EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW // An In-Depth Q&A with the Audio Effects Gurus at New Signal Process

New Signal Process (NSP) burst onto the guitar and audio effects scene in 2010 with the aptly named BreakOut, a compact black box that allows you to run your guitar (or any other audio source) through an iPad or iPhone and process the sound with the many available apps. Now boasting an entire series of BreakOut models, including a stompbox made specifically for guitarists and a stereo unit for DJs and producers, NSP has earned a global reputation for its handmade, high quality equipment.

When we approached NSP about an interview, they happily obliged. As the company's mysterioso masterminds are currently based somewhere in the middle of the Arizona desert, where cell phone reception's spotty, we decided to conduct the interview over email. Typing out our questions and clicking "send," we expected they'd answer in a similar manner.

About a week later though, an email from a complete stranger appeared in our inbox with this explanation attached:

Hello. My name is John Spenhurst. I was hired via local Craigslist Tucson to transcribe these questions and answers from a cassette tape. It was in a ziplock bag left for me by a largish Saguaro cactus near Gates Pass in Tucson. They gave the coordinates to me via email - kind of in a riddle actually. It was sort of fun, but mostly a pain in the ass.

The questions were asked and answered by two voices, a male and female I think, whom I presume are this NSP thing, but the tape was a little warped from the sun and the voices were warbly and distorted. They took turns asking questions and answering but not in any order. I have never met them, and was just given instructions over email to follow and then paid via paypal. Here are your answers. I hope they help someone somewhere. They said that. But I think that too.

How did this seemingly cut-and-dry interview turn into something resembling an acid-fried treasure hunt? Well, as you'll see below, NSP isn't your typical electronics company. Instead of designing products that pull you into the digital vortex, they aim to bring the possibilities of technology out into the real world where you can literally touch them with your fingertips. It makes perfect sense that they managed to incorporate a cactus and warped cassette tape into this interview, rather than sticking to the usual pixels and circuits.

Check out our interview with NSP after the jump, along with photos and some must-see videos of their BreakOut pedals in action -- and stay tuned for a forthcoming feature in which NSP's founders share their Top 10 Most Essential Audio Apps.

3rd Ward: How did NSP get started?

New Signal Process: NSP has its roots in many places, but it mostly begins when we moved out of NYC to Williamsport, PA where I am originally from. We found ourselves with two things that we hadn’t had in NY for a long time: a giant studio space and a lot of free time. So in this space we started collecting old audio gear, organs, pianos, records, tape machines, etc.....essentially making an invention shack meets music/art studio. Towards the end of our time in PA we came up with the idea for the BreakOut and we worked on developing that which eventually came to fruition after our move to Portland, OR. 

3W: Did you have any experience designing or creating effects units or other electronics prior to starting NSP? How has any such experience (or lack thereof) factored into your work with NSP?

NSP: No. Once we started fixing up and working on old gear, it got us in the mindset of what we could develop ourselves. We came to the effects backwards through trying to solve the I/O issue on the iPhone but now are moving into developing our first Fuzz Pedal - a Japanese Shin Ei FY-2 clone. It’s only in development now, but so far it sounds incredible! It’s the fuzz pedal I’ve always been looking for. That broken speaker, 60’s 70’s fuzz. I’m so excited on it right now. 

I think ultimately, with this whole NSP adventure, we didn’t know what we could or couldn’t do and so that kind of allowed us to just dream things up and try and figure them out. There was no one there to tell us no, so when we reached walls, it was just up to us to find the right people and figure them out. And then NSP has just been about hopping over walls ever since.

3W: The motto on your website says "Inspire Creative Potential." Can you describe what that means and what sort of philosophy governs NSP?

NSP: We are artists first ourselves, and so our inspiration for NSP has always ultimately been to make tools that could help us and hopefully other artists out there have more possibilities to do creative things. When in design we tried to think about the different ways people could use it, or their different workflows, and try to come up with a simple solution for all of them. 

