Creative Chit Chat - Dundee

Ryan is a super talented photographer, specialising in music photography. He has an amazing portfolio of artists that he’s shot, from Foo Fighters to Seal to Chvrches. After graduating from DJCAD in 2015 he knew that music photography was his passion and the best place in Scotland to do that was Glasgow. We talk a lot about talent retention in Dundee but with Ryan it just wouldn’t have been possible to keep him. He worked at The Shine Agency as a graphic designer up until this year when he started Tentu studio alongside Stephen Kyle and Cameron Brisbane. In just 3 years Ryan has come a long way and I reckon the key to this is the relationships he has built on and offline. He is a likeable chap who has time for everyone and his digital persona portrays the same. Ryan's website - https://www.ryanjohnston.co/ Ryan's instagram - https://www.instagram.com/ryanjohnstonco/ Ryan's twitter - https://twitter.com/ryanjohnstonco Tens Sunglasses - https://tens.co/ ishootshows.com Gavin Cragie - http://www.gavincra

Yann is a musician, composer and artist as well as many other things. His project list is vast and varied, to say the least but seems to be rooted in performance. 11 years ago Yann ended up in Scotland. After graduating from his masters he ended up taking a role in the Dundee Rep’s Christmas production of Jack and the Beanstalk. Being from North America the concept of ‘Panto’ wasn’t exactly something he was familiar with. I suppose I would compare Yann to a sort of Doc Brown type mad inventor character working on loads of weird and wonderful ideas with an array of technical knowledge. His studio environment also seems to reflect this with controllers, wires, electronics and other random things lining the space. The amount of projects he has featured on his website is ridiculous and we didn’t really get the chance to go into any of them but I think the chat is brilliantly representative of Yann’s mind. We weave in and out of many different subjects finding fascinating nuance in apparently mundane subjects li

Ceramicist Steph Little joins me this week to talk about going from taking an evening class to falling in love with ceramics and making a living from it. At the core of everything she does is this lovely warmth and homeliness (if that’s even a word). It feels like she’s always doodling ideas in her sketch pad and then some actually make it into the clay. The geometric patterns that Steph is now known for come from rice, pasta and noodles. Food is definitely a common theme developed from her degree show work of single bed lasagnes and huggable pies. We delve deep into her process and how that has developed over the past few years. It feels like she’s at a bit of a pivotal point in her career at the moment. She makes beautiful handcrafted products and has built a great brand around herself but she needs to take it to the next level. To make a comfortable living from her work but retain the handmade and crafted qualities. It is always a difficult point in any creative career and as Steph is doing it’s about lo

A musician formerly known as Panda Su but now releases her music under SHHE. We cover her musical career so far and why she decided it was time to move on from the Panda Su persona. Su hasn’t done many interviews in the past so I feel privileged that she agreed to come on the podcast. It’s clear that there has been a change in mindset and outlook from Panda Su to SHHE. Su is much more open to collaboration and has a lot more confidence in her own work. Creating what she feels right rather than being self-conscious of other’s opinions. The music scene in Dundee inevitably comes up and Su expresses a need for mid-sized venues. Like The West Port Bar and Dog House, Dundee has lost places for artists to progress from small open mics before they try to play to hundreds of people. It comes back to the common theme of the access and use of space within the city. How do we get the landlords and landowners on board to understand the need and help create these venues? I had to ask where the panda in Panda Su came fr

Mark Beaumont is an adventurer, broadcaster, author and Rector of Dundee University. Probably best known for beating the world record for circumnavigating the globe by bicycle. Once in 2008 after graduating from university and again in 2017 in just 78 days, beating the existing record by over 40 days. Surprisingly, our chat focused very little on the cycling and record attempts themselves. I think this was somewhat refreshing for Mark. I really wanted to get beyond the end product, if you like, and get to know how he has built a business and a sustainable career from adventuring. How Mark describes his first round the world record attempt definitely carries a formula that he has perfected and used over time. Not necessarily in the sense of performance but in how he chose the challenge and created a narrative around it. He is very much an opportunist and realised that the world record for circumnavigating the globe by bicycle had not been attempted many times and therefore could be beaten. He describes it as

