The Capital of Cool.: SHAUN BASS X CAPITALCOOL INTERVIEW

We met up with Shaun Bass- INSPIRING Dj and designer based in london right in time to review his latest collection as well as an indepth interview.

CC: "You are a man of countless guises, ranging from being one of London’s progressive street designers to being a celebrated party thrower and dj, does that versatility clash?"

SB: Haha, thank you for the compliments.

Sometimes it feels like i have too many fingers in too many pies, that im spread a bit too thinly and that i should just concentrate on one thing, but really it is the same concepts and ideas that are the driving force behind everything that I do.

Its about mutating and distorting culture as much as possible into something that resembles the fantasy world in my head. So whilst I'm always doing and thinking about a million things at once, I dont feel like they encroach upon on eachother, because they are the same things, the parties are basically an arena for the characters whom I design clothes for, to come together and to come alive. Thats what its all about really, bringing people together to communicate with each other, I really believe that is what I'm here for. I like making connections, combining things and people in ways that have never been done before, with the aims of a positive outcome, the building of new bridges and the opening of new doors, whether thats through Art, Djing, Fashion design or even cooking dinner for my friends.

I just wish there was someone else who really saw things in the same way as me, i'm yet to meet them, because I could really do with a partner, or an assistant.

CC: What was the first thing you ever designed

SB:I can't remember the first thing I ever designed. It was so long ago and there has been so much inbetween then and now. One of my first commercial jobs after graduating from Art School was designing the Merchandise for the TAKE THAT comeback tour... I really wanted to do a big slogan Tshirt saying TOOK THAT AND PARTIED, but they wouldn't have it because of the implied drug reference, I think it was around that time that I realised that working as a commercial graphic designer wasn't for me. One of my earliest design jobs, that I am very proud of is the artwork, promotional material and Tshirt that I designed to go along with Warboys "BETWEEN THE CRACKS" party, especially at the time, when I was a real noob to the party scene in London, it was a real privilege to be in charge of the way such a cool party communicated its image to the public, still to this day i'm eternally greatful for the breaks people like Jim (Warboy) have given me, it was through that project that I came to the attention of Rhyss and Gareth at Long Clothing, where I have worked at as a designer for around 3 years now.

CC: How did your collaboration with Charles of London come about?

SB:I've been great friends with Mark and Sue for quite a few years now but mainly in the context of getting hideously drunk during the daytime at a certain bar in Shoreditch. It was at one of these drunken meetings that I raised the idea of us doing a collaboration, it took a very long time for me to actually get my act together but then when I was struck with inspiration we got too it. Both Mark, Sue and myself have the tendency to be very over the top, messy and crass with our ideas but I had a clear idea in my head that this collaboration should really challenge that by being very tidy and simple, sometimes it was hard to reign myself and Mark in as it went against my natural instincts, however I had faith in the strength of the idea and what I wanted to communicate and I think that what we ended up with is something that we can both be incredibly proud of, I love working collaboratively, especially when it throws up results that nobody would have expected and forces you to leave your comfort zone. Its been a pleasure to see peoples reactions to the project, I definitely enjoyed watching a few people eat their words when they saw how cool the outfit looked!

CC:What inspired the black military like direction for the collection?

SB: I wanted a blank canvas to express the idea as clearly as possible. Distillation of concept and the simplicity of its presentation are very important when trying to accurately communicate an idea, this is not something that comes naturally to me, however im working on it, I think I managed to do it with this collaboration and that is why it a success as both a fashion and an art piece.

CC:The collaboration is in promotion of the Olympics but unapologetically contradicts the games, what inspired the logo?

SB:I have varied feelings about the games, on one hand I feel like our government has pissed away a huge chunk on valuable tax payers money on something that really doesn't do anything to benefit the average person on the street and on the other hand I see people feeling inspired and patriotic and coming together, which is never a bad thing. Whilst my personal stance on the Olympics is a negative one, many people around me have a completely different perspective on things, so rather then designing an obvious, crass and outspoken attack on the Olympics (something that has been done quite a lot recently), I deliberately chose to create something ambiguous, I want my work to raise questions and promote thought and discussion, not to just clumsily push my own opinions on others. Whilst being subversive, I think the message communicated can be taken as negative or positive and all about being proud to be a Londoner all at once.

CC:The collaboration is in promotion of the Olympics but unapologetically contradicts the games, what inspired the logo?
SB:I have varied feelings about the games, on one hand I feel like our government has pissed away a huge chunk on valuable tax payers money on something that really doesn't do anything to benefit the average person on the street and on the other hand I see people feeling inspired and patriotic and coming together, which is never a bad thing. Whilst my personal stance on the Olympics is a negative one, many people around me have a completely different perspective on things, so rather then designing an obvious, crass and outspoken attack on the Olympics (something that has been done quite a lot recently), I deliberately chose to create something ambiguous, I want my work to raise

questions and promote thought and discussion, not to just clumsily push my own opinions on others. Whilst being subversive, I think the message communicated can be taken as negative or positive and all about being proud to be a Londoner all at once.

CC:Will you be attending any of the games?

SB: No, tickets were hard to come by and I'm not a massive fan of Athletics. However, I would have loved to of seen the Gymnastics, but don't tell anybody, I'll get called out for being a hypocrite.