And having designed the BreakOut that way, it is so cool because now we are starting to finally hear back from users telling us - oh, I run my iPad/BreakOut through this kind of processing to create this kind of sound, or someone used the Moog app to record an entire sound track for a film they made, or someone else wanted one for a sculpture installation with piezo mics under water.   In fact, right now we are working on a performance/installation at the Tucson MOCA and we are using a Stereo BreakOut to run a signal generator off of the iPad and send one side to a speaker filled with water and the other side to a Chladni plate, so that you will be able to “see” the sound in both the sand patterns on the Chladni plate and the water patterns in the speaker. 

3W: Can you describe how an NSP unit functions?

NSP: The BreakOut is an audio interface for the iPad/iPhone. We designed it to be used both in live setups and for recording.

Technically speaking, the iPhone and iPad don’t have a separate in and out like a MacBook pro. So the input is traveling through the same 1/8” jack as the output. For example the headphones that come with the iPhone that have a built in mic. They plug into the headphone jack, stereo sound comes out, and the mic sends mono signal in - All this happens through a unique 1/8” 4 conductor jack that the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch all have. 

The BreakOut has a detachable cable that plugs into the 1/8” 4 conductor jack and then into the BreakOut which has a separate 1/4” in and out, that you can plug your guitar/mic/line into, and then output to your amp/di/recording etc. The internal circuitry deals with the signal issues of trying to send instruments and lines through the iPhone. We designed the box itself to work like an effects pedal with a bypass. So you could easily introduce it into a live performance situation and use your iPad as a multi-effects processor. So you have a pedal that is a both distortion and T Pain. 

3W: What has the design process been like for creating your products, from the original BreakOut to the newer Stomp and Stereo units?

NSP: The process has been changing. For the first TableTop BreakOut, as I mentioned before, it was brought on by our own interest in doing this. Once we had those out and people using them, this amazing thing happened where people starting writing and requesting variations. Asking for a stomp switch, or a horizontal layout, etc....So the Stomp and Stereo units really grew out of a marriage of ideas we had with people’s requests for those features. 

Now, as I mentioned before, we are developing our first fuzz pedal, and hoping to make some other effects. And also working on designing an interface that would come out of the dock of the iPad that would be more recording oriented. The design process has ultimately gotten a lot better now as we have learned that things always take more time then we think and to plan for that. And we’ve also built an incredible team along the way and so now the creation process gets passed around and has more creative minds working on solutions and ideas which is great. 

3W: How are the NSP units manufactured?

NSP: The NSP units are all made by hand in Portland, OR. We work with different people to machine and screen print and then our engineer Ken assembles the electronics. 

3W: What role has your own experience with touring and performing played in developing the NSP units?

NSP: I have seen a growing need for musicians to have an affordable way to replicate some of the sounds they are creating digitally in there home studios on stage. I know a lot of people too that don’t want to use computers on stage, but I think the iPad is a way more musical device and doesn’t feel so much like composing an email from stage. 

3W: How long did it take for NSP to go from being just an idea in your head to becoming an actual unit that you could plug something into?

NSP: We had some different prototypes early on, but I would say the process took about a year to get from an idea stage to a place where we had something we could give out to our friends to try in different recording and performance situations. 

3W: Based on your experience with NSP, do you have any words of advice or encouragement for makers or entrepreneurs looking to embark on similar endeavors?

NSP: Yes. Get out and do it.  I think it has been a true life lesson. Learning about taking an idea and turning it into something real like this. The biggest lesson has been that when you run into walls, and you will run into many, that you just have to approach it as something to get around or go over - the only stopping point is your decision to stop. Other then that, it’s just figuring out one creative way after another to move around these walls, solve these problems - we call it hurdle jumping. And it turns out it’s a great skill for life in general. Working on any album or art project etc. 

Also, great advice we found was just to get your idea out there. Its always going to feel like perfection is around the corner, and then you can show it to people, but really, once you introduce an idea to the outside world, it just grows that much more quickly if you listen. Tell people about it, get people trying it and using it.

