Real Name: Aziz
Age: 32
Location: Cardiff, Wales, UK
Website: www.godmachine.co.uk

BIB: How did you get started in illustration?
Godmachine: I have always drawn as far back as I can remember. I remember showing my mate a picture of Mickey Mouse I had drawn. I remember that. With my mind.

It was selling my painting though that made me think I could make a living out of it. Painting. With paints.

BIB: Where did the name Godmachine come from?
Godmachine: It’s the name of a band from the 90’s, seems so long ago yet so recent. Far away, close. I like philosophy and the name appealed to a lot of thoughts I was thinking with my brain at the time. And the story about the god machine from way back when in America is pretty scary - they should make a film about it. A similar story is Demon Seed; I think that was a film from the 70’s written by Dean Koontz. Look it up - it’s scary. The band was good too, a bit dated when I listen to them now and a bit depressing by any standard, but at the time I liked them. The name I took because I didn’t want to use my real name, I suppose in a way I am still a bit private about it all, but that’s getting harder to maintain these days, but fun none the less.

BIB: What are some of your favorite projects you’ve worked on?
Godmachine: I don’t know…um…I don’t really know…I like them all? I suppose I don’t really like working on any project, but rather after the panic and frustration and the worry - the point where you sit back and go…ooooh that turned out OK.

I think my next Back In Black piece is my fav project to date.

BIB: If different, what piece are you most proud of?
Godmachine: The Back In Black piece. And then everything else I have done. I am always full of doubt about my ability and my convictions - nearly every pen stoke is done on a new layer. So every time I do something ‘good’ I am more surprised than anyone. I live in constant fear and surprise. Sometimes it can take me days to do a piece because I am so fearful of being shit - I leave it- afraid to turn on the computer. I think I need to get out more.

BIB: What is the worst client request you’ve ever gotten?
Godmachine: Oh god - where to being? They are all perfectly normal if you are new to the game, but once you have been in it a while the requests become bizarre and frightening. I have a problem when someone wants to use you because of the name and not because of the work you do. I have had a lot of requests for style and stuff I don’t do. I always explain to them how much better for them it would be if they looked for an artist that did exactly what they were looking for. Don’t get me wrong. I like a challenge and I understand that if you take an artist out of the water he is used to you sometimes get gold. But you have to be careful and really work with the artist and client to get the best. That takes more money and time than a lot of these people are used to. So I suppose the worst thing a client has asked me to do is to try and not be myself.

I have deleted a huge section of rant here.

BIB: What is the best part about living in the U.K.?
Godmachine: In the UK we distrust everything. You can’t advertise to us like normal people. We won’t buy it. We are cynical and dubious in our nature. But then we lack that ‘can do’ attitude you guys have in the states. We love seeing people fail over here - its sad- the bigger stars over here are the ones that fuck up the most- it makes us feel better about ourselves. That’s crap. But then you don’t get any smiley glad hands which would drive me insane.

No one believes the hype….well saying that…we have a new generation of kids that have American accents and use words like ‘mail, jelly, sidewalk, etc. etc…its ‘post, jam and curb..ok? Hahahah, I jape. But honestly though, did you know that most of those words are just old English words that we used to use but don’t anymore.

I love our free health care. Not a lot of people know that you can also get private health care here. My folks are on private and I am receiving national. My dad doesn’t mind paying his taxes so his poor son can receive medical attention. It’s not perfect but it is good. Education is free in Wales up until University. You can get a Degree for free over here. Medication is also free. You don’t have to pay for your pills.

The weather is shitty.

If I was stinking rich I would consider living in the states. I would buy a house next to Pale Horse and Hydro74 and post cucumbers through their letterboxes all day.

BIB: How long have you been growing that beard?

Godmachine: Ah the beard. I will answer this and I hope I never get asked again. I have had a bead since I was about 18. I always wanted a beard - it seemed so rebellious to me back then. For years I had handlebar moustaches (trendy again now), Lemmy style burners, goatees, etc. - played about with it loads. Then settled in on a full beard which was neatly maintained. Lately though in the past 4 years I have let it go wild, no trimming and no fucking about. Sometimes in moments of madness I start to care about what I look like to other people and I consider smartening it up. But the moment passes and with a sigh of relief I get back to not giving two fucks. I have a million witty retorts to peoples’ beard comments and it always surprises people when I seem to come across as short tempered with them. They have to understand I hear it constantly throughout the day.

I don’t mind when I get to know someone that it comes up in conversation, like my heritage or religious beliefs (I have none) etc. -  you get my drift. But I feel sorry for young men who openly express their lack of masculinity in public places by announcing that I do in fact have a beard. Hahahah… it’s awesome when I point it out to them.

My main problem is when people pull on it. Strangers walk up to me and pull it. That’s phenomenal! I have no problem with announcing very loud that this person enjoys feeling up strange men which embarrasses them greatly. Thankfully it doesn’t happen that often.

BIB: On average, how many Tweets do you send a day?
Godmachine: Hahahah…you have noticed huh? Do I bother you with my incessant twitting? I am baseless on the web - yet am on here all day. I have this firefox thing that sits in the corner of my screen and connects me to the world. Working alone all day gives me cabin fever and I like to make some noise. It’s either a load of tweets that spew into web-world like mental detritus or pop across the road to the fruit and veg’ store to talk to all the old ladies over there - but there is only so many medical conditions I can stomach and I retreat back to the confines of the house and computer…until loneliness spits me back out onto the street.

I haven’t seen many Pale Horse tweets, but today I have seen many many Hydro74 tweets. Haha…I think we all go through spats of it. There is no denying the aceness of it all. As someone who remembers 20 years of a life with not even mobile phones, this communication device is still mind blowing to me: here I have the whole world listening to me, we have the world’s ear…..the thing is what are we going to say?

My favorite thing is talking to older people who have discovered the web - the awe they maintain about it is inspiring. It saddens me to hear kids on myspace, etc. saying things like ‘I’m bored’…what the hell- you have the WORLD WIDE WEB at your fingertips and you are bored?  I have to drag myself off it. I have become this boring fact machine spewing fragmented knowledge and irreverent debates about all things. The boys in the pub hate it hahahah.

BIB: I heard you recently found a store in Thailand with a wall full of your bootlegged designs. How bummed are you to know that people would steal from you and how did you handle the situation?
Godmachine: When it first happened I used to get all bothered and angry. But now I see that it’s just the way things are. I feel bad for the people who originally bought the designs though. I am thinking that the tees and clothes I am wearing were probably made by these guys at slave labor prices and it’s just some sort of karma or equilibrium sorting the world out. Either way I am not as angry, if at all, as I once was. I still get to draw for a living and I have the same life with these rip offs in the world as I would without them. I imagine that there are a lot more than I don’t know about….ignorance is a great thing I suppose. I wonder how many albums I have ever copied or how many copied films I have ever been leant. Weird how we don’t think of these things….

Check out Godmachine’s Back In Black T-Shirt here.