Exclusive Interview
a peephole into the head space of Cape Town
What is your magazine about?
It\'s a multimedia, digital magazine. We have music videos, short films, animations, street journalism, design, music and fashion. It’s an infinite format that allows us to include any digital medium we want. The idea is to promote independent unknown artists who struggle to find a voice in our commercial based publications. We refer to the artists as \'bedroom creatives\' in that most of the stuff is made on their PC\'s at home and never finds its way tot he public, which we thought was a shame because most of it is more exciting stuff than what we see in the formal publications.
Who’s behind the project? Tell us about the founders, their backgrounds and their motivations!
Project manager and creative director is Dominique Gawlwoski, me. I studied film for 5 years but was mostly into doing events and organizing teams of artists and filmmakers to get together and work and stuff. Nigel Moore is our art director and designer. He is a true genius who dedicates himself to projects that allow him the freedom to design in his own way. He designed the first two issues of ITCH art magazine which is international, but he got frustrated and left to do Sub_Urban. He designs identities for bands and companies. Shaun Smith is our programmer and makes everything work, the magazine is interactive and he is the one that designs and programs all the complex stuff. He runs a website called www.boyblack.co.za by the time he was 18 he was wearing a suit to work everyday and was in charge of a team of programmers, he evetually ran away screaming from this realizing that this wasn\'t for him. So, he left and started working on projects like Sub_Urban. Bryan Little is our head of film. He\'s one of the youngest working directors in the country, he has just sold 4 commercials to MTV and is currently shooting his 5th one with the creative director of MTV up in Africa somewhere.
How do you produce one issue? How much time do you spend on it? How big is your team?
The first issue was meant to be a showreel of all our work. We had all just finished studying (except Shaun he didn\'t need to) and so we all moved our computers into Bryan\'s kitchen and started making stuff. I wrote articles, Nigel designed and Bryan had music videos and Shaun wanted a programming challenge, so we imagined our ultimate magazine and created Sub_Urban. We released 100 copies and they sold instantly. We had no intention of doing another one until we started getting contributions from people all over the place. So we did another one it just got bigger from there. It takes us about 4 months to pull an issue together if we work consistently, but we only do it when we have the content we want. We would rather release a great issue than run ourselves dry to make a deadline. Our team is just the 4 of us. I\'ll gather the content and edit it, write the articles and administrate the production and release of the issue. Then I hand it over to Nigel who does all the design (he has it the longest) then he hands it over to Shaun who programs it. Then it comes back to me and I do the rest.
What have been the important steps in the life of your magazine?
The first issue was the most important because we did it without intention or ideas as to where it was going, so it was the most honest and free creative thing we ever did. The next issue was also a big step because this time we were uplifting artists other than ourselves and many of them have gone on to big things due to their work being exposed in our mag. The next big step was winning the Grand Prix and the Gold in the Design Indaba construction New Media awards. It gave us credibility in the local and international design world. Creative review did an article on us which would make us the first South Africans in 4 years to have that honor.
Which are the key incredients for the success of your magazine?
The key ingredients are to keep it underground in terms of its content. The moment we start producing Sub_Urbans that promote already established artists we cease to serve a function. The name of our music sections are \"The Basement\" (which is articles and interviews with unknown bands and producers) and \"Unmastered\" is our MP3 compilation of their music and \"Ruff cuts\" is our film section where you can see their music videos inevitably made by independent filmmakers. Our whole concept is interwoven with references towards the unknown, the unrefined, the real. Our journalism section is called \"No Skool\", to imply that its not new, its not old it doesn\'t belong to any specific philosophy, it\'s just the point of view of that individual.
What are the difficulties you are confronted with? What would be “the” thing to help the magazine to improve?
The difficulties for us are that we live in a country that doesn\'t really support this kind of thing. We have more support from overseas people than here. We\'ve had kids emailing us from Japan, France, Belgium and the like. The 4 of us do Sub_Urban in our spare time because we have to feed ourselves and don\'t have any financial capital to put into the mag in terms of promoting marketing it. If we could get sponsorship or any investment it would help immensely.
Where do you want the magazine to be in five years?
I want people to have the entire series on their bookshelf. Issues 1-100. We also want people to be able to stop at a vending machine with their USB portable drives and pay and download the magazine right there.
Tell us about your audience! Who are the readers of your magazine?
Ironically it’s the design and film industry people. They use it as a reference book, to see what up in the world of young design and film. It’s a peephole into the head space of Cape Town. School kids are also big fans, drawing inspiration from it to start doing their things, but also because we publish school kids work too. If its relevant anyone can go in and I think that’s the attraction.
Is remaining independent important to you? Is it part of the strategy?
We\'d like to remain independent because its ours and we don\'t want anyone else to take it, but its also important that the work gets out, its our responsibility to our contributors. So if we can no longer do it ourselves we will get the help we need to make it possible.
What’s your relationship with advertisement? Does it influence your content? Do you care about advertising-driven-editorials?
We are not against advertising, it’s a part of modern life and Sub_Urban is not about rejecting \"the corporate\". We think that’s dumb. We are about learning how to build a relationship with the corporate world and the underground world. It could be a mutually beneficial relationship. The underground will provide them with the new ideas and new material and they can aid the underground financially. We have advertising in our mag, and it looks cool. They were excited about advertising in our mag because we set them briefs, that they must do an original and exciting design that fits in with the Sub_Urban vibe. Most of them just paid us to design the ads ourselves so it was a win win situation.
Do you think that magazine readers still need to watch TV?
Yes, for the moment. Magazines can give you the highlights but not the full picture.
Which is your relationship with your printer? Does he play a main role in your development?
We don\'t have a printer, we have a CD replication guy. And yes they do because if they bollocks the job up it’s a major set back. Sub_Urban\'s programming is quite clever in that it fits an enormous amount of information on one small CD-ROM. Its difficult to get that right in the replication process because one tiny mistake ruins the whole thing.
Which magazines did influence you most? What are you looking for in other magazines?
I have never been a reader of magazines except I do like ICON, same for Bryan and Shaun. We\'ll read magazines that involve our interests which is film and for Shaun technical magazines. It\'s Nigel that’s the big magazine guy. He\'s really into Adbusters, Colors, ID, The Face.
What do you think of your issue 01, when you look back at it?
It\'s the most real thing we ever did. Its very innocent in that we created it solely for ourselves. It was our work so we didn\'t really care what others thought.
What question did you never ask in your magazine but would have liked to?
We ask every question we want to.
How many magazines do you buy / get / read each month? Do you qualify yourself a maniac?
As I said not me personally but Nigel buys them all and yes he is a maniac.
E-mail interview from “29.08.2005”. © Colophon2007.com – Mike Koedinger Editions SA (Luxembourg)
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