3W: You developed and debuted NSP prior to the emergence of similar products from bigger companies, such as the Griffin StompBox. What is it like to be making products in an industry that can often be dominated by bigger companies with very large cash flows?

I think the interesting thing about this is that in the beginning it can feel like the big thing is the IDEA, but along the way you start to realize that its a lot more about pulling off the idea, and how you pull off the idea, and then being sensitive to how people are using this thing and working with them - being responsive and creative around that. It’s a lot more about being constantly creative and adaptive and less about that one “BIG IDEA”. 

And so of course it is easier for these big companies to throw money at something or get instant distribution in Guitar Center, but we are able to adapt, make one-off designs, try crazy things, and ultimately our goal was never to be some big iPhone accessories company - it was to bring ideas to life that can be used for creative purposes and then to leverage that into other creative ideas, inventions, tools - whether it is mod’ing old Tube Mic Pres (which is another thing I’m working on NSP getting into!) or being able to build sound sculptures with iPads at the MOCA, or just perfecting that one fuzz tone I’ve been in search of for years. 

3W: Has being a small musician-run company set you apart?

NSP: At the very least in the sense that I think we are designing to fit a more specific need that we know because we are in that world. Part of this is making a solution that works for live performance, but at the root of this is that we really value great sounding gear. We want inspiring gear to use on our projects and we want to make that same thing for other musicians and artists. 

I think people pick up on this. Most of our customer feedback has really pointed this out. We are also able to communicate and participate with people authentically as they use our gear, and we can help them with it in a personal way. They also give us ideas and inspirations and send us their music that they are making, and so it feels more like a dialogue and less like a one way street. 

3W: Your units are selling all over the world. What are some of the most far-flung places that orders have come from?

NSP: All over. For some reason a lot of orders in Australia and New Zealand. Also, Poland, Brazil, China. We just got an order from the Royal Theater in London. And we work with an amazing distribution company in Japan. 

3W: Do you have plans for future products? Additional BreakOut models or other pedals or lines?

As I mentioned in some of the other questions, we are working on a Shin Ei FY-2 Fuzz pedal clone, an iPad USB recording interface, and then maybe/hopefully old reel to reel Tube mic pre mods! 

3W: Anything else we should know?

NSP: We love ideas and questions! Whether you are an artist, musician, maker, mod, tech guru, synth builder -- its great to know people and ideas and if you’ve got a suggestion of a product you could use, or would like some advice regarding starting something - or want to collaborate - get in touch!  It’s a big world out there and its more fun to be a network of people than to be a network of brands and companies.  Like we said, most of us are artists first, and the technical bunch are artists in their own right -  HELLO@NEWSIGNALPROCESS.COM 

A Jimi Hendrix tribute video made using the BreakOut with Signals and Stuff's Distort+Delay app:

NSP's BreakOut pedal transforming Willow Smith into free jazz:

Friends of NSP making use of BreakOut pedals:

--John Ruscher

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW // Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge: Loud & Clear

We’ve been interested in Brooklyn based writer Grace Bonney and her perspective on DIY design since the launch of her blog Design*Sponge in 2004. Through its inspired, empowering, and exhaustive content—including home tours, city guides, small biz advice, recipes, DIY projects, and more—the site has built an audience of 75,000+ daily readers, 280,000+ Twitter followers and 20,000 Facebook followers.

As content creators, we admire the constant evolution and growth of Bonney’s site and voice…so when she speaks up, we listen. Her impassioned and thoughtful 3,300-word response to the recent New York Times story about the new world of online shelter magazines struck a nerve, and we asked her to continue the dialogue here. (Join us after the jump for the Q&A.)

Not only does the drive behind these small, successful online magazines (including Lonny and Rue) taking on the big dogs of traditional media have much in common with the entrepreneurial creativity of folks working in all kinds of mediums at 3rd Ward, but Bonney herself embodies what we’re all about—building community through shared resources, vision, hard work, and play.

Her response to the Times piece—inspired in part by Tina Fey’s take on women and competition in Bossypants and her rereading of the Riot Grrrl literature of her teenage years—addresses several hot-button topics surrounding traditional media vs. online content. It also raises the bar for young women content producers and business owners in terms of the need for increased professionalism and collaboration.

