Brandon Boyd by Brantley Gutierrez

In this extremely open and honest interview, Incubus frontman, Brandon Boyd, shares his entertaining, amusing and bizarre thoughts on procrastination, overcoming obstacles and facing your fears.

If you’ve recently read the post How I Made The Biggest Decision Of My Life you’ll already know that I’m a big fan of multi-platinum rock band, Incubus. I won’t repeat the story, other than to say great music and great art really can change people’s lives and Brandon’s music dramatically changed the direction of my life. I’ve put a lot of effort into this interview so I can pay it forward, and hopefully Brandon’s experience will inspire you to think differently and take some action on what you’ve learned.

The excellent portrait photography in this article was provided by Brantley Gutierrez and a special thanks goes to Jen DiSisto

Brandon’s not only the frontman of successful band Incubus, he’s also a skilled artist, the author of two books and a kick ass surfer. Click here to check out more of Brandon’s artwork or to purchase one of his prints. But not before reading his fascinating interview.

Angel: So Brandon what was the first thing you remember creating as a child?

I Ate Lunch At The Stoners Table

Angel: And were you one of the cool kids at school or were you an outsider?

Grabbed Me By My Chest

Angel: What made you decide to commit to music full time after studying art at college for 2 years?

Angel: Did you set any specific goals when you were setting out?

I Lost My Hands And Feet At An Unfortunate Spelunking Safety Seminar

Angel: People always have excuses for why they can’t start a band or creative career. Some of the ones we hear a lot are; not enough money, time, confidence, credibility, resources, did you have these same problems when you started out, and how did you handle them?

"The Plunge" by Brandon Boyd

Angel: Did you have any particular people who helped mentor or guide you when you started out?

If You Are In A Hurry, Write A Pop Song And Make A Sex Tape.

Angel: When people first set out on a creative career they don’t realize how long it takes to become successful, after a couple of years most people usually quit, what did you focus on in the early days in order to motivate yourself to continue?

Bringing A Spork To A Gun Fight

Angel: How do you keep your energy up with all the work required to make it in this business?

Most Likely You Aren’t Going To Die From Paint Inhalation

Angel: What are your thoughts on fear, does it help or hinder you?

Rich and Famous

Angel: So is life in the public eye what you thought it would be when you set out?

What Do you Guys Think?

Brandon said “When we are low on energy, and trying to be expressive, it’s like bringing a spork to a gun fight.” Tell us in the comments what activities you enjoying doing in order to increase your energy and be more creative more often.

If you enjoyed this interview, you can tell Brandon on twitter by clicking here.

David Horvath Co-creator of the Uglydoll

Have you ever felt like you’re not getting the support you need to succeed, especially from the people closest to you? Then you need to read every word of this interview with David Horvath. Co-creator of the globally successful Uglydoll brand. This is one of my all time favorite interviews. I have a lot of respect for how amazingly generous and open David is. He shares the struggles he faced and overcame to follow his childhood dream. A dream that, it seemed no one else wanted him to achieve. Read it, learn from it, take action on what you learn. And don’t ever let those who don’t have the courage to follow their own dreams, prevent you from following yours…

Uglydoll Kaiju

Angel: David, with the widespread success of the Uglydoll you are being hailed as one of the top character designers in the world, but did you have this passion for toys as a kid?

The Cool Kids Became Outsider And I Stayed Put

Angel: So it sounds like you chose to follow your own path from an early age. Did you get any support from the people around you?

David: My mother was a designer at Mattel for many years. I wish that had helped me some but the honest truth is, she wasn’t permitted to discuss her job with me and she stayed loyal to that golden requirement. The only way I knew she still worked there was through catalogs and purple He-Man errors brought home. But those catalogs were inspiring. I always knew that I wanted to tell stories through toys.

Bossy Bear

The resistance came from my father, who told me that surrounding myself with toys and quitting Art Center to go work at a toy store would never amount to me making my own toys. He would tell all his professional contacts and co-workers about his waste-of-life son locked up in his toy room, working at a toy shop. He made many a famous or well known professional in the art and design world shake their head at me (being told his version, not mine). So there was resistance. Luckily, I didn’t care. He wanted to be a photographer more than anything in the world, but went into advertising because it seemed more stable to him. Avoiding your life passion out of fear is a no-no in my book.

When he would freak out over why I had so many toys (over 40 of them!) I would ask him why science majors had beakers and slides all around their room. He didn’t get it. Anyway, when I was 19, I did indeed quit advertising at Art Center so that I could go work at a local boutique toy shop, to learn the ins and outs of non-mass market toy distribution and observe moms, dads, and kids buying toys in a retail environment. That job also got me into toy fair, and got me deep into the side of toys I knew would prove to be very important if I wanted to make my dreams come true and go at it on my own.

Making toys means nothing if you don’t have any clue what will happen to them once their done. Now I hear my father clips articles and such, but from my early teens until well after we started Uglydoll, he told me toys and those stuffed doo-dads were a waste. It’s easy to get behind your kid when he’s in the paper, but with our daughter I want to be sure to be there for her during the process, not the irrelevant outcome. I hope I can use my past run in with this resistance as a life lesson so that I can do better than he did when raising my own child.

Uglydoll Cinko

Angel: So your love of toys was a hard path to follow then, but what about your growth as an artist?

Angel: You clearly had passion, did you set any specific goals from the beginning or did you wing it as you went along?

I Use This Now Pretty Much Scientifically Proven Method By The Hour And It Works

Angel: Can you share any techniques you use to help you focus on achieving your goals?

Uglydoll Wage Green Kaiju

Angel: What about the excuses many people have for not following their creative dreams; no money, time, credibility, support etc. Did you ever confront these same doubts?

David: Those aren’t excuses. Those are hurdles. Just need to jump. We had zero help. Zero cash. Ah but we had a needle, a scanner, a pen, an old borrowed digital camera, and a mac lap top which I got by selling my 2 older macs from when I had a job before. That first sewn doll sold for $30.00 And then the next one sold. Soon we had $3000!. So we used that to make more and keep it all growing. I had one design-ish art job after graduating from Parsons with Sun-Min. It didn’t last long. The first few weeks were great and I had a lot of fun animating in Flash until the boss told me to change a color to purple, and that was it for me. And I was super zapped by the end of the day anyway, too tired to work on my own stuff. Lesser paying jobs, be it retail stores or coffee houses, are great because you get so pissed off that your dream work comes out no matter what. But a “real” job with co-workers wanting to hang out and drink, late hours, weekends, and comfortable money coming in, is a dream killer.

When we decided to start for real, I slept on my sisters floor for 9 months eating not much more than cereal, plain white bread, and salads, and then moved to a tiny illegally erected bedroom within an industrial building in the then very scary DUMBO, Brooklyn, surviving on a daily menu of egg on a roll in the morning, a bagel and coffee for lunch, and really good $3.00 chicken legs from a local corner stand at night. Rent was a few hundred bucks, paid for by selling everything I owned in LA, keeping 5 days of clothes and not much else. I bought an air bed but had no table, so the computer was on the bed. $5.00 a day was the food limit. Laundry was once a week, and monthly subway passes were $80. I had nothing else and often went with out the coffee. A Japanese magazine shooting “famous artists” homes came to do a shoot, and elected to take photos of someone else’s much nicer room in the building just to avoid wasting a whole day. They even dressed it with our dolls. ( I tried to tell them.)

Uglydoll Babo

One Guy Called Me A Millionaire, On The Day I Had To Skip Lunch To Survive

I lived this way for the first 2 years of Uglydoll when everyone was calling me a millionaire. One guy called me just that on a day I had to skip lunch to survive. Then Sun-Min [my partner and co-designer] and I basically lived on the road when we went into full production and sales grew. Until we were married, we lived in hotels, traveling from trade show to trade show, driving across the US, stopping by small towns to find small shops.

Get As Much Input As You Can And Then Don’t Follow Any it

Angel: Did you ever go out and actively ask people for help and advice?

Angel: Now you’ve been in the industry for many years do you find it easier to call on your creativity at will? Do you have any tips for being more creative more often?

Icebat Kaiju

Angel: How do you keep your energy up with all the work required to make it in this business?

Angel: And your views on fitness?

Angel: What about the rock and roll lifestyle of being a hip artist and designer?

Angel: Ghost hunting aside, how often in your creative work do you find yourself doing things that you are afraid of?

Angel: How often do you find yourself failing at something or abandoning a piece of work?

