Ed Davis is somewhat of an online enigma, operating behind the facade of a couple of projects you probably should have heard about by now. As the co-founder of The Heavy Mental – a site that provides an always-interesting original take on city life and art – Ed’s got his fingers in a number of proverbial pies, including the recent launch of What Are You Doing After This? in February/March – a group show held at London’s Ivory & Black gallery that featured a host of raw, uncensored artists and their work.
Most recently however, Ed is in the process of launching a new, publishing wing for The Heavy Mental – a collaboration with Melbourne-based Smalltime Books – appropriately named, HEAVYTIME. In the spirit of HM, HEAVYTIME will release zines, books and other assorted paperback goodness with a strong focus on art, culture and the unorthodox. With all this going on, we spent 5 Minutes with Ed to get his take on the situation.
SLAMXHYPE // Hey Ed, can you introduce yourself and talk about your creative background?
Ed Davis // Nah. That’s boring. You don’t want to know that stuff. The things I do with HM are not about me.
SXH // OK then, in your own words describe The Heavy Mental.
ED // HM is a website that Todd Jordan and I have. Its main purpose is to shed a little light on people that we feel are doing interesting things. The website is just another platform though and we are not restricted by it. We are also beginning to organise exhibitions, product collaborations and are about to launch our publishing company HEAVY TIME.
SXH // There’s a definite element of a tight-knit – almost local – collective mindset on the site. Contributors offering inside knowledge through original content, be it stories/shoots/reviews etc… can you expand on that?
ED // It is very tight knit and it all happens super organically. If it feels right then it it probably is. If it’s not, fuck it. We don’t feel the pressure to have new content on the site everyday.
SXH // Can you talk about your involvement with What Are You Doing After This? The show has now hit the road, right?
ED // What Are You Doing After This? is an exhibition that we put together with HM friend Jeff Potocar in London. It started as a conversation between me and Jeff and turned into an epic show. Everyone in the show are friends and that was the whole idea. We had 10 artists from the show over in London for the opening and it was incredible. It’s just finished in London and we plan to take it to a bunch of places. We haven’t locked in the next location yet though.
SXH // So you were telling me about HEAVYTIME – what’s that about?
ED // HEAVYTIME is the publishing side of HM. It’s a partnership between HM and Smalltime Books. It’s going to be sick.
SXH // How did the Smalltime connection come about?
ED // I meet Rob from Smalltime and we became mates right away, everything else just fell into place.
SXH // So although there is an official launch around the corner, there have already been a couple of HEAVYTIME releases…
ED // The first two titles NECKFACE/FUCK THIS LIFE Trust Us You’re Dead and Jeff Potocar’s How to Make a Jailhouse Tattoo Machine are out and about in limited numbers. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. So many good things in the pipeline.
SXH // Was it a fairly logical move for you to expand into print publishing?
ED // It’s just another way for HM to show some of the amazing things people we know are doing. Like everything we do it has to feel right and working with Rob at Smalltime is awesome. A great dude with an open mind and a similar way of looking at things.
SXH // Is there a specific vision and/or agenda behind HEAVYTIME? How would you like to see it evolve past its early stages?
ED // Our agenda is to do great things with great people. It’s that simple. Hopefully it will grow to allow more freedom and allow us to do bigger and more ambitious projects.
SXH // How will HEAVYTIME’s publications be distributed?
ED // The distro will be limited and only with like minded crew and family.