Products of the goat.
Justin Bartlett interview

A hell of some time ago, I sent a handwritten letter to Justin Bartlett. He needs no introduction, and has been absorbed through Cvlt Nation before. It was just a few nights ago that the answers were returned. I scribe his dark and morbidly satirical speech here for your eyes to revel upon. It is quite a long read, and I am holding off on too much art, just enough to add to the writings.

Hails Bartlett, if you are reading this, it means there is no postal strike and my unholy writings found their way to you. Care to introduce yourself for those who don’t already know the grim city dweller of California?

I am so grim and kvlt that I am indeed answering your letter while drinking iced tea at a coffee shop down the street from my apartment. An introduction? I draw corpses, goats, and other appropriate imagery for (mainly) metal/hardcore/underground album covers, but I’ve also created illustrations for a few magazines, sports, and fashion lines. When I say fashion, I just mean t-shirt and clothing companies, I haven’t made it to any gay fashion reality shows just yet.

Although the majority of my work has been in music, which has allowed me a lot of creative freedom and given me a pretty good amount of exposure – I am trying to make more of a move into the “entertainment” world. I can make a better living working with clients involved with movies, comics, and books. I doubt I’d get any gigs drawing an aborted baby Jesus falling out of a goat vagina, but you never know. I don’t necessarily have to draw vulgar imagery to be happy, but I know I can get work drawing weird and interesting subjects in my own style. Recently I did some work for a John Cusack movie coming out, called “The Raven”…. unfortunately my work wasn’t used (I think due to the ridiculously short turn-around time), but I was still paid pretty well and I am supposed to be doing more work for the company.

In the metal realms, there seems to have been a bloodpoisoned underground, though no longer in existence, the likes of Xasthur, Draugur and Leviathan have spawned some of the darkest creations possible. Do you listen to these California bands? Why is there such a polar opposite in creative output to the surroundings?

Yes, of course I own some Xasthur and Leviathan releases. I have heard of Draugur, but I don’t think I’ve actually listened to their music. Although I do like some “bedroom black metal”, I kind of think a lot of it is redundant, and I don’t have a HUGE interest in it. I love the Lurker of Chalice album though, actually I prefer that to Leviathan, and the first Twilight album is pretty neat. Well, it’s not my job to speculate why the music is in polar opposite to the surroundings. I guess it’s a reaction to the easy-going happy bullshit vibe that people think all Californians are like. Didn’t the guy from Xasthur work at Taco Bell? I guess that’s pretty depressing, working at a fast food chain might make me create creepy black metal as well.

I am listening to the band Bethlehem as I write this. I find their music to be very obscure sounding, and could be commented well by some of your artwork. Have you ever wanted to try something with this band?

Working for Bethlehem would be fitting, but to be honest I haven’t heard them since “Dictius Te Necare” came out. On the other hand, I don’t see it really as a challenge working with bands that totally fit with my style and usual subject matter, which is one reason why I want to move into other areas.

Last year, Watain printed some posters in collaboration with Metastazis for their London gig. The design was printed in blood and sold at the show. Would you ever try pressing some of your work in blood for special limited prints?

If by using blood as a gimmick would help me sell a few extra prints, why not? I am sure Watain came to the same conclusion, although I am sure they would have sold the posters anyways.

I must comment on the corpsepaint you used in your photo shoot. To me it looks like there is black ichor dripping from your eyes, like black water from a sewer hole. How did you come up with this?

Well, there’s this band called Hellhummer, or Hellhammer or something…..and I borrowed the fabulous makeup techniques of a Mr. Thomas Gabriel Fischer. I think the white painted clown face isn’t as grim, and it’s so 1990’s!! So I went with a more simple look that’s perfect for every season.

Do you enjoy being outside, or are you more of a hermit-like person and would rather stay inside to do your drawings?

Well, like any truly grim black metal warrior, I spend most of my free time masturbating to internet porn, collecting images of old record inserts that I never owned to post on my tumblr page, and hitting the “Like” button on every band’s Facebook page whose album I just spent a grueling 5 minutes searching for!!!! Man, taking a few minutes to download an album is really digging, let me tell you!!! All jokes aside, I like to do both. One reason I’d like to do less work within music is because I was spending 60 hours or easily more drawing, which means I have less time to go outside and into the real world. Although I do dislike humanity as a whole, and have a rampant disgust for the majority of people – I am a pretty social person, within the right context and people.

