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Set the scene and tell us a little bit about yourself Mr Moo...

My names moo, I’m from sunny Birmingham and I draw stuff.

What is a 'Moodude'?!?!

All I know if you should keep it out of daylight, never get it wet and never feed it after midnight! Basically, you wouldn’t want to take one home to meet your mother!

What music do you listen to (if any) when you are working on a project?

Everyone has music to get them going! I’m very open-minded when it comes to music, it depends on my mood and what I'm doing. I listen to a lot of punk rock and break beat. I’m am avid fan of Zane Lowe. The man knows his music.

What else helps you find inspiration?

My 2 favourite things in the world, cartoons and animals! I grew up on a visual diet of Disney and Warner Brothers, and I can still remember the first time I ever saw the Simpson’s! I knew it was something very special even when I was a kid. My love of animation hasn’t faded, majority of my DVD collection is Japanese anime, that and the full David Attenborough wildlife collection! It’s a mix that seems to work well for me.

What is your background, in that, have you always been involved in art and enjoyed being creative?

I knew from a young age I would end up doing something creative, I was always much happier expressing myself visually rather than having to try and remember something. I’ve studied art and design throughout my education and I've tried to keep it as varied as possible, always challenging myself. I studied Industrial Design at university, which not only tested my design skills but also allowed me to be very innovative, problem solving with design. I loved it.

How would you describe your style of work?

Chunky, curvy and cute, with a “don’t mess or I bite your hand off” attitude!

One of the things that always interests me is how people discover vinyl toys and get into customising, then later have their own line of toys or designs on toys such as dunny or qee. Who or what got you into the vinyl toy scene?

It’s all Lunartiks fault! While I was at Uni I keep seeing these plug socket stickers everywhere, so I noted down the website and it just snowballed from there. From Matts site I discovered Tado, Pete Fowler and Jon Burgerman, I was hooked.

I recently heard you were being entered into the QEE DIY world tour, that must be amazing to be involved in such a big event, how did you take this news?

I was over the moon! Within half an hour of sending some pictures off to Raymond he had emailed me back asking if I could send it for the world tour, I couldn’t say no really.

Customising seems to be your thing, what custom(s) are you working on at the moment?

I’ve got lots on at the moment, it’s been a great start to the year. I’m working on an 8” egg qee which I’ve nearly finished, a 10” knuckle bear and a 8” dunny to go on sale on future plastik, plus 2 more ninja dunnys and I’m just finishing of another fling the monkey that’s going on sale in America. Can’t get enough of it! I love doing customs!

If you were invisible for a day, what would you do?

Harass Sichi!

The main custom people have seen is your PUCK OFF munny, which has been entered into the Munny contest as well as it being sold on Future Plastik. What’s your process in creating customs like this?

To be honest, I don’t really have a process. Sometimes I have a rough idea what I’m going to do with a toy before I get it. I find my best work is when an idea just pops into my head and I run with it. A lot of my customs are done like that.

Other than making those sexy customs, what else keeps you busy?

Drinking tea and the wonderful lady moo!

I have a 9-5 job, which has nothing to do with my Moodude work, so that keeps me pretty busy! I’ve been a bedroom DJ since I was 16, but my love of vinyl records has had to make room for vinyl toys recently.

I don’t recall seeing your vinyl collection, what does it mainly consist of?

It’s actually quite small. I try to only buy things I really like now, otherwise ill end up using them for customs! It’s pretty cool though, it’s about a 50/50 split of my customs and production pieces.

What is your favourite vinyl?

I love Qees, always have! There is something unique about them and there is such a massive range of designs. From a designer’s point of view, they are a really cool canvas to work with. Really into my larger figures at the moment, its just finding room for them.

What is on your most wanted list for vinyl toys?

Ox op series 2 qees...I've been waiting for those for a long time! Wouldn’t mind getting my hand on one of those 16” glow in the dark bears! Tasty.

If you were a pigeon what designer/artist would you most like to poo on and why?!

Hmm… that’s a tough one… probably Tmboo, I heard he’s into that kind of thing! ;)

OK a VA favourite: If you could have one Inspector Gadget type inner-gadget what would it be?

An ice-cream cannon.

What's this about you having unnatural urges for Tony from 24? Or are they totally natural urges?

hahaa! they are totally natural! he is a very handsome man! *blushes* Look at the goatie, it rocks!

What artist or designer would you most like to collaborate with?

Me and Mimic have been talking about doing a few things together, and I’m hopefully going to be hooking up with Okkle on some stuff soon. Aside from those 2 talented chaps, id love to do something with Tado. Mike and Katie had a massive impact on me when I discovered their work and the vinyl scene, so working with them would be amazing, and I imagine, quite an interesting experience!

Talking about interesting experiences, you're not unfamiliar with wearing women's clothing. What's with that?

I've been told I look good in pink... even if it was pink frills and zebra skin...

Moving swiftly on, what do you think of the people involved in the vinyl/art scene in general?

One of the best things about the toy community is its such a friendly place, I think its because it's so accessible and everyone can relate to it. The gap between designers and collectors is almost non-existent. I love it when people email me for stickers, to say they like my artwork, or just to say hello.

We regularly see your work over at Future Plastik, and it sells nice and quick. Do you have anything special planned for Future Plastik?

We’ve got a few things in the pipeline yeah… me and Steve are always throwing ideas at each other and we have plenty planned for the coming months…

How did the Future Plastik x Moodude relationship start?

I dropped Steve an email about the Vinyl Abuse project a few months back, and he asked me if I'd like to take part. I hadn’t sold any of my artwork before so it was a very proud moment when Steve let me know my piece had been sold. From that we have become good friends and developed an excellent working relationship. He’s a cracking bloke! (Don’t forget my £20 for saying that mate)

Will we get to see a vinyl toy release from you, such as your Mooka n Chums or the corkie's?

The ideas behind the corkies is to create a very simple 3D canvas for artist to work with. Once I’ve got some made up I plan to send them out to people to customise, purely as an experiment to see what happens.

I'd love to get my Mooka & Chums character made into toys, I think about it a lot and I know exactly now I'd want them to look like, down to the smallest detail, everything from the material finish to the packaging design. I’ve got a lot planned for them, but not toys quite yet!

What’s the future have in hold for you?

I’ve got some big ideas for my Mooka & Chums characters, I’ve spent a lot of time developing them, working on character sheets, showing how they should move and how to draw them correctly. Its a lot of fun and I’ve been getting some funky ideas about each characters personality from spending so much time on them.

I just want to keep doing what I’m doing really, I'd love to quit my day job so I could spend more time doing my Moodude thing. Hopefully one-day I'll earn enough to pay the bills from it!

www.moodude.co.uk