It is truly an honor that the Tegan and Sara blog were able to do the first official interview with Emily "Emy" Storey of EE Storey Design. All of us fans know her well as she serves many important functions in the Tegan and Sara world. Each day when we visit the Tegan and Sara official website we see her incredible web design. Each time we pull out "So Jealous" to be played for the millionth time we see her brilliant art that accompanies it so well. Most personally though, each time we see Tegan and Sara play Emy is at the gig selling merchandise, talking with the fans, and of course setting up her awesome light brite! Below is the interview, make sure to check out her very cool EE Storey Design webpage here at
http://www.eestoreydesign.com/
Let's start at the beginning. Tell us about your childhood. Where did you grow up? What was your family like? getting personal... hmmm... well, i grew up in a small rural town, kinderhook, NY, USA. it's in columbia county, a really beautiful area. lots of rivers, waterfalls, farms... i grew up with my mom, dad and brother, my family is great. i attended a small school, there were about 120 people in my graduating class. i worked on farms and in high school drew the chalkboard signs at the local grocery store. like if there was a sale on salmon fillets i got to illustrate it. fascinating. i was an extremely busy young person; an over-achiever if you will.
Were you artistic when you were young? If so, how did you first begin expressing your abilities? yes i was artistic. i drew in sketchbooks and watched those public television shows where they teach you how to draw cartoons and landscapes. my dad was a great artist and he worked as a graphic designer when i was a kid so i was always around old school graphic design stuff like letraset, paper samples, inks and stuff. i was really inspired by my dad's creativity. he especially liked building things, he could make just about anything.
How and when did you first start to show an interest in computers?we had a computer around the house when i was pretty young, an APPLE of course --the first real graphic design work i did on the computer was my high school yearbook. that's definitely an ee storey design classic. collectible.
Did you go to University for graphic design or did you learn on your own?i went to concordia university in montreal. i studied design there. though i found that my non-design, fine arts classes like drawing and sculpture shaped my style a lot more than my design classes.
How did you first become involved with Tegan and Sara? Had you known them before you worked on the website?i met sara in montreal in february 2003, met tegan shortly after and i did the tegan and sara site and so jealous art in summer 2004. working on art with them was great because i could basically work for a few hours, call sara into the room and have her give input right away. for anyone who works with clients, that's pretty cool to be able to do because then you can avoid wasting time working on an idea that isn't good. a lot of the so jealous stuff i designed with her looking over my shoulder. this would probably make some people nervous. also, i was teaching her how to use photoshop at the time so it was a learning experience for her. i think that's why she paid such close attention.
Was your first version of Tegan and Sara's website created in September 2002?oh i didn't do that design, i don't even know what it looked like! i'm sure it was beautiful. i've only been the art director since so jealous.
How did you make the transition from Tegan and Sara's web designer to being art director and handling merchandise responsibilities?it was just sort of a natural transition, first i designed the so jealous artwork, then i did the website and i quickly realized that we were going to need lots of other designs. i wasn't totally prepared for all the work-- at the time none of us really new exactly how many tshirt designs we'd need or how many posters or whatever-- it turned out that i just had to keep producing this never ending stream of ideas. i started selling merchandise as a way to travel with the band and make money at the same time. so yeah, i took all the merch responsibilities partly because i'm a control freak and partly because there was no one else to do it! the T&S org is a relatively small collection of incredibly productive amazing people and everyone has lots of responsibilities. and yes, the merchandise is a huge responsibility!
Many people might take for granted the job of the "Merch Slinger" but as somebody who has had to do it I can vouch for how incredibly grueling, tedious, and harder it is than it might look, especially during the post-show rush. Which tours did you do this job on? Do you get to sneak away from the table and watch their set? How many Tegan and Sara concerts would you estimate you have seen (or been in the
building at)?selling merch can be grueling and even when it's fun it feels a bit insane. tegan and sara fans are amazing though and so i rarely had to deal with horrible people. also i totally loved setting everything up and tending to details such as the lite brite, the displays and such. it was really cool too, as the person who created the designs, to see people get excited about shirts and such. in terms of tours, i was on every tour with them, selling merch, except for the australia tours, japan, unlimited sunshine and florida!!!!! poor me. i didn't usually have to sneak away from the table to watch the shows, i always tried to have my set-up inside the venue. dear god i have no idea how many shows i've seen. so many. loved all of them.
