Inside The Clubhouse - Interview with Greg Mike
Hosted by Steve and James from Clubhouse Archives
Greg Mike is one of our Key Society members, a collective of 80 industry leaders, first movers, and influencers that are advising our core team on various business-related matters and are contributing to the success of our brand.
Greg Mike is an artist and creator of Larry Loudmouf and has just turned East Atlanta Church into a hub for art shows, agency work, and events. He also has an upcoming NFT drop in Q1 2023 called the LoudOnes.
Greg was interviewed by Steve (Twitter: @NFTbark) our Chief Cultural Officer and James Costa, the founder of Clubhouse Archives. James and Greg go way back, they have a very long-standing friendship and professional relationship.
If you want to listen to the interview it is available on Spotify, Amazon, Google, and Apple Podcasts. For this written extract Greg has also been so kind to share some of his amazing artwork.
Interview extract:
Steve - Clubhouse Archives
We'll get started here in just a second. I had to do that music little Mac Miller loud because we, you know, we're talking about LoudOnes here in a little bit. But as we get this thing warmed up. Do it as a favorite. It was either that or actually, I'm gonna save the other option, Greg, because I wanna get your take on it once we get going because I'm gonna hopefully surprise you with a question. My goal is always to try to ask a question that maybe you haven't been asked before an interview, so we'll see if we can do that here today. But first of all, Greg, how are you doing on this on this fine day? I'm sure much warmer in Florida than it is in my part. How are you feeling?
GREG MIKE
I'm doing good. I'm actually in Atlanta.
Steve - Clubhouse Archives
Oh, that's right. You're in Atlanta.
GREG MIKE
Yeah. Now I definitely spend a lot of time in Florida, so that's actually where I and James connected. But it's the weather's been crazy in Atlanta. It's been ups and downs. Every day. You never know what you're gonna get. But today, this morning was pretty gnarly, but it's warmed up a little bit. So we're feeling good on this wonderful Tuesday.
Steve - Clubhouse Archives
That's right. I was getting way ahead of myself on the Florida stuff, but thinking about you growing up and some of the murals there. But I know, you're based in Atlanta. You got a lot of stuff going on there. Before we get into where I know you from, which is the nifty gateway drop, which is really freaking cool, before we get all deep into this, I actually wanna go back to you growing up and how you discovered art because you have a such unique, distinct style, that when I see something I can say that's Greg Mike.
In fact, when I met James, he had something behind him in his background of a zoom call, and I said, that's Greg Mike. So When did you discover this style of art as you were kind of growing up?
GREG MIKE
Yeah. Well, I was born in Connecticut up in the northeast and used to take trips down New York City a lot and was obsessed with just taking trips on the metro north into Manhattan because we're basically an hour train ride into the city. And I remember just staring out of the windows of the train and seeing graffiti and that was probably the first thing that really caught my attention and to me made art cool in my eyes. When you're growing up, looking at art there are certain things that will catch your eyes along the way. And for me, it was the graffiti, that culture, the lifestyle, and just wondering how people climbed on rooftops and painted massive letters and we're painting these things just to be seen by the train and repeating their name and whatnot. I got into skateboarding and was obviously watching tons of cartoons as a kid, I would come home from school and just kinda sit there and veg out in front of the TV when I was super young.
I feel like it was just kinda like all of that meshed together: seeing the street art, and the graffiti, seeing the vintage cartoons, like mid-century, although Disney stuff mixed well with all the wild random Ren & Stimpy things and of that nature stuff that we used to watch and just, like, skateboard graphics and all that kind of blended together is gonna of where my style comes from.
That's awesome. And so I guess as you started growing up and you're kinda getting into art, you're blending that style, you have that sort of curious itch and obviously the talent to go with it. You end up meeting up with James down in Florida. How did you go from a street artist with a distinct style to denim?
GREG MIKE
It's pretty wild. So, I did graffiti heavily from when I was probably 13 to my twenties until I got into college. And when you're growing up and trying to figure out what you're gonna do with your life, there was a lot of talk of you can't be successful with an artist. You have to go to school. You have to learn how to be a doctor or a lawyer or study and get a degree. So I kinda like got brainwashed a little bit by that when I got into school. This was right when Macintosh dropped the first Bubble iMac, I think it was. I don't know if you guys remember that, but it had the crazy colored backs with the plexy case where you can kinda see the guts of the computer. And I went from doing all the street art graffiti stuff to graphic design. I got into graphic design, and that's kinda like where I thought that I could kinda make a career out of it for myself. It was when I got to college and realized that graphic design was actually a thing because, previously to that, I had no idea of how you can make artwork on computers because it wasn't really a thing at that time...
And, yeah, I started getting involved in making graphics on computers and studying design more at school, and that's how I linked with James at the time. I mean, I never really had an interest in getting into fashion. I mean, much like James grew up wanting to do design and as a designer, as a fashion designer, but I kinda came on board, and James, you know, feel free to hop in. But I was doing more graphics and design work and whether that was the branding, the marketing, the visuals, like, all the type layouts and things of that nature. So that's kinda how we linked up and got into the fact I got into the fashion aspect of my work there.
James - Clubhouse Archives
Yeah. I basically saw something that Greg had done one day, and we had a business partner at the time. There was Matthew that kinda connected us a little bit more intrinsically. We're in the same fraternity, but I think I saw, I don't know if it was a business card or something and the light bulb went off. And I'm like, we need this guy. We're gonna need that side of the business. I don't know how to do it. And that Mac, Greg, actually, became our first computer, I believe, in the office? Yeah.
GREG MIKE
Yeah. I think it was one night, we were just all hanging out as you do in college, and think James was telling me about this idea for a clothing line. And then I think I went into my bedroom where I had the Mac computer set up and I whipped up a business card on Flash because I didn't know that you could use Photoshop or illustrator at that time. So I literally designed a business card on a website program. That's how much I knew at the time. But I showed it to James and he was like, oh, okay. We might have a position for you. And that's all.
Steve - Clubhouse Archives
I'd love to think that you whipped it up in an MS paint type deal or whatever version of that was on, like, an iMac. It just kinda, like, tossed it together and he's, like, you are hired, my friend.
GREG MIKE
Yeah. Pretty much. I don't think I knew how to export it properly because like, a video program. And I think I just took a screen capture or printed it out and then, like, went into the living room and I was, like, check this out.
Steve - Clubhouse Archives
You, like, brought the entire iMac and just showed him the computer and you're like, look, I made a business card.
James - Clubhouse Archives
I was like, we're moving in together basically after that.
If you want to know Greg's full story, including his and James' anecdotes about Gavin DeGraw and their early career common path, the art that Greg created for celebrities like Justin Bieber, his upcoming NFT project, and much more, go ahead and listen to the full interview available on Spotify, Amazon, Google, and Apple Podcasts.
