Before I ever saw a single image from Moodmail, I remember reading the two words, “Since 2007.” You open up the Moodmail website or Instagram page and they just sort of pop out, winking at you with a knowing grin. Dave Marshal, the prolific Swiss behind the coolest newsletter in the world, is one of the longest standing image curators on the internet. His bank of work predates even Tumblr.

Each issue of Moodmail is simultaneously deep and wide-sprawling. Held together by staple themes like vicious dogs, tasteful fashion, armed tactility, nature, and street culture (among others), the monthly newsletter comes out as potent blend of the cursed, the ascended, and everything else in between. You would be sorely remiss not to subscribe. (And in doing so you will likely never strain to find a new screensaver again).

Marshal himself may not admit it, but he is an absolute master curator capable of evoking a certain juxtapositional tension in his selections that I’m not sure I’ve encountered anywhere else. His work belongs in a museum setting, but instead he conveniently delivers it to us once a month in our inboxes… for free.

It goes without saying that I am incredibly humbled and honored to host him here on Silknode for the first ever Moodmail interview.

Z: So Moodmail has been in the game for about 15 years at this point, what was it that made you decide to start this practice all that time ago?

Dave Marshal: Thank you, Z, for having me. And thank you for noticing and valuing the longevity – I can't believe it’s been that long!

Moodmail, the newsletter, started because my art director at the job I was working was getting annoyed by the amount of emails I kept sending him (laughs). In 2005 and 2006 I was co-running a concert venue called Wasserwerk Club, and every time I found an image on the internet that I felt like my art director needed to see I would send it to him as an individual email. Eventually he asked me to stop and suggested that I instead collect the images throughout the month, and then at the end send out the ones that I still liked in one big email.

For the first couple years I only sent the images to him and our partners, it wasn’t really called Moodmail at that point. In 2007 I expanded the circle of recipients to around twenty or thirty people and I think that’s when the name was first used semi-officially.

Gradually I started to add more friends and colleagues, as well as DJs and musicians that came to play our venue. That’s when it slowly became international as we had guests from all over the world who were subscribing and sharing with their friends. It was around that time that I started to work for Nike and a few people were interested there too, so it slowly penetrated a tiny segment of the corporate world too. It was basically all word-of-mouth, just people who forwarded the email to other people. So everything has grown very slow and steady. Very organic.

What do you do outside of Moodmail?

I manage a company called Yuhzimi Ltd. that works in brand and cultural marketing – consulting for various fashion and lifestyle brands as well as cultural and artistic institutions who call upon our services to conceive, construct, and execute marketing strategies.

It is important in my profession to filter relevant information out from an ocean full of it. Whether that’s fashion, music, art, design, or campaigns, a certain knowledge of the most current news in those fields is crucial and partly defines my relevance as a consultant.

So while doing my job, dissecting information and seeking inspiration, I inadvertently find great imagery that often times ends up being selected for Moodmail. It’s all intertwined. Essentially I’m not hunting for the pictures, they find me while I am researching.

That’s kind of how my method works too, it’s almost unintentional. I think after spending enough time in weird corners of the internet the cool stuff just sort of inevitably bubbles up.

Where are you from? How do you feel your location has shaped your interests and worldview?

I’m based in Switzerland! I think growing up and operating in a small city here really nurtured my curiosity. As a teenager I was influenced by magazines from the US and art books from my mother’s library, who is an interior architect. Since there wasn’t much going on locally, I was constantly trying to figure out ways to expand my horizon on my own. Being inquisitive, traveling around the globe, and drawing inspiration from exchanges with my peers have always been necessities.

I started traveling to NYC once a year in my early twenties where I would go and buy the latest mixtapes and Air Force 1s. Later, besides my personal travels to places like Mexico, Ghana, Senegal, Hawaii, and throughout Europe, my professional projects allowed me to travel to cities like Tokyo, Montreal, and pretty much any other city where Red Bull Music Academy would set up shop. My collaborative work with cyclist Patrick Seabase also took me to Eritrea, Morocco, far west Texas, and the remotest alpine passes.

Every trip helped shape my worldview and my values but also helped me feel less isolated in Switzerland. Living in a small town there also birthed my entrepreneurial spirit early on. Since there were no decent parties with contemporary international acts, we had to create and set them up ourselves.

That DIY attitude is the essence. What mixtapes were you getting into?

I still have a couple of them in my storage. Tony Touch, DJ Premier, Massive B (Bobby Konders & Jabba), DJ Enuff, anything you could get at Fat Beats or at Fulton Mall. When I ran out of money I would just tape HOT97 Radio with a little tape recorder.

One of the only other people I’m aware of who was routinely sharing images en masse as early as you was JJJJound from Montreal. What did the rest of the scene look like when you started up? Are you still in touch with anybody from back then?

