Punk rock , science fiction movies , and dark art are all part of Tod ’ s ethos and inspire his illustrations which eventually transform into a custom piece of clothing for a client . As the frontman for his own punk rock band , Houston based DieFast , Tod ’ s creative outlets do not stop there ; he also paints and sculpts in both his L . A . and Houston clothing design studios commuting between the two cities , Houston , where he owns a home , where his band is based , and where he anticipates opening a store in the near future , and L . A ., where Junker Designs business is primarily run .
Junker Designs has been in business since 2001 , and Tod has been mutating , ravaging , deconstructing , and custom making clothes for musicians for over 15 years , and when asked about inspiration and overcoming “ creative block ,” Tod acknowledged his own :
I have had a block for six months to a year , so I have been drawing and working on scripts in the meantime , and trying to get back to the other place which is sci-fi . Mostly , I do rock bands and when you rock and roll it out for however many years it starts to feel the same . I guess when you are talking about inspiration , I heard someone else describe it — I am like a vampire . I would rather work in a creative type community like when you work on a movie that really gets the ideas going , your idea or someone else ’ s , and something gets added to it , and that gets slipped around and then it gets kicked down the field really fast , and you know about the turnaround time so you have to come up with the concept , and finalize the concept with a bunch of input pretty quickly , and then do something about it , and then produce something . I feel like a vampire and I also feel like I am kind of cheating because luckily , other people have seeds of an idea and tell me to do my thing to it . I definitely get inspired by being around other people . It ’ s an illusion that artists work by themselves . You can ’ t ever really work like that . If your art is sustaining you it is only because other people sustain you .
Tod ’ s creative process is a pretty simple one ; he likes to listen to music when he is working . He most definitely does not like to listen to punk rock because as he puts it , “ Why would I want to hear it ?” he asks . Because that ’ s what I play !” There are times when Tod does like to work in silence but those times are rare . “ I seem to be the most creative if I play the same CD for 8 hours straight ,” he confesses . Tod still listens to a lot of KISS and Rush , and a moody band similar in his words to Bauhaus called White Lies . He often searches YouTube for white noise with different variations running as long as 10 hours at a time . It helps him focus on his inventiveness , vision , and imagination , allowing him to design such amazing pieces you see on the likes of Dave Navarro , Johnny Depp and longtime friend , Alice Cooper ’ s bass player and frontman of his own band , “ Beasto Blanco ” Chuck Garric .
Venturing outside of his comfort zone is something that Tod is used to , not only with his designs , but taking
26 InkSpiredMagazine . com