godmachine
May 20, 2008
Name: az
Location: Cardiff, Wales
Day Job: cat sitter, tea maker, designer...of sorts
Portfolio: check it out here
What else do you do art wise besides own tshirt design.
As I have said I paint. I need to do a lot more but you need space and time to paint- and both are very rare for me- i used to have a space above a shop in town but they starting using the space.
What are your tools of the trade?
photoshop, a biro, scraps of paper and a trust tablet- I'm slowly learning illustrator, slowly, as in, Ive had it for 3 years and I opened it the other day- i dont know if i need it yet...do i?
I know a lot of designers these days are the products of art schools and what not. How about you?
I'm self taught- I went to uni and did graphic design and passed- but I didnt learn fuck all- I remember stuff about text and fonts- but I cant use it. I dont know if I would recomend uni to anyone or not- its the people that make it and the time you have to create- they never teach you what you need- and most uni's are taught by old school artists who are bitter about aethetics and low-brow art being the thing that their students are into. We are lucky in Wales that education up to uni is free and I was lucky to be taught by the UKs leading typographer- not that I learnt fuck all about type hahahah....
Influences... doesn't have to just be shirts, love to know peoples artistic influences.
Aubrey Beardsley, Klimt, Arthur Rackham, Pushead, any artist that did a skateboard from 1995 back.
I love how a lot of your work has that pen and ink look to it. Do you think your work is more fine art style than 'tshirt style'?
I sell a lot of canvases- i use acrylics. Its how I started- I only started painting 5 years ago- the mrs bought me a small canvas and some paints and said 'stop drawing on scraps of paper and do a nice painting'. I almost had a heart attack doing my first canvas- I was soooo nervous. Turned out ok though; a weird alien featus inside the sun- hahahaha I sold it for £100!!! thats nearly $200 for my first painting hahah. That amazed me- I had to really take a look at myself and try to convince myself that I could have a go at this. The demand was such and the time was such that it seemed like an obvious step to put them on a t-shirt.
If you could submit one piece to a gallery, which would it be?
'bad luck' (i will attatch an image for you) says a lot about me.
Be honest, how much creativity is driven from the beard? I mean, I know I feel more creative when I have a beard.
Ive always wanted a beard since i was a kid, I was totally into how all the 'cool' people had beards, maybe I'm different to most coz i though Karl Marx was cool. I am totally into the Victorians too, basically if you look back through history you will see beards are linked to some of the best minds. Maybe I thought if I grew one it would make me clever? hahah People always ask me about my beard- at the moment its 5 inches long- so it is a bit of an eye catcher. I am always amazed at how people are so amazed at my beard- I suppose its coz i am used to it- or maybe its coz they have nothing better to talk about- its like a short cut for thinking- i dont know. I am always remided of the old tattoo shop sign (this was back in the day when tattoos were only on bikers and whores and was not so middle class):

'the only difference between me and you is that I dont mind if you Dont have a tattoo'

And your evilness, where does that derive from?
Am I evil? I didnt know I was evil? I really dont know how to answer this....
So, any hints as to whats next for godmachine / deadmetal clothing.
DMC, well, Im a bit surprised- I only started it last year and its doing ok- I always worry its not doing well and that i should pack it in- but the mrs has to remind me how far its come in such a short time. As for Godmachine, its been great joining emptees, Ive gotten to speak to some great people and have been pushed into producing more and more. Keep an eye out for more stuff off me in the future- I dont wanna jinx myself by saying much.
If I hooked it up with $200 right now, what would you do with it. And you can't say pay bills.
I would honestly give it to a charity. I didnt have it then- i dont have it now. its a bit like death- you fear being dead, you fear not being around anymore, but we forget there was a time we didnt exist- all that time before we were born- we dont seem phased by that at all, we dont fear that. were we dead then? We are silly beings that put fear and worth in odd things. like if i gave you 200 quid and then took it off you- you'd experience loss. you didnt have it a min' ago- so why feel band now its gone. .
Being that you have $200, I have to know, beer of choice?
I dont drink anymore- the welsh can drink- british people drink like fuck- I remember drinking in the clubs from the age of 14- buying 15 pints of beer for the boys because I was the only one who had enought fluffy mist on his top lip to get served. Since stopping drinking I spend all my time working- my fav' is eating now- it went from a beer belly to flat and then the cakes and italian food atatcked and now im back to a bit of a belly- fuck it- im at that age where im happy and i dont really care if some slut wants to sleep with me or not, I dont give a fuck wether my looks impress you. They say when men chose to remove all their sexual organs they become more confident and more productive- its kinda the same for me: big ol' beard, bit of a belly- no more false goals hahaha what the hell am I doing comparing myself to a sexless male...oh...hahahah i get it..