Oh most definitely JJJJound! Apparently he actually hand-wrote the code for his site to display a continuous stream of images. Not sure if it’s a myth but it makes sense as there weren’t any template pages back then. One of the first people to ever do it, it was even before Tumblr. In any case, that’s definitely where I saw my first digital moodboard.

Early Tumblrs like Yimmy Yayo from Australia and Techspec, those were the ones that were out there at that time. There were a few pages and blogs like The Brilliance, Beinghunted., Slamxhype, Freshness Mag, SHOWstudio and Hiroshi Fujiwara’s honeyee where I could get information that was of interest to me. This was all pre Highsnobiety and Hypebeast too, if I am not mistaken.

After that there was Haw-Lin, It’s Nice That, and The Impossible Cool... I am sure that I am forgetting some very important early people here. That was all before Instagram even existed, you have to imagine, it was a different time! Message boards were a big thing as well – people would show off their fits and trade goods, maybe kind of like what Reddit is now.

I am still in touch with some of those people, others I have never met. To this day I don’t know who created some of the pages. Jörg from Beinghunted. and I just recently worked on a project for a large Swiss company, and David from Highsnobiety (on which I had my own blog in the early days) and I talk to from time to time. I actually just met Yimmy Yayo for the first time in real life in NYC in December, after all these years!

You started Moodmail right around the same time as Tumblr was created, but when did you actually decide to join Tumblr?

I got a lot of my content from Tumblr pages before I even had an account. I never really used Tumblr as the social network that I think it was intended to be. This might be surprising, but when I liked a Tumblr (or any page / blog) I would subscribe to it through an RSS reader. I still use RSS on a daily basis – it lets me go through tons of pages in a fraction of time. And it’s ad-less.

It was only during the peak of Tumblr in 2011 that I decided to open my own account, and I would basically just add my favorite seven images of the respective month’s Moodmail. I felt I had to be part of it. My Tumblr is a bit of a shame nowadays, it’s basically just a clone of the Instagram with an additional monthly “Top 7” post.

Damn, got me thinking I might need an RSS reader too. Sounds peaceful (laughs). Which is your fav?

Mine is called NetNewsWire and it’s the only one I ever used. I am honestly surprised it still works.

Noted.

You’ve seen the rise and fall of huge photo sharing platforms like Myspace, Tumblr, and Flickr. Now it feels like the majority of internet image curators are on Instagram. When did you decide to start posting on Instagram?

When Instagram started to become popular in Switzerland in 2013 I jumped on it with my own private account, but I actually never really planned on starting a Moodmail one.

On a 2015 trip from Nike to Berlin (I think it might have been to Bread & Butter – some readers will remember this trade show), my flight back got delayed three hours and I decided to open an Instagram account out of boredom. I went through all the Moodmails on my phone, and when two images worked well together I would make a screenshot to post. Back then you could only post square images, no 4:5 yet, so it was even harder to find a good pairing or an interesting juxtaposition. With the ever evolving functions on Instagram there are more and more possibilities.

Meanwhile there are Reels where I like to show boomerangs of the editing process. The great thing with Reels is that I can add music. And since music was my first love (and first business), I am always excited to choose a song. I’ve also started to make Guides where I showcase photographers and Instagram accounts that inspire me. I really liked the fact that you were not able to see views for Instagram Guides and nobody could like them. No instant gratification, no pressure, just putting your work out there for people to enjoy. Unfortunately they changed that aspect very recently…

What direction would you like to see Instagram going in the future? Do you think it will still be as big in ten years or will there be a new platform that replaces it?

I would definitely like to see less ads on Instagram. I think it is counterproductive and chases people off. To find the right balance… that’s the dilemma of social media companies, right?

Like every product, Instagram has a life cycle, and if they fail to reinvent themselves it can be over before they know it. I mean, look at Facebook. In my world it became completely irrelevant within just a few short years.

I see the same thing happening to Instagram. Audience retention and engagement are challenging and it’s hard to predict the evolution or demise of any platform. The possibility of Instagram being replaced by other platforms in 10 years, or even in 5, seems very high though.

You mentioned a bunch of golden age streetwear outlets like Slamxhype and Beinghunted. a bit ago. Fashion seems to be one of Moodmail’s focal points, but I wouldn’t ever say that Moodmail is explicitly dedicated to clothes. How does fashion influence your selections?

Fashion has always been a big part of Moodmail. It is possible that the ratio shifted a bit throughout the years, but that hasn’t happened deliberately.

There is still a large portion dedicated to the fashion universe, the campaigns, editorial shootings, and shows. From streetwear to gear to couture, and lately, digital fashion. I try not to include too many product shots, there are already so many good pages which almost exclusively feature product.

If, however, a standalone product is featured in Moodmail, it means I really adore it; it hits a cord, obsession, or fascination. Admittedly in most cases it’s a watch or shoes.

How has your curation has changed over the years?

For my practice I don’t use the word curation as I believe it’s often misused or used too liberally. For me, curation is a term that belongs exclusively in the art world.