If you could share with us some of the most memorable stories that have happened at the table. From interesting fans to logistical nightmares, we would love to hear all of your favorites. oh god, i don't know. i tired to block out all my merch memories. actually i was just visiting tegan in vancouver and she set up my bed in her storage room which was full of instruments, boxes and THE MERCH TUBS. needless to say--- nightmares. but my craziest most out of control merch night ever was in edmonton,alberta, i think it was in february 2005--at red's in the west edmonton mall. anyway, red's is like the shittiest venue and i there were about 1200 people there. it's basically a giant sports venue or something, a multi level restaurant with giant screens. we sold over 400 tshirts; kids were stealing; by the end of the night there was a mob at the merch table; someone dropped a cup full of beer on my head from the balcony above; craig, sara and i almost got into a fist fight with the manager and i cried. that's all the memories i can handle for now.
As someone with a front-row seat to this band, what did the monumental record that is "So Jealous" mean to you in terms of Tegan and Sara's evolution and how did it artistically affect you. Please ruminate on how all the "So Jealous" related art came about as well.how did it artistically affect me? hmmm.....i mean, so jealous was great for my art, being the art director was an amazing opportunity, i think i really progressed as an artist/designer from the beginning of the record to the end, just the sheer volume of work does that to a person i think!.....in terms of t/s evolution, it was incredible, i mean i got to see them at every stage, from writing demos to rehearsals, to recording, mixing, touring---they are such sound artists, really inspirational.... i'm glad that the record ended up being such a success because they totally deserve that recognition. they work so hard, care so much and are so creative!
I think one of the greatest compliments an artist can receive is that they are an auteur, that is one who imbues a work of art with her or his distinctive, recognizable style. Artists as diverse as David Lynch, Neil Young, and Wes Anderson all can be called an auteur. Anyone familiar with your style of art would certainly classify you as an auteur, what is the distinct and recognizable aspects of your art that you see as making you fall into this category? so i'm reading this question thinking "auteur, how complimentary!" as soon as i see the names David Lynch, Neil Young, and Wes Anderson i want to run away from this question. david lynch and wes anderson are like two of my favourite artists/filmmakers/visionaries ever! and neil... i would not put myself in the same sentence. i'm not sure that i would call myself an auteur either--i mean, i do have some distinctive elements and interests--a style, yes -- but i'm really not THAT original. maybe in a few more years i would reconsider this title! actually, sometimes i think that my "style" really comes out because of the content of my work-- the message/client tends to really inspire me and perhaps it's the fact that i pick interesting projects that makes me seem distinctive. but i do try to be smart about my design. i like things to be creative and entertaining. i also like illustration, coloring, hand drawn lettering, that kind of thing.
What are you contributing to Tegan and Sara's DVD "It's Not Funny, Don't Do It"? Any word on the release date?trick question! the dvd is called "it's not fun, don't do it". oh my god, i'm so good at tegan and sara trivia. i designed all the art, menus, organized a lot of the stuff, took a lot of the pictures in the photo section.....it will be released this summer.
How did the idea for Tegan and Sara's DC Shoes come about? What is the status on the project? Can you give us any ideas to what the design will be like? Is a "Boys" version and/or size of the shoe going to be made?well, DC asked us if we wanted to make a shoe so that's how it started and the shoe itself was inspired by sara's vintage red yellow and black shoes which have been immortalized in many a merch design.... the DC shoes are CRAZY they are so cool and totally weird. there won't be a boys version unfortunately-- that was sort of beyond our control.
Finally, What should we expect in the future from TeganandSara.com?dear god, obscene glory.
