Smut: Do your film concepts derive from drugs, dreams, rock, or simply a drug-induced dream with background accompanied by rock?

Toon: My idea of a good movie is to show people something they have never seen. That for me is the ultimate goal for cinema, trying to surprise folks. But I don’t where my ideas come from. I guess they just pop up from some unconscious desire tucked away in the far cavities of my brain.

Smut: As a director, did you, yourself have to sell your soul? Does selling your sleep count?

Toon: Among other things, I can tell you all about selling out. Unfortunately, it’s not all that easy to get a great project going on in Belgium, so I have to do uninspired gigs, such as, commercials to survive and finance stuff like, “Battles Across The Stereo Spectrum.” (El Guapo Stunt-team music video)

Smut: I heard it took three days to shoot. Besides Guitar Wolf, who else inspired it?

Toon: Yes, we shot it on 3 days, and since it was a no-budget shoot, it was a pretty hectic situation, guerilla style. But we had a great little crew of very devoted people so we had lots of laughs on the set. We shot it on Super 16, Nicolas Karakatsanis (he's half Greek, so hence the name) a good friend of mine did the camera work. We tried to experiment a bit, so we did some of the zombie stuff on very small shutter speeds to get those strange, shaky images.  As for the influences, Sore Losers and Wild Zero have always been personal favorites of mine. I really like their rawness and cut-the-crap approach. And of course they inspired me to do lots of cheesy and over-the-top special effects, you just got to have those in a good rock video. And, I had been fantasizing about a vomit-movie for awhile, so this was the perfect occasion to really start puking all over the place. Luckily the guys of the band were totally cool with it, because I can assure you the stuff used for the puke was nasty. Of course Jethro, the one puking all the time, had the time of his life. Especially puking all over his little brother Mich, playing the mechanic...

By the way, the cover of Ted Nugents' 'State of Shock' album was another major inspiration for the live part of the music video...

I must admit that the music of the band was the biggest inspiration, the first time I heard the song during a rehearsal of the band, I already got visions of the music video. The drive of the song was so strong I couldn't stop my mind. I was listening to that song non-stop for two weeks!

Smut: Had you heard of them before that?

Toon: I have been a fan of El Guapo since the beginning and I was thinking about doing a video for awhile, so when the occasion arrived I jumped on it. By the way, the guys of El Guapo Stuntteam themselves came with the main concept of the video, so I was immediately inspired by that. This was actually just my second music video. I have done one for Millionaire, another Belgian Band, who are also friends of mine. I guess it's always easier when you work with a band whose music inspires you, otherwise I just can't be bothered by it. And if the people of the band are alright it makes the job even easier.

Smut: If provided the opportunity, who would you make a reality show with?

Toon: Cap’n, who else?

Smut: What are some of the corkiest ideas you have had to use for props?

Toon: In 'Destroy All Planets' I needed an extraterrestrial parasite, so I used an animated little carrot that lives in a brick and flies into the mouth of the main actor. That worked nice. And in 'Instant Noodles' I used one of those fancy pincer things old people use to pick up sugarcubes (damn what's it called!) to amputate an eyeball. Tim Vanhamel, the singer of Belgian band 'Millionaire' played the main role as the mad scientist whose eyeballs get an argument over who gets to look into the microscope the most.

Smut: Name something about you inside that no one can see or know from the out?

Toon: Well, I do have this reoccurring dream involving me, a tiny octopus living in a peanut butter jar and naked pair of Siamese twins driving around in a red Datsun 100 A. I'm still figuring out where that one is going to lead to...

Smut: Do you drive a Caddy yourself?

Toon: I’m currently driving the ugliest piece European shit…a ‘89 Ford Fiesta. Look it up on google and feast your eyes on it.

Smut: Do you often view the camera as your third-eye chakra?

Toon: Goddamn! I had to look that up on the internet, but yeah I guess you could say that. For me it's definitely one of the ultimate ways of sharing your ideas, fantasies and strange twists of the mind with other people.

Smut: Very few women found in the flicks. Is this simply because the character doesn’t apply to that sex?

Toon: I know. My girlfriend says exactly the same thing... I can't explain why, I guess it's because men tend to be more simple and to-the-point characters. And no matter how you put it, for me, a man acting stupid is just more funny than a woman acting stupid. So try to see it as a compliment to the female kind, you're just to sophisticated for the to-the-point kind of cinema I'm into...

Smut: You juts got back from vacationing in Barcelona. How was that?

Toon: I took a nice picture of a punk with blood pouring out of his hand after some incident while his dog was licking it up. It would make some great some, but Spain is something you’ll just have to experience yourself.

Toon: Of course a new El Guapo Stuntteam video is already haunting my dreams. I'm also trying to get a music video for another Belgian band together, they're called Vandal X and they rock like madmen. For the rest I'm finishing a music documentary about the current Deepfunk scene that me and Nicolas Karakatsanis have been working on for the last 2 years.