So far the group-chanting Brooklyn BTW Suckers are best known for their outfits, a self-titled EP produced by Yeasayer's Anand Wilder and Chris Moore (TV On The Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs), and a lineup featuring fellow BTW Quinn Walker. That, and a "2080"-style, occasionally dub-y sound constructed from joyful synth-and-percussion combos. Now maybe they'll be known, too, for their various (and varied) day jobs. Multi-instrumental songwriter Quinn does double time as a doorman at Glasslands and a bartender at Arrow Bar (and, maybe, a male escort). Drummer/keyboardist Brian Aiken is an ex-Ross Stores Data enterer currently onto bigger and better things. Multi-instrumentalist Austin Fisher works in the New Media production team at the Metropolitan Museum Of Art and fellow multi-tasker Pan's a designer for the clothing company Mishka. After these four work-related discussions, take a listen to their most cathartic free-time track, "It Gets Your Body Movin'."
Austin Fisher
STEREOGUM: How long have you been at the Met?
AUSTIN FISHER: I've been at the Met for a couple of years now. Before I began here I was doing freelance work and working part-time for the Guggenheim.
STEREOGUM: What's your background in New Media?
AF: As I was finishing school I decided that I wanted to work in the arts in New York, and being totally naive I figured I'd just get a job at one of the big museums. I somehow managed to get an informal informational interview with someone at the Guggenheim the summer after I graduated, and during the interview it turned out, to my surprise, I had no idea what people did, aside from curators and security guards, in museums. It also turned I had no idea what job I could possibly do in a museum. A little disheartened, I left the meeting and as the woman was walking me out she decided to introduce me to an intern in the Guggenheim's New Media department, so I could learn more about internships (the only thing for which I was qualified). As I was talking to the intern, her supervisor came in and after speaking to me for a couple minutes offered me an internship in New Media because her intern for the fall just fell through and she needed a replacement ASAP. So basically, I blundered my way into New Media. I later found out hundreds of people from all over the world apply for a few spots as a Guggenheim intern. I got lucky. I had much of my training in new media there, and we worked with many artists and also with high school kids. I ended up at the Guggenheim for a while after the internship ended. I'm still great friends with woman I worked for there. And that experience lead to my current job at the Met.
STEREOGUM: Any background in Art History?
AF: I don't really have any formal training in Art History. I studied Studio Art and Journalism/Mass Communication in school, and I concentrated on the broadcast area of Mass Communication. I've learned a ton on the job, but I'm not involved with the actual art historical content that winds up on the site -- just the site itself.
STEREOGUM: What's the Time Line Of Art History looking like for 2009? As far as I can tell, it stops at 2001.
AF: Things aren't really added in chronological order. The latest addition to the Timeline has to do with the Internationalism in Tang Dynasty from 618-906. Also, adding contemporary works is more complicated because of copyright laws. That tends to slow things down.
STEREOGUM: What's your favorite time art historical period?
AF: I like everything. That's the great thing about working here. You can see so much art from every time period and every region of the world. It's really interesting to compare things cross-culturally. Before I started here, I was much more of a modern and contemporary kind-of-guy, and I probably still lean that way.
STEREOGUM: Do you work from home or at the Met?
AF: I work at the Met. Every morning I get to walk through the Greek and Roman Wing with my cup of coffee and doughnut on my way up to my office.
STEREOGUM: What's a typical day?
AF: Mostly I work on various projects revolving around the Timeline Of Art History. It involves a lot of making things on the computer, getting frustrated when they don't work, and then getting really excited when they eventually do. Also, elastic band fights and stopping old volunteers from stealing our food.
STEREOGUM: How big is the Media staff?
AF: It's abou twenty or so people, counting interns and part-timers. But I mostly work with five of those on the projects I'm involved with.
STEREOGUM: Can you discuss recent projects?
