We um’ed and we ar’ed, and we considered some fruitful questions to ask Jeremy in this interview!

FMCS: Hey Jeremy how’s it hanging?

Jeremyville: Love ya work FMCS! Well its Saturday night 9pm in Sydney right now, soaking in the computer rays. Spending too much time on myspace, and designing a toy for a Formula 1 driver in Italy, trying to get on top of stuff after getting back from overseas… I gave up a great party tonight to do this interview because I love FMCS so much and I have been very late getting my answers in… Eeeep!

FMCS: You’re too kind! What’s the state of your studio like these days? Is it neat and tidy with all the work you have going on, would your mum be proud?

Jeremyville: Funny, I recently asked my mum what my desk was like as a kid, and she said ‘extremely messy’, but I knew where every little piece of paper was, and when asked, I could pull it out of the mess instantly.

I think the filing in my brain is similar to that too. But I’m really trying to become a lot tidier, I’ve found I work a lot better that way.

FMCS: Tell us about life in Oz, it’s charms its fruits its labors does the lifestyle go hand in hand with your production schedules?

Jeremyville: If it weren’t for my desire to create, I’d just be hanging out at the beach, surfing and running and stuff. I love the outdoors, but art and design is not much of an outdoor caper.

I squeeze in my Steve Irwin moments whenever I can. My place in Potts Point is only about 10 minutes from Bondi Beach and the ocean, and about 5 mins from Sydney Harbor, so the lifestyle is always calling. I walk everywhere, or ride a bicycle, and I don’t drive, as everything is really close, my home is 5 minutes from my studio, stuff like that. Sydney is a really compact city, built around a sparkling harbor and clean beaches.

It’s our little secret… sshhh!

FMCS: Would you describe yourself as an outsider or an insider?

Jeremyville is a place on the outskirts of town. I always have been the ‘weird kid’ ever since I was child, playing with Lego, model airplanes, disturbing hours spent commanding an army of toy soldiers in my bedroom with the curtains closed.

Today I’m the result of that misspent childhood. Perhaps I’ve made my weirdness into a career of sorts, who knows. I love weird people, freaks, outsiders, difference. I’m still a freak, I’ve just learnt to fake ‘normal’.

FMCS: What does the words ‘freedom of expression’ mean to you?

Jeremyville: I’m lucky to have never had anyone tell me what I can’t do, creatively, so I don’t know any other way. I never went to art school or graphic design school.

I have an architecture degree, so I’ve come at art and design from another angle. I’m becoming more and more ‘myself’ as an artist. That is, really free about what I do, what I draw, and trusting my instincts. Becoming truly who I am. Is that too Oprah? Yes it is. I’m jumping on Oprah’s couch.

FMCS: How’s the new book ‘Sessions’ coming along? It’s been noted that you are developing quite a niche for producing fine bedtime reading material.

Jeremyville: It’s done!! I saw the proofs yesterday, I’m very happy with it… thanks IdN. It has a metallic silver hard cover, 304 pages, a sticker sheet, fold out poster, and DVD.

I did work with Geoff McFetridge, Beck the musician, Genevieve Gauckler, and about 300 artists and companies. It’s all about collaborations and the processes involved. My first book ‘Vinyl Will Kill‘ was just toys, ‘Sessions’ is about collaborations with toys, character design, decks, murals, apparel, sketchels, animation, comics, art shows, that sort of content. All work done in the last few years or so. It is distributed by Gingko Press, published by IdN, and also sold at my website.

FMCS: Do you carry a penknife?

Jeremyville: I’m more ‘pen and sketchbook’.

FMCS: Do you like doing interviews?

Jeremyville: In truth, yes. It helps me put into words what would otherwise be incoherent ramblings in my head. My invisible shrink thanks you.

My most obscure interviews so far has been for a Ukrainian magazine, a front cover in Turkey, and a 12 page article in a Thai magazine.

My art is accumulating a lot of frequent flyer points.

FMCS: What are your 5 greatest loves in life?

Jeremyville: Time, love, opportunities, health, creating.

FMCS: When can we expect a stock market floatation of Jeremyville and all it’s holdings?

Jeremyville: I’ll check with my people, and they’ll get back to your people.

FMCS: What was the last thing you learnt that’s come in useful?

Jeremyville: That madness keeps me sane.

FMCS: Describe your dress sense from someone else’s perspective.

Jeremyville: Today I’m in skinny jeans, a faded Mickey t-shirt, vintage ’70’s sunglasses, really old converse kicks, I’ve grown a bit of a beard recently, and my hair’s long and messy, as I’ve been a believer in home haircuts since the age of 15, some apparently more successful than others.

I’m also usually clasping a current sketchbook in my hand, and a sketchel custom bag slung across me. But frankly I prefer nudity.

FMCS: Finally Jeremy thanks you for the interview, we love the work you are producing and it is wonderful to see such amazing quality and output. We wish you the very best for the future in all you do. Do you have any shout outs you would like to give?

Jeremyville: Thanks so much FMCS, you rock!!! You have a very cool site, I’ve been enjoying all the interviews, like the Nate Williams one, he’s a talented, hard working guy.

Thanks to Sarah at Colette in Paris for inviting me to be in the ‘My 2007′ group show, with great artists like KAWS, Takashi Murakami , Nara, Mike Mills, Faile, Michael Leon, Fafi, Futura, lots of others, a really awesome line up, check it out.

Thanks also to Beck for getting involved in the sketchel project. I’m also doing a Jeremyville toy for Red Magic in Hong Kong, a slip mat show at the Reed Space Gallery in NYC with Staple Design and Plus Et Plus, I’m in the new Pictoplasma character Encyclopaedia and Darren Firth’s Two Faced book with a collab with Geoff McFetridge.

I just did some snowboards for Pabobi in Switzerland, some animation for MTV, skate decks for Pop Cling in California, a collab with Damian Silver for Converse, and some upcoming projects with Kidrobot in New York. Also I just did a mural at Hotel Des Arts in San Francisco, some work in the current Faesthetic Magazine, a toy show with Furi Furi in Tokyo, just sold a giant 60 inch Qee I painted to a gallery in Cologne Germany… tons of other cool projects too, that’s just some stuff rattling around in my head right now!

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Vinyl Will Kil!
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