But of course, the type of images I select has evolved over the years. Just as I as a person have evolved (I’d like to believe towards a more mindful human being), the images have. There are images from back then that I would not select anymore, or at least not without a comment. I am trying to become more precise as I get older, editing each image is not easy and it is something I am hoping to improve every month. Maybe one day Moodmail will consist of simply one image per month, who knows?

That’s surprising! I’m not the most qualified person to say this, but I would definitely describe your work as something that fits into the art world. In fact, I tend to think of curation as an art form in itself.

It seems that you are so deliberate with your setup, especially with all the editing and arrangement that you do. It’s very considered. Why wouldn’t you consider it artful?

I am flattered that you say that. I think, however, that definitions are important. Or at least a precision in terms.

In my opinion, there are so many more layers of conversation and thought needed before something can be considered contemporary art. There are definitely certain curators who could use an image that might be found in Moodmail, but they are adding depth, substance, and technique which elevate it to another form. The distinction, therefore, between “art” and “content” is important. Both can, and certainly should, co-exist. The line can be blurry, but they are not one and the same.

That said, I encourage the viewers to construct their own definition – for the most part I try not to define what world(s) Moodmail belongs to. The viewer should interpret and categorize the way they choose.

I see lots of commentary on sociopolitical topics throughout your emails. There always seems to be an overarching narrative you are weaving together. What informs your curation and what story are you trying to tell?

Moodmail has certainly never been purely aesthetic. The themes I touch on are broad, but it’s still possible to pick up on hints with certain selections. Sometimes very subtle, but also sometimes very in-your-face.

Moodmail reflects my taste, and that defines, to a certain degree, who I am as a person. I suppose that if you dig deeper you can decipher some of me and my values. If you choose not to engage on that level though, it can also just function as a simple selection of interesting images. As with many things in life, it is in the hands of the beholder.

Sounds an awful lot like an artist to me…

Do you have any plans to expand your platform at all down the road or are you content with sticking to the monthly emails?

Moodmail’s format, the newsletter, seems a bit antiquated but that’s what I like about it. It‘s like receiving an actual handwritten letter once a month whereas nowadays everything seems to happen via DMs. So in a way, by resisting the fads for all these years, the format has gained some significance.

That said, Instagram has definitely become more and more important for Moodmail as a means for subscribers to get a glimpse of the content. What is visible on Instagram is like another layer on top of the newsletter at this point. The images I post are screenshots from the email that a viewer would probably not recognize individually. By isolating the image like this it becomes autonomous, and therefore more significant in a way.

For the moment there are no real plans to extend Moodmail to other platforms, but I am always open to trying new things.

I get the sense that being early to the shift into web3 is going to be really important for digital curators, although I’m not entirely sure how yet. Have you ever considered the idea of integrating web3 into your work?

I am interested in the topic and I am with you 100%, but as you said I am not totally sure yet on how to engage and get active. I mean, there really needs to be an added value. I am exploring the possibilities. If you have a brilliant idea, please let me know!

Of course! Lots of fun stuff happening in that scene even as we speak. I’m excited to see where it goes and start tapping people in.

I really respect your tenure here, as well as your purity – you don’t chase clout and you aren’t here to take people’s money. What keeps you around?

How do you know that? Maybe I’m just really bad at chasing clout! (Laughs)

As I mentioned earlier, I need to remain current for my work, so the Moodmail folders kind of just keep filling themselves. There are so many interesting images on the internet every day. Thousands of new things to look at from all these different generations of artists, photographers, and Instagram accounts. As long as this keeps exciting me and I’m able to find a hundred images a month I guess I’ll stick around.

It’s funny, at one point in 2017 I actually wanted to end the project because it was the 10th Anniversary. I initially thought it would be fitting to go out with some sort of publication, but I somehow missed the moment and just kept going.

The focus on more collaborations like this one we have right here, or issues by guests like the recent one with General_Index, are some things that I’ve found to be really fruitful lately. There are some really surprising ones coming up, stay tuned!

A Silk Guest Moods sounds like it would be kind of cool. Wonder what we could do about that…

How would you describe the community you’ve grown throughout your work with Moodmail?

I like to think of it as a worldwide network of like-minded people where the border between consumers and collaborators from my professional life is relatively fluid. Many people who I have worked with in the past are subscribers, and some for many years.

I also love the fact that with longevity comes trans-generational subscribers. Seeing these new generations engaging, liking, commenting, and writing to me – it’s very fulfilling. I would describe the community, therefore, as a large spectrum of individuals who share a very certain moodboard vibe, energy, and aesthetic.

100%. Makes me excited for Silknode to get to a point like that.

Thank you so much for your time, your work, and your influence, Dave. People like me wouldn’t be here without people like you.

It’s been a pleasure, Z!

Subscribe to the monthly Moodmail newsletter here.