We met Vince and the rest of the band in the summer of 2008 while they were living in Paris. We loved their music and heard that they wanted to make a European clip for their song ‘Into The Galaxy’. We told them about a place in the Pyrenées where Jeremie’s uncle Bruno Schmeltz’s paintings were set and what followed is one of our favourite music videos to date with the whole S2A crew coming down to hang out!

We spoke to Vince about his time in France and life on tour. He is particularly relaxed for someone living a non-stop lifestyle. He runs a record label called Siberia Records who release a lot of good music and put on parties in unusual spaces. Midnight Juggernauts have been recording a new album that’s due to be released in the near future, and for now you can watch their cryptic new video below filmed in Russia!

Interview by Karl Henkell.

S2A: Tell me about the ‘Into The Galaxy’  shoot. How did it come about?

VINCENT VENDETTA: Well we were living in Paris at the time and our label people there were keen to make a clip for Europe. The Surface to Air guys told us their concept, which was based on some of their uncles paintings which we thought was a really cool idea.

A Bruno Schmeltz painting

S2A: Where was it filmed? 

VV: It was filmed in the Pyrenées, in the south-west of France. It was in the mountains amongst a ski resort, but we filmed during summer so it was green and pristine. A really beautiful area. One of the sites was also within a quarry so there were really interesting rock formations. Plus most of the Surface to Air gang came along to help out so there was a fun communal vibe on the set.

On the set of ‘Into The Galaxy’

S2A: Was there any reference to the ‘Into The Galaxy’ clip being your ‘Live in Pompeii‘? It seems like the perfect festival location without the crowd!

VV: Yeah there was a bit of a Pompeii reference there as well. It would be quite a good festival site, plus one could play to the many Brown Bears, boars and squirrels in the area!

S2A: I’m interested in your music making process. How does a track usually start out?

VV: We write music all the time, so we have dozens of tracks which just appear. Often it’s an idea for a chord progression which shifts into a song, then a ring tone, and then a board game.

S2A: What instrument do you play around with most?

VV: Usually I play guitar as it’s the most portable. It’s a hot day here in Australia so it’s nice to sit outside and strum. It attracts the cats from next door who are good company. After the guitar we’ll usually shift it across to synths and other toys.

Kitty says ‘hi’

S2A: The Midnight Juggernauts seem so linked with an electronic sound, yet at the same time I can imagine you guys playing in a basement with shitty amps and still have the same ‘Juggers’ vibe. Was it hard to translate your music into a live show initially?

VV: Well in the beginning we never really thought about it too much. We knew we wanted to do something a bit more unorthodox so we were aware that it would take a while to find our place. We ended up playing dance music in rock venues, and rock music in dance clubs. Perhaps it caused confusion, but we liked mixing things up. I find it more fun that way.

S2A: Do you think the musical climate has changed since you released Dystopia in 2007? Your remix for The Presets ‘Down Down Down’ comes to mind. Has your own outlook changed?

VV: Yeah music is always changing. Different gulf streams and ice changes keep the climate spinning in a circular spiral, only to return again. I’ve always been in music to follow my own artistic instincts, and not to be afraid to shake things up when I feel the need. To keep taking risks and chances; I’ve never really been a purist.

S2A: Do you listen to other people’s music while you’re making a record?

VV: Not really. We’re aware of what’s out there but we’re more interested in finding inspiration over wider terrain; such as in film, painting or intriguing historical events.

S2A: Are there any bands or people that inspired you to make music in the beginning?

VV: Yeah. Anyone like David Axelrod, Philip Glass, Bernard Herrmann, ELO, Kenneth Anger, John Williams, Daft Punk, David Bowie, and many more.

S2A: Is a lot of your time spent on Siberia Records and other projects?

VV: Yeah we’ve been busy with lots of weird side projects here and there. We put together some weird Grand Organ film soundtrack pieces that we played with [italo legends] Goblin at the Melbourne Town Hall. And we’ve been doing a few Siberian Parties, including one at the Melbourne Uni carpark where they shot Mad Max. Dan is always putting on strange art events in Sydney, Andy will do a dance music thing and I’m putting together some weird film and video projects. I might do this strange video art piece in Europe when we return there this year. The weirder the better. We’ve been juggling a few things.

S2A: Do you find different environments inspirational for you to make and record music?

VV: I can be inspired pretty much anywhere, though it’s nice to be able to throw yourself into new environments to see what new ideas may appear. For this upcoming album we did some writing and recording in a church in the french countryside. I also spent some time working on projects in Cuba and some other islands; so it’s been fun to see how ideas evolve under that stimulation.

S2A: Recording in an old church in the countryside must have been interesting. How did it come about?

VV: Well we had friends who converted this old countryside church into a studio. It was a large stone chalet where each morning you could go ride bikes down to the lake past these large sunflower fields on the edge of a haunted forest. The french countryside is quite beautiful. We played guitars and organs in these reverbed church halls, which was quite spooky, but great for atmosphere. We just like trying new locations, challenges and adventures to gain new inspirations along the way.

The church in the french countryside

S2A: How was it on tour with Justice? Was that a break-out moment for you guys?

VV: Yeah that was a lot of fun. Touring with them through North America introduced us to a wider audience than we’d previously had over there. I spent a couple of days with them last year and it was good to reminisce about that first tour. It would be fun to do it again sometime. I did a song with them called Ohio on their last album, which was probably partly inspired by those trans-american travels.

Le Crüe

S2A: Do you have a favourite tour moment?

VV: There are quite a few. Too many afterparties with too many strange moments, with Kanye West and the like wandering around. I think my favourite part was driving from Vancouver through to Chicago. They were really beautiful parts of America with such diverse landscapes across each state. The Badlands in particular had amazing ghost towns which were definitely haunted.

The Juggernauts crowd at Calvi On The Rocks

S2A: Have you ever considered relocating overseas?

