BRITAIN'S MOST UNRULY DISTRO: MAGGOT DEATH INDUSTRIES
Jan Margolius is the founder of the British, one-man distro and printing studio: MAGGOT DEATH INDUSTRIES. He plays with iconic designs from the world of punk. Margolius approaches the matter with a sense of irony towards both the original artworks and the bootleg culture, experimenting with details and collaging. His t-shirts are known outside the punk community; moreover, members of the bands of whose designs Jan made willingly wear them.
Why is he making all this? – read in our interview.
Why is he making all this? – read in our interview.
BRITAIN'S MOST UNRULY DISTRO: MAGGOT DEATH INDUSTRIES
Jan Margolius is the founder of the British, one-man distro and printing studio: MAGGOT DEATH INDUSTRIES. He plays with iconic designs from the world of punk. Margolius approaches the matter with a sense of irony towards both the original artworks and the bootleg culture, experimenting with details and collaging. His t-shirts are known outside the punk community; moreover, members of the bands of whose designs Jan made willingly wear them.
Why is he making all this? – read in our interview.
Why is he making all this? – read in our interview.
How did you discover the world of punk? Especially the world of d-beat, crust and UK82.
I guess I discovered it through playing in lots of different bands as a kid. I started out listening to lots of metal and shred guitar and I got a little disillusioned with all the technical wankery. The raw simplicity of punk really opened my eyes to a different way of playing aggressive music. The first punk band I got into was Crass. I was heavily into avant-garde classical music at the time and Crass really embodied the concept of destroying and rebuilding music in a similar way to the composers I liked. Aside from the music, all of the artwork is fucking incredible; I love raw punk art!
Could you remember your first DIY things? Can you remember and describe it? Was it fun (or not) to make it?
My first DIY shirts were made with cardboard stencils and bleach, I still have a few of them! They were always a bit of a crapshoot to make because I could spend ages on the stencil and then end up over spraying it and it comes out looking a mess. The bleach would also eat though the card meaning I'd have to remake the stencil everytime.
How did you start to screen-printing? What things were most difficult to learn about it?
When I started screen printing I used acetate stencils that I would hand-cut with a surgical scalpel. Acetate was a lot more durable than the cardboard stencils I started with but it was a lot harder to cut. Cutting stencils by hand always took me ages and it really limited the amount of detail I could put in the designs. I guess it was a natural transition from the spray paint stencils that I started out with. The hardest part about screen printing is having to work as efficiently, especially for water based printers. Water based ink can dry in the screen and clog the stencil so you've got to work fast and clean. It's one of those things where you pick up your own little quirks and techniques; everyone has their own methodology of printing.
Why did you start to MAGGOT DEATH INDUSTRIES? Because there were no cool bootleg distros in the world, huh?
I think there are tons of sick bootleg distros out there; I just thought that I could offer something different! When I started out I printed exclusively on army surplus t shirts but I've ended up buying out all the stock from the UK suppliers I know and I just can't get cotton army surplus t-shirts anymore. A lot of that stuff has a finite supply, most armies have switched to polyester t-shirts which suck to print on!
We remember your stories in IG, when you said that guys from Discharge have your tees and enjoy it. Your distro did a lot of bootlegs, with a lot of bands. Did you get any feedback from bands (or people from bands) which designs you used in your tees?
Paranoid and Instinct of Survival have been the absolute coolest. Paranoid even offered me high-res copies of the original artwork to work with!
What things are important to you when you bootleg any designs? What things do you like to change? Do you have a strong image of the final bootleg design in your mind or it's improvisation with details?
I do a lot of collage in a very improvisatory way; I like finding small details in drawings and then magnifying them and making them the focus of the design. My main motivation is to produce bootlegs that don't exist anywhere else, nobody needs another t-shirt with a Dead Kennedys logo on it! I don't pay much attention to the chronology of band logos or anything like that. The Napalm Death Hungary fan club didn't like the fact I'd used the 'wrong' N.D. logo for my 'Enslavement… Obliteration' tee haha. Sometimes I like putting in intentional misspellings or mistakes; it's all part of the bootleg spirit!
Do you have any rituals or something unusual and special related to your creative process / printing tees?
Lots of D-Beat raw punk when I'm printing and a beer when I'm finished!
What's your current playlist? Highlight some bands?
The Annihilated, Vacuous, GAME, Fate, Pest Control, Mastermind and Quarantine are all incredible.
We found out about MAGGOT DEATH INDUSTRIES because of
That design was all mltv thrw. Occasionally I come across art that I love so I buy it off the artist and get it on some tees. There's a plan for a Disorder 'Violent World' t-shirt. I've commissioned an artist to recreate Motorhead Tim's incredible artwork.
Can you introduce artists that you also work with or created some prints together?
I've worked with HAHAHAÄRT and mltv thrw mostly. HAHAHAÄRT does these incredible crusty drawings of punks drinking and I absolutely love them. I'm always on the lookout to work with new artists.
