A t-shirt label by doof-addicted rappers based in Australia’s premier resort for hippies and schoolies—the Australian name for the vacation kids take when they finish school for the final time—probably sounds awful, but for some reason, these t-shirts from Pete Versus Toby are actually pretty fresh.
Pete Versus Toby t-shirt, vintage pants
VICE: I heard all the guys in Pete Versus Toby rap, is that true?
Marco Zirov: Yeah, we all rap. Well, Dane is the lord, I’m number two, then Van Grenquist—Vansion House—comes in third. The rap crew is called PVT, but recently we changed it to DINGO and the main emphasis is that we TREESTYLE.
Treestyle?
Our music has that Michael Franti vibe to it, so Treestyle is an epic play on freestyle. We noticed that everything is becoming heaps digital and people are even writing their raps on mobile phones—the human touch is lost. So our Pete Versus Toby line DINGO is really about taking a garment and making an amazing one-off Treestyle piece from it. It’s meant to look like a dingo ate it and the result is a DINGO piece.
Top: Pete Versus Toby t-shirt, We Love Colors tights; bottom: Pete Versus Toby top, vintage pants, vintage glasses
When did you guys start out?
I started Pete Versus Toby in late 2006 with my two mates Raina Hede and Paschal Grenquist. We named the label after some homeless dude in Broken Head Caravan Park carved the words onto a boogie board. Then in 2008, Raina quit. He’s one of those artists that hates to sell things and Van left to be a pilot. Then, Damo Gordon came on and we took on this young lord from Byron named Dane Birks, who is the best rapper in Australia, right now. Dane is like the Aussie version of Eminem, seriously, life story for life story.
Why are you based in Byron Bay and not Sydney?
I’ve been here since I was a baby—Byron Bay is super-hippy, it’s is where all the Aussie hippies came in the late 70s. Everyone here has always been into chai, always believed in meditation, and loved Buddhism, though maybe they’re a bit more techno or doof or electro-looking round here these days.
Doof? What’s that?
Doofs are dance parties out in the bush. It’s a local word, you call them raves in London, right? But a doof is more about being peaceful with the environment. Like nobody comes to a doof to throw rubbish around and trash the place, that’s not very doof. There are heaps of volunteers and the funny thing is that everyone takes care of their own mess.
Pete Versus Toby t-shirt, KTZ leggings
Some of the Pete Versus Toby shirts seem to be trying to say a lot of stuff.
When a t-shirt has meaning and purpose, that shit is timeless. Take Black Bart, for instance. I mean, why can’t he be spray-painting ‘Nu Godz’ on a wall? We all need new gods, Bart’s t-shirt reads Fuck Peace, which was super-controversial here. He also has on black and white shoes, like I always do, and his skateboard features both the Al Jazeera logo and the anti-Christ smiley. I guess it’s a massive collage of a lot of my beliefs, put all in one place to make people laugh and maybe wake them up a bit.
Pete Versus Toby top, vintage pants; vintage leggings
Videos by VICE
When and why did you start doing this whole ying-yang, one black and one white shoe?
I was in Japan with my girlfriend and she bought me a pair of white BAPEs and I had just bought a pair of black Air Force 1, and as they were the practically the same as BAPE copied the Air Force 1, I just wore one of each and it looked epic. Little kids love it.
In your Pete Versus Toby video, you said the label is meant to inspire fearlessness.
You’ve gotta be comfortable being uncomfortable. For us, anything is possible. We handmade this shit—hand wrote the labels and hand-screened the tees.
Also, you’re big on being athletic, correct?
Yeah, go to the beach, play some sport, if you feel like it. Too many fashion guys and artists are unhealthy and it shows in their art. T-shirt design is athletic art. The canvas is bouncing around on peoples’ chests all over the street and that’s super-athletic. T-shirt art actually has a living human proudly wearing it.
Pete Versus Toby top, vintage leggings
How much of the print design do you do? I see that some are done by other artists.
I do, like, 75 percent, I guess. Lately, I’ve been trying to help my artist friends Raina, Karla, Lex, and Keeny get their artwork together for prints to get them out there so their art isn’t just sitting in a sketchbook or on their wall. It’s different each time. For some reason, Raina hates money and he loves giving me art for prints. Karla, well, I used to buy weed from her and we used to live together for ages, so she gives me her art. Lex and Keeny are pretty much my big brothers and wouldn’t even ask me to pay for a pizza in their pizza shop. The only lad we ever paid for a design is New Jersey-based, NOFX cover art designer, Mike Bukowski.
How Aussie is Pete Versus Toby?
One day I made a conscious decision to make indigenous aesthetics cool. All these Sydney hipsters were wearing Native American and Asian symbols, but no streetwear brand or art collective was even touching on Australian indigenous culture. How can you forget that Australia is home to one of the oldest cultures in the world?
Pete Versus Toby top, vintage pants, Nike shoes
So lastly, what is your fascination with Mark “Chopper” Read?
He was in jail for a lot of gangland stuff, then they released him and he turned into a good-bad guy. Like the cops allowed him to kill all the bad gang members once he was out. His whole body is covered in jail tattoos and his style has been a massive influence on Aussie youth. Eric Bana played “Chopper” Read in the movie Chopper and it’s absolutely amazing. Chopper’s not ripped like Bana in the movie, he’s more like flubber. There is this massive street art festival in Sydney right now and the main lad Anthony Lister is headlining it as our best young artist. Well, last week me and him were skating around the cross in Sydney and he brings up “Chopper” Read for no reason. You know, he’s Australia’s underground style icon.
