Oh yeah for sure, Growing up when I did exposed me a whole heap of stuff that's probably still had a big impact on how I draw today. No big surprise, but stuff like Ninja Turtles obviously had a huge impact. The toys and the cartoon. Sitting in the news agency flicking through comics after school. Seeing certain arcade machines scattered around was another big one. I remember stumbling across a Darkstalkers arcade machine in a fish and chips shop and it blew my mind to pieces. Being into weird creatures and stuff, was amazing to see such a fresh take on the classic monsters. Same with seeing stuff like X-men vs streetfighter. Stuff you were familiar enough with, but delivered in a hyper stylish, bold style. Then kinda growing up on the internet, getting into posting art on phpbb message boards and shit exposed me to so much inspiring stuff.

Haha this is probably subconscious stuff that I might not actively know I'm including. Part of the DNA. Maybe more noticeable to people not from Australia? You have me intrigued.

As much as people always go on about it, I'm gonna reinforce that the DIY aspect is pretty crucial to the appeal of Punk. I'd always wanted to do fliers for shows, album art, shirt designs and all that kinda stuff. Most direct way to make this happen was to just do it. Starting a band was a really good excuse to dive into that and begin working on those things. As I drew more of it, more people saw my work and asked me to do their posters and album art and merch designs and it grew from there essentially.

That tour started in Brisbane with Hank Wood and the Hammerheads, who travelled down the coast all the way down to Melbourne. Then some more people flew in and Crazy Spirit and Dawn of Humans travelled back up the coast and finished their tour in Brisbane. There was an overlap in members, so it somehow worked out ok. The Shows with Unpeople and Occults were over two different days, so I didn't have to double up thankfully (although have done that plenty). All of the shows were amazing and as a huge fan of those touring bands, it was a real treat to finally get to see, and play shows with them.

Different bands have different aesthetics so it's a really good opportunity to try and do different styles and approaches. Like my regular cartoony drawing style works well for fun dumb punk bands like Woodboot. Occults was a bit more serious, so I messed around with more collage elements and minimalist design. It was a nice change to take a break from drawing and use other parts of my brain. Unpeople was a bit all over the place stylistically, but meant I could do whatever. A combo of the two main overarching styles, even. Gross weird drawings mixed with more clinical design based elements.

I love doing all that stuff, and was always really pleased that people would ask me to handle that for their bands! I think it taught me to be reasonably versatile, as well. I've designed a lot of stuff that you probably wouldn't realise was my work unless pointed out. I'm into the idea that the work you're doing is for the band or album or whatever first of all, so don't need to pump your ego into it.

Oh I like that description, extremely flattering to hear. An important thing for me is capturing a level of energy. Injecting a decent amount of life and personality into my drawing. I want the characters I draw to seem "alive" in some sense. Rather than just some bland, dull figure conveying fuck all. I love detail, and adding even small stuff can really flesh things out so much. Making something visually exciting is a rewarding challenge, even if it's a bit of a pain sometimes.

Colour might just stem from what appealed to me as a kid, that still kinda works to this day. Big, bold, obnoxious colours that are a bit of a mess but somehow work even if I'm trying to make them clash. I throw it all together and see what comes out.

Haha I wish I could call it a ritual, but it's basically sitting down with the iPad and hacking away until I get what I need. Sometimes getting a sketch down is like pulling teeth, but you've basically just gotta push through. People only really see the finished product, and not the hours and hours of shit that gets discarded. I do like to be pretty open about how I work, that's why I like to show my sketches and inks as well.

I guess a process I've found works for me is to work on a few pieces at the same time. Like maybe I'll sketch out 4-5 pieces in a batch. Then I'll ink those in a batch, and add colour in a batch. Keeps things from getting overwhelming or too monotonous. Plus getting a few pieces done around the same time helps the ol' brain with feeling productive.

I was looking forward to doing more prints just before covid hit, but then shipping prices went fucking nuts. They never really calmed down, haha. Packing and shipping takes up a massive amount of time and energy, so huge respect to all of the artists out there who do that.

Shirts and comics are on the agenda for sure, just gotta clear sometime in the schedule to make it happen. Comics are something I'd totally love to do, 100%. I just need to figure out a way to balance drawing them and earning enough money to survive at the same time.

There are so many amazing artists out there in the world. I get such a kick out of seeing endless streams of cool artworks on the internet every day. It's easy to get desensitised to that, seeing as the internet and social media are so over-stimulating and it can be extremely exhausting. But I do get my bearings every now and then and realise that it's pretty incredible to have access to so much.