Angel: Isn’t it a shame they don’t teach that approach in school!

UMA (Unidentified Mysterious Animals)

Don’t Reveal Your Plan To Anyone

Angel: Are there any lessons you’ve learned about money that you’d like to pass on to other people just starting out?

Angel: With success comes more attention, is life in the public eye what you thought it would be when you set out?

Angel: So how do you handle negative attention?

Ice Bat Kaiju - Red

What About You

Is a member of your family or friends holding you back? Or maybe you’ve experienced a colleague, competitor or fellow scenester tying to keep you in check?

The real question is – what are you going to do about it? Put up with someone else’s vision for your life, or get to work creating your own?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on David’s interview and how it effects you in the comments. Angel.

Laura Roeder Social Media Entrepreneur

I’m a big fan of Laura Roeder. She’s doing a lot of things right and she has a great attitude. Her business is making social media easy, so you can create the business fame we all dream about. If the thought of Twitter and Facebook makes you shudder, then shudder over to Laura’s website, join her newsletter “The Dash” and shudder no more.

But not before you’ve soaked up her super smart insights into; learning anything you want, coping with setbacks, trolls, lecherous business men and her amazing philosophy on living the life you want…

Paul: What were your early talents and interests?

Paul: What do you think was behind your profiling game, what did you learn from it?

Laura Making Early Plans For World Domination

Paul: So what have you learned makes a great leader?

Paul: And do you think there is any connection between you being confident enough to put yourself forward as a leader and your profiling game?

Blonde is sooo last season

Paul: Who were your influences growing up?

Paul: It sounds like you have a lot of confidence in yourself. Like you were raised with a high sense of self-esteem, would that be fair to say?

Paul: What was the most exciting thing you remember growing up?

Mom, Dad and Laura

Paul: I want to try and understand how that self esteem works for you. Whether we are confident or feel like we’re lacking in confidence, we all come up against obstacles and set-backs. What is it that you tell yourself when things go wrong?

Paul: I think there’s a whole world of wisdom in that answer, even if it seems normal to you. But haven’t you had to overcome any major challenges?

Paul: When did you start to learn the skills that allow you to do what you do today?

Paul: Wow, I think you’ve just shared my philosophy on education, growth, life itself. Click “view source” and model what you see. That’s how I learned pretty much everything I do. That’s what Subvert Magazine is about. You say it isn’t impressive or complicated. But it certainly isn’t common. Why doesn’t everyone believe they can learn anything they want like that?

Paul: I couldn’t agree more. I see so many people giving up because they choose to believe that they are competing with a world full of “naturally talented” people who were more “blessed” than them. But not only are we born with nothing but potential and a few primal instincts, that potential stays with us, throughout our entire life, we just have to choose to fill it!

Laura, Not Posing, Just Relaxing ;)

Paul: OK, let’s go back to your teenage years, how did your online experience progress?

Paul: What about when you left school, did you jump straight into the online world?

Paul: What got you through the interview with the agency, if your portfolio wasn’t competitive?

Paul: We all have bad first time experiences of putting ourselves out there, but what interests me is what made you go back the second, third, forth time. What did you tell yourself to get over doing something that sucked. Most people just quit a go get a regular job. Why not you?

Laura Being Honored At The Whitehouse As A Top 100 Entrepreneur Under 30

Paul: When I started out, I experienced almost total rejection of my ideas as well. I did a talk once, at an event where I explained how the internet was going to change business. I was laughed at. And when the press were taking a picture of all the people who spoke, I was asked to move to one side.

That happened more than once. 100% rejection. Isn’t that how all entrepreneurial journeys start. We are either crushed or forged. Male or female. Young or old?

What I long for when I seek out new people, are smart, curious minds, who push their own boundaries. They are rare. Regardless of gender or age. What is more common are insecure people, who will use whatever obvious ammunition they can find to boost their ego by knocking you down.

Is there an additional prejudice that women have to deal with on top of the regular prejudice that all entrepreneurs have to face?

What do you think?

Paul: Challenges aside, you were tough enough to stick with it and keep going, so talk to me about the key lessons you learned when you finally started to get a handle on things?

Paul: I think you’ve highlighted another really important way of seeing the world. In my 20′s I got to work with some super smart people and learned a really important lesson: The smartest people in the world are all muddling along, just at different levels.

Paul: So how did things change after you learned those lessons?

Paul: Are you talking about people who are in close proximity to you or people who share similar values to you?

Laura with Richard Branson and Marie Forleo

Paul: You already know that half way through this interview, I paused to go update one of my sales letters. I’ve written lots of sales letters, and I’m highly self-motivated, but still, watching your interviews made me feel less stressed about various jobs on my To Do list and inspired me to take action. That’s a super power you’ve got there – help me understand how you don’t get bogged down with the stress and the haters and the fools online and you keep producing fun, positive work?

Paul: OK, there’s one more thing I wanted to touch upon, I think it’s a value and a character trait that is extremely useful and you seem to have it in spades. I’m talking about a sense of humor.

I’ve gotta say, in business, I’m not a funny guy. My clients respect my honesty, not my jokes. I’m pretty straight forward. I haven’t developed those social skills to make me great at things like networking and social media. I suck at social media, I offend so many people in my attempts to be honest with them.

I suffer because of that. I see how powerful a laugh and a smile can be at diffusing the fear and pressure that comes with explaining new concepts and getting people to take action.

Most importantly, in making something hard or technical sound easy. I think that is such a valuable skill.

You’ve already told us that people hassle you at events, but I just can’t imagine you taking it badly. I imagine you laughing it off and charming them. Whereas I would want to punch someone out, and be worse off for it.

So what’s the secret to laughing stuff off. What’s the secret to making everything sound simpler and easier and more doable?

Laura putting her plans into motion at the World Domination Summit

What do you guys think?

Is there a prejudice against female entrepreneurs? Or young entrepreneurs? Or is there simply a prejudice against anyone trying to change the status-quo? I’d love to hear your stories in the comments. But don’t forget to share your ideas on what can be DONE – or even better, what you’ve already DONE – to make things better!

If you enjoyed this interview, you can tell Laura on twitter by clicking here.

Seth Godin The Interview. Photo by Brian J. Bloom.

Paul: After our post on making contact with your heroes the emails came thick and fast. “But it’s easy for you” they said. “No it isn’t” we replied. We get rejected all the time. Our precious egos worry about why we were rejected. It has taken us years to get some of our interviews. And when we do, we often ask dumb questions that seemed really clever at the time. But one of the main reasons we share what we’re doing, is to force ourselves to live what we are preaching. So the day we published the mentor article, I got out my list of people I’ve always wanted to interview but had been rejected by. I tried harder. Here’s the first interview from that list, with one of my heroes, Seth Godin…

Once upon a time

Paul age 11

Paul: I suspect that there is a time in everyone’s life when all the conditions for who they will become are in place. This picture represents that specific time for me. From the launch of personal computers, to the potential of the space shuttle. From the bullseye on the dart board to the copies of Guerrilla Marketing and The Lord of the Rings which are in the top drawer of that desk. Right there at about Eleven years old I felt immense optimism and freedom. I had absolutely no fear when facing the world.

I want to understand the conditions that mark the start of your journey. When was that defining time for you?

Cornered, Doomed and Done. Illustration by Toni Roberts.

Cornered, Doomed & Done

Tell me the story of one of those doomed moments.

Well, I respect your answer, but I’m not convinced. I think the stories bring people together and give us a chance to say “look what happened to them and they got through it, maybe I can as well”. Without the stories, we end up with nothing but bullet points, soundbites and info graphics as the tools for passing on wisdom. We lose the context of the real people and their experiences. So I’m going to keep pushing people for the stories. But I’ll take the abstract universal notions as well.

I didn’t understand that there was an alternative

So, you left college, but then went and started an MBA. What was your thinking behind that decision. Was that a positive step towards your goals at the time. Or an attempt to avoid leaving the safe world of academia, or something else?

It’s not fair

Whilst researching for this interview, I discovered that the actress who played the “Good Witch” in The Wizard of Oz used to live in your home town. It got me thinking about mentors and I know we share a mentor, Jay Conrad Levinson. Author of the original Guerrilla Marketing book. For me, Jay provided a window into a world that was exciting and fun. He painted a picture of the endless ways that companies were competing and serving their customers in America. And it was a far more exciting world than the dreary local business scene that I saw in my home town. Tell me about your relationship with Jay, what did you learn from him and how did it change your course?

