By: Kevin Murphy Wilson Photos by Matt Johnson
It’s safe to say that Brad White gets around. Here in Louisville he’s best known for a variety of high-profile creative roles. Most notably, White is a punk rock drummer (for the band Wiirmz), a well-respected visual artist/fabricator/sculptor, and the driving force (along with business partner Andy Cook) behind fifteenTWELVE Creative Compound in the Portland neighborhood (which includes Rockerbuilt Studios, Portal and more). We recently visited that complex to see how he holds it all together.
VT: Let’s start at the beginning. What prepared you for this sort of life?
BW: I grew up in Western Kentucky. My mother is a musician, my father a motorhead. So, I literally am the culmination of those influences. I came up with motorcycle racing and skateboarding as that creative subculture took hold, designing artwork for skate shops, small companies and playing drums in punk bands. I went to Nossi College of Art & Design in Nashville and then to Murray State University for a formal fine art education with primary emphasis in sculpture and those contacts led me to Louisville in 1999.
VT: When did the idea for Rockerbuilt come together?
BW: No one wants to spend their short days on the planet burning a clock surrounded by miserable people. After years of working in fabrication/ construction environments, I decided I was going to have to create something outside of this ‘militant bro culture.’ Andy Cook was my first phone call. I had known him for a decade or so through the art and music community and knew that he was an excellent career fabricator. He took over the lead of the metal shop while I started laying down the groundwork for the woodworking department. Our first job as a company was a bourbon vending horse trailer and our mobile concession trailer division has grown into an official Airstream outfitter dealership.
VT: Can you explain the ethos of the company for the uninitiated?
BW: If you are a touring musician, you need to be able to pick up and hit the road when the opportunity arises, so most held a trade that they could freelance. Every musician that I knew was either in construction or graphic design. So when we started assembling a team of likeminded talent, it was all musicians with decades of creative skill sets, thus Rockerbuilt. The name was actually inspired by a Thin Lizzy song.
VT: How does the reality of having most of your employees also focused on being in a band actually work out?
BW: It works out great, We just have to schedule around the crew living out their real dreams. We all get to live vicariously through someone traveling to play a festival or a European tour. It inspires the rest of the guys to keep on our hustle, it’s not too late, you’re not too old to do what you love.
VT: Please tell us about your adjacent PORTAL + ARTPORTAL space, also located inside the fifteenTWELVE Creative Compound.
BW: Portal is an ever-changing, immersive experience, a whole vibe. We rent the space out regularly for private parties, weddings, meetings, unicorn or clown parties, baby raves...whatever…the weirder the better. We lean heavily into underground culture, providing a stage to upcoming acts, underage artists, poets, comedians, drag and burlesque. We are a loud room with no neighbors so it’s ideal for late night live music and raves. We also have 26 studios where small businesses and nonprofits operate. The venue has already exceeded what we thought it would be and we just did another full audio upgrade to try to keep up with the level of acts we are hosting at Portal. Our partner at 502 Shows understood the potential of the space and has been bringing top tier hardcore and metal to Louisville. The art gallery has been a blast. We had a Shepard Fairey exhibit. There’s not really a bigger, living, household name in contemporary art to top that. Artist Rebecca Norton was co-curating the space with me until recently so as one of my first group shows I put on ‘Bloodbath and Beyond’ that will be on display through Halloween. We are folding the art side of things into the vibe of the rest of the compound so the following show will be ‘Apocolypsmas,’ an end of the year, end of the world ‘holiday’ art show.
VT: Kentucky College of Art + Design has placed student interns with your organization. Are any other schools taking advantage of this unique opportunity? And how are young artists responding to your environment?
BW: We have had a few interns through KyCAD and Spalding University. I think it’s great for young artists to see this place as it shows several possible paths to a viable creative job. This whole place was built from scratch, all DIY, just passion and blind faith. It provides a good look at how, if there isn’t a door open for you, it’s possible to bet on yourself to create your own.
VT: Overall, what makes all these artistic endeavors special to you?
BW: We are proud of the creative culture we are promoting…of the bands we are bringing into town…of the quality products we are producing…and we are thrilled that people are receptive to it because we want more than anything to contribute something positive, something long-lasting for the community.
For more information about upcoming concerts, visual art exhibitions and other events visit www.portal-louisville.com.
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