1) How did you get into what you do?
I've been drawing and painting since I could pick up a pencil and it's just something I love. According to my parents I couldn't sit down for any length of time without drawing. I still can't.

2) How would you sum up your work in one sentence?
The thing I've always wanted to do.

3) What inspires you?
Music is a massive inspiration to me, but also people who get off their ass and get what they want…whatever that may be.

4) What do you love the most about the process of creating an image?
Being able to translate that initial idea that excites you so much from what you saw in your head to something concrete on paper.

5) You often merge digital and traditional illustration techniques. Do you think today there's a danger of the computer killing traditional illustration?
Not at all. There are still tonnes of traditional illustrators out there doing well. I think people will always appreciate tradional skills of a good draughtsman or painter whether it be in a village art fair or in a global fashion magazine.

Combining digital techniques with those that are more traditional is just the most exciting way to work for me - it allows an unparralleled flexibility whilst retaining the organic feel and approach I love. It helps me keep pushing what I do which is key.
  
6) How do you find doing commercial work versus personal work?
I love both. There's not a real distinction between the results of the two.

7) Your collaboration with product designer Hideki sounds interesting...
Actually - this is a pretty big focus for me right now as we are working on a show for London Design Festival this year. Having been combining our two disciplines together for a while now we wanted to bring  other product designers and illustrators to work together in creating a fictitous environment within a venue. After a little hunting around, we are now going ahead in creating a high class bordello in the new Habitat Regent St store in cental London with the likes of Vault 49 amoung others.  It is a massive project and we are both hugely excited!! A high class designer brothel in a major retail store on Regent St with some of the best visual designers around. How can we not be excited.  
 
8) What do you think you'd be doing of you hadn't gotten into illustration?
God knows. I was an ice cream man for a while at school. That was fun for a summer.

9) So what does the future hold for Von?
Hopefully not selling of icecreams. :)

1) Where are you from?
I grew up in a small village called Leiterberg in south of Germany. It was a really small village like a 15 house thing – as far as I can remember but you know I was just living there till I was five so my memory is a bit blurry. I can just remember a few houses and our huge garden with some apple and cherry trees and a small river next to our house. I used to have this plastic car with wheels and I did speed races down hills with the kids from my neighbour house. When I turned five my parents and I moved to Munich where I've spent most of my life.

2) Tell us about your work? How would you describe your style?
I really find it hard to talk about my fashion work – my free work and my fashion based photography have two different approaches. The fashion photography is something based on spontaneity and always changes a bit in style. Because I am constantly busy with it is really hard for me to take a distance and to reflect about it clear. People always say that I use photography mostly as an object and not just as an “image” and that this is the special thing about my fashion based work.

3) What elements do you think makes a good picture?
Eat A good burger + crispy French fries + drink diet coke and a strawberry milkshake and the picture will be good.

4) Who are your favourite photographers?
I actually really do like the photos my mum takes – she always hates to take photos but the out come is always good. She is almost like a kid holding a camera the first time in its hands. Every photographical rule is broken and the image just looks free. Only my mother is able to cut off all the heads of a family portrait and make it still look nice.

5) If you could shoot anyone in the world of your choice, who would it be?
I hate this question – I really get blocked when someone asks me this and suddenly I forget all the people I would like to shoot. It’s the same phenomena about video stores– you have all these films in your head which you want to see and as soon you walk into a video store you can’t remember any of them and you end up walking out with no film in your hand.

6) What's next for you? What are you doing now?
At this moment I am promoting my new work called “Prison is a place”. Two years ago I found a webpage called “Friends behind the Wall” that offers data of American prisoners looking for contact with the outside world by mail. I started to correspond with 34 Afro-American prisoners from different prisons in the United States. Since then I’ve collected 283 letters, drawings and photo’s, turning it into an archive of intense emotions. These letters are a documentation of the communication between a prisoner and me. This communication often led to a playful exchange of items like photographs, poems, song texts and drawings. By sending and receiving personal information which was sometimes honest and sometimes false, it soon developed into a natural and unplanned game based on each other’s reactions. Parts of this archive will be shown in different galleries over the next month.

