Culture

Andy Baker

Posted by Sigrun × July 9, 2012 at 11:49 am

‘Ghostface/ Nas’ 2012

“When you’re younger you just want to make things that are fun and maybe not think about the meaning so much. But I think as you get older you want to comment more on what’s going on around you. I remember being taught that as an artist you have a lot of power and you should use this to say what you want to say.” True words by Andy Baker, a London based animator and illustrator that I discovered when watching the awesome music video of Society – ‘All that we’ve become’…

Hi Andy, thanks for your time. How are you?

Hi C-Heads. I am working away trying to get lots of things finished but all is good.

Can you tell our readers a little bit about you?

I am a 25-year-old animator and illustrator and I live in London. I also work as part of the art collective ‘This Is It’

We love your latest work, the music video for Society – ‘All that we’ve become’. How long did it take you to do this?

The overall process of the video took maybe two months or so from pitch to the final video you see now. However production time was around a month of evenings and weekends as I had another job in the day animating in Soho. It was pretty tough juggling both jobs and a personal life and trying not to make my girlfriend hate me. I think all worked out in the end though!

Did the band give you some guidelines of what they wanted or they gave you free rein to do whatever you wanted?

Visually the concept was an idea I had had in my head for a while. I had done a test of the girl playing the record and really liked how it came out, and came up with a loose story for a film I was going to make. When the opportunity to make the music video came up and I heard the song I thought the two could really work together. The band then wrote a really loose storyline and we went from there. We worked together at all stages to get something that everyone was happy with, it was quite a joint effort from everyone involved.

What or who inspires you?

I take a lot of inspiration from everything around me but music inspires a lot of what I do. It plays such a big part of how I work and I have a lot of songs that help me find ideas or get me up for working when I’m maybe not feeling it so much. I grew up skateboarding and I still have a few old skate videos that I put on in the background when I’m working and there’s some songs on those that got me into music in the first place and those songs as well as the sunny American spots always get you inspired! In the same way I’m also really inspired by a lot of American artists and skateboarding art. People like Margaret Kilgallen and Ed Templeton really stick out. I look at the internet a lot for inspiration in day-to-day work and I think we’re so lucky to have that as a tool for work too.

Is your work meant to be critical of society?

I think it’s quite hard not to be critical of parts of society when you work, especially at the moment. I remember being taught that as an artist you have a lot of power and you should use this to say what you want to say. This is easier said than done, and some people may disagree, but I think there’s a lot of truth in that. When you’re younger you just want to make things that are fun and maybe not think about the meaning so much. But I think as you get older you want to comment more on what’s going on around you. Even if you just want to say ‘it’s all bullshit’ or you want to have a really meaningful point, I think you start to want to get this across more. It’s something that I’d like to get across more too I think in future projects.

Where do you see yourself in a few years?

Hopefully in the same position! I’ve been lucky this year to work on lot’s of things that I’ve really enjoyed so if that can continue then that would be great.

5 things you cannot live without?

a shower, my eyes, notebook and a pen, running shoes, my girlfriend

The most important thing in life is?

making mistakes ( and learning from them)

www.andy-baker.com
www.andy-baker.tumblr.com