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Street Scene: A New Dimension / Damon Locks

Damon Locks is a man of multifaceted talents. In addition to being a musician and the lead singer of ‘The Eternals,’ he is a gifted visual artist. He has touched modern culture in many areas, having worked in so many places and leaving his imprint behind. We were first introduced to the art that Damon had put into the world from the album cover work he has done for many bands and artists in his career. His cover work for the new Andrew Bird record Break It Yourself displays his stunning usage of landscapes and people that runs in many of his works. Originating from the east coast with his roots planted firmly in Chicago, he has happily made a living in the Midwest for most of his life. From the early ties in the punk rock scene to funk, rock and jazz, the creative transition between making music and art is virtually nonexistent and both mediums flow naturally to us in the works we have encountered from Locks. Damon’s art is a reflection of the life around him. What he sees, hears, touches and imagines leaves a unique mark on his works that has inspired us for years. Damon has been working hard for well over a decade to present more art shows in his career and the pieces we are presenting with this Creator Wave online art gallery posting come from a recent show he has on display in Chicago at ESS’ Audible Gallery. Please enjoy this exclusive interview and online art gallery posting with Damon Locks at Sound Colour Vibration.

Damon Locks exclusive interview with SCV

Conducted by Michele Lin

damonlocks.com

SCV: You are a Chicago-based artist, musician, lead singer of ‘The Eternals’, curator and journalist.  What are some special skills and talents that I may have missed?

Damon Locks: Hmm…I make a delicious non-traditional rice pudding. I am a deejay. I am also the vocalist in a jazz group called Exploding Star Orchestra. Oh…and I can cut hair.

Damon Locks: Everything inspires my art. The excitement of possibility gets filtered through the mediums most suitable. So, if I see a great film or have a great conversation, if I am on the C train in NYC people watching or listening to a Daphne Oram reissue, it helps me make art. I often don’t know what I will do ahead of time; I just have to let the image dictate the final outcome. I have to let the art reveal itself. The more I focus on making art, the more I want to do it. The more it feels like it needs to be done. It feels completely necessary to my well being. 

Damon Locks: Well, what we put up and what we take down tells about our intentions and our needs. A city street tells a larger story about us than one person can say. A city skyline is another conversation entirely. I love people and at the same time, I can’t stand most people. I want us to be better at being a community. I want us to care about what we create. Buildings show us how much we care and don’t care. They show how we live and how we shelter ourselves from the elements and how we block each other out. Buildings show how we cover things up yet they reveal so much.

SCV: Thank you, that was beautifully said. To be a musician, as well as a visual artist is quite a feat.  How do the two mediums intertwine in terms of your creative process?

Damon Locks: As a guy in a band, I am used to making decisions about the trajectory of the band…shows we will or will not play. We make decisions about what songs to put out and where to tour. I have learned from being in a band that you control how people view your band/music. You create the context from which people form an opinion about what the band is about. In many ways, the band itself creates its audience. The band has an identity outside of the individual members. As a visual artist there is also a perceived identity outside of who you actually are based on the decisions you make. The decisions you make in terms of medium, subject matter, venue, etc create the perception of who you are as an artist and creates your trajectory.

Damon Locks: Literally…Street and Gangland Rhythms, Beats and Improvisations by Six Boys in Trouble (an Old Smithsonian Folkways Recording). I listened to my cassette of that tonight. In the last couple weeks, the two most recent Erykah Badu records. 

SCV: You said that you derive inspiration from books.  What are your most inspiring works of literature? 

SCV: Great!  And what are you reading now? 

SCV: Ok, this is a random, but very important question.  What is your ideal breakfast?  

Damon Locks: My homemade oatmeal with Scottish stone ground oats with raisins (if you salt it just right, you don’t need brown sugar nor maple syrup) was once my ideal. Now, I like to start with a cup of herbal tea and I normally have an apple or banana with that. An English muffin buttered with some jam compliments a cup of tea nicely, but that is a rare occasion.

SCV: Yum! How has living in Chicago influenced you as a person and artist?

