In a significant year for UK sport, 2012 has already seen Non Stanford win 11th place at the ITU World Triathlon Series in Sydney, and 21st last weekend in San Diego. Fresh from her great performance in San Diego, she says: “Overall I was pleased, if you’d said to me last year that I’d finish 21st in a World Series event I’d have been delighted.”

Her women’s World Series Ranking has since leapt to 18th position, impressive when you consider that in 2010 she ranked 118th, and at 79th in 2011. Did she expect this? “Not at all!”

Currently based in Leeds but originally from Swansea, Stanford describes herself as a “loyal South Walian, temporary Yorkshire dweller”. She graduated in 2010 with a degree in Sport and Exercise Science from the University of Birmingham, which is where she unexpectedly began her triathlon training.

From her early teens, Stanford trained as a cross-country runner, but in 2008 after a series of injuries kept her from running, she began swimming with the university triathlon squad:

“I was picking up injuries all the time and struggling to keep running, which was really demoralising, so in the end I decided to do some swimming to keep fit.”

Everything changed when the university’s triathlon coach persuaded her to train with the team: “I loved the variety of the triathlon training and had a really positive experience with it. From there I didn’t look back. It’s an interesting sport, it’s different, and it’s really challenging, and people really appreciate that.”

After winning 2nd place in the 2009 British Triathlon Super Series, she received the Paul Weston Triathlon Scholarship, allowing her to concentrate on competing professionally as a triathlete. The following year, while also completing her degree, she won bronze at the Premium European Cup in Brasschaat, 10th place in the prestigious French Club Championship, and 5th at the Triathlon de Paris. Since 2011, she has taken top-ten positions at the ITU Triathlon World Cups in both Ishigati and Antalya.

Basking in the current success of the British Triathlon Squad, which also includes brothers Jonathan and Alistair Brownlee, Stanford describes how triathlon is definitely a sport which is gaining momentum in the UK: “Up until four or five years ago I didn’t know what a triathlon was either, and with so many British athletes doing so well it’s definitely raised the profile. It’s a challenge for the masses too, as so many people are now running a 10k and marathons, triathlon is something new and it’s a shinier model.”

Stanford now forms part of the British Triathlon Federation’s World Class Development Squad. As well as 18th in the world, she is also the third highest ranked British female triathete, after World Champion Helen Jenkins and Vicky Holland. Sport can often be fiercely competitive, but Stanford describes how the British squad support each other: “You’re not fighting each other, we’re there to help each other and everyone gets on really well. I think that’s key for Helen [Jenkins] going into the Olympics knowing that she has the backup and the support of the whole team.”

As two high profile Welsh athletes, Stanford and Jenkins have helped to boost Wales’ sporting accomplishments. President of Welsh Triathlon, Dr Dean Hardie, told The Fresh Outlook: “It has been a tremendous start in the Olympic year for Welsh Triathlon, with stunning performances from Non Stanford and Helen Jenkins in the ITU World Triathlon Series. [In San Diego] Non had a solid race finishing 21st in a very strong field, while Helen took 1st place. Helen has already been selected for the Olympic team but there are still two places up for grabs. The final Olympic selection race for Team GB is in Madrid on 26th May where another good performance from Non could see her dreams come true.”

In the run-up to London 2012, Britain’s triathlon chances are looking spectacularly good, and Stanford sees this as a way for the sport to grab more public interest: “With people like Helen [Jenkins] doing so well, [Britain] has three very realistic gold medal chances, not just medal chances, so I think public interest will just keep growing over the next few years. It would be great to get triathlon on the main TV channels!”

What do the next few years hold for Non Stanford? “My main aim is the World Series now, to keep putting in good performances there, as well as the Under 23s World Triathlon in Auckland in October. It’s every athletes dream to go to the Olympics to represent their country. The Olympic Games is very special and to go [there] would be like a dream come true for me. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, so I’ll definitely keep training towards that in the next few years.”

Within four years, Stanford’s progress has taken her to the elite races amongst the best in the world, so what advice would she give to budding young sportspeople who hope to follow her example and become professional?

“Patience, perseverance and enjoyment! Find a sport that you really enjoy; it’s your job and you do it full-time, training 30 hours a week, so you really have to enjoy it.

“Also, don’t worry about being number one when you’re younger, it doesn’t matter, just train and learn and enjoy it. As long as you stick at it and have patience and persevere, especially through the hard times, it’ll all be worth it in the end.”