VV: Yeah we lived in Paris for a little while in ’08 and we’re always keen to move back there sometime. We have been back there many times since. I’ve been thinking about moving to the U.S. for a while as well. I guess the choice will be made depending on which location allows for the most productivity and creativity to flourish.

S2A: How was your time in Paris? Did you find the Paris music scene different to elsewhere?

VV: We loved our time in Paris. We made a few friends in that town so we felt at home there. Plus I guess having a music scene stemming from Serge Gainsbourg brings a lot of appeal as well.

S2A: Did you live in one apartment as a band? What was your favourite hangout spot while you were there?

VV: Yeah we lived together for a few months in a 3-bedroom apartment at the top of a nice old building. Sometimes it felt like we were the Monkees on European vacation. It was situated close to the Pompidou centre. I like being outdoors during summer, so we’d often go to Point FMR and drink along the Canal. And we had dozens of cheeseburgers at Hotel Amour. Another time we stayed in a houseboat for a week on the Seine, so I love walking along the banks of the Seine from Notre Dame all the way to Palais de Tokyo, waving at tourist boats.

S2A: Anything you want to tell us about your upcoming record?

VV: Well we’ve written a large amount of tracks and now we’re just deciding which ones to put on there. This one will be quite different, but will still sound like us. We wrote and recorded much of this in an old church in France, and also across the mean streets of Australia. Perhaps it will make people dance, ponder, love, fight, and sleep. We’ll finish it off soon so we can return to Europe. We’ve been hiding out for a while but are looking forward to walking the earth again.

S2A: Tell me about the video you released this week.

VV: It’s kind of a strange one. We shot it in russia and pretended to be some surreal soviet art-pop band from 30 years ago. Then we made different versions of the video under different guises, untitled and with no association to Midnight Juggernauts. Over the last few weeks some russian friends secretly spread it across various blogs, sites and discussion boards as some weird mystery video. It has been interesting to watch the response. Many have been saying it must be some rediscovered band lost behind the Iron Curtain. One guy said it’s not as good as ‘I am the Walrus’ by the Beatles.

~

Watch ‘Into The Galaxy’:

See behind-the-scenes photos from the filming of ‘Into The Galaxy’ here

Follow the Midnight Juggernauts latest movements here.

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‘MEET’ is a series of interviews with friends of S2A where we catch up on their lives, their current projects, their creativity, inspiration and whatever else happens to be on their minds!

This week first lady of Ed Banger Records Amandine Romero joins us on our FAST FIVE segment! She knows Paris like no other and lives tucked away in the hills of Montmartre by Sacre Coeur. Everyone has their own little secret places to go in Paris and love it for all kinds of reasons. So we asked Amandine, self-confessed lover of this city, to tell us about her favourite places to go in Paris. And just for fun we asked Amandine to give us her take on the things that only Parisian girls do. Enjoy!

The rest of this post is in Amandine’s words, with illustrations by (c) We Are From L.A!

Cover image (c) Yue Wu

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What are five things that only Parisian girls do?

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1. They only eat their hamburgers with a knife and fork.

2. They never run after the bus.

3. They always match their bra with their panties.

4. They never eat the last bite of a dish to share.

5. They always have a perfect nail polish but often have a messy haircut.

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Amandine’s Paris tips

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What you will read below is basically what I would call a perfect week-end in Paris!

1. Hanging out at the bird & flower market on l’Ile de la Cité. It’s located in the heart of Paris, surrounded by the Seine river, l’île de la Cité is reputed for its flower market. You can find flowers every single day of the week, but when Sunday comes, this place turns into a bird market. If you go there on Sunday, and you want both birds and flowers, you can still get flowers along the Seine, on the other side of the river!

Map

2. Having brunch at Casimir, right behind St Vincent de Paul church. I have this new obsession about churches; I figured out that we have so many amazing ones in Paris, but for some reason we actually never visit them. And also this place serves a great brunch.

6 Rue de Belzunce 75010 Paris

3. Being amazed by the hundreds of different kinds of butterflies at the Deyrolle shop in the 7th. They have a proper shop on the first floor, and when you go upstairs, you actually arrive in an amazing museum full of stuffed animals. Their butterfly collection is breathtaking. You can spend hours looking around, and you eventually feel kind of dizzy from all the psychedelic colours!

46 Rue du Bac  75007 Paris

4. Going to Le Champo cinema, in the Latin area of Paris, close by St Germain. They project only old movies, which is a perfect way to (re)discover classics, without falling asleep in front of your TV.

51 Rue des Écoles  75005 Paris

5. I always finish off my Sundays by having dinner at Fafinette. It’s a secret place, hidden in the middle of Chinatown. The atmosphere is warm and we dim all the lights, but I can’t say much more.

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‘FAST FIVE’ is a segment where we ask friends of S2A to tell us about their five favourite places in a city they know all about. The lesser known and far more interesting parts of a city from the eyes of those who know! Plus some entertaining extras of course!

So first of all, Luis Cerveró is not from Canada. Well not the country at least. He is however one of three directors (Lope Serrano and Nicolás Méndez being the other two) in a film collective from Barcelona called CANADA who make films, music videos and commercials all signed under the one common name. To explain their whole world would be to get into an array of details; but basically they produce work for local clients, have signed with the production company Partizan for world-wide representation, they produce for other directors and companies under the name NEVADA and have recently opened up a publishing arm called Canada Editorial. It’s a lot to take in so let’s all take a breath.

You’d know their clip for El Guincho ‘Bombay’ and have probably seen the seductive ice-cream slurpery of Battles ‘Ice Cream’. They are masters of translating their ideas into unique and appealing shots on screen, always with an eye for clean aesthetics, and usually of things you’ve never seen before. At least we hadn’t seen girls lick branches or make out with statues before Bombay; but are sure glad we did!

They recently released their epic retro-futuristic clip to Justice ‘New Lands’ (of which S2A Studio did the single cover artwork), so naturally we wanted to hear more about the shooting and share some of the behind-the-scenes stories with you, our readers!

