We here at the Vinyl Theatre like to consider ourselves as being artsy individuals. As such, we'd like to use this site at a forum to help promote artists that fit within the context of what we are doing. We were gassed to discover the work of Stefan Glerum who has put together an excellent series of illustrations titled "Crate Digging, Don't Do It", which in a humorous way details the side effects from the obsessive behavior of collecting Vinyl Records - a la our very own Matt Joudrey! We were instant fans and just had to feature this artist on Vinyl Theatre! We were very fortunate to get an interview with Stefan and we strongly encourage everyone to check out more of this series from his site at:
http://stefanglerum.blogspot.com/
VT - Were you educated in the arts or graphic design and if so, whereabouts?
Stefan - I just graduated from the St. Joost Academy of Arts in Breda. That’s a tiny city in
the south of the Netherlands. I majored in Illustration and minored in Animation.
VT - Where are you currently living?
Stefan - Currently I’m living in Amsterdam, the Netherlands
VT - What prompted you to this produce this set of art pieces?
Stefan - Well, it was part of my graduation project. First I wanted to bring an ode to the
flea market in Breda, the city I lived in, but I found it very difficult to get a grip visually on what I wanted to tell. It’s really uninteresting to adulate something I guess, or to give an interesting form to your admiration for something. Also, my teachers tried to push me to produce a project that actually could be used as promotion for the flea market in Breda. I then started to think that I really didn’t want to make any promotion at all for something as valuable as my favorite flea market, cause that would only result in more competition during crate digging. So the idea for the ‘Crate Digging, Don’t Do It’ series was born. 13 record sleeves with anti promotion for one of my favorite hobbies.
VT - Are these critical pieces or satire?
Stefan - Of course it’s satire. I enjoy crate digging very much. And I’m not really an obsessive digger. Also I’m not really a record collector. I mainly try to find interesting records for the sake of sampling.
VT - How long does it take for you do a finished piece like one of these?
Stefan - Well, a drawing takes me a day, but for this project I made a lot I discarded. The typography, I did that later on on tracing paper. Some cropping and retouching etc. in Photoshop...Well, let’s say a day and a half. Also drawing is something I just recently started doing more and more. I just used to steal images from old books and use Photoshop tricks to make slick nonsense.
VT - What is the vinyl collecting scene like there?
Stefan - In Breda there’s this one guy who’s got a big collection of mainly sixties and
psychedelic stuff. From all over the world. He makes his own compilations. I’m always on the
lookout for him when he goes digging, cause he’s got the ability to find the fattest shit
between the 45’s you’ve just discarded. In Amsterdam I just don’t go record shopping, cause
nice records over there are to expensive. And it’s that I’m just used nowadays to the charm of record shopping in small cities.
VT - Who are some of your most important artistic influences?
Stefan - I’m definitely influenced by stuff from the beginning of the twentieth century. May
it be avant garde, like futurism or constructivism or more applied arts. Also I’m very interested in Kurt Schwitters. Chris Ware and Joost Swarte are heroes of mine. Nowadays I’m always blown away by the artists from Kramers Ergot, like Souther Salazar, Fabio Viscogliosi and off course Jeff Ladouceur, whom I borrowed some ideas from, thanks by the way.
VT - Who are some of you favourite music bands / artists?
Stefan - I grew up with 3 Feet High and Rising by De La Soul. The Avalanches made a deep inpact in my way of thinking about music. MF Doom, Madlib, Cut Chemist and Edan are other favorites. It’s mainly from these kind of artists that my interest in old music grew. So I started looking for the breaks, the originals etc. Then, I started looking for sixties and seventies music I could use for my own copy-and-paste-music. I’m charmed now by Marc Aryan.
VT - Is there a cool music scene out there where you are?
Stefan - In Breda definitely not. In Amsterdam there’s a lot happening, but the nicest thing
probably is ‘Glerum Omnibus vs. Truly Pheasant’ at the Bimhuis september the 27th! I would
advise everybody to come!
We just love this photo of Stefan! The good folks here at Vinyl Theatre wish you all the best and encourage everyone to get out to The Bimhuis on September 27th to see ‘Glerum Omnibus vs. Truly Pheasant’. There's so much more to Amsterdam than the Red Light District - although most North Americans would say otherwise.
BTW - Matt has a copy of De La Soul's 3 Feet high and Rising, William has it on CD and Phil, well Phil has an original copy of the Knight Rider Soundtrack on CD.
impressive arts. nice picture. both his art and trousers are splendid
Posted by: Murphy McDuffy | September 12, 2008 at 04:07 AM
Agreed his art is really well rendered. It reminded me greatly of some past CFB (Canada Film Board) animation. Oddly enough Stefan did study animation as well.
Posted by: Mad Gapper | September 12, 2008 at 09:17 AM