contributors:(In order of appearance)Ibrahim Kasifeloise simonmichael ricciardonelucinda shanahanxander edemaoscar solomonstuart melvey

editor:belinda melvey

creative director:belinda melvey

editorial photography:Belinda Melvey

i b r a h i M k a s i f

E L O I S E S I M O N

S T U A R T M E L V E Y

o s c a r s o l o m o n

X A N D E R E D E M A

L U C I N D A S H A N A H A Nm i c h a e l r i c c i a r d o n e

let m e i n t ro d u c e yo u to

A wild imagination is the minds ability to think creatively. Upon these pages lie the exposed imaginations of seven young creatives. As I dive deep in conversation with each individual, I begin to discover what it is that inspires, drives and influences them to persue their creative dreams. I hope you too will be filled with inspiration and creativity,just as much as I have been.

- Belinda Melvey

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i b r a h i m k a s i f

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FROM ARIA TO BISTRO MONCUR, FROM FISH FACE TO FREDA’S. THIS CHEF HAS more than “IT” UNDER CONTROL

First of all tell me a bit about Freda’s and what you do here. What do I do here? I’m the chef. I’m a chef in a unique environment because there is no kitchen and what I’m essentially doing here is creating food to compliment drinking.Do a lot of people come in here asking your opinion about what food goes with what drinks? The barman suggest that, they’re really good at matching.What’s his name again? (the barman). That’s Marty then the others usually come in at around four o’clock. They’re really cool dudes.So yeah, because the food is based around drinking its also heavily based around bread. We encourage people to be dipping and playing. There’s a lot of oils, we do a lot of pickling and a lot of marinating. All here? Yeah it’s all done inhouse. That’s pretty crazy. Well yeah, you just have to sort of think outside the square.

On a very busy street there is a very hidden bar and in that very hidden bar lives a very talented chef.

GRAPEFRUITMARGARITA

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And you used to make your own bread here?Yeah we were baking bread here at one stage. We are going to re-explore that because we were using a kitchen down the road and now we are trying to get an oven in here to make life a bit easier for us. Then we can have a few more menu options as well.Did you write the entire menu? Yep, all the recipes are mine. How do you know what flavours go together? What is your creative process? Well you know what, you make a lot of mistakes. A lot of these dishes have naturally evolved. It’s a very organic sort of process. You’re after something you know. It’s in the back of your mind and in the back of your palette. You want something to taste a sort of way. So you know just from being around food all the time what goes and what doesn’t. And then you just build it from there and things sort of just happen. It’s a real organic and creative process.

IBBS IN HISNON-KITCHEN

KITCHEN

(We try the Mussels Escabeche) What’s escabeche? Escabeche is like a form of marinate. You know what, when I was in Spain last year I went to this really cool bar in Barcelona and we had mussles in this oil and they called it escabeche, which is a Spanish sort of marinate. So yeah I was at this bar, having a drink eating these mussels and was just like, that is something I’d love to re-create.How do you know how to re-create it? W e l l , when I was eating it there were a couple of things that really stood out. There was a little bit of a kick, a bit of chili. There was a little bit of citrus, I could taste orange. I could also taste clove and so I wanted to create an oil that would have all of those flavours. So what I do is I create an oil out of prawn heads, garlic, onions, chilli and vegetables.

Like that Pickled Octopus for example was a dish that has evolved you know? From the process of cooking the octopus to pickling it - (Interrupting) Oh wait, Eleanor doesn’t eat seafood. (Eleanor) I’ll try it. I’ll eat the mussels. (We try the Pickeled Octopus) Okay, so talk me through the dish. Okay so, all the flavour comes from the pickling liquid, so it’s red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar, it has fennel seeds, coriander seeds and pepper corns. So you like cooking seafood? Yeah, I like seafood but I particularly like that octopus texture. I mean there are some textures I don’t like. For example, something I hate texturally is this vegetable called opra. Do you know that vegetable? It’s slimy and it’s like this green little blob and when you eat it its sort of stringy and slimy and it actually makes me gag. I’ll never cook it. I hate it. I like crunch and I like bite.

Just for this sauce? Yeah so then we boil it and strain the oil out. This is what we get. When you were traveling Europe last year did you come across a lot of dishes you wanted to re-create? Of course. I mean, most of these dishes here at Freda’s are inspired from my travels. For example our Russian Potato salad is something I found on menus all over Europe.

Everything here is really simple but we put a lot of effort in, we use really good ingredients. The mayonnaise we hand whisk for example. We don’t buy it and we don’t use a machine for it. We use real, traditional techniques.

How do you remember certain flavours and dishes when you’re traveling? I write everything down, and I just remember. I’ve always thought about how annoying it would be to be a chef because you would be constantly critiquing food. Do you find it hard to eat sometimes? Well it depends where im eating and what the experience is. Every food has it’s place. If I go to someone’s house and they serve me a tuna salad and the tuna is out of a tin, that’s what it is. It could be really delicious. I had that for dinner last night. Yeah, it has its place. I’m not criticsing that, I like that. But if you’re going to a fine dining restaurant and it’s technically meant to be amazing and the flavours aren’t there, it’s disappointing. Flavour to me is the most important asset to a dish. Okay where is really good at the moment? Somewhere really good? I Recently dined at Apollo in Potts Point. They’re doing a play on Greek flavours. I know what the flavours are meant to be so I was probably being a bit critical of it when I went there. It got a 16/20 in the Sydney Morning Herald, which is a great review. I take a lot of confidence out of going to places like that knowing I can replicate it.

pickeled octopus and mussels escabeche

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Okay so let’s back track, where were you working before Freda’s? I was cooking privately for Lang Walker on his yatch. How did you find that? What was it like working on a yatch? It was good. It’s very different being someone’s personal chef and I did that for two years. I was enjoying it because I was pushing myself. Was it ever boring?I never get bored. But it was a bit weird being on a yatch with only a couple of people. Just being out at sea staring out at the ocean and then you’re looking at everyones Facebook status updates and they’re out in the cross getting trashed. How old were you at this stage?