Hope and fear. Who's got your ear? Illustration by Toni Roberts.

Nonsense

I can understand the scaling issue. I guess Subvert Magazine is our attempt at hacking that idea. We get to reach out to a lot of our heroes and ask things that directly help us, but we also share that knowledge and discuss it, so lots of other people get to benefit as well.

I’m a big fan of Napoleon Hill’s virtual mastermind idea. Building an imaginary board of advisers. People who represent different standards you want to live up to. It’s a process that requires no contact with your hero whatsoever but lets you benefit from the guidance of their standards, so long as you’ve read enough of their work to get a good feel for what those standards are.

So many potential captions, so little space. Seth in canoe. Photo by Jill Greenberg.

900 rejection letters

I think there is probably a point for all entrepreneurs where they have to go “all in” on an early business venture. Surviving that gamble changes them. They no longer see getting a job as a viable fall back position. They become bolder and more independent.

Tell me about the first time that you really went all in.

I totally understand the “no choice” thing. But there’s always a reason why we feel we have no choice. I was a pretty entrepreneurial kid, but at 16 someone suggested I learn a trade as something to “fall back on”. My interpretation of that, rightly or wrongly, was that I would likely fail as an entrepreneur. That desire to prove them wrong cut a path in my brain that gives me the certainty of “no choice”. I’m in, if it kills me. But what was it that made “sticking with it” inevitable for you? 12 months of failure seems like plenty of rational incentive to say “I’m out”, for most people.

A lockbox, enough money to keep going

You’ve said in the past that you almost went broke 3 times in early ventures. What did you learn to prevent a 4th occurrence? Or, does the way you push the boundaries not entirely remove the possibility of a forth “close shave” in the future?

I know your father has been an inspiration to you. And you’ve talked about various male mentors and heroes. But what about the women in your life? I’ve only ever seen one other man consistently use the female gender as their default, in all their writing. Tell me about your motivation behind that and tell me about the woman who has most inspired you.

Seth and Family

Pick yourself

Going back to the Wizard of Oz theme. (And why would we not?) In the story, our ruby shoed protagonist spends much of her journey hoping to be saved by the Wonderful Wizard. But when the gang arrive at their destination, they find out that the Wizard has been pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes. What pervasive myth have you discovered just isn’t true?

I want to fully understand this. What are we talking about here, confidence, self esteem, the value of selfishness in an objectivist way?

How dare I waste it. How dare anyone.

Often, the people I meet with the strongest motivation are fueled by a desire to prove someone right or someone wrong. (A parent, a teacher, a school bully etc.). What is driving you and to what end?

Seth, Seth's jazzy shorts, Dad and Great Grandmother

Shipping art that touches people is my process

I feel like we are getting closer to something with the phrase “How dare I waste it”. That is a passionate statement. Even angry. It hints at a set of deeper values. Obtained from somewhere or someone, that fuel your drive. That’s what I’m digging for, to understand better, what are the underlying values that make you tick.

So, the process of challenging the status quo, and even worse, writing down your challenge and then shouting about it at the top of your lungs, is one that we seem physically pre-programmed against doing. Where do you sit at this stage with managing the stress of putting out a new idea. Both the mental and physical pressure?

How so?

The 10,000 hour rule is legit

I worked with a super smart tech guy once. People would fire seemingly impossible technical problems at him every day. He would nod at them and say “hmmm, that’s interesting”. He approached every impossible situation as an interesting puzzle and he was a puzzle solving machine. That perspective was a key feature of his operating system. What makes the Seth Godin operating system run?

Don't let the lizard brain run amok. Illustration by Toni Roberts.

What you need to do right now

So we’re all being held back by our fears. Fear of criticism. Fear of learning the truth about ourselves. Fear that we aren’t smart enough to trust our own instincts. Fear that we’re putting our faith and time into a project that isn’t going to pay off. What can readers of this interview do right now to get past that fear and move forward with that project they are stuck on?

Go Fail

Readers, here’s my challenge to you. Go get out your list of failed attempts. If you don’t have one, make one, right now. You don’t need me to tell you what to put on it. It already popped into your head. That call you were going to make. That email you were going to send. That decision you’ve been putting off.

Look at it again. Try harder. Ask yourself, what would I do if I wasn’t afraid of failing? Then do whatever you need to do. Fail. Gloriously. Tell us what happened in the comments, after you’ve done it. We will wait.

Seth Says Posters

You've got the doll, get the poster.

Subvert subscribers should check your email in-boxes for our exclusive office paper printable posters. Guaranteed to raise the energy of the most soul-less cubicle. There are 4 to inspire you. If you’re not a subscriber yet, you can join us (and get the posters) via the green box below.

Special thanks

To Seth, especially for digging out the personal family photo’s.
To our amazing illustrator Toni Roberts. Go hire her while you can. http://toekneedesign.com
And to photographer Brian J. Bloom for the opening portrait. http://www.brianbloomphotographs.com

Overheard, reasoned, planned, executed, DONE.

Here’s what I DID today. It doesn’t matter that this picture isn’t clear. The content isn’t important. What is important is that I did it. I started my day like most others, open to new ideas, fresh input, raw knowledge from the best, action oriented people I could find. I listened to their ideas. I studied their proof. I reasoned it out. Go / No go. I made a plan. I broke it down. I set-up a test. I took action. I got results…

We’re bombarded with talk about the value of social media and online community and interaction. But all I see is lowest common denominator distractions that are moving us further and further away from real world action.

Don’t tell us what you should be doing.
Don’t tell us how you’d like things to be if only people were different.
Don’t tell us what you’re going to do. Tell us what you’ve DONE.

WARNING: You’ll attract less “friends” but they’ll be far more interesting.

UNKLE's James Lavelle in his studio. Photo by Samuel Freeman

Are you feeling overwhelmed and out of your depth, because you’re not yet at the top of your industry? Well that’s exactly how legendary DJ and creator of alternative band U.N.K.L.E. – James Lavelle felt, when he started his career at the tender age of 18. He had no experience and no money, plus he was competing against established, successful records executives with deep wallets. But he never allowed that to hold him back, and he went on to produce some of the most exciting, original and cutting edge records of our time. Here’s how he did it.

James Lavelle and Ian Brown backstage. Photo courtesy of DJ Shadow

Unconventional

Angel: Mo’ Wax was a pioneering record label, and you were known for producing groundbreaking records by unconventional musicians, with unique artwork and packaging. Were you ever worried about doing things that hadn’t been done before?

You were certainly breaking the mold at a very young age. Talk me through the process of starting the record label when you were just 18 years old.

Connect with James Lavelle

http://www.unkle.com
http://www.youtube.com/unkleofficial
http://www.twitter.com/unkleofficial
http://www.facebook.com/unkle

UNKLE’s “Heaven” track was used in the acclaimed skate film Fully Flared.

Tough decisions

It sounds pretty daunting, what were the biggest challenges you had to overcome?

How did you handle the business aspect of running a record label? There must have been a lot of tough decisions?

Artwork by James Neccarato

On the ball

It sounds like a really challenging environment, what were the key lessons you learned?

But being young obviously never stopped you from taking action, I know your music career began even earlier than this. At 15 you got work experience in a record shop. What inspired you to decide to get a job involving music?

So how did you go about actually getting the work experience in the record shop?

James working in the studio

Did you just enjoy listening to music, or did you ever learn to play an instrument?

Bank of Mum

After the work experience, you started putting on your own parties, how did you finance them?

How did you end up getting a job working for a music magazine?

Starting out as a music journalist with no formal experience or qualification you must have felt a bit nervous. Did you have any support from people around you?

Photo by Nina Strenkova

The first wave

So it sounds like, by just getting yourself out there you were meeting a lot of influential people from the industry. Who else did you meet that had an big impact on your career?

So do you think meeting all the key figures in the industry was essential for your progression?

You’ve worked with some world-class musicians. What’s the secret to having a successful working relationship with other people?

Richard File and James Lavelle. Richard co-produced, played and sang on U.N.K.L.E.’s second album, “Never, Never, Land”. Photo by Derrick Santini

Work with the best

How important is collaboration to you?

UNKLE’s “Follow Me Down”. Directed by Warren du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones, and featuring super model Liberty Ross.

Ego, relationships, money

Do you think it’s good to have someone in the wings to push you, so you progress and develop your skills?

You’ve just got to do it

You’ve done other creative projects including films, co-founded a fashion line called Surrender and produced urban vinyl toys. What’s your advice for people who want to branch out and venture into other areas?