If you lost your hands in a freak accident, what would you do instead of drawing?

That’s not funny, I actually lost both of my hands several years ago and now have robot hands…I prefer them to the real thing, although my ex-wife didn’t. But, if I didn’t have robot hands, I would probably become a world famous foot model.

Gaahl said once in his documentary “you cannot go to school to become an artist” – do you agree? What else is offered by society that is not entirely relevant to the limitless possibilities of human knowledge and creativity?

I agree with Gaahl. You can go to school to learn some techniques, but being a real artist is something you are born with. When I was in high school many years ago, I took ONE art class (art 7/8), which is advanced art. It was pretty much a joke – I thought, “wow.. if this is what art is all about, I am wasting my time”…and honestly I don’t think any of the people I knew from that time who went around calling themselves “artists” really made much of a way into the art world. Many of the people I know who are the typical artsy types are not that good and seem to view it more as some sort of lifestyle or clique rather than possessing great talent or originality. I think that subjects like abstract math and physics are pretty interesting as well. Obviously I find that to be more mind blowing that some depressed person creating bad artwork or bedroom black metal. In other words, most art sucks.

As a kid, you drew a lot of weird things that were not typical of your peers. Were there any serious concerns that your head was in the wrong place? Also, have you recieved any negative reaction to some of your more vulgar pieces?

I’m not that sure if people thought my head was in the wrong place. I did other things that were worse than drawing fucked up shit, I remember my mom finding some uh.. “erotic” drawings that my friend and I did as a joke and she being pretty mad about it. Other than that, I haven’t run into too many problems.

What was the scariest experience of your life?

Being born.

Do you dwell in any of the arcane and dark fiction? Like Lovecraft for instance, or other sources?

I’m vaguely familiar with Lovecraft – my favorite author is probably Philip K. Dick., and right now I am going through the DUNE series. I really haven’t read as much fiction as I’d like, mostly I read a lot informational books or current event magazines like “The Economist”. If I didn’t need to sleep, then I’d probably read much more.

One of my favourites from your catalogue are the drawings for “Litmusphere” with everything done in obscure angles and dimensions, as well as “The Darkness Drips Forth,” “KVLT VII,” and “Cthonic Rites.” Can you give some unholy insight for where these ideas came from, or what they mean to you? Do the more abstract ones have any metaphysical or hidden intentions/references?

Unholy insight… hmm… well, it’s really just imagery that is in my mind. I suppose it’s up to the viewer to determine if it’s unholy or not. A lot of my work contains weird retarded anthropomorphic beings and distorted animals. I guess it’s not the typical “metal” subject matter. It seems that what passes for unholy artwork by some such as muscled satanic goat lords, looks kind of gay and homoerotic to others.

But back to the meanings and such, most of my client work (album covers/shirts) is loosely based on the subject matter or themes of the music, their ideas then pass through several filters and translations in my mind. I don’t think I can really explain it, but I’ll give it a shot. Words have different meanings to different people, I guess I have an ability to put a weird twist on their original ideas/meanings – and that’s why bands ask me to work with them.

Some of the artwork comes across as amateur, like the KVLT one with the angry black metaller and the hovering unicorn. But in another way, these are something that most metalheads would be proud to have on their wall. Is your form of expression a way to connect to something that is not quite human, or represents an alter ego?

I think you have it wrong really. My artwork is actually a deep part of my humanity. I am not trying to connect with something that isn’t human since I don’t have much of a belief in the supernatural. So, no, I am not trying to connect with something inhuman. Although I do draw and create artwork for bands, most of my client work is really all about my ideas and vision. So, in most ways it’s for myself, just as any self-initiated creations. But back to being connected with something else – I do enjoy the side effect that other people can connect to it in whatever way they do.. even if they hate it.

I have no alter ego, what you see is what you get!

Do you have to repeatedly rip your paper when creating something new because of something you don’t like about the drawing?