I was 22. Before that I was at Fish Face in Darlinghurst. Well firstly, I did my studies at the Intercontinental Hotel and I was there for a year. I was also working in and out of a lot of restaurants for free, whilst studying the theory of cooking. And once I did that, which was basically three years of Tafe in one year, I got my certificate and started my practical apprenticeship at a fine dining restaurant in the city. From there I went on to Bistro Moncur in Woolahra and then finished off my apprentecship at Fish Face.

So you moved around with your apprenticeship? Yeah I moved around, mainly because you’re spending 70-80 hours a week in a kitchen and it’s a tough environment. That 70-80 hour week can feel like a month and if you’re there for a year it feels like a lifetime. Especially when you’re so young. Were all the kitchens very different? Very different. In a fine dining kitchen you have three to four people plating up a dish. Bistro Moncur really taught me how to be a chef, I think. You really have to fend for yourself and you have to move quickly and efficiently. Fish Face was different again because it’s really small and we made everything from scratch. It was a really good experience. Have you ever done something really bad?Umm.. Nothing too dramatic, I don’t think. I try to be a good boy. I’ve never really got into any trouble maybe apart from this one time there may have been a bug in a salad I plated up. I try really hard to stay ontop of everything, I take it very seriously.

FREDA’SCOSY WINDOWSEAT

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4 PINESON TAP

COCKTAILEXPERTS

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When did you decide you wanted to be a chef? It was an eleventh hour decision. I mean, I was always cooking at home but when I was at school I actually really wanted to be a journalist. George Gavalas (Previous owner of China Doll) is probably a really important mentor in my life. He was the inspiration behind me. I was 18, I had just finished school and I saw George as this really cool guy who owned restaurants. I said to myself, I want to do what he does. He would walk around in a suit and tie and back then he had the long hair and a moustache. He was just a cool dude you know? And I wanted to be like that. So I basically thought I’d give it a go and if it doesn’t work out I’ll go back to uni. And here I am! I remember you telling me about opening up your own restaurant?It’s still the plan. It’s my next step. After this [Freda’s] I’m definitely going to do my own thing. It takes a lot of hard work to get there and sometimes you just have to bite the bullet. You’ve got to find the right sight and have the right people around you, you need a plan and you have to stick to it. I’m quite confident with what I can do and I know what I want to do, so it’s just a matter of doing it. It’s really at that stage that I just have to do it. How does your background influence your cooking? I can personally see that it does a lot.

snow pea, asparagus and celeriac salad

It definitely influences me, quite heavily. I like to do my own take on Turkish food, I like to interperate dishes and show the flavours. I think I’m sort of showing that now even with the lack of resources that I have. I’d like to think when I have a proper kitchen I could do a lot more. Although, we do some pretty cool things here. This place has taken a cool twist. People come here and treat it like a restaurant, they come and eat food instead of drinking which is a shame because they should be coming here to drink. It is more of a bar.

Cooking with no kitchen is a really hard sort of thing to come up with.

Its probably because the food is so good! Yeah we’ve been lucky. People are really enjoying the food and we’ve had some really good reviews. We were featured in Good Living, The Daily Telegraph, Timeout and a lot of bar magazines. It’s all been very positive. Reviews can be hard though. I think a review is a review only when it reflects the critic’s understanding about what’s going on. If they think we’ve got all the resources to do whatever we want, they can be quite critical of it. What’s “in” food fashion at the moment? Food right now is really stripping back. It’s going back to real ‘realness’ of cookery. I mean, you train as a chef to do technical food but people are really showcasing the ingredient. Now it’s all about protein and vegetable. Every month here at Freda’s we do a lamb on a spit in the laneway.

It’s one of the most ancient ways of cooking and people love it. It’s going back to real food and going back to flavour. Similarly to the octopus and the mussels, it’s just food that is showcasing the ingredient. There’s no tricks and it’s just real flavour. Any other sources of inspiration we should know about? I get a lot of inspiration from other young chefs and chefs that have been around for a long time that have pioneered trends. Someone like Neil Perry whose restaurants are always successful and his formulas are so simple. His corner stone of good cooking is the produce and he really sticks by that mantra. Using amazing ingredients is the key to success and if you’re using the most amazing produce you can get your hands on you really can’t do much more than to show it off.

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And all the restraurants I’ve worked in have been highly inspirational. Other chefs I’ve worked with and mentors have definitely influenced me. The very first restaurant I started my apprenticeship in was a restaurant called Omega, it was a two hat fine dining restaurant in the city. They were doing modern Greek food. That’s what really inspired me to want to do Turkish food. The chef was interpreting his background and his heritage with such finess and sophistication I thought wow, that’s what I want to do.

Thanks for your time Ibbs!

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eloise simon is either styling,designing

or at the gym.

E L O I S E

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ELOISES I M O N

So what are you up to at the moment? I’m currently studying styling and creative direction at White House. Within the course I’m doing styling as my workshop, visual communication, object/interior design, photography and illustration.Wow so it’s really broad? Yeah, that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to do it. Initially, I wanted to be a fashion designer and I knew this course would give me such a variety of knowledge for me to see where I want to go with it. And you studied at FBI before this?

Yeah I did one year of fashion design at FBI and loved it. I’m really happy I went to FBI to begin with because at the time I was really unsure about starting a three-year course not knowing completely what I wanted to do. I was only part time at FBI but I came out with my own collection, it was amazing. How did that help you in preparation for White House? Well, apart from everything I learnt at FBI, I feel as though I’ve had time to grow up. I had a year off after school, studied for a year and now I’m ready for this course. How is it all going? Is there anything your struggling with at the moment? Sometimes I find it hard to stick with one idea for a project. I think ideas are constantly changing and evolving. It’s really important to keep a visual diary or a journal to document this process. But it’s more important to keep it updated!

coffee and cider

feeling quite average,eloise and i wake up with coffee

refuel with cider, and talk creatively whilst discussing last night’s adventures.

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So what’s White House like? I love it, it’s a great college. It’s very much like High School though. It sounds weird but it’s not like a real Uni. For example I have the same people in all my classes we just move from room to room. That’s kind of cool. It sounds similar to COFA. Yeah it’s really nice and small too. We’re all family. We all talk and hang out. What’s your favourite subject so far?

