Sometimes a band would really like designs that came from a particular freelancer and the next time they’d need new designs they would be like ‘More please!’. In the case of my work at Cinder Block, it was definitely a situation in which we would submit many designs to bands in a presentation from our in-house team, and our own favorite freelancers, and they would approve designs from that. Bands do have artists that they like to work with, like Alkaline Trio and Heather Gabel. JS: The world of band merch and licensing is wild! And I love talking shop, so I’ll try and keep it short haha. GDfm: Now you have your own shop and are working with Green Day again, how did that come together? Did the band reach out to you or put out a call for designers to submit ideas and they just pick the shop they want to work with based on those? I still freelance on the side, so I’ve gotten a few more GD designs under my belt since then. I did a Winston Smith inspired illustration of a 1950s family looting a strip mall (Welcome To Paradise), a repurposed bit of 50’s clipart which I posted about on IG recently, and I did an illustration in crayon of Billie Joe from the Holiday single photo, where he’s strapped with dynamite. We got to make some original designs, as well. And, depending on which press, it might have been printed by Johnny Peebucks from the Swingin’ Utters.Īnyhow, by the time I had worked my way into the art department, American Idiot had just come out, so I went from packing a ton of American Idiot shirt orders to helping develop a lot of new merch using that art. If you bought a Green Day shirt, NOFX, AFI, Misfits, etc, in 2003/4, chances are I was the one who stacked the blank shirts and rolled them over to the dudes on the printing press. We did tour supply, online stores were just starting to take off, too, all that stuff. I remember Jeffrey had an old Op Ivy screen in his office…I would LOVE to know where that is now…can you imagine making an Op Ivy shirt today using the original screen? Green Day was one of the bands that had their merch made there, for years, along with so many others. JS: Right! I worked for a punk print shop here in Oakland, called Cinder Block, which was owned by Cinder and Jeffrey from Tilt.

GDfm: You also mentioned in a post on your Instagram that you had previously worked with Green Day as one of your first clients, can you tell us a bit about that? We had just enough time to lie about where we were going before he got a 911 call on his radio and just took off! A cop stopped us on the other side, and, while he was calling it in, I was drawing Dookie on my hand haha. My best friend and I had just ran away from home and walked across the 3 Mile Bridge from Gulf Breeze to Pensacola. I was talking about something that happened in 8th grade. GDfm: You mentioned on Instagram that you used to be able to draw the Dookie logo by memory, was that the album that first got you into the band? (Note: the interview was conducted before the first items had been revealed) We reached out to Joshua Shame, who is the owner, designer, and sole employee at Rock Roll Repeat, to see how this all came about and what to expect in the future from this new partnership. Today’s drop features t-shirt designs and a tote bag inspired by Green Day’s iconic albums Kerplunk and Dookie. For years after quitting smoking I had a recurring dream where I would just roll and smoke a cigarette and I thought it was interesting that my body, or subconscious, was holding on to something I’d tried to quit.Oakland-based rock apparel brand Rock Roll Repeat has announced a new merchandise collaboration with Green Day and the first drop is now available for pre-order. We’ve actually been playing this song live for 18 months or so, it was the first thing we wrote for this album. “We have a new single out right now called ‘I Still Dream About You’. Each day of the tour will see Wil travel to a different room of the house and the live set will be accompanied by a live Q&A session with another band member. In the lead up to release, The Smith Street Band have announced the “In-Wils-House” tour which will see lead singer Wil Wagner performing short acoustic sets daily at 8.00pm AEST from Sunday April 12th to Friday April 17th via the band’s Facebook page. Recorded and mixed by bass player Fitzy, Don’t Waste Your Anger was recorded in the band's Bush House Studios in regional Victoria, which runs entirely off grid.

“Don’t Waste Your Anger” is the new album from The Smith Street Band.

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