A furniture designer from just outside Lyon, Aymeric has started a Draff a company creating eco-friendly material from the waste products of breweries and distilleries. Like many podcast guests before him Aymeric followed his partner to Dundee and after a few visits decided to move here himself. He talks about the differences in the educational institutions in France and Scotland. He found DJCAD much more open and collaborative but in France they work on a 2 week rotation system. 2 weeks in the university and then 2 weeks in a company placement. This is standard practice across French education and a system that must surely harbour great links between industry and education. Something that I think we should be making more of an effort to do in Scotland, not necessarily just creating those links but getting students into real world roles prior to graduation. After completing a degree in Interior Design at DJCAD Aymeric went on to become a designer in residence at the university. Doing some teaching while

Murray has worked in music industry PR for over 30 years representing names like Kylie, the Petshop Boys, Coldplay, Yoko Ono and many more. He's been running MCPR for 10 years now and has decided to make the move back to Dundee to start a new chapter in his career. Murray talks about growing up in Lochee and always being part of an alternative scene and some of the difficulties that come with that. Eventually, the pull of the music scene in London became too great. He ended up living between squats and making ends meet however possible just to be part of an amazing time in the city's history. Through a friend's prison stint Murray ended up being persuaded to get into music PR. Off the back of that, he built a 30+ year career with 20 years at EMI records and then 10 running his own company. Now he has decided to take a different direction and move back to Dundee to work with Jennie Patterson. It's brilliant to see the lure of Dundee's changes bringing people like Murray back and hopefully he is one of many

Richard Cook is the man behind optical boutique Spex Pistols in Dundee’s Westport. Chances are if you see someone with interesting eyewear in Dundee, they’ve been to see Richard. Spex Pistols specialises in designer, vintage and classic frames as well as their very own range that’s due to launch soon. I think it’s fair to say that Richard is a big personality and well known throughout the creative community. He has built Spex Pistols to be that go to place for great glasses. Not only that but he prides himself on the quality of his customer service. Whether you’re going in to buy glasses or not he’s created a relaxed and fun atmosphere in the shop. To be honest it’s worth just dropping by for a chat. We begin by talking about his school days and the problems and difficulties he faced within the education system. We later go on to explore that this is largely down to Tourette's syndrome and a stutter that he later overcame. His first real opportunity came working in a spectacle lens making factory in Dunde

Annie is Project Coordinator for UNESCO Dundee City of Design team & Place Partnership Programme. You may know her from events such as the Dundee Design Festival. We talk about how she came to apply for the roles she's in now and why her career has led her into wearing lots of different hats. Little known fact, she used to do the train announcements at Inverness station before it all got automated. Annie's real creative passion started around theatre production and performances. We get into when her transition happened between creating her own work and facilitating that of others. Moving into more events based stuff I ask Annie where she thinks her expertise lies and she gave a brilliantly simple analogy. She drives a crazy bus and has the end destination in sight knowing where she needs to go. Her skill is getting people to jump on her crazy bus and go on a journey with her. I'm pretty sure that applied to both of the Dundee Design Festivals where Annie was a pivotal part of the team making sure everything

Composer and sound designer Rachel Simpson joins me this week to talk about her day job working at games company Outplay Entertainment, some of her amazing musical work and cycling. I think Rachel must be one of the most modest guests I’ve ever had on and she did take a bit of encouragement to get her in front of the mic. It was specified that Fred the dog had to be present for moral support. So I suppose Rachel is also the first guest with a rider! Rachel is responsible for creating all the sounds and music for all of Outplay’s games. Which is a massive task. We get into how that process works and how you go about creating weird and wonderful noises. We then move on to talk about her musical career in collaboration with loads of amazing artists. We also touch on a particularly memorable gig where she ended up improvising with a guy and his rape alarm. Rachel’s Website - http://www.rachelsimpsonsound.com/ Outplay - https://outplay.com/ Zoom h6n - https://www.zoom-na.com/products/field-video-recording/