By Jo Powell

[Image courtesy of Dr Dean Hardie, Welsh Triathlon]

A model and makeup artist, Ryo has been involved in shoots all over the world, and her career seems set to reach new heights.

Ryo’s start in modelling came because of what she calls simple “coincidence”. Six years ago one of her old friends – also a model – told her that she should consider getting into the field. She looked into it and things progressed from there.

“I chose to make an account with a modelling network with photographers. I made an account with nothing but some old Myspace pictures that I did with some makeup on. This model saw the pictures and I got asked to do some shoots and I’ve been doing it since.”

After a two-year hiatus from modelling between the ages of 17 and 19, Ryo has “been modelling nonstop since,” in a career that has taken her as far afield as London and Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong shoot conjured some fond memories. “It was amazing,” she says.

“I did this amazing shoot with a girl called Cake Injection. It was 12 o’ clock at night, and we had wine glasses with goldfish in them. It was by far the most random and crazy photoshoot I’ve done, and the photos are incredible.”

Ryo is a naturally creative, imaginative person, and this has led into her profession. Through her career she has developed a clear preference for “creative modelling”, driven by her education. “I did three years of fine art at college, and I’m an artist at heart. Anything that’s funky, unusual or creative, that’s what I love to do.”

The study of fine art is perhaps what drives Ryo to be the unique model that we see today. Her move into both modelling and being a make-up artist, she says, was a natural one. “It was kind of an easy thing to fall into from painting in my degree to painting my face with makeup for shoots.”

Her style is striking and unique, something she says she developed during university, during which time she decided to enter the world of makeup artistry as well as modelling.

“It’s a weird one because as you can see I don’t have eyebrows – I draw them on,” she says. “I never wore make-up [before], ever. High school, college, I had strawberry blonde hair and eyebrows, nothing too quirky.

I was quite gothy in a way. It wasn’t until maybe the end of the first year of university that I just shaved my eyebrows off and started to draw them on.”

The lack of eyebrows is a stark, interesting quirk. During our interview they were a bright orange, adding to the vibrancy of her outfit.

That same sense of originality runs throughout her work. She loves and enjoys the work of fellow models, but when it comes to inspiration? “I’m sort of inside my head.”

“I had the same kind of questions when I was doing fine art – stuff like ‘who inspires you?’ There are models that I like, but I don’t think I see their stuff and think,’oh wow, I want to do that too.’ But I love all their styles individually.”

Ryo’s ideas often come from a more unique place than her colleagues. “I get ideas from dreams, I sketch them, I contact photographers with them. That’s often my personal stuff; … though I can’t do that all the time.”

She strives to be innovative, wanting to do things “in a way it hasn’t been done before.

“People say you can’t do that, it’s been done before, and I say, ‘they haven’t done it like I’ve done it.’

“It’s hard to be truly unique. Everything’s been done before. You can’t choose a specific shoot and say, ‘this is mine.’ It’s about getting your ideas, adapting things for yourself. I get an idea and I go for it, adding my own twist.”

Simply being creative is not enough to make a living, however, something Ryo learned a couple of years ago. “I used to just charge £50 for a day, but people told me that if you don’t charge enough people aren’t going to respect you. Nowadays I charge properly.”

The financial side of modelling has some pitfalls. Ryo claims some of her pictures have been used without her permission. After a shoot in London – involving ballet shoes that left her feet “in agony” – photos from the session appeared, having allegedly been sold all over the world and used in various salons. “I found them online and asked them: ‘Why are you using my image?’

They said they bought it from some website – and they had no idea that it had been stolen. It happens quite a lot. I have a friend in Poland who saw a poster of me outside a nightclub once,” she claims.

Despite this, Ryo sees the positive side: “I just take it as a kind of flattery.”

By Matthew Cox

[Image courtesy of Ryo Love Official Facebook Page]

Mab Jones is a performance poet based in Cardiff, who recently travelled to Japan to perform at the annual Kansai St David’s Day Society, a festival established to celebrate all things Welsh. She explains her profession to The Fresh Outlook, and recounts tales from her travels to the east…

What I do mostly is perform.

That’s my main focus rather than writing itself, though I enjoy both. But it’s performing, engaging with an audience, making them laugh, making them think, making them feel.

