PAVEMENT LICKER - A MATTER OF TASTE
Like many creative movements, cult art zine Pavement Licker was conceived in a pub. Back in 2003, graphic artist James-Lee Duffy and writer Josh Jones spawned the paper platform to allow creatives to be published without pushing a particular agenda.
Having found its way across the world and into the hands of cultural icons, Pavement Licker has been described by the likes of i-D mag as the “king of zines”. It is independent and alternative and champions new and established names. With one half of the duo now living in Faversham, ‘cene magazine took the chance to talk about Sniffin’ Glue, unwitting librarians in trucker hats and a nightmarish Dick Van Dyke.
WHO THE FU*K?
Culture journalist, editor and interviewer Josh Jones has worked with some of the biggest names in art and music, as well as on publications including the Dismaland show programme, books for Red Bull and The North Face and a sold-out book featuring the mad folk he met at the top of Runyon Canyon; he is also editor of the iconic Ibiza Pikes Hotel magazine, KANPAi!.
James-Lee Duffy is an artist and creative director who is heavily influenced by sub-cultures and underground scenes. He was part of the vanguard of the street-art explosion in London at the beginning of this century. His work has been banned by London Underground, worn by supermodels, printed in coffee-table books, scrawled on the walls of the Saatchi Gallery, tattooed on human skin and more.
First, we have to start with the name... Where did Pavement Licker come from?
Side eyes at James here. He says he was walking down the road, cheerfully whistling Aphex Twin’s Windowlicker while looking at the pavement. Like some nightmarish Dick Van Dyke.
When and why did you start Pavement Licker?
It came to being in The Marquis of Granby on Rathbone Place in London in 2002ish. We were lowly workers at a very Nathan Barley-ish creative agency and one time James mentioned this idea for a zine to publish artists and writers with no particular agenda to it. Josh thought it was a marvellous idea, poured his beer into his trucker cap to save it for later and they started it.
Who is the zine aimed at?
Anyone and everyone, really. We have a lot of people who work in the creative industries following us, but we’ve had messages from GCSE students asking for work experience and people’s grannies like us, too
Pavement Licker has a very particular style... how did you come up with it, and were you influenced by zines or works of the past?
Our style has just evolved organically, really. We’re both quite obsessed with any independent printed matter, so many different small magazines and zines are in our archive such as OZ, Mad and Sniffin' Glue. The legendary Shoreditch Twat, though, was a proper influence when we started.
How do you find the artists that feature in the zine?
It’s a bit of a mix, really. Some are old friends who have gone on to become wildly successful, some are already wildly successful and we’ve met them or just chanced our arm to see if they’d be up for contributing (surprisingly often, they’re up for it). Some people just email us some work on the off-chance, and we get a good response from all over the world when we put a call-out on social media that we’re doing a new issue.
Have you had any particular favourite artists or pieces that have featured? If so, why?
It’s hard to narrow them down, to be honest. The San Diego-based artist Kelsey Brookes is always dear to our heart as he saw our advert on the legendary street-art blog Wooster Collective and sent us some work. We loved it and it got into the hands of the guys at Pictures On Walls, who invited him out to be part of their Santa’s Ghetto show. Since then he’s gone on to become an incredible and successful artist. We’re not saying it’s all down to us, but it’s nice to have given him a platform that helped bump him up to the next level.
Are the zines ever themed? Are they influenced by trends at all?
This is something we’ve always found a bit weird – we never, ever have a theme when we’re making a new issue. We find if you do that then it suffocates what the artists and writers do as they try to wedge something into parameters. But for every single issue an underlying theme has just appeared. One of the issues had a real 70s New York punk aesthetic, another one went quite acidy. Maybe it’s just the trends that are bouncing around at the time, but the pieces all fall into place like that for us.
How much does fashion and music influence the zine’s style?
As much as it does for anything else – James is more tapped into the streetwear and fashion worlds and he’s heavily influenced by punk. Josh was a music journalist for 10-15 years, so something must have seeped into his cynical skin.
