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Let's start with who you are and where you're from

I go by the nom de plume Andrew Knives. It's an anagram of the letters in my legal name, and I do all my animation and art under that name. 

I live and work in the Hill Country of Texas, about 40 minutes southwest of Austin. Rolling plains, big ranches, everything is spread out. My day-to-day life is very peaceful. I find myself in this solitude where I can just focus on creating and not get sidetracked by any sort of rat race to be somewhere. Everything is at my own pace. 

I do art full time, I listen to a shitload of music, and I travel out west to surf when I can. That's me.

Take me back before this project. What got you into art, and how did you end up doing it full time?

Ever since elementary school I'd rather be drawing on my folder than paying attention to the teacher. My parents were into eclectic music, and my dad grew up surfing in the 70s. I loved flipping through his 70s surf magazines, seeing all the ads and imagery. That really sparked something.

I took some art classes in college, finished, and started doing graphic work on the side while I worked at a surf shop in Newport Beach. That segued into designing the merch for the shop. I was still obsessed with music, so I started linking up with some smaller local bands who wanted album and t-shirt artwork. Those same bands started asking if the graphics could move so they could use them on stage as visuals.

The minute I dabbled in the motion side, it blew the door open

Where do you find your influence, and has it changed over the years?

It all boils down to nostalgia for me. Maybe the 80s to 90s. That's when I felt the spark, when I realized the direction I wanted my life to go, so my aesthetic nods to that time. But my current inspiration (and I actually just had this conversation with a friend) more recently comes down to the weather and music. If it's bright and sunny, I'm listening to bright and sunny music. That affects how I'm feeling and what I want to create. If it's a drab winter day, I'm listening to darker music, and that comes through in the work.

If you had to boil your style down to a few words…What are they?

Nostalgic…Or Surreal.

I try to evoke a feeling of melancholy. Something dreamy. When I make something it's selfish. I want to feel something myself, but I want to evoke that same feeling in whoever's experiencing it.

Walk me through your process, from starting a project to finishing it.

I start with the creative brief, get an idea of what we're looking for, then figure out how to put my spin on it. I'll sit with it for a while, sketch some ideas, put on a record and get in the right headspace.

Tell me about "PENDING APPROVAL" ; The brief, and taking the graphics into a film.

Austyn sent some thoughts on an overarching idea he had, and some graphic inspiration. Right out of the gates he had the name; "PENDING APPROVAL". That sparked a certain direction and concept for me. It hit close to home, and what I ended up creating came super easy and naturally.

PENDING APPROVAL is a pushback against what has become modern life. We're all forced to live with so much that none of us had a say in. None of us voted on. Things being put on us without any consent. This whole collection is a big fuck you to that idea.

What do you want people to feel when they watch it?

It's a pretty dark animation, but there's a positive message behind it all. It takes place in this drab downtown city, but it ends on an uplifting note.

It might not be the brightest of times, but there's an opportunity right in front of us to brighten it, to pull ourselves out of the despair. There's still a lot of beauty out there…you just need to find it.