Spoiler the Illustrator - the Drug Dogs Interview

Because it was a cut n' paste zine and you're not allowed to lay out a cut n' paste zine without using 'Cause for Alarm'

I wanted to start using the site to call attention to some of my friends who have worked as illustrators in "this 'ting of ours" so up first is an exchange I had with Spoiler back in 2008. We talked about Justice, Ninja Turtles, Pushead v. Pettibon and about "high and low" art. As mentioned, this is from 2008 so all references made are dated and some specific references may have changed. All art, except when specified, is by Spoiler, and all black and white photos are taken from the original Drug Dogs #2 Layout. Check out Spoiler's work on Google He doesn't have a website anymore.

How does it usually work? Do bands get in touch with you with a specific idea or do they just ask you do 'whip up something cool?'

Both happens. About 50/50 I'd say. It really just depends...

Which approach do you prefer?

If a person with good vision, that understands art a little, gives me a concept I like, then it works really well. Often it's someone I know and we can brainstorm about the idea and work on it together. Those always come out good.

What's the worst?

What's less fun is when someone has a concept in their head, but cannot explain it to me. I end up drawing what I think they want and they keep asking me to change it. That gets annoying especially if they insist I try out certain things that are impossible, or that I know will look terrible. This kind of thing hasn't happened much, but I've learned to kindly ask them to let me handle it or have someone else do the art. Not because I think I'm a big shot, but because spending weeks on art that I'm not into really bums me out as a whole. When someone is like "draw anything!" it's of course the easiest and most fun, but every now and then I'm completely out of inspiration, so I guess the best thing is working on a concept with someone and then executing it.

What's your process like then? Pencil sketch and then what comes next?

Yeah, I pencil it, then I ink it with a random assortment of black pens.

How much computer treatment are you willing to do?

I don't trace anything on the computer, but I usually touch up my drawings a little in Photoshop, just adding contrast and cleaning up some messy parts, nothing major. I recently got a job in graphic design and learned how to use Illustrator, so the last few drawings I did were vectorized....if that means anything to you. [Laughs].

How popular is graffiti in Belgium specifically?

In Belgium, graffiti is pretty big at least in the bigger cities. Street art isn't that huge that I know of, but there's a couple of interesting artists that do cool stickering and what-pasting stuff.

I always associate Europe with graffiti and "street art." Not sure why, I just do. Did that have any effect on your art as a youngster in Belgium?

I did graffiti as a young teenager, but I grew up in a small town with almost no other graffiti artists, so it kinda sucked. There was one crew I beefed with which is pretty funny looking back on it. I definitely miss doing graffiti when I'm walking around the city and see a nice spot.

For me, your art is really what introduced me to Justice. It reminded me of classic NYHC from a visual perspective, specifically the "cartoonier" side. You're not in Justice anymore. Why the split?

I left Justice when I moved to Montreal to live with my wife. She lived with me in Belgium so I could finish up school and we had a deal that we'd go to Canada even before Justice existed.

What did you study?

I grew up in Belgium, went to a high school that had a specialized art orientation and from there went to college to study art. Mostly though, I just went on tours when I was in college!

Backtracking, but that means the split was on good terms...

Of course, and I still love those dudes even though I haven't seen some of them since I left. The band itself broke up from what I understand, because Flip (vocals) could no longer tour. He has a pretty serious job and was almost fired a few times for going on tour. After a few years of that and with more and more tours coming up, and also having moved out on his own, he just couldn't keep it up. I think he also had some personal things in his life that made him decide to quite. Everyone's still friends and will continue to do bands and Powered Records together.

Are you trying to expand your artistic output at all? Beyond hardcore stuff I guess?

I always say that as a person, I want to grow but not change. I keep adding more and more to my interests. I want to learn new things, discover new things, but I don't want to exchange them for things from my past. I laugh at people that get old and "grow out" of things and replace their old life with a new one. That's not growth! That applies to my art as well. I don't want to get stuck repeating myself, so I try new things. That doesn't mean I won't draw up some moshing skinheads and feel awesome about it though!

Written Off S/T EP 2012

I saw that you've been painting a bit...