When my mum was pregnant with me she went ice skating and drank a bottle of whiskey- she slipped on the ice and went into labour- my head was out as she went through the hospital doors apparently ahahah when i was fully out my mum was screaming and crying that she couldnt hear me and I wasnt making a noise: thinking i was dead- the doctor had to explain to her that the booze was making me sleepy and i probbaly wanted a burger or to watch some shit TV. I was born drunk. Before I stopped drinking I could polish off a bottle of whiskey and you wouldnt know i had been drinking hahaha. Same for weed- I used to smoke all the time- but I knocked it all on the head and cigarettes over a year ago now- its been great- I'm not anti-booze or drugs- in fact I would say experiencing what you are capable of is essential as an artist. drugs are just liitle crutches to help you understand yourself. Its just the west percieve these things as bad, no, they are not. Abuse of these things is bad. Drugs are very important- and if you are against them then you have failed to realise that you are living in a world that is big, very big and our reality is very deep. I get worried when you hear people so 'anti-drugs', they remind me of nazis- they wanted to burn books because they would open your mind and lead you to a better understanding of the universe.

I think there is a opossum outside my window. Not a question, just thought I would tell you.
I think I can recall one of your designs being ripped. If I could put you alone in a room with that person, what would go down?
Oh man- its happening more and more lately- im seeing bits of me everywhere and I get really angry- but then I figure its some form of flattery. Whats more facinating is when someone you think is better than you rips you- that blows my mind. Ripping is a big thing in the art community and the Manticores has now become this tool for exposing people. Its rough when someone rips yr hard work- its a hard thing to deal with- I know some people can handle it quite well- but it makes me mad- but then- is it done intentionally- or do they make an honest mistake? Have I ever ripped some one off?- I could well have- I sit there for hours sometimes asking myself 'did i really think of that or have i seen it somewhere before- maybe years ago?'. Its strange how the mind works, the say there are no new ideas, but that we just develop old ones, nothing new under the sun and all that'. I doubt myself a lot. Can you imagine the founder of the Manticores ripping someone off? hahaha.

Honestly If I was in a room with them- I'd probably shout for a min' then get really embaressed of my behaviour and offer to make him a cup of tea and have a nice chat about old films.

Have an embarrassing / interesting stories for us? Can relate to anything.
oh jesus, I remember saying a bit about myself on emptees once and people calling me a lier- i have so many stories.
Is there any situation where if you saw someone wearing one of your shirts, you would just start shaking your head and walk away?
I was in town the other day getting some books, I had some Godmachine stickers in my back pocket and was aimlessly putting them on lamposts on the way home- down to my last sticker- I saw a group of emo girls walking toward me- I thought I would give these guys the sticker. As I handed it to them I noticed about 3 of them were wearing my tees- thats was rad.

I know the owner of a massive alternative label in the UK- they are massive- and are getting worldwide big. This guy man, wow, if the people who buy his stuff could hear what he has to say about them- it would cripple his business.

I used to worry that racists would be wearing my tees, but then I figured that the joke is on them in the end- seeing as I'm probably spending their hard earned cash on public enemy records hahaha.

Advice for people trying to break into the design industry.
fuck knows- i really couldnt help there- im just doing it myself. I would recomend joining a commuinty of sorts though- I would have to regurgatate what Jeff Finley and Horsebites have taught me so far: do a shed load of work- keep producing stuff, ask bands to do their tees, produce stuff for as many people as possible- shit, im just saying what i've read off emptees- how much work is a lot of work?
Are there any other designers out there you think should get some recognition?
I dont know any designers at all really- all the ones I do know I have met on emptees and they all seem to be doing quite well for themselves- I say met: we've left comments under each others pictures- i suppose that counts as friends these days. I have a friend who is an alchoholic old school punk from back in the day- he had some bad shit happen to him growing up- he lives in a fucked up flat in olny one room coz the rest is rotten to the core and uninhabitable. He's proper angry and super intelligent, you know the type, well, his work is amazing- it has the most honest soul bearing stuff i have ever seen- and no one ever sees it- its all piled up under newspapers and tears and beer cans and medicine bottles. I dont know what else to say really, I sometimes disgust myself when I think of his work and how its so true, honest and raw it is. its art though.
Any closing words for everyone?
do you believe in the big bang or god? I am more inclined to believe in the big bang, the 9 building blocks and all that. well, the idea of a big bang is that there was this massive explosion and everything expanded, cooled, developed, grew, expanded and this is where we are today. you know when we throw ink at a wall and it splats- there is the big majority of the ink in the middle and all the little splats further out, then as you progress out the splats get smaller and smaller and are further apart, much like the universe. but all those little dots, splats are all part of that big bit of ink we threw at the wall in the first place.

so when you see someone in the street and you wave at them- thats the universe waving at itself.

and to dismiss this as 'hippie crap' or 'weird and funny' is to deny yourself a better understanding of where you fit in.

'the man who doesnt read is no more intelligent than the man who cant read'.

I hope I dont come across as a dick in any of this- and I hope I dont come across preachy or whatever....cheers for reading and I hope you learnt a bit about me...if you wanna know any more- just ask.
I just wanna thank godmachine for taking the time to do this for idrankyourtee. I have never interviewed anyone before so I hope it wasn't to rough of a read for everyone, and they got a little bit of info about the designer that they didn't know before. Thanks again for taking the time to read this and thank you godmachine for being my test subject for our first interview.

- thomas