Michael, founder of The Weather Channel, started it as a creative outlet,
which has now grown into an exciting brand.
He enjoys organizing events, especially movie screenings,
and values bringing people together.
Michael strives to match his skill level to his high standards,
exploring various art forms, including 'cut and sew' projects and zines.
Who are you and what is The Weather Channel?
I am Michael. I think I'm just in the pursuit of just bettering myself because I’ve always wanted to be at a certain stage, at a similar level of the people who, like, inspired me when I was younger and all that sorta shit.
I started The Weather Channel just as like a creative outlet.
It sorta moved me in the way of doing events and just a way of working with friends. But it’s definitely now turning into more of a brand with the cut and sew.
Proper drops on the way and hopefully turn it into an empire hahaha.
How did you make so many friends in the creative scene?
I think ever since I was like super young, I’ve just always been hanging out at stores. Nick from 1st Product was, you know, I probably annoyed the shit out of him with how much I was going to his store and just not buying anything.
But every time I was there, I’d meet someone new.
And then the same with Brick and Mortar, Hand 2 Hand, and Doomsday Store, just fucken hanging out there heaps.
Pretty much just hanging out at all these places and got to know people and then we’d keep going to events and that’s about it.
What’s your favourite type of event to go to?
I’m gonna have to be selfish here and probably say my movie ones now.
Every time I go to the cinema I’m like, so happy.
To be able to do events at them now is so sick.
But other than that, other than my own shit, it’s always fun to go to like,
you know, one with a DJ and free drinks every now and then.
You’ve organized a fair number of events in your time, with the latest of those being ‘Kicking A Dead Man’ + ‘Under The Same Sky’ in collaboration with Michael J Kennedy as well as your frequent collaborator – Wilhelm Philipp.
What inspires you to run events, and what was special about this most recent one?
I never thought I’d be doing them. And then I just, I really wanted to show Hellraiser for Halloween one year because I just got back from overseas and I hate how little Halloween is celebrated here.
So I just called up Nick from 1st Product to see if he was interested and see if he could pull any strings with Lido [Cinemas].
I just worked like, fucking tirelessly to make a poster for it.
The turnaround was like tiny.
And then it ended up being yeah, my favourite poster I’ve ever designed.
Just the high from that, you know, selling over 100 tickets, it was the complete opposite of doing my first drop where not much sells.
And then yeah, also just having people and friends come out for a night. It’s cool.
There’s also working with friends, me and Will have known each other for a long time. I had like, a brand in high school and he reached out through Instagram to ask if he could take photos for it.
We sorta linked up and that was his first photography gig.
Yeah, he’s killing it now as well, so it’s good to work with him - we thought we’d do a proper thing together.
Is there a certain medium of art that you feel like you can express
yourself more through?
Probably whatever’s made on my laptop.
So yeah, a lot of like vector and halftone work and all that sorta stuff.
It’s always a chase of trying to match my skill level to my taste level.
And yeah, to me that’s probably never going to stop but hopefully I can be at peace with that.
Like with my latest exhibition, it was probably the first little step into making proper physical things that aren’t t-shirts and shit like that.
And you know, I sorta got more plans to do like a little bit of furniture and stuff and probably like, art pieces towards the end of the year, which I think I am most excited for just because it’s sorta new grounds for me and all that sorta shit.
Would you say that the art you create is the same kind of art you like to consume?
To an extent yeah. I think it goes back to the skill level not being at the taste level.
A lot of the art that I consume, I mean, I’m like obsessed with and then I can’t really make anything close to that.
I guess yeah, I definitely try to but at the same time, I want everything to be my own and I don’t really feel like I have a style of my own yet. I’m quite happy to not have a specific style and just sorta be able to do a bunch of different things.
What does your creative process look like when you’re designing a new drop and how do you know when it’s done?
So, my creative process is just me sitting on my fucking laptop for so long until I get, yeah, something down that I like and then I’ll just expand on that.
If I’m like particularly obsessed with something at the moment or if there’s something that I want to wear myself, I try and make that.
Whether that’s like the way a graphic looks or the way something fits.
I find it hard to know when it’s done because I’ll always want to just keep going and try to perfect it, you know, that sorta stuff.
But definitely have gotten a bit better at learning that I just need to put stuff out there.
Is your creative process ever effected by the lens of what’s popular right now or what you think will sell rather than what you actually want to create?
Definitely a fair bit of the time it is by what would sell.
I still tend to go with stuff that I know may not sell well but it’s like, I didn’t really start doing this for other people.
If I wanna wear something, I know the minimum for screenprinters is like 20.
And it’s quite a cost to print 20 just because I wanna wear something.
But hopefully I can get better at portraying why other people should be interested in the topic, or the style, or the fit, or you know whatever.
Bit of a journey I guess, just trynna figure out why something didn’t sell as well and how I can make it sell better in the future.
Goes back to what we were talking about off record – where we just started this and we’ve learned so much.
I think I just look at it as like, you know, although the stock might keep piling up, hopefully it’ll just light a bigger fire under my ass to get better at marketing and all that sorta shit.
Not long ago you released a design depicting a woman hugging a robot titled
“You And A.I”.
As a creative what are your thoughts on AI, and do you see it as a threat to the future of art?
I don’t mind A.I. I think it’s cool that it exists. I think it goes back to my obsession with movies and shit. Growing up watching movies that would depict the future and everything, like‘I, Robot’ and all that sorta stuff.
Even though there’s the argument of it taking away jobs from humans, I feel like it just creates new jobs at the same time.
It’s one of those things with humans that are sometimes nervous to change and I do understand this one has the possibility to go down a scary path but it’s just another tool I guess, for people.
Oh, and the ‘You And A.I.’ thing came from the title of a ‘Yu-Gi-Oh!’ card.
I’m fucking obsessed with ‘Yu-Gi-Oh!’, as soon as I read that, I just wanted to make a design based off of it.
Do you have a word of advice for the creatives out there, something you wish you figured out sooner?
I guess, yeah, just working with people.
Even if it doesn’t come out the exact way that you think, like, it’s okay.
And sorta like, having other people on board as well.
I’m still struggling with that for sure, I’m still very solo but I think that’s because I want to get to a certain point or I’ve got a certain place in my head where I want to get to.
Hopefully once I get there, then I’ll be down to work with people.
And to just, it sounds cliché but enjoy the process.
There’s been sometimes where I just haven’t. I look back at it now and I’m like damn, that was a waste in a way. I should have been happier I was doing it or something like that.
So what is next for you and The Weather Channel?
All the cut and sew stuff that I’m working on.
I might do a little drop in between then but it’s really stepping up the quality of everything which unfortunately means stepping up how much everything costs.
I want to stand behind my brand and be able to not necessarily sell it to someone but just be just happily talk about the brand because it’s like, second nature that I just fuck with the quality and all that sorta stuff.
I’m really excited to get these cut and sews into the world, these hoodies I’ve been working on.
This sorta feels like what I’ve always envisioned The Weather Channel was so it feels cool to be almost there.
@theweatherchannelau
