JOE BANDA INTERVIEW

Skateboards! Art! Algebra Books! and a Rad Community Skatepark called The Market Skatepark! All Will Be Revealed in This Interview With Artist Joe Banda! See His Work HERE!

First off: Who are you? Where do you come from? and What are you doing?

Well, my name is Joe Banda, but most people just call me by my last name. 

I was born and raised in Bristol Connecticut, and after a couple years in Delaware 

I've been living in Beverly Massachusetts. As for what I am doing, I guess I'd say I'm

an artist by morning, an HVLP spray painter by afternoon, and a doodler by night.

How did you get into skateboarding? What's the connection to your art?

I first got into skateboarding around 1999 or 2000, I randomly happened to watch Tony Hawk

land the 900 on the X-Games and I remember thinking it was pretty cool how all of his

"competitors" were cheering him on and being supportive rather than rooting against him.

At that time I was playing a lot of baseball and basketball, and the amount

of competition and negative energy was super stressful, especially when you're a kid 

and all you want to do is play a game. I'd say around mid 2000 I finally got a crappy 

Toys 'R Us board and 2 of my best friends growing up

got boards too, and after that I never really stopped.

      Skateboarding connected me to art pretty quickly. I was always doodling

but never really took it seriously. I think when I was 14 or 15 I saw segment

about Chris Pastras, and his paintings. He was talking about the first run

Stereo Skateboards had (before they came back) and I was so blown away.

I thought the whole aesthetic they had was amazing, I really liked how

his work was inspired by Jazz album art, and I really related to that because

of how loose, and scribbly everything looked. In addition to that I always liked

Ed Templeton's work too, I think I saw a segment on his art in either a 411 or an 

ON video, where he was doing an art show in paris. And he just had this massive

collection of paintings for the show. They showed a time lapse of him painting

the walls of the gallery, he made it look so easy and beautiful. After that I really wanted

to learn how to paint.

Your paintings have a great sense of humor, like these folk art treatments of some real funny hallucinatory ideas, what kind of subconscious waters do these ideas bubble up from?

I think I've always leaned toward trying to make my art humorous. I think it all stems

from being in high school, where my friend Alex was a master doodler. He was the king

of drawing really weird funny images. We had a similar sense of humor, so I always

wanted to try to draw weird funny things to show him, basically just to make him laugh.

So when Alex or my other friend Jesse would get a good laugh out of something I drew

I felt like it was a good piece of art. So I feel like I'm basically doing the same thing now,

except I prefer to use acryla gouache on wood, instead of ball point pen on Algebra 1 books.

Do you remember your first skateboard deck?

My first couple boards were those really horrible "fake" skateboards you'd get from

K-Mart, or a toy store, with plastic trucks and wheels. My first real deck was a Birdhouse

Tony Hawk Pterodactyl skull. I actually just saw one hanging on the wall

at Red Alert skatepark in Dover, New Hampshire a couple weeks ago. It was pretty

cool seeing it, I definitely had a rush of memories come to me just seeing that graphic.

What are your artistic influences?

I've had so many artistic influences over the years that its hard to narrow down. Other than the

guys I mentioned earlier, I'd say Graham Roumieu made a huge impact on me as an illustrator. 

He is a master of humorous illustration, I remember getting one of his big foot books

when I was 19 and laughing so hard at every page, I'd never seen anything like it before.

Other than that I'd say my circle of friends are all really incredibly talented artists, and I'm

always inspired when I see the stuff they're doing. 

What are your skating influences?

As for skating my biggest inspiration is my friends. It's always been kind of a social thing

for me so I hate skating alone. Growing up I was lucky to have a solid crew of guys to skate 

with back in Connecticut, and now living in Massachusetts I have another really solid crew

to skate with too. There's nothing as motivating as a heated session with your best friends.

Do you listen to anything when you paint or draw?

When I'm painting or drawing my go to is usually Marc Maron's podcast WTF. I kind

of like being entertained when I work, so if I'm not listening to a podcast I usually go for stand-up comedy.

