Changing the game, the Uncle Frank Liew story

Here’s a question for you, oh great students of the import automotive game in New Zealand. How many people have been true what you would call game changers? People who took the scene as it was at the time to new levels, pushed the envelope and immersed themselves so totally into the culture that they became largely house hold names? Well one such man in my opinion, and he will dispute this due to his own modesty is the legendary Frank “Uncle Frank” Liew.

I realise to some of you younger folk out there that this name means little in a car sense, and he would perhaps be better known for Qubic boutique or solejam, but at one time this man was an automotive icon, and lets face it…while it’s common place now, who tried cramming JDM 19′s on a Honda back in the early 2000′s? I say bring back F1ERCE!! Sadly due to age, limited actual photos of this car were able to be located.

I caught up with Frank is his down time, which was somewhere between running his shop, planning some marketing, and writing an article or 3 that have recently made the NZ Herald…multi-tasking much?

Not that I feel like you need an intro but then again I am old, who is Frank Liew? Age, Location, ethnicity, length of time in NZ etc

I feel like I do need a re-introduction. It’s been such a long time since the car days for me. My name is Frank, I’m of an undisclosed age that may or may not be around 30, I live and work in Auckland, New Zealand. I write for a few publications here, overseas, and a few things on the internets. I’m a part-time cynicism enthusiast, I write stupid things on twitter , but my main business is a multi-faceted company that puts together creative concepts for brands, along with our large retail store called Qubic on Broadway, Newmarket. I guess a while back I had something to do with cars.

Why are you called Uncle again??

If memory serves me right, you were the one to first call me that back in…. ’01? After that it kinda stuck. To those of the anglo-saxon-and-other variety, for many Asians calling someone “uncle” is a term of endearment as a general way of addressing older gentlemen who aren’t necessarily related to you but are friends of your family or circle. The nickname came out of people always saying I seem older than I look… well, I hope it was that, and wasn’t a racist dig. Goddamit, Warren.

You’ve been around forever, and are well known for projects like the F1erce wide body civic, Auto salon, P Car Tv, the formation of all motor group and D1NZ amongst other things, tell me a little about your experiences with those

It feels weird being called someone who’s been around ‘forever’, because at the time we were just having fun and trying to push the envelope, and to be honest, it didn’t seem *that* long ago… was it? I guess what we were always trying to do back then was to try and one-up everything and to push the scene forwards. I got excited that a movement and group mentality was being born out of it; it was an explosive time in the growth of car modification and culture here in New Zealand. It was exciting times and I do miss those years; it was pretty exciting to be doing something new… There are so many stories and memories about all the things that happened back then that it would take a few pages to share all of them, but one thing I’ve always wanted to say that I couldn’t back then was that I hope everybody here truly appreciates the level of effort others go through to try and bring world-class events and concepts here. It’s not something that brings huge returns, and if you think it’s your right to demand for such things, consider the size of our market compared to the population figures elsewhere. You don’t like something, do it yourself. Create your own thing; build your own movement. If not, then take a seat.

As an early pioneer, how did you go about getting people to support you? Wouldn’t have been easy to build a wide body civic on 19s, when 17′s were huge to most people

I remember the guys at Work Wheels and their local distributor here at the time (John Pearce & co) laughing at me when I was asking them to tool a custom wheel spec – 19 x 7.5”, +42 offset, 4×100. I mean, actually laughing on the phone. So I wouldn’t put a set of 19’s on a Honda today, but at the time (’02) I just wanted to do something completely oddball. Aside from the wheels itself it wasn’t too hard to get many people to help… or maybe people just thought I was plain crazy and wanted to tag along on the ride. Rob from Rapid Radio and Mark from the old Beyond Motorworks are two people that were really supportive in my car building days, from show cars to track cars. I think they were just people who got bored of the status quo too.

Do you think the car scene (which your a bit removed from now) has evolved for the better?

I don’t think I’ve seen enough of it lately to really judge whether it has evolved for the better or the worse. A few of the guys from back then (like yourself) stay in touch, but I remember reading the drifting results of a recent round and not recognizing half of the names. If you’re talking about car modification trends, I think I’ve seen enough of them come and go over the past 12 years or so that it doesn’t bother me as much as it used to. There’ll always be the ‘next thing’. I am seeing less well built cars on the street though, and whilst I am very well past the idea of driving around in my car aimlessly on a weekend night, I miss that kind of energy on the street level. I remember there was a period a few years ago where it seemed like everything was starting to get a little fragmented – the market place looked like it reached an implosion point and then the people who were in for the long haul remained, whilst the small time operators petered off. Perhaps the industry needed that in order to reset itself going ahead; it’s an inevitability of any sub-culture. The level of professional drifting today in NZ is really eye-opening though. Just remembering back to the days in ‘02 when we had drivers refusing to don race suits and build roll cages because they wanted to ‘keep it street’ to seeing the way everyone is presented today is pretty mind-boggling. At the moment my on-going restoration project of a ’69 Honda S800 is keeping my hands full when I’m in the country. In the future I would like to get back into motor racing though; I miss that the most.