AF: The Timeline is currently being redesigned, so there are tons of projects that deal with that. For instance, right now we're working on adding multimedia to various pages about individual works of art in the collection. So if we have a page about a harpsichord in the museum's collection, you can listen to that actual instrument being played. Separate from the Timeline, I also just worked on a game for kids about sea merchants in the Mediterranean during the Bronze Age.
STEREOGUM: The down economy's hit the art world at this point. A number of friends involved in galleries are seeing cutbacks. How about museums?
AF: The New York Times recently ran an article about cut backs at the Met. The entire staff will be reduced by ten percent by July apparently.
STEREOGUM: Do you do any video/web/etc work outside of your day job?
AF: I don't do much of that work outside my job anymore. I do have another random, unrelated job that I continue to do outside my day job which is helping produce fashion shows during New York's Fashion Weeks for the esteemed Mr. Benjamin Liu. No idea how I wound up doing it, but I've been doing it for the past 4 years. I get to wear a headset.
///
Pan
STEREOGUM: Can you tell me a bit about Mishka? I know there's a big overlap between the company and music, etc. What's the core demographic? I get
a sense of it by reading the links on the website, but curious.
PAN: Everyone that works for Mishka are big music nerds. It only makes sense that music has a big influence over our work -- even a few of the Bloglin writers have been doing record reviews and show reviews. As far as our core demographic? From what I see, a lot of it is the "hypebeast" kids, who are sneaker freaks and spend all their money on clothes ... and also the nu-ravers (I don't even know if that really exists), basically all the dance club kids...
STEREOGUM: What's the Doombox? Who decides what goes in it?
PAN: The Doombox is basically our version of a boombox, but way more evil! It's really just streaming audio on our website ... Sometimes one of us will make a mix and post it, but lately we've been putting up mixtapes that other people have made that we've been releasing, like this one that Nick Catchdubs and Mr. Drucker made...
STEREOGUM: Do you have previous experience as a designer?
PAN: Not really, I've always been some sort of a visual artist, but not until a few years ago could I actually call myself "a designer"... I like to tell everyone I'm a "fashion designer."
STEREOGUM: How'd you end up with this particular job?
PAN: I used to work for a screen printing company in Long Island City and most of our clients were all these "Streetwear" brands: Supreme, 10 Deep, King Stampede, Mishka, etc. After about a year and a half of working there, I had met so many people, that I figured I could just quit and be a freelance graphic designer ... and after my employer threw his Starbucks Frappuccino at me, I knew it was time to do just that! When I approached Mishka for work, they just asked me if I wanted to work in the office. I was actually their first "real" employee.
STEREOGUM: What are your duties? Are you free to design whatever you want? Part of a team?
PAN: I help design everything from t-shirt graphics to outerwear to socks ... also, making catalogs, tech packs, and doing photoshoots... basically everything that we produce, I've probably had a hand in at one point. It's definitely a team effort though. We're constantly going back and forth with each others ideas.
STEREOGUM: Some of your favorite designs?
PAN: One of my favorite recent t-shirt graphics was designed by my co-worker Mike Jones: It's a huge image of Charles Manson with a third eye.
STEREOGUM: Favorites that weren't approved?
PAN: One of my favorites that didn't end up making it was this monster sweater our friend Nick Gazin designed. It would have ended up being too expensive to produce ... and with it being so over the top, we weren't sure if it would actually sell....
STEREOGUM: Any that looked better in your head than they do on somebody's body?
PAN: Sure. A lot of times we'll get samples back and it just doesn't work the way we envisioned it ... but we've gotten a lot better at figuring out what will or will not work.
STEREOGUM: Do you do any designing on the side? Make anything at home?
PAN: Here and there I'll do some stuff. Some stuff for Suckers ... flyers and such when I feel inspired. I would probably do more if I wasn't doing it all day.
STEREOGUM: Who are some your favorite designers/artists?
