Bam Sickos Art interview (july 2014)

1.Hello there Bam, hows life treating you now?

Hi, Joey. Life is good. I'm expecting my first child here in the Philippines, hopefully I'll be a father this year so yeah ... everything is great!

2.How did you get into arts / drawing? can you share a little story about it?

Well, I've been drawing since I was a kid. It's what I love to do. I Learned from album cover arts and comic books. I have many friends from all over the world Because of my drawings. Passion is the reason. I will never stop drawing.

3 What mostly push you to do your artworks? Influences? Thats artist inspires you a lot?

Doing art is like a therapy for me. I need it to make me feel alive. For the main influences is skulls and ganja and the symbol of eight (star of chaos). I'm obsessed with skulls and ganja. For me Skulls represent life and death while ganja represents wisdom. Symbol of eight or star of chaos have important meaning to me, it represents endless possibilities ... I have tattoos of that symbol. I'm inspired by many artists ... well ... I actually ripped off their style to create mine haha. Some of the artists that have influenced or inspired me are: Pushead, Sugi, Shunsuke Shimizu. From Indonesia: Didi Painsugar, Arian13, Moorg, Tremor. From Pinas: Lester "Tenga" Ronquillo, Nicol Messina, England Hidalgo ... damn, I can continue forever haha

4 Hows the process when dealing with your bands? Do you always ask their ideas for the artwork They wanted to be done? Any special technique sick when your doing your art?

Sometimes I'm the one who contacts the band and offering Them artwork. Music is a major Influence to my drawing process. I always listen to music when drawing so I just make artwork for bands that I like .. Yes, sometimes I got the request from the band and Usually I ask what do They have in mind but most of the time I'd just make artwork and tell the band "use it if you like it, ignore it if you do not". For example, the t-shirt graphic I made for MASS Separation (Malaysia), it has ganja and the band asked me to remove the ganja part, I Refused and They ended up printing the t-shirt with my artwork with ganja on it hahaha . It's good to know that people appreciate my works ... some of them have been kind enough to pay me. No special technique ... the technique that I used is Called stippling.  

5 How can you define your art compare to others? can tell us more about your style in drawing?

I never compare my work with others'. What I do is compare my new art with the old ones ... the new one has to be better. I'm more into traditional art. I learn from artists that I have mentioned before. Most of my works were created by arranging lines and dots on a piece of paper.

6 You been in the Philippines quite far now? Hows your observation about the scene here compare and grindcrust on indonesia?

Yes. I've been here for almost 4 years. I'm sorry that I still can not speak in Tagalog but I do understand a bit so the taxi drivers here will not be able to rip me off haha. I've been here long enough so I'm more familiar with the local scene. Everything is great. I love the local scene. Solid scene, cool people but unfortunately we need to communicate with DIY scenes from other parts of the world more intensively so the world will be is properly informed about is what's going on here Because as you can see, we've been ignored by many touring bands for no reason. Fuck touring bands who visited south east Asia without Even bother to try to contact us here in the Philippines. I'm not going to compare the local scene with Indonesian scene. Indonesia is crazy. We have gargantuan scene there ... and it is very active and alive.

7 Any new projects currently working on?

No. I'm busy with my day jobs and preparing things to welcome my child but I would like you to know that I have a record label Called Sickos Records. I have released an Indonesian D-crust band KONTRASOSIAL "Vol.4" on cassette. It's a co-release with Delusion Of Terror Records. Hopefully the cassettes will arrive in the Philippines by August or September this year and we're planning to bring the band to Pinas' soil.

8 Your goal?

This world is a very depressing place. What I can feel now is the absence of empathy, absence of respect and absence of tolerance Toward each other Which leads me to have a very simple goal in life ... to be a kind person. That's all.

9 thnx alot Bam. Anything you want to say / comments / shouts / contacts?

Thank you, Joey. I feel honored. Barbaric excuse my English. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say. Good luck with I Am Molotov zine.
Cheers to: My wife, Flowergrave Collective, Ethnic Bandit, Emman jap nazi bastard (Delusion Of Terror Records), Noel (Mutilated Noise Records), Jamie (Guttural Sickness Zine and Splatter Clothing and his disgusting bands ), Alvin (Insane Bazooka / One-A Records), Joe Kidd, Global diy conspiracy and all my families and friends everywhere. Stay true and never wimp out! Get fuckin 'stoned! hehe

Contact: bamsickos78@yahoo.com

Feel free to visit the User is User is following links:

https://www.facebook.com/BamSickosArt

https://matidirajam.blogspot.com