SCV: I really like that last metaphor about throwing weight around.  That’s really great.  San Francisco, where I’m from, is a lot like that too. It’s literally engineered to be a place to work, play, rest and be constantly inspired by the life around you.  It’s a magnificent balance. So you’re from the East Coast originally.  What brought you to Chicago and what about the city makes you stay?

Damon Locks: I have a show up right now at the Experimental Sound Studio here in Chicago for which I produced 8 new prints; some digital some silk-screen some Xerox. I had my hand in helping to create an experimental animated piece for this show that came out great! It is not my animation but it was a thrill to work with such a talented team on that piece.

Terri Kapsalis and I were commissioned to create pieces responding to ESS’ archive of Sun Ra tapes. In lieu of solo work, we up and invited The Eternals’ Wayne Montana and animator Rob Shaw to collaborate on this 18 minute video.  Throughout the process, I have been working on a new series of related prints that will be on display in ESS’ Audible Gallery through April 4 which are the prints that we are including for this online art gallery posting with you.

Coming up: an online show that will later be a real world show called Desaturate. It is the second in a series where several screen printers were asked to do five prints, not using color. It’s a great line up of really talented people. The artists are from Chicago and Madison. It will be up on the Red Rocket gallery site and up on walls at the Living Room gallery in Chicago during the Fall. The living room show might get pushed back though.

I am contributing to another show at Living Room that is being put together by designer, Eve Fineman, entitled “Objects in Space” (opens June 22nd). There will be a ton of great furniture, textiles, artwork and accessories included in this show celebrating art and design from a Chicago point of view. Wayne and I (The Eternals) are working on a couple songs that we will perform for the project “Crime, USA: Hartford” at the end of March in Hartford Conn.

I think that is everything! Thanks for listening.

SCV: Thank you, Damon!

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Creator Wave Volume 39: Damon Locks / damonlocks.com

Damon Locks / The Station

Damon Locks / Wings for Young Listeners

Damon Locks / Portrait of Futureness

Damon Locks / Xeroxes

Damon Locks / The Moon

Damon Locks / Unknown to Some

Damon Locks / The Sun

Damon Locks / Noon Moon

To see the pieces presented here in the incredible exhibit Damon is a part of with Experimental Sound Studio, check out the info below or click on the link for all the details.

Electronic Sound Studio (Chicago, IL)

Animated video by The Eternals, Terri Kapsalis & Rob Shaw
Prints by Damon Locks
Opening on Saturday, February 4, 2012, 7:00-9:00pm
Screenings of the animation at 7:30 & 8:30

EXHIBITION HOURS:
02.04.12–04.04.12
Saturdays & Sundays, 1:00pm-5:00pm, or by appointment

ps…

At The Drive-In's "Relationship of Command" cover by Damon Locks

SCV: Relationship of Command from At The Drive-In was a record that had a huge impact on me when I first heard it in high school so I had to ask, how was the process of designing that cover for you?

Damon Locks: My old band Trenchmouth played with At the Drive-In their early days. I believe it was in El Paso, pre-Omar even (I still have the seven inch I got at that show, Hell Paso). They were a really cool band. Great energy and they seemed to really like Trenchmouth. As they got more popular, we would always hear word about how they gave props to Trenchmouth. I think Trenchmouth was a influence over the early Defacto recordings they did. Anyway, I was asked by Thick Records to do a picture disc split 7″ for Burning Airlines and At the Drive-In. I had designed the Trenchmouth artwork/t-shirts/record covers etc but I had no computer skills at the time. So I just did my best to imagine layering images in my head and picking colors. Well, the 7″ came out pretty well. I think this put the idea in their minds to get me to do the artwork. The mighty Jason Farrell did the actual design work on the record. I think he told me what they were looking for image-wise. He did the layout and the type etc. I just did the artwork. He created the look and placed everything. That was totally cool with me because I had not developed that skill yet. It took me months to gather the ideas for a Trenchmouth record cover. I drew the art for Relationship of Command and mailed it of to Jason and he put it all together.

I still get random emails about that record cover. Most people want to see the rest of the Trojan Horse because they want to get a tattoo of it. There is no bottom half of the horse.