Keith recently did an interview with Virus Magazine out of Germany on his art and was nice to mention his old buddy Blake (#15 but read the whole thing). Below is the English version of the interview and the link to the magazine's site is here.
16 Questions to Keith Neltner
1. Hi Keith, your’re well known in the business for quite a while. How and when did you start you career? What is your background? I've been in the advertising and design field for little over ten years. I've worked with international brands doing branding, identity work, package design, etc. My true interest lies within the music industry. As a fan of so many bands and artists, it's a perfect collaboration and application of my art. I’m often inspired by the extremes—even bands like the Misfits have such a strong visual with the crimson ghost. These icons can register with kids as much as a Nike logo.
2. Are you a „natural“ talent or have you been studying art at a school? I've had formal training in Visual Communications where I learned the history of typography, color theory, etc. Illustration has been a talent I've refined and continue to discover new things about since I was a kid drawing dinosaurs. A lot of my illustration derived from necessity, with bands not having any funding or photography. I had to really think about how an illustration could be powerful enough to grab someone’s attention.
3. Together with your brother you formed Neltner Creative. Let us know how you work together. Rick and I grew up around and on a farm in Kentucky. Our great, great grandfather and his brother came to the U.S. from Germany in the late 1800's and settled in the valley we grew up in. You can see in our work country themes that often have an unsettling nature about them. Growing up, we butchered pigs, chickens, and cattle so we saw things that would be disturbing to most people, but it was just a way of life for us. Now we've found a use for all of this imagery, and where it makes sense it seeps into our work. We also collaborate with peers in the industry such as Tommy Sheehan, Mike Amann, Chris Dye, and Rob Warnick (You can see Keith and Rob's work at www.thesmallprintstudios.com), which can drive our projects in a different direction.
4. How would you describe your art? I would like to think of my art as powerful. I want the viewer to see or discover new things each time they look at it. At the root of the art is an idea that’s connected to the music or the artist's history. I want it to be relevant and not just a "cool" image—it should tell a story in some way.
5. Your style is obviously influenced by posters, advertisements and labels of the 19th and early 20th century. How would you explain your preference for this kind of style? Going to a vintage shop or studying old signs, wood blocks, and literature—these have all instilled a sense of history. Being able to repurpose that heritage or let it influence new work makes for a mesh of new and old that can feel timeless but contemporary. If my work were thought to be vintage, or appear as if it's been pulled from an attic, that's a huge compliment. It's relatively easy to create something clean and bold but to age and weather something in a convincing way is truly a craft.
6. Although the style seems to be very old-fashioned the content is often rather macabre - one of the reasons why your art is so unique. Would you say that this antagonism is the most significant part of your art? I would. It's that eeriness of an old country road at night. You might as well be in an urban area because both backdrops can invoke the same uneasiness and darkness. The contrast of "down home" subjects infused with macabre, absurd, or unsettling imagery or undertones—something slightly off—that’s what I find appealing.
7. You do a lot of art for Hank III, the grandson of country legend Hank Williams and your style and his music seem to be a perfect match. Where did you meet him and are you into country music? What really sparked the interest in the music industry was seeing Shelton Hank Williams III almost ten years ago. He played an intense 3 hour country set, with fans buying shots, talking about leaving rehab, and ending in him throwing himself and his guitar on the drum kit (ala Kurt Cobain). Then he just sat on the edge of the stage and talked with his fans—a complete southern gentleman. I had always known the lineage growing up on a farm and listening to country music in the 80s but had started listening more to Tool, Nirvana, Metallica, AC/DC, etc. So seeing that punk energy mixed with traditional, ghost like style of Hank SR. was inspiring. I created my first poster with Paul Neihaus, who wrote the line "Bloodline Gone Bad," and we ended up meeting Shelton after a show by pure chance. He called me weeks later and we've been collaborating ever since. As his music has gotten more raw you can see that progression mirrored in my art as well, from the Suicide Cowboy image (Hank blasting away with a double barrel shotgun), a mule meeting the executioner, or most recently a hooded figure (inspired by a Halloween mask Hank III wore on stage). The work just continues its whisky soaked spiral downward.