An additional part of the photo archive is included in issue 4, called “Daniel Sannwald” – of fucklet photo magazine. This issue can be found in selected bookstores and ordered at www.fucklet.com. This website also offers access to 4 songs by different artists, performing a song based on a secret code language of numbers created by me and the prisoners. The musicians are Namosh, Jessica Rylan, Dina Dellyana and Future Funk Collective. I will end this interview by giving the readers of Nothing Magazine access to one of the four songs. To access the song of Namosh use the code: 254460

1)Where are you from?
We are a London band

2) How did Lady Haidee start? How long have you been around?
As a child in the imagination and seeing the adults disappear …..been around for a few lifetimes now! Then in 2003 Lady Haidée began to make this fantasy a reality and began as a electronic studio band. Since that time Haidée, decided she wanted to get out of the studio to feel more human and perform the material with a live band with emphasis on the visual and atmospheric. In 2005 Lady Haidee performed some underground gigs in Camden and Soho; was very much in demand from the alternative music club scene and got very well received creating a cult following. Since then the band’s sound has developed into a new wave fantasy experimental pop band.

3) How would you describe your music?
Haunting, seductive, otherworldy and erotically driven songs. It’s a fine mix of the modern electronic age of music and live instrumentation. Described as a hybrid of Fischerspooner cutting with The Knife creating Cocteau Twins breathing Air making Goldfrapp with The Cure.
 
4) Tell us about the process you go through to create a song...
The process is very free. To take the track 'Creeping' for example we just started with a simple guitar loop and went from there experimenting with other sounds and layers in different sessions/studios until we got to the stage when we were happy with it. But usually it begins with a sound/lyric/feeling and grows from there. The live situation is pretty free too. We will start by listening to the demos and then experiment with various ways of re-interpreting the tracks. Unlike some other bands there is no intention of trying to faithfully produce live whats on the recording. Listeners may have one perception of Lady Haidee from listening to the albums but then see a totally different side to the music when they experience the shows. Each live show is a unique event. There's a lot of raw talent in the group - usually Haidée throws something in the air and it gets picked up by each player.

5) Haidée, you have a BA in Fine Arts (Time Based Media), what does this lend to your style and creative process?
Ive always been described as renaissance in my character and have a very multifaceted way of looking at things. There are unique ways to create and invent. I made a number of experimental soundscape recordings whilst at art school which became part of all the performance art and video installation / public art I was into; so in a way art school was really a way of discovering that I really wanted to be in a band and create with music and performance. Fine Art gave me complete freedom, there were no boundaries, which sometimes got me into trouble, and so nowI like being part of a band that has a vision to ground all the experiments.

6) Who / What inspires you?
The visual landscape of Edward Scissorhands in the Company of Wolves with their Eyes Wide Shut whilst watching La Belle et La Bete with the volume turned down.

7) Tell us about the best gig you've had?
In Camden in a room full of people entranced by us…… boys coming up afterwards taking their trousers down to get their thighs signed by Haidée which was very amusing.  

8) What one musical dream would you love to achieve before you die?
Seeing people loving the music and connecting with it . Release a successful album that gives you all the butterflies; wake’s your inner hearts and to perform to the world.

9) What are you working on at the moment?
Debut album! We are continuing to develop the live set for our upcoming shows across London as well as simultaniously writing & recording material for the new album. And trying to get Haidée to stop making sado-masochistic references in her lyrics!

Lady Haidee perform live at at The Orange, West Kensington, London, Monday 24th July 2006.

1) Where are you from?
I’m from Copenhagen, Denmark but half Finn. The Meannorth.

2) How would you describe your style?
Honest most of the time. My work is about collecting a lot of things a putting them in to a new orders, a bit autistic. An example could be painting on a vase -draw the vase in a painting- place the painting in a shop-Take a picture of the shop- sew a shirt and make silkscreen with a picture of the shop-Graphic grotesque feminine.

3) You produce your images in a variety of ways. What's your favorite medium?
My favorite medium is my brain. To be honest I don’t really care about the medium I love almost all mediums as long as they work in my favor. But If I could choose only one, it’s a black pen.
 