Yeah, I've been painting here and there. I've been learning how to use Illustrator and even been getting back into photography a little.

Would you ever do artwork for a band that wasn't a hardcore band?

Definitely! I listen to plenty of non-hardcore music and would love to draw for more punk-oriented bands, metal bands, even rap groups or decent indie bands. If I like their music, I'll do it. I like a good challenge.

I think when someone tells me that they only listen to hardcore, I assume they have mental problems. I couldn't listen to ONLY hardcore. What's your musical background like?

I'm the type of guy who likes to understand things. I like to know how and why things came to exist. Once I'd dug into hardcore deep enough, I naturally started listening to earlier American punk, proto-punk, and from there all kinds of 60's and 70's rock, power pop, British stuff, all kinds of stuff. I grew up on metal, so I listen to some of those classics every now and then, but some of my favorite non hardcore bands are Wire, Modern Lovers, The Stooges, 13th Floor Elevators, Blondie, Cock Sparrer, Carcass, Slick Rick, The Smiths, Danzig, The Dead Boys, Buzzcocks and the list goes on...

Do you listen to any style of music in particular while you're drawing?

I will listen to anything when I draw. I'll usually listen to the band I'm drawing for, then bands that sound similar to them, and by the time the main idea is done in pencil, I'm listening to anything really.

Do you advertise to get jobs?

My work is my advertising. It works well for me, but bands usually approach me. The only band I ever approached was Mental in 2003. This was before I knew them and anyone really knew my art. I just thought my style went well with their music and they agreed.

But the hardcore scene can be pretty insular. Do you ever feel that without formal advertising you won't ever be able to reach any crowd outside of hardcore?

Yes and no. When I was younger, I assumed that when people grow out of hardcore, they just get some office job and drop out of life forever. Now that I'm getting a little older and don't see things so black and white, I realize that there's plenty of old hardcore dudes that grew out of going to shows and stuff, but are still the same dudes at heart. Some of those dudes get cool jobs and are willing to help out their fellow coremen. That's how I got to do a couple of non-hardcore related things. I guess it's just a matter of knowing the right people. I recently got interviewed for Under Pressure, a graffiti magazine from Montreal. I don't know if that will lead anywhere, I'm not sitting by the phone, but it would be cool. I'm not too worried about breaking out, I'm just gonna keep at it at my own pace and see what happens.

You have a very recognizable style that's specifically "Spoiler." You mentioned earlier that you don't like getting into stylistic ruts. I always go back to this old Pushead interview where he gets asked "do you ever get sick of drawing skulls?" and Pushead just goes "No. Skulls are the only thing I like to draw." Do you think you'll ever get tired of drawing skinheads?

Like I said, I like to expand, but I have no intentions of completely changing up my style. Any good artist has a signature style that will make their art recognizable no matter the drawing. One of my favorite Pushead pieces is the In My Eyes record which is not of a skull but still very recognizable as a Pushead piece. Sometimes it's good to mix it up a little, but there's no way I will ever refuse to draw a jacked dude with bad teeth and a shaved head!

At what point does art become high-brow?

It's hard to define when art becomes high brow. I guess it just depends on personal opinion...

Well I just ask because maybe the "high-browers" don't take Pushead seriously because there's no "message" in his work, they just see skulls or a really great stippling technique.

If it's in a gallery that doesn't belong to the artist or anyone in his circle of friends, and it gets some acclaim outside of its city or country, if people write about it....that might count as high brow. That would eliminate all the shitty painters who sell portraits and landscapes to rich widows. Pushead still might fit into that definition though. It's really hard to explain without sounding like the biggest douche bag, but basically good high brow art is something you see and affects you on a higher level, whether that's emotionally or intellectually. My art, or Pushead's art or a lot of the stuff I like, affects people on a lower level you know? Like "that's awesome, that looks cool." That isn't a bad thing of course. When I started doing art, hardcore was all about being serious and depressed and I just wanted my art to be a slap in the face, a wake up call, something people would get excited about. It's like a visual overdose, very over the top. I wanted people to see my art and get energized, not sit down and reflect on their life. I guess that's the difference.