They are staunchly in favour of analog equipment and the use of film. They hate the term ‘vintage’ as they see film as just being the real thing, not a novelty. No filters here.

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“It’s exactly what’s happening if you use a Leica 35mm camera to take pictures of your wife and people go like wow, how cool and vintage is that. Well fuck you, this isn’t vintage, it’s just the real thing.”

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Interview by Karl Henkell for Surface to Air.

S2A: Just to get it out of the way early, why the name CANADA?

LUIS CERVERÓ: Well, when we had to pick a name for us as a collective we just dropped in plenty of names. We were sitting in a cafe with a huge hangover. The night before we had been all three together in this amazing clandestine rock club called Our Favorite Club, and there we had met a canadian girl called Rivkah. I was talking to her all night about the amazingness of Canada, the country, even if I had never been there before. It was all just about the idea one has from the distance of a very huge country, with very few people, and with all this snow and mountains and trees and bears and caribous. Then the next morning, when we were talking names, that word came up again, Canada, and we started thinking about qualities to it. The cross between french and english cultures, the mix of extreme nature and industrial cities, the fact it is always on the margins without being marginal, and also, the word itself made out of three As and different consonants kind of made sense to us being three, and having a lot in common (which would make the A) and a bit distinctive (which would be the C/N/D). Well that’s more or less the story but in fact the reason is totally random, which is at the same time at the core of CANADA, the randomness of things in life.

 Luis behind the camera on set of ‘New Lands’

S2A: Tell me a bit about the filming of your epic clip to Justice ‘New Lands’.

LUIS: Well i wouldn’t know where to start. It was epic indeed. We were prepping for two months, gathering all these sportsmen and stunts and clothes and props while we were thinking up the story and the storyboards. Then the shoot itself was quite hectic, having not such a big budget we had to shoot with a small crew, two units, and a ton of actors and extras for four nights in a row. Shooting outdoors at night is a big fuck because when the sun rises there’s nothing you can do about it, you just stop and leave. So you are shooting against the clock and we had over 300 storyboarded shots and the list kept getting smaller because we couldn’t complete more than around 60 shots for each night of the shoot (which is a lot for 10 hours of night time). So it was going to be even bigger. There was this female character among the crowd that was going to unveil as a sniper at some point and try to kill the president of the black team. We had helmets of the police special forces that guard the authorities booth ready to explode with blood and the video was going to finish with a double parallel thrill of the main hero about to score the final touchdown and the girl about to kill the president. But we ran out of time and stuck to the main sports action and forgot about the gun shoots. The girl didn’t even come to set, as we kept moving and moving her shots. But anyway, it was plenty of fun to shoot and it was our first music video with anamorphic lenses, which is a reason in itself to enjoy any shoot in your life.

The stadium set to Justice ‘New Lands’

S2A: With such a tight schedule of shots to do in one night, there must have been a lot of pressure to keep moving onto the next one. Is the only way forward to run with it and accept that you can’t control everything? 

LUIS: Time is such an abstract and enigmatic thing, really. I remember perfectly the first night seemed like a big monster hanging on our shoulders. Everything was hard and slow, and everytime I looked at the clock an hour and a half had passed. We lost a lot of shots that day; it was a mess and very appaling. Then the second night was the other way around. We kept making larger and more complex shots and time was totally on our side. It was the same amount of hours, but two totally opposite realities. But then night three was hell again and night four we had all night to shoot the final touchdown under the rain, and we had storyboarded like 80 shots for that, which we finally had to reduce to half of it. It is very tough to work that way, but it also keeps the shooting process very open and alive. You just have to keep jumping onto solutions, making up new shots that will solve what you intended to do in four different takes, stuff like that. It is a mix of very negative pressure and very positive creative flow. Also the fact that it’s not just you but a huge amount of people involved make it totally organic and you have to leave room for accidents to happen. Hopefully happy accidents.

On field at the ‘New Lands’ shoot

S2A: Where did the idea for the clip begin? 

LUIS: The idea came straight from Xavier and Gaspard. You have worked with them, so you probably know that most of what they do, the idea comes straight from them. They are such control freaks. So they said hey we’d like to do this music video featuring an ultraviolent sport that takes place in the future, would you be up for it? So we wrote the treatment and then they said we love it, talk to Ed Banger about money! Hahahaha It was a big setup but they got what they wanted, I hope.

Flying high on set of ‘New Lands’

S2A: Was it one of the more elaborate projects you’ve done?

LUIS: Absolutely. Up to then we were really avoiding anything to do with heavy post-production. Our films are very simple technically and that was a major turn around. But since then, we’ve been approached for larger and more complex projects involving post, which we found ourselves dumped in as we speak.

Ball-up!

S2A: Is heavy post-production the way of the future? 

LUIS: I personally have no clue what the way of the future is. I just hope one can always have in hand whichever tools he or she thinks are the best to achieve what’s in his or her mind. Heavy post-production is a great tool for some works to be done, but what matters most also is who’s behind those tools, and what worries us as well is the shift in creative people’s sensibilities towards a very fake and just plain ugly sense of reality. You just have to compare the original Star Wars trilogy to the new one. Or something as simple as film posters or magazine covers being done today. It’s hard for people in their thirties to accept that new way of rendering visuals.

Entering the danger-zone

S2A: Where do you stand on the topic of analog vs digital? Are you more passionate about ‘vintage’ film equipment or about what new digital technology can offer?

LUIS: We all stand strongly on the analog. First, because it is the technology we know more about, most of our previous experience comes from shooting on film and we still feel clumsy and uncomfortable when using digital. But on top of that, you just can’t beat film on any side of it (well, just on the money side of it). The texture, the colours, the highlights, the shadows, the depth of field, the sharpness of film beats the HD video blatantly. I mean, why spend so much effort using HD to make it look like film (which is what most people intend) when you have the other medium that just gives it to you naturally. It’s just an enormous industrial and economic detour that has been imposed to filmmakers as a must, as a bit of a fashist attack, where in a few years time you will just not be able to shoot how you want to shoot, and be left with just one choice: digital. It is a big fuck up. Big big fuck up.

