We caught up with recent Kiosk 78 collaborator Anthony Thornton – A talented graphic artist and resident illustrator for Proper Mag to discuss the finer details behind his often surreal artwork, what inspires him and his love of music and clobber…
Retro Skull-Duggery – Give us an insight…
Right, basically back in the day, i’d say I was about 17 I came up with this character, very simple drawing it was, I can still draw him to this day with my eyes closed, and I rigged him up in a Fila BJ, cords and some vintage Adidas, the idea was that he was going to be some sort of 80s anti-hero yobbo, who caused bother at the football, and the name just came into my head, retro=old school, skull-duggery=mischievousness… and in my opinion skull-duggery is a word from the past that has been forgotten and should be brought back.
You’re probably most well known for your character illustrations in the cult fanzine Proper Mag, how did this come about?
Yes indeed, that came about as a stroke of luck, I became a member and posted often on the Casual Connoisseur members board and got to know the admin quite well and a few of the lads from the Manchester area, my first opportunity came when Casual Connoisseur asked me to co-design two t-shirts with them, the first one being a JR Lynch ‘Nymph’ piece, the second been my character impersonations of the firm in the film Awaydays. A few months later I was in contact with the creator of Proper Mag and he gave me the brief of these two characters he wanted clobbered up in the latest ‘underground’ fashions and it has taken off from there on a regular basis.
How would you describe your art?
Hmmm tough one, my aim right at the beginning was to cater for the football casual market, designing my earlier characters to be wearing the clobber that I was saving up to purchase, I got quickly bored of this scene and I really wanted and still do want to work on band/gig posters and canvas modern art, these days while I am coming up with ideas I listen to music and incorporate lyrics from the song of that time into a piece as the basis, and my work mainly consists of love, heartbreak, violence and the totally obscure.
What are your inspirations behind your pieces?
I have always been greatly inspired my the old school Manga comics, they are what made me start drawing in the first place, I spent hours copying Street Fighter and Akira characters, the old school NYC and Chicago street art scene is also a major part of the image I try to add to my work. As I mentioned above though music is my greatest inspiration, depending on the mood I am in and what is going on around me, the 90s Seattle scene grunge bands are a major driving force due to the emotion of their lyrics that I can interact with, as is the whole punk scene… angst, love and life.
How would you describe yourself as an artist, and as a person?
As an artist, I am very slap dash… I have no major equipment, studio space or anything, I sit at my dead end full time job thinking of ideas jotting them down with a biro and when I get home I sit at my desk with an A4 piece of paper and draw it all out with a Sharpie fineliner, scan it in and photoshop it all together and that is mainly how I work… I tried my hand at canvassing once, but I dont have the space to experiment with things, as a person though, i’d say I was pretty light hearted, patience is my main demon though, I have to get things done there and then or I tend to get down about stuff, just your average small town lad really, aiming for a way up and out.
Whats your favourite pieces to date?
I was actually discussing this with our lass the other day, as the artist it is impossible for me to like any of my work, cos in the back of my mind I always know I could have done it differently and a little bit better, they are never perfect and sometimes I just think… ‘that was a waste of time’ but looking at my work, I can’t actually choose one but I shall give you my top three… 1) Silvergun Superman, 2) Beastie Boys, 3) Cashablanca.
Who are our favourite artists/designers
I have new tastes and many artists I admire, for instance Mike Giant, he has done it all… illustration, graffiti, tattooing, I also am greatly inspired by the work of these artists, Katsuhiro Otomo, Don Hertzfeldt, D*Face, David Horvath, Ed Templeton, Raymond Pettibon, Kaws and Faile. I also take great inspiration and advice from blogs such as Think Faest!, Juxtapoz and Rebel 8.
Your well into your clothes, how would you describe your personal style?
I most certainly am yeah, just lately i would say my personal style depends on the mood of the day or the weather… as I have moved more into the art scene and made new colleagues and followers of my work I have become more of a ‘hipster’ wanting to feel relaxed in T-shirts and shorts or chino’s with deck shoes or Superga’s, I don’t believe I follow any major fashions, but I am a serial blog hogger and find styles I enjoy and add my own twist to them, nautical has been the theme of the year with APC unleashing some lovely tees, but in my eyes you can’t beat a clean-cut check shirt, chino combo with added ray-ban wayfarers, cap and Clae Russell’s… i enjoy rockin’ this, well paradigm.
What are your current favourite brands?
I have always been a fan of vintage brands, clobber that has a bit of history… went through a stage of splurging a months wage on OG adidas trainers, I have a vast collection now, but I have moved on, so right now I am always on the lookout for APC, Folk, Acne, Norse Projects, Albam, Passarella Death Squad, Supreme, Six Pack France, Universal Works, YMC, Clae and Superga.
