A while back I had the opportunity to interview the one and only Horsebites. For those who don't know him he is one of the raddest artists out there. We've been lucky enough to work with him over the last couple of months, collaborating two of the sickest designs yet for our first release of Skeg. Bottom-line this guy rules and I would love to work with him in the future. Read on for the interview and some sneak peeks!

I hope you know what you’re in for this interview, so how did the name Horsebites come into play? To me it sounds like some gnarly cereal from the 80’s, what do you think?

The name HORSEBITES actually came from a Southern California punk band called D.I. because they had an album called Horse Bites Dog Cries. I was obsessed with this band so I named my email after the email. Then I started doing some design jobs for All American Rejects and their merch manager at the time started calling me HORSEBITES because he didn't remember my real name. I liked the way it sounded and it also had a story behind so I stuck with it and started a legit design company after that. 

I could only wish there was cereal with my name on it. The only thing I could imagine it tasting like would be Grape Nuts though.

Well put it definitely wouldn't be the greatest tasting cereal. Now I hear you grew up in Orlando, FL, right? What’s it like growing up with Disney World so close, has it made any impact on your work as an artist?

Yup, I grew up under the shadow of the Mouse. I actually love Orlando. A lot of people talk shit about it but don't do anything about it. I'm perfectly content with it and my tight group of friends. I loved going to Disney when I was a kid and loved the movies even more. I also thought it was so cool that it was only 20 min away from my house when so many people around the world would travel so far just for a quick visit.

I know that Walt Disney's illustrations and animations have made a huge impact on my work. I always admired movies like Snow White and Alice in Wonderland for having such detailed and well crafted backgrounds in all the scenes. The lines were always so perfect in all the movies too, this really attracted me to drawing.

I’m definitely envious that you had the opportunity to grow up so close to Disney World it’s like the dream place to live for a 12yr old. So what got you into the illustration scene? Did you ever attend uni to become qualified as an artist/illustrator or did it just happen, it’s not the everyday job.

I actually got in to the illustration scene by force. I was a pizza delivery boy for almost 10 years and really had no confidence on ever doing art for a living. I started doing work for my own band then other bigger bands liked what I was doing and made do work for them. I was really pressured in to it because I was scared shit less of computers because I never worked on them before. Everything was done by hand. I was going to school at the time and taking art classes like painting and drawing but not because I thought I would do that for a living, I only did it because I was the best at that than other subjects.

After I did a few shirt designs with the little knowledge I knew in Photoshop I got advice from my friend who worked at Fueled By Ramen at the time and told me I needed to learn Illustrator because it was better for shirt designs. I took his advice and attended a class about the program and left for tour. I never came back to school or my pizza job after that. I really don't know where most people get off thinking they can just be a designer on the drop of a hat or start some clothing line and become recognized or profit off of it immediately.

It blows my mind why most younger people think like that. It takes a lot of time and you have to have talent and extreme patience for this kind of stuff if you wanna stay afloat. I'm super grateful for this position and I know that it could end at anytime so I'm enjoying it as much as I can.

That's a pretty crazy story, to think you were a pizza boy for ten years? Let’s talk food, you constantly post pics of it on your blog, any relevance this has to your artwork?

Alright, now you're talking. No relevance to my artwork at all. I've always had a passion for food. When I was 17 I weighed 204lbs and I was only 5 feet 2 inches tall! I'm 6 foot and 175lbs now for some strange reason. People would make fun of me because I looked like a little round mexican girl but I didn't give two shits. I just wanted food! I know that anyone can relate to food so I post pics of it so they can share the joy of eating with me. Well, visually at least. It's art in itself!!

What else inspires you to come up with your crazy illustrations, ever been a fan of those old-school horror films such as Friday the 13^th and Halloween?

I'm really inspired by artists such as Ed Roth, Jim Phillips, Robert Williams, Camille Rose Garcia, Walt Disney, Pushead and some others. There's also a few up and comers that I admire. I always enjoyed horror films but I don't think I was that inspired by them that much.