I work on the burlesque circuit, comedy circuit, spoken word circuit, poetry circuit, cabaret circuit. Sometimes I have to be quite tame – maybe it’s a gig for kids or something. But sometimes I don’t have to be and I carry a whip.

In my role as the poet-in-residence at the National Botanic Garden of Wales I plan to be more of a Wordsworth-type poet – wandering and meandering and musing and write about daffodils, probably as I’m crushing them with my boot heels!

I write about things that have happened to me or people that I know. Usually it’s what you could call social commentary with a comic edge. I like to make people laugh but I also like to talk about things that might seem harsh. I’ve written a poem about a girl who becomes a prostitute. It’s a true story. And I’ve had people die in some of my poems because it’s true; people do die. But I try to make things tragicomic.

There’s quite a bit of friction between what I call page poets and stage poets. Page poets quite often are academic poets as well, perhaps working at a university. I like a lot of page poets – I just wish they could appreciate stage poets back for what we do. Page poets shouldn’t think they’re the be all and end all; after all, the printing press has only been in existence for a few hundred years. Performance poetry is in the spirit of the troubadour or the minstrel, and that is actually a much older tradition. And it’s getting people interested in poetry again.

So we should embrace all poetry. Nothing should be excluded. We should enjoy everything!

The Kansai St. David’s Day Society, based in Osaka, sprung up as a result of the Panasonic factory that was recently based in Cardiff. It’s a Japanese company and a lot of people came over from Japan to work there. Many of them came to Cardiff and they have got very fond memories of their time in Wales. Embarrassingly, some of them spoke much better Welsh than me.

The Japanese workers had a strange kind of friendship with Wales, one that the festival hopes to retain. There was Welsh cake tasting, an exhibition of pictures, videos and poems, and a male voice choir of 30 Japanese men singing Calon Lân and Sospan Fach and the national anthem in perfect Welsh. It’s strange to see, but really lovely.

These people have a fascination with Wales and Cardiff. Many are interested in the traditional aspects like love spoons, and harps. Even Tom Jones is too modern for what they’re interested in.

I didn’t do my usual comic verse at the festival. I wrote some poetry versions of the Mabinogion and I had six artists do illustrations for them. It was more traditional than what I usually do but it was fun. And I couldn’t help putting a bit of humour in there. The Mabinogion tales themselves are so surreal. I chose the ones that had some linear narrative, because it is just a whole other world to them. It’s not just the Celtic world, but it’s also the past where there are rules that even I don’t understand, so to a Japanese audience it would just seem like gobbledegook.

I haven’t always been this confident in my vocal abilities. I used to suffer from selective mutism.

I remember when I went to high school, I would talk in school but not at home, and then vice versa for a bit, and then I just stopped speaking altogether. I didn’t really start speaking again until I went to Japan for the first time ten years ago, so at university I had no friends.

It’s an anxiety related disorder. There are no rules for it and it’s quite complex. It all revolved around speech and being able to express myself and when it happens you can’t get your words out. You want to. You’d love to. But they’re stuck. And there’s a big knot of tension in your stomach. It’s a physical pain.

I remember reading about this thing where Japanese children suddenly went silent in their teens, but I didn’t associate it with myself because I believed what others had said – that I was just weird and odd and strange. I’d already internalised that. It has only recently become labelled as selective mutism and it’s too late for me.

But it’s not too late for others.

Read about Mab’s Japanese adventures at www.mabjones.blogspot.com. Or visit her website, www.mabjones.com

By Sophie Yeo

[Image courtesy of Mab Jones]

Originally from Denmark, Tanya told The Fresh Outlook that her greatest achievement so far is a 15-minute film about children that she directed herself. It was showcased in a local film festival near her home city last autumn.

Her main inspiration in film is Peter Jackson who tackled the task of turning The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings novels into films. It was his work that first got her interested in film and she hopes one day to follow in his footsteps: “If I could do anything?” she says, “I’d make something great, like a grand Hollywood blockbuster.”

Another of Tanya’s inspirations is Quentin Tarrantino and she rates Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill as two of her favourite films. “They’re doing something different and pushing boundaries and breaking conventions,” she tells The Fresh Outlook.

Although Tanya originally only had a passion for directing, since coming to university she has found strengths in camerawork, cinematography and other production roles: “I just can’t decide, they’re all interesting!”

With two more years left at university she hopes to gain a network of contacts and expand her knowledge of film which will enable her to narrow down the path she hopes to take with her career.

