[{"id":"65057","title":"David Bond and the Art of the Craft","alias":"david-bond-and-the-art-of-the-craft","catid":"13","published":"1","introtext":"David Bond stands as a testament to the power of tradition and craft. Born and raised on a ranch in California, Bond found out early that he was an artist, and found ways to align this calling with h<\/span><\/span>","fulltext":"\r\n

David Bond<\/a> stands as a testament to the power of tradition and craft. Born and raised on a ranch in California, Bond discovered early that he was an artist, and found ways to align this calling with his background as a rancher, skateboarder, punk, and motorcycle enthusiast. This naturally led him to sign painting, for which he's had a lifelong passion and 28 year career. Bond recently collaborated with 805 Beer<\/a> and is featured in our December 2017 issue, so we wanted to ask him a little more about his passions and get some context to his masterful signwork.<\/p>\r\n

\"IMG<\/p>\r\n

How did you get interested in trucks, bikes, and sign painting? Has that been a lifelong passion?<\/strong>
I have been working as a sign writer for over 28 years. My career started quite by accident, as a starving art college student, needing gas money. I took a paid apprenticeship with a long time sign man. I had 50+ years of experience passed down by him to me. I also had the privilege of receiving tips from his mentors during that time. So an incredible wealth of knowledge was passed my way.

My company Lucky B Design Is solely a traditional hand lettering and pinstriping business. That has been my full-time job for the last 28 years. Business through the years has changed drastically. When I started, computer generated vinyl signage had almost killed sign writing, which meant that I had to go where the business was. Vintage drag cars\/custom motorcycles\/trucks\/boats were my bread-and-butter. These clients still wanted the quality and authenticity of  hand lettered work. My love for vintage cars and motorcycles has always been with me I believe, and I have owned many of each. <\/p>\r\n

\"IMG<\/p>\r\n

How do you feel like growing up on a ranch has affected your work? I grew up on a dairy farm and find that it sneaks into so many other aspects of my life.
<\/strong>Growing up on a ranch was incredible, and I use our family's cattle brand (the Lucky B) as my business name. Growing up in that way really sets you up for the world! My parents were both very cool in the fact that they understood I was an artist from birth. Their advice was always; if that\u2019s what you are going to do for a living, do it the best that you can! This gave me the ability and the self-confidence to run with my craft. 

As a teenager, I was a cowboy\/skateboarder\/punk rocker, and I used to think that was so odd, and I was the only person anywhere like that. As I\u2019ve gotten older, I realize that that was not the case. Growing up on a ranch taught me chivalry, work ethic, perseverance, and also, I think, given me a pretty broad outlook on life. I\u2019m not content to just sit around, I\u2019m always pushing forward. Most of my creative influence stems from the way I was raised, and traditional working design.<\/p>\r\n

\"IMG<\/p>\r\n

How did you get connected with Steve Caballero? Do you find that a lot of people involved in the prominent \"countercultures,\" like skateboarding, punk music,  have a particular appreciation for hand-painted, classic styles?
<\/strong>As far as countercultures, skateboarding in particular, has a direct connection between the crafts like motorcycling and art\/music. As young skaters, we were constantly trying to push the envelope, to create at our own pace. A great deal of skateboarders were drawn to the sport because of this and their artistic mindset. As we have aged, we continue to pursue those individual creative \u201cfreedom\u201d paths, so motorcycling, and vintage cars often fill the void. <\/p>\r\n

How did working with 805 come about?
<\/strong>805 beer approached me after seeing a Fourth of July party at my old house\/shop. We had a blowout, with old cars\/motorcycles and about 300 people throughout the day. It all happened very organically, they saw something they liked, and that they didn\u2019t quite understand, so they asked about it. At that point 805 beer was only local, and they were looking to portray the local, by using interesting local people. I\u2019ve been working with them now for roughly 3 years. <\/p>\r\n

\"IMG<\/p>\r\n

Do you have any upcoming projects that you're working on?
<\/strong>Over the last several years, sign painting Has really experienced a rebirth. There is a soul to a hand-painted job, that even if the viewer doesn\u2019t understand what they\u2019re looking at, they pick up on. The pendulum has swung back in the direction of craftsmen, and I couldn\u2019t be happier! I have done several tours around the country, painting through Texas, restoring old building fa\u00e7ade\u2019s, etc. It has really been outstanding! I look forward to the future, as it continues this upswing. It\u2019s cool that I\u2019ve sort of become this old-timer in the business, and many young hopeful sign painters will often ask questions. It means a lot, and it means that I\u2019ve done something right. I have worked for Harley Davidson, Patagonia, Nike, Oakley, Vans and many other companies. It is really pretty cool, that giant companies realize the value of hand lettering.<\/p>\r\n

