Interview by Rachel Gottesman

Good morning/afternoon/whatever it is over there!

Hey, yeah it's almost 2am here right now, so it's about half whatever and half morning.

Are you a night owl, or am I just keeping you up? Sorry if I'm keeping you up but you know... This interview is of the utmost importance.

I'm naturally more of a night owl but that tends to be a bad thing for relationships, jobs, hairdo's, and so on. So right now at the risk of sounding raunchy, you are keeping me up.

Oh baby. Um... Anyway!

I'd like to know more about the original Matt Palmer, Matt Giraffe. Once upon a time, Matt Giraffe descended upon Threadless and caused a commotion.

Matt Giraffe was somewhat of an art prodigy, he always generated controversy, was asked to die many times, and was also proposed to a few times as well.

In reality though he was more of a parody of existing artists. After seeing one too many pretentious art gallery exhibitions I decided to go along with it myself for a while, so I created a character who produced awful artwork, talked it up as if it was an art masterpiece, and set the goal to try and get some of this crap exhibited.

Stickin' it to the man. You like to... I'm trying to word this correctly... Expose idiots? I know you get a ton of joy out of writing to galleries and colleges as a joke and seeing their super-serious, yet ridiculous responses.

I guess on a personal level I find it pretty hard to ignore stupidity, which is really unfortunate for me because there is a great deal of it that should be ignored.



Hopefully I can sometimes generate something from it which is of entertainment to myself and others

So on that level, is your artwork serious, or more ironic? Like... If you saw someone wearing one of your shirts, would you avoid them?

Well, initially my artwork was a parody of the worst of the art community, but there came a point where I thought that the style I was developing, originally meant to mock things, could be used to communicate certain concepts.

So gradually my work became more and more serious, but the concepts themselves are usually silly. I like taking reality and distorting it, or showing it in a way no one has seen it before.



I have seen someone wearing one of my t-shirts and I was a little bit excited but I didn't introduce myself, because really they probably just liked the t-shirt and aren't all that interested in being approached by an odd tall guy with facial hair on the street.

f I saw you walking around I'd get scared. You're a total hobo.

I don't think that's the absolute truth, after working with Shimala I'd think you would be accustomed to hobos being around you.

Buuuurn!

... But yea, if he was wearing a knock off it might have been even more awkward.

You'd beat him up.

Nah I'd probably destroy his self esteem by telling him his t-shirt sucks and the artist was obviously a douchewank. And he'd have to be a stupid dumb dumb to wear it.

Dumb dumb....? Well then! On a more positive note-

No one told me that there would be a positive note in this interview.

Surprise! There is!

Where do you get your jollies from besides designing?

Well if I could, I'd translate my design prowess into kick ass guitar goodness. I am completely musically untalented but without music I'd be dead.



Beyond that my partner Beth is a great provider of jollies. I probably shouldn't go into much detail about that.

You can go into the G rated jollies of your relationship. I'm sure it's more than... You know.

She makes fun of me more than people on the blogs do. They think they upset me, but when I'm coping it all the time, it's just good fun. Us Aussies insult each other like it's a sport.

I know you're a photographer too...

Yeah I spent some time away from Threadless (I'm back now!) developing my photographic skills. I shoot a lot of live music at the moment for various publications.



One of my more memorable shoots unrelated to music was shooting burn victims in a children's hospital. Those kids are very brave and their families are inspiring. That was a very humbling experience.

Aww, there's a good natured side to Matt Giraffe!

Matt Giraffe also has some photographic experience, he has applied for some photographic positions on the back of a portfolio of tasteful nudes taken of his mother for the family Christmas card.

Matt Giraffe's mom is a MILF. Good to know.

That's probably open to some debate.

Hahaha alright, I think that's it. Go to bed!

There's nothing like an interview that ends with picturing an elderly woman naked.

The end!

Interview by Rachel Gottesman


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