When you and Jop first launched BUTT magazine, back in 2001, what was your motivation?
Something for the contemporary homo. A journal for and by gay men. A meeting ground, figuratively speaking. We wanted the magazine to feel like meeting an amazing man on the train or in a bar and have a great interesting conversation with him. Miraculously, BUTT became an actual meeting spot, I think. People meet each other as mutual fans of the magazine. Or they meet each other on Buttheads, online. Or they spot each other wearing a BUTT T-shirt and get into conversation… and we all know what can come from that!
It is a magnificent name for a magazine. Whose idea was it to call it BUTT?
Jop and I went for a drink, and the first name we discussed was BUTTSLUTS, and then we ordered another round of beers and at some point it became BUTT.
The first BUTT book from 2006 became something of a classic. Is there anything you would change about it, in hindsight?
No, I think that book is great. I love it and am very proud of it. We shot a series of ‘friends and family of the magazine’, such as regular contributors and our boyfriends. You’re in it too – a great photo by Alasdair McLellan, perhaps the first Alasdair picture we published, I wonder? And, of course, if you shoot 25 people there’s always somebody who doesn’t like his picture, but no, I personally wouldn’t change much about it.
Of all the people, interviews and photos featured in BUTT magazine since it first appeared, who or what caused the biggest reaction or sensation?
What I remember got a lot of reactions were an interview with Dirty Danny – a homo who hadn’t washed himself for, like, 15 years and is indeed quite spectacular to read about – and an interview with a toilet cleaner who enjoyed his work a lot… literally. You could call these stories ‘shocking’, but I think they’re very interesting as a view on the human psyche.
In the earlier years of BUTT, bears and beards were often spotted within its pages – long before they became so mainstream-popular. Is hairiness the true BUTT legacy?
Yes, I think we were the coming out platform for hair. We’ll always be remembered as the magazine for bears, beards, hairiness and pot bellies. Although we’ve done a lot of other things. But, of course, we started as an anti-grooming magazine… we were fed up with gay magazines looking like advertorials for Sephora and all kinds of grooming materials. Well, not just looking like them but often really publishing sponsored contents about grooming products or cock-lifting swimwear… all the things we couldn’t be arsed about or that, in fact, annoyed us in the modern gay man’s world.
Two early high profile supporters of and advertisers in BUTT were Hedi Slimane, when he was at Dior Homme, as well as Tom Ford. And famously interview-shy designers and style icons – from Antony Price to Peter Berlin – agreed to be interviewed. Why do you think they all felt at home in BUTT?
Isn’t natural charm the most stylish? I think every designer ultimately thinks, and would say, that a great looking normal un-self-aware man is the most stylish they can think of. I think that’s what people like about BUTT. It’s reality.
Who has been the most exciting BUTT interviewee you have personally probed? With questions, I mean…
Gore Vidal, surely. Such an intimidating legend, and so exciting to meet. I mean, he’s like having to interview Barack Obama or Ronald Reagan – where do you start a conversation?! The other exciting interviewee I had the pleasure of talking to was Dave Butt, the photographer who not only has an amazing name – purely coincidentally – but whose work I’ve also adored for a long time. He had such simply honest saucy stories. He showed me one series of two guys he shot that still gives me a hard on when I think of it. I should ask him for a special book with that series – he does that, print on demand. Good idea. I recommend everybody to look at his work. It’s pretty special and very, eh, down to earth and real. His online name is Suntown Photography or something.
Who do you think has got the best butt ever featured in BUTT?
Well, I checked and Greek Pete’s butt isn’t visible in the book or magazine but I bet he has a good one. God, he’s so adorable. Also my own butt was in the previous book, shot by Terry Richardson, and I’d wish and hope my butt still looks that good. It’s not in this book again, though. Corey Corey’s butt is great, it’s on page 115 in the book. Lucas Nascimento’s, on page 25, is pretty perfect too and he’s got a great look anyway – lingerie, long luscious hair, moustache.
You launched Fantastic Man and then The Gentlewoman, following on from the success of BUTT, and all three titles have proved to be influential in different ways. What is key to the success of yours and Jop’s publishing empire?
I think working hard, being extremely critical, not to give up easily, the design we have is very good, and we get the help and support and contributions of great writers and photographers. Also, I think, all the magazines we make have a good idea at the base of it, there’s nothing random about them.
Any advice you would give to some young whippersnappers thinking of starting their own magazine now?
Have a focus. Discard every idea that could also be in some other magazine.
What are you most proud of, as a result of launching BUTT all those years ago?
Where to start? That it’s a platform. That it’s given a lot of people a glimpse of normality and eccentricity, and it makes people confident to be who they are just because the subjects in BUTT are who they are and don’t need to be anything else than who they are.
Also, I’m proud of all the people that have met each other through BUTT, either via the website or a party or the fact that they’re wearing a BUTT T-shirt and have an instant crush on each other, and perhaps great sex…
FOREVER BUTT, published by Taschen, is out now.
Credits
Text James Anderson