Thanks David!<\/em><\/p>\r\n

Interview questions by William Lankford<\/em><\/p>","video":null,"gallery":null,"extra_fields":"[{\"id\":\"13\",\"value\":\"David Bond stands as a testament to the power of tradition and craft. Born and raised on a ranch in California, Bond found out early that he was an artist, and found ways to align this calling with his background as a rancher, skateboarder, punk, and motorcycle enthusiast. This naturally led him to sign painting, for which he's had a lifelong passion and 28 year career. 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the power of tradition and craft. Born and raised on a ranch in California, Bond found out early that he was an artist, and found ways to align this calling with his background as a rancher, skateboarder, punk, and motorcycle enthusiast. This naturally led him to sign painting, for which he's had a lifelong passion and 28 year career. Bond recently collaborated with 805 Beer and is featured in our December 2017 issue, so we wanted to ask him a little more about his passions and get some context to his masterful signwork.","event":{"BeforeDisplay":"","AfterDisplay":"","AfterDisplayTitle":"","BeforeDisplayContent":"","AfterDisplayContent":"","K2BeforeDisplay":"","K2AfterDisplay":"","K2AfterDisplayTitle":"","K2BeforeDisplayContent":"","K2AfterDisplayContent":""},"jcfields":[],"videoClass":false,"twitter_introtext":""},{"id":"65052","title":"Neo Yokio: Ezra Koenig's Fabulous Adventure Into Anime","alias":"neo-yokio-ezra-koenig-s-fabulous-adventure-into-anime","catid":"30","published":"1","introtext":"You probably know by now that Ezra Koenig is the hyper-literate lead singer of Vampire Weekend, one of the most critically-acclaimed American bands of the 21st century. On the band\u2019s last tour, Ezr<\/span><\/span>","fulltext":"\r\n

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<\/p>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

\r\n
\r\n

Neo Yokio<\/h1>\r\n

Ezra Koenig\u2019s Fabulous Adventure into Anime<\/h2>\r\n

Interview by Evan Pricco<\/b> \/\/ Portrait but David Broach <\/b><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/header>\r\n

\r\n
\r\n
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You probably know by now that Ezra Koenig is the hyper-literate lead singer of Vampire Weekend, one of the most critically-acclaimed American bands of the 21st century. On the band\u2019s last tour, Ezra came up with the idea for a Japanese anime-style vision of New York City, cast with A-list actors and designed by a team of Japanese production artists and Korean animators. The end result, Neo Yokio, was released as a series on Netflix this fall, co-written with Adult Swim alum Nick Weidenfeld, featuring the creative narrative touches that Ezra is known for with his band. We chatted with Ezra about the making of Neo Yokio, his love of anime and the joy of making a little blast from the past. 

Evan Pricco: First thing\u2019s first, did you, like us, spend many a late night watching Adult Swim cartoons and thinking to yourself that these were some of the most creative writers and producers in TV? I remember specifically that era where Nick Weidenfeld had all those shows, actually right around the time Juxtapoz did a whole issue dedicated to Adult Swim, and just being really into it. 
<\/b><\/span>Ezra Koenig:<\/b> Of course. Xavier: Renegade Angel is one of my favorite shows of all time, so I was pretty psyched when I first met Nick. All that Adult Swim shit is incredible. Tim and Eric, Eric Andre, Jonathan Krisel\u2014all geniuses. I was in college for a lot of that stuff, so it was the perfect time to download some shit off Soulseek at 3 a.m. and expand my consciousness.

Let me apply that same question to Japanese anime. Obviously, Japanese animators have a style, and that style is quite iconic. So much so that artists like our friends Takashi Murakami and Mr. have translated the style into fine art. How did you get into that style and when did you know you wanted Neo Yokio to have that authentic Japanese anime look? <\/strong>
<\/span>I\u2019ve always been a fan of anime. I\u2019m far from an expert, but a lot of key shows and movies were important to me throughout my life. I probably saw Mad Bull 34, this insane violent vision of NYC from Japan, before I saw Mean Streets or Annie Hall. Like, anime presented to me the city where I was born before Scorsese or Woody Allen. Neo Yokio always had to be a collaboration with Japanese anime artists. I don\u2019t think we could have called it Neo Yokio otherwise. Also, on a basic level, 1980\u2019s and \u201990\u2019s anime is just my favorite type of animation.<\/p>\r\n

