SIMON ERL - interview.

The first time I met Simon Erl was outside the Crowbar in London before a 12 bar show. He with stood with a group of people that I also knew, I don't know how it started but we suddenly realised with both had a love of The Manson Family, he told me he had made some Manson prints & that he would send me some if I gave him my address. So A few weeks later they came, I never thought he would actually have sent them. So from that chance encounter I have stayed in contact with him for the last 3 years.


I think his art is so amazing I love everything about it, he really has his own style, So as well as just interviewing hardcore bands on here I thought I would think out the box & ask him for an interview, which he agreed & here we go.

1, THE BEGINING SEEMS A GOOD PLACE TO START, WHERE ARE YOU FROM ORIGINALLY?I was born in Germany, got carried around as a toddler all over the world and then spent my teens in New Zealand.

2, WHEN DID YOU DO YOUR FIRST TATTOO & HOW DID YOU GET INTO IT?I got an apprenticeship in New Zealand and a shop called Ataia Tattoo i think it was 2005. They had just opened and it was on the way from my house to my day job so I just went in on the off chance. They already had an apprentice but they fired him as they saw more potential in me, which is funny because my paintings and drawings were dreadfull at that point.

3, ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THE FIRST TATT YOU DID?
Hell no. It was a foetus in a whiskey bottle. I'd love to see how it looks now hahaha
4, YOU HAVE BEEN DOING TATTS IN A FEW COUNTRIES, DOES IT DIFFER FROM COUNTRY TO
COUNTRY, WHERE HAS BEEN SOME OF THE BEST PLACES & WHY?
I guess the tattoo I did are more affected by time than graphic location, like fashion, the subject matter of tattoos changes like the weather. The best place would be where I am now because before that I was pretty shit at tattooing.

5, WHAT TATTOO'S DO YOU HATE TO DO, OR DO YOU JUST REFUSE?
I still do whatever comes in, I'm far from being too good for a certain tattoo. I still do tribal, stars, baby momma's names etc. However it feels somewhat good to refuse tattooing some kids face or hands who doesnt have enough other tattoos to warrant it.

6, WHERE DO YOU WORK AT THE MOMENT?
At Jayne Doe in Essex. The nicest shop I've worked in and with great people, Sam Ricketts and Tiny Miss Becca.

7, HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING THERE?
Just a little over a year

8, YOU HAVE YOUR OWN STYLE, WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR INSPIRATION FROM?
Hmmmm its taken my quite some time to get a style i feel comfortable with....I hope I'm slowly getting there. Inspiration I've recently started taking from other things than tattooers. European folk lore, music, occultism, alchemy, old childrens books.
9, I KNOW YOU DO ARTWORK TOO, YOU DID HONOR AMONG THEVIES DESIGN, IS THERE ANY
OTHER BANDS YOU WORKED WITH?hahah notice those hands have one too many fingers? woops. I did a lot of artwork for some bad hardcore bands I dont care to remember. I did the artwork for the Length of Time/Santa Karla split 7" that recently came out. I loved LOT in my younger days so it was great to be asked to do that. I have a few projects coming up with Aurora Borealis records....that guy is putting out some of the best and most interesting music out.

10, WHAT BANDS ARE YOU LISTENING TO AT THE MOMENT & WHAT BANDS WOULD YOU SAY ARE
YOUR ALL TIME FAVS?
i'm going to answer this in hardcore bands seeing as this is what this blog is about... currently listening to: Low Places, Annihilation time, Raw Deal, Wayfarer....shit this is hard.... All time favourites: riff raff, crunch time, violent minds, think i care, crown of thornz, warzone

11,SO WHAT NON HARDCORE BANDS YOU LISTEN TOO & ALL TIME FAVORITES?
current: white ring- suffocation, anything by chelsea wolfe, Katharsis- fourth reich, burzum- fallen, US christmas- run thick in the night, Conan- horseback battle hammer.
all time: nick cave, Tom Waits, The veils, black mountain, marianne faithful.....



12, YOUR SXE, HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN SXE FOR?
Eleven years.

13, WHAT MADE YOU BECOME STRAIGHT EDGE?
I wanted to distance myself as far as possible from jocks at my school. I always despised drinking culture and the general bullshit things that are drilled into us about being a "man".

14,WHAT DO YOU LIKE DOING BEST ARTWORK OR TATTOO'S?
Both haha I love tattooing but Im limited with it so I also like to paint.

15, FINISH THIS LINE.. NO RETREAT??
No Surrender!!!! Best martial arts film ever!

16,YOU STARTED DOING A BLOG, WHATS THE WEBLINK FOR THAT??
It's the esoteric gents blog www.esotericgentlemensblog.com it's about old motorcycles, interesting viny, bad tattoos, rare books and satan! I've been lazy on it lately but I plan on writting more stuff on it soon.

17,YOUR HAVE A THING FOR MANSON, EXPLAIN THAT & WHAT TURNED YOU ON TO MANSON IN THE FIRST PLACE?
I never was (and still am not) into serial killers. Being a film nerd I started watching Polanski films and reading about him. I became aware of who Manson was through that (I had the common misconception about a hippy who took plenty of drugs and killed some famous people) he didn't interest me. I was a mid '90s vegan straight edge kid so I read a lot of militant newsletters and propaganda material (a pity kids don't make those any more) and kept stumbling upon Manson quotes and reference to ATWA. Through that I discovered a lot of things the media doesn't want you to know about the man which made a lot of sense to me about environmental issues, communal living outside the boundaries of common law etc. At the time I was living in the US and for the lack of a better word was living in a cult. The way we were living had more than a few parallels do death valley haha.
I've withdrawn a lot of Manson paintings and influence due to the rise of ignorant children jumping on it. People see his face on an integrity shirt and think he's cool or worse they read Helter Skelter and think they have some insight on the subject.

18,YOUR ART IS VERY DARK & ALOT INSPIRED BY THE DEVIL, WHAT FASINATES YOU ABOUT ALL THINGS SATANIC?In my art I guess European folk lore. My mum was a punk with I guess hippy outlooks on life. We never had a tv in the house but I had shit loads of books. Fairy tales, north myths, Greek mythology, history books you name it. I read a lot of books of old german folk tales. In many of these the stories revolve around the common man, farmer, miller or whoever coming in contact with a personification of the devil, striking some sort of deal with him and in the end trying to work out how to get out of having been tricked by him. I guess that was my first kind of introduction, if you will, to the devil with one cloven hoof, a man's body and clothes and horns. Aesthetically I love this portrayal of Satan, And the fact he comes and interacts with humans. You never see the Christian god coming to interact directly with his greatest creation, he uses his angels or divine powers to do his dirty work. That always seemed lazy to me. The devil is a bit more hands on I guess.
Im a satanist, I believe Satan is the God of artists so I guess you could say when I draw or paint it is a form of "worship". I don't like using the term "worship" so just I tip my hat to him and sing his praises, be it in my paintings, tattoos or bedtime prayers.

19, SO IF PEOPLE WANNA GET WORK FROM YOU INK OR ART HOW CAN THEY GET IN CONTACT?
Find me on facebook, contact the shop or email me simon.jonathan.erl@gmail.com

20, THANKS FOR DOING THE INTERVIEW ANY LAST WORDS OR SHOUT OUTS?
Thank you for paying attention to my work. Shout outs as usual to The Esoteric Gents, Broken Barons and Pale Riders......oh and my mom!