A former contributing editor at Domino (shuttered in 2009, much to the dismay of its devoted following), Bonney founded Design*Sponge as a one-woman show and now runs the site with her husband Aaron Coles (director of advertising), managing editor Amy Azzarito, and a team of 20 freelance contributors. The site has established a breezy yet authoritative voice captured in her soon-to-be-published first book, Design*Sponge at Home, a comprehensive (and gorgeous) guide to home décor and DIY projects (Artisan, September 2011).

We also admire (and learn from) Bonney’s support of the community that supports her. Since 2007, she has offered no-strings-attached scholarships for art and design students, and in 2008, she launched D*S Biz Ladies, a national series of meet-ups offering free legal, business, financial and marketing advice for women running design-based businesses.

Last month, on a break from the DIY Business Association Conference, where she was headlining, we sat down with her over coffee in DUMBO.

3W: What was your initial reaction after reading the Times piece?

Grace Bonney: I couldn’t stop myself from responding. It came from a gut level, and I haven’t been that excited to write something in years. I thought, “There’s no way I’m getting through the day without getting this out.” I have a lot of strong opinions about online magazines in general, but for the most part when you express opinions about the online design community that aren’t positive, people immediately read that as cattiness or jealousy.

3W: So it’s more of a rah-rah cheerleader atmosphere?

GB: It’s not a community that I feel supports constructive criticism, so I usually keep it to myself. The online design community has a hard time accepting criticism, and as someone who absorbs a hell of a lot of it on a regular basis I see that while it’s difficult and sometimes mean-spirited, it can also be incredibly helpful.

3W: How did you become open to criticism?

GB: I was an art major in school, and crits [critiques] were such a big part of that. If you get used to them, you realize they can be incredibly forceful in terms of really pushing yourself to be better. In the [online design] community a lot of people are coming to art for the first time, I think, so it’s so sensitive and personal. They have a hard time realizing that once you get past that initial hump of making something, you have to try to make something even better the next time.

3W: What kind of reaction did expect after you posted in response to the Times article?

GB: I thought I would probably get attacked for saying this. It’s important that the design community supports each other, but the article made a lot of really good points that I wanted to discuss…so I think it was the right time, right place, and I had to say it.

3W: In the evolution of anything, standards must be raised, right? Regarding online magazines, was that the intention or result of the article and your response to it?

GB: You don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade and say, “Okay, you’ve been doing the same thing for a few years. Now you can do something different or better.” The general problem I have with the DIY community right now, even at Renegade…I walk around and see people doing really simple screen-printed cards or tote bags and stuff, and that’s fine, but I want people to take it to the next level and experiment with something in a more difficult way, to push themselves beyond using stock imagery. I want people to try harder. And that’s how I feel about online magazines. I want people to realize that yes, they’re totally in their infancy, and I don’t expect anything to be perfect—I mean, believe me, my blog is not perfect—but I have a readership that constantly tells me what they’d prefer that I do or how they want me to change things. I hated it at first, but now I realize that’s what has really pushed me, and I wanted to offer the same.

3W: Soon after the discussion about The Times article, you worked with a journalist to offer Media Training as part of your Biz Ladies series. Why did you feel the need to do so?

GB: I thought that the young women who were interviewed should have been more careful with what they said. I’ve had trouble with The Times, too. Not being misquoted—what I said and what those girls said I’m sure is what was actually said—but you have to be careful about how sarcasm comes across. I had a very visceral response to understanding what had probably happened.

3W: What else bothered you about the article?

