An interview with Landland

This coming Saturday, February 27th, we are proud to host "Soft Targets," an art show starring Landland, in our First Amendment gallery. Landland has really been doing their thingthing for several years and we have been fans since day one. To make sure everyone knows the deal, we walked down the hall, knocked on their door, and asked Dan Black and Jes Seamans a few questions about their work, their studio, and Saturday's show!

BRLSQ: Tell the readers a little bit about Landland.

DAN BLACK: Landland started in 2007...it was me and Matt Zaun and kind of Jes Seamans (even though she was living in San Francisco at the time). Matt and I had been following each other from job to job for the last seven or so years, and the whole time kinda messing around with screenprinting in different basements and wherever we could set up shop. After moving all of our stuff around a few times, it got old and we set out to find a more permanent space. I knew Wes from around town and at some point asked him if he knew of any spaces that were opening up...that was how we ended up in you guyses' building. I think we got the room that someone was using to store sculpture stuff in...there was nothing built in there at all, so we got to work building all the stuff we'd always complained about not having in our cramped basements and weird garage situations. We spent the first summer just building, and a few months after we'd pretty much moved in, Matt died of a heart attack. I was talking to Jes about it shortly after, and she offered to come back to Minneapolis to help out with things, which is pretty much one of the most amazing things that anyone's ever done for me. So now it's me and Jes, and we're making things all the time and trying to spend as much time in there as we can without pissing off {1101 Stinson-mate and graphic designer Michael} Cina too badly with all of our noisy equipment and me singing along to stuff I listened to in high school.

BRLSQ: How did you end up moving in down the hall from us?

DB: I guess I covered that in the last answer...we really couldn't have ended up with a better setup. The building is great, and it's rad to be next to you guys all the time. Also, with the karate studio upstairs and the armor shop at the other end of the hall, I think it's probably one of the more fortified spots in Minneapolis, so we've got that going for us too.

BRLSQ: Who are your favorite poster artists these days?

DB: I think I'm kinda partial to the weirdos lately, and I mean that really affectionately...Sonnenzimmer, Scott Campbell, my roommates Dan (DNML) Luedke and Casey Deming are turning out some amazing stuff. I have really been loving what Jay Ryan has been doing lately...it seems like something snapped in there in a really good way. Ryan Duggan, Nate Duval, people like that. I'm really trying to refrain from saying anything about you guys, because I talk you up a lot when I'm, you know, not talking to you. There's like a million other people that I'm all about. If you want me to keep going, I can.

  BRLSQ: What can people expect when they come to this art show on Saturday?

DB: Every single thing that we've made since moving in, including some new art prints and a bunch of work we've done for out-of-town shows, which is a relatively new thing for us. We're releasing a record on Saturday...it's a split 12" with the incredible Nate Denver's Neck on one side, and Jes' band Best Friends Forever on the other. It's the first release on a kinda separate thing we're doing called "Landland Is Not A Record Label," which seems a little like a record label, but it's not, because I don't have the patience or the time to actually do the all the ugly work of real record labels. We just want to put things out periodically...records, books, whatever. So it's all that stuff, I guess. 

BRLSQ: Isn't Jodi awesome?

DB: Yeah, Jodi's pretty awesome. If I could make a list of five people that I would want to let me into our studio after I've locked myself out, she'd be at least four of them. I have a feeling she also has to deal with me singing along to stuff she probably hates, and she's never once mentioned it, so she's a good person for that too.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Don't miss Landland's "Soft Targets" show, opening Saturday February 27th
7-10pm at First Amendment Arts (1101 Stinson Blvd at Broadway in NE Minneapolis).
Live music from Best Friends Forever
Free admission / all ages

RSVP on Facebook

Find out more about Landland right here: http://landland.net