Gosh. This year's Artist Alley at Singapore Comic Convention (SGCC) is giving Red Dot Diva lots of exciting vibes. There is such a wide range of creative talent offering intriguing collectibles and wares. While scrolling through the list of exhibitors, the unusual booth name of Emo Trash & Etc! caught Red Dot Diva's eye. She did some digging and found that it belonged to Malaysian illustrator Nathelie Yong.
Nathelie found her niche designing merchandise of bands of the early 2000's. You know, popular bands of that era like My Chemical Romance, Simple Plan, Paramore and Fall Out Boy. Nathelie got into art when she was very young, and went on to study Illustration as a major at university. Red Dot Diva admires how Nathelie is able to combine her love for music and her art by putting her own spin to the concepts of band album covers and songs. It is pretty amazing!
Read on for Red Dot Diva's nosy interview with Nathelie Yong:
Red Dot Diva: Hi Nathelie! I couldn't help but notice your illustrations while checking out artist-creators who will be at SGCC. What made you decide to start "Emo Trash & Etc!"?
Nathelie: Hi there! My artwork came from doing fanart for the recent revival of 2000's pop punk music as a way to pass time during the pandemic, and it eventually led on to me turning it into a small venture! I found myself surrounded by music too when I was growing up and combining art and the music I love is something that keeps me going. Since then, I have been setting up my booth at gigs and conventions around Malaysia and Singapore, and hopefully further in the future!
Red Dot Diva: How did you decide on your moniker "Emo Trash & Etc!" ? Tell me more about Emo Nights!
Nathelie: When I first started boothing at conventions under that brand, I realized my booth needed to stand out among others to set myself apart from the anime-centric crowd. With garbage bags, shipping boxes and duct tape lying around the house, I decided to use that to as my set-up as my budget-friendly solution to solving my branding issues. So it's not me deeming my artwork as trash, it's just me finding a way to settle my decor within a budget to fit the theme of my artwork, especially for a genre of music that some closed-minded public considers as "trash" in the early 2000's. After scrawling my shop sign with markers and using it at every event since, the name stuck till today!
Since then, I have boothed for numerous ACG events,festivals and gigs, including the ones thrown by S4D.KL in Malaysia where everyone enjoys emo and pop punk music together. Emo Nights are like a louder, wilder version of karaoke where everyone who loves this same kind of music gathers together and sing-along to our favorite 2000’s music! It’s a perfect opportunity to make friends who like the same genre and sing-along in unison!
Red Dot Diva: What (or who) inspired you to be an artist?
Nathelie: Being raised in an environment where both my parents are artists in their own right, making art wasn’t a foreign concept in my household! I am also exposed to a lot of music from the 2000’s by my older brother, and that in turn led to the influence of a lot of my interests. From there, I drew a lot of band portraits and random doodling of artwork inspired by lyrics from that time. After drawing many things within that subject matter, it made me comfortable with the idea of being an artist, and I guess it sort of shaped me to become who I am today.
Red Dot Diva: Do you work with any local bands? How do you go about collaborating with these bands/musicians, e.g. deciding on the aesthetics that would best suit their merch?
Nathelie: Well, I am in the process of working with some projects with local musicians in Malaysia ! For this one band I am working with currently, they do invite me to watch them record their music. Meeting the people and hearing the stories behind their music lets me gauge what artwork best visualizes their sound! From there I will try to pick up elements that call out to me from their lyrics and try to reference things from their personal stories as much as possible to make their album art and merch. Besides that, I also occasionally provide illustration services to emo event organizers too,. Depending on the theme of the event, I am mostly given total creative freedom to draw based on how I feel about the event at that very moment!
Red Dot Diva: What has been the most interesting critique you have ever received regarding your works?
Nathelie: I think so far, I have gotten a lot of encouragement and support from the public to keep going with what I do! As far as I know, there are not a lot of people doing this in the market. I do enjoy seeing familiar faces come back to support me, and it brings me so much joy when they recommend me to their friends as well! The community has been generally amazing to me and I do cherish everyone’s support for me so far. Oh, and I also get requests to get my designs translated into tattoos at almost every event in the past.
Red Dot Diva: If you were not an artist, what do you think you’d be?
Nathelie: I think being an artist has always been my plan A. Though I did consider journalism as I enjoy writing as well. Being an event coordinator may have been an option too cause I enjoy going from event to event and talking to people!
Red Dot Diva: Do you feel that there is more competition in the artist alley/ art fairs & market spaces these days? What are some tips you can offer with regards to making your art, your booth and wares stand out amongst the rest?
Nathelie: Yes I do, and I think the market will keep on expanding as more and more talented artists will come up to share their artwork as well. I think the best way to navigate this is to be true to yourself and your interests no matter how niche they may seem to be. There will always be someone out there who will enjoy the same things as you and it’s up to us to fill that gap in the market! The best way is to ask yourself what would you really like to see at these events, and go all out to make them with whatever skills and capacity we have, and keep improving yourself! It will always be tempting to do a fandom or character that is most popular at that time period, but here I am completely happy with doing merch of bands that have existed for around 20 years, so you do you!
Red Dot Diva: Is this the first time you are boothing in SGCC? Please let us know what we can look out for at your booth.
Nathelie: Yes, this is my first time! This year, you can expect to see stickers, prints, charms and you can event pre-order band T-shirts from me! I have merch of Bands like My Chemical Romance, Paramore, Green Day and more. With the arrival of the band Fall Out Boy in December as well, I am teaming up with Emo Night SG too to do a free sticker giveaway at my booth, as well as on the day of the concert itself! I am so excited to see everyone at this event, so see you guys there :)
Visit Nathelie Yong's Emo Trash & Etc booth at SGCC's Artist Alley, L1-AA107 to get uniquely designed emo music merch for your collection!
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