Mini Horkey interview for Juxtapoz auction

mcgod · Fri Sep 04, 2009 8:34 pm

Question: "Is it valuable to like the music for which you create a poster for? Or can you separate that sort of liking/disliking out when you do your work?"

What should he say, 'oh yeah they're all sooo dreamy' or give a copout answer like 'oh they all have their good points' or 'you know, I hate to be negative about anyone'.. he was honest, and some of us appreciate that. He didn't even rip 'em, just said he didn't care for it. The guy even asked specifically about the arcade fire poster, it's not like aaron pulled it out of the blue, it was on his mind per the interviewer.

Can't imagine why you feel the need to harshly judge an honest, mildly critical answer which amounted to a little throwaway line in an otherwise fine interview.. Did it 'ruin' the arcade fire print for you? Seems like quite an overreaction.

Fri Sep 04, 2009 10:13 pm

Some people may believe that not liking a client is inevitable as an artist working for a certain company, but others stand by only doing work for groups they are interested in or care for. He admitted that he usually does things for bands that he knows something about though. It may seem hypocritical to do work for someone (work that you clearly put a lot of time and effort into) and then turn around and say that you don't care for the cause.

I don't have a real opinion about this, since it could go both ways. Just looking at different sides.

deancc · Sat Sep 05, 2009 3:58 am

pewter14 wrote:
sir_smokealot wrote:I love his opinion of Arcade Fire.

Good interview.
I personally think it's a shitty opinion or at least, an opinion he could have kept to himself. The comment actually makes my desire for that print a little less than it was before I read it.

I just think it's poor form to slam bands that have hired you.

Wonder what he thinks of Bon Iver or hell, Andrew Bird for that matter.

i think his comment about AF was pretty tame. if he said that he avoided hearing them and then when he did he felt he wasn't missing out on much, then you may even go so far to say he expected not to like them and was mitigating his dislike or disinterest in them.

personally, i think it's a shame that AF song is in that skate video - i'm assuming it's Mike Mo's part in Fully Flared. had potential to be even more amazing.

and isn't it pretty obvious that he likes Andrew Bird? he's done 3 posters for him, plus worked on Magnetic Fields (with Andrew Bird) and Decemberists (with Andrew Bird). and in his occasional playlists that pop up in interviews and BoNA newsletters, i recall Andrew Bird in there at least once.

Sat Sep 05, 2009 4:15 am

i seen a half filled coke bottle hurled from 20 metres away at the big day out a couple of years ago, it just missed the violist player for AF by a foot or so, just saying, i for one cant wait to see the bon iver print

deancc · Sat Sep 05, 2009 4:33 am

clem99 wrote:i seen a half filled coke bottle hurled from 20 metres away at the big day out a couple of years ago, it just missed the violist player for AF by a foot or so, just saying, i for one cant wait to see the bon iver print

damn, that's a pretty shitty thing to do, no matter how overrated they are.

the Melt-Banana and Baroness stuff has got me very excited!

Sat Sep 05, 2009 4:52 am

deancc wrote:
clem99 wrote:i seen a half filled coke bottle hurled from 20 metres away at the big day out a couple of years ago, it just missed the violist player for AF by a foot or so, just saying, i for one cant wait to see the bon iver print
damn, that's a pretty shitty thing to do, no matter how overrated they are.

the Melt-Banana and Baroness stuff has got me very excited!

i certainly wasnt condoning the actions, we actually tried to stop it as we could see it about to be hurled, the violist actually ducked and showed the bird in our general direction, music is very much an individual taste, there music doesnt do much for me, but as musicians they can obviously play and entertain for the fans, bjork came on after, it was a rough 90 minutes for the majority

deancc · Sat Sep 05, 2009 4:55 am

haha. bjork was the best thing i saw all last year.

RupertPupkin · Sat Sep 05, 2009 11:16 am

Aaron Horkey wrote:I’ll be working on a print for a Bon Iver show

This excites me more than anything has in a long while.

iratasan · Sat Sep 05, 2009 1:24 pm

pewter14 wrote:please don't ask how he feels about The Decemberists ... I don't want to know.

actually that would interest me a lot.

hatredofhuds · Sat Sep 05, 2009 4:01 pm

pewter14 wrote:
sir_smokealot wrote:
pewter14 wrote:
sir_smokealot wrote:I love his opinion of Arcade Fire.

Good interview.
I personally think it's a shitty opinion or at least, an opinion he could have kept to himself. The comment actually makes my desire for that print a little less than it was before I read it.

I just think it's poor form to slam bands that have hired you.

Wonder what he thinks of Bon Iver or hell, Andrew Bird for that matter.

I'm sure Ben or the horkamaniacs will let me know if Im wrong... but on that tour, the posters were all done through BRLSQ. I could be wrong, but I think BRLSQ was hired to do the poster series.. and since he is one of BRLSQ's artists he was given the opportunity to do the poster. I don't think he was hired specifically by the band.
I don't really think his comment is a big deal. I also share the same opinion of that band.
I don't care if he said it about Isis, Converge or whomever, my like or dislike for the band is irrelivant when I read that comment. From one artist to another, "I wasn't missing much" is a pretty shitty thing to say. He could have just taken the high road and said he hadn't heard of them when he did the print and left it at that.

Before all the Horkey addicts jump down my throat, I'm *NOT* saying an artist has to like every band they do a print for, not at all. They got to eat. Hell, many folks work for companies they can't stand either. Just keep an opinion like that to yourself ...especially when the question was framed by the interviewer as, "You made one of my favorite rock posters in recent memory, the one for Arcade Fire."

Finally, if anyone has the chance to interview Aaron in the future, please don't ask how he feels about The Decemberists ... I don't want to know.

I was actually trying to figure out WHY he was doing posters for bands like the arcade fire. The interview makes complete sense to me.

iratasan · Sat Sep 05, 2009 4:08 pm

true, but i still won't understand what he likes about andrew bird.

hatredofhuds · Sat Sep 05, 2009 5:40 pm

iratasan wrote:true, but i still won't understand what he likes about andrew bird.

Yea, good point. Maybe thats one of the guys he's buddy's with?

byc101 · Sat Sep 05, 2009 7:51 pm

iratasan wrote:true, but i still won't understand what he likes about andrew bird.

His vocabulary?

rauchadam · Sat Sep 05, 2009 8:05 pm

iratasan wrote:true, but i still won't understand what he likes about andrew bird.

Have you seen him live? Amazing.

deancc · Sat Sep 05, 2009 10:03 pm

dude has some of the best whistling chops i've ever heard.

when i saw Bird last year, some girl (about 30) was standing next to me and it was seriously like seeing some of that old footage of chicks almost fainting when they saw the Beatles. she seemed to be seriously bordering on orgasm, just oooooooooooh..., ahhhhhhhhhhhh... whenever he started talking or singing. and giggling like a little schoolgirl when he said something even slightly amusing. it was pretty sad. her boyfriend had a permanent, "sorry, yeah this is really embarrassing" look on his face. that aside, it was a good show.