Part of James Lavelle’s brand Surrender, t-shirt by Samuel Freeman

People can be venomous

Has your attitude and your work process changed a lot over the years?

Doing things so differently to everyone else, you no doubt get talked about a lot in the press and online, how do you handle negative comments?

Pablo Clements and James Lavelle. Photo by Andrew MacColl

If I can do it, then so can you

Your work has inspired and entertained so many people, myself included. Whilst I was studying Fine Art, I would listen to the U.N.K.L.E. album, “Psyence Fiction” everyday. It was a massive source of inspiration, and would really spark my imagination, creating incredible pictures in my head. It had such a huge impact on my artwork.

Thanks James, it’s been fascinating talking to you and I look forward to more great music, art and videos from you real soon.

Over to you

James Lavelle nurtured his passion for music from an early age. He seized every opportunity, nurtured every contact, and didn’t let people’s attitudes, deter him. Like he said: “Whatever you want to do, just do it”. Follow his advice and take some action today, no matter how big or small, just go and do it right now! Make sure you tell us what you’ve DONE in the comments.

Interview by Angel Greenham. Edit by Paul. Portrait by James Neccarato.

Forest of confusion by Karl Mountford

Imagine what it would be like to have the support and backing of your hero, to heed their warnings and benefit from their pearls of wisdom.  How much could you achieve if your hero believed in you and your ability? How much action would you take, if they actively encouraged you to push past your comfort zone? How many walls would you leap over if you had some insider knowledge?

Read on to discover how to get your hero as your mentor.

What is a mentor and why do you need one?

A Mentor is someone who has achieved the success that you want. Someone who can help lead the way, encourage and push you beyond what you thought you were capable of doing.

Here are some, special powers a mentor can offer you;

• Warn you of things they’ve tried which didn’t work
• Inform you of the things they did which were successful
• Be there to bounce ideas off and have them give you an experienced opinion
• Point out errors in judgment that you may be unable to see
• Push you further than you would stretch on your own
• Ask you the right questions so you can solve your own problems
• Help keep you motivated when things get tough
• Keep you accountable – it’s harder to avoid doing things when someone checks up on you
• Help you network with potential collaborators

All these things could save you time and money and heartache, plus help you raise your game and reach your full potential

Famous mentor relationships;

Yoda was mentor to Luke Skywalker.
Madonna was a mentor to Gwyneth Paltrow.
Stanley Kubrick mentored Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise.
Bruce Lee mentored Jackie Chan

Someone who has been a good mentor to me is the author and BAFTA Award winning script writer Geoff Thompson. A few years ago, after reading many of Geoff’s fantastic books, I approached him to do an interview for Subvert Magazine, so I could learn more about his creative journey.

Geoff’s knowledge and experience has been invaluable to me and I’ve learned so much from him over the years. You can read our interviews with him here http://www.subvertmagazine.com/blog/geoff-thompson/.

“Working with a mentor can alleviate the stress of self doubt” Illustration by Karl Mountford

The Problem With Finding A Mentor

So it’s easy for people like us to have mentors because we’re meeting and interviewing interesting people all the time. But it’s going to be impossible for you to get a mentor because you don’t have the contacts and you don’t have much to offer in return, right?

Wrong.

The only thing preventing you getting one of your heroes as a mentor, is the belief that you can’t. When we’re grinding away towards our goals, but we’re not quite where we want to be yet, it’s easy to think we don’t have anything of value to offer. It’s that lack of self belief which prevents most people putting themselves out there and risking the rejection of a potential mentor.

Time for a reversal of perspective.

Why Your Hero Wants To Mentor You

There are several advantages a mentor gets from nurturing a hardworking ambitious talent…

• Mentoring can be an extremely rewarding experience when the student takes action on your advice and gets results
• It allows the mentor to strengthen their coaching and leadership skills
• It reinforces their expertise and credibility in their industry
• Providing support and guidance to a protégé motivates mentors to live up to and raise their own standards.

A few years ago, one of my friends from University did some design work for me. He did an excellent job and it was a pleasure working with him. A year later I sent him an email to catch up and I was surprised to discover that he was finding it hard to get a graphic design job. This was someone who was extremely talented, hard working and reliable. So I offered to mentor him to fill in the gaps and help him get the great job he deserved.

I gave him some tips on letter writing and email construction and also the mindset you need to foster when contacting anyone in business. He tried this out when submitting his work to a magazine and got an instant result. From his very first email he received a positive response, saying it was the best email they’d ever had and they were happy to feature his work.

With his confidence lifted, he applied for his dream job. I gave him some strategy advice and tips on how to attract attention. I also helped him through three interviews with his dream company. Each time he felt more confident. The company, were obviously impressed with him and at the end of the process they could see what an excellent candidate he was and they offered him the job.

The problem wasn’t a lack of graphic design talent or knowledge. The problem was a lack of marketing skills. He didn’t know how to highlight his achievements and demonstrate his core abilities. He had the attributes the company was looking for, but he didn’t know what they were or how to present them.

As a mentor I was able to quickly and easily help him fill those gaps, but most of all it was a pleasure for me to help a talented person, who was willing to listen and take lots of action. I got as much out of it as he did.

So now you understand that a good student is as important to a mentor as a the mentor is to the student – it’s time to go find your own. You can start the process with 100% confidence that it will be a mutually beneficial relationship, because you’re going to put in 100% effort to being a great protege.

“A mentor can help you network and connect you with the right people” Illustration by Karl Mountford

Your Mentor Getting Plan

You’re going follow this plan to get your own mentor;

1. Choose the right mentor to approach
2. Play a game you can win
3. Write your first letter
4. Handle rejection and stick with the process

Choose the right mentor to approach

You may have a number of heroes that you think would be ideal, if not, here are some tips to help you decide.

You want to choose a person who has been where you are now and has overcome the obstacles and problems that you’re experiencing.

The word ‘success’ has different meanings to different people. You may consider success as gaining public recognition, being a master of your craft or being able to demand a large amount of money.

Whatever, your definition of success is, you need to choose a mentor who shares your values and has achieved exactly the success you want to achieve.

Don’t worry about aiming too high; the whole purpose of finding a mentor is to get the very best advice you can.

“Aim for the sky and you’ll reach the ceiling. Aim for the ceiling and you’ll stay on the floor.” – Bill Shankly

When I was studying Fine Art at University, I became interested in Urban Vinyl and I wanted to interview all the top Urban Vinyl artists to find out more about the industry. I researched online and found the top 10 players in the whole industry and contacted each one. I used this process and to my surprise every single one replied and agreed to do the interview.

“Choose your mentor carefully” Illustration by Karl Mountford

Play a game you can win

Contacting someone who is successful takes time and patience. You have to understand and appreciate successful people are in demand. They have lots of people wanting their time and attention and they can be deeply involved in work projects for months at a time.

I’d recommend you choose at the very least 4 people you would like to be your mentor.  (If you think 4 is a lot, consider that we spend at least half of our week seeking council from potential mentors!) Whether you pick 4 or 14 potential mentors you’ll still have to put in 100% effort with each one. As long as you follow that rule, the more people you contact the better chance you ultimately have of getting someone to say yes. If you put all your effort into just one person, you’re not giving yourself the best chance of success. There may be many reasons simply out of your control that one person might not be able to mentor you.

Never play a game that you don’t have any chance of winning. Set up the rules, so that with time and effort your success will be inevitable. At Subvert we never stop reaching out to people whose work and talent we admire.

When you have your list of candidates, be prepared to contact each of them 7-10 times before you get a useful response. This may take several months. I know you need the support and guidance right now, but guess what, nobody cares. Just like planting seeds, you can put it off forever, because you “need” immediate results, or you can start now and reap the benefits in the future. When you do find your mentor, this would have been an extremely wise investment of your time. It could fast track your business or freelance career and open physical and mental doors that have been firmly shut to you.

Planning your campaign

Write a simple plan of how you’re going to communicate with your potential mentors until one or more of them agrees to help you. Then make a note of what action you need to take each week and put it in your calendar. Commit to carrying out the whole plan!

For example;

• First contact – hand written introduction letter and sample of work.
• Second contact – follow up letter and second example of my work.
• Third contact – follow up letter with testimonial proving I take action.
• Fourth contact – follow up letter proving I value their time.
• Fifth contact – follow up letter proving their work has inspired mine.
• Etc…Etc.. for at least 10 steps.

