Interview with Gee Vaucher of Crass.
On Crass, Community, and the Creative Process [Interview from Issue 006 of Swarm, August 2023.]
What was your upbringing surrounding art? Did you come from an artistic family?
I wouldn’t call it art but creativity. My father was very creative and so was my mother, in the art of creating something from nothing -because of the war. My mother would make all of our clothes from old suits and dresses. My father would make all our toys from anything he found on the street; they were very creative in that respect.
How did attending art school impact your creative process?
Well, to be quite honest I hate anyone interfering with me. I hate authority telling me what to do or say, they gave up at art school they kept away -not because I was arrogant about what I was doing but because I tend to learn more by making my own mistakes. That’s important to me -that’s not to say that there was anything they couldn’t teach me - of course if you’re doing sculpture or printing you need to know how to do the technical stuff - once you know how to do that you can start mixing and matching, experimenting. As far as painting or drawing as I was concerned I didn’t want them anywhere near me!
How did you approach collaboration?
Well, you collaborate. I don’t go barging in going “this is the only way we’re going to do it, if you want to work with me we’re doing it this way!” On a certain level -with my more commercial work- I don’t go down the line of art directors usually, I don’t trust them to see what I’m trying to get to, to see what I’m trying to say. But yes, with collaboration we will discuss on what level we’re working with one another - are we collaborating on one piece or bringing different pieces together under a certain theme!
In terms of the Crass sleeves, what was your process like surrounding that?
I was totally involved in the political messaging of Crass. I’d wait to see what the next album was based around - y’ know on “Penis Envy” - we all wrote songs. You get a gist of the songs and what they’re trying to say, and I’d scrabble off to my studio and work on the artwork. Nobody ever asked or told me what to do which was great, they just let me get on with it and again, I was trusted to come up with the right thing! I had a studio next to where they rehearsed but I had to move out of there, the vibrations from the music were much too great! My work really -yknow I come in from the side. There are some pieces I do head on and you can’t really mistranslate what they’re saying but a lot of my work comes in from the side and is left up to the individual to work out. Say for the “Feeding of the 5000” cover, a lot of people read so much different things into that but whereas the poster “Your Country Needs You” only has one meaning - everyone reads it the same. They might be curious about where the hand is coming from but it actually only has one meaning. I like that because it’s international language. I did a few things that were just exercises trying to see if people would translate the pieces in any other ways than what they were. For example “Still life with nude”. Still life - it’s a term you use in classical painting, usually flowers or an object with a nude. But I used it as a dead body on the beach, stretched the phrase a bit more; “still life” it’s dead. You couldn’t really read it any other way than what it was saying. But a lot of my work really is left for the individual to interpret.
What does your creative process currently entail?
I try to keep it as basic and open as possible. A bit of paper I might pick up from the floor and think “Oh, that’s fallen rather well; looks good!” I keep it kinda open, so accidents can happen and I can recognise them rather than trying to drive it to this one thing. Unlike the pieces that can be “head on”, when it’s wide I can let things drop into place. It’s a conversation you have really with the pieces you’re working with.
Has the emergence of new technology like photoshop changed the way you work?
It’s very, very rare for me, I might clean something up in photoshop but otherwise it’s very rare. I can’t see the joy in it, I like being in the studio, I like accidents happening, you can’t get that happening on a computer! Besides, computers were invented by men, why would I want one fucking use that! Y’know I’ve got my own way of doing things, it might take a long time but it gets me where I want to get to! I prefer the physical, tactile side of things; the senses. The smell of the oil paint, the glue, the turpentine, it’s all part of the process.
Circling back to Crass' political messaging, where did initial motivation behind that need for change come from?
You have to remember what Penny and I had been through. We lived through the 60s, fighting against Vietnam, fighting for CND, that was part of our patent. We were old hippies if you’d like; we’d been through all of that. We were in art school from ‘61-69, so were in the height of the sixties, we thought we were going to definitely change the world; the youth voice really came out in all it’s glory. It’s [Crass] always been about the state of the society that we live in, I knew there was something wrong when I was a kid, I knew there was injustice but I didn’t know exactly what it was. For me, it was Aberfan that hit me really hard, for fighting against injustice, greed, culpability.
It’s incredible and honestly a bit tragic that your lyrics are still applicable-if not even more relevant- to today’s world. Did you think this would be the case when you were writing them?
Oh god yeah, I suppose so, if you look back at the generation that we were taking inspiration from, they were coming up a different road but had the same ideas. Things won’t get better until we get rid of the systems and people stop thinking solely about themselves. It’s gotten worse, and now people are forced to think about themselves -because of Thatcherism- because of the mortgages they’ve all fucking got, the new car they’ve gotta have… Once upon a time people used to vote -especially the working class- on what was best for the people. Now it’s all about “What am I going to get from it, not what are WE going to get from it!” This country [England] has changed.
Earlier Penny mentioned that the label of "anarchists" was placed on you in the early days of Crass. Is anarchism something you identify with, and if so, how would you define it?
Yes, we did get labelled with it, but we then did take it on. We’re not talking about ripping everything apart, that’s what people think it is. No rules, blah blah blah, it’s actually not like that at all! It confronts authority, unless you pull apart what you’re being taught -by the state, the church, by your parents- you’re just going to be like the pied piper; following a leader, not really understanding why you think what you do. It’s about how you feel. You have to have to feel it if you want to make the changes, inside yourself. Find out who you are, you might end up still thinking the way you thought before but at least you’ve dissected it and thought “Yeah, this is me, I do actually believe this and not just because some teacher at school told me I have to think this way.” And that for me -if we are going to use the word anarchy- is absolutely upsetting everything inside yourself, having the courage to look, having the courage to confront that pain, that confusion. I don’t see how anything can change for good in a solid, positive way otherwise.
I think bands like Crass-and punk bands in general- have really emphasised the importance of the community element of music. Crass has definitely had a huge impact on the Drogheda music scene anyways -you'd go to a gig and you're guaranteed to see kids with their handmade Crass shirts and patches. Would you mind speaking a bit on Dial House in terms of the community aspect?
Yeah! Well Dial House has been an open House for fifty four years now. It's gone through phases, it closed after the band because our parents were getting older and we we're doing a lot of care work. Before that, Penny and I were the oldest members and Steve was the youngest. Having the community be from all these different backgrounds was fantastic, having all these different life experiences, it didn't matter if you were from a privileged background or working class or anything.
What would your advice to the youth of today be?
Never give up really. Try again, if you fail, try again; it's all that you can do really. Society doesn't expect you to do that, they expectyou to crumble, grovel. No, no, start again. Get yourself level, sit quietly and think "I'm gonna try this again, coming from a different angle. Speak to people, be kind. It all comes back to you, if you're kind and generous with your time with other people they'll reciprocate that and you make connections. Everyone has got a piece of the puzzle; you need to listen and share.