Aug 09, 2021
Sofa King Evil… Dan Dippel enjoys a bit of “Dark Lord overtone” in his life. He also likes a tufted cushion or two under his bottom. Here he explains to Steffan Chirazi the dovetail which helped create his excellent “Nothing Else Matters” piece.
As Dan Dippel (aka 1000Styles ) appears on my Zoom screen, I am immediately transfixed by what must be the greatest beard currently in existence on the East Coast. Not only does it have heft and form, it has striking greys and silvers (all supremely tended to, it appears) and an owner who possesses the sort of line work skill which has earmarked him as a highly in-demand artist (funnily, said-beard looks like a piece of glorious line-art on my screen). Working with a range of clients from Foo Fighters to Rammstein to Wu-Tang Clan, the Upstate New York-based Dippel has unsurprisingly stepped up and hit a homerun with his striking new Metallica piece for “Nothing Else Matters.” As we start our chat, I find myself calling the work “lovely”…us British certainly have an odd way with words sometimes.
Steffan Chirazi: I had said to you that your piece for “Nothing Else Matters” was lovely, but I think that might be the wrong adjective because, while it is beautiful, it is actually very macabre. We’ve got these figures entwined, if you will. No flesh involved, all bone. Walk us through it.
Dan Dippel: When I was trying to figure out what direction to go with this poster, of course I looked at the lyrics of the song that the poster’s supposed to be all about, and from what I’ve found, it was kind of a letter from James to his girlfriend at the time about being on the road, being out away from home, away from her, how that felt for him and how he dealt with that. So [to me] it was just an affirmation to her, to reaffirm his love to her despite the challenges that they were experiencing in their relationship at the time. So I took that in a slightly different direction, socially. I really like art nouveau styled art, I really like the Victorian age, that whole time period in history, and I’m definitely very interested in history in general, so it made sense for me to take that concept of “the challenged relationship” to a different place. Mine is showing two people in a relationship that’s challenged not by distance, or by any of the modern challenges that James and his girlfriend were facing that he was writing about, but more a social divide. The woman in the piece is very, very upper class, very high in social rank; you can tell by her beautiful hair and impeccable outfit, plus all of her jewelry and everything else. She is in love with someone at the opposite end of the scale-
SC: A lowly peasant if you will!
DD: Right. Exactly. A lower class laborer. You know, whatever the opposite would be in 1895. He’s got tattered clothes; he’s got replacement teeth. So it was just a spin on that concept. Instead of a distance and modern relationship challenge, it was a social divide from 130 years ago or whatever that they’re trying to get past, telling each other that nothing else matters, that we can still be in love regardless of what everybody in our different societies are telling us.
SC: That’s very cool. Can I ask about that little snake which loiters somewhere in this piece?
DD: I just love the album art for The Black Album in general. I like everything dark and evil and sort of macabre like that, and the snake is such a great image from that record that I wanted to include in some way, but not have it be, you know, intrusive. So I just kinda tucked it in there for people to find on the second or third look, you know?
SC: There’s a lot of grays, blacks, and silvers, even in the hair, but then you’ve got this real, I don’t know, is it a moss green? How would you describe that color? And talk about what that color means to you. I know you said you loved it when we were speaking earlier, so where did you first see that color, and when did you first decide you wanted to incorporate that color into your work?
DD: I’m not sure what I would call it, maybe a desaturated yellow ochre of some sort? A mustard green? I don’t know, somewhere in there. I just feel like it has a really nice vibe, especially when mixed with, you know, black, a bone white, and some shades of gray. The line work in my pieces is kind of the “center stage” because that’s the part I enjoy doing the most, and to color a poster with so much line work for me is a challenge because I try to color it in a way that’s not gonna take away from that line work. So that yellow color with shades of black and white around it really worked for me in that respect.
SC: Let me throw upon you my romanticized version of how these things work. It would be, “Oh, he was wandering through the forest one day and happened to see a bee or a hummingbird or something with that color on it and was like ‘Christ, that’s a great color, I’m gonna use that.’” I mean, was there any revelatory moment like that where you came across this color and thought, “This speaks to me,” or am I just being a little over-dramatic and flouncy about it all? And you can tell me if I am. You wouldn’t be the first.
