The Lowbrow Art of Vince Ray

Vince Ray has managed to transform his obsessions with flying saucers, rock & roll, fast cars, wild women and kinky sex into a way of life. Ian Lowey investigates the weird, twisted and lowdown world of this artist and voodoo blues musician.

'Drawing people having sex on every page soon got to be boring, so I began to draw people having sex on motorbikes and then made them into people from outer space'

People tend to think that I'm either American, old or dead, laments the painter, illustrator and shit-kickin' Rock and Roll guitarist Vince Ray. But given that his gloriously warped visual creations are largely rooted in the American trash and B-Movie culture of the 1950s, then folk can perhaps be forgiven for making such assumptions. However, having met the man at his garret on a quiet backstreet in North Clapham, I can happily confirm that though he looked a little weary after a hard at the easel, this Nottingham-born artist is very much alive. And what's more, he has a good few years to go yet before he picks up his bus pass. But while this may come as a disappointment to some of those who may have harboured such romanticised notions about Mr Ray, Vince's flat-cum-studio more readily conforms to type when it comes to popular preconceptions of what the living/ working quarters of an artist and musician should look like. Cramped and a little unkempt, the living room wall showcases his collection of five guitars including his beloved Gretsch 6120,

At the time of my arrival -- and prior to our heading off to the artist's favourite local tandoori for aswordfish vindaloo washed down with a couple of iced Zombies -- Vince was putting the finishing touches to one of a series of paintings he's doing for Wildcat; the Brighton-based piercing and jewellery specialists who also happen to be sole distributors of Vince Ray merchandise. For these days, Ray's deliciously twisted and often overtly kinky designs adorn an ever increasing array of wares, including ashtrays, mugs, prints and even toilets! He designed the cover for The Damned's 2001 album Grave Disorder and recently, he also applied his trademark imagery to a range of shoes and boots at the behest of the decidedly upmarket mens' footwear emporium Jeffery West. As such, Vince has come a long way since he began his career in illustration in the early 1990s, scripting and inking porno comics for a publisher of top-shelf magazines.

'There's a wonderful way you can play with the innocence of something that's retro or vintage, which means you can draw something which is quite controversial but still get away with it.'

Contracted to complete three pages per day at £30-a-page, Vince recalls that it was hard work, but it kept him fed and watered for a full two years. What's more, it provided him with the opportunity to introduce and develop certain elements which have become a mainstay of his art ever since, as he explains; 'Drawing people having sex on every page soon got to be a bit boring, so I began to draw people having sex on motorbikes and then made them into people from outer space.'

Well, Vince explains that the phrase was first coined by Robert Williams who courted controversy in the late-Eighties with a notorious cover he did for Guns 'n' Roses' Appetite For Destruction album, and who now runs the graphic art magazine Juxtapoz out of San Francisco.'Lowbrow is chiefly concerned with the idea that art can be made from things to do with tattooing, freak shows and fairgrounds, hot-rods, comics and things which people don't generally consider to have artistic merit, and using that imagery to create your own personal vision. It's wonderful that the Lowbrow thing has happened, because it's like a return to good old fashioned commercial art. Having said that, things have gone downhill rather quickly, because suddenly it's just turned into stock images of devil girls and eightballs and flame motifs.'

Well, it could be argued that the ubiquity of such iconography is solely down to the popularity of one of Lowbrow's leading lights, Coop. But like Robert Williams, Vince Ray's work is less singularly figurative and with its extensive use of lettering (Vince is also a former signwriter), is more directly influenced by pulp fiction and B-movie poster artwork. As a consequence, its far more overtly humorous than the output of his American contemporaries, with pieces like 'Night of the Zombie Cat Girl', 'Thee Legendary Hot Rod Sex Vampire' and 'The Astounding Tale of the Man Whose Face Disappeared in a Lady's Skirt' -- serving as enticing and eye-catching sells for books and films regrettably never made nor written.

As a straight-down-the-line Rock and Roll musician, Vince, is quite consciously buying into a longstanding lyrical tradition of comically unreconstructed, greasy, knuckle-dragging, chest beating misogyny.

'There's a wonderful way you can play with the innocence of something that's retro or vintage, which means you can sometimes draw something which is quite controversial but still get away with it.' Says Vince.

And it's a pertinent point. I mean, when looking at his paintings and illustrations, it's easy to overlook the fact that two themes which predominate are sex and violence. Why, even as Vince is pointing this salient fact out to me, I clock one of his pieces which depicts a young razor-wielding woman slapping a castrated penis on a dressing table and proudly proclaiming, 'At last, a penis of my own!', whilst an unconscious male lies prostrate on the bed in the background. Sure, it's grotesque and distasteful, but asfar as penis envy gags go, it's damn funny. And because it's just such a ridiculous cartoony image, it's difficult to imagine anyone really being offended by it.

Interestingly, Vince points out that in his drawings and paintings, the women are usually dominant and predatory, which may explain why he has become such a firm favourite on the fetish scene,

'However, in my music, it's the other way around!'

