-How long have you been publishing and how did you start?
The first thing I published was an online zine called Commonism, in 2006. The goal of the project was to facilitate community through association in the DIY scenes throughout Orange County, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. I had felt there was a disparity in those communities and wanted to create a sense of belonging and overall connection between them. The zine was published three times and then I moved to NY.
I did a number of short run zines between Commonism and my next major project, _ Quarterly, which was started during a phone conversation with Justin Sloane. He lives in LA and we went to Art Center together, he’s one of the best designer’s I know so I’m totally honored to be working on _ Quarterly with him.
In 2009 my friend Alec Dartley, who runs the record label Aagoo, offered to help me start my own label, that’s how Swill Children got started. I wanted to do a project that connected many things at once rather than being solely a label or publisher or whatever, which is why I refer to it as an umbrella; it encompasses many different projects under one heading but in the end it’s all just one big project.

-How do you fund it and how do you distribute it?
Alec’s helped me out with some of the musical releases and I’ve just put my own money into the other projects. I bought a Risograph machine that I use to print most of the printed releases, record covers and whatever else fits into the machine. I sell mostly through the site and at book/zine fairs but also have a number of relationships with stores throughout the US. I’m working on getting distribution soon though because that side of things is a whole other job in itself…



-Is it a labour of love?
Totally. I try and make everything as cohesive on a whole and as well made as possible and the most I could ever hope for is people to be psyched on it and break even on costs! It’s beginning to pick up a bit more so that’s becoming a reality, totally amazing.

What else are you working on?
I’m working on curating this series of four Showpaper’s, a free bi-weekly publication that has a work of art on one side and a listing of all the all ages shows here in NY, they’ll all be releasing throughout the next couple months. The series coincides with an exhibition Showpaper is having at EFA (the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts) in Manhattan. Once all the issues are out, 500 will be repackaged and include an accompanying booklet of text that’ll count as the fifth issue of _ Quarterly, the print series acting as the sixth issue.
I just got done designing a t-shirt for my friends band Hunters that I’m pretty psyched on and I’ve been helping my friend Hisham out with his new sunglasses project called Phosphorescence. When I’m not doing that stuff and freelance work I’ve been making art, writing, reading, and attempting to watch every Robert Altman film by the end of the month!




-Who are your collaborators?
I work a lot with Justin Sloane, he’s the designer of _ Quarterly and any time I can, I integrate him into other projects too. My good friend Grant Willing and I work on a number of projects together and he helps a lot with Swill Children. I’m in the process of finishing an edition with my friend Milano Chow that’s suffered some logistical issues. Hisham Bharoocha and I have been working on a number of projects together as well, he’s going to contribute something to Swill Children soon too once he has time. There’s so many other people that I’ve been working and collaborating with though: Alec Dartley, Chelsea Hodson, Anne Lai, Diwa Tamrong, Sebastian Mlynarski, Cory Hanson, Aliya Naumoff, Joe Ahearn, Erik Carter, Sarina Dailey, Todd P, David Potes, Michael Ray-Von, and there’s always more!!

-Anything you would like to add?
When I was younger I felt like I could never do anything that other people would value and was so inspired by the Hardcore, DIY, skateboarding and associated contemporary art scene because of its empowerment to anyone willing. It really pushed me to pursue the things I wanted to do without feeling like I was incapable. I’d love to tell kids who are struggling to do something with themselves that you can totally go after the things you want to do, you just have to be positive and resist the temptation of constant cynicism, it doesn’t benefit anyone/thing and can prevent you from doing something rad with your life.


see more Jesse here here here and here

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 7th, 2010 at 04:31. It is filed under Zine Of The Week. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.