Hello Vidam, thanks so much for taking the time to answer some questions for readers. I'm truly honored for having the chance to talk with you! You are very inspiring person, your art is something that really sets you apart from many artists out there, and I find it really unique, wonderful, surreal, bizarre, just... Amazing!

Please start by telling us something about yourself and how you got into art?
My name is Vidam, that is a Hungarian word for joyful or just happy. That's also my artwork: A bright and vibrant style with bold characters and funny and sometimes thoughtful messages. I always loved it to draw and paint and after my studies of graphic design I founded a design studio called Peach beach with my mate Look. Alongside this daily routine in our studio I still love to paint artworks whether on canvases for exhibitions or on walls. My second intensive passion is music! I love to produce electronic dance music. This is a perfect alternation to my life as an urban artist and illustrator.

Q: Who was the most inspiring person for you at the beginning? Do you have any influences?
A: In the beginning when I started to intensify my drawing in my teenage years, I loved to read Franco-Belgian comics like Spirou & Fantasio, Tintin, Asterix etc. I'd say that my idol from this period is definitively André Franquin, who's special style influenced me very strongly.

Q: How would you describe your style? Would you say that your style describes your personality?
A: I don't know, I don't think so. My style looks very funny and happy mostly, but as a person don't feel like that every time, I guess it's like a compensation.

Q: I really love the surrealistic note in almost every design, what's the usual inspiration?
A: There's no rule for thins. Ideas come to mind in thousand different ways. Sometimes you sit on the toilet and suddenly you have an idea by accident and sometimes you think about a topic for hours to find a nice solution.

Q: Being a graffiti artist must be a real joy and a great creative journey. How long have you been into graffiti?
A: Not that long! I just discovered real graffiti very late. I was more into classic illustration. I never did styles on the wall like writing my name and I guess I'll never do so. I prefer to paint funny characters or bizarre situations. When I came to Berlin almost 10 years ago I got in contact with spray cans and then I discovered the wall as a new media to paint on. I love it because it allows you to paint on incredibly large scales.

- Your first love?
My very first love is good old paper with black ink on it. But nowadays I prefer canvas.

Q: How has your style developed over the years of experience?
A: I always love to experiment with different techniques. I absolutely still can't say: This is my favorite media or tool or style or technique. I love bold outlines, I love illustrations without any outlines, I also really love typography and graphic design influenced illustration. It's always a balance between all these fields and I never know what I really like most. Sometimes that's really annoying!

Being part of the Weird Gang must be so cool...
Q: Would you say that the team work helps you to grow artistically?
A: Absolutely! It's always super interesting to see how the others work and I always learn from it. We enrich each other with our different views on things and reality. When we brainstorm together, weird and crazy ideas occur, it's just pure fun and a personal gain for me and I guess also for the others.

Q: What's the funniest part in being part of "The Weird"? Share some "weird" experiences with us.
A: The funniest thing is to sit together, have some or more beers and just talk funny shit. We have all the same environment and similar backgrounds, so there are plenty of topics to talk about. It never gets boring! Further I really love it to go partying with the others after a successful day of mural making. We definitively had some haunting evenings and nights together!

Q: When it comes to being unique and creative... Many people are constantly trying to grow by actually copying someone and then trying to make something "different". How you "handle" the copy cats, the crazy comments, would you take that as a compliment or you get mad at times?
A: For me it's no problem if young people who start with illustration or graffiti begin with copying, that's completely normal in the early stages. If I see artworks that are obviously inspired by my stuff, I take it first as a compliment. Normally everybody who really tries it hard to achieve something in the business of urban art or illustration or something else, realizes one day that he has to invent something special and unique to stand out of the crowd. And I don't really care about crazy comments. I use social inter web to show my art to the public, but there are always people who don't like your stuff.

Q: To be a creative person, must be a blast. You work on many mediums, graffiti, digital art/print, music, eh what else? Do you have any favorite medium?
A: In the very beginning I started with my passion for music. With 13 years I bought myself two turntables and a mixer for DJing. I loved it, but later I couldn't afford any more vinyl. I stopped vinyl-DJing and started to work on my second passion, drawing. Now this is my main focus definitively, but I always wanted to go back to music and so I started again with music production. I absolutely love it and I practice every day to become better in this creative field. It's a complete different thing to illustration, but for me it's even more powerful! If you listen to a great piece of music, that is much more intensive to your feelings than looking on a painting.

Q: What medium gives you the biggest adrenalin?
A: Music is the best! It makes you feel better, makes you dancing, brings you earworms for months. The impact of sound is just amazing, to comparison to any painted medium.

