NW: Your work has a number of different elements to it. An event such as 'The Fantastic Kill Mega Event' has the audience eating, watching, listening to, as well as buying your work. Do you see this as the idea of 'suspension of disbelief' and can you comment on how your work functions to infiltrate the audience on a number of levels?
MN: Entertainment is such a multi-level thing. You have five or more senses so you are able to get entertained on a number of levels. But I wouldn't really call 'The Fantastic Kill Mega Event' something that would enduse a 'suspension of disbelief'. That was just me and my friends giving a whole bunch of people something cool to talk about. When I was young I was fascinated with the Guiness Book of Records. That was my favourite thing in the world. My mom used to buy me the new one every year for Christmas. I thought it was the coolest thing to the 'The Best in the World' at something. So now, if I attempt something, it has to be the best thing in the world, otherwise its boring to me. Like with the Fantastic Kill Mega Event. That was my first time to throw an event myself. I think Andrew Lambrecht gave me the idea for the name. He said it should be 'a mega event'. And I said, lets call it that. Then I tried my best to show everyone a real good time. I've been working real hard for real long at making music, and movies, and toys and a whole bunch of things, that all have little stories behind them and are kinda interesting to check out.
A whole bunch of people dug what me and my friends were up to that night which was real cool because we showed them our art and they gave us a good feeling back. But the only crap thing about showing your art to the public is that there are alot of retarded people out there (like Suzy Bell for instance) who also came to see what's going on, because they don't know whats going on, and will never know because they've gone and ruined a perfectly healthy brain by being lazy and giving up, which makes you retarded.
NW: There is a seriousness, and a revealing of real truths in your writing as well as a number of your lyrics. Do you see this as contrasting to your sculptural works as well as your drawings which portray softer, more playful almost comical connotations, or do you see these different elements as linked, conveying similar messages in different ways?
MN: That's a really cool question. I'm the most serious person I know. I study the truth all the time. It's so mysterious to me. I can't get enough of it. The truth is full of surprizes. Its like cycling. It you're not fit, then you get tired easily, and its difficult to just go over one little hill. And if you want to go fast, you really have to pedal hard, then you huffing and puffing and you start having a heart-attack. But if you not lazy and you train often, then you can go really far and see really intersting things. And you don't have to exert alot of energy but you travelling along at a cool pace just exerting a light pressure to keep your momentum up. And you feel really alive and the expression on your face is soft. Its good to be tough on the inside and soft on the outside. Some people act like goats because they are soft inside and tough on the outside. Me and my art are very much the same thing. I'm busy with a whole bunch of stuff at the moment, one of them is a series of animated wild-life documentaries called 'Welcome to Sunny South Africa'.My friend Anthony has borrowed all my hand-made master toys from my other friend, Ann, who bought my entire range. Anthony's a 3D animation genius, so he's busy turning all my animal sculptures into virtual sculptures. They really tricky cos they so small. Anyway, my other friend, Innocent Dlamini, is going to be doing the voice for these little wild-life documentaries, like a young, black Richard Attenborough. Also another cool thing is, Anthony owns this company called Ontwerp, and MTV international have just moved in upstairs to his offices in Johannesburg. So I thought a nice way to introduce ourselves to MTV would be to make a bright and colourful DVD for them that has a few of these little animated wild-life documentaries on. Then at the end of the cute little 10 second wild-life documentaries, you hear all these black kids shouting "Welcome to Sunny South Africa MTV!" Then we throw that MTV logo in there with a splat! Then MTV will say "Oh that's nice, thankyou very much!" Then we'll say "It's a pleasure!" But we won't ask them for anything cos that's bad style. William Burrows said,"Never trust a prostitute who tells you she doesn't want any money. The truth is: she wants more money. Alot more money!"
NW:You say that you are interested in what is true, and what is true about yourself and others. You say that you are not afraid of the unknown because you are not afraid of yourself, you feel protected by it. How is this portrayed in your work? Is there a spiritual side to your work?
