INTERVIEW
Pushead, the man who dwells in weird, won-
drous daymares. The artist whose vision is so
strong, so visceral that in a few short years
he's gone from underground obscurity in
Boise, Idaho, to practically reshaping the look
of hardcore/metal/skateboard graphics.
Pushead, the seasoned skater and demon
voice behind Septic Death, an eccentric
musical tornado that plays hyperspeed jazz as
hardcore, a dynamo of creative energies. One
hand releases records on his own Pusmort
label and the other conjures graphic designs
for Metallica, Zorlac, Aerosmith, Blitspeer and
Prong. His ears remain tuned to the latest
skull-busting sounds he raved about for years
in the Puszone and other arti-
cles. Try to pin one
tag on
What are your feelings about interviews?
Interviews can be informative and a great source of enter-
tainment. The chance of finding that type of interview these
days seems a bit slim, since most interviews are promotion
for the individual or group being marketed. Since the ques-
tions are generally centered around that product, you can
really fall away. Then, if that individual or group has nothing
to say besides the promoting, it's a yawn-fest. Then again,
there are the powerful few who hold a certain amount of 'sell
power, and you'll always see them regardless of promoting
products, even to the point of non-intelligent interview
mumbo-jumbo about their personal hygiene. Again, it's only
entertainment. I tend to stay away from doing interviews
Just a choice I made to have the art talk rather than
myself. To avoid being misquoted and saying the same thing
over and over again. Some people take what is said in inter-
views too seriously. I hope my opinions are just that and are
taken for entertainment. I can't really figure out what I'm
promoting this week-Ha! Ha!
What is your skateboard history?
I started in 1964, '65 in San Bernardino, CA. My father
was a carpenter and made my first board from hard wood. We
were lucky enough to find some used roller skates
that had nice, wide, for those days, clay
wheels. I had no idea there was
a skateboarding
Boise where a new skatepark had just been built. It had a
tremendous amount of faults, but you found areas that
worked and skated it. For Boise it was something
When did you move back to southern California?
About 1978, I got antsy at my record hop job and wanted
to skate in some new environments. I lived in north San Diego
County and became a regular at the Del Mar Skate Ranch. It
was a gas in those days, though I hated wearing safety
equipment. I never wore the elbow pads, hated the things. I
skated a lot of the So. Cal. skateparks, most weren't that
exciting, but there were a few that were were worth the trip.
Didn't you do a bunch of artwork for the skate industry
around that time?
True. I won a contest designing the Del Mar Skate Ranch
logo and got 30 days of free skating. I did a bunch of stuff
for UFO, I did that Saucer on the pool at 8:00 am. It was a
spur of the moment deal. They decided the night before,
called me up at 6:00 AM and we drove out to Escondido to
the Kona Bowl (a legend in those days) to paint the hip wall.
It was my first time to the Kona Bowl and when I saw the
coping. I understood why UFO made the saucer wheel (first
conical wheel). It stuck out so far that if you'd grind it your
wheels would be nowhere close to hitting
DUHEAD
"Make an
effort, show
your hardware.
Stand united,
live active,
build hardware.
The tools of
your pride exist
inside, your
creative nature
comes forth to
be. Hardware
can't hide!"
-Septic Death
"Hardware"
him,
and he'll
inevitably disagree. Then
he'll tell how he's suffered from
overindulgence in his passions-the skate-
board injuries and the relentless ringing in his
ears from years of high volume sonic warfare.
Pus lives his hardware. Kids no longer draw
skulls that same flat "Jolly Roger" way, but
instead, the Pushead way. Shopping mall
t-shirt racks are full of his vibrant "Kuro"
(Japanese for 'Black') line of shirt designs.
Pushead has waged a war of silent aesthetic
terrorism for years, and now he's winning.
Still, the man remains a virtual recluse, only
stepping into the spotlight for occasions such
as his fall '89 art show at New York's
Psychedelic Solution gallery. Pus rarely does
interviews and assures that this will
be his last for quite a long time.
MIKE GITTER
the surface. Painting the wall wasn't the easiest task. Kona
boom on then or that there was had lots of vertical and quick transitions-I kept sliding. I
was just about finished with it when Tatum and all the UFO
team skaters showed up. They kept skating by over my head,
so I had to finish it fast. When they did the photo session, I
was amazed at how high Tatum and Sigurson got past the
coping. The photos don't do them justice.