We are not passionate about vintage technology regarding film. It is this same capitalist imposition of HD which is making film technology to look or be considered vintage, which shouldn’t be like that. It’s exactly what’s happening if you use a Leica 35mm camera to take pictures of your wife and people go like wow, how cool and vintage is that. Well fuck you, this isn’t vintage, it’s just the real thing.

Story-boarded shots for ‘New Lands’

S2A: Do bigger budgets equal a greater opportunity?

LUIS: Not really, I wouldn’t say so. It has to do more with the people you work with. I mean for instance with Justice working for them is a great opportunity to get your work visible, but not because of the money spent. Alex Courtes’ video was much cheaper and is an amazing piece of film, and it has probably meant the same to him as to what New Lands meant to us. And our big international jump came from El Guincho’s Bombay, which is a super low cost video. So I wouldn’t say money is involved in great opportunities, no. But of course, it means you can be more ambitious with the size of what you’re shooting.

Head-honchos looking over the game  

S2A: For us at S2A, Paris as a city is very important creatively. Would you say that Barcelona is the same for you?

LUIS: I guess it used to be like that. We were always in bars and parties and live shows and that, but it’s gotten to a point where we’re working so much we might be losing our connection to the city, which isn’t good at all. But right now Barcelona feels more like a background or a playground for our projects than a consistent influence. Lope is a massive Barça supporter so he’s probably the one who lives the city more intensely.

S2A: How do ideas usually come about at CANADA. Is it a process of collaboration?

LUIS: We try to keep it like that, yes. When it is an open brief or original idea, we try and gather all three around a table (or on the floor carpet) and talk for hours. But now many times clients call with a straight idea or brief so any of us can handle it individually while the other two do something else. But we still lean on one each other on different stages of the creative process, and that is of great help, because what’s most hard in any creative job is to be fully convinced you’ve got the best choice possible, and that is always helpful to share with other brains.

 Filming of the touch-down scene in ‘New Lands’

S2A: Many of the video clips that we have done have been for friends (Justice, Jamaica, Scenario Rock etc) . Is that how many of your clips come about – as ‘natural collaborations’?

LUIS: Yes, I mean, since we signed up to Partizan, we’re like divided in two fields: doing international videos with bigger budgets for bands that we don’t know personally but admire, and then sticking with the independent music scene from our country, where we always work with bands that are close friends or friends of friends. It’s a bit schizoid, because both worlds are completely different, but we don’t want to lose touch with the music scene here, even though its getting hard to shoot with the actual budgets from spanish record labels.

S2A: What is the music scene like in Barcelona?

LUIS: It is great. It is a bit worse than say, four or five years ago, when we did have the best scene I’ve known in my lifetime. There are still really great bands doing totally diverse stuff from a unique voice and personal statements. I love a lot of bands from the city: Mujeres, Tarántula, Les Aus, Pegasvs, El Guincho, or Don The Tiger, which are bands that don’t have anything in common musically but are big friends and make a very exciting scene. Some good bands have dissapeared lately, and it’s getting harder to have live shows in bars, but still there’s a great musical energy in the city.

S2A: What is an ideal project for you? A more narrative-driven video like that for 55dsl?

LUIS: Well, what was really good about that particular film is that it was a total open brief. I mean they really didn’t give a fuck about what it was about as long as you had a young couple wearing their clothes and that it was shot in Italy. But in that case they didn’t have much money, so it wasn’t either like an ideal project. But the fact of having an open brief is not always ideal either, some guidelines or a starting point is usually of great help. We tend to conceptualise our films a lot, so working in the void is not that good for us. But, yes, as one can imagine, an ideal project is something with enough money to be crafted right and interesting people or music or ideas behind them that will still leave you space to work under a good amount of creative freedom.

S2A: Would Canada ever consider directing a feature-length film?

LUIS: We talk about it often, and we’ve had some proposals already. But it’s not easy to totally stop the company’s activity for a couple of years to focus on a long length project. But we’re working our heads to see how we can manage this situation. We all want to give it a try.

S2A: Are there any upcoming projects you can talk about?

LUIS: Not really, no. We’ve had an exhausting year and right now we’ve all three just completed commercial works. So we’re in a bit of a pause right now, gathering forces for the next round.

~

See more at www.lawebdecanada.com/

Photography by Javier Caso & Eskenaziencursiva

Justice – ‘New Lands’ directed by CANADA

Making Of Justice ‘New Lands’ presented by Red Bull

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‘MEET’ is a series of interviews with friends of S2A where we catch up on their lives, their current projects, their creativity, inspiration and whatever else happens to be on their minds!

Today, we present a new segment on our blog called ‘FAST FIVE’. It’s where we ask friends of S2A to tell us about their five favourite places in a city they know all about. The lesser known and far more interesting parts of a city from the eyes of those who know. Plus some entertaining extras of course!

First up is Los Angeles dwelling artist Jonathan Zawada (in our Quimper Parka above), who gives us his five favourite places and tells us about the things he’s learnt in the year since moving from the sunny shores of Sydney, Australia to his new home in Hollywood, California. 

He spends most of his time in West Hollywood, so when he gets the chance he likes to escape the city for the cool breeze and arm tan that only a drive in a fine american automobile can offer! As is the nature of L.A., there’s always a chance of bumping into Elton John and Johnny Depp having lunch (if you happen to be at Madeo that is) and the absurd is never far away. His answers are sure to make you smile!

And in case you missed it, check out our interview with Jonathan from earlier in the year!

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What are five things you’ve learnt about L.A. in the last year?

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1. Trainers

LA dudes like their shoes…

2. Celebrity Strays

Pets lost in LA have way more glamourous back stories than elsewhere in the world.

3. Exclusive parking

 In LA they have parking spots that are specifically reserved for Kim Kardashian.

