Oh... my... days... did I have fun filming this one. The energy was simply amazing. So much talent. So much passion. So much skill. All of it expertly brought together by the Mic Check MCR team for yours truly to have the pleasure of capturing. In the end it was a very long shoot for… Continue reading The Manchester Cypher
Current headspace: I wake up at 5:30am this morning, write this on my phone in about 5 mins, then go back to sleep. Go figure. Think I'll call it Chaos Theory. Seems apt somehow... There's a season for the sun And a season for the rain There's a season to have fun And a season… Continue reading Chaos Theory
I ain’t gonna front. I had a wicked time just recently, shooting an aftermovie for Polar Music; a Manchester-based music production and events label who specialise in putting together house music/EDM nights around the north west of England. I was asked to do some filming at the launch party for one of their events at… Continue reading Why Planning is Overrated
There's this strange nebulous space you tend to occupy as a writer, or even, perhaps, a creator or storyteller of any kind; a sort of hovering furtive interstice between here and elsewhere, wakefulness and daydream, vivid yet vague; like a mental version of twilight. Which is why I loved stumbling across this excerpt from Jane Vandenburgh's Architecture… Continue reading The Habit of Art
So this was without question the most physically taxing shoot to date. What had originally been planned as a 30-minute studio session with 7 of Manchester's most talented MCs, extended into an hour-long set. By the end my shoulders and back were on fire from holding up the weight of my shoulder rig to film… Continue reading 2 DJs, 7 MCs and One Long Night of Filming
I first came across the incredible stillness and power of Yaa Gyasi's writing early last year when reading a short story penned by the Ghanaian-born author in Guernica Magazine. Inscape, narrated from a daughter's perspective, told the tale of a woman and her Ghanaian mother, weaving between themes of religion, culture and mental illness with… Continue reading What An Evening With Yaa Gyasi Taught Me About Inspiration
I'll admit it, I've been a busy bee the last few weeks - rewrites of a manuscript I'm working on that needed sending to my agent asap, photography and videography work at a live hip hop event the weekend before last, video editing work every evening since, not to mention the day job etc. -… Continue reading Meeting RnB/Hip Hop Group, Blvck Diamond
So you may recall that I'd mentioned interviewing Samm Henshaw a while back for The Nubian Times, which, on a personal level, was a very fun experience. I mean, the guy's arguably the most talented soul artist to emerge from these shores in the last two decades. Not only that, he was a seriously fascinating… Continue reading A Belated Interview With UK Soul Artist, Samm Henshaw
The funny thing is I'm used to asking the questions, not answering them. I mean, I've conducted a fair few interviews at this point, delving into the motivations and inspirations of artists, creatives, community leaders etc. - people who are passionate about what they do. But I've never been on the other side of the… Continue reading On Writing: An Interview with… Myself?
I'm told public speaking is consistently ranked as many people's greatest fear... yeah, that's right - above heights, spiders, snakes, clowns (I still don't get why anyone likes clowns) etc. In fact, in many surveys public speaking is even ranked above the fear of death. Which, in my opinion, is all the more reason for… Continue reading The Future is Bright, The Future is… Social Media?