PAN: Honestly, I don't really keep up with a lot of clothing designers, but I did just watch a documentary on VBS about the guy who made all the Cosby sweaters ... that guy's amazing!!! Also, lately I've really been admiring Alexander Rodchenko's work.
STEREOGUM: Do you see a connection between what you do and the art world? I saw the Deitch link and this thought popped up.
PAN: Absolutely, it's an art form in itself ... and Mishka isn't just a clothing brand, it's become more of a lifestyle type of thing. We've been making toys, mixtapes, throwing parties, gallery exhibitions, and our "Bloglin" has tons of crap posted everyday from a whole slew of contributors. Everyone that works with us is a completely different creative mind and has stuff they do outside of the company also.
STEREOGUM: Do Suckers get free gear?
PAN: Hell yeah we do!
///
Brian Aiken
STEREOGUM: How long were you doing Data Entry?
BRIAN AIKEN Exactly one year.
STEREOGUM: Had you worked anywhere else previously doing a similar job?
BA No, never, this was my first office experience.
STEREOGUM: What did Data Entry at Ross involve exactly?
BA Well, I liked to think of myself as a "Purchase Order Catalyst" -- one of many who enters the purchase orders written up by subsequent buyers, I would enter ship dates, MFGs, and UDAs into a program called Retek, this would catalyze the ordering process and fill Ross Stores with products from various companies.
STEREOGUM: How many other people at the office?
BA Including myself a total of about 20 monkeys.
STEREOGUM: You and Pan have both been involved in clothing in one way or another. Is that how you met?
BA No Pan and I met through music, Mishka probably keeps it's distance from Ross.
STEREOGUM: Any job prospects?
BA Recently I have been training at a place called the Running Company. I sell shoes and talk to runners all day. I have also been searching out male nanny (Manny) positions while teaching drum lessons...
///
Quinn Walker
STEREOGUM: How do these two jobs work together?Both seem like things you'd have to do at night... or are you working earlier shifts at the bar?
QUINN WALKER: It varies. Bartending is an ideal job for musicians. You live at night most of the time so your body is always prepared for it. The only drawback to the door job is that I'm not allowed to lay my hands on assholes. I also work as a male escort.
STEREOGUM: How long have you been working the jobs?
QW: Two months at Arrow, years as a multi-tasker at Glasslands ... Escort since I was 19.
STEREOGUM: Do you have previous bartender experience?
QW: Yes.
STEREOGUM: Drink specialty?
QW: Everything.
STEREOGUM: Did you go to bartending school? Any courses? Or on the job training?
QW: On the job training a bit but it's pretty elementary.
STEREOGUM: Do you measure shots or free pour?
QW: Free pour of course.
STEREOGUM: Favorite movie starring a bartender?
QW: I don't think i've seen any.
STEREOGUM: Do people still ask to "send a drink over to the lady at the end of the bar"?
QW: No, I wish ... that seems more midtown.
STEREOGUM: Are you a quiet bartender, one who talk to his customers?
QW: Depends on my mood or how drunk i get.
STEREOGUM: I imagine working door can be a pain, especially in this day and age when everyone assumes they should be on "the list." Any recent run-ins of note?
QW: People can be pretty damn annoying, and rude. I remember one time these girlfriends of some band thought they were hot shit and gave me a whole bunch of useless crap about I.D.ing them. Later on I jumped into the bathroom and peed, opened the door and sure enough one of them was standing there tapping her foot impatiently so I say "good luck in there, i just took the nastiest shit of my life," which prevented her from going in. Wow, that's a lot of poop references.
STEREOGUM: If someone were to invent a drink called Suckers what would be in it?
QW: A wino's urine. Maybe some Maker's Mark.
///
Suckers - "It Gets Your Body Movin'" (MP3)
The Suckers EP is out via IAMSOUND. You can hear more at MySpace.
[Left To Right: Pan, Austin Fisher,Quinn Walker, Brian Aiken; Photo by Victoria Jacob]
