CCS Customs X First Thursdays Interviews: Jay Howell

CCS Customs X is where you can collaborate directly with your favorite skate brands and artists on personalized decks, grip, shirt, hoodies, and more. Even better, CCS will be hooking you up with some of the best artists around every month as part of the First Thursdays program. And we can't think of better person to kick it all off than the great Jay "Punks Git Cut" Howell.

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Customs X guru (and original California Cheap Skates team rider) Russ Pope chats it up with the first CCS Customs X First Thursday artist-in-residence to see what's crackin'.

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CCS: Where are you living right now, where do you keep the pillows?

Jay Howell: Hi, I'm in Los Angeles California, it's hot and sunny and it feels like it's never going to rain again.

How old is The Street Dog and is he a straight dog food guy or are you guys making him special food?

Street Dog is a weird little dog I found in a gutter on the street when he was 2 days old. He's 10 now. He has a special diet of raw food that he loves which is gross and expensive. Sometimes for fun I'll give him a whole raw duck leg or half a small bird. He chomps it down feathers, claws, guts and all.

What was the best thing you ate on your trip to Mexico City?

Mexico City is a very inviting and beautiful city. I love visiting there and trying everything I can. I would say personally the seafood there is my favorite. It's so big, there's so much to try. I can't wait to go back.

How long have you been making drawings for?

Forever. I'm just now finally getting better at it. It's taken a while to figure out.

I know you’ve had to tell the Bobs Burger story quite a bit, do you have one thought around that experience that could be good shareable advice for young ambitious art folks?

I'm the original character designer of Bob's Burgers. It was a job that changed my life. Even before the show got picked up for television I treated it super seriously and tried my hardest pretending and hoping it would work out. I guess the advice would be to treat each character super specially and make them unique. If you don't absolutely love your characters how can you expect others to?? Also have fun, ya know?

Were there any characters in Sanjay and Craig modeled after yourself, good friends, or Street Dog for instance?

Sanjay and Craig was a wild time. We had the keys to do whatever we wanted. We were like hey, call Pee Wee Herman, call Snoopdog can we work with Anthony Bourdain? And it would all just happen. We'd draw friends in the background all the time.

You seem like a prolific dude, do you feel like one?

I prefer busy over prolific. I'm pretty hard on myself. Drawing for a living is not easy but it's all I want to do.

Do you have a favorite place to take the drinks, make the party. Walt’s, Palm Springs?

I like to work all day and then when i'm done I love a cold one. I like happy hours in quiet bars. I love to see the sun go down and then I like to go out to eat some place fun..I need to get out to the desert more.

Would you rather spend an evening spinning records or making drawings?

Drawing for sure. Listening to music at the desk and drinking a beer.

Have any Channel 66 appearances coming or learning sessions with the House of Vans folks?

I have some DJ dates on the Vans Channel-66 site coming up. I'll play great music off my phone and answer questions in the chat. It's a blast!

 

Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions and for being part of the Customs X First Thursdays project. Have any parting comments, thoughts, upcoming projects to keep a lookout for, requests?

Thank you guys! This is super fun. I rarely sell stuff like prints and t-shirts so now I can finally tell people they can go here to get some stuff with my drawings on it. My only advice is to keep drawing like crazy and your life will probably figure out itself. I try to believe in that. The best gift that hard work gives you is more hard work. :)

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Check out all the great stuff Jay has brewing on his Punks Git Cut Instagram and get ready for a lot of fun making your own personalized Jay Howell skate gear with CCS Customs X!