Where can people see your latest work and see what your upto next?
If anybody out there would like to keep track of my latest offerings then i have a facebook group here and also a flickr page here. I am yet to have my own personal website, but that is a future goal of mine as is aiming to get noticed stateside and in any UK/global art based magazines.
You’ve created a set of 3 artworks exclusive for KIOSK, tell us a little about each piece…
Freakscene: I came up with this summery collage mish mash in around an hour, intoxicated with Sailor Jerry’s, feeling the emotional strain of women, it basically is a tribute to Seattle band The Gits’ lead singer Mia Zapata who was murdered in Seattle… and the bold lyrics are from a Dinosaur JR song called Freakscene, the Einstein reference shows that even though intelligence can be a great thing, we are all human and can make mistakes…a bit of a randomiser, a bit punky, different style to the other two which I was aiming for.
Disillusioned: This piece is about women and how they mess up the mind, the character is The Punisher from Marvel Comics, wearing a Mickey Mouse logo on his suit with rainbows for eyes and his brain popping out, showing that women can make any hard nut turn turn soft and melty… as I am sure we have all experienced the power of a woman’s techniques to get what she wants and to mess with the mind yeah?
Technoir Mario (image at top of post): No specific meaning to this one really, i just wanted to create a real fun and colourful piece with a reference to my childhood, Super Mario and arcade games, a nice nostalgic piece, from the youth archives for anyone who grew up in the early 90s.
Whats next for retro skull duggery?
I have had a bit of a breather over the last few weeks, just gaining inspiration for new pieces, but I am hoping to try my hand in new media, template graffiti is what I am looking towards soon, and I am travelling to NYC at the end of October to showcase a few of my pieces as stickers around the city at some local tagging hot spots, I have already done this in Chicago with surprising results (tagging Al Capone’s grave) In NYC I will be hoping to hit where Banksy and Faile have landed their pieces in the past. My biggest aim for many years has been to be included in a global issue of Vice Magazine or any independent UK/global magazines, ie Juxtapoz or Pictoplasma.
The Passarella Death Squad clothing label has been stocked at Kiosk 78 since we opened our doors in 2008. However, Passarella is much more than a London based clothing label, they also write, produce and perform music combining electronica with haunting vocals from French chanteuse Emilie Albisser. Their influences range from the likes of The Cocteau Twins, PIL and Velvet Underground through to more recent visionaries such as LFO and DJ Hell.
We caught up with Danny Broddle, one of the founder members to ask him a few questions to find out more about Passarella Death Squad…
When and how was passarella death squad born and who are the founder members?
Passarella Death Squad was set up by me in 2003, with Emilie joining me about 1 year later around that time Kingsley Gratrick who we write the music with also joined us.
You are heavily involved in both music and fashion, what came first?
They kind of both started at the same time.
I read somewhere Passarella was named after Argentine footballer Daniel ‘Passarella’ who you admired, is that true?
It’s named after Daniel Passarella, but it’s only a footballer I heard of as when I was young my Dad bought me a replica Argentinian football kit and the name just stuck with me over the years.
The Passarella Death Squad debut album is out soon, can you give us an insight into your music and who inspires you musically?
I’m inspired by various electronic music artists, labels and DJ’s and I’m a huge fan of The Velvet Underground. For our own music, Vice magazine gave our album 9 out of 10, writing “Crepuscular drones and vampish moans from this exotic trio whose debut sets the tone for those S&M soirees you’re always thinking about hosting.” Someone else described it as “Dark, dark techno soul noir”.
Here is a free download link to the excellent track Those Are Sirens from the upcoming album.
You can also have a listen below to some decent length previews of each track on the album…
East London part of the Casio G-shock x Passarella launch night, September the 9th with George Issakidis and Perc djing, then the following night (the 10th) in Berlin for the ‘Darklands Berlin’ store opening party
It seems everything Passarella put their hands too is well considered, the artwork for your debut album designed by the high-fashion design collective M/M Paris is something really special and harks back to album sleeves of old. What was the thinking behind the artwork?
All the ideas were down to M/M Paris, what they felt and saw when they heard our music. We’re just happy to have someone like them designing it for us and leave them to it.
Click here for more views of the Passarella debut album cover.
Staying on the album art theme, what are your favourite album sleeves of all time?
Here are just a few amongst many….From left to right: Various “Depth Charge” 12″, New Order – Technique, PIL – Flowers Of Romance.
In regards to Passarella the fashion label, we see the collection is growing every season from your expanding t-shirt designs to ready to wear collections, was this always the plan or has it grown organically?
Organically I suppose, over time one thing leads to another and the next thing you know.
Where did the concept for your iconic t-shirt designs come from?
