Jesse Michaels was the singer for the much-laud- ed Bay Area punk band Operation Ivy, but his story has had many chapters since the band broke up in the late eighties. A groundbreaking visual artist as well as lyricist, Michaels went on to create graphics for bands including Neurosis, Filth, Green Day and many others. As an oil painter he has shown his work in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York and as a maestro of punk aesthetics his designs appear on the backs of hoodies and frayed leather jackets spanning the globe. Most recently he has gotten into writing and film-making, publishing the novel Whispering Bodies in 2012 and founding an upstart filmmaking outfit in Los Angeles just this year. When we caught up with him he was more than happy to revisit his classic visual art style, agreeing to create an ensemble for Altamont based on the legendary clash between Mods and Rockers in the swinging UK of the mid sixties. As always, Jesse’s take on matters is explosive, unpolished and invites the viewer to wake up to untapped sources of energy within their own hearts and minds.