GB: They didn’t say what these magazines are doing in a good way or discuss what this all means for design publishing in general. I was glad that the article pointed out that the first couple issues of Lonny were heavily Domino material, but overall, the oldest of these magazines is two years old, so there isn’t as much copy-catting as the article made it sound. I also hated that they they shit all over blogs [From the article: “As Crystal Gentilello, the 28-year-old co-founder and editor of Rue, put it, ‘Everyone and their mother has a blog.’”] For me, it’s not about the medium, it’s about the message, and I think that the message [at these online magazines] is getting watered down by a lack of editing. I read The Times article seven or eight times, and the more I read it, the more I realized that they missed a chance to talk about something really important: the fact that these magazines are free means that the competition is very different. You don’t have to subscribe or pay for them, so you can read like a million of them. Bloggers always feel competitive with each other, but they shouldn’t, because all of those readers read all of those sites. It’s not like people say, “I only read Design*Sponge and nothing else.” That’s not how online readers work. They want as much information as they can find.

The article set up those two women [Crystal Gentilello of Rue and Michelle Adams of Lonny] to be really catty. There’s obviously plenty of cattiness in an industry dominated by women, but the focus shouldn’t have been about that.  I don’t care if those two girls hate each other. If they do, fine…duke it out. But for the most part, those two magazines are doing pretty well for being new ventures. They should have been talking about how their businesses were set up, where did they get the money to start, how they got their advertisers. They’re businesess! I don’t think any of them are that profitable (I don’t think they’re paying the people who work for them, and that’s a whole different side-story), but it would have been great for the reporter to pull in Sweet Paul or another online magazine.

3W: What were your art school critiques like? How did they thicken your skin?

GB: They’re brutal! I distinctly remember during my senior crit, a teacher told me I would never be an artist…that I was not in the right field. In a way, he was totally right. I was not meant to be a fine artist. I’ve always had a better eye than a hand for things. Luckily I stumbled into another teacher my senior year who got me and said, “I think you’re going to do well. You’re not going to be an artist, but I understand why you want to be a part of this community.” She pushed me to take criticism classes, actual art history classes, which I found to be way too formal and overly critical. So I found a way to combine my love of writing and feedback with an eye for a very specific style.

3W: So more of a curatorial career in a way?

GB: Yes. I realize I don’t have the background or education to back up a serious criticism career. I don’t see myself as a serious critic or serious writer, but I’m someone who is very sure of my opinions and very enthusiastic about the community. But I realize that that part of a community growing is to push itself harder. I think the DIY community needs that.

3W: Voice is such an important aspect of a blog. How did your voice and strong opinions develop? 

GB: I’ve always been really opinionated. All of the women in my family are. I grew up with a lot of strong female role models who aren’t afraid to say what they think. I lost that in college [at William & Mary in Virginia]—I did a lot of just watching and listening and paying attention, and when I got to New York after school, I felt like I was ready to say something. I wasn’t seeing the things that I was interested in in magazines or on TV or online, so I had plenty to say. The hard part as time goes on is to maintain a voice that’s excited and relevant. All of the things I wasn’t seeing before are now super saturated in the market, so you have to keep pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. It’s part of my responsibility to constantly be learning new things and to grow and change.  

3W: How do you establish the tone and how personal to make your voice?

GB: It changes over time. I was really personal at first. I tried to sound cooler than I was, then realized that didn’t work. I really loved Wonkette, that political blog, and I was trying to be sassy like that. I can be sassy in real life, but in terms of a public voice, that wasn’t right for me. I try to keep it positive as much as possible. For the most part, that means people contribute that energy back. I pulled myself out of the site personally around 2007 and started using other writers. There was too much of me, and I wanted to keep more of that for myself. Then people started to miss that, and I got emails that said, “Where did you go? I miss when you write about what you do.” So I started to put more of myself back into the site, and people responded really positively. It was a good reminder that it started as a personality-based site, and it still is one, but now when I talk about personal things I talk about things that are a little more serious, since that’s where I am.

3W: When it comes to feedback, how do you know what to ignore and what to pay attention to?