4) The majority of your work is fashion-focused. What do you enjoy about working with fashion?
Well It’s a bit like hunting for mushrooms, you think you saw one, but then it turns out to be a leaf. I enjoy the fact that fashion is always transforming into something new or taking a new direction. It feels ironic even to try and capture something that’s gone the next moment. Plus it’s full of beauty and ugliness. Drama... GREAT!
 
5) What is the creative scene like in Denmark?
It’s very small and packed with talents.

6) Tell us about some of the projects you've done lately...
I’m doing a series of body parts (paintings+ objects) im not 100 % sure if it’s going to work.
Then I’m collaborating with two talented fellow designers, on a so far top secret project. (HA HA)

7) What would your dream project / job be?
Ahhr there’s so many! I have got to be at least about 80 to realize them all.
I’m working on my dream project right now slowly but surely and that is to open a second shop in a new location here in Copenhagen and create a new universe. Otherwise I would never turn down Iggy Pop if he would want a cover … even for free. I would like to bee able to say something deep, that would make world the a better place, but I guess im a cruel designer who only think about my own bellybutton.

8) What do you love, and what do you hate the most about being a designer / illustrator?
As a designer I love to start new projects and as an illustrator just creating my own space and enjoying the very short time when you have finished your work and you are completely satisfied with the result.
Well hate is a strong word and not healthy for anyone, especially not me, it totally takes my focus away, but in general I don’t like artificial non-humans and technical problems in a project are really shit.

9) What's next for Naja Conrad-Hansen?
I’m looking for a new shop space. But first I go to Finland with my great family on holiday!

1) You're originally from the UK, why the big move to Australia?
I was working on a ship based in Poole (Dorset) and I met a nice girl from Adelaide andthings just rolled on from there.  I’ve always enjoyed moving around from place to place so I’m not too surprised that I’ve wound up in Melbourne. 

2) Was there a culture-shock?
In it’s own way Australia did and does present  a kind of culture shock to me. Obviously not in quite the same way as Delhi or Bangkok would. There are lots of small differences that sometimes create an odd sense of being somewhere foreign.  A bit like in a dream when your somewhere familiar, but your brain has made a few mistakes . 

3) What does it mean to you to be a documentary photographer?
I love it! 

4) You've said before that the main focus of your work is finding humor and interest in the mundane. How hard is that to find?
There is so much humour and beauty out there, you just need to go looking for it with an open mind.

5) Your subject matter varies, from Salvation Army stores to the inside of brothels. Is there an intrinsic theme that links your work?
Most of what I do is concerned with looking at the “middle ground” of life, in contrast to the insatiable appetite for glitter and gore we have at the moment. Even with the brothels I tried to focus more on the DIY decorating jobs as opposed to the sex.  

6) As a documentarian, it's important to be immersed in the community you study. How involved do you get with your subject matter?
I’m quite an enthusiastic person and whatever I’m shooting I like to know more about it and the people involved - a good week can be measured by the number of cups of tea I have had with strangers. 

7) What plans do you have for future projects?
I keep coming back to suburbia as a subject and I’m hoping to one day really nail that one.Other than that I’ve been spending a good deal of time photographing dog shows , which is fun.

Impeach My Bush / Peaches / XL Recordings

Ok so at first I imagined "Impeach My Bush" to be some sort of crazed sexual innuendo on Peaches political beliefs, turns out to be little more than another tour de force of sexually explicit puns and double entendre. However, taking the lyrics out of the equation, although it would only halve the impact, "Impeach My Bush" is still probably electro-Queen Peaches most enjoyable and addictive release to date.

The album hardly moves from the gritty electroclash spouted on her first two albums, yet the songs are somewhat better. Opening tracks such as Fuck Or Kill, Tent In Your Pants, Hit It Hard and the excellent Downtown (with assistance from Ladytron producer Mickey Petralia – and it shows) – all have achingly addictive choruses, with rock drumming from Hole drummer Samantha Maloney amidst heaps of cheap, dirty analogue riffs continually spewing Peaches metaphorical seed.

The rock angle does widens Peaches scope when compared to most Electroclash artists, she’s more like a new wave version of Marilyn Manson, but her sonic impact is much more immediate and thankfully free of the preposterous imagery that Manson adopts – Peaches prefers to keep it nice and simple, standing virtually naked in her recording studio.

