I love zines. I love the connections and bonds created with people all over the world that can eventuate through creating and sharing zines.
Myself, and my zine making comrades Jeremy Staples and Matthew Limmer have started a co-op—the Paper Cuts Collective. The three of us (collectively) have over twenty years of zine making trial and error experience between us.
We decided to combine our powers and work together—as we all know, working together can achieve great, great things! Resources and networks pooled and shared can generate fun times for all. We all share a passion for zines, art, good music and d.i.y.
Stay tuned for details of our joint zine launch coming up in August!
In my line of work I meet a lot of creative, crazy-talented individuals on a daily basis. Once in a while someone comes along that really inspires me and whose work consistently blows me away. I often find that its the people closest to me that inspire me most. I decided that I wanted to pay tribute to these wonderful individuals with a series of posts titled ‘Mi Inspiration’… to kick things off I give you one of my all-time favourite artists, Jhonny Hobo…
What is art to you? How do you or don’t you define it personally for yourself?
I think art is a hard term to put into words, but basically most things that involve creating and expressing are art to me. I sort of think its best not to analyse these things too much. You start to think about it too much and it starts to mess with your creativity.
Is art cathartic for you?
No. I don’t really feel like I get any kind of release of pent-up emotions or anything from making art. Though I can see how creating things could be helpful in letting go or addressing issues bothering you. It’s more about just creating something that didn’t exist before rather than releasing emotions for me. I don’t really take much seriously.
What’s the feeling you get from drawing or making music?
To be honest, I don’t get any “feeling” from it myself. I mean, I really enjoy it, but I see it more as I try and think as little as possible about it, and just make what’s in my head in a sort of almost meditative state. I think it’s up to someone else viewing it to be thinking about the feeling they get from it.
How would you describe your art?
It’s always hard to describe for many reasons. For one, I do a lot of different things that come into that category. Painting, illustration, producing and performing music, sculpture, designing, photomontage. So, I’m not really sure I could describe my art. As Frank Zappa once said, “Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.” I think he’s pretty right. I don’t necessarily think art should be described or critiqued.
Is there a particular movement, period in art or artist that has greatly inspired or influenced your work?
I think Marcel Duchamp and a lot of ideas of the Dada artists really kicked me in the head and taught me alot. The rejection of any rules. Not doing what’s expected. As well as the satiric side of making fun of ‘serious’ art.
What were you like growing up?
I was a little skinny nerd. Nothing’s changed. I was totally obsessed with music and art.
Your brother is also an artist and you both have a band together, tell me about your relationship with him. What’s something important you’ve learnt from him?
Andy and I grew up discovering music and art together so obviously i can relate better to him than anyone, so he’s the perfect person for me to collaborate with. When I try to think of something I’ve learnt from him, there’s one moment in my life where one sentence changed my outlook forever.
I remember being about 8 years old and making something to eat, and turned to Andy and said “Do you think it’d be ok if I put this kind of sauce with this?” or something like that. He just smiled and said, “Dude, as long as YOU think it tastes ok, there’s no rules, do whatever you want.” Now, it probably sounds silly, but as a little kid, that blew me away. I applied that to a lot of things in my life, especially my art and music. Fuck music theory, just as long as you think it tastes ok.
Has art always been a really big part of your life?
Yes. I know alot of people are like, “Music is my life” and all that bullshit, but I really haven’t thought about much else since I was 7 or 8. Even when there’s no music playing, I find myself processing the noises from traffic, wind and birds and things as if it’s music. It’s hard to explain. But, yeah, it’s constantly on my mind.
What contemporary artists have inspired you lately? What is it about their work that you enjoy?
I find that the amazing quantity of really horrible stuff that gets made in the mainstream inspires me to do things almost more than things I like.
What’s your preferred medium of choice and why?
I don’t think I have a preferred medium. I would get really bored if I only did one all the time. But I’m most comfortable with just a lead pencil.
What are you working on right now?
