The Notorious Family is one of our favourite brand from Indonesia and we had a chance to hang out with them to get a little history about everything behind their works. So, sit tight, nevermind the bollocks, and here's the interview.
HPDC: Hey guys, let's start off by asking where you from?
Notorious : We're all from Jakarta, except Sid he was born in Sydney, Australia, but he kinda here and there. We met each other when some of us were studying there, we skate and play music together, did some dumb shit together and partying hard....
Ok...so what are you working on these days?
Notorious: Not much ay haha...we still party a lot, but with the opening of the shop pretty soon, we kinda get busy with doin all the productions stuff and of course laying out all the concept together. Especially now, we got 3 brands which made us exhausted but jolly. We are pretty much happy people anyway so it doesn't really matter if we're tired or sick of doing all the process and stuff.
How'd you guys get hooked up?
Notorious: Lust at the first sight hahahaha… As we said before, we met kinda randomly, we never met each other but then we decided to started a band together. From there it was just sorta happened.But we haven't got any ideas that we'll be doing a clothing label as our primary job.
Did you both ever go to the art school?
Notorious: Yeah, Sid just graduated from Billy Blue School of Graphic Arts in Sydney and Mirzie graduated from Martin College as graphic designer too in Sydney and more like the free spirit of the brand, hes got his own taste and skills which is cool when we work together and Julian, he's the business whore hahahaha he's the one doing all the networking and you know, business side of the label.
So, tell me more about Notorious, A.o.D, Bzrre & Proud Parents? What's the different between those labels?
Notorious: Basically Notorious, Bizarre & Proud Parents has one roof which is A.O.D (Association Of Division).
Notorious started of by Mirzie and one of the other guy in sydney, they were just messin around with doing their own thing just for their own fun. Then few years back, we met each other and decided to do this thing seriously. And then, Bizarre started off when Julian offered Sid the opportunity of doing his own thing, and Sid was pretty keen on doing it, cos he got to fuck around with the design and not caring on other people comments. The style and concept are totally different with Notorious where he tries to stand in his own taste and influences which is the opposite of the concept of Notorious.
Proud Parents produces the kind of clothes that will make your parents proud! Haha maybe just our parents.
The story behind Proud Parents was, Julian called Lisza and asked her if she wanted to start a label, make some clothes and that he will provides her with all the production costs and all, so she was like, “hell yeah”, and Julian asked what would she like the label to be called, and she said “Proud Parents”. Why Proud Parents? (Lisza said she will keep this to herself). And then Julian asked Resida to join, cos obviously Lisza didn’t understand a thing about patternmaking and all those fashion designing stuff. So it was like a blind date at first, but then Resida and Lisza just clicked right away. Resida didn’t mind the name of the brand, so that was a good sign. So the second story was, about the brand, well these girls just wanna make clothes that they can wear and make money of, and Proud Parents never tries to look like a streetwear label cos it’s a very girly label, very feminine, just like the girls..ha! Definitely the kind of girls that will go out with guys who wear Notorious and Bizzare.
So, what are the inspiration and themes behind those brands?
Notorious: Whatever really, music, books, people.As chessy as it sounds, just living it on day to day basis can really inspired me. Whatever….yeah im old! Fukk off!
Bizarre : Few packs of cigarette, chicks, James Dean, Elvis fucking christ, 70's rock n roll and punk, 50s/60s music, saints & sinners, cocks & balls, leather pants, psychedelic drugs, twin peaks, mr.drum & mount heart attack, 80s pop music, michel gondry, chuck palahniuk, Pink Floyd, stewie griffin, book of satan, and many books that he doesn't wanna bother to tell...
Proud Parents : We went through a lot of phase making these clothes…we were inspired by everything…kitchenware, English tableware, deep sea creatures, feathers, watercolors, any pastel colors available on this planet…the theme is well, you have to wait for that one, is not supposed to be told yet
What other things are you into outside these area?
Mirzie : Plenty, from music to movies to foods..whatever fun things i get to do these days, pushing my creativity/ideas in other areas these days really excite me too. Like im running my own record label as well now,doing shows, trying to put my releases to some decent cd stores. Which surprisingly i need to put my hustling game on to these people..haha!
Stuff that keeps me busy really. But I can totally relate to Sid’s answers below.
Sid : Music and girls, I'm done.
Lisza of Proud Parents: my boyfriend D-H-I-K-A
Julian: anything associates with tech... Call me a nerd, a geek, weird, anything you guys like... GEEKS WILL RULE THE WORLD, MARK MY WORDS!
What kind of music are you listening these days?
Mirzie: anything from Lupe Fiasco to Metallica...from Cro-Mags to Darkthrone…from Roxx to Final Attack and anything in between.29 years old and still not into this “rave” music!
Sid: the cramps, the stones, black lips, birthday party, teenage death star, goons of doom, suicidal tendencies, 60s music, any hardcore/metal/hip hop music.
Julian: pretty much any metal, punk, pop, funk, blues and rock and roll music from 60s to 90s and KANGEN band...
Lisza of Proud Parents : black lips, juno movie soundtrack, buzzcocks, rodeo massacre, rancid, Fleetwood Mac, velvet underground, The Virgins
What else do you have going on for the year?
Notorious: We're just gonna keep ourselves busy with these 3 brands plus other projects are already in motion too, which takes alot more time than we expected. Still having fun doing them tho’.
You guys have the shop opening up pretty soon here. What type of things will be going on there?
Notorious: As for products, we’ll only stock products from 3 labels mentioned above.And as for what sorta products you guys have to check them out yourself , when we open the store sometime in April.
Any collabs in the work?
Notorious: We're cooking up something for future projects, but unfortunately we’re like to keep them in the down low for now. Be on the look out tho'.
Bizarre : Yeap, there are some collaborations, i try to pick one artist for each season to do a shirt or two, but im not gonna tell you who. HA HA!!
Proud Parents: Yea between us two! Haha..
Nice, well any shout-outs to anyone?
Mirzie: To all the haters, thank you! Any publicity is a good publicity, now who's the sucker? HA!
Sid: Everyone...FUKK ME!!
Julian: Take me home PLEASE!!! And make me a fish ball soup just like Tracy Takinawa and David Bowie. And we want to welcome our newest member of the family ALBIE THE ZOMBIE…you’ll love him to death
Proud Parents: Our parents! And our lovely boyfriends! Thanx for the support!