GB: You get used to it over the years. It’s hard not to take it personally, but you also learn to put it in perspective. The teacher who told me I would never do anything— he’s now a regular reader of the site, and we talk. I remember thinking then, “He doesn’t get me.” Sometimes you’ll get criticism from people who don’t understand what you’re doing or who aren’t interested in it. It’s not that it’s not valid, but you don’t have to absorb and change based upon everyone’s criticism. I got a lot of valuable input from people like Andrew Wagner at ReadyMade and Allan Chochinov at Core77.com, one of the original industrial design blogs. He’s someone I really respect. I was the keynote speaker at a conference of industrial designers in Portland, and I felt very out place. So I worked really hard on the speech and called him and said, “This is what I’m thinking of saying.” Then he said, “I want to hear what YOU have to say, not what you think you should say.” He was totally right. He gets me and the community, and it was totally valuable feedback.

I’m a very type-A person, and I’m my own worst critic. There’s really nothing anyone can tell me that I haven’t already felt self-conscious about, whether it’s about how I write or if I feel like I’m having an off week on the site. It comes back quickly in comment form because I’m really open and honest with my readers.

3W: What can you tell us about your book and the writing of it?

GB: It comes out early September. The process was really organic. I’d been blogging for seven years by the time I wrote it, but I began hearing from publishers in '06 or '07 about wanting to turn the blog into a book, or they wanted to hand me a topic they already had in mind. Nothing felt right. They wanted to do something really nichey, and I wanted a book to reflect the breadth of information that we deliver every day on the site. So I waited. I thought, “There’s really no reason to put so much time into something unless I really love it.” You don’t necessarily make money off a book, so I knew it had to be something I’d love regardless of whether I lost a bunch of money on it. So I waited until I found the right house. Artisan was awesome. They let me bring in the design team. That never happens for a first time author. A lot of people want to take the first thing that comes along because it’s exciting, and you’re so flattered, you just want to say yes. But most business owners who do really well are really selective about what they do, and that might mean waiting three or four years. I firmly believe that things happen when they’re supposed to, so I never feel rushed.

3W: You’ve used the term “DIY” a few times. Can you give us your take on it?

GB: I was very into Riot Grrrl stuff when I was younger, and I’ve been rereading a lot of it lately. It’s inspiring since they’ve been doing their own thing for a long time. It seems to me that the DIY community is starting to splinter into a lot of factions, and I’d like to see it come together more often. Support for one another is usually in hugging form, and it also needs to be in real valuable feedback form. What’s happening reminds me of what happened with feminism; there’s a lot of infighting. I want people to not kill each other from the inside, but to find a way to take those divisions and disagreements and learn from them. There are a lot of bloggers in my own niche, and I might totally disagree with how they run things, but I find it really fascinating to have good conversations with them about why they do things the way they do, and I almost always learn from it even if I don’t agree with it. It’s valuable to get someone else’s perspective on something that you’re passionate about.

3W: What excites you these days in the design world?

GB: In terms of publishing, we’re in a weird space right now. People are testing out things. Some of it’s going well, some of it’s not. I don’t feel entirely inspired by the design blog community right now, and I include myself in that. I’m in a weird shift space where I’m trying to figure out what that next big thing is, what I really want to do with the site, where to push it next. I need to take risks really often, or I get bored. I can’t figure out what that next thing is. Everyone’s trying to figure out what to do next. In the next year there will be a lot of rebirth and excitement happening, but right now people are trying to get their footing and stay afloat, so there’s not a lot of risk-taking. People who are developing iPad apps are exciting to watch…iPads are beautiful & perfect for magazines.

3W: How have you managed during the economic downturn?

GB: I keep things as low overhead as possible. I don’t want to have a studio or an office. We have 20 freelancers, and three of us are full-time—me, my husband, who runs the ad team, and Amy, the first full-time editorial person I’ve ever had. I brought her on this year. We’re a very small run-by-the-seat-of-our-pants company right now, and I prefer it that way. If we had VC money right now, there would be someone else to answer to, and it wouldn’t feel fun anymore. Design*Sponge is a DIY project. I did it entirely on my own. I would never sell the site or take a chunk of investment money. My plan is just that someday I’ll write a I’ve-decided-to-do-something-different post. Although it’s a business, it’s a creative art project more than anything else. It’s run by a single person who has changing interests, so the site is going to grow and change. If I’m not inspired, then my writing’s not inspired, and there’s no point in doing it if I don’t love it. 