Do you think a hardcore artist could ever get real credibility in the art world? Is that something you care about?

It depends on your definition of "hardcore artist" as well as your definition of "art world." Personally, I consider my drawings, and a medium like drawing or graffiti, to be on a completely different level from what I consider "art." My drawings are mostly just visuals of what I think is cool or funny, but most of them don't have a lot of substance to them. A few do though. I just call my stuff "art" because I don't wanna be a douche bag and argue about what "real" art is. Raymond Pettibon, who started out in the hardcore scene, is held in high esteem by today's high brow art scene. On the other hand, a guy like Pushead would never be taken seriously by that crowd, but he's well known within more underground circles ranging from horror and metal fans to sneakerheads and street artists. In the end, I think a lot more people know who Pushead is than who Pettibon is.

You talk about "visuals." I dunno. Even if a drawing doesn't advance some lofty idea, it still has some meaning I think. Even if the viewer is extrapolating something that wasn't intended by the artist.

Well, everything I do has meaning to some degree, I guess I'm just trying to say its on different levels. There's actually a storyline to a lot of the Justice art. It kind of evolved with the band. On the demo, it's simple: an angry dude moshing. That's all he cares about. On the first shirt, that dude is moshing through a brick wall. He's breaking out, trying to get to a better place. On the first EP, he's found that good place. He's got friends, they're all moshing partying and having a good time. On the insert though, you can see a bunch of sketchy dudes coming through the hole in the brick wall he made, fighting amongst each other and looking for trouble. It loosely symbolized the band and how we caught a lot of shit when we first started. People tried to ruin what we were creating, people who would literally follow everything we did in hopes we'd slip up so they could call us on it. That's why the second shirt is of a skyline of my city with evil eyes staring out. I guess I didn't keep the story going for every shirt, but it came back on the LP, where everything just got more complicated. The guy is now in the middle of an insane world building up around him, surrounded by the good and the band, and he's trying to keep his cool. I guess that symbolized us growing up, touring, seeing the world, starting to see beyond the black and white scene bullshit. I drew out some of the song titles as well, as several inside jokes. For instance, there's an arm with 4 elbows somewhere, which is the bass player from our brothers Restless Youth. His arm was really fucked up from skateboarding and we all believed it gave him special bass-playing powers.

Justice S/T LP AKA "Elephant Skin" 2005

Could you pay the bills just doing art?

I lived off my art for over a year total, split into two periods. I could live off it technically, but in the end I didn't want art to be my job. I dicked around in telemarketing and video game testing (that's right) until I got hired as a graphic designer. It's pretty cool, learning to look at art from another perspective is always good, and I have enough time to do art on the side, and I don't have to worry about some kid paypalling my money in time to make rent.

What artists influence you?

At this point, not many. For some reason, I barely look into others people's art. I don't know why not. I just take in all kinds of random art I see, but no specific artist really inspires me. When I first started out, it's no secret I was heavily into Sean Taggart, Kevin Crowley and the likes. To be honest, my biggest influence is probably Google images. Sometimes to look up specific images for reference, but a lot of times I will just type random shit, look at cool images, and just kind of take it all in and blend them in my mind. Whatever I end up drawing doesn't look like anything I saw really.

There's gotta be something that just gets the creative juices flowing though, like for me it's old wrestling shit....

I was huge into Ninja Turtles when I was younger. I think the imagery of sewers, dirty alleys with garbage cans, pizza, robots and musclehead bad guys was a big predecessor to my interest in the type of NYHC-related art I like. Also my parents are a metalhead and a hippie, so I definitely grew up around a lot of evil and psychedelic looking stuff.

Oh wow. I can definitely see that now. The Slumlords design definitely reminds me of the Rat King. How do you feel about that revamped Ninja Turtles thing? It looks all anime to me...

I didn't know there was a new TMNT until I googled some of the old epic images I used to have on my bedroom walls and all I could find was this new bullshit. I was so bummed out. It literally looks like shit. I bet they don't even eat pizza.

I liked the toys the most. I dug the auxiliary characters like Mondo Gecko or Usagi Yojimbo.

