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The Growlersworld Interviews is an ongoing quest, bringing you closer to successful and creative people in all walks of life.

Rawle Austin presents...

A conversation with Shannon Ward - Art has never Rocked so Hard!

Shannon Ward is making music, drawing comics and loving East Asian movies.

Creative brilliance in the making.

I spoke with him to get the raw, complete and utter lowdown. So sit back and be inspired!

This interview contains strong language.

Rawle Austin: Could you introduce yourself to Growlersworld.com readers?

Shannon Ward: My name is Shannon Ward, I work at Channel4 by day and by night I scrawl stuff on paper and make noise with my friends.

See www.espada.8k.com, www.eldesconocido.com and www.myspace.com/soa.

RA: You're a bit of a comic book connoisseur like myself, when did comic book art first make an impression on you?

SW: Yes, I love comics and have read comics in one form or anther for most of my life, but the first time I was totally grabbed was picking up an old issue of Batman drawn by Norm Breyfogle (great for his time, shit now - sorry Norm!) and that was me hooked, started spending all my damned paper round money on comics.

RA: How did you nurture your artistic talent?

SW: My older brother was a great artist and he inspired/motivated me to draw and to keep drawing all the time, so its all thanks to him really.

RA: How often do you practice drawing?

SW: Nowadays its everyday, I'm doing another story for www.straightjab.com and www.puroboxeo.com so I'm drawing every lunchtime, but I can kind of lose my 'drawing mojo'’ and draw nothing for a few months.

RA: Can you take us through your artistic process from idea to finished piece?

SW: Erm, that’s a bit tricky, if it’s my own idea, its generally a case of ‘what do I want to draw?’ I have a think, come up with a few looks and kind of blindly stumble into some sort of coherent story!

Every time I do a new story I always try a new process, be it the drawing technique or the colouring process/style, it’s the part that motivates me to finish the thing.

If it's someone else’s story, it goes like this: character sketches, rough layouts of a few key sequences, full layouts, final drawing of characters and final drawing of backgrounds.

Then I scan the lot in, tidy up the drawings, colour everything and then add final touches and text, then I go and have a large pint of whiskey and never look at it again.

RA: Who are your favourite five comic book artists and why?

SW: Ooh, nice question comic boy! Off the top of my head:

1 - Mike Mignola (probably my biggest influence, a comic god)

2 - Frank Miller (need I explain?)

3 - John Cassady (love his gritty detailed style)

4 - Frank Quietly (he’s a bit of a whore, but I love his unusual chunky style)

5 - Bryan Hitch (wouldn’t always make my top 5 but I have just finished reading ultimates 2)

RA: Why should people read comic books as a storytelling medium?

SW: Because they just should! You get to see ideas movie studios would never back, you get to see things on a scale you never could in films, it’s the diversity of art and imagination of the stories that you just can't see anywhere else.

RA: What advice would you give to someone keen to start comic book art?

SW: Keep drawing, keep drawing and finally, keep drawing.

Don’t ever copy comics, draw from life, learn anatomy, and then develop your style from there.

RA: What's your ultimate ambition in the comic book art field?

SW: Erm, nothing much, just worldwide fame and endless riches. Or to get something published by one of the ‘big guns’.

RA: When did you start playing the bass guitar?

SW: I think I was about fifteen? Bought the shittiest cheapest bass in the world, then destroyed it by painting all over it, I still have it actually.

RA: How did your band, Shrewdness of Apes come into being?

SW: I'll try to keep this brief… me and fellow founder Ian Ashford were about 15, goofing around listening and discovering grunge music.

We thought ‘fuck we should start a band’ so we did.

He bought a guitar, I bought a bass, we practiced for ages, learning/copying entire albums of music, I think we did this for a few years.

Then we needed a singer, Ian knew someone from art college who wanted to sing, so we auditioned him and he was fucking awful, meanwhile Ian’s classmate Simon was hanging out with us a lot, so it natural for him to do it really, and he was great! (We were called ‘Concrete Worm'’ back then).

So now we had a singer, bassist and guitarist, getting a drummer is a very long and dull story, but basically the marvellous Ollie was the younger brother of another of Ian’s classmates and as soon as he was old enough we got him to drum for us (we then changed our name to ‘Snooze’).

He then recommend his school friend and quality guitarist Nick to join us to ‘heavy up’ our sound, not long after that Ian left us, and here we are back as a four piece (and finally settled on the name of 'Shrewdness of Apes')!

Not so brief in the end… soz mate.

RA: How often do you and the guys practice?

SW: Once a week generally, sometimes more when we are gigging, sometimes less when we aren’t.

RA: How would you describe your sound?

SW: Quickest and shittiest answer is ‘post grunge’ but we have pretty strong grunge roots, but are more eclectic, heavier, punkier and weirder.

RA: Who are your top 3 favourite bass guitarists of all time and why?

SW: Not really a bass guitarist fan, but I'll give you 2?

1 - Timmy C: Rage, Audioslave (lovely sound, very interesting player, never plays too much, never plays too little).

2- Les Claypool: Primus (total fucking showoff, but he is brilliant, so why shouldn’t he showoff?)

RA: Who are your top three favourite bands and why?

SW: 1 - Faith No More (gods, complete and total musical influence)

2 - Weezer (brilliant pop songs, can always cheer me up)

3- A Perfect Circle or Tool (just amazing musicians and incredibly structured songs)

RA: Who inspires you most in the rock music scene and why?

SW: Easy, Mr Mike Patton, check for yourself via the wonder of Wikipedia!

RA: What do you like about performing live, in front of a crowd?

SW: The buzz, watching the crowd enjoy our songs, the way the chemistry of the band and songs change from gig to gig, very cool and never boring.

RA: What are your ambitions for the band?

SW: Nothing much, sign to a small label and an album available in shops would be enough for me to die happy.

RA: How did your love for East Asian movies get started?

SW: Ah, that would be my younger brother, we grew up playing East Asian console games together and via that we got sucked into the culture, and then the films.

RA: What are your top three favourite East Asian movies of all time and why?

SW: My current three:

1- Oldboy (just an amazing film, almost perfect, Choi Min-Sik is a god!)

2- Infernal Affairs (Andy Lau and Tony Leung at the top of their game and beautifully directed too).

3- Fallen Angels (Wong Kar Wai, nuff said).

RA: Who are your top three favourite actors in East Asian cinema and why?

SW: 1- Tony Leung (amazing, faultless in almost every movie, gave ‘Hero’ its heart and perfect in ‘In the mood for love’). [Below picture from '2046']

2- Choi Min-Sik (amazing scenery chewing madman, never boring to watch)

3- Maggie Cheung (to go from the poppy excess of Jackie Chan’s ‘Police story’ to classy Oscar worthy actress in ‘In the mood for love’ is amazing)

RA: Who is your favourite director in East Asian cinema and why?

SW: Has to be Park Chan-Wook at the moment, I cannot fault his films, very dark, totally original, perfectly directed, and always surprising.

RA: Why should people watch East Asian movies, in your opinion?

SW: They push the boundaries more than US movies, their films are more interesting and totally different due to the culture differences, and they can direct a decent fight scene too.

RA: And finally, any last words of wisdom you'd like to leave us with?

SW: Not really, sorry!

Bob Harris - Appreciating the Wonder of Creativity>

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