Interview with Matt Burden

q) Something about you…what you want…

a)Born in St. Albans, UK, 1978… 6’1”, blue eyes, blond-ish hair, fairly well built… What I want? – That’s a good question… World peace… and England to win the World Cup… (So I guess I’m set for a lot of disappointment…)

q) What are your main goals when you create?

a)If it’s specifically for something, that there be somekind of intuitve connection between the what it is and what it’s for… and generally just to express myself, test myself, and have some fun…

q) Do you rule by any tendency in your creative work, or you only follow what comes in your mind?

a)In terms of the practicalities each picture usually evolves it’s own set of aesthetic rules pretty quickly - if they weren’t in place already… In terms of ideas and concepts it’s more a case of the lights are on but no one’s in… You just switch off and it comes out by itself…

q) How has the internet and your website helped you spread your artwork to a wider audience?

a)It’s been massive… This interview is a prime example – it wouldn’t be happening were it not for… I think artists today are really lucky to have cyberspace at their disposal…

q) How do you define your style…

a)Loud, angry, strange, violent, playful, crude, direct…

q)…and how would you describe your art to someone who could not see it?

a)Tasteful water colours…

q) What materials do you use to realize your creations?

a)Pens, paper, pencils, camera, scanner, G5, Photoshop, Illustrator, Google image search, bits of stuff…

q) What is your favourite a) taste b) sound c) sight d) scent e) tactile sensation?

a)An attractive young lady… for all 5… haha…

q) What are you doing now…your current projects…

a)I’ve just been finishing the artwork for the Milanese Adapt EP due for release on Planet Mu later this year, along with a t-shirt for another reputable music label… and I’ve recently begun working on a short comic for my own self indulgence…

q) Do you listen to music while you’re creating and what do you listen and what do you like to listen?

a)If I’m making an album cover for someone I make a point of listening to the music that’s to go on it as much as possible throughout the process…
Beyond that, as fate would have it, the majority of my friends make up a rather diverse, mongrel horde of musicians - encompassing everything from Balkan to Dubstep - so I have the privilege of being constantly introduced to (or force fed) a really quite wide range of stuff…
Funcrusher Plus by Company Flow is still probably my favourite album…

q) Do you draw influences from a wide range of artists, musicians, books…?

a)From an early age I was obsessed with comics and dinosaurs… So the majority of my artistic schooling came from prehistory books and the legacy of Jack Kirby… Stuff like Carlo Ranzi, Jim Lee, Sam Keith, John Romita Jnr, Albert Uderzo - along with a host of natural history illustrators whose names I never knew in the first place… These are the guys who taught me how to draw…
These days, whilst the source material has changed, the same issues and ideas still interest and excite me… Evolution, science, religion, humour, people, animals, faces& forms, sequence, distortion, intoxication, malevolence… Though I try not to consciously look at too much art & design when I’m working, as I think it’s kind of counter productive… It’d be like trying to write music whilst at a concert…
At the end of the day you’re always going to be constantly influenced by whatever world you inhabit… Whether directly or indirectly… There’s no escape….

q) Name 3 things you couldn’t create without?

a)Food, water, oxygen…

q) Where have you show your art…?

a)To date, shows have been pretty limited – a handful of low key events here in the UK, plus a piece in a group show over in California a couple of months back… (So if anybody out there’s interested my contact details are below…)

q) What haven’t you done yet that you definitely want to try someday?

a)Artistically – film…

q) How important is self-promotion for an artist nowadays?

a)It’s paramount…

q) Would you say that your work consciously reflects characters and situations found within your daily life?

a)Sometimes – yes – very much so… But by no means always… Though if they’re not there overtly and explicitly they usually still find a way in… There’s a lot more going on at the back of your head than there is in the front…

q) Favourite book?

a)The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

q) Designers/Artists you admire?

a)Right now I’m really into Kinki Texas, Jessica Joslin, Brendan Danielsson, Gregory Jacobsen, Paul Chatem… Dave Gibbons was a big hero to me as a kid… And I’ve always got time for Picasso…

q) Your contacts….e-mail…links…

a)

www.mattburden.co.uk
www.myspace.com/mjburden
info@mattburden.co.uk