-- Cara Cannella 

 

EXCLUSIVE // The Bushwick Review: Issue 2

An Exclusive Preview of Issue 2 // Drops this Friday! We always meet the most interesting people at 3rd Ward and in this neighborhood. Not just the creative professionals, but also the lawyer with the animation passion, the publicist with a screenprinting Etsy store. Now Bushwick is sharing its wealth of creativity with a namesake, collaborative publication that celebrates this electric environment where everyone is creative. It's called The Bushwick Review.

With the second issue of The Bushwick Review dropping this Friday, founder Kristen Felicetti (an event and broadcast production assistant by day) gave 3rd Ward an exclusive  sneak peek at this issue’s eclectic contents.

3W: So! Tell me about The Bushwick Review and why you created it.

KF: Each issue of The Bushwick Review features creative contributions from about 15–20 people. I created it because a lot of my friends were writing or making artwork. It’s really interesting to me to see what my friends are working on outside of their day jobs—and most of them didn't have a way to share their work with others. I wanted The Bushwick Review to bring their work together and share it with a wider audience. By doing this, I hope to give TBR contributors exposure and encouragement, and create a sense of community between all contributors, past and present. 

3W: Is there a guiding theme or editorial concept for each issue?
 
KF: I'll include anything that can be printed on a black & white page. I want to go beyond the traditional things you find in most literary magazines. I've never had a guiding theme or editorial concept, though for some reason a lot of the submissions in this current issue had something to do with geography or spaces, so that is the vague theme. I’ve been considering deliberately setting a theme for a future issue and asking people to submit work with that theme in mind. 
 
3W: What’s been one of your favorite submissions?
 
KF: I don't want to play favorites, but I can tell you about the variety of different things in the 2nd issue. There are short stories, poems, comics, humorous restaurant reviews, a guide to micronations, drawings, watercolors, photographs of people sitting on porches, a weaving draft sketch, a radio play script, an illustrated diagram about the cycle of pigeons, an illustrated tale about a turkey, and more.

3W: A pigeon diagram?!  

KF: Without spoiling too much, I will say that it is a detailed hand-drawn diagram about how pigeons may have evolved from a very common object that you would never expect. It was made by the talented musician (and amateur pigeon inspector), Or Zubalsky. 
 
3W: The ‘zine’s namesake neighborhood houses a lot of artistic talent. Do you see this publication playing a particular role within the Bushwick community?

KF: I love living in Bushwick, love it, love it. I think it's very inspiring here. There are tons of people making music, making art, and writing. People have a lot of enthusiasm and energy. I would love if it got to the point where the Review was widely known in the Bushwick community. 
 
3W: What are some of the challenges/rewards of producing and distributing a self-published work?

KF: I have friends help with copy-editing, but I do almost everything else, from the production and design to the distribution. It’s incredibly rewarding to realize how much work you've put into something, and to have complete creative control. The same goes for the contributors, they have complete creative control. I don't ever edit their content or suggest they change anything, beyond an occasional typo. I want to make sure their work looks the way they want it.

I made a personal ‘zine once in high school and sold it online. It was mostly just my own writing—short stories, poems, essays, and it was designed in a cut n' paste and collage style. It was called See More Glass. I was really digging J.D. Salinger's short story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" at the time and the title is a reference to that. Having done this in the past, you start to develop more efficient methods. Plus, now I know cheaper places to make copies! 

3W: Where can folks get a copy of The Bushwick Review?

KF: You can always order the current issue or past issues of The Bushwick Review online at www.thebushwickreview.com. It is also sold in the following bookstores: St. Mark’s Bookshop, Bluestockings, Desert Island Comics, and Spoonbill & Sugartown. They are all wonderful bookstores in New York that I recommend visiting. (Ed. Note: Uh, yeah. An all-star list!)
 
3W: Can people submit their work for the next issue of The Bushwick Review? 

KF: Sure! Email submissions to bushwickreview@gmail.com.