We’re a cultured lot here at Blunt HQ, old bean.
A short while ago, whilst surfing the ‘net indulging in my 70’s sportswear-purchasing obsession, I stumbled across the work of eoe. Now, here was something I could relate to….
Art from someone who spends too much time smoking and playing video games, and too much money on Adidas. I had to get in touch for a chat to find out more. That chat turned into an interview, which you can read below.

BB: Hello.

e0e: “Hello.”

BB: Thank you for agreeing to do this interview

e0e: “No problem, thanks for having me.”

BB: How are you?

e0e: “All is good in my world.”

BB: Cool. What are you up to right now? (before we came along and disturbed you)

e0e: “Right now I’m just enjoying a cuppa and another instalment of Jeremy Kyle. In general I’m going about my daily regime of painting and playing video games. Mainly finishing painting commissions I have for Christmas.”

BB: And what are you listening to at e0e HQ these days? Any musical recommendations for us?

e0e: “My tastes are pretty much mainly Drum and Bass (some good stompin tunes, not the Sunday afternoon in the pub chillout stuff, gotta be able to boing to it), and UK hip hop, and probably about 0.001% of American Hip Hop.”

BB: Okay then… all of us here like your work, and we’ve been spreading the word. But for everyone else out there, tell us what e0e brand is, and what it does.

e0e: “The name e0e is one I have used online since the mid 90’s, well an abbreviated version of it. I like doing a whole variety of ‘making’ things on the computer and in the real world. so the e0e brand covers everything I do. There’s no real objective other than to create things from things I love, and hope others like to look at what I am doing.”

BB: Now, I’m an old-skool trainer-head, which is how I found your site, and some canvas work of some classic Adidas. You into your shoes? (well, I guess you must be, otherwise you wouldn’t be painting them)

e0e: “I am very much into my shoes, I have the classic wall of blue boxes in my room, the Adidas classics are always the best, City Series, Gazelles, Spezials, GS, ZX series. As for a lot of the re-releases in ridiculous colourways and awful materials, I dont dig them at all.”

BB: In that case, what is your favourite shoe?

e0e: “An obvious choice, but Forest Hills. All round comfort and pure style (in white of course, as we all know black trainers look like orthopedic shoes, especially the comforts, lol).”

BB: I’m digressing slightly here (sorry!) By reading your biog details, it would seem we’re around the same age. Children of the late 70’s and early 80’s whereby both the terrace and the technological revolutions were just taking place, and is a period in time which is where it would appear you’ve taken a lot of your inspiration for your work. What made you decide to get into art/graf work? - What was it that sparked the transition from playing computer games, and wearing German sportswear, to putting these images down on canvas? - Was there a catalyst, or did it just kinda happen?

e0e: “Well, the two time periods that pretty much made me are the arcade era of the 80s. Me, my brother, my cousin and best mate A.J. used to live for these machines, our lives were a constant blag for 10p’s, as i am sure a lot of peoples lives were then. and we’d spend all year saving up for day trips to the beach where the arcades were everywhere.”

“I have just recently got back in touch with A.J after about 10 years and he restores old coin-op arcade machines from that era, so that era left a mark on so many people to this day.”

“Secondly was meeting my mate Steve Sawyer at school, I was into my art then, but he got me so into comic books, all the good titles from DC in the late 80 and of course the classic UK comics… 2000ad, Crisis etc. He is also a top artist and we both ended up goin to art college, skyving off way too many days to go the comic shop and cinema. I did a graphic design course, but lost a lot of interest in that toward the end, cos its basically lying through pictures. It has just been a natural progression to combine everything i love into the stuff i create now.”

BB: Talking of terraces, and casuals, and Adidas… are you into football? - If so, who is your team?

e0e: “I am not the worlds biggest football fan, much to the dismay of my Dad who used to play for Crystal Palace, amongst other teams. He is from Liverpool, so the whole family follows Everton. Back in the 80s when we used to go visit the family in Liverpool, people used to put in orders for sportswear to be bought back down south, hahaha. Maybe that rubbed off on me.”

BB: I’m loving your Smurf collection (so to speak!) - The Casual Smurf in the Fila BJ tracksuit has to be a first anywhere in the world!

e0e: “Thanks, I initially did a couple of suicide smurfs, one O.D.ing on heroin, and one about to blow himself up, both for a tshirt print. A few days after i stuck them online, I got a message from Peyo, the makers of the smurfs in Belgium, telling me to take them offline, blah blah blah….. so i did the opposite and made a whole set of them, mostly based on good wholesome British folk, a few 80s casuals, a bit of knife crime, that bloke who does stencils for Angelina Jollie and Brad Pitt.”

