It’s been a minute since I last did an ART CVLT Interview, so I’m starting off the new year with a homie from across the pond. Without further adieu, I give you Chris Alliston…
Q: What was it that got you into drawing and design? Did Punk and Hardcore have any bearing on the style you’ve eventually developed into?
I remember when I was a kid, first off, seeing some old Nirvana record and the cover drew me in straight away. I was drawing around that time anyway so it seemed right to put two and two together. I went through a ton of stages after this, mostly experimental, to see what I liked best. My work began to change as my music taste changed; I started to listen to a bunch of old Hatebreed and Terror and I started to find artists like Mark Riddick who I thought was just the best, so my main aim was to just do something and keep it as scary looking as possible. Then as I grew older and my music taste started to change, my work grew a lot more into its own thing, I think as I found new musical ways to express my work that changed with it, but I’ve always stuck to pen and ink.
Q: Who would you say your current influences are? Past or Present.
I would have to say my main influences are old 70’s posters, Albrecht Durer, old lithographs and engravings, the kings these days however, sin-eater, Richey Beckett and John Dyer Baizley, Aaron Horkey just rule over everything. I would be stoked to be that good at that age, that’s kind of what I’m working towards hopefully.
Q: A lot of your pieces involve a lot of stippling and intense line work. Was this a way of drawing that you just became comfortable with over the years?
My grandma tells me all the time she remembers when I was a kid and I used to draw little people and stick men, but I would draw them literally as small as possible. I remember drawing little mazes in school – I must have been around 7 or 8 I think, trying to draw these little rooms and mazes as small as possible, I never really used that in my work until last year when I put two and two together and it just felt really right, sort of like I had been doing it all my life so I didn’t have to learn anything, I just went with my instincts sort of thing.
Q: With such a labor intensive style, how long does it usually take to complete a piece?
It really depends, but if were looking at one of my preferred sizes of standard vinyl cover, 12 x 12, I’d say around 3 weeks give or take for initial ideas and pencilling in and usually around 3 weeks of straight inking. I’m at university in the week a lot so it can be really hard to try and balance time, but any spare time I have away from working on uni things is working on commission stuff in my personal time – prints, commissions or something.
Q: How does a normal day usually go down for you? Artists can be very peculiar with their routines and how they go about things.
Since coming to university, I get up pretty early, mostly for a half day in the studio, I’ll return home (I live in student halls at the moment) then I’ll try and maybe send a ton of emails or something, do a little research. I’ll usually have a piece on the desk in progress, so maybe get a couple of hours in on that while I can. It’s pretty hard to juggle time when you have two things on at once but it’s worth it, it means I’m constantly in work mode, sort of always in the mind set I need to be to be working as hard as I can.
Q: I love the album cover you did for the band Mind Mountain, it looks like it could be a stoner rock record straight from 1978. Care to shed any light on how that came about? Did you work with the band on that?
Ah, this is probably the best thing that came out of 2013. Our local skate shop Lost Art always has sick stuff going on, there was a Ben Horton exhibition on at Bold Street Coffee, Ben does a handful of the illustrations for $lave skateboards and I’ve been into his work for a while. I went and checked out this local band that were playing there at the time called Mind Mountain, and they were so killer I had to make sure I emailed them once I got home. We basically got chatting and I didn’t actually know that Marc who plays bass for them worked in Lost Art until I went in there to buy some shoes or something, so we had this sick little correspondence going where I didn’t have to email any artwork, I was able to just take it to him in person – so much better than a blurred out image over email, with so much detail I think you need to see it in person to be able to get a decent view on the thing. So much opportunity has come from this though, I have my first show at Bold Street Coffee now this month which pretty much all came from this one commission. I was at the Ben Horton show thinking, I need to get a show in here one day, little did I know it was coming sooner than I thought. Still so glad I went that show that night!
Q: I’m also a huge fan of the print “Guardian” that you were working on earlier this year. What was your inspiration on that?
My go to thing is nature, any plants or animals, and females. Putting them all into once piece was just going to happen from the start no matter what. Listen to warrior child by Olde Growth, it’s a visual for that track!
Q: When you’re commissioned for pieces, especially being that you’re an illustrator, do you wait for the band or client to send you an idea to run with, or do you prefer to go off on something on your own?
Usually a band will get in touch with an idea or their own, it’s rare a band will hit your style on the head first try, so there’s pretty much always some discussion going on. Sometimes it’s a challenge to try something you don’t really do and get out of your comfort zone though, like with that Mind Mountain piece – they wanted a landscape style piece which I’ve only ever done once before and I was super nervous about it, but I’m so glad I did it because it’s one of my favourite pieces of the year for sure.
Q: What does a typical playlist look like while you’re working on stuff? Are there any bands you’re currently into that people need to check out?
I usually listen to the same stuff while working, mostly Sleep, High on Fire, Merciful Fate, Sabbath, really old Hell Awaits-era Slayer, Baroness, sometimes some blues like Muddy Waters or something, maybe some Pentagram, Eyehategod, some OM. I really like that super epic sound some bands have and I want my work to impact the same way visually.
Q: If you could design for any band, whether it’s a current band, or a band from the past. Who would it be?
Haha! I’ve answered this question before and I sound like such a fan boy but I don’t even care, it would be a dream to get a commission from Metallica. I could end my career the next day and be happy.
Q: Are you working on anything that you care to shine some light on?
As it’s the start of 2014, I’m working on getting my solo show out of the way and then taking on commissions from there, I’m sort of putting things on hold to get this out of the way, I need to make sure my work is looking as best as possible! But I have a lot of ideas for 2014.
Q: You were telling me that you have your first solo art show coming up. That is pretty legit my friend. Do you have pieces that you’ve been working on specifically for the event, or are you showcasing what you’ve already finished?
The pieces in there are all pieces done over the past year and a half. There’s one or two pieces in there that are pretty new, one’s a little poster I knocked out for Mastodon’s Soundwave appearance and one’s a piece I’ve been working on for a long time and is going to hopefully look awesome in person!
Q: That’s all I got for ya. Any shootouts? People you want to mention? Thanks for taking the time to do this!
Yeah man, thank you for reaching out, it honestly means the world! I’d like the give a couple of shout outs to the lads in Mind Mountain, Lewis Royden for taking crazy good pictures of me, my bud from San Fran who is an insane illustrator, ESSAY DEE…erm the guys at Lost Art, Bold Street Coffee, Russ, and as always Witch Hunter Records.
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