My favourite subject would have to be object and interior design, where we use sketch up to build 3D models. For our first assessment we had to build an object that’s “found in a room”. I had to do that too! I chose a blender. You don’t understand how long it took me to build the blades and the glass.Did you use sketch up? No we used vectorworks. Oh okay. So yeah, I used sketch up and had to build a couch. I actually did really well. I have an amazing teacher, which helps and it’s another reason why I love the subject so much. So now I have to build an interior space for the object. I also love styling. Is your everyday fashion style important to you?Of course, as soon as I wake up I think about what I’m going to wear. Or even the night before I get really excited. What are you wearing on a Friday night? (Laughing) My big heels, tight jeans, tight top and maybe a nice jacket because it‘s quite cold now. In summer I’m always wearing shorts. I love shorts. Or a jumpsuit. What has influenced you to take a creative direction in life?At school I always loved art, which was kind of our only creative subject. I then soon became quite obsessed with fashion and different styles. I used to love telling my friends what to wear with what.

I have also always loved cooking. At one stage I wanted to be a food critic! But I remember having a meeting with a careers advisor and he recommended me to look into FBI or White House, which is where I am now and I’m really happy. I want to look into studying some more photography too, for all my shoots I have to take the photos as well and its not as easy as I thought it would be.

W I L D T H I N G S i s s u e # 0 1

You can do one of those short courses or something, we should do one together. Let’s do it! Talk me through your styling creative processes.Firstly I research. I research the brief and any initial background information that I should know about a project. I then begin a broader search for inspirations. It’s during this process that an idea usually pops up and soon develops into a core theme. I look at colours and establish a scheme for the project. Everything then naturally falls into place. I don’t tend to sketch up many shots, which is something I need to do. It’s important to think about at all the different angles of a shot and really push your boundaries. It’s so easy to stick to one frame but you have to be wild with your imagination. Where do your main sources of inspiration come from? I love looking at behind the scene shots of a photoshoot. They’re so raw and unplanned. It’s like they are not suppose to be photographed. There’s something really beautiful about it. I also get a lot of inspiration from street style and fast fashion. Fast fashion can be a bit disappointing though. Some items of clothing are really expensive and before you know it, it’s out of fashion. If you’re only wearing things once it’s such a waste.

ELOIse’shome-madegnocchi

I get a lot of inspiration from music as well. I’m always listening to music, I’m constantly downloading albums. My whole iTunes is getting ridiculous. I’ve recently become obsessed with Florence and the Machine but you know I love gangster shit. Obviously Tyga. I just love rap. They swear like bulldogs, I love it. I find nature very inspirational; again I love the raw nature about it. The people around me as well, other students in my class inspire me and other young designers.

What would be your dream job? I’d love to have my own label and design my own clothes. I want to be at the drawing board with a template in front of me and just draw. It is the most satisfying feeling, I can’t even explain to you. Imagine drawing a dress and then it actually coming to life. That’s what I did. I went through the entire process from the concept, to sketching, to sewing to the final piece. What are your favourite colours to work with? Black and white. Everything looks good black and everything looks good white. It’s timeless.

What do you think makes someone creative?I think everyone is a creative person deep down. It’s all about confidence and if you trust yourself to communicate that. What is the most important piece of advice someone has given you that you will never forget?

My first day at White House my teacher said to me “from now on, you are a designer”.Since then, I have never doubted myself. We’re designers.

And what are you doing when you’re not designing? Gym. I get such a thrill from working out, it’s the best feeling. If you feel good, you’re going to look good. I mean, you can’t expect to look good without working out.

Come on.

(Laughing) Thanks Sime!

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M I C H A E L R I

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michael ricciardone knows everythingthere is to know aboutanything

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RICCA

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Let’s begin with what you are working on at the moment. Tell me a bit about this online project you’re involved in. Yes okay so it would have been around December last year, when a close friend of mine Will Martin produced a clothing label called Milieu which in French means “social environment”. It’s basically a term used by a guy called Marcel Proust who was a French writer in the 17th century. He spoke about how everything creative that you do is influenced by your social surroundings whether it be your work or where you live.

He also spoke about how your urban environment is obviously going to influence you differently to your rural environment. Anyway so as an offshoot for the clothing label he wants to create a website that will almost act like an online gallery/magazine of the inspirations behind, not necessarily specific to his brand but just his general ethos. What we are trying to build is a platform where people can collaborate and exchange ideas and inspirations. Personally there are so many things that influence me and you want to tell someone about it. What we have chosen to do is to feature two or three artists in different disciplines and interview them focusing more on their creative approach to their work rather then just their work.

So the website should be launched in a couple of weeks I think. Oh and there’s also the e-commerce side of the website where Marto will be selling his clothes and we are also inviting other artists to sell their work. A gallery can take up to forty and sixty percent every time you hold an exhibition and unless your selling stuff worth two or three grand your not really making any money. So we just wanna be like hey Steve. Sup Steve. You’ve designed this really cool little picture or fucking collage or whatever and you don’t have enough money to put it in a gallery but you know 10 people that might want to buy it so we can put it on the website to sell. It’s a way of getting creative people to have the confidence in their own stuff, I think a lot of people are intimidated by so many good shit. (Laughing) So many good shit! And if it’s thirty dollars it’s 30 dollars then fuck it. At least it pays for the pens you used to do it, I don’t know. I was reading a really cool article in Monocle the other day about how brands are moving away from selling a product and you’re buying more into the brand. Acne does it really well, there’s the Acne paper that comes out twice a year and what they have in the magazine doesn’t really feature much fashion or clothing but they have a theme each time. The theme this time was the body. It talks about the Renassiance and how the body was interpreated in that particular time period. People are interested in that sort of stuff and go fuck, this is what Acne represents as a clothing label.

You kind of want to be associated with that shit. We are taking a similar approach with the website.