In truth, I detect a slight political message behind "Impeach My Bush", but it’s not very intelligibly delivered – the kids will be too busy getting off on her lyrics, and any adults that are open-minded enough to buy this will already know what’s what in this world. Her political impact will be negligble, and her sexual impact even more negligible – she’s no Christina Aguilera that’s for sure, although I’m sure she’d prefer to make out with her rather than sound like her.

At the end of the day, this album sees Peaches at the peak of her vulgar powers, with 13 songs of vibrant electro-rock, raving about threesomes, fistings and orgasms – but where can this predatory sex shark possibly go next? Her critics say she can't sing and she's vulgar– but that's also what they said about Madonna in 1983. Peaches does insist on writing and playing virtually all of her own material, so she’s in a better position than most popstars, but for now you’ll probably want to just sit back and enjoy this for what it is.

The Devil Wears Prada / Directed by Robert Altman /

To the extent that "The Devil Wears Prada" is an actors' showcase and a sly send-up of the fashion industry, the film works brilliantly. It's the story that fails: thematically incoherent, too typical, and borderline hypocritical, its inadequacy hit me each time I took a break from enjoying the movie's surface pleasures and thought about what was going on. Fortunately, those surface pleasures are such that it hardly matters.

Meryl Streep reigns over "The Devil Wears Prada" in much the same way her character rules the halls of the Runway Magazine offices. Every piece of withering sarcasm, every dismissive comment becomes a pointed and personal insult, an unambiguous assertion of the recipient's worthlessness. Watching Streep as the icy fashion goddess was more than sufficient to occupy me for 109 minutes.

Also the film adds Stanley Tucci as one of Priestly's most faithful employees. Tucci is perfect, making his character a type without making him a stereotype. Watching him sweep through the magazine's storehouse of designer clothes to give Anne Hathaway's hapless Anna Sachs a makeover is hysterically funny for reasons I can't quite comprehend. "We'll do this Dolce for you! And we'll do this Gucci for you!" he asserts, throwing the clothes at the poor girl without so much as looking in her direction.
The movie is full of these sorts of witty details, from Miranda's expounding to the extremely un-fat Anna why she decided to hire "the smart fat girl" instead of the worshipful, emaciated dimwits she usually prefers, to Emily Blunt's absolutely perfect First Assistant, who schools Anna, the new Second Assistant, in the most uncharitable way possible. For all the exaggeration on display, Runway Magazine becomes a real place, alive and terrible.

Anna's personal journey, on the other hand, did not sell me. The premise of the film is that Anna "sells her soul" -- abandons her friends, her personality, her quirky way of dress, and becomes just another thoughtless, self-absorbed fashionista. The movie insists on this; Anna's boyfriend (a bored-looking Adrian Grenier) says so, her friends sneer at her, she herself becomes despondent. But I didn't see this at all. She is late a few times, yes; she is even late for her boyfriend's birthday, but she runs in with a birthday candle cupcake in her hand. She changes her clothes -- a requirement of her job. She remains nice, friendly, and caring; she takes the initiative to bring her friends expensive presents from the office.
So what's the big deal? Moreover, why aren't her friends less petty and more understanding? She makes it clear that her job is a one-year stint meant to give her a chance at her big break as a journalist. It is a job that "most girls would kill for." Given all that, shouldn't her boyfriend support her, help her, tell her that it will be okay, that this too shall pass, that the job is her ticket to the career that she wants? Instead he sulks and berates her. Why?

"What The Devil Wears Prada" does, in the end, is embrace to the shallowness that it seems to satirically condemn. It surrenders to the idea that the clothes its protagonist wears make her a different person. The Anna I saw wearing Gucci is the same Anna I saw wearing a debatably ugly blue sweater and plaid skirt -- perhaps more confident and composed, but no less (or more) pretty, ambitious and sweet.

And so the third act, which forces on us Anna's journey of self-discovery, seems wrong. I realize that the film merely gives us the character arc that this sort of plot demands, but this particular story called for something else. If "The Devil Wears Prada" weren't so infectiously entertaining, it may have been regrettable.

By Eugene Novikov