Dalek the Dilettante
As unbelievable as it is strange, I’ve never had the opportunity to cross paths with an internationally recognized and respected artist, who’s art has influenced so many people on so many different levels… that is until I had the opportunity to interview James Marshall, or as many of you know and love… Dalek. Here we go!
So James, for the few out there who haven’t had the chance (or pleasure) to familiarize themselves with your work, will you do the honors of briefly introducing yourself, your work and what your work embodies?
I’m certainly not one to talk about myself. Everything is just am amalgamation of life experiences… that’s ideally where the communication is created… the commonalities that bind us all.
Spoken like a true virtuoso. Before we get into more of the details of this collaboration project with Internal Affairs, I have a have few questions I’d like to ask you. I’d like to think that I’ve done my homework… and done it well - through reading some of your other interviews, I learned you were an army brat growing up; you moved around a lot and had to play the ever-changing, ever-adapting chameleon. I can definitely relate to that aspect of your story (or I think I can), as I had moved around overseas my entire life. I’m curious to know, how has being nomadic influenced you and your work? Was it mostly good? Bad? Both? The reason I ask is because I know how having to adapt to an alien environment and starting new all the time has impacted who I am today… so I’m interested in hearing how it’s influenced and changed you life… or hasn’t it?
Navy brat. Same upbringing… better bases… the beauty of the navy is that all the bases are located by the water… so I got to spend a fair amount of my life around the ocean and such. It’s certainly a never ending game of switch-up… we moved about every two years on average, sometimes even less. You learn to adapt to new environments pretty quickly… you become pretty internal… self reliant. I’m pretty good at sorting through folks pretty quick… meaning it’s easy to spot the good ones vs. the bad ones. I don’t have much tolerance for things… the bad parts really happened when I was younger… it definitely sucked being constantly uprooted and dragged away… but it’s made me who I am… so I can’t complain.
You’re way ahead of me, James! I have yet to graduate with “people-reading” skills… I guess you can call that naive. Now I know that you’ve been asked some of these questions on several occasions but please…. bear with me! What was the most difficult obstacle you had to overcome while working as Takashi Murakami’s apprentice? Catching flies with chopsticks must’ve been a breeze, huh?
Yeah, the Murakami thing is pretty old. It was certainly a pivotal experience… but not something I want to continually exploit for personal gain… it was a good time.
Fair enough, I’ll keep the mentor questions in the bag! So where did “Diseased” spring from? How did that come about? I’m asking as a fan…
It was really meant to be an investigation of the different possibilities for the word… the different realities of disease… the myths, the allegories, the analogies, the apologies… what have you. There’s a lot of sickness in our world… on all levels… in all capacities… I think it’s our duty to start holding ourselves to higher levels of responsibility and accountability before our world is consumed by it.
For those out there reading this… think about what James just answered. Seriously. So from the very beginning, how did this collaboration into it’s place? Did you know Corey Williams personally before this whole thing got started or were you familiar with the band, Internal Affairs? Were you approached?
I knew and listened to I.A. before I met Corey… I was actually talking to my friend Andrew from Strife about new LA bands I liked… Internal Affairs was on the list. He mentioned he know Corey… and Corey and I started trading toys for records… as I have been a bit of a record collector for about 25 years now. Then it just sort of went from there… we had talked about collaborating on something for a while… then this finally came together…
How were you influenced for the album artwork? Where did you look for inspiration?
It just sort of evolved… I tend to work without preconception… better just to go into something and sort it as you go… let things along the way influence and determine itself…
I picked up two quotes from one of your interview and I wanted to ask you about them… they’ve both been stuck in the back of my head since! You said, “It’s too easy or too hard” and the other statement was “Embrace the larger you” in regards to society and how small we are in reality as individuals, yet we act like we’re larger than life itself (I think… or hope that’s what you meant!) in all our selfish-human ways. Could you elaborate on that a bit? I’m dumbfounded by your remarkable honesty.
I‘m just trying to figure things out… there is obviously a lot of potential within the human race for a society that goes way beyond where we are… I never put myself in the position of being faultless… or flawless… some of the things that frustrate me most are things I do myself… so I want to put that out there. I think it all needs to start from an internal place… it’s easy to sit and point fingers at others for problems… we are all responsible for creating change… starting internally. When I say embrace the larger you, it’s said with a bit of humor… as is anything I say… meant to mimic the over seriousness of self helpers and change gurus… the premise though is just to really look beyond ourselves… to our communities… towns… cities… countries… what have you, by communicating and emphasizing as opposed to continually dividing ourselves into subgroups. Pop culture allows us to continually hide behind subcultures and segments. Everything in our world is set up to divide us. It’s a little crazy.
James Marshall, a humanitarian at heart! Thank you for that, truly.
With that aside, anything new, refreshing, exciting, out-of-the-norm happening in your life right now? Or is all of the about an everyday thing for you?
All of the above just sort of happens… whether I want it to or not… life is plenty exciting… the norm is a good thing!
I know you’re probably ridiculously busy and barely have time to even read let alone answer these questions but I do have a few that I have to ask everyone before wrapping it up!
List three words that best describe who you are.
Husband. Father. Son.
Great answer. Two words that best describe you sense of style.
Who knows.
An even better answer! On word (first that comes to mind) that best describes your work.
I’ll leave that for someone else.
If you could have ANY superpower, what would it be and why?
Too many possibilities with this one… anything that would help sort things out… so we can enjoy each others company for anything 1000 years or so…
So in other words… Captain Planet. Very Cool. Is there anything else you would like to throw in this mix before I show myself to the imaginary door?
We could write a book… or a sentence.
Hahaha, very true. Thanks, James; you’ve been incredibly unreal and honest ; it’s been an honor and absolute pleasure working with an artist of your caliber. We love you!
The pleasure is all mine.