What about the skate scene of today ever had an interest in it?

Not really, I kind of left my interest in skating from when I was younger. It seemed way cooler back then and graphically at least it was a million times better. Most of the art done on decks is so stale and stagnant nowadays. Even when I was a kid new shapes and printing techniques we're being discovered and tried out so I feel like that was a way more interesting and revolutionary time for the skate industry.

Yeah I’m a massive sucker for the old-school artwork from back in the day. So how do you keep ahead of trends and styles in the design world?

I'm not sure really. I mainly just try to focus on forever evolving my style and trying to be ahead of myself. I feel it's the only way to keep it fresh for myself and others. I try not to let too many other trends influence my style.

What are your thoughts on people ripping other people’s artwork or styles in the design world? Have you ever dealt with people ripping your own work considering you’re pretty well known throughout the web?

I've seen it so much lately that it just gets really old really quick. Of course it's wrong but no matter how much you make a stink about it someone else is doing it even more than the last. I think that if you're good then people will know it's your work and can see the fakers right away. I've had a few people rip off my work and I've dealt with them in a professional manner by contacting them personally and it usually ends the problem right there.

Yeah well put, people today are becoming less and less creative to the point where they just copy other people’s artwork. Anyway enough of the ripping what’s it like being a part of The Black Axe now many positives?

It's been a life saver no doubt. I was feeling very stagnant for a while before we started up the AXE. It's such an amazing feeling being able to work with people I look up to and respect. I can hand off a drawing and someone else can add their style and it usually comes out looking way better than I thought it would. It also increases our work greatly. We have so much potential to take on bigger jobs and projects now with all of our talents put together. We're also branching off and doing smaller companies like CrispyTees.com and a few others that I can't talk about at the moment so that keeps everything interesting and on my toes. 

Yep The Black Axe is taking over, now correct me if I’m wrong you’re in a band right? What’s that like, living the life of a rockstar yet?

Yeah I'm actually in three bands, Gatorface, No Friends and None More Black. I've been playing music for a long time now so it just feels normal to be in a band and have a musical outlet. It's nothing close to "rockstar" or will it ever be. These are bands are just for fun and not to "make it". That's why I like them so much and that's the only reason I can do them. We hardly go on tour and really just play shows when we want to and when we know they will be fun.

 What are you listening to at the moment?

I'm actually listening to the Ventures, Mariachi El Bronx, some ragtime and 50's rockabilly. I haven't really been listening to punk stuff lately because I got pretty jaded on it. Besides, the state of punk today is mostly watered down boring crap. Every now and then something will show up on my door step and surprise but for now I'm digging way deeper to find more interesting things.

Yeah I can definitely understand, punk today sure does lack what it had... Your design process, give us a brief rundown of how you go about it – describe your setup, music you listen to etc...

Well, it's actually really simple I guess. I usually put on a record or listen to my iPod with my headphones and dive right in to the drawing process. I make small little sketch of what I'm roughly thinking of for the idea of the layout and then I start drawing it piece by piece. After I feel that I've made it detailed enough with pencil I go over it with pens and then erase the pencil marks when that's done and dry.

Then I scan it and make it crisp black and white lines in Photoshop. After that it's imported in to Flash where I make it vector and it's ready to be opened and coloured in Illustrator. This is where I make all the final touches with placement, colours, textures, separations and anything else to make it complete. Finally I collect the money and stuff my face with burritos.

Top 5 upcoming artists you think everyone should check out?

At the top of the list it would have to be Chad Lenjer aka Discordant Art. I got a chance to meet him a couple days and was blown away by his original drawings. Absolutely incredible especially for someone as young as him. I can see him doing great things in the near future and setting fires in his visually apocalyptic path of destruction. Other artists that I think other people should check out would be Vania Zouravliov, John Dyer Baizley, Charles Glaubitz and Ben Frost.

Any last words, shout outs, mentions?

Where's the beef?