On this week is Ali McGill an accountant and experience designer. You wouldn’t necessarily put the two together. Ali talks about making a start in his career training as a traditional accountant. Over the years of running businesses and being responsible for profit and loss sheets he started to see the real value of putting yourself in your customers shoes. Using design tools and methodologies to craft memorable experiences for your customers. He talks about how his daughter introduced him to Service Design, with the influence of Mike Press and how Pecha Kucha nights and other events eventually drew him down to Dundee where he became Head of Enterprise and Entrepreneurial strategy at Dundee University. A bit of a long title and one that has certain prerequisites. We talk about the stigmas attached to the word ‘entrepreneur’ and the differences between an ‘entrepreneur’ and ‘designer’. Ali has started his own podcast under Ashton McGill called Never Settle where he speaks to people doing things differently and

This week’s podcast is the announcement that Fleet Collective will be closing its doors. Donna Holford Lovell joins me to chat through starting Fleet with Lyall Bruce. We talk about the journey she’s been on and how the co-working space has grown and developed over time. We then finish up with talking about the reasons behind closing the collective. Afterwards you’ll about what Fleet meant to the people who were part of the collective and what they’re going on to do next. Here’s the official statement on the closure: “After 4 years of procrastination and 6 months of hard graft Fleet Collective opened its doors in Dundee. The idea was to create a co-working space that brought together freelancers, researchers, and businesses. We had affordable and flexible desk space for hire and great ambitions to reform the way freelancers worked with the city. The idea was to foster a collaborative environment where creative folk could work on their own or work with others on larger projects that would not normally be av

Hayley is a Dundee born fashion designer with clients that include Little Mix, The Saturdays and Pixie Lot. We talk about how she got into the industry and established her clothing label H.S. It was clear from chatting to Hayley that style and appearance have been key considerations for her from a really early age. Sitting round the kitchen table with her Gran sewing clothes for her barbies and passing comment over strangers appearances in the street. I don’t think I’ve had someone on the podcast who has been so determined and driven towards a single goal from as early as they can remember. As I’ve found with a lot of the creatives on the podcast, Hayley didn’t particularly get on well with educational institutions. Even at DJCAD she struggled to see how she fitted within the textiles course when all she really wanted to create were clothing lines. Before finishing at art school she found herself out in the Hollywood Hills working for Jeremy Scott and brushing shoulders with a few celebrities. This experie

Shahbaz Majeed is my guest this week and he is an amazing photographer based in Dundee, who brings landscapes to life from the air. If you haven’t heard of him already, chances are you will have seen his work. Shahbaz has had his photos used and featured in a lot of places as well as picking up a few awards along the way. Probably the most fascinating story is how he got his photo on Scotland’s first polymer note. Those blue plastic Clydesdale fivers feature his photograph of the Forth Road Bridge. He told me that there are a lot of established photographers that think he’s a jammy git! It’s clear that Shahbaz just loves harsh mountainous landscapes from his back catalogue and because of his list of places he wants to tick off his list. They’re all brutally cold but I imagine completely spectacular. We spend a bit of time geeking out about his set up and kit but I was a little surprised to hear his take on drones. At the moment he only uses them for fun and doesn’t see them affecting commercial aerial land

Hazel runs service design agency Open Change along with Mike Press and has spent a significant part of her career in education but according to her that might have been a little too long. She started out at Edinburgh University with her first degree but after 5 years working she realised that art school was calling. Hazel found herself in jewellery and metal work apparently attracted by the materials and the naked flames! I find it really strange that the smallest things can highly influence our career paths. Logically we should be looking to gain transferrable skills that will be needed in the future in order to make a living. Maybe high school teachers aren’t best placed to be advising or maybe we should be doing more education around career paths. A real trend of Hazel’s early career is proving people wrong when they say she can’t do something. An amazing attitude to have and there’s a real drive that you can see throughout everything she does. We first met at DJCAD when she began teaching design stud