As well as grand Hollywood blockbusters, Tanya would also like to work on “long running TV shows like Friends or How I Met Your Mother. I love those shows. They have really great, developed characters and plot”.

In the nearer future, however, she hopes to start work on filming a TV series in Bridgend. With successful shows such as Stella, Upstairs Downstairs and Doctor Who being filmed locally, Cardiff holds many opportunities for budding artists hoping for a creative career in the TV and film industry.

Tanya’s portfolio can soon be found online at oestergaardproductions.net and her professional YouTube and Twitter accounts will be available at Oestergaard Pro.

By Susie Thorne

[Image courtesy of Tanya Oestergaard]

Erica, who studies at Glyndwr University in her hometown of Wrexham North Wales, already has a huge portfolio of impressive work and commissions before she’s even graduated. The Fresh Talent went to find out more about her talent, passion and portraits.

At 28, Erica’s body of work is reaching staggering levels, but where did her love of art start?

“I think it’s the one thing that I never got bored of doing; if I didn’t draw or paint for a while I’d get agitated so I think it’s my kind of meditation.”

The young artist told The Fresh Outlook: “My style varies, if it’s portrait work then my style is quite traditional, I work big and I like incorporating lots of colour. My illustration work is much more simplistic and silly. I’m still trying to develop my style.” Erica’s work varies a lot, from very detailed, large scale portraits to photographs and simple, minimalistic sketches, but each piece, although very different from the previous, is of a great quality.

“I adore the work of Chuck Close and I am perpetually inspired by artists like Jim Henson and Brian Froud.” Close’s influence can be seen heavily in her portraiture work with Henson’s doodle style and Froud’s colour work influencing her own style. “Lately I can spend hours and hours sifting inspiration from websites like StumbleUpon, Tumblr and GrainEdit – there are so many amazing artists out there.”

Thanks to sites such as Tumblr, Flikr and Blogspot, Erica’s work is gaining attention and she has held exhibitions in London, Cardiff and Liverpool – an impressive achievement for someone only just on the brink of their career. “I’m still in university but my prospects are looking good as I am receiving loads of positive feedback and the commissions are steady.

“My biggest achievement was being asked to paint Phil Collins for Action for Brazil’s Children a few years ago. That was a massive honour.”

With a steady flow of commissions, Erica hopes to be able to make a living from her work and her passion but she doesn’t do it for the money: “I just want to be able to earn enough to eat and be warm doing something I love.”

Erica’s outlook is refreshing considering the very competitive nature of the art and media industries. Her aspirations for the next few years are equally as modest: “Hopefully I’ll still be painting and doodling and surrounded by my lovely family and friends.”

Examples of Erica’s work can be found at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pretty-flamingo/
http://www.facebook.com/Paintpotface

By Susie Thorne

[Image courtesy of Erica Taylor]

The exciting sound of Hullabaloo cannot be tied down to one genre as it draws on different types of music to create something fresh. The six-piece band manages to create the perfect dance tunes by fusing sounds from indie, soul and rock ‘n’ roll.

“I have always been fascinated by rhythm and melody, how it affects people and how it makes people react,” lead singer, Benji Lamb, tells The Fresh Outlook. “We try to put our own twist on our music and adapt our sound so that it is something a little different to a lot of modern music.”

Hullabaloo, who are all Cardiff University students, have already been gigging all over their city for almost two years. And now they are beginning to branch out and share their electrifying music with the rest of the UK. They played the Green Man Festival last year and are currently taking part in the famous ‘Live and Unsigned’ competition which could see them showing off their talent at O2 arena in London.

“We are currently one show away from playing at the O2 in London,” says Benji, “playing to a crowd of 3000 and would be an incredible experience for us.”

With a new EP released last week and their first music for single ‘Landslide’ being launched on YouTube, Hullabaloo are beginning to think about how their new audience will take to their unusual image.

“Our style is largely based on this idea of paint,” explains Benji. “The splashes of colour on white I always thought looked really striking. We were covered in paint for the video of Landslide … we liked the image and are sticking to it! Or the paint is sticking to us!”

With a promising future ahead for this beautifully mixed-up band, Benji dreams about what is in store for Hullabaloo.

“In three years time I would love for us to be on the brink of putting out an album and for us to be ready to tour that album. I would like for us to be supporting some more established bigger names and creating a buzz on the scene.