4. The American Dream

In LA there are many ways to become a millionaire.

5. One Upmanship

There’s always a more unique pet to be had in LA.

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Jonathan’s five favourite places

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1.

Arroyo Seco Parkway

Driving along the Arroyo Seco Parkway to Pasadena. This is the first freeway in the Western US and it feels like it’s been designed for the sheer joy of driving it. You pass through beautiful old tunnels, go around arbitrary winding curves and under gorgeous old bridges. Every time I drive it I’m reminded of the video game Daytona USA.

Arroyo Seco Parkway, Los Angeles, CA

2.

Runyon Canyon

Climbing Runyon Canyon. Gives you a good perspective on the city of LA which stretches out below you as you clamber up steep slopes through scraggly desert brush. As good as the view are the conversations between writers, producers, actors and other movie industry types staying fit and competitive.

2001 N Fuller Ave, Los Angeles, CA

3.

Madeo Ristorante

Delicious old school italian in an old school, white table cloth restaurant and bar. So good. The food is great and there are always big celebs – one time Elton John and Johnny Depp were eating at the next table over, both in matching blue tinted glasses.

8897 Beverly Blvd, West Hollywood, CA
(310) 859-0242 Mon-Fri 12-11pm, Sat 6-11pm, Sun 5:30 – 10:30pm

4.

La Cienega Boulevard

September’s first opening night for the galleries on La Cienega in Culver City. It’s surreal enough to see people walking around on the side of the road in LA but especially good at the first opening night after summer when all the galleries down here put on their flagship shows for the year. Funny people. Funny art.

La Cienega Boulevard, Culver City, CA

5.

Café Gratitude

Don’t let the pronouncement of it being a vegan café fool you, the food is actually amazing! Especially good is a mint choc chip milkshake thing, somehow made without milk or real choc chips…

639 N. Larchmont Blvd, Los Angeles, CA
(323) 580-6383 10am-10pm

Catch Jonathan’s current show ‘Free Roam Above The Mist’ at Prism LA.

8746 W. Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA 90069
(310) 289-1301, Tuesday – Saturday 11-6

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‘FAST FIVE’ is a segment where we ask friends of S2A to tell us about their five favourite places in a city they know all about. The lesser known and far more interesting parts of a city from the eyes of those who know! Plus some entertaining extras of course!

Abraham Cruzvillegas knows a thing or two about apes. Not just anyone can draw mandrills at the drop of a hat. Not only does he have an extensive knowledge of primates, but Abraham is a well accomplished artist whose career has spanned over two decades across diverse artistic projects.

Along with friend Dr Lakra and others, he began his career as a sculptor, writer and central participant in a new wave of conceptual art in Mexico City during the late 1980s. Since then Abraham has taught, lectured, given tutorials, co-ordinated seminars and workshops and has shown his work the world over. He has had notable residencies at the Tate Modern in London, the New Museum of Modern Art in New York and the DAAD Artist in Residency Program in Berlin to name a few. This year he is part of dOCUMENTA(13) in Kassel.

He is a well-travelled man and lived in Paris with his wife Alejandra for several years where he became friends with our own S2A Studio art director Alberto Cabrera. Our latest collaboration with Abraham is on an Artist Series t-shirt that he did for us. Check it out below – we told you he could draw a mandrill!

Interview by Alberto Cabrera for Surface to Air.

S2A x Abraham Cruzvillegas t-shirt

S2A: How did you start out in art?

Abraham Cruzvillegas: I started making drawings when I was a teenager. I liked very much political cartoons, comic strips and illustration for magazines and newspapers. In Mexico we call drawings in all these kinds of publications ‘monitos‘; so I was a ‘monero‘, as they call us there. Mono could have two meanings: doll or ape. You can say ‘gran mono’ and there’s no doubt you are talking about gorillas, orangutans, chimps and bonobos. But if you say ‘el monito de la rosca’ it’s for sure that it’s a little doll you get in a Christmas related cake as a prize. So, by then – in the mid eighties – I made some other drawings of apes, mandrills, and other primates in my spare time. But just for pleasure; for me.

S2A: In several of your projects you work in collaboration with other people. While you were in the Calder residency in Saché (France) you worked with many artisans of the region to recreate a club [the wooden kind]. In Scotland you produced a music album with different local bands based on your lyrics and you built a custom bicycle / sound-system with a local crafsman. You did a book of recollected images with Dr. Lakra and I guess there must be many other examples. Apart from the technical or production matters, why is it important for you to work with others?

AC: First of all, I like to learn. And when I discover something I like, or something I think is somehow important, I share it with my friends or with whoever could be there. Like when I make an exhibition, for me it’s like making a report of my discoveries to unknown people who may like it or not. But it’s there anyways to be shared. I like the idea of belonging to a community; you can be part of a club, a gang, a sect, but in my case it’s more like a guild. Something not necessarily related to skills or mastership, but a community of ideas, a complicity in language, the language of art, as used or spoken in a personal discourse.

S2A: And where does a collaboration with a fashion brand like Surface to Air come in?

AC: When I lived in Paris, I experienced fashion (one of the most important issues of the city) through my wife Alejandra, who loves high heels and cool clothes. I like some designers myself, but I rarely wear fancy brands’ stuff. But it was through my friend Beto Cabrera that I got a little bit closer to the business, because he has worked at S2A since 2005; the same year we arrived there. With him I shared lots of time celebrating, exchanging ideas, working and having fun. We used to hang out also with my beloved compadre Niklas Svennung at Le Café de La Pérle, site of Galliano’s scandal. It appeared to me very normal to make a collaboration as I feel I like the idea of people wearing something as simple as a t-shirt made in a collaborative way. It’s made in a very soft cloth with a slick silkscreen print; so it’s nice, smooth and easy.