Make your letter personal, entice them to read and give you a favorable response. Be creative, use your imagination and have fun with it.

“Stand out from the crowd and highlight your strengths” Illustration by Karl Mountford

Write your first letter

First of all you need to do some thorough research of your potential mentors and find a way that you can give them something to show that you value them and their time. After all, they aren’t a charity and you aren’t asking them for charity.

We’ve already highlighted some of the benefits a mentor gets from a good student, but you haven’t proven you’re a good student yet. At this stage you must prove you’re not just someone else placing one sided demands on their time.

There is always a way you can help someone, it just needs some creative thinking, and this is probably something your good at.

Here are some examples to get the ball rolling;

• Help promote their latest project or product in the real world. Offer to contact newspapers, magazines and radio stations to get them valuable publicity.
• Offer to manage a Facebook or Twitter page and help them attract new fans. Make intelligent comments on their posts and help spread the work they are already doing.
• Turn up to their trade show or exhibition and ask how you can help out. Find some grunt work and do it with passion.

They earned their success, you must earn their respect

More than anything you must remember that successful people worked damn hard to gain their success. They earned it and they deserve it. If you want a slice of that hard earned experience, you better be prepared to show them that you value it and back that up by being willing to trade for it.

Other key points to think about when writing your letter;

• Remember, your potential mentor’s time is valuable so you need to get to the point as soon as possible. You can add additional info after you’ve made your purpose clear.
• Start the letter with a strong reason for them to continue reading it.Tell them how they will benefit and what you can offer them, then go into what you would like in return.
• Be specific about what you want, for example; to be able to email them once a month with a single question and include your first question.
• Don’t ask for the earth before your potential mentors know you. You want this to be a long term relationship that lasts and grows.

It’s also beneficial to make it clear why you are an ideal candidate for them to mentor.

Demonstrate;

• How committed you are.
• How willing you are to take action on their advice.
• How ambitious you are.
• Point out your past achievements.
• If you have testimonials or feedback from clients or previous employers include these, if you’re straight out of college then contact some of your tutors and see if they are willing to provide you with character testimonials. These only have to be one liners, something brief and to the point.

Treat this project as though you’re interviewing for a job. Imagine their time is money and you need to show them why you deserve it and how the thing you are offering them is a fair exchange.

“Offer to help your mentor in exchange for their guidance.” Illustration by Karl Mountford

Handle rejection and stick with the process

Once you’ve sent your first letter (and it’s far better to hand write and post a personal letter if you can) don’t expect an instant response.  If you get one, that’s wonderful, but don’t be surprised if you don’t. It’s nothing personal. There could be many reasons why they haven’t responded; They are too busy. Their staff haven’t passed it on to them yet. They’re out of the country. Or more importantly – you didn’t convince them enough yet!

Many people will ignore the first letter, just because it filters out 99% of lazy folk who aren’t really committed. And their brain won’t even start to see your communications in a meaningful way until the 3rd hit. So keep at it.

You’re going to keep contacting them with interesting letters until you get a response.

The biggest mistake people make is taking it personally when they don’t get an instant reply. And with each apparent rejection getting angrier with their would be mentor. Demanding to know why they haven’t written back. Or changing the tone of their letters from confident to needy.

So make sure each letter maintains a positive vibe and you add new information about the things you’ve been doing since the last letter.

“If you feel like you’re lost at sea, a mentor can help you navigate your way” Illustration by Karl Mountford

Time to put it into action

Remember, most people will send just one letter to one potential mentor before they lose confidence, lose interest and give up completely. But this isn’t you. I already know you’re ambitious and committed. Most people won’t even have made it to the end of this article. After reading the first couple of paragraphs and looking at the pictures, they’ve decided this all sounds like far too much hard work and they’re now looking for the next short cut to success.

But that’s good news for you, because you now have information that they don’t. Picture yourself 6 months in the future, after you’ve made the choice to put in that little bit of effort each week and you now have your own personal mastermind group of super successful high-achievers.

Can you picture it? Good, now start the ball rolling and let us know in the comments who you’re committed to getting on your team.

“You don’t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.”- Les Brown

Interview by Angel.
Amazing Illustrations by Karl Mountford

Shifu Yan Lei 34th Generation Shaolin Warrior

What can we learn from martial arts about remaining calm under pressure? If you’re anything like me, it isn’t just the explosive power or lightening speed of a great martial artist that you find fascinating. It’s their ability to expend massive amounts of energy but remain calm, relaxed and even playful. I have no illusions of being an urban warrior, but it’s a skill I’m eager to learn more about. My teacher was Shifu Yan Lei, 34th generation Shaolin disciple, Kung Fu and Qigong master…

Discipline

The Martial Arts have always been associated with the word “Discipline” and Shaolin Martial Arts even more so.

In recent years, studies into discipline have pointed to the importance of creating routines and rituals that support our goals. As well as designing positive surroundings, of both places and people, rather than relying just on the strength of our own will-power.

What are the Shaolin views on the topic of discipline and will power, and can the rules of a monastery, high in the mountains, be transferred to the distracted lives of city dwellers?

Connect with Shifu Yan Lei

http://www.shifuyanlei.co.uk
http://www.qigongworkout.com
http://www.facebook.com/ShiYanLei
http://twitter.com/#!/shifuyanlei

Meditation

Violent calm

Most people I work with are fighting a battle between their ambitions and their desire to be calm, or at least suffer less stress.

Many, if not the majority of serious Martial Artists I have met, appear relaxed and calm. And yet studying a martial art is in fact learning how to perform a violent activity.

In the modern world, where society does everything it can to discourage the use of physical force as a way of resolving our issues, how does the practice of violence translate into mental calmness?

Shaolin Temple China

Sticking with your martial arts training

You must have witnessed many people start and then give up their martial arts practice over the years. What are the mistakes you commonly see people make and how can we avoid making those mistakes ourselves?

Be like water my friend

Hard or Soft

My observation of Shaolin Martial Arts is that; whilst on the surface it appears punishing and hard, when combined with Qi Gong, Meditation and Massage, it provides a balance of hard and soft practice which is actually very nourishing and calming.

Most western based exercise philosophies are lacking that balance of hard and soft and tend to focus only on the hard. But what it is really like in the Shaolin Monastery, are the “soft” aspects practiced there, or are they merely for the benefit of old women and us softer, desk-bound westerners?

Energy

I’ve found Qi Gong to be particularly beneficial and I consider myself to be a pragmatic person. To me, Qi Gong is nothing more than breathing, stretching and simple visualisation. A moving meditation which rewards me with an energy that is simple to explain in purely physical terms. As you once said, “do it, and in time your body will understand”. But despite my own views, there are many who talk of spiritual energy, invisible forces and magical powers in relation to Qi Gong. What are your views on Qi, what is “it” and can we use it to perform Jedi mind tricks?

Air

Pain

In the Western world, we are wrapped in cotton wool. Our cars are like tanks on the outside, and protected by airbags inside, restaurant doors have plastic covers to prevent us trapping our fingers and the other day I saw an advertisement selling crash helmets for toddlers. Shaolin practice is reported and demonstrated to be some of the toughest in the world. From punching brick walls, to being a human battering ram and breaking iron bars on your head. Over years of serious practice you must have picked up a few injuries yourself. What are your strategies for dealing with pain?

Mosquito control Shaolin style

Re-thinking the 6 pack

You can’t pass a magazine stand or a health shop without seeing a wall of abdomen photographs. These days its just as likely to be a woman sporting a six-pack as a man. As far as the media is concerned, the six pack is the highest ideal that all physical exercise is trying to achieve. When I first became interested in Shaolin, I was taken aback when I saw the body that you have created as a result of your practice and I have several of your postcards pinned up on the wall as motivation. I could only describe your physique as part human, part fighting machine. I would back you in a fight, but I wouldn’t necessarily bet money on you winning a six-pack competition. So, what are your views of the importance (or not) of aiming for and maintaining a six-pack?

What do you think?

So this question is for the readers: What do you think about the value of fighting skills in an age where we spend most of our time sat down behind computer screens? Have we all gone soft or are we just letting go of skills that are no longer necessary? Have we swopped the confidence and respect that can come from being able to physically handle yourself, for the faux confidence of executive titles and social media rankings? What do you think? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to share this article.

Interview by Paul Magee. Special thanks to Cat at Yan Lei Press. Photo credits: Manuel Vason.

