Mat Nicholls

We sat down with our friend, Bring Me The Horizon drummer, Mat Nicholls for one of the most real and fun chats we’ve had! 

Mat shares his straight-talking and honest view on all things creative - from his childhood to art, fashion, and politics.

On Creativity:

I don’t think I’d consider myself a ‘creative’, I’m too much of a lazy b*****d for that title.

I just think being a kid in the late 80s and early 90s meant you grew up having wicked cartoons, computer games, and movies, so maybe just growing up in that time and being influenced by that sort of thing is why I am how I am. Being a kid I was diagnosed with ADHD and was all over the place and I used to latch onto stuff easily, I liked video games and pop culture. I can’t really speak for now cos I don’t know what kids are into these days but when I was a kid it was wicked; Saturday morning cartoons and video games like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, etc.

On Being a Kid in the 90s:

It was the glory days - Ninja Turtles, Transformers, Thundercats, WWF wrestling, I just loved it all! I’ve always collected action figures and I’ve still got loads today. I've got cabinets full of Biker Mice from Mars toys, Wrestling Figures, comic books, and things I've picked up on my travels so It’s just stuff that's stuck with me through my life. I guess that was my common interest and then probably the next step is getting into art toys and art in general, It’s a natural progression really.

On Art:

When I was in school I was always drawing. Art was my favourite thing to do because I can’t really read books and stuff, my attention span is non-existent. So I was never academic or owt like that. I was interested in drawing and being creative, whether it was art or woodwork class, doing something more practical than burying my head into a book. I ended up at art college when I left school, I did two years there. I basically did it because I didn’t know what else to do and it was pretty easy to get on the course, so I was like “Yeah that sounds up my street until I figure out what I wanna do myself”. I finished my first year and wasn’t planning on going back, I just couldn’t really be bothered. But I went out one night in Rotherham and bumped into people from my course and they were like “You coming back?” and I was like “Hmm I don’t think so.”, but I remember waking up the next day and being like “I really wanna go back, I’ll miss the social side and hanging out and meeting different people, it’s better than staying home and getting a job I guess”. So I went back and they said that because I’d already enrolled the year before they had my paperwork so I got back on super last minute and that year was the year I met Lee and Curtis and started the band, so yeah.

It was cool though, I mean I was never really good at anything, in particular, I just enjoyed the whole thing, you know. There was never really a style I preferred, and to be fair I was never really good at drawing, painting, or owt like that I just liked it and it kept my hands busy. So it was fun going to college, I got to do some cool stuff and go to galleries and see things I wouldn't have if I was just at home. It defo opened me up to a lot of different stuff.

On Street Art:

I’ve always liked it (street art and graffiti), I used to write around our village where we lived. I had a tag and everything. My tag was ‘soul’, so if you see that around Maltby in Rotherham. That’s me. But like I say I was never that good at it, I just enjoyed it. I used to draw the Wu-Tang sign all the time too for some reason. There’s just something about street art, I think it was just being kinda creative but also being a bit of a rascal, so I think I enjoyed that aspect of it, knowing you’re probably annoying someone in the process. Then I got into skateboarding and stuff like that through it. 

My love of toys and figures from when I was a kid immediately drew me to going into shops like Kidrobot and seeing vinyl toys for the first time, James Jarvis, and all the original art-toy stuff. I love James Jarvis, I’ve got a lot of his stuff and love how his new work is just simple, like line drawings, it’s mad effective. Same with KAWS. I like the more emotive looking KAWS stuff which is why I think I prefer his statues to his paintings. I mean I’d love to own some of his paintings but I think I love how he can show emotion with this weird Mickey Mouse style character most.

Being from Sheffield you can’t not notice Kid Acne’s stuff, it’s been everywhere for a long time, and every time I see it I'm just like “YES, so sick!”. I met him a couple times and went to his gallery that he had at Park Hill flats and noticed he had some stuff for sale and was drawn to the ‘A SPECK OF DUST IN THE COSMOS’ piece and emailed him about it to see if it’s still available and it was so I said: “go on mate I’ll have it”. I have a bunch of his prints that I should probably get framed at some point, to be honest.

On Japanese Streetwear:

What I love about Japan is their obsession with Americana and Military stuff. I think that’s why I’m drawn to stuff like WTAPS and Neighborhood easily, their love for Americana and their attention to detail, etc. Also not overcomplicating stuff, just doing stuff that’s simple and understated, I think I buzz off that lots. WTAPS motto is “placing things where they should be'' and I completely agree with that, I don’t like overly complicated stuff, I just think simplicity is the key to making something look good. I love their attention to detail and naturally; I love Japanese, well, everything pretty much.

You can’t have a bad time there (Japan). I think England has a strong unique style and I think America did as well, you know with Hip-Hop culture and that from the 80s and 90s and I think that’s something that defines my style probably. I love old Hip-Hop and the culture around it. I love the music and style, especially the early 90s stuff when they wore a lot of military jackets and cargo pants. When I was a kid I used to love army surplus and I think that draws me to WTAPS naturally. As a kid, I would just wear cargos and fleece jackets all the time so my style nowadays is just a continuation of that. But Japan for me is the mecca, I've been around 5 or 6 times now and you always find something new there so every time I go I’m like “Why did I not know this was here last time?”. But that's what I love about it, there's always little bits popping up that you've never seen before, I just love going. I do have a tendency to spend too much money there though.

On Horizon Supply Co:

It’s hard sometimes because I can’t always do exactly what I wanna do, you have to bear in mind who your target audience is. It has gotta be the graphics that the kids love, t-shirts and hoodies but done in a nice way. I also don’t wanna put anything out that I think is s**t. I think I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to the horizon stuff, if it’s not right it's not getting sold. You can ask Ben (designer), he sits with me and thinks we’ve got a design 100% ready to go and I’ll come back to him in 10 minutes and go “It’s not right, we need to change it” Ben’s pulling his hair out, but I just like getting it right at the end of the day. I also don’t want the rest of the band to look at it and say “that’s s**t” I want them to be stoked on what I’m doing. 

