Callum Rooney - Profile Of An Artist
When and where were you born? Are you originally from Auckland, New Zealand? What was growing up like for you? When did you first begin to have a fascination with music? Do you play any instruments yourself?
I was born in Poole, Dorset in England, 1990. My family moved to New Zealand in 1997 and we moved around the north island a little bit before finally arriving back in Auckland, where I still currently live. New Zealand is a pretty small and quiet place to raise a family, you are never too far from a beach or native bush so it was a really mellow beginning. I definitely appreciate it more as an adult having had my own kid.
What would you and your friends do for fun growing up? Did you go to many local shows in your area growing up? Where would you go to see concerts and who were among some of the first bands you saw that made a huge impact on you?
I grew up for the most part on the north shore of Auckland which is pretty vanilla and there wasn't much to do for young delinquents or pot smoking skateboarding weirdos. There were no venues outside of the central city, I couldn't drive and public transport in Auckland was dismal to say the least. I just skated and hung around with a couple of friends, we'd jam and listen to records but early on I can't think of any live band that blew my mind here. International bands rarely toured New Zealand because of the crazy expense to get everything here, and the relatively small number of cities to play to offset those costs. I got into music pretty early on through skate videos.
The soundtracks introduced me to mainly punk and early metal. By 14 I picked up bass, religiously learnt to play Black Sabbath songs and I just got deeper into music from there on. Aside from bass, I play a bit of everything now. I'm currently in a band called Ounce playing baritone guitar and synths and I generally dabble with other stuff here and there. But the best band I have ever seen in a local show was Thee Oh Sees when I was about 21. They have an undeniable energy and it was fucking sick.
When did you realize you wanted to be an artist? Did you go to school for art? How did you initially become interested in working with bands and in general, music? Before your career in art took off, what was the trajectory like for you? When did everything begin to click for you?
I did art and design at high school but I didn't have any direction. When I went to university I majored in Film Studies and Ethnomusicology so that was a totally different trajectory that didn't really end up going anywhere in a 'professional' sense. But the music I was into had such a strong visual identity that when I started playing in a band in my early 20s and needing art done for records or gig posters I just drew it myself. I've only been freelancing full time for the last 3 or so years and before that I was working as a commercial screen printer and doing small design jobs on the side.
When was your first band commission and who was it? Was it your approach and process when going about creating your work? What are your mediums and who are some of your inspirations?
I think it was a poster when we did a small tour with Endless Boogie. We knew the promoter and he asked me to draw a poster for that. It was mainly psychedelic typography in the style of Wes Wilson. Process wise, aside from drawing up sketches and grabbing some references and the vibe from the client I generally just draw it all up on a piece of paper. Most of my work is just pen or sometimes pencil on paper and then scanned in - as a whole drawing or sometimes in separate layers, treating the composition as a collage to retain some flexibility for changing stuff up. It's pretty straightforward. I'll color and add whatever else like halftones/gradients, a little airbrush and typesets on photoshop. I taught myself to screen print in the early days to get my designs out there for band merch so that medium has always been an informing factor in my work too.
My inspirational figures could go on and on but early on I've always been obsessed with the old 60/70s psych posters - especially all the stuff for the Fillmore/family dog shows... Dudes like Victor Moscoso, Rick Griffin, Lee Conklin, Stanley Mouse... Also cosmic stuff like Phillipe Caza, Phillipe Druillet and Hawkwind graphic artist Barney Bubbles - I love the entire visual world he created for the band. Kinda the cherry on the cake of a band with the whole package! I also just love all the creatively experimental LP covers coming out from the same time, all the prog and jazz fusion covers with wild art... It really did seem like a time to just have free reign!
How has your career impacted your life as you move forward working on projects, developing your style more and more, etc.? What project have you worked on that you’ve enjoyed the most, or has been the most honored/privilege?
I feel very lucky to do this as a job. Every job varies and I get to meet a lot of people from all over the world. It has also rolled seamlessly into my music, where people probably know me for my visual work and then my music too.... it kinda all just functions as a nice little ecosystem. A job that stands out was the Bad Taste album cover. The design felt instinctual and effortless, it felt like a job that reflected where I was organically at as a designer. Any job where I have more creative agency is a favorite!
Has it been difficult since the pandemic to work since live music has been compromised, or has it had a reverse effect on your career and approach? Are you currently working on any new projects? How has your style/approach changed over the years since you’ve first started off on this journey?
The pandemic has definitely changed up the dynamic a bit. With the first wave of covid in 2020 there was a bit of a downturn in work which was thankfully supported with government subsidies. The NZ government also did a pretty good job of managing that first wave so after the initial fallout there was a bit of local work when the international work was dying down. The thing is now we're getting hit with a serge of Omicron so the local scene is dead, whereas conversely all the international work is cranking because I guess everyone else is learning to exist with it. So I've been lucky the whole way. I suppose there is just a lot of flexibility working over the internet - I'm not limited to any local climate.
Project wise I've been working through a few commissions, but am looking to slow down a bit to work on some self-directed work which might be collated into a small publication. My band Ounce is also just gearing up to record our second LP (covid permitting), so I'll be deep in that mindset for a bit and will be designing the art. Who knows what else might materialize in the meantime. My style has definitely changed over the years. My direction and aesthetic has grown up with me. I think my older stuff was a lot more informed by the punk! gnarly! radical! kinda shit. Now I'm more in the sci-fi/psychedelia head space these days. I think actually learning to use Photoshop (to an extent) has also made me more professional.
