Daniel Brereton (AKA Dan has Potential) is a London based artist turned video director known for his raw style, use of bright colours, Aztec themes and geometric shapes.

Most of you will recognise Daniel’s work as a music video director, producing modern classics such as Radio Ladio by Metronomy , True Romance by Golden Slivers, Bathroom Gurgle by Late Of The Pier and Dream Off by Best Fwends amongst others.

Dan was recently kind enough to take some time out of his work schedule for a brief telephone chat, here’s what he had to say:

Where do you go in search of art?

I’m always on flickr looking up crass images, recently I’ve enjoyed the work of M Bomba and Mattew Lock from ww.puffandmagic.com his work is amazingly intricate.

You mentioned on your Flickr page that you draw inspiration from Outsider artists such as Joseph E. Yoakum. What styles really get you going?

I love Outsider art or folk art, basically anything that is figurative. I think the best art is from the imagination when you can’t see clearly in a piece that forms have been studied.

I think that a lot of my best work comes from being spontaneous; I’ll produce my best drawings with little preparation as it doesn’t help to think about ground rules.

In your self portrait you’ve made your self look very in-human, almost robotic. Has this come from your love of triangles?

With my self portrait I was experimenting with lines and shapes, building up a picture. I love looking at drawings and deconstructing them.

When directing and producing music video’s how much creative control will you have in comparison to what the record label and artists want?

I have to approach work very differently when it’s for a client, which is probably why I don’t do a lot of commercial work.

When producing music videos my level of creative input will varies on the artist and record label I’m working for. Late Of The Pier, for example had a lot of input where as someone like Metronomy had less so.

The music videos you direct can have a very strong personality, for example the video you directed for Best Fwends features your original Onionhead character and many other themes we see regularly reoccurring in your artwork. Has there ever been problems with creative differences, e.g your ideas not meeting the bands image?

It’s a strange thing, the music industry, as image is a very important thing. I understand how some of my ideas my not match the bands ideas.

The Cribs were a difficult band to produce for at first, they have such a strong image that the record label clearly wanted to preserve. When working on that project my approach was very different, I had to adapt my ideas to what would work with them.

Are there any videos are you working on at the moment?

January is a pretty dead time for the music industry so nothing going on at the moment, however I’ll soon be working on a new music video for Your Twenties, who are Gabriel Stebbing’s (From Metronomy) new band.

Do you listen to music while working, say if your thinking up ideas for a specific music video will you listen to the track in question over and over again?

When working i like listening  bands like Metronomy… ect. At the moment I’m really into Neil Young and Cat Stevens

You’ve been off the exhibition circuit for quite some time; do you have any shows lined up in the near future?

Aside from my video work, I draw every single day so I’m always working. The next show I’m involved in is called “The Art of Conversation”. The idea of the show is basically like a visual game of Chinese Whispers which each artist creating a piece in response to the one before.

The show will feature a tone of artists and will stretch from London to Berlin.

Dan’s brand spanking new handmade zine  is available now from the Chapter One gallery, a steal at only £4.00. Limited edition of 20.