another building becomes trendy. Remember MySpace selling for $700,000,000 years ago? Remember Friendster? That will happen again and again. Build your own world, and invite people in. It’s fun.

For news about Jonah’s creative projects click here

Over to you

Jonah said “It’s always been about the little things. Make the postcard, write the letter, meet the gaze. Just show up”. So how can you make your interactions with your audience more personal? Interact with your audience and be available to answer questions and post them on your blog to share with others who will benefit from your answer. Jonah said “…bands worry too much about having millions of fans rather than really appreciating 10”. So start appreciating the fans you have right now and make them feel special, that’s a great way to attract more.

A special thanks goes out to

Mister Millerchip

Brian Krijgsman Vinka As Kairu

[angel-and-the-antelope-blog]

Overcoming Obstacles And Facing Your Fears with Incubus Frontman Brandon Boyd

In this extremely open and honest interview, Incubus front man, Brandon Boyd, shares his entertaining, amusing and bizarre thoughts on procrastination, overcoming obstacles and facing your fears.

Brandon’s music dramatically changed the direction of my life. I wonder what the catalyst will be to change yours?

Angel: Brandon what was the first thing you remember creating as a child?

Brandon: The first thing I can recall would be little crayon and pencil drawings of good germs and bad germs. The good germ wore a cape and he would fly around drawings of my stomach or my ears or my nose with a rag in his hand. His job was to wipe out the bad germs so I didn’t feel sick anymore. I did these drawings quite methodically when I felt ill or out of sorts. They were my first experience with art as a medium for manifesting positive, physical results. I would learn many years later in school that this was not unlike many archaic, magical rituals that people did in hopes of controlling the chaotic world around them.

I Ate Lunch At The Stoners Table

Angel: And were you one of the cool kids at school or were you an outsider?

Brandon: Whatever social role I played in school was peripheral, at best, to me. From my earliest school memories until High School. I just didn’t really care that much. It seems that incredible levels of importance are placed on social standing in High School; but I found myself in the advantageous position of having a talented, good looking, and very popular older brother while I was in High School.

He was a Senior when I was a Freshman. So all of the bullying, taunting and “normal” barbaric behaviors that kids put each other through was saved for other unfortunate first year students. I wasn’t the most popular kid in school, nor was I an outcast. I occupied that rarely talked about position of ‘balance’ during those formative years. When I started 10th grade, my friends and I formed a band, and that seemed to ease certain transitions through school a bit too. But for clarity’s sake? I ate lunch at the Stoner’s table.

Spilling/Spinning – Artwork by Brandon Boyd

Grabbed Me By My Chest

I decided to drop out of Community College to pursue music because it reared up and grabbed me by the chest! And for the record, it hasn’t let go. I am as enamoured with sound as I am with color, line and concept. Music has always seemed to me to be as much an artistic journey as painting a picture. It is like choosing paint over clay, or something like that. I knew that the feeling inherent in composing a song was almost identical to that of painting a picture. Baring the obvious exceptions. But I have always dreamed of dedicating continuous energy to my visual and conceptual pursuits, like I have been doing towards music for the past 20 years.

Angel: Did you set any specific goals when you were setting out?

Brandon: My plan thus far in my life has always been to not have a plan. And if I did, keep it as quiet as possible. (Smiles fiendishly and runs away…) I indeed set short term goals for myself; I make lists, accomplish what is necessary and cross the tasks off accordingly.

But the whole point in art, to me, is to not know exactly what you are doing until you are already doing it! You can rehearse, you can practice painting, you can read and re-read your lines before your speech; but no amount of practice will make a difference once that moment emerges. That moment wherein we unconsciously rely upon the larger part of our unconscious. It brings with it a sense of euphoria and elation, and I think it’s that moment that I am chasing in crafting songs, thoughts and imagery.

Orangutan – Artwork by Brandon Boyd

I Lost My Hands And Feet At An Unfortunate Spelunking Safety Seminar

Angel: We hear a lot of excuses for why people can’t start their own band or even their own creative career. Excuses like; I don’t have enough money, I don’t have enough time, I don’t have the confidence, I don’t have the credibility, I don’t have the resources. Did you have and of these problems when you started out, and how did you handle them?

Brandon: That is a really good question. The problem of procrastination or the ‘False Start.’ I have been through phases in my life, both distant and recent, wherein I make every excuse in the book as to why I am not being creative. And the only excuse that I can say is worth a damn is… “Maybe I’m just not feeling creative today.” That and the “I lost my hands and feet at an unfortunate Spelunking Safety Seminar and all hope went out the window” excuse. A tough one to eclipse.  Other than that, I would say that there is no excuse. In my opinion, there never has, never was and never will be a shortage of things to be inspired by! And the biggest thing holding one back is usually a bad attitude.

