One of our favourite publications we chanced upon in 2009 was the rather brilliant fusion of poetry and illustration that is Popshot Magazine, run by the learned Jacob Denno, a man as accomplished at unearthing the latest and greatest poets, spoken word artists and illustrators as he is at compiling said talent in his charming and stylish bi-annual mag…. It was with great pleasure then, that Jacob wanted to offer us his insight on rising stars for the coming 12 months as we continue our 2010 previews…..
If poetry was your dad then spoken word would be his slightly cooler younger brother who listens to dubstep on the weekends. For that reason and a whole host of more logical reasons, I’ve been finding spoken word artists to write for the upcoming issue of Popshot. One such soul is Hollie McNish who last year won both the Glastonbury and Cheltenham Literary Festival slams. She wrote us an amazing piece on the bizarre culture of nights out and in particular the dolled up, teetering high heeled girls that fill them. Look out for her.
In a completely platonic sense, I might love Joe Wilson. For the ‘Us & Them’ issue he got his illustration done and dusted way before the deadline and is an absolute joy to work with. As a result he’s now foolishly taken on the responsibility of doing the cover for the next issue. His illustrations are beautifully surreal, painfully detailed and regularly feature some form of ‘animal mixed with gun’ trickery. He only graduated a couple of years ago but has already done work for GQ, Mojo, Big Chill Festival and The Guardian. His website hasn’t been updated for a while but you can keep up with him on his blog.
This poet has had his wit compared to that of Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys fame although in my opinion that would be more complementary to Alex Turner than Alex Gwyther. I instead prefer his more articulate personal synopsis – “A 21st Century Jack the Lad baby faced bohemian with brittle hands from hard graft for a minimum wage packet. Residing South of the River in a small allotment sewing seeds and growing plants of the metaphorical kind. In his spare time, he can be found in his shed dancing with the alphabet on the blank paper stage, enjoying the company of fellow gardeners and freestyling spoken word under flickering streetlamps.” Listen hard to his ‘Saturday Night Fever’ poem for some of the finest wordsmithery around.
I came across Daniel Almeroth after getting an email from a chap at an illustration collective called Crabwolf who Daniel is a part of. An Essex boy born and raised, he recently graduated from the Arts Institute in Bournemouth and has since been making doodle pictures for magazines such as Cent, Digital Arts and us. His illustration for the poem ‘Inside the Machine’ in our last issue was an epic interpretation and actually served to add another dimension to the poem that wouldn’t of otherwise been there. I quote from an interview he had with Amelias Magazine “Today Bournemouth, tomorrow? …The world.” I ruddy hope so.
I’m ashamed to say this is a completely pilfered choice. I had heard Jack Stannard’s name banded around but it wasn’t until Vogue included him in their ‘Class of 2010′ article – which featured a selection of bright young things that they deemed to be the future and then got David Bailey to photograph – that I actually took notice. Sad but true.
He names his influences as toast, nostalgia, regrets, public transport and claims to “fuck around with words in an attempt to look cool.” Not only that but he also writes some rather splendid poetry and managed to knock out a nearly 4 minute long poem that revolves around a Chinese takeaway from Camden Town. If he manages to sift through the thousands of girls knickers that are falling through his letterbox everyday, you might find one of his poems in our next issue.
I’m a massive fan of illustrators having a distinct recognisable style. Although variety is the paprika of this world, it’s a fine quality to be able to recognise an illustrators work from a mile off. Pete Locke is one of these souls. He created an illustration for the poem ‘Dreaming of Tin’ in Issue 2, a poem that rather eloquently tells the story of ignoring a mothers advice and falling in love with a gypsy. He also sports a rather impressive beard that I can only aspire to one day having. Check out his blog which does a fine job of showing his working processes, something I am also eternally fascinated by.
Finally, I wanted to draw your attention to a poetry and arts platform called Clinic. They have a very similar ethos to what we’re trying to do at Popshot and combine poetry, illustration and music into the events that they hold. Run by a collection of fresh faced graduates, it started off as poetry workshop with Faber poet, Jack Underwood, then escalated into a zine and soon after they started doing nights. I went along to one of their nights in Camden (second Camden mention) which had this wonderful handmade, lo-fi energy to it with poets standing on a sofa for a stage as illustrators doodled all around them. I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with in 2010.
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