Left: Artist Tommy Perman
Right: Traffic Mirror, Eindhoven Screenprint on paper, 2006

Hello! Today, many of us will be celebrating our independence from Britain, and I though it fitting to feature an artist from the UK, Tommy Perman, just to show that we've no hard feelings remaining. In fact, I am quite sure our founding fathers would be pleased with my decision to celebrate Tommy, as he is a man of many talents. While it's true that Tommy Perman did not discover electricity, he is indeed worthy of a seat at Ben Franklin's table of industrious young men. Not content to wear just one hat, Perman designs, writes and plays music, DJ's, makes art, shows his work and collaborates frequently with others.

Which came first for you--art or music?

Art came first – I was drawing from a very early age. My parent's still have drawings on the walls of their house from when I was three.

Music followed on soon after though. I come from a musical family. My dad plays bass in a blues band and my mum is a percussionist. My folks were always playing a diverse selection of music in the house when I was growing up. Mum used to review records for the Oxford Mail in the 60's and she still has some great vinyl from then. She almost interviewed Jimi Hendrix but passed it on to a friend because she was too nervous.

How does your music influence/inform your art and vice versa?

Since my early teens I've been interested in the boundaries between art and music. For me the two activities are inseparable. I am fascinated with the areas where disciplines cross over into each other and a lot of my work concerns this. With my band / arts collective, FOUND, we have done many projects that involve sound and visual art in equal parts.

Last year FOUND were commissioned to produce a piece of music to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop. Rather than just composing a song for them, we decided we wanted to build an interactive audio installation. What we came up with was a piece called Etiquette . It was an interactive table that allowed the user to move small boxes around and create their own interpretation of music we had composed. The best way to get explain it is to watch this video.

In 2006 I undertook an artist's residency in Eindhoven, Holland with my friend and collaborator Roel Knappstein. We spent two months examining the connections between the making of visual art and music through a project called Synchronicity. We share a keen interest for all forms of music and were particularly interested in the structures of contemporary music. We began by taking visual 'samples' – extracting small objects or areas of photographs that interested us. We gathered a large set of these samples and then 'composed' pictures with them.

I'm extremely interested in the idea of remixing and do a lot of audio remixes for other bands but I've also tried to cross these ideas over into my visual artwork. Possibly the best example of this is a two panel painting called Town & Country:
The second panel is a remix of the first; it is constructed using all the same constituent parts but composed in a different order.

Another of my passions is record sleeve art, as it brings together my three main interests: art, design and music.

It's clear from your participation in 20x200 and in your music endeavors that you're interested in making art available in affordable ways--what is your philosophy on this?

My involvement in both the art and music worlds has developed a dislike for exclusivity. In Scotland a great deal of the art community is very much like a private members club who seem to enjoy alienating people through their use of impenetrable jargon. I have no interest in alienating people and I create work in order to reach as wide an audience as possible – but I still wish to create work that is multi-layered, thought provoking and experimental. I believe that it is possible to produce accessible art without comprising it's integrity. Part of this ideology includes realistic pricing – obviously I want to earn a fair amount for my efforts but I also want my work to reach people. Multiples are a great way of achieving this and that's why I'm a fan of making my art available as prints, on tees and record sleeves.

However as I'm an artist I'm also slightly contrary! I like to make multiples in limited editions – I think it's a really nice feeling to know that you are one of only a small group of people who owns a copy of a particular piece of art.

Do you collect art?
Yes. I have a nice collection of small works by good friends of mine and people I studied with. I have several gigantic Bauhaus design posters that my folks gave me. I recently purchased two Evan Hecox screenprints. I love them.

Which fellow 20x200 artists do you dig?
I've just been looking at Tema Stauffer's work and I really like it. I'm very interested in her American Stills and Water Park series. She seems to share my eye for unusual detail. Like me, she has chosen to depict urban settings devoid of people which I find very intriguing – it adds a feeling of calm, stillness to the locations as if time stood still while she took the photos.

Who are your favorite heros / heroines?

My parents and my brothers. Ed Ruscha, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones.

Who is you favorite painter, photographer, musician, author?

Toby Paterson, Andreas Gursky, Bobby Perman (my brother), Bill Waterson

What is your idea of earthly happiness?
A comfy sofa, some tapas or dim sum, some Belgian beer and some great music.

What are you working on?
I am very busy, doing a lot of music and design work at the moment.

I've just finished teaching a 10 week course in Creative Digital Drawing at Edinburgh Art College. It was fun and I hope to go on to do more teaching.

I am currently preparing for a big performance event called Dialogues of Wind and Bamboo at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. It's a multicultural, multi-art-form event that is the brain child of my friend and collaborator, Chinese musician / composer, Kimho Ip. I designed the website and all printed materials for the project and I've been heavily involved since it's conception a year ago.

Once that's over I will be working on lots of new material with the band and playing at a handful of interesting summer festivals. I'm doing a lot of remix work at the moment and I've just completed a remix for fellow Scottish band Attic Lights and it will be coming out on limited 10" vinyl very soon.

I've recently produced a special one-off radio show for Red Bull Music Academy in which I selected some of my favourite contemporary Scottish music. You can listen to it here.

I've also just completed designs for a range of skateboards for local skate company Focus. The designs depict Edinburgh and Glasgow skate spots, some well known, some very unknown. The decks will be released later in the summer.

And I'm very excited as I've just found out that my band will be touring the Scottish Highlands and Islands in October as part of a Scottish Arts Council funded initiative called Tune Up. I can't wait!

Tommy's 20x200 edition print: Trucks, Seattle
Tommy's websites are numerous, but start here, I know one could spend the better part of a day exploring his projects.

PS
If reading about how wonderful life as an artist in Scotland makes you yearn for a visit, Tommy has given me a very nice list of his favorite places which I will post here very soon.

I bet he'd even meet you for a pint once you're there.