The site is a really cool idea, I’m sure its going to be quite successful. Moving on, you’re a writer. Why? Well I don’t know. Well how did you start writing? I think I always used to scribble down shit when I was a kid and nothing made sense. Wait no I think I was four when I wrote The Bible. No, I think I’ve always been intereted in knowledge being passed on and the book is the oldest form of that. I think there is something really romantic about writing. There’s something mad about the fact that the words on a page will be the same words on a page in twenty or fifty or one hundred years. That’s pretty sick. You can write a letter to someone and then pick it up and depending on how it’s written, it still sounds the same. Whereas a painting or any other form of communication depends on the subjectivity of the person interpreting it and the time perdiod. Words are words, I mean you take what you want from it but when your reading it, for example “the dog” is “the dog” to everyone that’s fucking reading it It’s not like “umm I think he means jellybean. I’m really into this now.

He means truck”

(Laughing) Totally! So did you write a lot when you were at school? I was always good at English but I was always rushing. I still now don’t give myself enough time. I think writing is something you learn. Some people are really natural writers and some people are good talkers where it takes a while for them to learn how to write the way they speak and I think I’m one of them. It’s a kind of craft that is learnt. I mean you can write something and it makes sense but I think that the tone and the voice are very unique and that is learnt. So yeah I did write at school, I don’t know if I was that good at it. But I always felt more comfortable doing that then visual arts. If I had to do a clay model of something I’d be like, can’t I just write it down? I hate that, like, where is the farm? Draw a map of the Murray Darling.

And I’d be like I can tell you where it is just let me write a paragraph. How did you find writing in the HSC?Well I did all essay based subjects like econmics, business studies, history, geography - oh bitch! (Parking Inspector). She’s not gonna get me is she? Na I bought a ticket for an hour. (Laughing) Look at her, she looks so mean aswell.

hilariously informative, michael ricciardone and i

veer far off topic to find out his view of the world.

So did you do well? Ah not as well as I should have. I did alright but I remember I was pretty naughty and always in trouble. I hated the idea of learning things that I knew I didn’t need to know. I did maths for no reason. Like I know now that it’s so much easier using a calculator or just asking someone. You know what I mean? There’s a reason why there are accountants.(Laughing). Yeah, people who want to do that can do that.Exactly. So my attitude sometimes got in the way of my classes. What did you want to be when you grew up?Haha I remember I was meant to be a carpenter because I was good at lego. I was so good at lego that my mum thought I would be a builder. I was even a tradie for three weeks in the holidays with a mate. I’d go on site with him, use the wheel barrow, but I broke my back in two weeks and was like no this is not for me, I’m such a princess. I think I’m better off in a studio. Then in year eleven and year twelve I just wanted to make money. I wanted to be a property developer and just buy shit. I wanted to buy blocks of land and mad apartments, just casually. I’d be like, oh there’s a bit of land there, sky rise opportunity! But that didn’t really work out. It was weird, I went through phases.Well what did you do at uni? Oh I took a couple of years off because I wanted to work and go overseas. I knew I wanted to travel. There was so much more that I wanted to see. I was actually suppose to go straight to uni and do business marketing or something but thank god I went overseas because I’d be in marketing right now. It’s always taken me the long route. Everyone seems to get it quick and I’ve always just been like na I’ll try this and try that. Now at 25 I’m like, finally.All my cousins are 19 and 20 doing internships at Ernst and Young and Clayton News and they know they are going to do that when they are twenty-three and twenty-four. I’ve just been like hmm maybe I’ll go overseas again. I’ll go check that..Wait what was the question? (Laughing) I totally forgot.

(Laughing) What you did at uni?

ricca’stypewriter

Oh yeah so I went overseas to Europe just travelling when I was 20. A girl I was dating was studying international studies and was in Italy at the time so I met her over there and drove around for three months in the summer. I loved Europe and moved to London for about nine months. I was there working on my own for five months going back and forth to Italy.

It was pretty mad.

But I came home for summer in 2008 to start uni. I knew then what I wanted to do. And what was that? I did a Bachelor of Media – Oh here comes porky. (Parking Inspector). We haven’t been an hour have we? I don’t think so. Yeah I did a Bachelor of Media which was arts and humanities based, which was perfect because I knew I wanted to know more about the world. How important do you think it is to be educated and informed about the goings on in the world? It is the most important thing. Well, I think travelling is the single most important thing I think anyone could do. Other than maybe saving someones life, that’s pretty important. But how rare is that? When have you ever been in a position to save someones life? Being well travelled and highly educated is a nice feeling. Knowing that you’re not as important as what you once thought. It’s quite humbling. We all stress about so much but when I’m dead im just a carcus, so fuck it. (Laughing) A carcus? Like a chicken? A corpse?

Haha so what, I die with like $400,000 in debt. You know what I mean? So what I have a credit card debt, whatever. I obviously don’t want to put pressure on my family and kids, I want to make sure they can eat, but so many things mean less because once you go overseas you realise how much shitter people’s lives are or you even see better lives that you want to strive to become. It’s also travelling on your own, you sit there and you feel bored at first but then you start thinking weird thoughts.

You’re definitely a thinker. You think a lot.

It drives me mad. Like, how are we going to get home from Vegas? Just thinking ahead guys! Just thinking ahead. (Laughing) So you started uni and bailed overseas again? Yeah I went back to London and studied there aswell, I was at West Minster uni doing exchange and I worked full time at Acne for a bit. How do you think that influenced you? Surprisingly quite a bit. Not so much being around fashion but the people around me were really creative. They were either studying design, or graphic artists. A lot of them were quite influential in their own way. Some of them even studied at Central St Martins which is like a very high....umm... highly...recognized...umm

No. Isn’t there another word for that? I don’t know, highly acclaimed? Reputable? Distinct? I don’t know. High distinction. Yeah and one of them was doing stuff for Dazed and Confused magazine, so I was like hanging out with them and they’d go to parties and you’d meet more similar people.