In recent years I don’t write songs anymore, I used to when the band first started, we all used to. But nowadays It’s Jordan and Oli who write the music so it’s cool for me to have this as my creative outlet and my input into what the band does and is. So it’s pretty cool that I get to do the merch and contribute in a different way. I just let them get on with writing songs, they’re pretty good at it, so they don’t need my input. 

Merch is a massive part of our band too, obviously, music is the main thing, but next to it is the imagery, etc. As a band, we’ve always been good at stuff like that and it helps that Oli’s brain is on a different level. He’s the main visionary of the band and is mad creative, he’s non-stop, whereas I can take it or leave it. He’s always been like that though and I think that’s why me and him clicked when we were kids. Me and Oli were the only two people who were friends before the band, the rest of the band became friends because of the band. I guess back in the day we had similar interests about being creative. Again - video games, movies all this s**t and I think that’s why we became friends in the first place.

On Growing Up:

Everything's drilled into you when you’re young and you absorb things better when you’re a kid. You just throw yourself into stuff, and I think a lot of people are like that but at some point when they get older they get like “I need to grow up now and snap out of this” but I don’t think I’ll ever be like that, it’s just my character, it’s just who I am. I like stuff and junk.

On Paris Fashion Week:

I followed someone who works for Clarks footwear and they emailed me about going. I’ve always worn Clarks Wallabees, it’s probably my favourite shoe silhouette. They did a collaboration with Neighborhood last year and they said they were launching it at PFW and asked if I’d like to go, and I was like “Yeah course, as long as I can bring my girlfriend”. We didn’t do the runways and stuff, just went to some parties and got looked after very well by them guys. The high-fashion stuff isn’t my thing at all though to be fair, I just don’t care for that stuff, it just goes over the top of my head. I mean I know street fashion has been absolutely hijacked by high fashion so it’s all a big blur now. It was cool though don't get me wrong, but I was kind of out of my comfort zone The way I’d describe the parties we went to is “Very London”, people looking you up and down and s**t, it made me feel a tad insecure and got me thinking “Why am I here?”. That's not really my kind of thing, I guess I’m just too much of a northerner.

On Finding Inspiration:

Through lockdown, I realised that years ago I’d watch sci-fi films and never know what they’re about so for some reason I’m gonna start watching these again. I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey, Akira, and movies like Taxi Driver and Apocalypse Now that I'd seen years ago but never really understood what was going on in them. So I did that a lot and for the new Horizon stuff I kind of took a lot of influence from Stanley Kubrick and how he used certain fonts and images, everything’s super clean and there’s big, bold imagery to go with it, nice and easy stuff. If you look at the Horizon stuff, especially the Parasite Eve launch that’s 100% where I took influence from.

That’s basically all I did, I was influenced by that and it really got me going. Researching fonts and looking into stuff I wouldn't have looked at before was cool. 

I love comic books too, I’ve never really been a big superhero comic guy, crime comics are more my favourite. I loved anime when I was a kid too, I used to have Akira posters on my wall when I was a teenager, I didn't really understand what was going on in the movies but I just loved the style and the imagery. It's like Blade Runner with motorbike gangs. I bought VHS’s like Legend of the Overfiend and Ghost in the Shell and Street Fighter. I think they’re all in my mum's attic still to be honest. Like I said I just loved all those things as a kid and it’s just a progression. I’m just a big kid.

On Paying Creativity Forward:

Something needs to be done from our so-called government about the arts for sure. Can you really imagine not having the arts or a music scene? If it weren’t for the arts and if it weren’t for music and creative people we’d all be stiff cardboard dickheads like Rishi Sunak and our buffoon of a Prime Minister Boris f*****g Johnson. Imagine what that would be like, it’s just f*****g ignorance on their part if you ask me. We’d be f*****g boring without the arts and you know it, it’s what makes you stand out, gives you an identity, gives you an outlet to truly express yourself. So for me, it's just pure ignorance from a set of out of touch posh morons. 

Don't get me wrong though I'm not mad about politics and in this day and age it's hard to ignore it but I definitely know a c**t when I see one.

I just feel like they don’t give a s**t when it comes to the working class, they look after their own and watch each other's backs and don’t care about anyone else. They’re all in it for themselves if you ask me, all of em. I mean I vote and stuff because it's better than not but it’s like when South Park said it’s like voting for a giant douche or a turd sandwich, which one do you want? I don’t know, f**k politics, imagine a life without arts, music, musicians it’s just not reyt is it?

On another note I was reading something earlier from the guy who runs Brain Dead and how going forward consumerism needs to be about going beyond making products, it’s about time brands started helping people live a better life. We should be using recycled materials whenever possible, lowering your carbon footprint as much as you can. People need to cut unnecessary stuff out of their life too. One thing I did when lockdown started is I looked at my wardrobe and said “why the f**k have I got all this stuff? I don’t need all this crap”. Brands need to look at how to help people live an easier life. Going forward, creativity should be used to make people's lives better, not just creating mad hype around products that people don't really actually want or need at all. I’ve been guilty of latching onto hype stuff in the past but nowadays I'm so out of touch with it (hype), I just know what I like and don't like and I know what I want from products. I want sustainability and functionality. I think brands should make a conscious effort to help people live a simpler, easier life. Like I said earlier, simplicity is the key to having an easy life, don’t overcomplicate stuff. Life is simple, don’t overcomplicate it.

Check out Bring Me The Horizon’s new record, POST HUMAN: SURVIVAL HORROR out now: