I love coffee. There's not much better than good black coffee. And I love shirts and nice designs. A while ago I stumbled upon Death By Coffee on instagram. Death By Coffee designs coffee and punk/metal inspired merchandise. I had to get their 'Mornings are for coffee and for doom' shirt because it looks awesome. To my surprise Death By Coffee is run by a Belgian guy named Tom. I asked him some questions for an artist profile on Hello Bastards Zine. Pour yourself some good coffee and check it out:
- Please introduce yourself to the readers. Who is behind Death By Coffee?
My name is Tom. 27 years old. I live in Tournai, Belgium.
- If I understand correctly you design a lot of the stuff for Death By Coffee yourself and sometimes work with guest artists. What’s your background in design and illustration? How long have you been drawing and making designs?
Yes that’s correct. I never studied art or illustration at school. My mom just put me in evening art classes since a very young age and I’ve been going to those until I was 18 I think. I’ve always liked todraw. In my class reports the teachers at school would write « good work but Tom needs to draw less and pay more attention » and stuff like that. I really wanted to go to art school after high school but I had good grades so I guess my mom thought it would be a waste to send me there if I could make it as a doctor or scientist or whatever ( she said art schools were for kids with rich parents who could support them ).
I did a year in Mons in Biomed and the only class were I got decent grades was animal biology because we had to draw animals. Then I went to Louvain-la-Neuve to get a masters degree in Psychology.
During that time I was introduced to Illustrator, photoshop, etc.. I started to figure out how to get my drawings from paper to the screen. I was in a band at the time ( The Inequity ) and I started designing our t-shirts, cd sleeves and all. Then other local bands would see our stuff and start asking me to design stuff for them and that’s how I started I guess. It was mostly t-shirt designs for small bands but once in a while I would say fuck it and send some drawings to Impericon or some other big merch website with Comeback Kid or Parkway Drive written on it and they would buy it! So yeah that’s the starting point I guess.
- Where do you get your inspiration? What other artists formed you to become an artist?
Like every t-shirt designer of my age I started looking at websites like mintees and emptees to get inspired by all the artists on there. At the time it was Godmachine ( he actually messaged me once with some drawing advice, really nice guy! ), Craig Robson, Monkeymouth, etc.. I was looking a lot of stuff on internet and some artists just blew my mind : Charles Burns, Simon Erl, Mike Giant, Contino, Freak City, Wesley Eggebrecht, Nico Bassez, Zach Shuta, etc..
Seeing my friends work also pushes me a lot. I consider myself really luck to know people like Florence Roman, Jantie Flyer, Robin Renard, Alex Arrows, Arno,... and to see how their work evolves.
That’s what I would call the conscious part. As you grow and keeping training you analyze your work a bit more and start to see things that you weren’t aware of were influencing you. For that part I would say : My aunt Laurence’s work. She’s an illustrator and I’ve seen her drawings around me all my life. Now I watch my doodles and I see influences from her work everywhere.
There’s also my mom who was the most beautiful handwriting in the world. I used to copy everything she wrote when I was a kid to get the same handwriting. That’s were my interest for calligraphy and lettering comes from. There’s probably much more stuff I’m gonna realize later in life.
- A lot of your designs are inspired by music. There’s a lot of punk and metal references in your designs. I also saw you designed a flyer/poster for an Amen Ra and Gagged show recently. What’s your music background and what are your 5 favorite records of all time?
I’ve been playing in bands since my teens. Mostly metal punk & garage. I played in The Inequity, Sects Tape, Regal, Full Contact. At the moment I play in Pedigree, B.Polar & the Spacefuckers and Slavemaker. I’m so bad with top 5’s. I have no idea how people can have top 5’s about anything but here you go from the top of my head :
* the first punkorama compilations : These brought me to punk when I was young. They were the only cd’s you could get for 5€ at the record store and that’s all I could afford at the time.
* Inter Arma - Sky Burial : I am obsessed with this band at the moment. All their stuff is good but the first album was mind blowing to me.
* The Ventures - Walk don’t run : Surf rock is my spirit animal in music. Long riffs, simple beats and short songs. Perfect
* Flatt, Scruggs & Watson - Strictly instrumental : This one hits my turntable weekly. You can listen to all the metal you want nobody shreds as hard as these guys. Bluegrass is the punk of country music.
* Suprême NTM - Suprême NTM
- Off course we need to talk about coffee. When (at what age) did you drink your first cup of coffee? Were you immediately hooked on the taste? What’s your favorite brand of coffee? What are your favorite coffee shops?
I’ve started drinking coffee at the end of high school just before going to university. I started drinking it with sugar and milk to get used to the taste at first but I stopped and went for black coffee pretty quickly. At my mom’s place we had this professional espresso machine that was so simple to use you could easily drink 3 or 4 cups before starting your day. When I moved out she gave me her old Alessi moka pot that she used with my dad when they lived in Barcelona. The first 2 cups I made with that one almost killed me. I had tremors so hard it ruined my day. I’ve been obsessed with coffee ever since. My favorite brand is dark matter but it’s so expensive to get it here. I got their collab coffee they did with Mastodon once and it was amazing. A sort of double blend but the beans were aged in old whiskey barrels. It was delicious. I try to get some from Dark Arts too when I go to London. In Belgium I’ll get coffee from Caffenation or OR.
But specialty coffee is expensive so usually I buy it from the store and the best you can get here in medium grade coffee is the Rombouts Cachet d’or. I think it’s the only one you can get that’s not like they burned the beans to a black crisp.
- As mentioned before: you also work with guest artists. How do you decide to work with someone? Who is on your bucket list to work with?
DBC is mostly a theme and a creative output outside of commissioned work I do so I think that spoke to more people than just me. With Robin Renard and Florence Roman it was I who commissioned them because they’re friends and I love their style. With Marald it was he who came to me actually. It’s still crazy when I think about it. He really liked the project and asked if he could do something with the theme and he absolutely killed it 2 times. With Branca Studio we talked about doing a collaboration on instagram for like a year before I actually sketched something. The last guest artist was ZRO30 from Colombia but she’s actually Venezuelan. I bought some of her merchandise on instagram and we started talking so I asked her to draw something in her style. I just love to see people with very different styles have their take at the black coffee theme. I don’t really have a bucket list but if I had to make one it would be all the people mentioned in my answer to your 3rd question.
- What are the future plans of Death By Coffee?
I really want to make a small batch of DBC666 coffee someday. I haven’t found anyone who wants to collaborate on that yet but maybe one day. Other than that I have no plans. We’re still releasing 2 or 3 new designs every month with Loser Jamboree ( our collective in Canada with Broke&Stoked and Good Chill ) but I’m not really planning on expanding or growing. It’s fun now because I don’t have too many orders and there’s no pressure about it. If I have an idea I draw it and if it’s popular I print 30 t-shirts and that’s it.