So were you writing anything at this stage?Yeah I was always writing whilst I was travelling. I had a journal. What did you write in your journal? When I was in Amsterdam I wrote quite a lot of stuff. When I travelled on my own on the train through Europe I’d write about how I was feeling. How I felt about coming home, what was going to happen. I had these all these expectations. Do you ever go back and read them?I haven’t actually, no. I shoud. But I know what’s in there and if I read it I will feel like I’m back there. I was writing a lot back then. I think that’s when I felt really comfortable. And I was reading a lot too. I was reading so much overseas. More than I do now, less distractions.

where themagic

happens

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What were you reading? Novels, philosophical writings. The French Existentialism stuff from Albert Camus. And also stuff by Jean Paul Sartre who wrote novels on existence and the meaning of life. Quite a lot of weird shit. Well not weird but like they were living during World War II so a lot of the questions that would arise were like, what’s the point of living when you’re going to get blown up. They had lost all morality. Real deep. Ever since I started studying philosophy I’ve found learning to read and write from a philosophical point of view is extremely beneficial. Its just so interesting.

You get to know your place in the world again. You stop and think a lot. And then you listen to arguments and debates between politicians and just realise, it means fuck all. In the grand scheme of things, there are dying and starving kids. Am I going to get upset if my phone bills not paid on time? Fuck no. I still have clothes on my back.

You can easily give up on good things if you think too much into how bad everything is. But then there’s a positive attitude where you don’t let the bad ruin everything.

When you write, whats your creative processes do you go through? If I’ve been dwelling on something and an idea stays in my head for a while I’m like,

I must be onto something guys!

LEATHERCARRIER

marshallamplifier

Yo yo yo listen up. I came up with this weird theory. I haven’t even looked back at it, but I went to the Picasso exhibition with Anthony, did I tell you about this? (Directed at bystanders) What a dumb hat. They both have matching dumb hats.

But yeah so I came up with this weird theory, I don’t know how right it could be but it went along the lines of; out of every war there’s been a technology that’s come out of it that liberates the people of the time and there’s an icon for that generation. I think Mark Zuckerberg is pretty much the one of our generation.

So in WWII you had Einstein producing the bomb and then the technology that came was the TV because it broadcasted all of these things in the fifties and the sixties so people were more aware of it. Then there was the Vietnam war in the 60’s and then you had the fall of the British Empire and then Margaret Thatcher and stuff in 1979 and the eighties. Then there was the First Gulf War in 1991, which was the first war they could film everything for 24 hrs. (Laughing) Okay I’m going to have to look back at it, but I was telling Anthony and he was like nah man it doesn’t work and I was like WHY, I wanna know! I mean it’s probably been thought of, and that’s the thing. Everything you come up with these days is already been done. Nothings original anymore. But why did I start talking about this?

W I L D T H I N G S i s s u e # 0 1

I think we were talking about your creative processes. Oh yeah so if I dwell on something, I’ll write it down. Hows the type writer going?I’ll tell you what I love about it. It’s so immediate, the product. It’s just there, you type and it’s there. You take the paper out and that’s it! Whereas on the computer there is something in between. What or who is a huge influence for you? Like music, food?

Food? Like oh that bacon and egg Mcmuffin I had yesterday was really inspirational. You have to try cous cous for a creative spark! No, no. I think the first thing would be music. Real people that did things, the people that were first in there. Like David Bowie and The Beatles, they were probably the most influential artists of all time. Everything comes out of its own period where it worked because it was then. What do you think is working now? It’s weird because I think now we don’t have anything and we don’t have time. Everything is produced for 10 minutes. Every era and time period before us worked because it had time and wasn’t so technologically advanced. Now in the 2000’s you can’t really imagine many artists in forty years time. That’s the nature of technology. You get it. Listen to it. Throw it out. Next thing.

It’s sad because I don’t think any record company goes in with an artist thinking about where they’ll be in twenty years. They just think, as long as they make us money in 6 months we’ll be sweet.I’ll tell you what I love doing. I love going back and listening to all the Triple J hottest 100s of the nineties. They are the best. Yeah but The Beatles. They were doing 2 albums a year. That’s an album every six months. That’s nuts. They had to work for it. Now your just given money and told to do something and then your forgotten.

So what genres are you most into? Rock and pop music. Not like Britney spears pop but Beatles pop. Definitely sixties music because it was a time of post-war and young kids finding a way of expressing themselves through music. Early sixties music was the best thing because it was full of artists like The Rolling Stones, The Velvet Underground and the artistic movement of New York. There were bohemian people experimenting with a lot of shit that their parents obviously frowned upon.

jammin

Okay so in a short-ish summary, what is your view on the meaning of life? Oh god. I reckon my view on life is just to be a good person. Like just be a really good person. If everyone just did that, everyone’s meaning would mean less. You wouldn’t need to think about anything. As long as I’m happy and I die normally. I don’t want to get shot. I think the real meaning of life is to procreate. And is that really a purpose? What is a creative person? Is everyone creative?Nah I don’t reckon everyone is, I think you need people that can make money. Creative people need to be able to watch how you make money. And do it creatively? Yeah, umm what was the question?(Laughing) Yeah I don’t know. Moving on. What time period do you wish you grew up in?Definitely the sixties. of course. Like early to mid sixties. Wait na it would be late fifties and then early sixties. So if I had ten years, yeah that.

In your ideal future what is your job? I’d like to be a social commentator.Someone that writes and comments on society and the things we do, the people we are, where we are heading and where we’ve come from. And who would you be with?I’d hope to be close to my family and friends like maybe just five close mates. And you too. Thanks babe. It’s not just a boys club. (Laughing) and... Luther vans-are-off? (Also laughing) (More laughing) Okay so if you could have a theme song for your life, what would it be? Theme song for my life?

(Frustrated grunt) Damm that’s so hard. Maybe strawberry fields by The Beatles. Maybe. Only because there is a line in it that I really like and I think it sums up life in general especially when something bad happens. It says, living is easy with eyes closed. I think a lot of ignorant people go through life easier because they just don’t see. Lastly, what song have you always wanted to be played when you walk into a party?And I mean you are walking into a huge house party with loads of people and as you enter its silent, then your song starts. Oh! Theres a couple. Have you heard the song, Can you hear my knocking? By the Rolling Stones. Can I play it? Its so fucking cool.