I’ve been working on photomontage a lot. Two of the biggest artistic influences on my life are John Heartfield (german dada artist), and Winston Smith (who worked with Jello Biafra a lot). They were both photomontage artists. And I became obsessed recently with finding old 60′s and 70′s reference books, so I’ve been at ‘em with the exacto-knife. As well as combining them with spray paint and mixing it up.
I recently finished my 2nd solo CD and a new Hobo Obituaries EP, so have been having a break from music production. But will be back at it real soon to complete the 2nd part to the Future Champions EPs as well as a fairly orchestral-style instrumental solo disc and a collaborative EP between Californian musician Shmoe and Hobo Obituaries.
What have you found to be your greatest challenge as an artist?
Getting any kind of support is by far the hardest thing. I mean, you don’t ‘need’ it and that’s not what it’s about, but at the same time, when you get no support it’s very discouraging. Even if you aren’t out to impress people, you get the feeling of “why do I bother?” a lot…
What do you do to keep things fresh and interesting for you?
I rotate what I’m working on from drawing, to making music, to carving, to whatever, and back again. So if I get bored with one, I’ll do another for a while, and wait to be inspired to want to go back.
Who or what compels you to keep drawing?
I’m not sure. It’s always a struggle to stay inspired but I couldn’t imagine what I’d do otherwise. So I guess boredom is what compels me.
How, if at all, does living on the Gold Coast, Australia influence your work?
I really hate to say it, but if I was being honest I would have to say really negatively. There is absolutely no creative avenues here, and very little support for anyone doing anything interesting.
You’re also a musician. What is one of your first musical memories?
As a child the first two cassettes I got of my own choosing were a Paul McCartney double Greatest Hits and Big Audio Dynamite II’s The Globe cassingle. Both huge influences. I heard The Globe come on the TV just the other day and stopped to think about it, and it really has so many elements that make it the right starting point for what I do. It was mixing a traditional rock/pop band with sampling, electronics and some hip hop / techno sensibilities. Definitely an area I have dedicated myself to since.
What are your top 5 albums and why?
‘Faith No More – Angel Dust’
My forrae into alternative music was ‘the Real Thing’ LP but I remember anticipating this release and not being disappointed at all.
‘Ramones – Rocket To Russia’
The band that taught all of us “un-co losers” to play guitar.
‘Solex – Low Kick and Hard Bop’
I really appreciate DIY. And for that matter, one person who does it all is even better. Like Solex. The one woman sampling machine.
‘Ween – Pure Guava’
I could write an extremely long essay on why Ween are the best. Not the kind of band you can paraphrase here.
‘KRS One – a retrospective’
I remember taking a tab each and then everyone left to go paint trains.. I stayed behind and tripped balls on this disc alone in the dark.
The majority of your friends are artists and musicians, is there any people from that network that has really inspired you? How so?
The people who inspire me the most are the ones who do it themselves. And there’s a big difference between what I mean by doing it yourself and doing what most people do. I think too many local peeps concentrate on being “picked up” by a label or something, and what they do is to impress these people, rather than just doing it yourself, and that’s it. It’s like the “doing it yourself” part of it is a step to making it. Where I consider doing it yourself and making your own disc or whatever, you HAVE made it. You’re not making this to submit to labels and things, you’re making it and giving it to people to listen to. And that’s it.
Have you ever had a really life changing moment?
Ever since I could remember all I wanted to do was be a children’s book illustrator. But that all changed in a creepy instant. I was about 12 or 13 and on a school trip to Sydney. We were in the middle of the city and stopped for lunch. Me and 4 or so other kids broke from the group and went and got some burgers and fries. We were from a small town and were really sheltered little kids, so we had never really been exposed to homelessness before and there was a lot of people there who were in that situation. We ended up sitting down to eat and made friends with one of the hobos, Maurice. We gave him one of those old Maccas calendars with all the vouchers. He was super stoked on it. My friend Mitchell tried to give him a bunch of money but he refused, so we hid some at the bottom of the chips we gave him. We were talking to him for a while and he was a really nice, smart dude. Then he started asking us all what we wanted to be when we grew up. We went round the group and all my friends were saying they wanted to be a doctor or lawyer and fancy things, and he was encouraging them and telling them “that’s great!” and to work hard. When it got to my turn, I told him I wanted to be a children’s book illustrator and he totally lost it. It seemed to really anger him, it was bizarre. He told me to give up and that it was a bad idea in a very serious tone. His demeanour totally changed and he wasn’t kidding. It freaked the hell out of me. I still feel really weird about it. So basically I gave up on that idea. I still secretly wish I could, but don’t tell Maurice.