Another organic one, the first design contained some French scrawled text and 2 silhouettes and then the designs have grown from there.
Can we expect some new designs in the near future?
We have a new design called ‘Nightclubbing’ available exclusively with the album. The next full t-shirt collection will be available to buy in September as well.
Your t-shirts are made from imported fabric from Japan. Was it always the plan to import the fabric from Japan and does it make production more difficult?
The plan was always to try and find the best fabric and what I found just happened to come from Japan, so it went from there. It doesn’t make production more difficult as such, but I’m used to the complex procedure now.
We’ve seen the Passarella Death Squad / G-shock collaboration watch first hand and we love it. How did the collab come about? We’d thought about designing a watch some time back, but then Casio approached us and we went from there. It took some time getting it right, but we’re very happy with the results…
Whats next for Passarella in both fashion and music?
Coming up over the forthcoming months we have the debut album out on the 20th of September, with the Passarella x G-shock watch out the same month. The next t-shirt collection is out very soon and we’ll also have the next ready to wear collection which will be ready for viewing this November.
The Passarella x G-shock watch will be available to purchase at Kiosk 78 as soon as it is released in September.
Lastly, we know you are a massive Newcastle United fan, how do you think they’ll fare this season?
Newcastle being Newcastle anything can happen, but as long as we don’t get relegated again I’ll be happy enough.
Here’s a little sneak preview of what we have coming in from Edwin. Edwin is new to us at Kiosk 78 this season and we’ve decided to bring some of their clothing line in as well as the staple denims on offer. When we went to view the collection we were pleasantly suprised by the quality of their clothing line which includes and excellent cable knit, a hickory shirt, a very nice wax jacket and a beaten up vintage black leather amongst some other stuff.
Here’s a nice little video showcasing some tasters of what to expect from Folk this season. The video is by Matthew Donaldson and the music from Zero 7.
Some of the tee’s and henleys have already dropped at Kiosk and will be live online soon so watch this space. Our personal favourite from the collection is a tailored version of the hugely popular Folk Rainmac so keep your eye out on the site for that one appearing.
Fresh from our recent photo-shoot with Exit Calm, we asked front-man Nicky Smith a few questions about the band, music and fashion…
First of all the name of the band! Why ‘Exit Calm’?
It’s from a book called Silent Rebels that Sime read, I think we have given those words meaning now though.
How did you guys all come together to form Exit Calm?
The other three were looking for a singer and put an advert in jumbo, it was at a time when Kaiser Chiefs were about so it was refreshing to see Primal Scream and Spiritualized as influences. The advert said they were called Blind Shore. Sime rung me up and asked what I had been listening to recently, I told him Lyca Sleep, he said that they used to be Lyca Sleep. I don’t believe in coincidence, serendipity I guess…
What / who were your biggest influences in music as a lad and when starting the band?
As a lad it will have been fairly obvious stuff like The Beatles, The Roses, Oasis etc but then The Beatles lead to The Stones and Led Zep, The Roses lead to The Smiths, Oasis to Ride and so on and so on. The list is pretty endless now. When we met as a band the common interests were massive. Mowax, Factory and Creation probably sums it up best; but then I miss out Dark star… it goes on and on.
What would you say has been the most beneficial factor in contributing to the initial success of the band? (e.g manager/fans/myspace/word of mouth etc)
Initially it was the fact that us four got in a room and started making music together. I think that once this started happening everything else fell into place. We got a gig in Tokyo straight away and with that on the horizon, we were cemented as a unit very quickly.
Who would you compare Exit Calm’s sound to?
We have a massive sound so we mostly get Verve, most people forget to mention other bands with big sounds like Mogwai, Sigur Ros, Levitation, Dark Star etc. I think it’s summat to do with Rob’s hands anyway – he could hide a table and chairs in them!.
What have exit calm got planned for the summer? Any festivals we’re likely to catch you at?
We wont be doing them all, but we will get to as many as we can. There are a few officially confirmed, people will just have to keep on their toes because last year we only found out about V about three weeks before.
You’ve just released your self-titled debut album, are you working on any new material or leaving that for a while to concentrate on getting your first album out there and heard?
There are always plenty of new ideas kicking around when we get together, Rob and I wrote a couple the other day that we thought about using for the Janice Long session to keep things fresh; But yeah we mainly are still thinking about getting our debut out there for the majority of the rest of the year.
Have a listen to new song ‘Alarms’ below that was aired for the very first time on the Janice Long BBC Radio 2 session in July…
On a more personal note, what is your favourite Band of all time?
