A conversation with artist and designer -
Andy McAlpine
LEIDEN | THE NETHERLANDS
This being our first article back after a long hiatus, we felt like we needed someone special. Someone the world doesn't really know about, but is making amazing stuff.
We searched far and wide (alright not really but we did put in a bit of effort) and then discovered this special someone was sitting under our noses all along. He's a good friend of ours, and he lives not too far away, so even with our sad budgets we could still go ahead and interview him. Also, being a friend of ours we could take our time with the photographs, fumble our way through the questions, try and remember how we did it six years ago.
Yeah, six blimming years since we had our two fun exhibitions in Mumbai and Delhi. Six years since Covid came along and punched us in the face. We thought we'd be back up and running after the pandemic, but then we were hit with a bout of lethargy so severe, it was more debilitating than the blessed virus.
You'll be pleased to know we've shrugged off the malaise, and are back to our sprightly selves. Just one meeting with someone as inspiring as Andy and we've got our mojo back.
Andy's style is very DIY, and you can see traces of it all over the apartment. Cut up strips of paper and scribbled on pages lie strewn everywhere. A giant photocopy machine stands proudly in his living room, boasting about how often Andy uses it.
So Andy.
Andy lives in Leiden, which is a short, pleasant train ride from Amsterdam. We jump on the train, all loaded with cameras and flashes, way more than when we were last doing this thingy.
Andy takes us on a short tour of Leiden. It's so laid back it makes Amsterdam look like a megacity.
Andy's got a cute, cosy pad that he lives and works out of. Living in Leiden allows him to pursue his passion for designing music posters and album covers, while eking out a living to care for his daughter with gigs in advertising.
He tells us he developed his style way back when he was in Canberra. Andy was into music, big time. He hung out with the bands, went to the gigs, and really felt part of the community. But he couldn't play an instrument for shit. So he found another way to be part of the movement: Making logos for bands, and designing their music posters.
"These bands were very DIY. The whole idea was to put up a gig with whatever you had available," he tells us, "And so I adapted the same philosophy. Lots of photocopying stuff. Cutting it out roughly. Sticking it together. A very hands-on approach."
Word spread and soon more and more bands were asking him to help out with their marketing paraphernalia.
He shows us his collection of black gold. Album covers he's designed over the years. Tonnes and tonnes of them, all amazing. Being vinyl junkies ourselves, this is the favourite part of our time there.
A few bands have grown with Andy, going on to become reasonably famous, so they can afford to pay him more these days. Not enough to quit advertising for good, but enough to let him be more selective about the gigs he takes up.
He tells us he has two minds: One that obsesses over the music bits, and the other that stays focussed on the advertising design side of things. The designer needs a brief, whereas the artist makes his own brief.
He loves being a studio rat, right at the end of the food chain, locked up in his cave making things amazing.
Andy's doing more commercial projects these days. Like assisting on the set design for artists like Miley Cyrus, Dua Lipa and Olivia Rodrigo. Or creating tee graphics for the wardrobe department on a major Hollywood film. It's a long way from the gritty hip-hop and punk posters where he earned his stripes.
He's trying to do more art for art's sake, and has a few projects he's been working on for some time now.
His apartment is a beautiful mix of his punk posters and his daughter's drawings and photographs. Cute puppy drawings sit amongst the skulls and gristly type. Reminds us of this amazing documentary we watched recently called The Other F-word, the F standing for Fatherhood. It's a doco on punk rockers that have become dads, and how they manage it while still pursuing their crazy passion for punk rock. Worth checking out, it'll have you welling up with tears at points.
We meet Andy's daughter, and then it's time to head. He quickly shows us an amazing castle lookout and walks us back to the train station.
Thanks Andy. Just the shot in the arm we needed. It's always inspiring to meet anyone that pursues their passion passionately, and there are few that do it as passionately as Andy.