It caught me by surprise. I wasn’t looking for it. It kind of just snuck up on me. As the saying goes: true love comes when you least expect it. In the summer of 1994, I embarked upon one of the greatest love affairs of my life. It struck like a lightning bolt in the form of a girl as I waited for the bus home after a fruitful day of record rummaging and op shopping in the city centre.
I sat on a bench listening to my walkman starring at my feet to pass time. Over the buzz of crunchy, distorted guitars and inaudible vocals, I could hear the sound of wheels on the pavement coming my way. As force of habit, whenever I hear the sound I can’t help but stop what I’m doing and look in its direction. I grew up surround by skateboard culture—my family has owned skate shops since the ‘80s—and have always been fascinated by skateboarders. In my eyes they were the coolest of the cool: they can fly (pulling off amazing gravity defying feats), they make movement an art form, do what they want, don’t care what you think about them and listen to punk rock. I looked up from my Doc Marten boots and saw a lady rolling towards me. I’d met her through mutual friends that frequented indie rock shows. I was—and often still am—in awe of her. Whatever was ‘happening’ she always seemed to be at the centre of it. I knew her by the name ‘Maggie’. Enter the lightning…
I waved; she saw me, smiled and sat down beside me to chat. I can’t quite remember what it was we spoke about but I do remember the moment she pulled out a little crumpled photocopied booklet kind of thing from her backpack and handed it to me—it hit me… KAPOW! She told me it was her ‘zine’ Mz. Obscure. At this time I had no idea what a zine really was. I flicked through its pages filled with her words, drawings, photography and articles on local bands. It was one of the coolest things I had ever seen! Sensing my cluelessness M enlightened me about the world of zines. Just as I was getting swept up in it all—to me it all seemed so magical—my bus pulled up. M and I hugged, said our goodbyes and I spent the next forty minute bus ride home pouring over each and every page. By the time I’d reached my suburban bedroom I’d decided that whatever this awesomeness was in my hand I wanted in.
The concept of making my own publication blew my mind! I’d grown up with a definite magazine addiction—I loved everything about them right down to the new magazine smell. I’ve always been obsessed with magazines and I love writing, and sharing my thoughts and observations with others. I had it figured out that when I finished school and started working I wanted to work at one. Having discovered that you could make your own [maga]zine open up a whole new word of possibilities for me.
Over the next few weeks I made it my mission to find out as much as I could about zines. I wanted to know everything! I started frequenting Rocking Horse Records and Skinnys Records snapping up any zine I could find and reading it from cover to cover. During this time I found Maximum Rock N Roll and Punk Planet. These two publications opened up a direct life line to the worldwide punk community for me. Punk Planet (as well as Slug & Lettuce) in particular brought the world to my doorstep with its take on progressive issues such as politics and feminism; Maximum Rock N Roll quenched my thirst for new music—all three provided me with a path to more zines which I ordered through the mail. Along with the music I was listening to (mostly punk and hip hop), zines helped educate me about the world and turned me on to new ideas and ways of thinking.
My best friend around this period was a girl called Ms. Lizard. I’d met her at an all ages punk show at the Crash n Burn (a legendary live music venue among Brisbane locals). We’d go to every show we possibly could—punk, hardcore, ska, rockabilly, rock—it didn’t matter to us what label, to us it was all equally exciting and allowed us a chance to get out of the house and fend off boredom. Lizard and I grew together and did most things together. We were pretty inseparable so when I fell down the hole to zine land Mz. Lizard came too.