What was your favorite skatepark?
a magazine. It was just something I did and enjoyed. We usu-
ally just cruised the sidewalks, but when some friends of the
family moved, they left the kidney pool in their backyard
drained. We used to hop the fence and skate in the bottom of
it-little carves and stuff. We never went on the walls or
even thought that was possible. The closest we ever got to
the walls was rolling marbles down the incline.
Skateboarding for me was just cruising around until I saw
these two Hawaiian surfer guys doing all the freestyle/surfing
type tricks. I rushed to watch and eagerly wanted to leam. I
learned quickly that when you tried these new tricks you fell
down a lot more.
When did you move to Idaho?
In 1970. My father was tired of the smog and Idaho was a
premier place for fish and game, so we loaded up the car and
moved to Boise. I was still skateboarding then, but no one
else had one so we all shared. We'd go downhilling a lot, no
tricks or anything, just semi-fast craziness on clay wheels. I
gave up when the deck finally gave way with no possible way
to fix it. It wasn't until 1974, when someone at my high
school showed up with one of the new fiberglass/urethane
wheels deck and I hopped on and cruised the school halls
that the feeling was back again. Within the year, I had one of
the new breed of decks and it opened up a whole new world.
About 1975, because Boise is plentiful in hills, we really
got into slalom and downhilling. We started this small race
network and just had fun. This lasted a while. I got antsy.
with my skating and my job, so I moved to Alabama with my
relatives. I lived about 20 minutes from Pensacola, Florida,
so I was there all the time skating at the skatepark, finding
pools and getting great skate experience. I moved back to
Del Mar was always a blast. I loved that front reservoir
That's all I really needed. I wasn't into competing with all the
skaters who skated the main pool for photos in the magazine.
doing the same tricks, the same lines. That wasn't for me.
Even someone like Jeff Tantalus-who was so defiant with
his 40" x 5" deck, hand-made and hand-painted, with his
'wood' rubbers and only skated the Del Mar Kona pool-had
more lines, more angles than anyone in that pool. He just
couldn't work it the same. So the 'magazine few thought he
sucked, but he did what he did. Grant used to tease me
about all the tricks I'd make up in the reservoir, but it was all
in fun. I did notice that when the pros came down for a con-
test, they'd watch the locals. Any interesting trick they could
steal, they would, to help them win. A few of the tricks I
invented I taught to the younger skaters who had potential
and needed something for their edge in competition. Kyle
Jensen learned the pogo in a few days and could do it so well
the right way no stopping on coping. It was his trick and
gained him contest strength and exposure. Kevin Staab did
the first fakie ollie and it was an accident. He was real
young, like 12, and we were trying to teach him a rock in on
coping. Since the shallow end of the Del Mar Kona Pool was
really small, it was great for younger kids. He kept on doing
these fakies back and forth trying to get his courage up to do
the fakie rock. But every time he would unweight his back
foot wrong and the
board would pop off the coping. He kept
falling, but one time he bailed and the board landed perfect
and jetted to the other side. Great. Now Kevin stays on. Keep
in mind that this was the late 70s and ground was still being
broken to what would occur in the late 80s. As for
skateparks, I liked Marina Del Rey (especially the Brown
Bowls) and Del Mar the best.
Didn't you skate the infamous San Onofre pipes?
Yes. I went there. It was paradise. My all-time favorite
place for sure. The first time I went I was antsy, considering I
drove...all the outlaw stuff you had to do, all the military
stuff, hiding the car, hiking, etc. Some things I'd rather not
say. But when you got there, it was great. At least fifty
pipes were there at the same time, some all in-sync, some
individuals, but it was perfect. Gliding back and forth. A
great memory
Why did you move back to Boise?
The basics. Lost my job, couldn't find a new one, low
funds, so I went back to where my family was. Even though I
was bummed at the time, it was probably a really good thing.
I really went into illustrating more than I already was. Plus,
skateboarding was really underground, which made it much
more fun. We had no skatepark, thus the dawning of ramps
began in Boise.
What artists have influenced you?
It's a long list-I collect art books and I usually crave new
stuff, but I'm really picky at the same time. Over the years
I've discovered some incredible talent, so here goes... My
favorite artist is Virgil Finlay who drew in the 30s through the
60s for pulps, sci-fi books and mags. He drew in mostly black
and white and created so many different types of detail
styles it boggles the mind. After that, in practically no order:
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