The Plunge – Artwork by Brandon Boyd

Angel: Did you have any particular people who helped mentor or guide you when you started out?

Brandon: This idea of mentorship has come up quite a bit recently. I did not have any direct mentors; I had a very creative household, immediate and extended. I as well had very supportive parents, in that they helped facilitate almost any and all of my creative whims. That is, within reason. I am sure I had some backwards ass ideas about turning the garage into a ‘pay as you play’ music venue at some point. Sorry Dad. And thanks for letting us pollute the air in your house.  That being said, I have close friends who mentored under good, creative people and the results are astounding. I doubt there is any one way to squeeze expressive people through the cracks. I am of the mind that everyone has the potential to make masterpieces.

Brandon Boyd by Brantley Gutierrez

If You Are In A Hurry, Write A Pop Song And Make A Sex Tape.

Angel: When people first set out on a creative career they don’t realize how long it takes to become successful, after a couple of years most people usually quit, what did you focus on in the early days in order to motivate yourself to continue?

Brandon: Ah yes, the time dilemma. Our band is actually a good example of the ‘slow burn.’ We had the good fortune of starting while we were still living under our parents roof’s. And we had nothing but homework and odd, after school jobs to attend to outside of writing rock and roll tunes. The fact that we stayed together this long is really one of the most noteworthy topics.

I didn’t grow up idolizing rock stars so much as I did romanticizing the idea of living a creative and expressive life.  I remember very specifically as a teenager, worrying about how I was going to make money to buy gas to put in my car so I could go see shows and go surfing. We all have that time in our lives when we first start driving where if someone asks for a lift, they are expected to chip in for gas. But I quickly tired of lamenting my next paycheck.

I allowed myself the understanding, at a relatively young age, that if I was going to be happy in my life, I would probably have to be poor and do the things I love to do for free. And when I let that notion in, funnily enough, we started getting paid to do gigs. First in people’s backyards and living rooms, then into bars, and theaters. So on and so forth. It has been a slow, enlightening, and remarkable journey. One we as a band have always likened to that of the Tortoise.  The bottom line is, if you are in it to make money, try a different line of work. If you are in a hurry, write Pop songs and make a sex tape.

Bringing A Spork To A Gun Fight

Angel: How do you keep your energy up with all the work required to make it in this business?

Brandon: Creative work is energetic work! When we are low on energy, and trying to be expressive, it’s like bringing a spork to a gun fight. Understanding this, I use my time in the interim doing outdoorsy and energetic things. I have been surfing since I was eleven and still get the same feeling from it as I did when I first stood up on the board.

Surfing, as well, is a lot more like art than most people give it credit for. After all, the canvas we surf upon is never the same twice! We don’t quite know what we are doing until the moment we are doing it.  And in between waves, one has the opportunity to reflect on how beautiful and serene the experience is. A rare communion with the birthplace of all life on Earth! Are you fucking kidding me? What’s not to like about that? Timothy Leary called surfing, “…the ultimate in spontaneous interaction!”

Bicycles have been a growing passion of mine for the past nine years or so years as well. It is a physically exerting activity, but on a deeper note it’s also an unconscious social reaction to the state of the Modern Urbanites plight. Gasoline is too expensive, cars have cut us off from our communal nature and separated us into sub-categories of envy and social standing, traffic has enraged us and turned us against each other, the oil is running out and almost all of our eggs are in the petroleum basket. And not the least of our worries, the result of 100 years of our petroleum addiction has taken a strange and violent toll on our ability to successfully inhabit our planet.

Bicycles are one of the most simplified and ingenious mechanisms that human beings have ever concocted and over the past few years, it has been fascinating to watch it (the bicycle) re-emerge as a tool not only for transportation, but as well for play and expressivity! So, in a nutshell, I like to ride my bike to the beach and surf while I am letting paint dry.

Most Likely You Aren’t Going To Die From Paint Inhalation

Angel: What are your thoughts on fear, does it help or hinder you?

Brandon: Fear is a very interesting topic! I have many fears, some rational and others irrational. My fear of speaking in front of large audiences? Rational. My fear of flying Sharks that  know my home address? Irrational. The most interesting thing about fear, in my opinion, is the results. What will happen if I face my fears? What is it I am essentially afraid of? I start addressing those fears by asking these fundamental questions. A vast majority of the answers to said questions appear as… “An irrational fear of death.”  Which brings you to the ultimate question herein: Am I afraid of dying? Sorry to get so heady on you here.