I liked the toys a lot but it was all about the cartoon and comics for me. Oh, and fuck how lame was Casey Jones in the movie? What a wimp!

If you had to narrow them down, what are your favorite designs you've done?

I can never really figure these out. I like a lot of them for different reasons, and also wish I could change something about all of them. I really like the first Iron Boots shirts, the first Justice LP and also the B-Side label I did for that, the Cro-Mags shirt, the Loud and Clear LP and the Lion of Judah shirts.

Do you have any design you've done that, looking back, you wish you couldn't done better?

There's a few. It's mostly stuff I wanted to work on more, but the band needed it ASAP or they had specific requests that I didn't really agree with. Off the top of my head, I really like the drawing for the Always Aware shirt, but it doesn't really go with the type of logo they wanted. I'm not super into the Mongoloids LP cover. Greg is a good dude, but he had me re-do the art too many times and it just came out kind of messy. Also, the original War Hungry shirt which I love, was originally going to be in full color for their EP, but I didn't like how it came out and there was no time to redo it.

Favorite album covers?

Agnostic Front Cause for Alarm needs no explanation. That demon skinhead is the coolest looking thing in the world. It's all just so busy and insane and over the top. Incredible.

Underdog S/T EP. Those bad guys look amazing. This cover has a little more substance to it as well.

Crumbsuckers Life of Dreams. Again, here's Taggart at his best. In all hoensty, the art is not even that tight from a technical viewpoint but it's just so damn gnarly looking. This one also has a pretty cool concept if the dude in the front looked a little more badass, it might have been better than the AF one.

Woah. More badass? How?

He could either be more pissed off which always works, but I guess he's supposed to be brainwashed or comatose, so he should be more gross. Drooling, blank eyes, his skin should be breaking. He could even have little Crumbsuckers crawling over him and coming out of his ears and mouth like spiders on a corpse. Man, that would be awesome!

So...all Taggart pieces?

Yeah. I guess there aren't a lot of surprises in this list. I tried to think of something unexpected, but nothing beats this shit man!

Hashtag Hardcore Fanzine + Wasted Paper Fanzine (Weekly Seizure - 9.29.13)

Thanks for your patience folks. Things are a little bit skee-wompus here at the Drug Dogs camp, but per usual, I'm not going to let the stress of spinning a few plates keep me from what I love: zines about hardcore. Here's a little bit of what's been accompanying me on my (many) bathroom trips this week.

1) #Hardcore / Hungry is How I Feel Fanzine

Ultimately, I'm split over this zine. I'm not entirely sure how to divvy it up and who gets credit for what, but as far as I can tell, it's a collaborative effort between two zines (#Hardcore and Hungry is How I Feel zine). For the most part, it's excellent. I loved the first ish of #Hardcore because it had a euro zine feel, reminiscent of 00's zine fare like Hustler and stuff. Also, I'm not as up on Euro core so from an educational standpoint it's great.

It's also loaded with content, so for sheer volume, you can't do much worse. 

Highlight include: an excellent cut-n-paste layout, some opinionated columns, tons of reviews of records, shows and zines (wtf is up with people doing zines that don't include reviews? GET OUTTA HERE WITH THAT WEAK STUFF!), a word find, an awesome interview with Spoiler, an interesting interview with Kirby Michael and an interview with Kickback where he talks about banging prostitutes and practicing black magic in Thailand. It's also nice to see Darkside NYC getting a little bit of attention too…"so what's the problem douche-waffle?! That's all really great stuff." You're right. It is, and I feel like that alone would've made for an excellent zine.

Frankly, the food content was a little too much for me. I'm not a vegan, but I date one, and I know how passionate people get over their grub…and how annoying it is to listen to them talk about it.  I just don't really have much desire to read about it in a hardcore zine. I admit it's a creative angle, and it was done tastefully in the Spoiler interview, but the main reason I picked this up was for the Mike Dijan interview and honestly? It was the biggest letdown of the whole zine. Very little put it into discussing his musical projects past and present, and a whole lot discussing food, yoga and other non-core fare. Whatever, maybe it sounds bratty but I stand by it.

