Part of my "freelancery" led me to creating artwork for "It's Psychedelic Baby! Magazine" - an independent music magazine, out of Slovenia, covering a wide range of alternative, underground, and mostly non-mainstream music. Thus far, I have created logos, t-shirts, stickers, album covers, and the cover artwork of all three print issues of the magazine.
The illustration work led to making sketches at various festivals and concerts around Austin, Texas (mainly Austin Psych Fest/Levitation) which evolved into conducting live interviews with bands/musicians and writing full length articles about my experiences.
"Levitation Canceled" - Including interviews with the Swedish psychedelic band Dungen
and Anton Newcombe - infamous front man and core of The Brian Jonestown Massacre.
"Ronnie Leatherman" - A one-on-one interview with the former bass player of the highly esteemed and extremely influential 13th Floor Elevators from Austin, Texas. Conducted in Ronnie's home in Kerrville, Texas, shortly after their 50th Anniversary Reunion Show.
"Desert Daze" - 2016 brought me to the Mojave Desert and to the Desert Daze Festival held at the Institute of Mentalphysics in Joshua Tree, California. Interviews included Parker Griggs of Radio Moscow, & Los Angeles' Death Valley Girls, but not Lumerians.
"Bubble Puppy Psych del Rio" - In August of 2017, San Antonio held it's first psychedelic festival at the historic Arneson River Theater - Psych del Rio. Before the show, I caught up with Rod Prince from the headlining band, Bubble Puppy, and had a long conversation about their humble beginnings in 1966 and the fifty year roller-coaster that followed...
"Greenbeard" - Austin, Texas' own desert rockers, Greenbeard, took some time out of their busy touring schedule to talk about the origins of the band, upcoming musical releases, and share some tales from the road with readers of Psychedelic Baby Magazine.
"Crypt Trip" - In July of 2019, I met up with Sam Bryant and Ryan Lee of Crypt Trip to talk about their most recent touring of Europe and the time they spent as members of
Roky Erickson's backing band on his final tour of the US...
"Levitation 2019" - Interviews with Black Mountain, Acid King, & A Place to Bury Strangers.
"Daryl Hooper of the Seeds" - In July of 2020, I conducted my first "virtual interview" with the keyboardist and main writer of the 1960s psychedelic garage rock band, The Seeds. Daryl shared some great stories about Sky Saxon, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and more...
"A.J.Kaufmann" - In January of 2021, I interviewed my good friend, prolific musician, and mystic poet, A.J. Kaufmann. He has created over 100 albums in the past 10 years in the realms of psychedelic rock, kraut, folk, electronic, and otherwise experimental music.
As a memento and for my own records, I have an autographed record sleeve from every musician I have interviewed so far... Who will be next?
Be sure to check out the monthly broadcast of the It's Psychedelic Baby! Podcast with Ross Beattie! Ross spins classic and new psych music as well as doom, prog, and noise...
Stay tuned for more interviews, articles, and illustrations...