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How hard was it to find the right animators to make the show work and feel the way you wanted it to?  
<\/b><\/span>This was my first experience in animation, so I had to go with the flow to a large extent. Luckily, I really liked everyone we worked with. Maki from Production IG and Toshiyuki Hiruma (our liaison to MOI in Korea) were both incredible. Also, we were lucky to work with the storyboard artists Kazuhiro Furuhashi and Junji Nishimura, who both had experience going back to the very 1980\u2019s anime we were referencing. <\/span><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n

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Now that we got these hard-hitting journalistic development questions out of the way, what is the show about? Why anime? Why not live action actors? 
<\/b>Ha! I don\u2019t like to say what things are about because my own feelings change so often. The initial idea was to do a loving parody of old anime, and I think elements of that made it into the final product, but that\u2019s not really how I\u2019d describe it anymore. There was actually a time when I considered trying to do some weird live-action thing, but that seemed too crazy. 
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One reason I wanted the show to be anime was because I loved the idea of making it a cross-cultural collaboration. It really helps the idea of creating an alternate-universe vision of reality because you have collaborators free from the biases and neuroses of the New Yorkers on the team. Also, in the era of alt-right anime fans and stuff like Hetalia being weirdly popular in the U.S., I just liked like the idea of a project bringing together Japanese people, Jewish people, Black people, etc. 
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Can you walk through the making of an episode and how much you got to be involved in all the art that was created? I never quite know how it works between writer and animator.
<\/b><\/span>We\u2019d write a rough script and then send it to Japan for Furuhashi or Nishimura to storyboard. Then we\u2019d get their boards back and throw together a rough animatic, which is kind of like a video storybook, just still images set to the voices and a soundtrack. We\u2019d go back and forth with Studio Deen on character design and prop design. The sheer amount of decisions that have to get made in animation is insane, like, \u201cOk, there\u2019s an espresso cup in this scene. What shape? What color? With a saucer?\u201d With so much to decide, I couldn\u2019t be involved in every decision. Sometimes a character would just end up having the wrong look and it would be too late to change it. 
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Finally, the animatic would go to MOI in Korea and we\u2019d get animation from them. If there were problems, we\u2019d try to get creative in L.A. and re-edit the animation or move things around. It\u2019s a truly insane process and we made the show with intense budget and time restrictions, which is ironic because it ended up getting stuck in limbo for two years as we sold it to Netflix. <\/span><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n

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Was it around two years ago that you started to write the show? Given the storytelling quality in your lyrics, what sparked the idea to go from songwriter to show creator? 
<\/b><\/span>I wrote the bulk of it in 2014 and 2015. I remember writing the first episode at a Starbucks in Tampa when Vampire Weekend was still touring for our last album. We were about to play the Big Guava festival. On one level, I just wanted a break from music. I was burned out after three albums. Also, our last album was the big, serious, more mature one and I wanted to do something fun, dumb and less \u201ctasteful.\u201d I also wanted to do something where I wasn\u2019t front and center. That\u2019s why I refused to do a voice on the show despite some pressure from the studio. (Plus, I am a terrible actor.) 
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Also, I just like to write. I wanted to try something narrative, but I knew I wasn\u2019t going to write The Sopranos my first time out, so I focused on what I love: weird little phrases and moments. Nick and I wanted the show, above all, to be quotable.
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Did you ever get to a point in creating the show that led to anything with Vampire Weekend? 
<\/b><\/span>It was a really nice break from Vampire Weekend. Occasionally, I\u2019d pocket a phrase or two that didn\u2019t make it into a script, but mostly I was using a different part of my brain. Now I\u2019m imagining an alternate universe where I made a Vampire Weekend album called Neo Yokio and everything I\u2019m putting into this next album became a cartoon. That works too, actually! <\/span><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n

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The line-up of voices on this show is incredible: Jaden Smith, Jude Law, Susan Sarandon, Tavi Gevinson, Alexa Chung, Jason Schwartzman, it goes on. Did anyone on this list come to mind when you guys were writing the show? Did anyone need extra convincing to be part of a Japanese-anime style show that is based in NYC? 
<\/b>People were mostly just down to try it. Animation is low-stakes for the actors. They don\u2019t have to move to Budapest for three months. Just swing by a studio for a couple hours at a time. 
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We initially wrote the pilot with no specific actor in mind (which might be why it\u2019s the worst episode, in my opinion). After casting, it became impossible to imagine any other voices, and we tried to highlight everyone\u2019s vibe and personality. Also, we let the actors take the lead at times. Desus Nice and The Kid Mero improvised many of the show\u2019s best lines.
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Working with Netflix is awesome because you can post an entire season in one big push, and I got to binge it last night. Are there plans for season two, or are you back deep into VW land?
<\/b><\/span>Releasing Neo Yokio has been super weird because we finished it so long ago. It\u2019s very strange to sit on a project for that long. Also, when we first made it, I thought it was going to be coming out one episode at a time in the middle of the night on cable. I never imagined it would be coming out all at once for an audience as broad as Netflix\u2019s. <\/span><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n