Good JUSTICE talk

I'm also a little bit torn on the True Colors bit. I mean, I'm a fixie rider so I should've been way into this, but I would've rather read about True Colors generally. All that being said, I see the appeal. Taking a "road less travelled" approach with content is commendable, and perhaps I'm not looking at it through the correct lens. As an American, I wasn't as familiar with True Colors before I saw them with Mindset in 2009 and I became a huge fan. I would've liked to read more on those experiences, but at this point it becomes a "beggars can't be choosers" thing.

 The truth is that, even with my gripes, this is still an excellent zine that's loaded with great content…I just feel like I need to acknowledge a flaw.

If you're in the states, I got mine through Grave Mistake so I'd suggest you take that route too, lest you get slammed on shipping from Europe. 

Pepto-Bismol

2) Wasted Paper #2

Got this one through a friend who's also in the ontario band Straight Truth.

I'm a huge fan of the sloppy layout because it's hand-made and it rules. The interviews are short, but conversational so they serve a real supplemental purpose (something that zines HAVE to do in the internet era). Also shout out to the awesome artwork on the back, depicting punx past and present. Highlights: stories of Hoagie ruining outfits with a bottle of pepto bismol and referring to it as "father's secret elixir." 

How HI can a punk get?

Also, big fan of any zine who "reviews" Kramer's business ideas.  The Ancient Heads interview was a firing line style number, a little reminiscent of Mosher's delight and the Omega's interview is full of requisite insanity. Worth hunting down for a quick, yet delightful, read.

3) Ancient Heads - Both Demos 7" [Climbin' Aboard / Ground Floor]

Between both demos and the radio set, I've already gushed over this band enough. This 7" sees both demos packaged together. Worth it for the insert (A Mad Magazine collage) alone! Buy/Stream here if you're a latecomer. 

What, me worry?

W is for War Hungry

Back in the days before Tee Til Death, I got this hairbrained idea to do a blog about hardcore shirts. I would track down the artist, ask them a bunch of questions...it only lasted for two posts (you can still see the remnants at jerkswithcoolshirts.blogspot.com) but it was cool. Here's one I did with Spoiler regarding a War Hungry shirt that was made in 2006, but I obtained in 2007. I thought it was kind of interesting and since this blog gets SLIGHTLY more traffic, thought I'd leave it here.

--------------------------

Yes I could've used a stock photo from the internet, but I decided to use MY shirt

So first things first, with the front design...I want to know, to the best of your knowledge how the exchange went in drafting the shirt.

Any War Hungry shirt I did was because of Hoodrack and me brainstorming over AIM. We'd come up with the best shit together. He always had great ideas but couldn't draw them. I don't remember who came up with what, but we decided they were going to have a mascot like Eddie for Iron Maiden, so that's the dude on top, cursing the world.

Hoodrack wanted a really metal looking shirt, but I made it borderline fantasy metal. I got a few of the ideas out of an art book. I wanted it to represent a bunch of different species being at war with each other, you know, “war hungry”, and their mascot standing over it all. Kind of a nerdy fantasy-land version of the real world.

It definitely reminds me of like...Jason and the Argonauts. Have you ever seen that? It has that theme...
I've never really heard of that before. Probably never aired in Europe where I grew up. Argonauts sounds pretty fantasy metal though.

Well War Hungry definitely has that kind of lyrical biz going on in their songs...like "Labors of Hercules" and stuff so maybe that helped…
I didn't go over any lyrics for this shirt, but maybe Hoodrack got some ideas from it. I'm sure it's all connected in his mind. 

On the back design, it's kind of a remake of an old psychedelic flier that I've seen...with the skeleton holding the peace sign. I've seen it used on an old flier....I remember you telling me that your Mom was kind of a hippie and your Dad was a metal head...is that where you got the design from?

Yea that's from a Grateful Dead flyer, on the original it's a lady holding the sign. Hoodrack sent it to me. It's not actually related to my parents though it could very well have been. I don't think they were into the Dead though, my mom is more into shit like Blue Cheer, the Who, and Black Sabbath. Way cooler than most hippies. But yea, there was plenty of weird psychedelic art and record covers in my house growing up, so that's why I like to incorporate it every now and then.