One afternoon sitting on my bedroom floor listening to Green Day, we started putting together our very first zine. We named it Social Stupidity. The name came from a drunken discussion I had one night with an older punk dude from the scene named Ben about the ‘evils’ of our society and how most people just go along with what they’re told to and do what is meant to be done. Both of these things never appealed to me so the name seemed fitting. It makes me cringe to think of it now, but at the time I also liked the name simply ‘cause it seemed pretty punk rock—against society and all that.
Before the issue was even a quarter done, Ms. Lizard bailed on me to go do her own things and I decided to continue onwards solo—by now I was hooked on cutting, pasting, writing, venting my thoughts and reorganising other print media to make my own. The first issue was a mere 16 pages long (which I thought was a grand achievement!) and featured three of my favourite Australian bands Blister, Gilgamesh & Godnose, two (really bad) live reviews of local shows and some demo reviews of cassettes a couple of local bands had given me. I charged $2 for it.
I remember being out one night (and sneaking into) the old Treasury bar in Brisbane (that Blowhard seemed to have a residency at forever!) with my friend James. We ran into Mike Palm from Agent Orange! His band was in town playing Crash n Burn and he decided to seek out some locals before the show for hangs. I’ll never forget showing him my zine and him buying a copy. I tried to give it to him but he was like, ‘It’s important that you support people that put in effort and that are trying to do positive stuff.’ He did add that for $2 I may want to add a few more pages next time… ha! It was nice that he was kind enough to buy it though, and that he was honest enough to call me on the lean content and that he offered me advice in a constructive way—I’ve definitely had more than my far share of haters over the years; people offering their opinions and thoughts in a not-so-nice way about my work (I’ve been threatened with violence on more than one occasion and I’ve even had someone say they wanted to kill me if they ever saw me in the street). Meeting Mike will always stick in my mind and be a fond memory.
Today his advice is as right on as ever—support those that are out there doing something positive and make sure you give folks quality (and value).
The Force has a ‘dark side’, which feeds off emotions such as anger, jealousy, fear, and hate, whereas the ‘light side’ Jedi use the Force only for peaceful purposes. Do you choose to embrace your Dark Side in order to seize power? Or do you use the Jedi way of compassion and selflessness on your journey of greatness? It’s all a matter of choice.
“I choose my choice! I choose my choice!” ~Charlotte fromSex & the City.
The best thing about choice is that you can always change it or make another one. You can always choose to take your life in a new direction. With that in mind, you have nothing to lose.
When faced with challenges in life we can choose to focus on the problem or the solution. We can dwell in Self-Pity Town or we can drive/bike/walk/skate/surf/fly to the next ‘hood over yonder, Possibility City (where my friends and I reside :) come meet the locals! Ha!).
On my journey I have learnt that whatever you choose to think about is what you value and what you will experience. Every choice in your life naturally produces an outcome.—the whole cause and effect Universal law. What kind of choices have you been making in your life lately? What kind of outcomes have you been experiencing? If your answers are on the negative side of things, you may what to do something about it! You may want to make another choice. A change is as good as a holiday, right?!
DP:There are other things that Corey is still teaching me.
CP: There’s still stuff that I’m learning too. It’s one thing to learn it, but a whole other thing to apply it to life. When I met Duane, his friend told me, “He’s the hardest working man I know.” Duane used to say a lot of things like, “You’ve got to lose to win,” and was creating this reality for himself which I think most people do…
DP: Plus it’s just a “self beat down” that is familiar to me. Corey used to always stop me and go, “What are you talking about? You don’t have to lose to win.” I’d go, “Yeah you do. You got to work hard and then you got to get beat down and then maybe something will come.”
CP: Now after years of knowing him and falling in love with him, I’ve heard all his stories of how he spent time on the streets. If you live a certain way for so long, your beliefs reflects your reality. He carried that into his life as a sober man. He was building this new life for himself and carrying those beliefs into it. They didn’t suit him anymore.
