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P.O. Box 27070
LONDON N2 9ZP
UK
By: Marco
nofrontteeth.co.uk
NFT: How was Holidays
In The Sun?
DG: Great time I've seen
most of the bands before with different line up
changes, a few newer bands I haven't seen. Bad
thing I designed the flyers and T-shirts for
the festival and they sold out before I could
get one. Darren the show promoter must have
made a killing, for the T-shirts I asked only
100bux and for my girlfriend and friend to get
in for free. Frank at crash and burn in Atlanta
GA screened the shirts I asked him if he could
screen one for me. I guess a few of the bands
that wanted a T-shirt didn't get one. Wattie
from the Exploited was complaining about it to
a friend. Other note members of Oxymoron from
Germany crashed here in Brooklyn at the place
we're staying. Their newer guitarist quit after
a previous show in Philadelphia a few days
before HITS so they came to New York to try
this guy Davey out to finish the last leg of
their tour with youth Brigade The Forgotten and
Pistol Grip. HITS was the last show. My
Girlfriend and I stayed on some friend's floors
from Philadelphia at The Hotel Berkley near the
show. They were nice enough to share the
accommodations since we didn't have money for a
place to stay besides sleeping on the beach. We
spent the 100 I got for the shirts on drinks.
The place got trashed, flaming couches out the
window, arrests, and lots of damage around the
area made the local morning papers. I actually
managed to stay out of trouble. Good
Times
NFT: What / when was the
first record you ever designed?
DG: First was around 1988
but it was just a photo with a logo I drew that
never came out, but the first released cover
was the summer of 1997 The Strychnine Babies
self produced 6 song demo cd.
NFT: Your artwork is
very unique. How would you describe your
art?
DG: Thanx for the
compliment. I might describe it as neo pop
lowbrow art mainly concentrating on subversive
woman and rock n' roll.
NFT: Why is being a punk
rock artist important to you?
DG: It's how I've lived my
life. I'm given a chance to put a little extra
back into it all. To create something I'm into
that crosses over to different subsets of punk
and rock. It's exciting when I'm contacted by
models or girls I've used as reference for the
art, that admire the final piece. I wouldn't
put it out if they we're happy with it. It's
sincerely reassuring.
NFT: What other punk
rock artists do you admire?
DG: Mad Mark Rude (R.I.P),
Coop, Winston Smith, Alan Forbes, Ace, Dead
Jaw, Raymond Pettibone, Robert Williams,
Stephan Blickenstaff, Art Morales, John
Holmstrom and many others.
NFT: You've done work for some serious labels,
TKO, Cyclone, Pelado etc, Have you ever thought
of becoming a sort of in house artist for a
particular label?
DG: TKO is good to work
with I hope to do more work with them. They
just released The Krays A time for action which
I did last minute, they had another artists do
the cover previously but weren't satisfied with
it so I ended up doing all the album and cd
work. Cyclone records is now defunct, I
designed a single and cd for Dead Empty (a band
I joined on drums) and tour promotions for the
Pure Punk tour with Oxymoron, The forgotten,
the Boils, and Dead Empty. All the work was
free a little money was shelled out for tour.
Pelado records was another Dead Empty single
for free. I guess what I'm getting at is it
would be nice to be an "in house artist" to
receive a paycheck. Money just seems hard for
me to come by a majority of the time. When I
don't have a straight job (like now). Being a
freelance artist can be very frustrating. You
just have to love the work maybe you will be
rewarded someday. I've done work for a few
different labels, not to mention a couple of
erotic entertainment websites, clothing etc.,
It would be great to work for a label that pays
you on time, is good to work with, and want
screw you over.
NFT: How's the moving
house going?
DG: My girlfriend 2 cats
and I moved together from atop a bar in
Philadelphia to Brooklyn a month ago. It's been
a little rough like any other move (this one
being number 30-31 for me) but very last minute
and using up all resources pulled together. I'm
currently unemployed but may have just gotten a
job I find out in a few days. My girlfriend
transferred to a coffee house in NYC. I believe
things will look up soon; I won 50bux on a
lottery ticket. We reside in a 10-foot by
10-foot room in our friend's apartment with the
last of our needy possessions until we raise
some money to move to our own
place.
NFT: If you could have designed any past punk
record what would it have been?
DG: Interesting question,
and a tough one. A lot of cover art imagery I
wouldn't want to change. The simplicity of the
Germs symbol covers, manic art of the
Screamers, lots of late seventies to early to
mid eighties covers, artsyness of 999, demonic
rabid demon baby of G.B.H, blood drenched
lettering of Slaughter and the Dogs, Cramps,
Stooges, up to more recent art for Electric
Frankenstein records. If I had to make a
decision it might be one of the first records I
even owned Iggy and The Stooges Raw Power. That
record changed a lot of ideas in music and I
can still put on the needle to this day a just
grind my teeth to it.
NFT: Which record cover
are you most / least proud of?
DG: Most Proud at the
moment would be a yet to be released New York
Rel-x cover it's a sketch of a girl with Wendy
O Williams reminiscent skunk died hair, in the
midst of an attack by an assailant with a
bottle, but originally bloodied by holding a
cat she just ran over, a twisted situation with
fear of death in her eyes and strength to fight
back. The image was modeled after Tromette
Khymber Parish of Troma films. It was just the
sketch but they wanted to keep it that way.