S2A: Talking about the primate you sent us for your Surface to Air printed t-shirt; I know you’ve been drawing monkeys for a longtime but lately you’ve been showing them as part of your most recent exhibitions. For example: the gorilla carved in the wall in Berlin (for your DAAD residency final project in 2011) and the broom painted paintings for Kurimanzutto gallery in Mexico City 2012. Why primates and monkeys?

AC: Genetically primates are the closest animals to us humans, so it’s not eccentric to look at them through some kind of mirror. I love apes. I named all the works in my recent exhibition at Kurimanzutto gallery in Mexico city after the names of all my closest relatives and my family, including my beautiful wife portrayed as a pregnant bonobo. I think primates are a strong link of our development; they represent our most sincere and honest face. They are something in-between; they are a threshold.

Making of: Nuestra imagen actual: Helena, 2012

S2A: You lived in France for some time; for you what are the best and worst things here?

AC: Paris is great. I love Paris, even when it’s so bourgeois; so stiff sometimes. I don’t mind the bad English pronunciation of French people, it compensates the bad fame they have about not tolerating non-French speaking people in France. I love the country side. I love the vide-gréniers and the marchés gourmands. I love the beauty they respect so much. I feel they just need some more sunny seasons and cold beer, because they already have wine and cheese.

S2A: Please tell us about your “Round de Sombra” publication for Harvard university and other future projects.

AC: Harvard University Press will publish an anthology of my essays, selected and edited by Dr Robin Greeley. I’ll be part of some group shows here and there: Germany, Korea, the US, China. Next year I’ll have a big show, displaying all the elements from the long term project called Autoconstrucción, at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. I’m preparing a new show for Paris next year, at Chantal Crousel’s gallery. Ah… I’m also preparing a book for children!

S2A: Anything else you’d like to add?

AC: Yes, I have a question: why you didn’t make the t-shirts for girls? Even XS size doesn’t fit them so femininely…

S2A: We do like girls in oversized t-shirts!

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Nuestra imagen actual: Helena, 2012

Self portrait as a childish junkie living at the corner of Orizaba and Zacatecas Streets just after WWII, 2012

Indigent and indigenous self portrait pretending to be discrete at the Mall of America, 2012

Images courtesy of Galerie Kurimanzutto (Mexico City)

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‘MEET’ is a series of interviews with friends of S2A where we catch up on their lives, their current projects, their creativity, inspiration and whatever else happens to be on their minds!

A curious fact about Andrew is that he only ever writes in CAPS. And I don’t mean that he shouts at people over email, but anyone who has ever received a hand-written note from him (usually in the form of post-it notes on our screens that make us smile) will testify to the fact that they are only ever in capitals. So it only made sense to get him to answer these questions in the form truest to himself!

To bring you up to speed; Andrew is a graphic designer and ex-patriate of Australia who thought he was moving to London three years ago until Paris took his heart. We can’t blame him and are more than glad to have him in the family. While still fresh-faced and full of energy, he’s no spring chicken and has grown to be an established designer doing work for clients such as Double Magazine, Justice, Yelle, Uffie and some nice Parisian bars among others. Of his many talents, Andrew has an especially keen eye for typography and the creation of strong brand identities.

He is also the towering bass player of the band Singtank and loves playing on stage; even if the lighting sometimes makes it hard for him to see his strings. That’s probably enough of an introduction to a man who isn’t afraid to wear denim and leather. Often both at the same time. Although he hasn’t become enough of a rock star to wear leather pants yet!

Interview by Karl Henkell. Answers hand-written by Andrew Woodhead.

S2A: You worked at S2A studio originally as a graphic designer. How did that come about? Do you miss being at our offices?

S2A: Tell us about the cover for Singtank’s album ‘In Wonder’

S2A: You play bass in Singtank. Do you like to get the crowd going when you’re on stage?

S2A: Does Paris have its own style of design?

S2A: What is it about typography that particularly excites you?

S2A: Whose work inspires you?

S2A: What do you like to listen to while at work?

S2A: What do you never leave the house without?

S2A: Would you take one for us?

S2A: What does Paris need most?

S2A: Denim or leather?

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Artwork for Singtank ‘Give It To Me’

Artwork for Uffie ‘Difficult’

Justice World Tour 2012 t-shirt

Logo for record label Aeropop

Alphabet for Double Magazine

See more of his work at http://www.andrewwoodhead.com

Follow him on facebook here

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‘MEET’ is a series of interviews with friends of S2A where we catch up on their lives, their current projects, their creativity, inspiration and whatever else happens to be on their minds!

Ojos cerrados 1 (2012)

This is not a portrait of Miguel Calderón. He is much more handsome and his stare is not nearly as fierce. This is a bird. One of the many that feature in his work. Miguel has undertaken many experimental projects in painting, video, sculpture and photography. He is not rigid in one artistic medium but is open to different methods when realising his ideas.

Most people would know him from one part of his “Aggressively Mediocre/Mentally Challenged” series, which featured in Wes Anderson’s film The Royal Tenenbaums. What begun as a photograph was abstracted into a painting that is dream-like as much as it is nightmarish. A rape scenario has never looked so good. But that was 14 years ago, and since then a lot has changed. We appreciate the humour that flows through his work and the meaning that lies beneath the surface.

Miguel did a t-shirt for us as part of our Artists Series entitled ‘Ridiculum Vitae‘. It comes from his show of the same name in 1998 at La Panadería in Mexico City, which he tells us about below. It attacks the absurdity of the artist C.V. and its function in the bureaucracy of art institutions. It represents the power in being yourself without relying on a piece of paper to prove your worth. You’re as good as your next project or idea, so there is no point resting on your past achievements. An artist should be evaluated on his current ideas, not on the notches in his belt. Ironically, in writing this introduction we looked at Miguel’s C.V. and have to say that it doesn’t hurt to have been shown at contemporary art heavyweights such as Centre Pompidou and MoMA PS1. But that’s all in the past!

We talked to Miguel about his art, the meaning behind ‘Ridiculum Vitae’ and how playing in a band saved him a lot of sessions with a shrink!

