We first encountered Alexander Heir’s art via his work with NYC hardcore band Warthog. Since then, we’ve gotten even deeper into his work, which spans two Sacred Bones collections—Death is Not The End: The Work of Alexander Heir and WARRR2k∞//Work 2014-2017—and the Death/Traitors label, which creates just about everything under the sun, from shirts, to blankets, gloves, towels, Muay Thai shorts, you name it. WASTOIDS needed to know more about Heir, who joined us for this week’s artist feature.
WASTOIDS: Nice to talk with you Alexander, introduce yourself to everyone reading.
ALEXANDER HEIR: My name is Alexander Weir, I am 37 years old and currently live in Brooklyn, NY.
WASTOIDS: What is your preferred medium when making art?
Alexander Heir: Pen & ink, Adobe Illustrator, colored pencil, and acrylic gouache.
WASTOIDS: Any other artists inspire you?
Alexander Heir: Far too many to cover them all, but some current favorites of mine are Suehiro Maruo, HR Giger, Yoshitotoshi, Jacques-Fabien Gautier D’Agoty, Awazu Kiyoshi, Michael Whelan, and all the Ghanian movie poster painters.
WASTOIDS: What are some of your favorite pieces you have done?
Alexander Heir: I’m very happy with how the Warthog 2018 EP cover came out, it was one of my first full color album covers and I think it’s pretty iconic. The “You Are Your Own Master” graphic I did in 2012 is also very important to me, as that was a turning point in my style and was maybe the first piece I did that really got some attention. The cover I did of the police officier with the reaper for NUTS zine in 2015 is another favorite of mine, the message seemed to really resonate with people and I was happy to see it hung in a lot of windows and walls.
WASTOIDS: Do you ever listen to music while working on art?
ALEXANDER HEIR: I don’t usually listen to music when I make art, I actually find it too distracting. I usually put on TV shows or movies to kind of ignore and have some white noise in the background; I particularly like to let Star Trek play (The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine).
WASTOIDS: Any other shows particular favorites?
ALEXANDER HEIR: Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld, Party Down, South Park, The Simpsons (seasons 1-9).
WASTOIDS: How about music you dig when you’re not working on art?
ALEXANDER HEIR: Lately The Prodigy, Nitzer Ebb, Killing Joke, Lords Of The New Church, and Portion Control.
WASTOIDS: What’s your favorite music video?
ALEXANDER HEIR: Although it’s certainly not my favorite song ever (thought I do dig it,) I think the music video for “Love Missile F1-11” by Sigue Sigue Sputnik is the coolest I’ve ever seen. I love the graphics, style, and narrative without any actual dialogue. I also have to mention the “Firestarter” video from The Prodigy for being an awesome video for one of the best songs ever, and “Let’s Talk About The Future” by Maximum The Hormone for being totally over the top.
WASTOIDS: Where do you like to spend time on the internet?
ALEXANDER HEIR: To be honest, it’s YouTube. It’s so cool to have access so much amazing footage of bands/musicians that previously would have been nearly impossible to find, and a great tool to discover
new music, as well. My current version of crate digging is looking up a song I like on Discogs and seeing the playlists people on there make featuring that song. From there I can check out the other songs on the list on YouTube. One can also find instructional videos of how to do just about anything on there; I basically learned how to program analog drum machines from YT videos, and any time I need to repair something myself or have a Photoshop question, I can find the answer on there.
WASTOIDS: Any cool hobbies to share?
ALEXANDER HEIR: I play in an industrial/electronic punk band called L.O.T.I.O.N. Multinational Corporation and am pretty active in the local punk scene. I also enjoy cooking, and have started making my own home-cured lox. I hope to tackle smoked whitefish salad next!
Make sure you give Alexander Heir a follow on Instagram, and to pick up an item from the offical DEATH/TRAITORS STORE.
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