Also The New York Rel-X "She's Got a Gun" EP to
be released on Knockout records. It is
dedicated to Chris Guston a friend of mine who
was murdered in the streets of Philadelphia
this year, the serial number on the gun reads
his birth and death date. I was drawing it the
day I heard the news. I cut half the barrel off
as to say never want to look down the barrel of
a gun aimed to take your life. At the same time
I'm least proud of it because of the
memory.
NFT: The Holidays in the Sun posters you did
are great, how did designing them come
about?
DG: Thanx, they actually
ended up being flyers they were supposed to be
screen-printed posters don't really know what
happened with that. Again was a t-shirt design,
which sold out at the show. Adi a friend from
the New York Rel-x who also runs punknite.com
bookings for bands, record label
punkniterecords.com, introduced Darren and
Jennie the promoters of HITS to my site
daveglassart.itgo.com and they contacted me to
do the design work for them.
NFT: Do you currently
have any work in any exhibitions?
DG: Not at the moment. I
have only shown at bars previously. I've
noticed there seems to be more interest in art
in Brooklyn and NYC. So hopefully in the future
I might get lucky with a gallery showing. I
need an artist representative to get my foot in
the door.
NFT: How much stuff
(T-shirts / posters etc.) do you sell through
your website?
DG: To be honest not many.
The T-shirts there are links to other sites
that sell them I don't make anything off that.
As far as the posters maybe a couple every few
months. People generally seem not to trust
ordering online unless you're a big business
unless I'm just not advertising properly. When
orders do come in I send them out immediately
so you receive them right away unless I have to
reprint some (I only print in runs of 20 per
poster each time so they're very limited.) At
the moment with my current living situation I
cant afford internet access so I am unable to
update it there are a lot of things I need to
ad and fix on the site. Last year at the West
coast HITS and on the rest of the Pure Punk
tour I decided to bring some prints with me
each for $5bux each I sold a good many. On many
occasions more than Dead Empty
merch.
NFT: What's in your stereo at the
moment?
DG: After HITS had to pull
out the Adicts, Electric Frankenstein, Husker
Du, Black flag, The Cramps, New York Rel-X,
Murder City Devils, Pagans, Johnny Moped, UK
Subs, social distortion, The Stranglers, Anti
Nowhere League, Chelsea, US Bombs, The
Helicopters, Ramones, Dead Boys
etc.
NFT: Have you gotten any
further with putting a book of tattoo flash
together?
DG: It's still in the
process. It's just been on hold for other jobs
I'm working on and till I can afford to print
it, or find another printing job where I could
sneak some copies.
NFT: You've played in
some great bands in the past, The Strychnine
Babies, Dead Empty. Are you in a band at the
moment?
DG: I was playing with the
Dead city Psychos a Philly band featuring an ex
Strychnine Baby but the move to Brooklyn
prompted a new drummer. Currently I'm on
hiatus.
NFT: What's more
important to you doing punk artwork or playing
in a punk rock band?
DG: I love playing drums
they are still in Philly till I can find space
for them when we move again. Music is very
important to me but moving around being a
drummer there is always a problem transporting
drums. I actually left Dead Empty to pursue my
"art career."I want to use most of my time now
for doing artwork but I do miss playing drums.
I always end up falling back in some band when
I least expect it but for now I have no drums
so arts the thing. For the most part doing art
seems to be more important to me.
NFT: Are there any bands
/people you would refuse to do artwork
for?
DG: I haven't turned anyone
down yet. I probably wouldn't do work for a
band if I didn't like there music or if
politics were involved.
NFT: When you are asked
to do a sleeve, are you ever told what to do or
is it left entirely up to you?
DG: Generally I have full
artistic license other times I am given an idea
or asked to use alternate colors that type of
thing. I have illustrated a few things I didn't
really want to do but it was good for
experience.
NFT: Is most of your artwork done on the
computer or is a lot of it
tangible?
DG: I save all the original
artwork sketches inking. The majority of my
work is colored in Photoshop on the computer
and I back up all the files, but everything is
drawn freehand. In the future I plan on having
a space where I could go back to roots painting
spray painting etc. and doing things at a
larger scale.
NFT: What happens to the
original artwork? Do you sell / Exhibit it?
Does any of it ever go to the band whose
release it is?
DG: I have all the original
art eventually I plan on making or finding
frames for it all right now its just stored in
boxes and trash bags. If I ever get a real
gallery showing, I would like to display the
old and new. If a band or whom ever I designed
for wants the work I would arrange something
with them.
NFT: As a summary, what
does being involved in such an important side
of punk rock mean to you and what can we expect
in the future?
DG: I'm flattered by your
interest. Some people just don't seem to care
about the artistic side of punk, the creative
side. There are too many carbon copies and
uniforms and rules nowadays and that's exactly
the opposite of what it began as. It means a
great deal to me to be doing this. I used to
dream of being able to draw well when I was a
kid, seeing old school flyers fanzines and such
that were rarities where I grew up in the
south. You had to go out of your way to see
shows, and buy records of that nature. I
remember seeing the original misfits records
when they were out in the underground record
shops and just imagine wow I wish I could do
that. The first things I guess you could
consider punk art that I tried to illustrate
were skulls, explosions, and toxic waste scenes
1984 kind of thing. In the future I would not
mind doing some records for more recognized
punk and rock artists (not what you see on MTv
though) having some money in my pocket to
support myself and promote newer work. I am in
the process of getting ideas together for a
line of girly punk t-shirts and other apparel
with a friend. I have a lot of ideas I just
have to make the time to do them. Thanx for the
interview Marco Cheers.
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