"He's happy everyday he's got nothing to lose he's found his way"

James Reitano is the guy who's just made Dickies history and produced their first cartoon video. All hail & read on.

Ciaron's questions in bold caps, James' replies in normal lower case.

How did your involvement with this project come about?

I went to see them at a local club, and the friend I went with brought their publicist, Jon Rosner, of all people. He knew I had done some other animated videos, so he ran it by the guys at Fat, and they called me a couple days later. We went back and forth for about a week. I, by this point, was determined to make this happen. It was the perfect project. I couldn't believe that it hadn't been done yet. I mean, the Dickies as cartoon characters? C'mon, that seems like a no-brainer. So, me and the label worked out a deal, wrote up a contract, and I got started. I had 1 month to finish!!

One month is quite a tight schedule to meet, is this normal or would you normally have a little more time?

Well, this was a special case, because the record was already out. It had been out a month, so the video was really after the fact. So we really had to hustle, otherwise, the buzz of the album starts to die down six months after release. I wanted to do this one so much, I said, 'sure, I can do it, no problem', but knew damn well, I wasn’t gonna be leaving my house for a month. Also, you do so many compromises in quality; it starts to really be a drag. You really have to decide which scenes and parts are gonna get priority, and do those first. This way, they don’t wait ‘til the end, and end up getting rushed. I would've liked about 2 months for this one.

What bits hit the cutting room floor then?!

Well, the cutting room for animation usually stops on paper and pencil. You've got to be positively sure you're gonna use something before you go past that level.
We were gonna have singing donuts, Punch and Judy duking it out, the band was gonna be playing and then the girls were gonna chase them, so I was gonna have the band running and playing. Donut man was gonna get a haircut and they were gonna pour a jar of Rogaine on his head and give him a big afro with a lightning bolt in it...all sorts of stuff didn't get done.

Have you worked on anything else that we might recognise?

My stuff has been on mostly underground artists. I started out as a graffiti artist waaaay back when. I did skateboard graphics for about 3 years at Santa Cruz skateboards, so if anyone’s got any old decks from a few years back, it might just be my stuff! Hip-hop producer/DJ, Kutmasta Kurt's album art was mostly done by me. I mean, for his masters of illusion projects, with Kool Keith and motion man. My first video was one for them. We were having a casual conversation one day, and I brought up the idea of maybe doing a cartoon of Kool Keith, and he said ' well, we do need to do a video for the LP'. And that was that, so Kurt really gave me my start doing this sort of thing. I ended up doing 2 videos for him. The second one is getting played all over Europe and Canada. M2 has even said they'd play it, so if the Dickies go that route with this new one, it could get some exposure! I also did a video for rap legend Biz Markie.

Who would you say has influenced you?

Well, comic books were really what made me want to be an artist. That was when i was like 7. I had older brothers who were really good artists, so I was always trying to keep up. Then I got into graffiti when I was like 14, and that really set me on a path. Graffiti art is a very competitive art form so you tend to do a lot of work. From there I started doing comics for myself. A couple of years later I got a job at Santa Cruz skateboards which was really my art school, because I never went to a formal one. I then got into web work, which led me into animation and video. The art influences are too numerous to name, but all of the old Marvel comic artists, the old New York subway artists, the Hernandez brothers, Jamie Hewlitt, Vaugn Bode, Johnny Mojo, my older brothers...etc...

Do you use the traditional 'cel' form of animation, or do you prefer to work digitally with computers?

To tell you the truth, I’ve never done cel art. In fact, I learned on the computer how to do this stuff. If it weren’t for the advent of Macromedia's Flash (animation program), I would probably still be doing skateboard t-shirts. That program is an illustrators dream. It is possibly the easiest and best way for you to draw something and make it come to life. It’s very easy to use, which by all means does not mean you still don’t have to do all of the work.

So what would your stance be in a traditional versus digital animation debate?

Like I said, I’ve never done traditional animation, except for some clay-mation stuff I did with my brother as a kid. Digital is great because it has given guys like me an opportunity, who otherwise may have never had the chance to do animation. A lot of people seem to forget that just because your doing something on the computer, doesn’t necessarily make it easier. It just makes it more accessible. The artwork still needs to be done. The ideas still need to be there. The computer can’t, and I don’t think, ever will be able to do those things. The computer can do tons of short cuts, but one of the dangers of doing that is, most people end up using the same short cuts, and pretty soon, everyone’s stuff starts to look the same. That’s really the thorn in the side of the digital revolution. Everything can tend to get a bit homogenised. To really stand out, you've got to make your stuff unique.

Could you run us through the whole process of putting something like this together, from the concept right the way to the finished work?