Interview by Alberto Cabrera for Surface to Air.

S2A: How did you start in art?

Miguel Calderón: As a kid it was a way to escape things that made me uncomfortable about my surroundings growing up in Mexico City. I remember I entertained the whole class making grotesque cartoons of our math teacher with hair braids coming out of his nose. So besides a way of escaping reality, it also helped me overcome social anxiety.

S2A: It’s been 14 years since your work was featured in Wes Anderson’s film The Royal Tenenbaums, how do you see this in perspective compared to your practice today?

MC: I really had no limits as a young artist, learning the consequences of making mistakes has allowed me more control, the limitless things I did in my life I now transfer into my work… I’m still interested in creating situations where I can allow improvisation to happen and researching things obsessively until they reach a conclusion. Writing, even though I can’t do it as much as I’d like, has become a very important part of my practice. I am also a dad now; my daughter looking so viciously at the world has given observation a new meaning.

Color Schemes Aftermath 2 (2012)

S2A: What about your incursion in music with Intestino Grueso (The Fat Intestines) and your new band Beso Negro?

MC: I grew up listening to AC/DC as a kid and later moved on to stuff like Wire and The Cure, which was hard to find in Mexico. This type of music gave me a huge sense of freedom and empowerment. Playing music is spontaneous; you structure the songs, write down anecdotes and then you can play them over and over. The shows change from place to place and interaction with people is always direct. This allows me to let go of a narrative aspect of my artwork, so I feed off one another. It also gives me an excuse to create visuals like the record cover, music videos, etc. As a band mate used to say, playing saved us lots of sessions with a psychologist because we really let go on stage. The irony is that when the drummer of my first band left us I actually needed a shrink because it was impossible to find a replacement.

S2A: You’ve worked with lots of mediums like painting, sculpture, photography, film and video. How is a t-shirt, or clothes in general, inscribed as a medium for art?

MC: Actually my dad used to make t-shirts while I was growing up, I still have the first t-shirt I designed with a drawing of Snoopy and Charlie Brown from 1978. When I traveled as a teenager, some of the first signs that I looked at in people were what they were wearing, like a t-shirt from a band you liked, a pair of sneakers; and for me that was the first step to identifying with someone. As an adult this doesn’t play such an important role but it did when I was growing up, clothes were like smoke signals that helped identify what pack you belonged to, you could obviously be wrong but it was a first step…

S2A: Your S2A t-shirt is a very simple statement in a simple typography but the message is strong: “RIDICULUM VITAE”.  What do you want to imply with this jeu de mots (juego de palabras)?

MC: That t-shirt actually already existed but only for personal use, I made it for my show Ridiculum Vitae in 1998 at La Panadería. The main work at the gallery was an enlargement of my C.V. (“Curriculum Vitae”) made with a white carpet that covered the whole floor. At the time, museums and galleries in Mexico City made sure that you could prove the places that you had shown before. My priority while looking at work while I curated young artist shows at our “artist run space” was focused on the work itself, never on the resume. I found that piece of paper to be red tape, so I just decided to enlarge it. When you walked in on a rainy day, the carpet got really dirty, so there was an industrial vacuum cleaner constantly cleaning “my achievements”. I printed a few T-shirts that read “RIDICULUM VITAE” and wore them during my music shows and the opening itself, the word somehow underlined that my resume was just me. So it represents the power of being yourself without relying on a document. It is the only art piece based on text I have ever made.

 Ridiculum Vitae, La Panadería, Mexico City (1998)

S2A Artists Series t-shirt ‘Ridiculum Vitae‘ by Miguel Calderón

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Below are photos of Miguel’s most recent show, ‘Color Bleed’ at the Rochester Art Center, USA.

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‘MEET’ is a series of interviews with friends of S2A where we catch up on their lives, their current projects, their creativity, inspiration and whatever else happens to be on their minds!

It’s been a while since we caught up with Joséphine and Alexandre. Since the last time we spoke, their band Singtank released their debut album ‘In Wonder‘ (cover image above), have put out a host of music videos and have been on the road playing their live show to audiences around Europe. They say a bands first release is important in setting the tone of what’s to come. For Joséphine and her brother Alexandre the recording process has been a labour of love lasting over three years. They must have been getting some cabin fever because this summer sees them unleash their live show on audiences all around Europe!

Interview by Karl Henkell for Surface to Air

S2A: What was the idea behind the cover for your debut album ‘In Wonder’?

Joséphine de la Baume: The album is called ‘In Wonder’ and we wanted the artwork to convey what this title means for us. Imaginary landscapes, living between dreams and reality. Andrew Woodhead (brilliant artistic director, who also happens to play bass in the band) came up with that idea of mixing different images to create that world we are both put into.

S2A: How has the lead up to the album felt?

Alexandre de la Baume: Really good and exciting. We’ve been working a lot on the live show, to turn it into a real experience rather than a simple showcase. A lot of promo; we’re happy to fight for our album to do as well as possible so we can keep on making music forever!

S2A: Have some songs changed or developed over time?

AdlB: We had sixteen songs recorded for the album, but only eleven are in the final release. We started recording three years ago and we only wanted songs we were totally proud of to be part of the record. Sometimes it’s hard to relate to songs that have been written a long time ago.

S2A: Tell me about the film clip you did with ABCDCD.

JdlB: It was an awesome experience to see the little sketches they had made turned into a gigantic set. We loved the way these three very gifted french directors perfectly understood the visual world we wanted: playful, imaginary, pop and yet somehow a bit dark.

Singtank ‘The Party” music video directed by ABCDCD

S2A: What has been your favourite place to play recently?

JdlB: We played an NME gig at KOKO in Camden, London. It’s an old theatre turned into a music venue. It’s spectacular, fun, looks run down and magnificent.

S2A: How was your trip to Cannes? Did you bump into many famous faces?