J is for Justice

Sick of the durrrrrt, shoved in mah faaaaace

I was born in the U.S., spent my elementary school years (1992-1997) in the UK and then moved back, so I consider myself pretty rounded...but when it comes to Mother Russia, I admit my attitudes are (shamefully) Ameri-centric. Images of fur hats, Tetris music and James Bond villains abound, and despite the best humanitarian efforts of dorky thrash metal songs from my youth (Anthrax - "Russia/you really think they'll blow up the world/like they love their lives less?") I never looked too far into the country as a source of cool music or hardcore.

A lot of this changed with growing up. Back when I was doing my crappy zine in college, I got a demo in the mail by a Russian band in the mail called Hoods Up 495 (if any of those dudes stumble upon this, hit me up) that I really enjoyed. The demo was called "Droppin' Many Putins" and essentially sounded like Cypress Hill with a little bit of HC chug. The fact that someone from the opposite side of the world, in a country that I knew nothing about had created a band that fused some of the influences that I'd come up with (the first Cypress Hill record is a BANGER and completely inescapable by anyone who skated in the late 90s and early 2000s) wreaked my play-doh mind to tatters. Since then, I've kept an eye on the country. In a recent-ish interview with United Stance in Mosher's Delight, Spoiler makes note of some cool Russian (and Ukranian) bands and I'm gonna quote him here because I really can't say it any better myself.

The scene has been real active there [Russia] and the Ukraine and I think it rules. It makes a lot more sense to be into hardcore and straight edge when you're surrounded by Krokodil, armies of Nazi skinheads and streets you're not safe in before dawn. Check out Degenerative Behavior, Rearranged, The Pack (RIP) and Big City Bastards.

Good stuff. I had the good fortune of seeing Justice (the real Justice, not those electrofroot Spin mag impostors) a bunch of times in 2005-2006 and they were great at every show. I got literal Goosebumps when they "debuted" the Up and Down material at a show in Richmond and then closed the set with "Searchin' for the Light." Anyway, great to see that Russian hardcore fans are getting the same kind of opportunities I got, to see great hardcore.

Sorry for all the extraneous sap here. I just really think it's great to see bands of this caliber playing in places so remote to an appreciate audience (cue that embarrassing video of Have Heart playing to African pre teens). I'll get more bitter tomorrow.

Happy mothers day. Give your Mom's a call. 

D is for Demolition

This is a mad mad mad mad mad world

Making their mark as Triple B’s first “international” releases. Fast and tight, like early Madball (early Madball...like Ball of Destruction...before punx wuz scared of Madball cuz they wuz too thug). Digging that cover art. Taggart meets Pushead and that art style that everyone (including me) is jocking. Spoiler did the demo cover, but evidently not this 'un. Look for this 7” in the coming months....and stream it on the Triple B site.

When I asked my best friend KL how they sounded at Not Dead Yet his honest reply was, after taking a swig of Ginger Ale at a Louisville Mr. Gatti's 'Most.' 

Da WINNAH! #1

After days and days of an empty inbox I was pretty convinced that none of you were on board with this...til the tiny faintly glowing ember of hope and trust I have in "this thing of ours" was stoked by none other than my boy Daan # (That's pronounced "DAAN HASHTAG" newbz) the creative genius behind one of the best zines I've read in 2013, #Hardcore! I already dumped tons of praise on it in issue 2 of the newsletter (which you can still pick up here). 

DROP TROU

Anyway, the correct answer to the question (what record is the character above from?) is Amorality, the newest 7" offering from Canadian Scumbags Hassler. Since you're not goobers, you should recognize the trademark style of one Spoiler, but if you didn't...where have you been for the past 6 years? You don't see our pee-pee rat friend on the front of the EP (pictured below), but you'll find him on the back next to the track listing, mean-muggin' and dropping trou in a garbage can. Available on Beach Impediment Records (but sold out on their bigcartel). Look around.

HESH N' FRESH: WE ALL IN DA SAME GAME

Daan # gets a super duper pooper, exclusive Drug Dogs prize back for winning this round! Thanks for playing! There'll be another one soon!