Did your earlier car related experiences help you build your business in later life?

I think so. The inherent core of car modification that requires you to always look objectively (and critically) at a certain aspect of a car and wondering how you can make it better definitely transformed into a philosophy when it came to building a business and making sure all corners are covered. On the other hand, it also makes you incredibly restless, which can be a bad thing too in determining long term strategy. Overall, I think all of my life’s experiences add up to who I am now, so I can’t ever say one period of my life didn’t affect the other. They’re all lessons – you don’t just learn from your mistakes.

Speaking of which, your new obsession/baby is Qubic, tell me about it, finding suitable stock, point of difference etc.

Obsession is correct! For a start, it’s not just a store. We’re a multi-faceted organization that also develops concepts and ideas for brands, we conceptualise/design/build certain things, but certainly our most visible aspect is our retail store on Broadway Newmarket. It’s really a curated list of products (mostly fashion & footwear) that we’ve found from all over the world and wanted to present to the local NZ public in an effort to bring what’s happening across the world and the best product to our little corner of the globe. 90% of our brand list consists of unique international brands that aren’t easy to find all over the world, from Australia to Tokyo to Paris to New York to Los Angeles, and everywhere in between. Much like how we were trying to push the car culture forward, we’re doing the same here with the store and our various projects with brands.

Didn’t it have something to do with custom sneaker art, which you got into as a hobby?

Wow, I haven’t painted sneakers in a long time…. Yes, I think it did evolve out of my sneaker habit but if you want to break it down to its core, it mostly came down to my inherent need to share my experiences with people. I liked something, so I wanted to share that experience with everyone – at that time, at Ground Zero if you will, it was collecting sneakers; this cool underground cult movement that makes you look for certain shoes all over the world. Nowadays as all of us in the company have progressed it’s more an overall package with fashion, footwear, accessories, and even homeware, although we do still have the most select range of limited & special edition sneakers in the country. We get asked all the time what kind of store we classify ourselves under – fashion, streetwear, sneaker store, or whatever. I just tick all the boxes. We’re trying to create our own sector – a store that doesn’t just focus on one thing, but has everything for almost everybody. But that need to want to share new things with people is the driving force behind it. I’ve always said that if I wasn’t doing this, I’d like to be a storyteller. Maybe that’s why I like to write.

You’ve met a few “famous” people, even more famous than you, any favourites? Anyone whom was just difficult?

I don’t think it’s hard to be qualified as more famous than I am, hah. Hmm. It’s a hard one. I like to think of it when I meet ‘famous’ people as whether or not they live up to their public image (for better or worse.) If I’m pleasantly surprised about the way they are outside of the media eye I generally tend to vibe with them. If they’re arseholes I just leave. For the most part, some of the most famous people I’ve met are also the most humble. As for notable ones…. Jay-Z and his band (the Roc Boys) were super fun. They certainly knew how to live it up on tour and it’s a great family unit. Lupe Fiasco was a very clued up and intelligent man. Steve Aoki (DJ) is a pretty chilled out person when he’s not in that ‘mental’ stage persona that he’s known for. Jenson Button was pretty pleasant when I met him and his girlfriend Jessica in Tokyo. Maybe that was because at the time he hadn’t secured his World Champion title yet? Steve-O surprised me. It’s like he has this switch where he can turn the “jackass” mode on and off. Almost well-spoken, to tell the truth.

Qubic isnt just you tho is it? Ivy (Frank’s Wife) is heavily involved….how is it that a woman whose every blog is about food is not 400 pounds.

Oh no, it’s certainly not just me. It’s a whole team of people that make it possible. Yes, Ivy is our main buyer and oversees a lot of the store’s operations, although we do have a couple of managers as well. She’s a very important cog in the whole picture. As for her blog, I think you may have to ask her that one. I haven’t worked it out yet myself – her blog is actually the most popular blog on http://www.qubicstore.com! I suspect she may have a metabolism of a gazelle, or she quietly stores food for future consumption in hidden places like a hamster.

I suspect running is the answer, is that just an excuse for you both to have more sneakers?

Hah, perhaps, although cycling through running shoes every few months so you won’t wreck your feet is probably more important than cycling through sneakers that look good! I got into running in about Jan 2010 after some pushy advice from friends both here and overseas. It’s a little hard to describe the appeal of it if you don’t do it yourself, but in a way it’s like the buzz you get when you adjust things on your car and see your lap times drop by tenths of a second, if you know what I mean. It’s all about seeing yourself improve in a relatively short period of time. I’m no athlete by any stretch of the imagination, so even I’m surprised I’m into it. Setting goals and achieving them is a pretty cool feeling though. I did the adidas Auckland half last year, and aiming for the Honolulu full (42.195km) marathon in December. Then again, it’s not like I wake up in the morning with the burning urge of running 20kms before breakfast. We’ve even set up our own little running team of misfits and amateur-professionals here too – http://antipods.tumblr.com . It tracks our progress, as well as various other things that inspire us. Not necessarily running related, either,