Lately I've been listening to a lot of Todd Barry, Eugene Mirman, and Wyatt Cenac. 

As for music, as of right now I've been into Titus Andronicus, Pile, the Clash, and Velvet Underground.

Tell us about the market skatepark. Is it fun for all? Does it have a good vibe? Who's involved? What are the hours?

The Market Skatepark was a pretty far out idea that actual came to be something. It's a pretty long story

but I'll try to keep it short. There had been a vacant grocery store in downtown Beverly for about 6 years.

My good friend Jake "Bo Vice" White and his brother Nick "Bro Vice" White both had expressed interest

in opening a skatepark, but it never really seemed like it was going to happen. One day our friend J Rodricks

,owner of North of Boston Studios, came at Bo Vice with the idea of maybe getting some ramps into the abandoned

grocery store. Kind of like a pop up indoor skatepark. Long story short a group of us met with the land lord

of the grocery store, and surprisingly he was really open to the idea. Under a few conditions (insurance, utilities, cheap rent)

and a couple months later we finally got the keys to the building. The whole experience was trippy because we needed

$5,000 to get started so we made a go fund me page, and we raised the money in less than a week. In addition

to support from the community Converse wanted to help us out too, which really helped us take the park to the next level.

 It was surreal, we couldn't believe how psyched, and supportive the community was for the project. 

    When we finally got the keys

it was the first night of the first (of 3) blizzard(s) the North Shore got that year. When we started we had a few 

ramps donated by North of Boston Studios. Then for the next month the Brothers Vice built all the ramps 

and renovated this really run down building, while Jake Cassavoy handled pretty much everything having to do with money, 

insurance, public relations and so on. I think it was early February when we finally opened, and the park

was absolutely packed. It lasted until the end of April when our lease ended, but during those 2 months 

we had so many cool people visit from all over New England, we had a really cool flea market called "odd farm",

and we hosted Converse's CONS project, where Paul Shcmidt and Todd Francis, flew out here to teach and

help kids shape and create their own custom skate decks, for free. 

   As of right now all of the ramps are in storage, we've been looking for a new locations but we've been having

a really hard time. Surprisingly not everyone in the area wants a skatepark on their property, and it seems like 

the landlords that actually want to talk to us, are kind of shady, untrustworthy people. We're trying to stay positive 

though, and we're really hoping to find a permanent location before the end of the year so we can be open for winter again.

    Also as a quick side note I just want to thank Nick White, Jake White, and Jake Cassavoy for killing it so hard

on this project, I feel super lucky and appreciative to be involved in the whole experience. I also want to mention

Kevin Quinn for doing all of our welding, Brian Glenney (and family) for helping us getting in the space, J Rodricks for

keeping us motivated, Kevin Leslie for helping us connect with Converse while also helping out at the park, Joe Lydon (stega clothes)

for painting the coolest mural ever on our wall, Amy Moore for working the counter when the rest of us wanted to skate,

and also Daijel White, Alex Martyn, and Jason Ross for helping us clean and cover the odds and ends of our park. There are

a million other people who helped out also and I'm sorry if I forgot your name but I honestly do appreciate any one and

everyone who helped out or donated.

What is Dead and Ugly?

Dead and Ugly originally started out as a band I was in with my friend Zac Goldstein. We never recorded anything or played

any shows, but I always liked the name. A couple years later when I finally made an instagram I thought I should use it as my handle.

When I decided to try to make a zine I thought it would make the most sense to just call it Dead and Ugly, and when I wanted 

to print shirts I thought it would be cool to use it just to keep things consistent. I'd like to make more Dead and Ugly products

down the road when I get a little more money, and I really want to make another zine before the end of the year. I guess if I had

to label it as anything its a part time zine, and a half assed brand. 

Shout outs?

I'd like to thank my friends, family, ALC, SDC, Anchor Hardware, and Tent Shitty '09!!

Pick up a sweet zine or boneless t-shirt from Joe's Dead and Ugly online store!