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S H A N A H A N

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DA

Wow I haven’t even really thought about this. Oh don’t worry, seriously. Just tell me a bit about the course you just finished at TAFE. For two years I studied textile design and fabric printing. A course in which I learnt various methods of fabric and surface decoration. What did you want to be when you went into this course? I’ve always had a passion for swimwear-Why? I’ve always had a love for prints and textiles. A print is what I find most striking about a piece. Prints and colours.And were you creative at school? Yeah. I’d call myself a creative type. It runs in the family, my great grandmother owned a wedding dress company; my grandmother and my mother have always been sewers and knitters. My family background has definitely influenced me. Okay so what subjects did you do at TAFE? Were there any that you particular loved?I loved my print design class, which was where the design development all came together and I first started to design our prints. So what were some of the creative processes you would have to go through? Well firstly I would sketch out. For example if I wanted to produce a floral print I’d research a variety of different flowers of different shapes, textures, colours and other floral designs. I’d interpret a range of sources and ideas into my own illustrations and a theme or concept would usually arise.

at our beachat our magic beach a gifted

designer is born.

What mediums did you use? I used various mediums and materials, I would use black card and stencils, playing with positive and negative spaces. I would use a range of inks and textile pencils. Did you use the computer at all or was it all by hand at this stage? Not in print design. I had a separate subject for computing where we scanned all of our experiments in and used Adobe programs. All of my subjects overlapped and intertwined within each other. I had a printing class where I physically screen printed fabric, dyed fabric, used foiling and flocking techniques. I also had a textiles class where I learnt about different fibers and what prints on what fabrics. Did you enjoy all these hands on activities? Yes, TAFE is all very hands on. It was very practical and realistic. That’s what I liked about it. Sounds like you learnt a lot in a year at TAFE.Two years. Oh, sorry. So you left with a Diploma of? I left with a Certificate IV and a Diploma in Design and Fabric Printing. But I didn’t actually qualify for my Certificate IV because I failed drawing. I just never handed it in. Do you remember that arts n craft afternoon at Eleanor’s when we were all trying to get my drawings done? I just never handed that in. She never asked for it. Happy days. I remember your nude drawings. (Laughing). Anyway, after school did you go straight to TAFE? No I actually had a year off. What did you do in that year?

I worked in a toyshop. (Laughing)

(Also laughing) How did that influence your creative career? I just had a bit of self-exploration, where I realised what creative field I wanted to pursue. That’s when I realized I really wanted to do swimwear. I was going to apply for fashion but I had much more of a passion for prints.Were you working during your years at TAFE aswell? Yeah I was just working in a bar, I had to. TAFE is quite an expensive course when you consider all the processes and materials. So did you have smaller projects throughout the year then a major at the end? Yeah so within each subject I had smaller projects that all rolled into each other. For example “The Big Blue One” that was one for design development.

metallicfabricdesign

(Laughing) Is that what it’s called? Yes. “The Big Blue One”. I had to create an A3 artwork based on blue and white china, which was the core of our inspiration. I focused on scale-like mosaic tiles and metallic foiling. With your bikini collection, who or what influenced you? My first range was titled “Oceanic Morphosis” which is an exploration of underwater visuals so I started experimenting with paper marbling. I used oil paints, turps and water on hundreds of different papers and picked out the strongest ones. I then scanned them and transformed them into a repeat pattern, exposed them onto my silk screens, and printed them onto fabric. The ocean seems to be a very influential and a key source of inspiration for you.

I just love the beach. There’s no feeling like diving into the ocean on a hot summers day. So many memories, and living by the beach for 21 years, it’s like my second home. It’s calming and relaxing yet adventurous. There are so many colours and textures. It’s an ongoing theme for me. My second swimwear range was called “What Dreams Are Made Of” and that was based on a variety of visuals I experienced through my dreams, which I then took and incooperated into different artistic images.

Any particular colours, textures, shapes you like to work with? Blues obviously, and ranges of similar shades. I like flowing organic shapes and the idea of scales. So I recently heard you won a Seafolly competition. Tell me a little bit about that. So it was Sunburn for Seafolly’s “Can You Design For Us” campaign 2012. It was an open brief to design swimwear. I was to design a swimwear piece whether it was a one piece, a bikini, monokini, tankini whatever. I entered six designs and I was lucky enough to have one of my designs chosen as the winner.And what did that result in? Well Seafolly are now actually going to make my bikini and stock it in all Sunburn stores across Australia for summer 2012/2013. I just spent three days at Sea Folly working closely with the design team, the pattern makers and the production team. Who are all apart of brining the bikini to life. I also had to be the fit model too.

It has been a truly great experience. What do you see happening next for you? Well who know’s. The world is your oyster.Is there anything else that inspires or drives you creatively? I love other creative talents. I love looking at blogs and seeing where other people are and what they’re capturing. Have you travelled anywhere that has influenced you? I have. I’ve been to Fiji, Hawaii, Bali, the Greek Islands and Spain. You just swim underwater and open your eyes to a whole new tropical world. In your ideal future what is your job? I’d love to work as a print designer for a swimwear company. My experience at Seafolly has really taught me a lot about the entire production process.Who would be in your ideal future with you?

A husband and kids, and a white Audi Q7.

And where would you be? I’d be right here by the beach in Bronte. Always somewhere by the sea, my heart is in the sea, I am at one with the sea.Sweet, Thanks.