I was going to skip this because your time is about up, but I’ll answer it. I have started over on a few illustrations – but not many. My drawing style is VERY time consuming and it takes me hours and hours and hours for it to start looking like a drawing, so it would be a huge waste of time if I threw away my work. I guess that takes a bit of skill and foresight on my part, usually I’ll draw a couple really loose sketches to get the ideas and placement kind of worked out and just let it rip from there.

Have been to any conventions, accompanied with some extreme metal? Would you cross the border into Canada, specifically Toronto which seems to host many such events?

I’ve had my artwork at a couple gallery shows that had some bands playing…the only one that was a proper fest was the Supersonic fest, which maybe a few bands interested me. But back to your original question – I am kind of distancing myself from the music world – at least working within with bands and labels. So, unless it was personally rewarding for me and the timing was just right (which it hardly ever is) I probably wont be doing anything like that.

Even though I got to where I am by working within various underground music genres, it’s really kind of a dead end at this point creatively and professionally. I would go to a fest on my own to enjoy the bands, but it’s really not worth the effort having a show where I might sell one print or one shirt. In case I am unclear – I didn’t get into working with bands and music for the money, I really enjoy the freedom it gives me to create some pretty insane stuff, and it’s cool to be a part of the process. After only freelancing for a years, I’ve come to the conclusion that if I want to be successfully independently employed, and be an illustrator – working in music is just not something that pays well at all, so I really have to focus on other areas.

Being a disciple of the mighty ink myself, I enjoy seeing the making of and fueling my own thoughts about what is to come out of pure interest, how long would one of your black/white sketches take to finish?

It all depends on the size and detail obviously. I just spent over 300 hours each on the last two albums I did for Wolves Like Us (Norway), and Lord Mantis (Chicago, USA). It really takes a lot of patience and a slight obsessive compulsive disorder to complete my work.

What does black metal hold for you?

I’m not one to intellectualize it beyond that I think black metal in the true sense has come and gone. There are old bands that still create amazing albums and newer bands that are definitely worth listening to, but the time where it really was special has long passed. I mean, they have black metal symposiums and I heard a “Lords of Chaos” movie is in the works. For better or worse, everything is just too accessible now and too self-aware. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, it’s just how things are. Perhaps I am over generalizing things, but I’m just a music consumer so who cares anyways really?

Philosophy is integral to how we live and how we craft our lives, do you see our existence as something that should be taken seriously, and our views to be kept as strong as iron?

I take myself seriously to an extent, but as King Diamond said “Nuns have no fun”… so please remember to lighten up and laugh once and a while. Do I think people’s views should be kept as strong as iron? No, actually I don’t. That sounds like a very dogmatic thing to say – thinking you know all of the answers and never take into account what other people might have to say, or even take in what reality actually is. II don’t mean you should be a wishy-washy person – but I feel that if you want to be a fully REALIZED human being, you need to often challenge your own beliefs and conceptions about the world and who you are.

When exposed to water, iron rusts.

If you could exist in any time period, which would it be?

I’ve actually thought about this many times. As a whole, I think humanity is pretty fucked, and for some perverse reason, I’d actually like to travel to the future to see how bad things will get. Tough question, seeing live dinosaurs would be great as well! There’s something “romantic” about living in the past of human history too, but I think if I lived in the middle ages, or Renaissance, or even the wild west, I’d probably end up dying from something mundane like a spider bite or the flu. So, I might as well go out with a bang like in the Road Warrior or get eaten by a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Do you study art? Like the medieval paintings or even primitive art from cavemen? Do you enjoy the new age “art” that is most popular these days? Personally I think paint splatters and a unique frame is pointless and takes no effort…

Purely expressive art like Pollock really does nothing for me, but art (and music) are all very highly subjective matters. Unfortunately as lame as many of those types of artwork are, they actually do require effort! To me, they just seem to be exercises of technique though and little else. Even if something seems totally fucking retarded to one person, someone else loves it. It seems like there’s an audience for just about everything, as long as it’s marketed well. Sadly, that’s all it takes sometimes – finding the right way to sell and popularize a product.