MN: I love my work. I'm so interested in it because i don't know what's going to happen next, but i know its gonna be cool. I work very close to what I'm doing, but at the same time I'm working towards something huge! I try to make that something huge as big as possible, bigger than anything that's ever been done before! Cos I really wanna get into the flippin Guiness Book of Records. I don't know what I'm going to be the best in the world at yet, so I'm trying a whole bunch of things till I work it out. I like to wake up at 3 in the morning and have a cold shower sometimes, then I go sit on the floor and stare at my brain till it keeps quiet. Its very intimmidating if someone just stares at you for long and doesn't say anything. If you talking a whole bunch of rubbish, and this person is just staring at you saying nothing, after a while you keep quiet, then you can hear the ringing in your ears. A little while ago I was nervous because my friend Anthony from Johannesburg was comming to visit me and i hadn't met him yet,only on email. And i woke up at 3 am because my brain was going nuts, and i walked up to the top of signal hill while it was dark. It was pretty windy when I got to the top. I sat there for a while listening to the wind. I sat facing the sea side instead of the city side cos it felt nicer on my brain. Then I lay down and slept a bit. But when I woke up it was still dark. So I walked back down. Then it started getting light just as I started climbing down from the top and these two people who got up real early got a fright when they saw me. And I said "Beat you!"
NW: You state that "One day the true mystery will be revealed to all of us. I long to experience this revelation in life and in death." How do you use art and music to explore this longing?
MN:The first element in science is sound. We're made of sound. Matter is made out of sound. We all vibrate at a particular frequency. Sound is really powerful. You can destroy things or heal things with sound. If you scream at someone, you can really hurt them worse than if you hit them. If you say something nice to someone you can make them feel really cool. You can even fix someone who is feeling broken, just by the tone in your voice. Your brain responds really well to sound. Some people do yoga and meditate because they are trying to fix their brains. You can chant which makes a vibration that can tune your brain into next level frequencies. Its cool to be next level...
But being creative produces the highest frequency of all. Most yoga teachers piss me off. I love yoga but you have to be on the next level if you want to teach me something otherwize you really going to notice me sitting there in your class, staring at you. Its my birthday today by the way. I was born on the 26th of September 1974. So I'm 32. My girlfriend bought me new underpants and socks. I flippin love new socks. New socks are like a new song or a new anything. They just make you feel nice. I like feeling nice.
NW: Your drawings as well as your sculptures have a degree of innocence to them, does this link to the notions of peace, acceptance of the unknown and this longing that you speak of or does it relate more to conveying a strong message in a simple way so as to impact both adults as well as the younger generation?
MN: To be honest Niel, alot of the time, i don't really know what's going on. I don't watch TV or listen to the radio. I sometimes look at the newspaper headlines, except THE VOICE and DIE SON which i sometimes look at by accident, then I feel gross. So I'm not really that in touch with the outside world.I watch alot of movies, but only cool movies. If a movie is lame I have to stop watching it because otherwise it feels like I only have so many hours to live on Earth, and why am I watching this movie. You can fill your brain with so many wonderful experiences, you can make these experiences up, or you can look for them, but your brain must be healthy
and fit if you want to find undiscovered things. Its really good to have a fit imagination. If your imagination is fit its easy to think of new things. If your imagination is lazy its difficult to think of new things. Sometimes new things can even freak you out. When you young you love new things. Then when you older you like things that you are used to. These things make you feel ok. But i aint going out like that.You don't have to grow up to be a doos.
NW: Are the wildlife documentaries that you're making going to be released with Max Normal TV or are they part of a different project?
MN: Everything I do from now on will be released on MaxNormal.TV.
NW: It appears as if your work functions to infiltrate society on a number of levels. In a previous answer you said that sound as well as music are very powerful, so would you say that your music has more of an impact on people, or is it rather a combination of your art and your music which creates such a powerful effect?
MN: I'm very influenced by cool things. A little while ago i stopped making music for a while and focussed more on my illustration. I noticed that people liked my pictures more than my music.
I know alot of people really like my music, but only a certain kind of people. Like fresh, intelligent people mostly. The thing with my illustrations was, everyone liked them! Like my mom, older people, little kids, fresh kids, everyone. Then I started making toys using my illustrations as designs and people went nuts for them! It really made them feel cool. Then I started making music again which got heavily influenced by my drawings and my toys. It took a while to merge these elements. The thing I really focus on the most is writing stories.If you have a little story that's interesting to tell someone, and you can keep it interesting when you write it down. Then you got something very special right there. All the music, movies and merchandise that I make all come from these stories. Movies are my favourite medium for communicating my art with an audience. Because they are capable of indusing that 'suspension of disbelief' you mentioned in your first question. Suspending someone's disbelief is my favourite thing in the world.
NW: Lately you have been doing a lot of collaborative work, do prefer working in this way, or is it just more suitable for the large scale projects you are working on?
MN: Me and my personal assistant Yolandi come up with ideas. We're a team. Then we get our ideas locked down. Then we carefully select people to help us realize these ideas. Me and Yolandi are pretty next level, so our ideas are pretty large scale.
NW:What would you say the purpose of making art is?
MN: To keep my mood nice, and to share this mood with other people.
fin.