CC:What sort of inspiration goes through your mind when you create, what provokes the process?
SB:There are so many things that inspire me, when I am designing fashion my main influences however iare the people I see on the streets in London everyday, not just the "cool", "fashionable" people whom I usually see as quite boring, insecure and conformist, but the everyday people going about their business. The best thing about london is that there are so many people with so many different cultures and languages, so many people from every part of the world all mixed up together in one place, living ontop of eachother, thats a very rare thing, i have never been to a place with as much ethnic and cultural diversity as London. The road I live on has a large Latin American, Carribean and African community and also many Indians, Vietnamese and Turkish and actually a much larger, white, working class community then many of the more gentrified "cool" areas of London. Being surrounded by these people, being privy to their culture, being able to eat their food, see how they dress, listen to their music (espcially the Latinos and Africans!) is incredibly important to me. I think that the exposure to this mix, blend and clash of ideas that has lead me to be so interested in the collage of different cultural references and esoteric symbols, constantly fucking with the context and trying to mutate and subvert everything.

CC:What sort of baddass will we see sporting this collection? Do they have to be patriots of the games?
SB:Free thinkers, with attitude and a sense of style.

CC:What´s your opinion on the military missiles placed all over council flat buildings in London?

SB:100% Fucked. If we are in that much danger during the games, then we should not be hosting them, full stop. To place missiles on top of peoples homes makes me feel like we are living in some backwards military dictatorship or a civil war, not hosting a sporting event. The government are cracking down very harshly on squatters at the moment, especially in London but I feel like London is currently being squatted by the military, Mcdonalds and various other corporations, none of whom really give a fuck about us.--------------

CC:As a designer do you think the internet and sites like tumblr and other places where people source and drench inspiration serve more as a positive or negative vice for young creative trying to make their mark?

SB:Once again I have a split opinion. On one hand it is an amazing arena for developing the visual language of niche ideas, trends and styles but on the other hand I think the "reblog" culture is the death of individuality and personal creativity. I have a tumblr, to which I post 100% self generated content, this is very rare. I think if you want to be taken seriously as an artist IRL then you need to work in the real world on real world projects, not just posting half baked photo shopped experiments and pictures of yourself on the internet.

CC:Which designers have you worked with that humbled you?

SB:Tessa Edwards (http://www.tessaedwards.co.uk/) , I worked on a video project for her, she is one of the most awesome, creative minds I have ever met, and totally lovely and really good fun!

CC:Who’s inspirations still serves as timeless?

SB:I don't have a hero.

CC:Tell us more about your destroy culture parties and your collaboration with Barcelona label W.I.A.

SB:Destroy Culture is a very small party that I run in London, the whole idea behind it was to create a party which is a social gathering for me and my crew, where we could all DJ the music we wanted to hear, which nobody else seems to be playing in London at the moment and also fuck about as much as possible (so many DJs are sooooo serious) , we were into the idea of mixing Janet Jackson into old rave records and mashing up R Kelly and Slipknot with Ragga and UK Garage and then doing a pull up, drunkenly chatting on the mic and then dropping some random Pop song, etc etc, we have been banned from quite a few venues, but we have fun.

CC: If the raaja was coming for us and the end of the world was nearing, and you had one wish(besides saving the world) what would it be?

SB:To be able to speak every language on the planet so i could just travel about the world to all the places i had ever wanted to go, and instantly just communicate with people, thats allways been my wish.

CC:If you chose to leave london where else in the world would you find yourself?

SB:Too many places jump to mind, if i was to leave the UK though I would want to go somewhere completely different, like South America or Africa, I want to experience a completely different culture rather then say, going to America or Australia where everybody still speaks english but i'm trying to think how many other places in the world can offer such ethnic diversity in such a liberal environment? I want to travel everywhere and see as many places as I can, but I am proud that London is my home.

CC:How do you stay on your grind even when obstacles and negative energies distract your future projects?

SB:I have no other option.

CC:Do you think London underground is going through a time where there is not a distinct grunge subculture and there is an underlying emergence of a mix grunge subculture?

SB:There is no cool underground movement in London at the moment, that I am aware of, in fact the whole Party scene seems the most dry and conservative i have ever seen it. Everything seems so polarised, the Gays are off being gay on their own, the arty kids are off being arty on their own, the ghetto kids are off being ghetto on their own and the Fashion kids are just being fashionable with each other somewhere I'm probably not invited too.
Now that so many new music and fashion subcultures are born and almost exclusively communicated via online communities such as Tumblr and Facebook there are less and less physical spaces where people come together for mutual enjoyment and celebration of these ideas. This is very sad. However I remain optimistic, I can't wait for the next subcultural fad to sweep me off my feet. I love shit like that, call me a hipster if you like.

CC:Besides being one of the most outstanding creative of our time where do you see yourself in the next 10 years?

SB:FUCK KNOWS.

CC:Over the years as a designer how have you progressed?

SB :Slowly but surely I am learning that less is more.

CC:Do you still fuck with your earlier desings or find them cringe?

SB:Up until the recent Charles of London collaboration ,I have never liked anything I have ever created but it feels like something inside of me has changed recently, like the last 27 years have just been practice.

CC: Is there anything else shaun bass does that we don’t know about?

SB: I cook