You have passion, you have ideas, all you need now are the guts to go for it! Anthony Bozza, former journalist at Rolling Stone and author of several influential rock autobiographies including “The Life and Times of Eminem”, tells us how he gained success as a writer by finding his voice, following his passion and most importantly trusting his instinct.

Anthony, how did you originally break into music journalism?

My first and only real job was at Rolling Stone magazine where I started as an intern in the now-defunct book publishing division, then I was a research assistant in the library. Yes, Rolling Stone has its own library, which is pretty cool! And finally I was an editorial assistant in the Music Department.

From there, I worked my way into the magazine by volunteering for any unclaimed writing assignments. Whether that meant writing captions, tracking down members of Sly and the Family Stone to talk about “Hot Fun in the Summertime” – not an easy, but definitely rewarding task – or interviewing bands of the week for the Charts page. I then graduated to writing and editing the “Random Notes” pages and finally got my big break writing about a white rapper that I’d been begging my editor to let me cover since the first time I heard him, which was about a year before he was signed by Dr. Dre. His name was Eminem.

What did you do at Rolling Stone to make yourself stand out from other writers?

I’d always tried to bring something new to whatever I did at Rolling Stone magazine. Growing up, I didn’t read the magazine regularly and I hadn’t been to a journalism school, so I think I approached writing for Rolling Stone a bit differently than my peers.

During my tenure as a research assistant I spent more time reading the frail, yellowed, original issues I found encased by plastic in ‘The Vault’ than doing what I should have been doing, such as compiling data for advertising sales representatives.

I wasn’t earning myself any gold stars in the eyes of my boss, the head librarian, but I did get a primary source education in magazine and history of pop culture writing. Rolling Stone really was the institution that started it all, bringing together the rebel energy and idealism of the hippie generation with the idea that politics, music, art, lifestyle and strong opinion should exist within the same pages.

Anthony’s collaboration with comedian Artie Lange, Too Fat to Fish, debuted at number one on the New York Times best seller list

Other magazines like Playboy had done this in a more mainstream way, but none had taken the Rock & Roll, counter-cultural stance at a national level before Rolling Stone. In those issues, the subject matter may have been dated, but the spirit was still inspiring. Reading Hunter S. Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” as it originally appeared in those pages was amazing. It was also incredible to read Cameron Crowe chronicling the 70’s, Chuck Eddy’s incendiary pieces from the 80’s, as well as Kurt Loder back when he was still a print journalist – something I hadn’t realized watching him on MTV.

It sounds like you thoroughly researched the magazine and really understood its history and point of view. Tell us how you made your mark on the magazine and what value you added?

When I got the chance to write my first cover story I wanted it to be as exciting as the articles were in the magazine’s hey day. When, as Cameron Crowe depicted in Almost Famous, reporters were in the thick of it. I’m lucky to have landed an assignment that unfolded precisely that way.

Anthony’s first book was Whatever You Say I Am: The Life and Times of Eminem. Illustration by Robin Boyden

I caught Eminem just at the top of the roller coaster, and we got on well enough for me to be able to report on the real Marshall Mathers, just as he greeted the world. My experience with him was great material, but I still had to put it out there for all to read. I wanted to do it justice and and in doing so, I took a bit of a risk – I turned it in without showing it to a mentor of mine who had up until then, seen everything I’d written for the magazine before I turned it in to my editor.

This mentor helped me get assignments and prepped my writing for publication but as I got more confident I started to realize that a lot of the changes this person was making weren’t so much to suit the magazine’s style because they were tailored to read as if they had written it, not me.

Anthony joined forces with Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, for his autobiography Tommyland.

How did you deal with the pressure, especially as this was your first major assignment?

The week I wrote my first cover story was harrowing to say the least. I went right from my time in Detroit in the freezing cold, to covering the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in New York City. That night is a story that deserves its own chapter. In the issue where my first cover story appeared I also wrote an extensive feature on the ceremony as well as Random Notes, meaning that I was responsible for about half of the full length articles in the magazine that issue.

Paul Rosenberg Eminem’s Manager, David Saslow from Atlantic Records, Dennis Dennehy Eminem’s publicist and Anthony Bozza

I was scared because it was more pressure than I’d endured and more writing than I’d ever produced for print in so short a time. As nervous as I was, I was also determined to succeed on my own. So rather than show my mentor or anyone else my first cover story, I turned it to the music editor exactly the way I wanted it. And, aside from some minor tweaks, that is exactly the way it was printed. It was a huge success and if I had to choose one moment that made my career, that would be it.

I remember Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner coming out of his office with the issue in his hands and coming up to my desk, saying, “You’re Anthony right? This is the kind of story we need more of. Excellent work.” He said it loud enough for the entire department to hear, which was completely embarrassing but awesome at the same time.

I’ve written in many styles and in many other people’s voices since then, but that moment taught me to never, ever doubt my instincts when it came to writing.

You’re now a very established writer, what has been the most important factor in developing your writing skills?

The most important lesson I learned was finding my own voice. I think it’s the most important facet of any creative art. There are some artists who come out of the gate knowing exactly what they want to do and how they want to do it, but that isn’t typically the case.

A young Anthony Bozza

Back in school I started to realize that, unlike many of my friends I really liked writing essays and I liked reading whatever was assigned even more. I’d also write for myself, mostly in journals, which piled up as I got older. I still have a few boxes of them and if I ever need to be reminded of the importance of honing your craft, I can open any one of them to any page.

So once you discovered your voice and started developing your writing style, how did you overcome the fear of ridicule, in order to publish your work?

I’ve only taken one creative writing class in my life. It was a continuing education class at New York University. The class I joined was taught by a man who had published a number of paperback mystery novels. I don’t remember the story I wrote but the observations and pointers he and my class mates gave me, as well as the writing shared by my fellow students, obliterated any fear I may have had.

A number of them had been published and although my work was more or less torn apart, I knew that no matter what they thought of it, considering what I thought of their writing, I should have no problem getting published. It made me feel that there must be somewhere out there for everyone in publishing. It was definitely a good exercise to have my work dissected in front of me, in this case, by a room of people I didn’t feel that I had much in common with.

Anthony co-wrote Slash: The Autobiography. Illustration by Robin Boyden

Tell us about your relationship with your audience and how you interact with them?

The first time I realized that there were people out there really reading what I wrote was when a college student who was doing a paper on my writing, contacted me for an interview. That was special. She sent me a copy of the final result and it was really good – I think she got an A. As someone who truly enjoyed the process of researching and writing papers when I was in school, to see my own writing dissected and discussed in that same forum was fantastic. That definitely changed my perspective on what I do and made me feel like I could be a guide and inspiration, directly, to up and coming writers.

And thanks to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter I’m more in contact with fellow music fans and fans of my writing more than ever and I really enjoy it. Having that kind of conversation with people makes you feel, in a genre which is kind of a ‘solo sport’ like golf, that you’re not just doing it for yourself.

Your work has inspired many emerging writers, how important do you think it is to encourage and motivate others in your field?

Well, last year I started Igniter, a publishing company with Neil Strauss who is author of The Dirt and The Game, as a way for us to champion up-and-coming writers and put out interesting books that we think the publishing industry may have otherwise overlooked. A lot of our ideas and some of our writers even, came to us through interacting as directly as possible with our fans. Both of us feel very strongly that interacting with our fans and listening to their interests is key to what we want to do with the company. So really I mean it, I welcome all correspondence. We writers do like to write emails too, you know!

Anthony enjoying a Yankee’s game

How important do you think the Internet is in publishing and distributing work?

The web and digital domain are essential to all creative fields at every level and it can’t be underestimated. The pace of creation, the font of information and the exchange of ideas that are now possible thanks to the Internet is nothing short of incredible. As someone who grew up at a time when all of that became a reality in every day life, I feel lucky to have known what it was like before.

There are elements I miss, like having to hang out at record stores or dig for fanzines to find out about an underground band you liked. But overall, the ability to research an interest or discuss an issue at a moment’s notice with someone on the other side of the world is akin to magic. However, I do think that the instant-gratification of the Internet has been detrimental to art forms like music and film as well as to the undervalued virtue of patience.

The Internet accomplished what television started: it has made us all ADD, given us the memory retention of a goldfish. Still, I somehow feel that this was inevitable. I think the Internet is a human-driven evolutionary anomaly on the path the human race has cut for itself to run through time. There is always something lost when a species evolves but I’d like to think that something equally valuable is also gained.

You feel the digital age has affected the process of our evolution, can you explain this further?