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So, anyway, I\u2019ve been in the studio for almost two years now, and for me, Neo Yokio is a blast from the past. I\u2019m really glad it\u2019s on Netflix but it\u2019s so surreal to see it just out there immediately in front of the whole world. I\u2019ve seen people saying, \u201cI can\u2019t believe this show is real,\u201d and I\u2019m like, \u201cI worked on it and I can\u2019t believe it\u2019s real.\u201d Seeing the fan art, the cosplay, the reactions\u2014it really feels like a weird dream. If I woke up tomorrow and the show had mysteriously vanished from the world, I wouldn\u2019t bat an eye. I\u2019d just make a coffee and go to the studio and think, \u201cI guess that didn\u2019t actually happen after all.\u201d I have some ideas for a second season that I think could be amazing, but for now, I just gotta finish this damn album!

Neo Yokio is available to stream on Netflix. All at once. Stay tuned for the new Vampire Weekend album. <\/i><\/span><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section>","video":null,"gallery":null,"extra_fields":"[{\"id\":\"13\",\"value\":\"You probably know by now that Ezra Koenig is the hyper-literate lead singer of Vampire Weekend, one of the most critically-acclaimed American bands of the 21st century. On the band\\u2019s last tour, Ezra came up with the idea for a Japanese anime-style vision of New York City, cast with A-list actors and designed by a team of Japanese production artists and Korean animators. The end result, Neo Yokio, was released as a series on Netflix this fall, co-written with Adult Swim alum Nick Weidenfeld, featuring the creative narrative touches that Ezra is known for with his band. 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yokio","published":"1","link":"\/tag\/neo-yokio\/"},{"id":"23101","name":"ezra koenig","published":"1","link":"\/tag\/ezra-koenig\/"},{"id":"23110","name":"jaden smith","published":"1","link":"\/tag\/jaden-smith\/"},{"id":"735","name":"design","published":"1","link":"\/design\/"},{"id":"574","name":"animation","published":"1","link":"\/tag\/animation\/"}],"imageXSmall":"\/media\/k2\/items\/cache\/2b22ce4019eed26453e9828d9d075563_XS.jpg?t=1509661838","imageSmall":"\/media\/k2\/items\/cache\/2b22ce4019eed26453e9828d9d075563_S.jpg?t=1509661838","imageMedium":"\/media\/k2\/items\/cache\/2b22ce4019eed26453e9828d9d075563_M.jpg?t=1509661838","imageLarge":"\/media\/k2\/items\/cache\/2b22ce4019eed26453e9828d9d075563_L.jpg?t=1509661838","imageXLarge":"\/media\/k2\/items\/cache\/2b22ce4019eed26453e9828d9d075563_XL.jpg?t=1509661838","imageGeneric":"\/media\/k2\/items\/cache\/2b22ce4019eed26453e9828d9d075563_Generic.jpg?t=1509661838","cleanTitle":"Neo Yokio: Ezra Koenig's Fabulous Adventure Into Anime","numOfComments":"0","text":"You probably know by now that Ezra Koenig is the hyper-literate lead singer of Vampire Weekend, one of the most critically-acclaimed American bands of the 21st century. On the band\u2019s last tour, Ezra came up with the idea for a Japanese anime-style vision of New York City, cast with A-list actors and designed by a team of Japanese production artists and Korean animators. The end result, Neo Yokio, was released as a series on Netflix this fall, co-written with Adult Swim alum Nick Weidenfeld, featuring the creative narrative touches that Ezra is known for with his band. 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 For the new video for their Hot Thoughts<\/em><\/a> album track, \"Do I Have to Talk You Into It,\" Spoon frontman Britt Daniel gets photoshopped over and over in this Brook Linder directed short. As Britt Daniel noted in the video's press release, \"We did the research, and it turns out 80 percent of our fan base is composed of graphic designers. This one\u2019s for y\u2019all.\" 

Read our recent interview with Britt and Spoon about the making of their album art for Hot Thougths.<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>","video":"