Sensing a candid sexual revelation in the offing, I press Vince further on this, but he attributes this state of affairs down to the fact that as an artist he simply finds women more fun and satisfying to draw in terms of costume (stockings, pointy bras and high heels seem particular favourites). On the other hand, as a straight-down-the-line Rock and Roll musician, Vince, with songtitles like Non Stop Tight Skirt Action and Woman Killer Blues,   is quite consciously buying into a longstanding lyrical tradition of comically unreconstructed, greasy, knuckle-dragging, chest beating misogyny. And why not? In reality, Vince is as affable a fellow as you could hope to meet (though he might not appreciate me saying so), but I can't think of too many Rock and Rollers who have made a career out of portraying themselves as sexually non-threatening, well-rounded human beings with the utmost respect for women, can you?

But apart from that one significant difference, Vince sees both his music and art as being part of one very singular vision. However, it was only after playing in various musical combos over the last decade, that he eventually realised that the only way of 'getting something done in the shape of how I truly wanted it to be was to form my own band, The Vincent Razorbacks.'

Under The Influence 'Lord Byron is one of my all time heroes. He was a true Rock and Roller in spirit, and like Byron I've often fancied lurking around in gothic towers smoking opium pipes and whipping the maids! Also Salvatore Guiliano, a Sicilian bandit who was at large around the time of World War II. I'm always looking for new stuff to read about him as there is a lot of intrigue and conspiracy theories surrounding his life. He was a kind of Robin Hood character who took on the Mafia, the Fascists, the Catholic Church and the government. They got him in the end, or did they?... Robert Johnson. I never used to be that fond of the Blues, but Johnson's different. And of course, I love the legend of him selling his soul to the devil at the crossroads. Jimi Hendrix. Okay, I know it's not that original, but the man was truly unique. Though he has often been imitated, no one has ever sounded quite like him. Johnny Burnette. I never get tired of playing his stuff. He just blows me away every time. And let's not forget Hasil Adkins, the shack-dwelling, West Virginian 'great grandpappy of rockabilly'. EC Comics are a current source of visual inspiration. Its classic titles such as Shock Illustrated and Tales From the Crypt were originally published in the 1950s, but were recently re-issued. I also collect the Gold Medal series of hard-boiled fiction by the likes of Jim Thompson and Dashiell Hammett, and I'm a big fan of the contemporary British thriller writer Tim Willocks, who has penned a number of great novels such as, Green River Rising and Bad City Blues.

Musically, Vince describes himself as 'very conservative. I've stuck with what I've liked all my life really. My dad liked Rock and Roll, and as a novice guitarist, three-chord Rock and Roll songs were easy to learn.'

However, that said, his definition of what constitutes Rock and Roll is refreshingly broad, and follows a direct lineage from the likes of Johnny Burnette and Gene Vincent, through to The Ramones and the current crop of new garage bands such as The Hives and The Makers.

'I've never been able to say, "Oh, I'm a rockabilly and I don't listen to any other music,'" he confesses. 'At the same time, I never worry about whether I'm playing anything groundbreaking or original. I just prefer to get up and play what I like.'

As such, the Vincent Razorbacks are a no-nonesense, rockin' three-piece featuring a drummer who bears an uncanny resemblance to the young Billy Connolly, a long-armed bassist who hops about like The Stranglers' JJ Burnel and succeeds in the remarkable feat of playing a bass that is slung even lower than that of the legendary Dee Dee Ramone. And then, on guitar, lead vocals and indecipherable between-song chatter, there's Vince himself.

Watching the   Razorbacks live, you get the impression that the band could have existed at any point during the last thirty years, particularly   as a typical set is likely to feature raucous versions of Crazy Horses by The Osmonds and Bowie's Suffragette City, as well as Vince's own self-penned paeans to fast cars, cheap booze and loose women. But if anything, this simply demonstrates the   enduring appeal of good unpretentious rock and roll. Something which is perhaps evinced by the still fairly recent emergence of a whole host of new, back-to-basics garage rock combos.

'It's always been my aim to stick at what I do and make a living out of it,' Vince continues, and he professes a particular   admiration for the way in which psychobilly behomoths, The Cramps,   have managed to turn their own,   similar obsessions, into a successful 25-year career.

Well,   as far as I can see, he's not doing such a bad job of it so far, and having struck potentially   lucrative distribution deals for his visual work with a couple of companies in the United States, his star certainly seems to be rising in the spiritual home of all things Lowbrow. Though the irony of his selling Americana to the Americans is not lost on him. Yet, though Vince would be far too modest to make extravagant claims about his art, he does point out that the British do have a fine tradition of drawing upon aspects of American culture and transforming it into something so much better.

'We did it with the Teddy Boys in the Fifties, and The Ramones aside, we did it with Punk Rock.'

We certainly did. But for the time being at least, I suspect Vince may have to live with the backhanded compliment of people thinking he's either American, old or dead.

www.vincentrazorbacks.com to find out about forthcoming Vincent Razorbacks gigs and to download MP3s. Vince's book, 'The Weird & Twisted Tale of Vince Ray' is available to buy from the Nude Shop.Thanks to PosterPop for the use of images.

© 2003 Nude Magazine. Originally published in Nude Magazine # 1, August/ Sept 2003