Well, I knew I wanted to do a 'Saturday Morning Style' of cartoon for somebody. Y'know, like the old 60's Scooby Doo, Jackson 5 cartoon, Fat Albert. So I did a little research and it just started to come together. As I was doing this, the band and the label were haggling over which single to do. Stan wanted to do 'Free Willy', and Fat Mike wanted to do 'Donut Man' which was much more radio friendly. The song was pretty vague in subject which is actually quite good for a video director. Generally, if the song is too specific, the band might want to stay loyal to those visuals sung in the lyrics, which is great for the song, but might not translate well for a video. So this one, I had a clean slate. I knew I just wanted to do it in that 60's/70's style, so me and a friend of mine, whipped up that story in like one night. We knew it was real goof ball stuff, but I just had to get done. By this time I had just three weeks left!!! I drew some storyboards, showed ‘em to Stan, and he loved it! I went to dinner with Leonard and Stan, and we were all really thinking the same thing, so I was excited. We were talking about old cartoon shows and just laughing out loud about them. So I just got started on the preliminary drawings, Stan liked those, so off I went. Sketching drawings, scanning them in, tracing them in an illustration program, and putting them in flash, animating them with composite backgrounds. Outputting those to video, and then finalising them in an editing program.

Well you got the Scooby Doo thing down! The whole vid was very evocative of the musical interludes they used to do in those shows.

How easy was it to characature the band? What was your starting point?

Well, I was watching old 'Osmonds' cartoons. It was a complete rip-off of the Jackson 5. I knew I wanted to have the band dancing, like 4 tops style, y'know? I drew Stan and Leonard and I knew I had what I needed. I showed Stan and he laughed his head off, so I knew I was onto something. Leonard seemed to be easy to draw, but Stan was my favourite. He's great because he doesn’t look the part. He's one of punk rocks best guitarists and he looks like he could play in Air Supply. I drew him a lot; he started to almost look like a cross between Roger Daltrey and Marc Bolan. For Rick, Travis and Dave, I had to find physical attributes to exaggerate. Dave had the cool daddy goatee, Travis had the normal guy look, and Rick had the shades. Stan had wanted me to put Rick in a dress, but I chickened out, picturing a very unhappy Rick making me change it at the last minute. Stan said I 'pussed out'.

The dance sequences are hilarious! It's easy to see where you were influenced there! Did the band have any input in the storyboard?

I think when you show a band a storyboard, its kind of a lot to take in. I think Stan was just impressed that I took it that far. Stan had a few comments but all in all liked where I was going with it. He really was like a co-producer on the video. He would call me every day with a new idea. I would either say, 'yeah! That’s a great idea!', or, 'yeah, great idea, but I’ve only got 1 month!!'. But all in all, the band liked it. Stan and Leonard were who I was really concerned with, cause, y'know, it’s their baby. But as soon as I get the approval from the label, it’s a done deal. I guess my thinking, going through this whole thing, was 'if I make it good enough, they might ask me to do another one'! So hopefully that'll happen!

Do you have any particular cartoon favourites from your childhood?

I loved the Japanese stuff, even before I knew it was Japanese. I just knew that speed racer was so much better than all of the other cartoons. I loved Gerry Anderson’s 'thunderbirds'. Fat Albert was great. Battle of the Planets (G-Force), Woody Woodpecker, all of the Walter Lantz stuff, Tom and Jerry. I was a kid in the 70's, so that was a time when animation was at an all time low as far as quality. So a good cartoon really meant something.

I don't think you'll ever beat the seventies for cartoons. The re-runs of all the old Hanna Barbera shows still stand up against today's stuff. The donut man video did bring to mind the Hanna Barbera style, are you fan of what they did?

Oh, definitely! That 'Fred Flintstone' style was something they pioneered. We were entering the sixties; so everything was getting this streamlined, 'mod', look, including cartoons. And, simpler cartoons are easier and faster to create. So I think the Hanna Barbera style was a result of the design climate as well as economics. Powerpuff Girls and Ren & Stimpy brought that whole style back.

What do you think of the newer stuff that's out there now? Simpsons, King Of The Hill, South Park etc?

I think its all good in its own right. I mean, I watch the Simpsons mainly because they're writing is genius! That's probably the only real funny show on American TV. So, I don't really watch that with the animation in mind too much. I got a chance to tour the Simpsons offices actually. Those people work around the clock on that show! South Park is the same way. They could be stick figures, and it'd still be funny.

Are you a Dickies fan?

Oh yeah. I actually didn’t get into them till about 6 years ago. I've always loved old punk rock, (especially the British stuff), and the Dickies always seemed so British in their sound. I loved their light-heartedness. American punk can always tend to be a little too serious and silly, so the Dickies are a real rarity. I’ve always thought of them as the west coast Ramones.

Here's the quick fire round!

Hanna Barbera or Disney?

No comparison. Walt Disney did it for the love. I mean, he was a filmmaker, really, while Hanna Barbera were television business men, so its not even in the same context really.

Bugs or Mickey?

You gotta love bugs.

Betty Boop or Jessica Rabbit?

Betty Boop is more the kind of chick you could take to a pub and get blasted with, and take to see a toy dolls show . Jessica's just too high maintenance.

Felix the cat or Fritz the cat?

Felix!!! Fritz was a phoney!

Thanks for taking the time out for the interview; do you have any parting messages for Dickies fans everywhere?

Keep the faith. Go and sell all of your Blink 182 and Lit CD's and go buy the new Dickies album!! It’s worth it!

Big thanks to James, now go watch the video here.