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L O M O N

d e m a

How would you describe what it is that you do? I guess we are freelance designers. From organising events and different community based projects, creating our own art, marketing, t-shirt designs and freelance stuff. We try to take on as much as possible. I mean it’s kind of hard to label us under one occupation. It’s more of a cross-disciplinary career, based on a lot of different things. What were your initial ideas for your type of project? How did it all come about? Initially we started with a clothing label. Catering for a graffiti sort of youth street-skate culture. We realized that we had quite a strong support base, which was going to be really useful for this collective idea. We begun with an already large fan base, all very like-minded creative people who are keen to support their individuality. Then there was a change between the clothing label to it becoming a collective. That’s when it took off. When the dynamic changed it became a lot more. We realised the opportunities that we had and thought we may as well take them. What inspired you guys to do something like this? Graffiti for sure. Graffiti and street art and everything that comes with that. The controversy, the freedom and taking back the public space. The ideas behind graffiti. The idea of self-expression is kind of what we are trying to do through a collective. Allowing other people to do that and us help them.

i caUGHT up with the boys behind sydney’s infamous ‘chrown’

Why do you think it took off? I think because obviously we are very talented young men. (Laughing) To be modest. I think we just have a very strong network of creative people, it just turned out to be very easy to connect everyone together. We also have the benefit of doing the same uni course, which is a Bachelor of Design at COFA so we are constantly designing and it’s constantly on our minds. Do you have a manifesto? Like are there any key principles driving the collective? Yeah we have a mission statement, it’s pretty extensive. Umm I guess we could say that we’re trying to facilitate change within society, which is obviously needed I think. In a western very urban society there’s a lack of connection and community with people.

The environment, which we live in, is a very concrete and sterile environment. It doesn’t really reflect the people. We want other’s to be able to express their creative talent and individuality and we are kind of like the middle-man in that process. So it’s mostly operating online? It started out like that yes. Our website was more important in the beginning of this business really growing but I think where we are heading now it’s more of a community based project. Designing events to connect people.A large part of our reach and our ability to connect to others is through various social media outlets, our Facebook page, our Instagram, our Tumblr, whatever. Our respective online entities are a massive part of the business. It means we can easily get ourselves out there.

one tuesdayevening

W I L D T H I N G S i s s u e # 0 1

And who does what? Or do you both contribute equally? Well we have our niches. We have it written down somewhere but yeah it is more of a collaborative effort I guess. There are a lot of different alleys we consider, PR, social networking, organizing collaborations with different companies. It’s kind of funny because as much as we try to say who is control of what we just take it as it comes and see what happens. We rarely come around and say what we want to do in six months time, it’s like something will come up and we will just do whatever is necessary. There’s no real method. Opportunities arise at different places and different times and they seem to be arriving more frequently which is nice. What did you guys do after you finished school? What did you think you would do? Umm.. (Laughing) We both took a lot of time off, travelling, drinking. I think because we are doing a design course at uni obviously that helped a lot with our decision for the label. (Xander) Travelling did definitely develop my perspective of life and my design philosophy. (Oscar) Yeah Xander has done a lot more travelling than I have and he’s found levels of spirituality which I haven’t and that’s what makes us different as designers. I’m much more into the graphic flat 2D and he’s really into crazy intrinsic 3D geometry type stuff.

It’s a nice mesh and we meet at the middle.

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Is there anywhere in the world where you went that really influenced you?(Xander) South America and Central America. Chile for example is quite influential because there is just shit loads of graffiti and street art at a really good quality. Also Brazil had a lot of that. It kind of just opened my eyes to what a city could be like and how vibrant and creative a society could be. (Oscar) Sydney I think has been one of our biggest influences more than anything. It’s where we design everything and it’s catered for the people. What was it like getting your first pay cheque? Ah pretty rewarding (Laughing). As you’d expect. But the money can come and go, it’s a pretty minimal aspect for us. It’s a nice perk and it obviously helps us grow a bit and expand our reach but financial motives are not the most important thing. What creative processes do you go through when your designing something?

Well we’d start with the choice of clothing. We would think about what we would want and something practical, which is t-shirts and hoodies. Then that allowed us to start sketching up ideas. And then we wanted to do things like develop The Chrown because we are all about the projection of that.

How do you form an idea?That’s a very profound question. I know but like for example how did you come up with the logo? The logo obviously came from the idea of a crown, which is a very universal symbol in graffiti. To be a king is what you aim to be and to get crowned and whatever. The other designs we have come up with further aim to portray the business and what we are about. On the site we talk a little bit about our influences coming from altered states of consciousness and freedom of expression. Our first few designs were intended to embrace our philosophy, which is street. At the end of the day, as much as we like our clothing label to be adopted by other young creative guys and girls we are essentially, I think, subconsciously designing for ourselves. There are millions of ideas out there but it’s hard to narrow it down to what’s going to be effective.

And where do you guys see The Chrown in the future? Mexico. Or somewhere really nice and warm.

I think our business has real potential and I think we will see quite a bit of success in the different projects we are undertaking. It’s already manifesting now, we’ve got some great new gigs teed up. And what are they? We’ve actually just signed with The Village in Kings Cross to do a monthly gig on Wednesdays showcasing independent musicians and artists. Hopefully it will bring a bit of community. You know, we started this as a bit of a side project and we’re still not relying on the cash from it. It’s something that we actually want to do and are passionate about it. What comes of it, comes of it. And if it doesn’t, we’ll look back on it in twenty years and go,

we were doing something worthwhile at twenty.

I think that’s about it. Yeew.

I think what you guys have established and accomplished is incredible. It’s really good to see other young creative talent collaborating and expressing their individuality. Total support.

alleywaybetween campbell pdeand gould st

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from visual communication to a quarter life career change,stuart melvey is currentlypersuing his dream as a musician

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What did you do last night? I actually played at a street party in a laneway in Redfern. Wasn’t it raining? Yeah but everything was under cover. Do you know Garage Pressure? They’re these DJs who do heaps of shit for FBI, they headlined. The dude just left straight after the set and no one had organised any music for afterwards so we just rushed around got a few CDs and iPods and stuff and sort of djed. Were there heaps of people? Yeah we played super loud and super late, until the cops came and shut it down. What music did you play? Just huge belters pretty much. Heaps of Hud Mo and Rusty, Objekt. What is your career at this current moment? Umm..God damn.

Do you have to ask the hard questions first? (Laughing). Well what are you up to at the moment?I suppose producing music. I want to write and produce music for films. Yeah so I’m just kind of hoping to become a producer of sorts. What kind of music do you want to produce? Predominately electronic. A lot of the sounds in advertising and marketing are shaping to become a lot of electronic. It’s becoming very universal. So is it all electronic or do you use any instruments?I use a lot of organic instruments and sounds, I try and blend the two together. I use a lot of guitar riffs in my songs.