AdlB: It was sunny when we were there, which was lucky this year apparently. I’m very bad with spotting celebrities, I always get mixed up and will realise at the end of a conversation that I am actually not talking to Mark Wahlberg, but to the event planner!

S2A: What are Singtank’s summer plans?

JdlB: Playing Calvi On The Rocks and Roxy Pro in Biarritz. Life could be worse!

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Singtank perform at Calvi On The Rocks this Tuesday 10th July and at the Roxy Pro in Biarritz on July 13th!

Check out our ‘MEET’ interview with Alexandre here.

Singtank’s debut album ‘In Wonder’ available in France on iTunes and in all good record stores.

Keep up to date with Singtank via their website and facebook page.

We’ve been working together with Swiss-born artist Olaf Breuning for a long time now. He exhibits his works around the world with regular high-profile shows at the likes of Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Metro Pictures in New York and Kodama Gallery in Japan. He is not short of ideas and has an impressively diverse body of work. Humour plays a big role in his life and in his personality; translating directly into his art.

At the beginning of last year he held an exhibition at our Paris boutique and more recently he recreated his “Smoke Bombs” installation for our Kim Gordon capsule collection film. Our latest collaboration with Olaf is on our Artist series t-shirts.

We sat down with Olaf to chat about art, humour and what he likes about t-shirts!

Interview by Alberto Cabrera for Surface To Air.

S2A: How did you get started in art?

Olaf Breuning: I got a camera from my father when I was 16 and became obsessed to work “on my things”. I guess that was the start.

S2A: The drawing you sent us for our first Artists series t-shirts isn’t the first project where we’ve worked together. You did an exhibition of drawings at our shop/gallery in Paris (october 2010) and you also recreated your “Smoke Bombs” installation  for a second time for the film of our Kim Gordon’s special collection (video link here). Please tell us a bit about this!

OB: Well, I like to collaborate with Surface to Air, and so far it’s been a good experience! Having said that, the Kim Gordon shoot was a little stressful because it was a full moon and it was a lot of work to install the smoke bombs; but the result turned out very nice, which makes me happy. And the t-shirt is great too!

S2A: Tell us about your studio manager Ruby’s run in with the FBI.

OB: We needed a lot of smoke bombs for the installation, so it began with my studio ordering them in Connecticut since the law in New York doesn’t allow you to buy any fireworks for private use. Since we had planned to shoot in Massachusetts, it was on the way to pick them up. After a few weeks I got a phone call from my studio manager Ruby, who had ordered them. She was out of breath and said that she had spent the whole day with the FBI. They had called her in the morning and asked her to come downstairs to a car with heavily tinted windows. But she and her boyfriend didn’t trust them since they used to live in an unsafe part of Brooklyn and thought it could just be someone that wants to kill them or something…so they jumped into their car and drove away! All the while still being on the phone to the FBI agents. Finally after hours they agreed to meet them in a police district. There they ended up in an interrogation room where the FBI asked them who they were and why they were ordering so many smoke bombs. Finally her boyfriend pulled his iphone out and showed them an old photo of my “Smoke Bombs” installation… and they just said, “Oh, that looks great!”. They had no further questions; but Ruby was horrified!

S2A: In contemporary art almost all artists, and everyone else around them, take themselves and their work very seriously. In contrast to that, your work contains a large dose of humour, fun and even derision. It might be a Swiss tradition, like in the work of Fischli and Weiss (R.I.P) or Roman Signer. But why are those factors important for you personally?

OB: I don’t get along with people without humour. I do like humour and I need it to go through this life; on a daily basis and in my art. But that doesn’t mean that I dont take myself seriously. I am an artist after all and yes we are self-centered.

S2A: You’ve work in many different mediums such as painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, installation and film. How is a t-shirt, or clothes in general, inscribed as a medium for art?

OB: I like t-shirts very much because they are three-dimensional: walking, smelling (when you dont wash your armpits) canvases. Especially for my drawings, they are perfect. I just got the t-shirt in the mail and I’ve worn it for the past two days (it smells) and many people just look at it and say – “cool drawing” -  and talk about it. And this on the street!

S2A: Tell us about your “Keys and Lock” drawing for your Artist series t-shirt.

OB: It seems to be one of the things we will never know: why are we attracted to each other. Sure we can somehow explain sexuality, but it still remains an unknown for me how a man in a strip club is watching the dancing woman and thinks, “Oh I really would like to have her!” and this with a nearly holy experience. But unfortunately, most of the time the lock is locked…Ok, maybe not in a strip club. Bad example.

S2A: How about your present and future projects?

OB: At the moment I’m shooting “Home 3″, my next 30 minute video. That is what I’m focused on at the moment. I’ll show it for the first time at the Swiss Institute in New York on the 6th September 2012!

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S2A x Olaf Breuning t-shirt

Olaf Breuning installations for Surface to Air x Kim Gordon teaser

OTHER WORKS:

2010, THE ARTISTS, C-PRINT, 150 X 190 cm, Edition 6

NAPOLEON (RANDOM DRAWINGS)

2010, COMPLAINING FOREST, C-PRINT, 150 X 190 CM, Edition 6

2008, HELICOPTER HAIR, C-PRINT, Colored Frame, 155 x 190 cm, Edition 6

2002, LADY G., C- PRINT, 120 x 150 cm Edition 5, 80 x 100 cm Edition 10

Check out his other works on his blog here.

Olaf Breuning’s website.

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‘MEET’ is a series of interviews with friends of S2A where we catch up on their lives, their current projects, their creativity, inspiration and whatever else happens to be on their minds!

After a killer show in Paris last night Le Trianon and a 10hour ride to the south of France, the ever so stylish hip hop star Theophilus London & crew made it at La Villa Schwepps in Cannes wearing some of our favorite pieces for men from our SS/12 collection. Looking good boys….

From left to right: Wyatt is wearing our Regular Jeans V8/ Theophilus is wearing our Vespucci Knit V2, Belmont Trousers V1/ Brandon is wearing our classic Portofino Chinos V1.