Why is it important to keep these independent, subversive zines alive?
What we love about zines and independent press is that you can just go and make something about whatever you like. It could be about Man United or Joe Wicks’s hair or butt plugs. One of our favourites was one called Sad Goalkeepers that was just loads of pictures of goalkeepers looking a bit glum. When you’ve got the absolute freedom to create something, it makes something pure. No worries about advertisers or creative directors or clients. It’s just something you like. Also a freshly printed zine smells much better than an iPad screen.
Ghostface Killah - Pic by Tom Medwell
How many do you print?
It varies, really, but the beauty of printing a black and white zine is that the print set-up costs aren’t too high. We originally photocopied and stapled them all ourselves, but that takes forever. We also learned that you don’t need to print thousands of them (we also learned that we don’t have very much storage space) – we print a few hundred and when they sell out and there’s demand for more, we print a bunch more.
Do you have a subscriber list, or is each issue just purchased online?
We tried to do a subscriber list many moons ago, but neither of us like doing admin very much. We also have had it physically stocked in places, but that’s another layer of admin to contend with so, for now, we sell them online. Or if you see us in a pub we’ll happily give you one for free.
Do you have any notable stockists of the zine?
We have – when the Ace Hotel in London opened, we did a thing with them where they were in every room for a while. They were at Printed Matter, Vice, Supreme in New York, too, and they’ve been featured in the Stack Magazine subscriber mail-out thing. We were involved in the Print! Tearing It Up exhibition at Somerset House so were stocked there for a summer. Also Josh just went and put a bunch of one issue in the gift shop at the Tate Modern shop one time and walked out. We’re not sure what they did to them.
You have internationally renowned artists in the zine, do you have international buyers of the zine also?
We do indeed – as you’d imagine, the majority of people who buy them are UK, US and Europe, but we’ve got fans in Australia, Japan and all down South America, too.
What has been your favourite moment since starting the zine?
There have been a few. Featuring in the Somerset House exhibition was a biggie – to be featured among all these awesome and legendary titles made us feel pretty warm. Also Juxtapoz Magazine following us on Instagram was a small but significant thing. They’ve since written some very kind things about us. But the best thing was when we made a 518-page retrospective book of the first 10 issues of Pavement Licker in one hard-backed, beautiful tome. Our buddy Pure Evil kindly lent us his gallery to have a launch of it and it was absolutely packed. It was great to see so many old and new friends coming along for a hang and to buy the book. We also realised that sort of, not on purpose, we’d been physically documenting the underground art scene since the turn of the century. Like unwitting librarians in trucker hats.
Outside of the zine, you have had some brilliant collaborations – what would be your dream crossover?
Well, we’d always wanted to do some kind of booze thing as Pavement Licker is such a good name for a drink. So much so we actually trademarked the name for alcoholic beverages. In March of this year our good friend Jim Wright introduced us to the much-acclaimed Verdant Brewery in Cornwall as he had been designing a lot of their stuff. They liked what we did and we came up with a collaboration where we created a kind of art exhibition via cans of strong beer. They created an 8% (EIGHT!) double IPA and we created 24 labels using some of our favourite art we’d had on our pages over the years. It went down pretty well and we’re very happy with it. Next, we’re thinking about making a Pavement Licker rum. Outside of alcoholic fun, we’d be up for doing another apparel collaboration. We did three tops with House of Holland, which sold out pretty quick. Josh has always wanted to make a Vans Sk8-Hi shoe and a deck to go with it. To be honest, we’re open to anything that seems fun and interesting.
What can we expect from the next zine or from Pavement Licker in the near future?
The latest issue is almost cooked – we’ve just got a few pages to fill, so keep an eye out for that. We’re also working on a book about the legendary Dragon Bar on Leonard Street in Shoreditch. We’ve been speaking to the artists who drank, caroused and exhibited there and a lot of people have given us their photos, too. Justin the owner is working with us on it and hopefully, if all goes to plan, it’ll be out in the autumn.
