Interview :: Jeremy Neale

July 5th 2013

Jeremy neale

Making merch is hard. It takes commitment, organisational skills, all those other qualities you put on your first resume and cold, hard cash.

Gemma Piali grilled Jeremy Neale, solo singer-songwriter and one-twelfth of Velociraptor, about selling tees through Label State and other prehistoric things.

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How did Velociraptor first come in contact with Label State and why did you decide to sell your tees with Grant? 

Grant invented partying so it was only natural that when he was making shirts he would ensure that they could survive even the most intense nights of party dogging and the harsh climate of the most max chiller of days off and associated food stains from being a hack bachelor chef in the kitchen.

On your Jeremy Neale merch site, you have Clooney and Obama (photoshopped) wearing your t-shirts. If you could have anyone in the world walk in to the pop up store and put on one of your t-shirts, who would it be? 

Newman.

Your t-shirts have a comic or Japanese anime style to their designs. Do you think the wearers could possibly gain any sort of powers from wearing the t-shirts? 

The power to express themselves emotionally and physically. Also if they roll up the sleeves they have a chance to hand out as many free passes to their own gun show as they like. That’s the power of freedom.

One of your t-shirts has all 12 members immortalized in cartoon form. If the band could be transported into a comic book, what would the comic be about? 
 
Working as volunteer fire fighters in a quiet suburban town. Sometimes we just rescue cats from trees but other times various very worthy charities would ask us to help them raise money by posing for sexy calendars.

How has Label State helped bands get their merch out?  

Label State fortunately allows bands to not have to go to the post office (one of the worst places in the 1st world) to send their shirts to peeps. This helps me because I am sometimes lazy and also time poor due to all the posing for sexy calendars.

What kind of a response have you received from the public? 

I get a lot of high 5s when I’m walking down the street now and that’s been really good for building my arm strength but also my legs and core because a lot of the high 5s have been jumping high 5s to increase their impact and overall badassery.

What do you think of the idea of a pop up store? Will you be buying any t-shirts? 

Sure will! Not only do I like bands but I also like local industry and pop up stores are my second favourite thing in the world right behind renaming other people’s pets so they have more maxtreme names.
 
Velociraptor has a bring your own tambourine (BYOT) rule. Should people bring tambourines or any other percussion instruments to support you when you play at Label State? 

That would be most appreciated. We don’t have any tambourines of our own anymore so we’re really relying on the community to pull together on this one.

You have been touring in Europe. What crazy antics did Velociraptor get up to? 

We ate a variety of cheap meals, drank cheap liquor and probably confused a lot of people. The important thing I learnt is that the German medical system is hard to navigate and expensive and that in Stockholm they have caviar in tubes just like toothpaste. Fancy!

What’s next for Jeremy Neale and Velociraptor? 

I’ll be touring the country pretty relentlessly until the end of the year and will release an EP in a couple of months. As for Velociraptor we’ll have the first single from our upcoming album out by Christmas which is pretty exciting methinks as it’s been awhile now since we’ve released anything.

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WHO: Jeremy Neale

WHERE: Label State Pop Up Store, 118 Oxford St, Darlinghust

WHEN: Saturday 6 July, 2pm

HOW MUCH: free (and BYO)

LISTEN: We’re broadcasting the set LIVE on FBi from 2pm – so no-one needs to miss out!

 

For more on Label State check out the interview with brand founder, Grant Barnes, here.

Label State | Gemma Piali

 

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