Working with musicians and entering the world in which they lived soon brought me an awareness of the creative process and creative people-- people whose primary concern was making something, not buying it. This is where I believe my art education began, and my thinking changed. I now look at this world, so different from the blue collar one I had grown up in, as my own version of Art School.
- Kosmo Vinyl
The former Londoner turned New Yorker, Kosmo Vinyl, is perhaps best known for his work with Ian Dury & The Blockheads and then with The Clash. Starting out at Stiff Records in 1976, he became a key figure in the London-based music scene. By the mid 1980s, he had moved to New York City and, after marrying and becoming a father, he decided to end his professional involvement with music. “When I worked in music, my style was full on with one hundred percent commitment and I knew no other way to do it,” Vinyl says today. “I realized a family would require the same, and it wasn’t possible to do both. Although I was surprised at what good preparation for raising children working with musicians was!”