Todd SumamnoMatthieu Bessudo, aka Mcbess, a French illustrator now located in London, UK. Mcbess graduated from Supinfocom art school in 2006, and since then he has worked on 2d and 3D animation. Characters with tube-shape arms and smiley faces, designs sometimes complicated sometimes simple, that’s what we’ll see in Mcbess’s work.
This talented artist has also teamed up with another guy and form up a music band The Dead Pirates, trying to rock the music world. You have to admit it, he has great style. Don’t forget to check out his latest song “wood” after reading the interview, very Mcbess style music video!
Q1. Thank you first for your time with TDI. The first question, how do you think being part of of Rotopol helps your work?
Rotopol are very creative people , I participated to some of their project over the interweb and I met them in Germany , now we’re good friends , it just helps to have open minded people to work with , plus they’re very conscencious so it forces me to be extra clean with my work.
Q2. When we are looking at your pieces, we see simple colour, great detail, interesting and cool works. How would you describe your works, and yourself too?
Well I found a way of suming up the moods that I like , all those things that I’ve seen in movies or in real life that I really wanted to last longer . Sometime it’s about creating something from scratch and sometime it’s more about tweaking something that you saw to make it fit your taste perfectly. So I guess I would say that my work is a descripition of how I would like things to be.
Q3. Your pieces are so full of characteristics and so unique. How do you get all your inspiration?
Ahah , thanks ! I get inspired by everything , mostly by my everyday life , a bit like what I eat or what I would like to eat . And there’s definitly a lot of artists that inspires me , people like Chris Ware , Dave Cooper , Kid Acne , and bands like the Queen of Stone Age , the Eagles of Death Metal…
Q4. Other than creating illustrations, you have teamed up with Simon Landrein and have your music band The Dead Pirates(http://www.dirtymelody.com/). When did you begin to have the idea of forming a band and make music? Does your music life clash your work?
Simon and I teamed up to direct different projects like the Dead Pirates music videos , he’s a brilliant director and illustrator , but he’s not a part of the band . The band formation is pretty vague for now , it’s basically me and my brother Ben Franklin Jr , we’re still in the writing and experimenting process . I’ve always been in bands , when I came to london it became harder to find the right people to play with , but I’ve never let down the idea of forming another band . My illustration mostly talk about music , so finally being able to go forward in this direction , it helps being creative and makes me look for other horizons .
Q5. Mind sharing with us what you are busying with at the moment and your future plan?
I’m not sure if I can say too much about it so I’ll stay as vague as I can ahah , there’s going to be a very small sequel to the Wood video and you should be able to see it by the end of the summer , and I’ve got something very very cool coming out this fall with guys from Nobrow , it involves illustration and music so I’m quite exited about that . And finally the Dead Pirates album wich is going to take some time to finish and record but hopefully will be done by christmas.
Brittany Maslo