“All my art is merged into the music.”

Abdul Qadim Haqq (born in 1968 in Detroit) designs cover art for renowned labels like Underground Resistance, Red Planet and Transmat. In addition to the Underground Resistance performance, the Astropolis Festival in Brest also featured an exhibition of Haqq’s artwork at La Passerelle arts centre. An interview and a tour round the exhibition with this slightly quirky but very affable graphic designer.

How did you get into art?
It started really when I was a kid, four or five years old. I was drawing little comic books. Continuing from that, I went to a lot of art classes and then to Art College in Detroit.

Who influenced you?
I had a lot of influences growing up. I really liked cartoons, especially from Japan, I used to read Speedracer, Battle of the Planets, Robotech, things like that. It really influenced my art. I watched a lot of Star Trek, Star Wars, too.

How would you describe your style today?
Oh well, it’s sort of like a sci-fi/fantasy style with some afro-futurism sometimes. Hum, but you know, it is really wide open, I do multiple techniques.

You have been a full-time artist since 2002. Besides working as a graphic-designer for record labels, do you work in other fields?
I like to get into several things. I do computer design and a little bit of web design. Also, I like to collaborate with people like photographers, web designers, animators. I worked with some guy from Japan on some animation for UR, I really can’t get into too much details because it’s secret, but this was one of the high points of my career: setting everything up, designing, laying it out, planning ... I worked with a guy in England who collaborated on the UR website.

Could you work as an independent artist without all the work for record labels?
No, it wouldn’t have been possible. All of my art is really merged into the music. Without it I probably still would be in a job somewhere, working in an office or something (laughs).

How did you get in touch with techno?
I listened to it in the club when I was in high school. We started to listen to Juan Atkins in maybe 1984. I listened to more stuff in college, like Chicago House music and early techno. That’s what got me really into techno. Later, in 1989, I went to the Music Institute. I was there every week, enjoying all the music. It was a tremendous experience every weekend. That lasted about a year before they closed the club down.

When did you realize that your art and techno might go together?
Somebody introduced me to Derrick May in the fall 1989. He wanted some artwork done and was looking for something new. Alan Oldham had been doing all of his previous labels and Derrick wanted to have more artists involved. So me and another guy from my college started to do mini-labels. Some CD designs also.

How did you start to work for Underground Resistance?
By that time, like 1991 was the first time I worked for UR, I’d been doing stuff for two years. So locally, in Detroit, I started to get a reputation as being an artist that people could come to, I don’t charge a lot of money, so people would come to me to do art. (“Mad“) Mike (Banks) and I think it was Rob Hood at the time, came to me and asked me if I could do some stuff. Since then, I do quite a lot, but it’s never been exclusive. Frankie Fultz is also somebody who was there early, doing a lot of artwork. He still does some things now and again, but he owns his own record label now and does quite a bit of music, too. Chuck Gibson does quite a bit of artwork for UR, too. He has his own clothing line out now. Between the three of us, we do pretty much everything.

And Alan Oldham?
He never did any art work, he was involved as a DJ.

Your drawings on the covers are quite easy to recognize, what else have you been doing for UR?
I did four of the black and white portraits for the “Interstellar Fugitives”, Chuck Gibson did the other four...

And this picture on the flyer?
That’s my daughter. I took that picture seven, eight years ago. We wanted to make a statement. Me and Mike had the idea about the laptop and a little kid, so I picked my daughter and it worked fine. Now I see it everywhere!

The UR design in the beginning was quite military. Were you the one building the more mystic kind of image?
I took what was already there and built on the top of it. They were known for being militant, but they had elements like the science fiction and the native American thing before I even started to work regularly for them. I just took that and kept going more and more.

How much liberty do you have in the creative process?
I always start off real rough. I usually do several different sketches. Then I show it to Mike. He picks whatever he likes and I start developing from there. Sometimes, I design the characters like the Jaguar or the Aquanauts, and sometimes the people say: I want that sort of look. It’s back and forth. I get a small direction from Mike and in the end I can do a lot of different ideas. I always like to listen to the music or anything the artist can give me. It helps to get in a creative mood, to get a feeling for it to start the process.

In your graphic design and also in your writings that you do as The Ancient, you often combine historical elements and science fiction...
When I write, I try to tie in history and the future. In all my stories, I try to achieve a mystical quality, like for example in the Red Planet story or the science fiction story for the Analog Assassin (written as a report from a Galactic Bureau of Investigations on the characters and weapons of the AA, check it out on www.submerge.com).

In which way does your artwork refer to people or surroundings in real life, i.e. to the reality of Detroit?
There is a bit of a Detroit influence, especially the early stuff I did. But I like to expand and go beyond. That’s why in recent years I was working with native American and Asian imagery and a lot of historical concepts, to get a broader viewpoint.

What techniques do you use?
I always like to start off with pencil and paper, for everything. Then I do a lot of drawings, I develop a lot of different ideas. A lot of times I scan and finish with the computer. Photoshop is the main thing I use.

What about your murals?
I really love to do murals. I just finished a mural in Japan last month in a club called Naked Space. I did another one in Japan a couple of years ago in a shop called Disc Union. And I did the one in the Submerge building in Detroit. You know, working on the computer isn’t my favorite thing, I really like to do these big pictures. For the last one in Japan, I gave the guy several ideas, he picked one and said: “Do your style!” And he was really happy...

>> now have a guided tour through the exhibition

>> interview: olian