immediately immersed himself into the local music scene. While balancing a job at a local art supplies store, Crimewave started a band called Plastic Crimewave Sound, in which he fronts and plays lead guitar.

 

When he was booking shows in the late ’90s, Crimewave wanted a platform for his band to play, even if it meant playing smaller basement shows at Lula Café, where Crimewave remembers the deafening acoustics.

“[Lula Café] used to actually be a place that would book weird DIY shows. People claim they have these permanent hearing damages because the acoustics were harsh,” says Crimewave.

 

Plastic Crimewave Syndicate is still performing, but the band aims for fewer basements and more stages. Crimewave and his band toured the West Coast in 2016 and recently finished a Midwest tour. Despite the busy schedule, Crimewave also released a solo album last September through a U.K. label and then toured Scotland, England and Italy.

 

Having been a long-time touring musician, Crimewave knows that money is never a certainty. His primary income comes from his job as a freelance illustrator where he creates everything from posters to album art. He occasionally works on the corporate side. His most lucrative work came in 2013, when he was asked by a friend to create artwork for the global cosmetics company Lush. Crimewave then created all the logos for the perfume line as well as monthly comics for the company.

 

“I actually holed up in my ex-girlfriend’s cabin up in Michigan and drew the whole thing in a week, and it kind of led to all this other stuff,” says Crimewave. “They’re the epitome of the ethical company,” he says of Lush, whose Christmas party he DJ'd. “It was fun; they cut loose.”

 

Crimewave began freelancing in 2004 after being laid off from the Chicago record store chain Reckless Records. Crimewave remembers what he calls a sink or swim moment, where he decided to survive off of his artwork alone. Between almost being evicted and suffering some roommate drama, he refused to be a “wage slave” and allowed his passions to keep him afloat.

 

“I generally love what I’m doing, and that makes up for any sort of lack of security. [The] opportunities come along when I least expect it,” says Crimewave. “There’s some great quotes from Joseph Campbell where he’s like ‘Follow your bliss and you will be rewarded.’ I generally swear by this and I think people give up a little too easy.”

 

Crimewave is the author of “Secret History of Chicago Underground Music,” a series of columns published in the Chicago Reader that is now a book he co-authored, “My Kind of Sound: Secret History of Chicago Underground Music,” with over 200 descriptions of local bands. The book puts a spotlight on artists who Crimewave believes didn’t get the big break they deserved.

 

He is also releases the multimedia compilation “Galactic Zoo Dossier” through Drag City Records. The compilation includes Crimewave’s artwork, trading cards and a cassette tape all pertaining to the psychedelic genre. Rian Murphy, sales director at Drag City, says “Galactic Zoo Dossier” is more than a local phenomenon.

 

“It’s worldwide because it’s so visually oriented that it can be grasped by those who don’t have a great knowledge of English and still be appreciated,” says Murphy.

 

Crimewave remains a man of many mediums, who lives and breathes the artistic endeavor. He has worked with Lush on licensing one of his songs for a documentary as well as being featured on the company’s podcast “Turning Point.”

 

“Psychedelic is not a dirty word anymore. I think it’s something that should be expansive and not confined to boundaries,” says Crimewave. “It’s not rocket science--it’s just rock.”