Josh Jones, Sandwich
Each issue of Sandwich takes an iconic sandwich and uses it as the starting point for a series of stories. The recent fifth issue sees new editor Josh Jones examining culture and life via the Brisket sandwich.
Josh has, in his own words, been ‘making excellent magazines, books and zines for ages’, a claim it is hard to argue with. As well as Sandwich, he’s Co-founder of cult art zine Pavement Licker (where we last heard from him here), Executive editor of music and style mag Marvin, and Editor of the annual eponymous magazine for the legendary rock n roll and hedonistic Pikes Hotel in Ibiza.
He has also been UK Editor of ’Sup, Editor of Special Request, Managing editor of Nike’s 1948 Magazine and a bunch of other things too. And he always wears a hat.
Read on to hear about his week in sandwichs and learn just how much bread gets wasted in the UK…
What are you up to this morning?
I get the Metropolitan Line into TCO London’s studios as they publish Sandwich. This is good because that tube is air conditioned and no one ever seems to get the Metropolitan line. Then ideas are formed and meetings had and then I go stand in the long lunch line for falafel in St Mark’s Circus and think about how all the ideas could work as I eat it in a park.
Describe your desk and your work space
TCO London’s office is kind of like a place you’d see in an indie film from the late 90s. Exposed brick, big airy ceilings, loads of space and glass walls and stuff with people being busy and doing all kinds of interesting things. The sort of film Josh Hartnett was in and there’s a bagel delivery guy that turns up on a unicycle. You know what I mean.
Which magazine do you first remember?
Do Roy of the Rovers or The Beano count as magazines? Are they comics? They had more than comic book stuff in though right? My older brother would get Smash Hits as well so that is quite an early memory of a good magazine. Also Readers Digest seems to be a memory from my childhood. And well-thumbed Take-A-Breaks from really hot dentist surgery waiting rooms.
Which magazine matters to you the most this morning?
Well, when I was fresh out of journalism college and thought pitching story ideas was fun and amazing, I think the first place to accept a pitch was Huck—it was an interview with Arofish who was the first Western graffiti artist to paint the wall in Palestine. Huck, of course, is published by TCO London, and look at me now, editing one of their titles. Plus, Huck is beautiful and cool. Like my wife.
Describe Sandwich in three words.
Quite a mouthful.
What’s your favourite sandwich?
Oh mate, I wish you hadn’t asked. You might wish you hadn’t asked. I haven’t had this for many years because, quite frankly it’s disgusting. But it’s any old bread, Dairylea, crunchy peanut butter, sweetcorn, prawn cocktail crisps, cold sausage, cheddar, lettuce for health, mayonnaise and Branston pickle. Eat it alone and with the curtains drawn.
How do you decide which sandwich to lead with?
It’s sort of decision by consensus in the team. And then we have a think about where we can go with it. There’s a lot of freedom with the magazine - we can go pretty stretchy. Getting Oliver Keens to write about whether hip-hop beef is really just marketing was quite a leap from a brisket sandwich but everyone got the connection immediately and it worked perfectly. Oliver wrote a fantastic piece.
Highlight one story that sums up Sandwich.
It would be the Massive Waste of Bread feature. Because that story came from a sort of throwaway comment made when I was having a coffee with creative scientist goth Katherine Templar Lewis. I was briefing her in a café as I’d asked her to interview Dr Irwin Eydelnant (a groundbreaking food scientist and world record holder for the tallest sandwich) on the future of food and she mentioned how much bread is wasted. I didn’t believe her so we googled it and she wasn’t lying.
Then I spoke to my friend David Wright (who won Britain’s Best Baker and is handy with a typewriter), he said he’d definitely like to write how and why we waste so many slices of bread in the UK. Spoiler alert: it’s TWENTY FOUR MILLION SLICES A DAY. Which David, of course, equated to how many bungalows you could build out of the wastage.
What one piece of advice would you offer somebody wanting to launch their own publication?
Make it about something you enjoy. Uncoated smells better than gloss.
What are you most looking forward to this coming week?
People asking what the hell is wrong with me when they’ve read my favourite sandwich.
Creative director Fabrizio Festa