THOM PISTON
Creative Source and founder of Flying Piston Studios Berlin

Thom Piston was born in the mid-´60s in the russian zone of occupation, and after finishing 10th grade of GDR middle school he trained as a turner (lathe operator)...Not the best idea. The choice - made in the early 80s - to dedicate himself to Punkrock wasn´t supposed to bring him luck either – wrong place, wrong time...So promptly in 1983 he was arrested and stayed political prisoner of the GDR, until he was expelled from the country in 1986.

Thom Piston is a man not afraid of inconvenient truths, a man who dedicates himself to unpopular topics without being afraid to lead the way - alone.

He found his home in creative fields of work: music (most of all Punk and Hardcore), art (in 1998 he opened the first German Pop Art Gallery – Flying Piston Gallery, Berlin) and graphic design (in 1998 he discovers his love for Macintosh Computers). Within those he´s outrider and impulse generator with unflinching integrity and authenticity.

We have to thank his keen sense of subcultural impulses and movements (long before they are converted into trends) that today Flying Piston can resort to a worldwide net of contacts within the (contemporary) art-, design-, hot rod-, and kustom kulture scene.

CV:

After having been expelled from the GDR...:

1987
First own punkrock cd-mailorder – ANTITROTT

1989
Founding member of the punkrock record store OM SOUND, East Berlin

1990
Establishes the cd-mailorder of CORE TEX (hardcore record store, Berlin)

1993
Works for staging and booth construction companies in Berlin

1995
First salesman for NASTROVJE POTSDAM (NAPO) t-shirts

1998
Founds FLYING PISTON, first POP ART GALLERY in Germany

1998 – First contact with a Macintosh computer

1999 – 2000
Several graphic design jobs, operation of FLYING PISTON GALLERY
Organisation of the very first pop-art shows ever in Germany (Berlin/Hamburg), calles GANG BANG & featuring US-artists like EMEK, FIREHOUSE, CHRIS SHAW, CHASE MARSHALL and DAVID PERRY, all of them being present at the art show openings
Layout of concert posters for TRINITY RECORDS BERLIN for musicians like DEAD MOON, ALICE COOPER
BAD RELIGION cd-cover layout for SONY MUSIC + t-shirt designs, promo material, and flyers

2001
Starts SMOKIN SHUTDOWN, first and (until today) only German hot rod magazine, including complete business plan conception and realization, advertising customer care and –acquisition
organization of the complete sales and marketing department (wholesale+retail)
complete layout of ALL issues, #1 til today (23 issues so far in 2009)
90% of all pics in the magazine are taken and edited by himself
80% of all articles are written by himself
complete preparation of the mag for pre-press, layout of the company´s website and the webstore until today

2003-2005
Co-organizer of the BOTTROP Hot Rod Show in cooperation with ROAD DEVILS EUROPE + layout of all show posters and flyers during that period

2007 til today
Organizer (with Deniz Cetiner) of the HOT ROD & ART SHOW at Weil am Rhein (once a year)
Layout of all promotional material for the show, artist booking
support, working with artists like GENE WINFIELD, ROBERT & SUZANNE WILLIAMS, DENNIS ROTH.

2007 til today
Co-organizer of the ROCKIN HOT ROD DECADENCE in Berlin in cooperation with DIAMOND DIVER & ROADRUNNER´S CLUB Berlin (event is taking place twice a year)

Within the field of event management he´s worked together with sponsors like:

EDWIN, CARHARTT, WEST COAST CUSTOMS, LEVI´S VINTAGE, RED WING, etc.