Ep521: The Raymond Pettibon Interview
The Vinyl Guide - Artist Interviews for Record Collectors and Music Nerds
Nate Goyer
4.7 • 579 Ratings
🗓️ 27 October 2025
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In an extraordinarily rare interview, artist Raymond Pettibon discusses his journey, from early punk rock works to present day artistic themes, technique and rhythms, the Getty archives and more.
Topics Include:
- Raymond Pettibon has been drawing constantly since childhood, "always with a pen in hand"
- Started with crayons, pastels, pencil - India ink came later as too messy
- Early influences included Albrecht Dürer, etchings, and comic book art equally
- Self-taught artist who learned through trial and error, never attended art school
- Studied economics in college, bringing analytical thinking to his art practice
- Approaches work as fine art, not commercial art, values creative freedom
- Rarely takes commissions - the more constraints, the less he likes it
- Band artwork usually selected from existing drawings rather than commissioned pieces
- Black Flag's "Nervous Breakdown" images came from his "Captive Chains" book
- Artwork inspired by "Blackboard Jungle" film - students destroying teacher's jazz records
- Has experience teaching, can identify with teacher-student conflicts from that period
- Left SST Records in 1985-86 due to oppressive environment
- Describes certain subjects he returns to repeatedly over the decades
- Works on multiple drawings simultaneously, some remaining unfinished for years
- Enters a meditative "fugue state" when drawing or writing
- Never experiences artist's block - blank paper doesn't intimidate him
- Believes he can write about any subject with natural fluency
- Doesn't plan series - they develop organically through returning to themes
- Sometimes works directly on gallery walls during exhibitions for coherence
- Used to work all day and night when deeply engaged
- Dislikes deadlines - they make work harder, not easier for him
- Sees deadlines as triggering psychological rebellion despite wanting to please collectors
- Hates when people suggest ideas - it "breaks the spell"
- Admits he's not the greatest draftsman but learned on the job
- Recently donated personal archive to Getty Research Institute for scholarly access
- Participated in Getty's research scholar program, one artist among academics
- Program reconnected him with economics after years away from the discipline
- Still has unfinished drawings in studio, some over 30 years old
- Currently creating less due to frustrations with art world dynamics
- Values complete artistic freedom - no curator has ever asked him to change
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Photo by John Newsom
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Vinyl Guide, the podcast for record collectors and music nerds. |
| 0:10.0 | Here's your host, the biggest record nerd of them all, Nate Goyer. |
| 0:13.0 | Well, hey everyone, it's Nate. |
| 0:15.0 | Welcome to episode 521 of the Vinyl Guide, the podcast for record collectors and music nerds. |
| 0:22.3 | And ladies and gentlemen, I am just excited, excited beyond words to be able to share |
| 0:27.7 | today's episode. |
| 0:28.5 | It's a conversation I wanted to have and feature on this show literally for a decade, |
| 0:33.2 | since the show started. |
| 0:34.7 | And finally, I got an angel and the stars aligned. |
| 0:38.2 | And today I'm very proud to be sharing a conversation I recently had with the artist, Raymond Pettybaum. |
| 0:43.9 | Now, Raymond, his work is influenced and transformed both the music and visual art worlds in ways that are absolutely indelible. |
| 0:52.4 | He's one of the greats. |
| 0:53.7 | He's a creative force. He started his career making art that wound up indelible. He's one of the greats. He's a creative force. He started |
| 0:55.3 | his career-making art that wound up on record covers and gig flyers of some of punk's greatest |
| 1:01.1 | recorded moments, including albums from Off, Black Flag, Sonic Youth, and more. Raman's also spent |
| 1:08.1 | decades crafting his visual art and transforming that world as well. |
| 1:12.5 | His works recently became part of the Getty Collection. Yale has a large collection of his work. |
| 1:18.1 | And as record and music enthusiasts, the albums and flyers that feature his illustrations are sought after, coveted, and marveled at endlessly. I've got a wall of Raymond's |
| 1:29.9 | work that I spend hours each week, very proud to be next to. So today, I talk to Raymond all about |
| 1:36.6 | his creative journey, the early works, his connections with punk rock, the zines. We forward on to |
| 1:43.6 | his artistic practices and where his journey has led him to. |
| 1:47.7 | You know, punk rock art is just really the starting point of Raymond. |
... |
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