Q: Do you take your music seriously? Where you see yourself in 10 years?
A: The problem is that I can't concentrate that much on my productions like I wish I could. The good thing is that my passion for illustration became a job and it works quite well. I love to do it and so there's hardly time for anything else. I produce music very often on the fly, when I'm traveling for graffiti jobs or exhibitions. There's a lot of time in between the actions in hotels or on airports. I usually use this moments for working on some melodies. I love it that I don't need anything for music production except my laptop. So I don't know where's the musical career in 10 years, I don't plan this side of my creativity because it's just my hobby.

Q: Dj-ing is your second passion? What was the most interesting experience with a female fan? Do you feel recognized by the fans out there for your art - no matter the medium?
A: Haha, that's a funny question! One time I really freaked out because two girls entered the DJ-Booth and started diggin by themselves on my laptop for music, while I just looked away for a second. It was on a big party and I really felt scared in that moment that they could stop the music by accident! I don't really feel recognized by fans for my music, I guess its just not good enough or something, and I don't push it enough maybe. But I guess some people like my artworks, because I only got real feedback for this, not the music.

Q: I love your experimental spirit in the music world. Do you find music as a cure, an endless salvation from all of the negative aspects of life?
A: Definitively! I love music in general and very different genres in special! When I'm DJing I always try to mix different styles together because I don't really like DJ sets where only one style is used for hours. All the different approaches can tell us a perfect story over the evening with climaxes and slower, more calm parts. And there's music available for every personal feeling, so in my opinion there should be music around me all the time, and mainly it is.

Q: Do you feel overwhelmed by the (popular culture) mainstream? If so, what's the dumbest thing that drives you nuts?
A: I hate casting shows in TV, because they don't have to do anything in common with good and real music, this is the worst shit ever broadcasted. Of course I never ever watch them, but the fact that there are people who want to participate and other people who watch it, drives me crazy, but only a little bit, because at the end I don't care.

 

Q: Are there any inspiring musicians that you would love to collaborate with?
A: Yes there are plenty! I can't tell you who I really like most but right now one of my favorites are Modeselektor/Moderat, Slow Magic, Ikonika and Marek Hemmann. These people are completely different in their styles, but that's what's interesting about.

Q: Would you say that your creative mind never let you fall a sleep? haha!
A: Sometimes that's right, yes. I think a lot about what to do next and a lot of times it drives me crazy, there are so many ideas, so many different approaches that finally I don't do anything because I can't decide what to do.

Q: As an artist, what are some of your greatest challenges or obstacles you face?
A: To stay true to your art on the one hand and to make a living with it on the other hand. It's often a challenging balance between commercial sellout for commissioned jobs and individual style and ideas you want to reserve for your "real" art.

Q: What would you say that is the biggest mistake when it comes art progress?
A: Mistakes are always a good thing, because you learn from it.

PEACHBEACH & DXTR In Amsterdam - Collaboration

Q: What's your best motivational lesson for the new artists?
A: I worked for three years at a Mc Donald's grill for my income. In this time I realized that I have to practice harder in illustration, because I absolutely wanted to quit this job! I'd suggest everybody to work in a shitty job for some years to realize that you have to practice hard to make your dream of an artist-life come true. I'm still trying!

Graffiti Fans, Check out Her von Bias aka HRVB - "The Weird"

"THE WEIRD" is one of the craziest graffiti gangs all around, being in this crew is at once an honor and great fun. And the best: they are just getting started. The Weird are:
CONE (Saarbrücken/Munich//GER) - www.conestruction.blogspot.com
DXTR (Düsseldorf//GER) - www.flickr.com/photos/dxtrs
FRAU ISA (Vienna//A) - www.frau-isa.com
HERR VON BIAS (Berlin//Ger) - www.herr-bias.de
NERD & QBRK are LOW BROS (Hamburg/Berlin//GER) - www.lowbros.de/
NYCHOS (Vienna//A) - www.rabbiteyemovement.tumblr.com/
LOOK & VIDAM are PEACHBEACH (Berlin//GER) - www.peachbeach.de
ROOKIE (Dresden/Münster//GER) - www.liquidluck.de

You can contact Vidam at:
Attila Szamosi aka Vidam,PEACHBEACH
Fanningerstraße 3 10365 Berlin
attila@peachbeach.de / www.peachbeach.de
Social Media Profiles: facebook.com/PeachbeachBerlin / behance.net/PEACHBEACH
flickr.com/photos/peachbeach /  twitter.com/peach_beach and http://soundcloud.com/vidam