I like the Beatles for being varied and so prolific within such a short time (and still being ‘good’ before the cool types say Faust or Beefheart etc, but in a romantic sense I am not sure anyone will ever top The Stone Roses. Beyond the lad stigma they have now I see a really true poetic beauty in everything they did, but everyone knows this… If there was a guide book of answers for bands to say, that one would probably be in it! I know its a cliche, but it still is what blew me away when i came of age. I was lucky because at a time when my mind was at its most impressionable these two bands happened to jump in to my head and i never looked back, good job it wasnt Razorlight! but in all honesty I dont really have a favourite anymore, there is just too much to choose from.
Favourite single?
Wrote For luck by the Happy Mondays. Foot tapping till the end and it has one of my favourite lines ever “you used to speak the truth but now you’re clever”. And the remixes are amazing too!
Favourite album?
As i said above I cant really single out one band, single or album. I will probably think of something else other than Wrote For Luck in a minute. The albums that made the biggest impressions on me growing up were Definitely Maybe, The La’s, The Stone Roses, Endtroducing, Psyence Fiction, Loveless, Lost Souls, From Here On In, The Three EPs, Harvest and Rubber Soul to name a few, but if you want a sense of who i am then I think they tell you.
And which is your favourite out of all the venues you’ve played at so far?
Glasgow king tuts has been special both times, the people, crowd and atmosphere are something else. When we played with the Bunnymen they told us Glasgow Barrwolands was the greatest place to play in the world. ( I imagine they have seen quite a few! ) It was amazing… in fact when we played ABC it was top too so there must just be something about Glasgow. They know how to get to our hearts as well! Down here you get a stamped-on pasty and half a custard cream before you go on. Up there you get a three course meal and a bottle of red. No shit! that was when we were starting out as well, no preferential treatment. We thought they had the wrong band when we first went. When you are looked after you feel welcome and play better because you are buzzing.
You’ve visited the Kiosk 78 store here in Leeds, and worn some of our gear during the photo shoot we did with Exit Calm back in April this year……Who would you say is the most into their clothes in the band? And the most fashionable member?
Simon Paul Lindley, we all like our clothes, but he runs a vintage company and makes his mrs stop in the wardrobe so he can sleep with his clothes.
And how would you describe your own personal style? And favourite label/brand?
SPL said I was a casual mod when he first met me, but I think now all I seem to wear is black, because its more practical for being on the road, but im sick of looking like a boring personality-less goth! Its time for colour for me now…Those parka’s i wore with you were sound. I have seen a Fred Perry one that is mint, that will be my winter coat! I like subtle stuff that is made well and fits bang on. I dont like walking round like an advert, if you know then you know… subtle classic heritage brands. Pretty much everything you lot do.
Where can we hear / see you next? (upcoming gigs?)
We have just finsihed a tour, it was amazing to see how the album has made venues fill out and grow this time around. We ended with a massive gig in Barnsley, people came from all over the world for it. Spain, Sweden…mental!! One lad came from New Jersey just for it! It was in a hall and the last gig there was by the Small Faces so that was very special too. Apart from the odd gig in the summer and festivals, we are building up for another UK tour with a single in October, then we are off to Germany and Poland. Then we are going to America and Canada having just signed a deal over there, which I can not wait for!
And finally…How long do you reckon it will be before you’re throwing TV’s out of hotel windows?
Already done it but we were on the ground floor. Thank you x
Cheers to Nicky for taking time to answer our questions.
Here’s a a full length clip of Johnny Marr and Hans Zimmer recent performance at the Inception Movie premiere. It’s a bit Hollywood and over the top as you would expect at a big premiere like this but any movie score with Johnny Marr’s guitar work on there has a touch of class about it…
We’re obviously big denim enthusiasts at Kiosk 78 and given that denim heritage and Cowboy mythology are resolutely embedded in American Culture, a project capturing some amazing imagery from denim clad modern day Cowboys and their surroundings was instantly of interest to us. We love some of the wide-open spaces the photographer has captured along with the images shot in their actual homes showing the clear need for these Cowboys to cling on to their heritage during a period of history where the twenty-first century Cowboy could become extinct.
The “Dead Eagle Trail” is a culmination of numerous road trips that photographer and filmaker Jane Hilton has taken across the States whilst documenting the American culture. Her book is a celebration of the west, from the buckaroos of Nevada to the cowpunchers of Arizona.
Below are a some more of our favourite images from the book…
The new addition to the ‘objects’ section of A.P.C wares is a collaboration with Australian skincare and cosmetic company Aesop. Aesop have developed a “fine fabric care” formulation that looks to treat those delicates in the A.P.C. line-up specifically designed to be hand-washed. Formulated by Aesop chemists, it contains extracts of Pettigrain, Lemon and Cedarwood. Should be available in the latter half of 2010.
Another one of our favourites from A.P.C’s non-fashion range are the fragrant candles (below). We had these in store a while ago and sold out straight away but we’ll be looking to get a re-stock really soon.