Strip away / Be the voice of a generation / Strip Away / You’ve got a choice to make /Cut Away, Cut away… Strip away your chains – Anti-Flag
Something else to ponder is how many of your choices are actually for you? Do you base your choices on what other people think? On the opinions and ideas of those that are closest to you? Or even strangers’ thoughts or comments? How often do you actually think ‘what do I think?’ Are you aware of your relationship to your own happiness? I strongly believe that it is only us and us alone that can truly know what is best for us.
We need to realise and recognise our power and ability for shaping our own lives and outcomes. Don’t let your mentality cripple your growth. Punk & hip hop have both been empowering forces in my life—both taught me and nurtured a do-it-yourself ethic and the motivation and belief to think that I can achieve anything. If you don’t like things change them! Sometimes it can take one quick little change to set your life on a whole new path, other times it takes work over your whole lifetime.
If you find yourself agonising over a choice, making excuses to avoid making a choice or procrastinate so choice time never comes—all tactics which I’ve deployed at times—this podcast may be of interest (thanks Lobo for the recommendation). Not choosing something can set you up for Camp Fail. Making a choice can be truly empowering.
The podcast helped me realise that I should value where I place my value, energy and time. It reminded me that there is no perfect time like the present to start something; to make choices and go with it until it doesn’t suit anymore and then make another.
It’s time to believe in yourself & believe in your choices! Choose the best!
Anything less than the best is a felony – Vanilla Ice
“The hardcore scene wasn’t just passive consumers—it was kids putting on shows, making zines, creating music and artwork. They were figuring out how to make things work either with their parent’s money or their own money or no money at all. Almost every person who was really a part of that early nineties hardcore scene seems to have gone on to do amazing things. The whole D.I.Y. aspect was really what got that going.” ~Scott Beibin, taken from the book Burning Fight by Brian Peterson.
As I’ve said to my dear friend Sophia on many occasions: Punk rock made me believe that I could do anything & hip hop gave me the confidence to do it.
While punk & hip hop reinforced my Do-it-yourself mindset, it is an idea, a world building view that has been around me my whole life. I come from a long line of hard workers with an entrepreneurial spirit. My family have had skateboard stores, Mexican restaurants, car yards, bicycle stores, motorcycle stores, hair salons, fish n chip shops—my parents were even hawkers in the Australian outback travelling from community to community selling the necessities to the locals in remote places. Once my dad even sold the boots off my mum’s feet because someone really took a shine to them (ha,ha!) My dad has never been one to miss an opportunity. Always ready for an adventure. Always making things happen. I admire my father’s D.I.Y spirit! My dad is punk rock & doesn’t even know it!
My grandfather, Jose Ramon Alfonso de Montelegion Valentino was a stand-up man too he would be the pin-up dude for ‘D.I.Y.’ he taught himself to speak six languages fluently, to write and read (he only had a third grade education) & about a million other things—he was a playwright & actor on the radio, worked on building the Story Bridge and wrote speeches for parliament.
Another do-it-yourself advocate is my pal Heidi Minx, she’s the Queen of D.I.Y. She recently released a book, Home Rockanomics, a spin off from her home of crafty guys & gals Punk Rock Domestics. There’s a whole load of D.I.Y. tips on everything from recycling your clothing to recipes from members of Sick of It All and Flogging Molly.
Super apt to the post theme = Beautiful Losers trailer. The film focuses on the careers and work of a collective group of artists who have since the 1990s began a movement in the art world using D.I.Y. aesthetics from skateboarding, graffiti and underground music such as punk rock and hip-hop
Also, here is a video, it’s part one in an eight part grassroots documentary from 2002 called D.I.Y. or Die that explores D.I.Y culture and ethics. Featuring: Lydia Lunch, Ian MacKaye, J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr, Jim Rose & more. It’s seriously right on!
Do you know any brave, courageous individuals rep’n the do-it-yourself ethos?