There are so many facets to our existence that can be analyzed to gauge the effect of the digital domain but since music is very important to my general well-being I’ll use that as an example.

When I look at a band like Radiohead, who came through the traditional system and released rock records that were always unique yet identifiably rock, before completely leaving that form behind to make cutting edge records that embrace the possibilities of the Internet and digital media in form and content, I think we’ve made progress. They exemplify exactly how it should be done by a band at their level.

For younger bands, the Internet has allowed them to connect with fans all over the world, which in turn allows them to book tours, and become an operational business much sooner than they otherwise would have. All of this means faster change and more of it. The Internet also allows people in creative fields to form collaborations with people half a world away. In music, artists can collaborate on a track without being in the same city. I think that opens everything up to the limits of human imagination, which is exciting.

How has this impacted journalism and the creative writing industry?

In terms of my own field, I think the Internet has made written communication more important than ever. That doesn’t mean that there is more good writing out there necessarily but there is more writing and reading going on. I think writing is a vital form of human communication, one that bridges the old and the new and anything that allows more of that, I see great validity in.

Unlike the immediate gratification of photos or video, writing tells a story the old fashioned way – by engaging the reader’s imagination. It takes the reader on a journey but allows them to fill in their version of the details. Good writing tells you just enough to paint a picture but not enough to leave you with a cut and dried snap shot. And if there is a medium like the Internet to bring that very vital, very rewarding, very human tradition to more people at once, I’m glad. If a medium can bring us all together no matter how far we live apart, then despite its flaws, it’s inherently good.

Anthony’s book Why AC/DC Matters is an analysis of the legendary rock band. Illustration by Robin Boyden

Can you tell us about that final leap of faith when you decided to leave the confines of Rolling Stone Magazine and become a fully fledged author?

After seven years at Rolling Stone I had reached the top of the food chain as far as staff writers went, and realized that I was also at the top of the salary chain. I then realized that I was going to have to make a choice. If I wanted to make more money and get some career insurance – because staff writers are often the first to go when editorial regimes turn over – I was either going to have to focus my efforts towards becoming an editor there or at a competing magazine. If I wanted to expand my horizons as a writer I was going to have to make less money and cut myself loose to freelance.

I wasn’t the greatest at playing office politics so becoming an editor full time, particularly at Rolling Stone, probably wasn’t going to work for me. So I opted for a contributing editor’s contract which would afford me a salary for a year but allow me to work outside of the office where I could pursue other writing opportunities.

I had been angling one for over a year and when it was finally offered it was for much less than what I knew other contributors were making. Contributors who’d achieved equal and in many cases less than I had at the magazine. That came as a huge surprise to me since I had produced well and done whatever else was ever asked of me during my time as a staff writer and associate editor.

What went through your mind and how did you decide what action to take next?

It was a slap in the face but it lit a fire under my ass and reiterated that I could rely on no one else but myself and it gave me something to prove. I thought that maybe I’d made the wrong decision and went on an interview or two for editorial staff jobs at other magazines. But it didn’t feel right, so I relied on what I knew and tried to sell a book.

And I did – it was my first book, ‘Whatever You Say I Am: The Life and Times of Eminem’, which sold both in the UK and USA and landed on the New York Times Bestseller List, as well as remaining a top five bestselling book in England for three straight months.

That experience taught me that taking risks I believed in had its advantages. It showed me that you have to do what you feel is right for you, not what is expected of someone in your position. Even if it’s a huge gamble, if you are true to yourself you’ll have no regrets.

Thanks Anthony for sharing your journey with us. It’s inspiring how you have taken control of your career and produced so many captivating books with some truly exciting creatives.

Have you been motivated by Anthony’s story, has it given you the courage to push your ideas forward and trust in your instincts? Whether you work for a company or for yourself, why not follow Anthony’s example and expand your horizons by taking on a new challenge which will push you to the next level. Tell us in the comments what your new challenge will be and when you hope to achieve it.

Interview by Angel Greenham

Photo by Man Alive!

Are you fed up of working in an unfulfilling job, being told what to do by a boss who doesn’t appreciate you? Do you want to pursue a creative career and work with people who share your vision? That’s exactly how Peter Hook felt when he decided to form a band called Joy Division. Hooky also realized that you can keep control and publish your creative work without signing away your rights…

Joy Division, inspired by Do It Yourself punk.

Peter Hook made his success as a prominent member of legendary band Joy Division who developed a sound and style that defined the post-punk movement of the late 1970s. Joy Division has influenced scores of musicians including Moby, U2, The Killers, The Charlatans and Mogwai. Hooky had no formal musical training. But his success stemmed from; hard work, determination and a burning ambition to succeed on his terms.

Peter, your journey has been epic to say the least! So let’s start at the beginning. How did you get together to form Joy Division?

In the summer of 1977 I had a really shit job. I was working hard all week and going out at the weekends. At the time music wasn’t a very big part of my life, but I used to read the music papers and I just started reading about Punk. It really interested and excited me. Then The Sex Pistols played in Manchester at the Lesser Free Trade Hall. My mates and I, all went along and that was it. That very evening, we decided we were going to be Punks and form a band.

Sex Pistols at the Lesser Freetrade Hall. Illustration by Jed Collins

It seems naive to me now because I didn’t particularly think about music. We didn’t consider that we would have to buy instruments, learn how to play, form a group and start performing. It just came from seeing the Sex Pistols perform and going “Come on, right we’re in a group now! Yeah!”.

At the start none of you could play any instruments, so how did you go about learning and developing your skill?

Bernard had a guitar, so I had to play the bass. It was that easy. It was a complete process of elimination. I bought a book called “Palmer-Hughes Book of Rock & Roll Bass Guitar”. However, it was pretty shit. So we just started playing. The thing about performing in a group is that one rehearsal is generally worth 10 of you playing on your own. The quicker you learned the better. Because you wanted to take advantage of the things that were being offered to you, like all the gig opportunities.

Illustration by Jed Collins

So you learned from necessity. But you went beyond this and actually mastered the bass guitar. How did that feel?

I always think of incredible musicians as people like Johnny Marr, who started playing the guitar when he was seven. It’s quite unusual to find someone who doesn’t start playing until they’re twenty one, but who ends up playing in two hugely important groups in the history of music.

You’re famous for playing the bass in a very unusual manner. How did you develop your style?

I didn’t set out to be different, a lot of it wasn’t planned, the style just evolved the more I played. Personally, I think if you write and perform great music it’s impossible to fuck it up. Because great music will always live on, whether you publicise it in a national newspaper or not.

So going back to the early days, how did you feel when you performed for the first time?

I can recall getting ready for it, but I don’t remember the rest of it at all. I was extremely frightened. I can’t even remember coming off stage! However, it’s a great thing that first performance. The rest of your career you find yourself chasing after that excitement. It’s like your first drink or your first sexual experience. But you’re never going to capture that feeling you had at the very first one.

Angel and Hooky. Photo by Tash Willcocks

It’s also a confidence thing. I did a ‘Question & Answer’ session in Canada for the documentary film about Joy Division called “Control”. This kid was asking questions and he said to me “Can you tell me why for 30 years of your career, the first 15 years you never said anything and then for the last 15 you wouldn’t shut up!?” I went over and punched the fucker. But he does have a valid point. I think the thing is, everything changes. So for the first 15 years I’d say I wasn’t very confident, and for the last 15 I was.

How did you come to work with the legendary entrepreneur and record producer Tony Wilson?

I’d seen him around before, we all went to the same concerts. He looked like he was from another planet, he dressed differently to anybody I’ve ever met. Tony had started putting on concerts in the Russell Club and he asked us to perform there for a while. He then decided to make a four-group compilation record and he invited us to record two tracks.

Peter Saville’s designs defined the look of the band. Copyright Peter Saville

After that, we were looking for a proper record deal, one where somebody would actually give us money. But Rob Gretton our manager decided it would be better to keep control. He wanted to keep it based in Manchester and for us to sign with Factory records, which was Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus’ label. Rob was impressed with Tony’s ideas, we were just kids so we didn’t know any better.

From left to right: Peter Saville, Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus. Copyright Kevin Cummins

I don’t think we had the vision to think about the business side of being in a band. But as a manager, Rob had the foresight to realize: “Right I can really do something different with this band and we can still keep control”. Because the thing that appealed to me about Punk was that it was all about doing things your own way and not compromising. Getting what you believe in and pushing it as far as you could. Not adhering to any strict rules and no one telling you what to do.