In my experience, the best way to handle fear is to treat it like the attacking bear; Stand and face it. Put your arm in the air and make yourself appear to be larger than you actually are! Some experts would argue that ‘Playing dead’ is the best defence against the bear, but I say fuck that shit. That’s boring. And what in the world can you accomplish from playing dead? That is until you are in the bear’s mouth, he is chewing and your friends are running in the other direction. Then you might just relax a little and think about your favorite tv show.

Ectoplasm – Artwork by Brandon Boyd

What I am trying to say is, if you are afraid to paint a picture, start a band, or ask that super groovy chick who lives next door to you on a date, stand and face it! Most likely you aren’t going to die from paint inhalation or being flattened by a falling canvas. The odds are that you won’t die while on stage. Unless someone with an unripe tomato has remarkable aim and hits you square in the nose, pushing the bridge of your sniffer into your brain. And if you ask her out, she may say no, and you’ll feel bad for a minute. Then you’ll realize that the girls who get boobs early are statistically the first ones to get pregnant too! Be afraid!

Rich and Famous

Angel: So is life in the public eye what you thought it would be when you set out?

Brandon: Life in the public eye is very strange. Some would argue that there are more downsides to it than up. This is a disconcerting revelation! We are taught, especially in America, that to be rich and famous is the nectar of the American Dream. Once you “make it” you don’t ever have to worry about anything anymore! The problems of the world literally melt away in front of your eyes like the cheap ‘back in time’ effect that dribbles down the TV screen as our beloved fictional icons think back onto better, more wholesome times…

I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but the fact is that if you are an unhappy, unhealthy, unbalanced and unworthy recipient of wealth, and fame. You will most likely be an unhappy, unhealthy, unbalanced, and unworthy rich and famous person. So everyone will know when you are having a childish moment.  Everyone will hear about your speeding ticket. Remember that time you sharted at the beach party and got caught jettisoning your underwear into the rubbish by your best friend and he promised not to tell anyone or as God as his witness, he should be struck down where he stand?

Well, in the rich and famous scenario, your best friend isn’t really your best friend, he doesn’t actually believe in the same God as you do and he is going to tell everyone that he caught you stuffing your skivvies down the toilet hole with a broomstick. Everyone at this fictional beach party, of course, has a blackberry or mobile device and within minutes, TMZ is airing the news with the fervor of a CNN correspondent when Osama Bin Laden was shot! My point is, check your intentions. Fame merely magnifies pre-existing conditions. So it does have the potential to positively alter lives. I shall leave it at that.

Over to you

Brandon said “When we are low on energy, and trying to be expressive, it’s like bringing a spork to a gun fight.” So, what can you do, right now to get away from the machine, increase your energy, and come back firing on all creative cylinders?

The excellent portrait photography in this article was provided by Brantley Gutierrezand a special thanks goes to Jen DiSisto

Check out more of Brandon’s artwork and news about his creative projects here

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How to adapt and thrive in the changing music industry, Interview with former Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver guitarist Duff McKagan

Legendary rock guitarist Duff McKagan, former member of Guns N’ Roses, is revered by many musicians all over the world for his unique guitar skills. He’s been in the music industry for almost 30 years, so he knows a thing or two about adapting and moving with the times. Duff invited me backstage to talk exclusively about how to keep up with the rapid changes in music industry to ensure a successful career.

Duff McKagan spent twelve years in the hugely successful band Guns N’ Roses, he’s also been in Velvet Revolver, Kings of Chaos and fronted his own band Loaded. He’s performed with Lenny Kravitz, Iggy Pop and been in bands with Steve Jones (Sex Pistols), John Taylor (Duran Duran) and Stewart Copeland (Police). Duff’s writing career is also impressive, he’s written weekly columns on a wide variety of topics for SeattleWeekly.com, Playboy.com and ESPN.com, plus he’s a New York Times Best selling Author.

Here for the first time is the original recording of the interview I did with Duff, where we cover topics from his childhood, the success of Guns n’ Roses, and how he came close to death, and from that point on, how he’s gone about changing the way he lives his life.

Over to you

Duff rebuilt himself, he literally changed the way he was living overnight, yes that decision was forced on him, but you have a choice. Look at your lifestyle, is there anything you would like to change? Is there any habit or pattern that you can change that would lead to a healthier, richer creative life? If so maybe NOW is a good time to do it. Take one action today that your future self will thank you for.

A special thanks goes out to

Olga Shvartsur for the wonderful illustrations

And

Jon Luis Jones from Duff Press