‘Haven’t heard anything from them since, maybe they like these ones. On a similar note I have just received a letter from Hasbro legal department about my ‘My Little Pwnage‘ image, saying it degrades the My Little Pony Brand, and that i must remove it immediately… hmmmmm, what to do :)”

BB: A couple of obvoius questions (for someone who’s designs include Nintendo Game and Watch products)! What is your favourite arcade game of all time?

e0e: “A question I was pondering only the other day, I cannot pin it down to one game, it is between these… Galaxian, Donkey Kong, Track & Field or Dragons Lair.”

BB: What’s the longest a game has kept you interested for/you couldnt put it down? (I vaguely remember losing an awful lot of brain cells whilst at university due to smoke inhalation, and Goldeneye on the N64 - big ups to Steve, Aktar, and Rob!!!)

e0e: “That is a period when I would imagine a hell of a lot of people were sat round smoking a playing Goldeneye and Mario Kart 64. There was a year when everything synchronised perfectly, by which I mean, there were a bunch of us all unemployed at the same time, and the N64 was in its prime. The same can be said for Super Mario Kart and Streetfighter 2 on the SNES, that probably occupied us just as much, if not more than the N64 games. The only time we weren’t smoking and playing Nintendo was when we were skating.”

BB: If you could have had ANY game as a kid, what would you have wanted? (I always fancied a full sized “Outrun” arcade machine. Never got it though, surprisingly….)

e0e: “Outrun is a very good choice, with its excellent soundtrack and route choice system. I myself would have had a Tron machine when I was a kid, that game looked and played super good.”

BB: Talking of computer gtames, your Game and Watch pieces are great! (I remember getting the Mario Bros one as a kid, and I was absolutely made up. Buzzin’. Ah, happy days!)

e0e: “Yeah Game & Watches are great, my brother had a Donkey Kong Jr one when we were kids, but im sure I used to play it more then him, not cos he didnt want to, lol. The characters from them games are superb, so much expression from a 1 colour character. I have quite a nice collection of Game & Watches goin on, still far from the full set of 60 but gettin there.”

BB: Anything interesting you’re working on at the moment? Wanna give us a sneak preview of anything? (it’s worth a shot…)

e0e: “Lemme have a look what I have lying around ;)”

BB: A slightly chessy question, but one that needs to be asked….whats’ the future for e0e? what do you want to achieve with your work?

e0e: “There’s no real goal, other than to pay my respects to classic moments and items that I have loved over the years, and create works based on them. I should get my arse in gear and do some sort of exhibition for my work, but as long as people are loving looking at what im creating, all is good. I get really good feedback on my stuff, so I must be doing something right.”

BB: A few quick questions, blunted style….we will accept you first answer only (along with a reason for your decision) Crack pipe or Red Stripe?

e0e: “Red Stripe. My favourite beer, especially since I gave up smoking rock.”

BB: Mobb Deep or Roll Deep?

e0e: “Mobb Deep. I went to see Roll Deep a while back, if they tried a bit harder I’m sure they could fit another 300 people on the stage.”

BB: Trimm-Trabb or Forest Hills?

e0e: “Forest Hills. Let your feet breathe.”

BB: Ashley Cole or Lilly Cole?

e0e: “Old King Cole. Cannot stand either of them.”

BB: West Ham or smoked ham?

e0e: “West Ham. Cos I’m a weak transparent vegetarian.”

BB: Mario or Luigi?

e0e: “Luigi. He isn’t under the thumb like Mario, and isn’t always trying to save some bird.”

BB: Outrun or Chase HQ?

e0e: “Outrun. Best driving game ever.”

BB: Thanks for that(!) - It’ll all be added to the Blunt Beats census. Right. It’s home time. Anyone you wanna big up/say hello to?

e0e: “Al, Blighty, Oshea, Hairy, Dymer, Parker, Reeves, Pom, and everyone else who smoked bongs and played Nintendo through the 90s.”

BB: Cool. Thanks again man, it’s been interesting to talk to you. Keep up the good work, for ‘08 my man. Peace

e0e: “Cheers, thanks again. Ta ta.”