8. We can find a lot of skulls – especially goat skulls – in your art. Any reason for that? The hills around me are filled with skulls and bones from horses, deer, and cattle that have met their end, so I have great reference. Usually these fit the artist I'm working for, as a traditional western motif, I always try and spin it into something unique or twisted rather than feeling like you're at a ranch in Texas.
9. When you start working on a new project, what inspires you? Is it music, movies or simply a name of a band when you do a record cover? It always starts with the music. It's like the score to a movie—the music works with what is happening visually. I think the same flavor shows up in good album art. It might be a lyric or a song or even what you feel standing at a live show. Sometimes bands have a specific idea in mind. When I worked on Superjoint Ritual they had elements and themes they really wanted to come through on the cover. So the end result was a cover that has a lot of layers and southern elements. I try and do as much research on the band, their genre, or their content within the album before getting started. And a lot of times, where I am in my life or things I've seen recently can be an influence or inspiration. I've been working on projects for South by Southwest (SXSW) and have been in Austin, Texas recently, and I can see color and textures that inform the work immediately.
10. Have you ever done a comic or contributed paintings to a book? I'm influenced by comic book art and very impressed by the incredible talent and story telling delivered in a book you can buy for $2.50. Comics like Oink: Heaven's Butcher, James O'barr: The Crow, and Todd McFarlane are among my favorites.
11. Are there any artist you were inspired by? There are some amazing poster artists right now. I enjoy Jay Ryan, Rob Warnick, Jason Tidwell, Dave Kinsey, Shephard Fairey, and Banksy. But honestly I find a new favorite each day online—it's amazing the talent out there and how you can access it.
12. Are there any current artists you’re smitten with? Any comic artists maybe? Right now Dave Kinsey has gotten my attention. I have a 9 color print of his and am just amazed how he layers his work. The dark figures that inhabit his work can be haunting but he creates them in a painterly way.
13. Have you thought of doing a comic book? I'm always looking for new outlets, so I suppose a comic book would fit the bill. Recently I've been involved in skateboard art for Sector 9, shoes for Vox, sunglasses, a new art magazine called Metal Farm, so seeing new forms and formats for the art is really exciting.
14. A guy creating such infernal images surely does’t look disney movies. (Or do you?!) What are your favourite movies? What was the last movie you saw in a theater? Ha. Actually my two year old daughter Quinn gets me watching all sorts of things, it's good to have balance, right? Some of my favorites are The Crow, Se7en, Candy, Batman: The Beginning, Seven Signs, Sin City, and 300. The last film I saw in the theater would be Cloverfield, I'm a sucker for the hype.
15. Your images sometimes show visions of hell. Have you ever thought of writing a script for movie or even create an animated movie? I've been working with Blake Judd of JuddFilms on a couple documentary projects (one being a Hank III project), and he recently finished a project with JD of Th' Legendary Shack Shakers called Seven Signs. So my mind is always thinking of new applications or what to create next. I would never rule it out.
16. What are your plans for the future? Will there be a artbook featuring your art? I hope to keep refining my skills and getting the work out to as many people as I can.
This article is a good example of the reach you can have across the globe. From a stone house in a Kentucky valley to Germany, it's amazing how close the world has become. We've been doing more and more gallery shows, Paul Grushkin (coauthor of the Art of Modern Rock) has taken a number of our prints on the road to his lectures, and we're really trying to push the Reinstate Hank SR campaign (www.reinstatehank.org). All of your readers should check this out and sign the petition--it's a crime Hank was kicked out of the Opry and to this day is not a member, although they use his image like the cornerstone of the building. I do hope to publish a book of my work. Finding the right publisher and putting a piece together I'm proud of will be the key.
