Interview with TBCLUB

We don’t just feature bands and musicians here at Soundscape, we like to support other types of art so with that in mind let me introduce you to TBCLUB Clothing, short for The Breakfast Club.

I happened across TBCLUB by accident while on a weekend trip to Torquay, where I saw the brands store/workshop, unfortunately it was closed but the artwork in the windows was so amazing I just had to check them out further, and have since bought a bunch of items!

After reading up on them and finding about the brands DIY ethic I just had to get them on the site.

Can you please Introduce yourself to our readers?  Hello, my name is Paul and I am the screen printer at TBCLUB along with Simon who is the designer and Adam who deals with all the other little bits and pieces.

How did TBCLUB come about?  I had been looking to start a new clothing brand for quite a while and had been going over ideas in my head for ages, but unfortunately my drawing skills are pretty poor! Adam then put me in touch with Simon who’s artwork I liked and he agreed to join me and then together we spent about a year throwing designs back and forth before we finally released our first couple back in February of 2012.

What have you got going on at the moment?  At the moment we are super busy, we have just got back from Nass festival, and now getting ready to go to Boardmasters which should be a lot of fun. On top of that we have been getting a few more shops on board with stocking TBCLUB so hopefully you will be seeing our tees in some high street shops pretty soon!

You do everything yourselves and by hand, how important is that to you?  It is a big part of our brand, I think that by making each one by hand is much more personal and makes customers feel more involved with the brand. People can come in to our shop in Torquay at the weekend and actually watch their t-shirt get printed or even have a go at printing it themselves which I think is pretty cool, something a bit different to what you get with most other brands.

Whats your main vision for TBCLUB?  It would be nice to keep growing as we are, eventually quit our day jobs and do this full time, hopefully open a couple more TBCLUB workshop style shops and be at a point where we can travel the world telling people about the brand. The one thing I do want to ensure we keep is the everything is designed and printed by us aspect.

What do you think is the most important thing to you in running TBCLUB?  We try and be as friendly as possible to every single customer or potential customer, not because we want their money but because the best part about running a brand is getting to meet loads of awesome new people. We always have amazing times at festivals when people come hang out with us wether they buy something or not.

What advice would you give someone who was thinking about starting up a clothing line?  If you are expecting instant success, lots of money and minimal work… I wouldn’t bother. All 3 of us work full time jobs and then work what is pretty much another full time job sorting TBCLUB. Make sure you have a good unique selling point and then push that to draw people in.

Whats the hardest thing about running a clothing line?  Having a full time job on the side makes it very hard to keep on top of everything. TBCLUB has grown much quicker than we ever expected so now it is just finding a way to manage our time effectively to ensure we keep up to date with orders, releases, festivals, photoshoots, adverts, promotional events and so on.

What is your inspiration for TBCLUB?  We all love films, punk / punk rock music and tattoos, all of which make it across in to our designs.

Do you any famous fans?  A couple of the dancers from Diversity and one of the members from Little Mix have been seen wearing our tees! Also Roger from Less Than Jake, some of the cast of E4’s The Misfits are regular shoppers and there are a few more who will be wearing our tees soon but I can’t reveal their names just yet!

What’s your favourite music?  I listen to a lot of pop punk like Blink-182, New Found Glory and The Story So Far but am also a pretty big fan of The Cure and Beastie Boys. I am not ashamed to admit that I also love some pop, currently really in to Chvrches and Daft Punk. Adam’s favourite band is The Flatliners but he is also a big fan of Blink, NoFx, The Computers, Gnarwolves and so on. Simon listens to a lot of punk and ska, I think his favourite bands are NoFx, Sublime and The Descendents.

Do you think music and fashion go hand in hand?  I used to think so but over the past few years I think it has changed quite a bit. You used to be able to walk through town and instantly be able to predict what kind of music someone liked based on their clothes but now you get pretty much everyone wearing Vans and a pair of jeans, our tops sell to pretty much anyone! My mum is a regular wearer but you will never catch her singing along to NoFx!

Lastly, one question we ask everyone, who is your favourite Batman actor?  Mine personally would be Christian Bale, although they were all pretty good (with the exception of Clooney!).

You can check out the brand and the webstore at http://www.tbclub.co.uk.