Elliott James - Editor & Creator of WUW Magazine

 WUW Magazine is a little GEM of an art&design magazine. We recently had the pleasure of interviewing the founder and editor of the magazine, Elliott James. At Only 25 years of age, Elliott has created a fresh and innovative magazine, all out of his shitty London Apt. Check out how he's made it so far, how he started it, and what the future holds....

MK: Hi Elliott. How are you today?

EJ: HELLO ^_^ Monkee, I’m wicked thank you! Thanks for having me! I love your page.

MK: Where did you go to school and what did you study?

EJ: Ha! That’s a bit of a subject. I never really went to school, believe it or not. I missed a good few years out when I was younger. I’m not really one for education in the sense of sitting in a class room and being told what to do by a teacher, I’ve always wanted to just get out there and find my own way and create my own mind. I like to think that there are many other ways to gain education in this world. All you have to do is discover them.

I did end up doing an art course at a college in Cornwall U.K for two years, which was pretty damn shit, to be frank. It wasn’t until I saw a clipping in a local paper saying “Looking for students to join a six-month radio broadcast and print course” that I fell even more in love with the media and started to push myself into that direction pretty hard.

My schooling was really just learning by myself, writing reviews for magazines as a freelancer like Clash Magazine, of which I ended up interviewing such artists as Uffie, Shit Disco, Prefuse 73, Sound Team, Mr Scruff and more and learning to craft my journalistic skills this way with real life experience. This was a huge eye opener and it taught me more about dedication and fighting your corner. You’re about to compete with thousands of Journalist and ones who have studied a degree, but in a way it just made me harder in myself and a lot more determined to do what I’ve always wanted to do since I was about 15, a magazine. I had nothing but an Apple Mac laptop and my passions for business, writing and the arts.

 

MK: What inspired you to create an art-based magazine?

EJ: I started as a music Journalist and had always had a HUGE passion for music and also a little passion for art, interior design, architecture, graphics and I just got really bored of interviewing bands with the same questions over and over and over again. They all seem to have the same story to tell, how they started in a garage or living room and worked hard to tour, it just became brain numbing to me, un-interesting, there was only so far you could push the questions and I thought if their is someone who loves music more than me, I will let them do it, as my heart just wasn’t in it anymore.

My passion for the arts took over and I started to love it a lot more than music. When it came to starting the magazine we where living in a rat infested shit hole in North London above a curry house and working in shop jobs in Covent garden as well as with PR companies and producers, and all for free. I came home one day and just sat down and thought enough is enough, freelancing is shit pay, I love business and I love magazines so started the journey then, WUW was created that night with a pen and note pad and a lot of scrolling through google researching.

Art seemed to be the right choice for my business partner Mike and I – who has a degree in spatial and graphic design, as we both have a passion for it, so together we created Whatever U Want magazine from our shitty North London flat in 2007 :).

 

MK: What kind of success have you had with the magazine?

EJ: There have been many ups and downs through out the last 2 years. We had our flat broken into and our software and computers stolen, so this was a huge set back for us. We had contracts that didn’t go through, things like that really.

The success is still coming and is and always will be a work in progress for anything we do or anything others do in whatever career they have chosen. If you want to be successful you really have to push forward all the time and have your blinkers on, if you take it too seriously it can hurt you mentally trying to compete with others. We just love art and business and do our own thing, if this makes us successful then we would love it.

WUW will be as successful as we make it. We work really, really hard to produce it and it’s pretty much done by 4 people.

I think one of the successes we have had so far is we are the first ever magazine to enter W.H.Smiths without paying a £7000 entry fee! This is due to us gaining the best distribution deal possible and having their team behind us who work very hard to push the magazine forward also.

Within a couple of months we went from around 54 stores in the U.K to around 1400 and not to mention we are now stocked in Hong Kong, Australia, Austria, New York, L.A, Singapore, Ireland, The Middle east and more.

 

MK: What are your future plans for the mag/yourself?

EJ:  The magazine’s aim is to keep producing the best editorial we can, finding the best artists, designers around and helping launch people’s careers. We would love to become a world famous magazine for being informative and fun. We are an independent magazine and have a lot of competition from other magazines, but we just love doing what we do and don’t see why we shouldn’t have just as much success as the top dogs in the industry! :)

As for myself, I want to do many things. I’d love to do a bit of presenting as I have a passion for it, write scripts and comedy. I want to do all the things I love before I kick the bucket! And I have no doubt I will do them, as I’m a very focused person.

Oh and fall in love! And make cakes Ha

 

MK: What advice do you have for students trying to start their own enterprise?

EJ: Well, I don’t know if I should be giving advice to people, as it might sound a bit patronizing? But I will give it a go. Do what you want to do, not what people tell you to do! There are many ways to be a success in life and many different ways to do it. If I had listened to all the advice I was given, I’d never have done anything, I’d have been too scared.

I have found a lot of people will knock you down, laugh at your ideas and so on - don’t let them!

We are not born with a fucking tag or a direction! Life will throw things in your face and when that happens just wipe that shit off and throw it back harder!

If you have an idea and education does not sound like the way you want to go, remember that there are other paths, like funding.

Positive attitude, love you and just do it! :)

 

MK: Where can we get WUW magazine, and what can we look for in the next issue?

EJ: You can get WUW in all W.H.Smiths and Bordersin the U.K at the moment and also soon all Easons stores in Ireland. I don’t have a list of shops in the other cities around the world but we are working on a DOPE website so check that in the New Year for all details!

Issue F/6 well I can’t give too much away, but it’s full of amazing artists and all again, as always :) The cover has a winter theme! Looks pretty tasty so far.

 

MK: Chicken or Beef?

EJ: Well I watched a film the other day called ‘Earthlings’ and am trying to go veggie and doing pretty well at it so far. You all need to see this film! ‘Earthlings’ shocking stuff.

Thank you Monkee! Love WUW x

A big thankyou to Elliot for taking the time out to let us interview him. Don't forgot to cop the next issue of WUW Magazine!