DD: I can’t remember the first time where that color… well, actually no, that’s not true. I do remember the first time that color slapped me in the face and made itself known to me, but it’s not romantic or fancy in the least. I found a couch, an old couch at The Salvation Army. Just this little, you know, it’s this little tufted button couch that I bought for, like, $25 or something, and it’s that color! I’ve had it for like 25 years and it’s just the coolest looking little couch that you could possibly imagine! My wife hates it, but I love it and I’m never gonna get rid of it. And it’s that color so, that’s probably where this all came from.
SC: Tremendous and logical. We spend a large amount of our time either in our beds or sitting on sofas, right? So it’s a pretty consistent part of your world and it’s cool that the color ticked something in your head.
DD: Yeah, for sure.
SC: Let’s go back a little bit. What were some of the early things from childhood that really dragged you into the world of art?
DD: I’ve always been interested in just drawing ever since before I can remember. But it really started to take off when I got into comic books at late elementary school age, middle school age, and I remained a diehard fan all throughout high school and even into college. I started out with the usual stuff, Spider-Man and Batman, the Frank Miller/Dark Knight stuff, and I’m still a huge fan of Batman. Then I got into Image Comics as they were starting to come out, and stuff like Spawn. Todd McFarlane was a huge hero of mine throughout my early artistic development. His line work and his style were things that I wanted to emulate. Then as things developed, I got away from comics and more into other things, which is where I think music took over after comics. I started to get into different kinds of music, metal especially, seeing band t-shirts like the Pushead stuff. That was another big one for me, Metallica shirts with Pushead artwork on ’em. I started to go that direction, to listen to it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and it was around early high school that I decided that that album covers, t-shirt graphics, promotional materials for tours, and posters were the direction I wanted to go in.
SC: You do enjoy a medieval horse or two, in fact in fairness, you enjoy a slightly medieval take on things. Is it too much to say that there are periods of history that are deep motivators for you?
DD: Yeah, I would say so. I am a huge fan of TV shows and movies that deal with past times, medieval stuff, anything up until 1900. It just fascinates me to imagine what life was like back in those times anywhere from even as far back as ancient Rome and ancient Egypt. There’s the 7th, 8th, 9th century Viking era, then the 12th century, 13th century, 14th century early medieval and early Renaissance eras. And the Industrial Revolution too, I really, really love how factories looked, just the esthetic of a mid to late 19th century factory and old industrial ruins. I could spend a whole day somewhere like that taking pictures. That kind of thing definitely gets me going in terms of just thinking about how life was back then.
SC: It’s not an either-or question, but if you’re on horseback, are you gonna be more of a Genghis Khan or a Robin Hood?
DD: Probably Robin Hood, I think. I don’t like being kind of front and center like Genghis Khan would be. I’d rather be more the Robin Hood type, kinda stealthy, in the shadows, getting what I want but nobody knows I’m even there. That kind of a character would definitely appeal to me more.
SC: Would you fancy yourself to survive in the medieval era?
DD: Yeah, I think I would. I don’t know exactly for long because I’m not good at sports, I’m not good at anything having to do with physical activity really, although I like to try to stay in shape and I do certain things to that end.
SC: Finally, we’ll trail back to music to round off. What is your history with The Black Album?
DD: I’m a huge fan of the album and of the band. I’ve been a metal head since I was in fourth grade, and that for me was about 1988, so I got into Metallica along with a bunch of other metal bands pretty early on. The album that was out when I got into Metallica was …And Justice for All, and a friend of mine got me into Metallica when they gave me the first four records. It’s all history after that. So I was already a Metallica fan when The Black Album came out, I loved it to death immediately, and have been playing it ever since. I [still] play that record from front to back, and it’s one of the records that never gets old. I think that’s a huge accomplishment for any band, to have a record that people just continue to play forever. For me, this album has been that, and it’s amazing to be able to do a poster for a record that holds that kind of place in your collection.
Dan Dippel aka 1000styles can be found online at thousandstyles.com and on Instagram @1000styles.
Dan enjoys an evil film or few and is also blasting his ears with music 24/7. Here’s his all-time movie favorites and current music playlists (in no order of preference).
TUNES
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