The chefs from The Newport Restaurant, Jamie Scott and Tasso Neofitos, join me this week to talk about their Masterchef experiences, getting inspired for new menus and their guilty pleasure. Jamie and Tasso came in for a chat about how they got into cooking and when their passion really began. They met at Dundee’s Byzantium restaurant and then went on to work at Rocco in St Andrews together. From there Jamie tells the story of the atmosphere and dynamic of a busy kitchen and how his Masterchef journey began. He also unveils a few behind the scenes mishaps and editing decisions that weren’t exactly ideal on his journey to winning the competition. It’s clear from our chat that the guys had the desire to shape something of their own from pretty early on and that idea was what became the Newport. Before that they created a series of pop ups using the exposure of Jamie’s Masterchef success as a springboard. They were able to test the appetite (sorry, unintentional pun) of people in Dundee and Angus for their

After a few requests and to celebrate the 50th episode of the podcast I’ve done an episode of my very own. I’ve got to thank Lyall Bruce for volunteering to take the role of host for the episode and Sam Gonçalves for the editing. I was also told I would not have editing rights over the episode. As I write this and the file uploads to soundcloud I’ve no idea what made the edit or what I said in the episode. All I can hope is that I don’t repeat all the things I’ve said over the last year. I now know the fear of the unknown you have as a guest on the podcast. After the episode is recorded I instantly felt like I didn’t get to say everything and worried about what I actually said, which I’m assured is how everyone feels. So thank you to all my previous guests for having faith and helping make the podcast what it is today. Hopefully it’ll still be here in 50 episodes time and I’ll be finding something more extravagant to celebrate. Well here goes nothing... hope you enjoy it. Revamp of the Fleet Collective st

After working pretty much all over Scotland with a load of amazing museums Scott is now general manager at Hospitalfield House in Arbroath.  He’s pretty much lived in every city in Scotland making his way around some amazing and prestigious galleries and museums curating their collections. Now at Hospitalfield House Scott is part of a wider team helping make everything up there happen. From tours to events and workshops to artist shows and collaborative working there's loads going on. The house itself is a 13th century hospital that then became the UK's first art school. I'm really not going to do it justice by describing it so go check out their website to see some photos. It has some amazing architectural features, staircases and rooms filled with beautiful and historical objects. Everything seems to have a story and Scott is a fountain of knowledge even though he's only been there a few years. We did the recordings of this episode and last week's with Jamie Simpson, in the library and putting my coffee do

The only coffee roaster in Angus, Jamie is  based in Arbroath and is 1 third of Sacred Grounds coffee company, creating delicious roasts ready to grind up and enjoy. We open up with a really interesting conversation about identity in relation to where you are from. It’s a strange one that I always ponder, am I now from Dundee? Or do I default to where I grew up just outside Edinburgh? It’s always a tricky on but I think it depends on who you’re speaking too and the place that you identify more with. For me that’s Dundee now. There’s 2 real strands in Jamie’s life music and coffee. Although we don’t get much time to chat about the music side of it you can hear some more of the story during Layla Brown’s episode talking about their band Lunan Bay. Jamie talks about how his love affair with coffee began and grew with several home roasters made out of little popcorn machines. We also got onto the concept of the ‘hipster’ and Jamie does confess that he adheres to some of the stereotypes. I think what this time

Artist, printmaker and technician at the DCA print studio, amongst a few other things. He was one of the founders of Dundee Print Collective and has been part of many amazing projects since including print city. Scott chats about his first experience coming to Dundee from Sunderland and applying to art school with his big A1 portfolio in tow. Coming over the Tay on the train is always picturesque and it seems to have had an impact on Scott’s live as Dundee keeps drawing him back. We go on to discuss his time at art school studying illustration and exploring various printing methods. Although screen printing would go on to feature heavily in his career Scott says that he did very little of it at art school. It was more a technique that the graphic design students were using rather than the illustrators. After leaving art school Scott went off travelling but ended up back in Dundee and at the newly opened DCA. In the print studio he started to get to grips with all the kit helped by funding from the Scottish