This was quite a new way of thinking, especially for the music industry. What was the benefit of working for an independent label that operated in such an unconventional manner?

The great thing about signing to Factory Records was that no one told us what to do, there was no planning at all. If we finished the track Tony would listen to it and go “Nice, we’ll record that and put it out next week”. It wasn’t like “Here’s a calendar for next year, we can’t clash with “Girls Aloud” or any major bands, and we’ve got to go on tour after”. Most record companies would never release a single if the band haven’t got an album ready and they haven’t got a tour planned.

Tony Wilson and Peter Saville. Photo by Danny North

Tell us about your first time in a recording studio?

We were very overawed, excited, and out of our comfort zone, so we were scared. I was very lucky as a musician to have a producer like Martin Hannett. He taught us to look beyond a song, to give things depth and time that lasted and things like that. Even though the guy was extremely difficult to work with, he did give us a gift that I’ve used personally for years and years.

So given the creative freedom you got from Factory Records how long did it take for Joy Division to gain popularity?

That’s an interesting question. As Joy Division we were playing the same songs to no one, and then six months later we were playing the same songs to thousands of people, so it’s difficult to judge where it actually happened. It just grew through us playing and establishing ourselves as a live group. I remember the first time we played London we had to chip in for petrol, and we didn’t even get any money off the door because no one came. There were only seven people in the whole place! I don’t think that you can really bypass that. But as long as you put on a great performance for those that did turn up, then it’s great.

Joy Division on the road. Illustration by Jed Collins

Did you enjoy going on tour in the early days?

We didn’t tour for a while, not like bands today who tour straightaway. We were still working and just playing odd dates whenever we could get them. It’s a different industry now. We grew at a much slower rate than a lot of groups today. They just go from nothing to hundreds of gigs. We had to work it around our day jobs and that’s what paid for us to tour.

Did you feel that you benefited more from doing it that way?

I think it kept us more grounded and a bit more realistic. But there were a lot of things that kept us down to earth. We didn’t really start making money until we’d been in the group nine or ten years. Everybody thought just because we co owned the Hacienda (nightclub) that we were loaded. In fact it was the opposite. Because we had the Hacienda, that’s the reason we didn’t have any money! But I do think that it did pay off, we had a level head and weren’t spoiled.

I think things like X-Factor and Pop Idol make the music business look exciting and glamorous. But when you look at it realistically, you’re up at 7.00 am and you’ll do an interview with a major TV station, then there’s a PR event, and then a signing and several personal appearances. It’s completely different to what it seems like on the outside.

But what we did was very different because we rebelled against all of that. I joined a group because I wanted to tell everyone to fuck off and do things my way. To me that was the great thing about being in a group where you’re not being told what to do.

Photo by Andi Gibson.

How did you cope when success really hit, how did you handle the attention?

We’ve never really had that huge overnight success. It was a very gradual curve, it wasn’t like the Beatles, all screaming girls and hysteria. We were a very workman like band and people realized we were pretty much the same as them.

Of course, just as Joy Division were gaining world wide recognition Ian tragically died, and you decided to re-form as New Order. How did the band handle that tragic situation?

We didn’t really think about it. We were still very young, we were only 23 and we were desperate to carry on, so we didn’t really change anything. We just wanted to get on with it. This was our way of dealing with the grief of losing Ian, throwing ourselves back into it. The new sound evolved because we didn’t have Ian, plus the technology and line up had changed. Bernard was a completely different vocalist to Ian. So we had to adapt to the situation.

Can you remember your first review?

My first review was “Joy Division are grim, I grinned” that was the first line of it, which was a real slag off.

How do you handle negative criticism?

Well, you get used to it. The thing is that 30 years on, people can write what they like. That’s the wonderful part of our society and it doesn’t have to be true. It’s only their opinion. So as long as they don’t really insult you personally or your family they can get away with it. It always hurts, but you know, it’s water off a ducks back. You just have to get on with it. It’s like your report at the end of school, you don’t pay too much attention, because it’s not going to effect the rest of your life.

Hooky DJing at a Hacienda revival night 10 years after the club closed. Photo by Andy Golpys

Tell us about the highlights of your musical career, is there anything in particular that stands out?

The fact that I could live off music for 30 years is pretty much a highlight for me. Also I still get an incredible kick from watching a TV program and one of our songs comes on.

New Order were a huge group. We were doing concerts in America for 25,000 to 30,000 people when we decided to stop. That’s bigger than Oasis and the Spice Girls ever were. Nobody in England thinks about New Order as being that successful in America, Canada and South America. But we were huge everywhere.

House Music revelers, photo by Andy Golpys

You mentioned earlier the Hacienda, whose idea was it to buy a nightclub? Why did you get involved in such a big project?

It was our managers idea along with Tony Wilson to open it. It was out of necessity really. We could go to gigs dressed as punks, but you couldn’t go to a nightclub. Manchester was very old fashioned at the time and clubs were strictly suit and ties. The Hacienda broke the mould because you could go dressed however you liked, there was no dress code. It was opened for people like us so we had somewhere to go.

What was the biggest challenge of running it?

The interesting thing about the Hacienda is that it wasn’t opened to make a profit. The idea was that the profits would be ploughed back into the business. It was like a hippy culture thing and it wasn’t intended to make loads of money.

But it was a huge enterprise and if we’d looked at it from a realistic point of view, we would have said “It’s too big, it’s too overstaffed and it’s too risky”. However, we didn’t have a clue what we were doing, so we did it anyway. Luckily we had a lot of money, or Factory Records had a lot of money from our records and they very kindly invested it for us.

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Illustration by Jed Collins

The Hacienda and the music it showcased had a huge impact on club life and culture, but it also had a reputation of drugs and violence, tell us what was really like?

DJ’s at The Hacienda played dance music and acid house, which has had a big influence in clubs all over the world. It’s sort of portrayed, quite wrongly, that the only way to enjoy yourself is to get off your head on drugs. It was funny because when they did a survey in the Hacienda, they worked out that barely 10% of people were actually on drugs. Most of them were just high on life, that was absolutely true. But the thing is, drugs were sold there and gangsters do make a living out of selling drugs. It had a fantastic reputation, but equally terrifying and intoxicating at the same time.

Raising the roof. Photo by Andy Golpys

You mentioned how the music industry has changed over time. One big change has been the impact of the Internet. Do you see online music promotion as a positive move?

I do! It’s quite funny though because I think the Internet business can be over-hyped. I remember some time ago, I was doing a tour of America and I was reading about the Arctic Monkeys being big on the Internet. My son had played me some Arctic Monkeys songs and I thought it was brilliant. I thought I’d take some of their music with me, because they’re big online. I got to America and everyone was like “What the fuck is this?”. I realized at the time the Arctic Monkeys were big on the Internet in Sheffield in England. Not the rest of the world.

Just because a band has the ability to upload their music online, doesn’t mean that anybody is going to download it. You still have to do things the normal way, like getting publicity, playing gigs, having bottles thrown at you, being told to get off stage, doing your friends wedding… the music business is still primarily about selling music.

Your right, you still need to do the ground work, but bands have the facility to distribute records themselves, and they can gain popularity even without the backing of a record company. This gives them a lot of creative freedom. So this must be having a negative impact on record companies?

Absolutely, record companies have made a lot of money over the years so personally I don’t feel very sorry for them. They’ve made millions at the expense of artists for a very long time and they’ve got plenty of money.

It’s just changed. In particular record companies don’t nurture bands like they used to. When a band signed to a label they would sign for five albums or eight albums. The record label would stick with them for the whole eight albums, even if the first one wasn’t a huge success, but nowadays they don’t.

Photo courtesy of Fac 51

Some people would say that’s realistic, but the thing is you lose a lot of bands with potential. They only do one record and because it doesn’t sell they get dropped. But their greatest record may have been the second or third album. Pop Idol or X-Factor contestants get dropped, never to be heard of again. That’s because they sign a £1million contract, but that’s £100,000 for your first album and £100,000 for your next nine.

But there are some great new independent acts coming up who know how to use the web effectively, and freedom on the Internet has to be a positive thing.

Thanks for your time Peter, and for telling it like is it.

Action

After being inspired by the Sex Pistols, Hooky took action straight away, he bought a guitar and formed a band, and that single decision ended up helping to shape a generation of modern music. What action are you going to take? Don’t take too long deciding, just go and do it.

Interview by Angel Greenham