Rev Pop, founded two years ago, began as Fever Marlene's method of circumventing label restrictions and agency control. An avid artist, Starr wanted creative control to remain with the band; allowing Starr and band mate Kevin Dunphy to visualize their band's image in addition to creating its sound. Fever Marlene repeatedly surfaces as Starr speaks about his design company confirming that the two are inextricably linked; the imagination of one infuses the other in a mutually beneficial manor.

"Fever Marlene is only 10 percent of my life. Through Rev Pop, I design for companies like Planet Propaganda and Mathematic Arts. Through those opportunities, I've done stuff with Tanqueray, Gary Fischer and the Wisconsin Film Festival," Starr explains.

Artists have always wrestled with the paradoxical dynamic of commercial art. Likewise, Starr is directly aware of maintaining his creative expression and although he attributes much of his success in advertising / marketing to a bachelor's degree in psychology, he insists Fever Marlene foster his creative outlet.

"I fell in love with corporate art and the psychology of it. How to successfully alter people's minds through art," Starr explains.

A company of one, Scott Starr is Rev Pop. Outsourcing a small portion of clients to other local artists, Starr, who is completely self-taught, does more than most in a day's work.A former employee of Madison's forward-thinking communications company, Planet Propaganda, Starr carries a delicate balance of art, culture and commerce into Rev Pop. What began as Starr vehemently distributing political posters during college has become Starr's incredible talent for music, website and video design.

"I want a reaction. I want controversy and I want acceptance, just like everybody. I like being critiqued and I like being critical," Starr explains. "There's no reason to do something if you aren't causing a stir or provoking a reaction. That's where I get my kicks."

It's hard to imagine more of Starr in Rev Pop. The owner's ideals infiltrate every aspect of the company's website; fluidly detailing Starr's thoughts on design, entrepreneurial passage and worldly inspiration. Starr's words echo the rhetoric of his site and confirm the inspiration and passion of his work.

"I don't want people to think I'm just an advertising firm and I don't want people to think I'm just a design company. It's more of an art movement that I want to build that deals with things across the board," Starr explains.

As Starr aptly reminisces, the Milwaukee of today is quite different from the Milwaukee of 10 years ago and the city's re-development primes artistic expression and creative opportunity.

"This is a beautiful city. There are amazing people and incredible artists. We've got radio stations and papers that are in the scene and down to earth and humble about it. The change in Milwaukee has really kept me here," Starr explains. "It's a small city. If you're good at what you're doing and you make some noise, it can really make an impression."

Starr sought opportunity in Milwaukee's size and as he refers to it, the ability to make something as a "big fish in a little pond." Starr represents the newest creative class; a class successful at blending artistic collaboration with entrepreneurial endeavor.

"For me, the business side is all about sharing. You're going to make more friends if you are giving other people work and if you're exposing something about yourself. It's inspiring to take a step back and realize there are other people that might deserve more than you," Starr explains.

Candidly aware of the burgeoning design scene in Milwaukee, Starr knows his direction in the market. His latest collaboration, working with Scott Schwebel of Hansen Dodge Creative, produced the Web site for the Okobos Music Festival, a charity event to launch the socially-responsible global brand Okobos Footwear. The duo is also collaborating on an online store for Schwebel's new clothing line, Motorcycle City Milwaukee. Schwebel, also a musician, is drummer for The Gufs.

"Design is an art. Typography and use of space, it is such an art. People don't think of web designers as artists but it's using your own concepts and creating something that is all you. It's exactly what Rev Pop is," Starr explains.

The A.V. Club: How did the idea of Dirty Earth come about?
SS: Rev Pop needed an office. I figured instead of making it this corporate hole in the wall, I'd open it up and be a little more social with the stuff we create by inviting people in to see it. It's more like a design firm that has a store.

AVC: What is your vision for Dirty Earth?
SS: I want to keep it that gem on the other side of town, where if you know about it, cool. It's not thrifty, but it's got that that thrift mentality, with new clothes, limited stuff, and we don't have piles of T-shirt designs that you're going to have to worry about seeing somebody else with the same shirt. Everything is manually printed by us, designed in shop.

AVC: Have any bands approached you about screen-printing artwork for their concert posters?
SS: That's the next step. I guess the first thing we are going to do is posters for the Pabst. We're going to get a website together with just our examples of our concert posters. After that, once we have a good portfolio of show posters, what we are going to do is open it to local artists, theaters, bars and restaurants, and basically say for around $100 we will design and print like 20 posters for you. Then you can sell those 20 posters or do whatever you want with them. I guess the deal would be that we would do it for $100 and then we could sell it in the store or online and try to make our money back. So keeping it cheap for the community, yet giving us an opportunity to make some revenue. It just makes the community look better to have cool posters at Cactus Club and Mad Planet.

AVC: Rev Pop is also releasing records by artists other than Fever Marlene, right?
SS: We are working with a guy, Kyle Feerick. He's a local artist, sounds like Elliott Smith, just a kick-ass voice. He's got his own thing going; he's got his own records. What we want to do is bring him in and do a three-song EP, Rev Pop style, where Kevin and I will do what our perception of his music is. We'll sell these EPs in the store and online and create somewhat of a community-based record company. Not for profit, just kind of another way to spread the music.

AVC: What about your band? Is Fever Marlene working on anything?
SS: We're recording. We're about half way through a volume of EPs. We're going to do a digital release and then we will do records, LPs. The CD thing for us is kind of--not dead, but I'm more interested in selling vinyl at a show. We sell more records through iTunes than we do hard copies.

AVC: So you find that an EP is a more effective way to release music, versus spending the time that goes into a full-length album?
SS: I don't want to say albums are dead, but I think we've kind of veered into a singles world, and people have lost patience waiting for the album. I would rather release five songs every two months and keep it alive. We might do something like, "This month it's acoustic. Our inspiration for this album was Gram Parsons. We're going banjos and accordions. In January we're going a little more Postal Service." We have the ability to do it. We're not paying for a studio. We're not paying for time. We know how to do it, so why not? I have a letter on my refrigerator from Clive Davis, saying that "Happy meeting you guys, your album is not what is sellable in today's market." I came to the realization that, do I really want to do this? Do I really want to put my stuff in somebody else's hands? Do I want to go on tour for two years? I would rather do what I'm doing right now.