So you write as well? Yes, a lot of the stuff that I write actually just comes from playing melodies and chords on guitar and then sort of taking it into a more digital realm. What have you written recently?I recently finished a track for a company called Wild Works, who analyse companies and come up with strategies to make them more efficient. So the team that employed me c r e a t e d an animation of a tree growing with concepts of prosperity and new life. It’s a very emotional animation with a strong connection to the viewer. The track I wrote for it is very relaxing and calming. I actually recorded real wild life sounds as well. It’s very uplifting, dynamic but a bit edgy. A little bit attention grabbing. How long did it take you to do? About a week and a half. How do you know when a track is finished? That’s a really hard question. Every song that I work on sort of ends up having a goal. Something’s I spend a lot more time on than others, just to see how far I can progress and make something sound really professional. Have you ever pushed a song so far it was just terrible?

Yeah oh definitely. Sometimes you tweak it too much, just like artworks, you can always over do it. And sometimes your ears play a lot of tricks on you because you’ve heard the same song a hundred times over, it’s quite hard to remember what you really initially liked about the song. So what style of music do you write? It definitely changes as you get more influenced by different artists and everything is always evolving. I tend to write really progressive music. I’ve moved into a much faster tempo. I used to write a lot of hip hop based tracks around eighty and ninety bpm and now I’m bordering on drum and bass. It’s very up-beat house, very colourful and very melodic.

breakfastlunch anddinner

from a basement in north bondi heavy bass and thrashing beats seep out from under the door.

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Do you work with vocals? Yeah I do. I try to use a lot of vocal samples just because it really lifts the song. I don’t have a resident singer or anything that I can just grab so whenever something comes along I try and use it as best I can.

What software do you use? Ableton live. It’s one of the main electronic programs in the world. It has a lot of live applications and abilities to play the software more than others. I also use Logic and Pro Tools. They’re more for really serious audio editing.How long did it take you to learn how to use Ableton? Well I’m still learning, these programs are so comprehensive it takes years.Did you teach yourself? Yeah you can also read the manual if you really want to know something specific. Or another really good way to learn is by watching YouTube tutorials. Someone goes through each step right in front of you, it’s great. Have you accidentally come across any mad effects?Yeah of course. Happy mistakes are the best way to progress. It’s a great way to find sounds. And how long have you been writing for? I’ve been writing electronic music since I was about 17 so about five years. But I was into a lot of grunge rock and all of that nineties teenager stuff. I can’t say that I produced anything good until I was much older. I mean some of my old songs have a lot of song writing merit but in terms of how they sound they are every naïve. You didn’t study music at all did you?

I actually studied graphic arts at UTS. It was interesting doing a degree in design because it really allowed me to look at the whole process of creation and creative arts. Understanding how hard it can be to make a really clear communicating design. It led me to think a lot more about who was listening to the songs and what I wanted to do with them. I definitely could have chosen a better course, which would have helped me with my current career choice, but I now have an even more unique set of creative skills. When did you decide you were not going to pursue a graphic design career? It kind of evolved over the entire course of four years. (Laughing)Mainly because in the beginning I never really considered music as a viable career option but by the end I realised even though I probably have a lot more of a solid foundation in visual design I thought I may as well pursue my dream and just go for it. If it doesn’t work out then I’ll just work it out later. I’m working really hard at it at the moment. It’s a tough industry. Are you going to study music or production at all? Yeah I’m looking at doing this course at Afters, which is a film and radio school near Fox Studios. I’m looking at the one year course in sound and post-production for film. It will be a lot of studio environments. I think it will be a lot about learning the marrying of imagery and sound. Basically getting a lot of practical experience. Where do you write and play all your music?Everything I’ve ever done so far has been from my bedroom. It’s full of equipment. Including a piano, a drum kit and many guiatars. I’ve collected a lot of equipment over the years; it’s a continuous process.

Do you have any other creative interests? I take a lot of photographs. Not so much anymore because my camera was stolen but I also really like to paint. The two have sort of been lacking in my life at the moment but I think it’s really important to have a diverse range of interests. They all influence each other. How do you go into writing a song? Firstly, you have to be in a really inspired mood. That’s really important. You have to really want to do it. It’s quite funny; the times when I write are usually when I haven’t done a lot in the past couple of days. So I feel a bit empty and inspired to do something productive.Is there anywhere you’ve travelled that has influenced you? Definitely Europe. It’s the electronic hub of the world and my four months travelling around there definitely affected me. Where in particular? Berlin. Berlin was huge. Alternative culture just flourishes there. Did you see any particular artists? My three favourite gigs were Aphex Twin, Lorn and a guy called Dorian Concept. Aphex Twin was the most intense show I have ever seen. I had no idea that someone had pushed the levels of confrontation to such an extreme and people love it. What would be your favourite gig of all time? Flying Lotus in 2008. He played to about sixty people and it was just when I heard his first album 1983. Before then I was into a lot of pretty standard dance music, this was the first time I had ever been exposed to a completely different style of music.

He’s just so left field. He’s a huge influence for me.

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Who else influences you?Four Tet, Boards of Canada. I’m getting really into chilled house where you can dance to it but you can also have a conversation over it. Music is a lifestyle. The reason why people like music because it relates to the way they feel. It’s also based on memory. You subconsciously form memories and feelings with different songs. What films influence you, or what are you favourite films? My two favourite films would have to be Fantasia and 2001 Space Odyssey. I can’t get over the way they marry audio and visuals in Fantasia. It has the best and most inspiring mood to it. One of the most amazing things I found out about Fantasia was normally today a film is filmed and then the audio is comes after. But in Fantasia they did it completely the other way around. The music was written and recorded and then they drew millions of frames to match it. It was made in 1940, which was a really long time ago. It pretty much started Disney. It was the first film to be done in stereo not mono. It’s just a really groundbreaking movie. What’s your philosophy of life? I came up with this thing a while ago. I think that if everyone just believed in nothing we would get so much more shit done. I think creating things is a really powerful way to reflect on your own meaning and your own self. It’s really nice to be able to put your feelings into something tangible and something real. I think a lot of the reason people write songs and create artworks to express themselves and to allow others to relate.