“I hope that we can release another EP, go onto produce a successful album and embark upon our own tour in the immediate future, long term who knows? Wembley Stadium!?”

If you want to check out Hullabaloo’s debut single, ‘Landslides’, you can watch the music video on Youtube. Or you can hear more of Hullabaloo’s music at www.soundcloud.com/hullabalooband. To find out about their gigs and events have a look at their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/HullabalooBand.

By Heather Arnold

[Image courtesy of Hullabaloo]

Rachael Anne Roberts is a bright and bubbly student from Llandudno in North Wales. She is currently in the first year of her Performance and Media degree at the University of Glamorgan and dreaming about her future career in TV presenting.

“I’d like to present just on one channel but I wouldn’t want to be stuck just doing just one show every day. I want to do something versatile where I could work with different people on different projects, like Fearne Cotton and Holly Willoughby tend to do,” says Rachael.

Rachael realised her passion for presenting after she was invited to come in for an interview on her local radio station, Tudno FM, aged 15. “I knew I wanted to do something in the media in general, I wanted to perform,” Rachael tells The Fresh Outlook. “But when I was 15 my town started a local radio station and I got asked to be interviewed because I did one of my GCSEs early. During the show I rambled on and on they said ‘you’re really good’. They were just starting up and looking for new presenters anyway so they asked my ‘do you want to do a show yourself?’ and I went ‘Yeah, all right then’. I thought ‘this’ll be a laugh, it will be fun’ and I loved it – it’s what I want to do.”

Since then Rachael has been working hard to get her talent out there and currently hosts her own show on ‘Tequila Radio’ the University of Glamorgan’s very own radio station. She has also recently got a new job as the hostess of internet game show Pixel Picnics. “It just started a couple of months ago,” Rachael explains, “and the presenter has gone on to work for Channel Four… I heard about it and went for the interview and just got the job!”

Rachael’s ambition to be a TV personality is not just about seeking fame and fortune; she also wants to raise awareness of important issues. Over the past few years Rachael has been involved in fundraising for and supporting a whole list of charities from Cancer Research to donkey sanctuaries and she hopes to use her foreseeable success to make a difference.

“I just want to be big enough and known enough so that people will actually listen to me. I do charity work and people obviously listen to somebody like Angelina Jolie more than they’d listen to a random person on the street … I want to get successful so when I do something people take notice a bit more and they’ll actually think ‘that’s a charity, I didn’t know that’”.

Rachael is excited and hopeful about the future, and is determined not to let anything stop her achieving her dream. Her ideal job was working on the BBC’s Blue Peter programme: “I could have cried when it stopped,” she says, but this hasn’t deterred her: “I’ll just have to make my own programme!”

If you want to see Rachael in action you can watch Pixel Picnics or catch her radio show online every Tuesday between 2-3pm at www.tequilaradio.co.uk

By Heather Arnold

[Image courtesy of Rachel Anne Roberts]

In 2010 Kush ‘Mastakush’ Limbu and Mamita Setling, or Mamii as she’s known, decided that they wanted to give something back to their community. With a passion for hip hop and a dream of inspiring and empowering young people, FunkyFresh began.

The pair had originally met when Mamita made a short film about Kush for a university project. The 12 minute documentary called Manifesting a Dream, featured Kush showcasing underground hip hop.

Mamita was inspired by what she saw. FunkyFresh embodies three elements which Kush and Mamita say are innate to hip hop – “creativity, community and respect”. According to Kush, even people who don’t enjoy hip hop can appreciate the lessons being taught alongside the free-style and slam-poetry classes.

According to the scheme’s website, participant will be exposed to: “creative activities that will mentally and physically challenge the students …  strategies to boost confidence and stage persona” and, “preparation, practice and persistence”.

One project called ELEMENTS is a week long intensive programme which teaches teenagers and young adults about hip hop and its roots. “The programme will inspire and shape the mindsets of students into harnessing the power of creative expression that can be a powerful tool for change in society,” said Mamita.

Although FunkyFresh began in Britain and Belgium, Kush and Mamita decided to take it to their homeland of Nepal, reaching an even wider community. “At a time when urban and artistic culture is rising in Nepal,” Mamita said, “the programme can help boost the initiation of creating a positive hip hop community where everybody is inspired to inspire.”

FunkyFresh’s team of five people raised funds for their travel to and from Nepal and for the final showcase which was held at Sattya at the Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory. Most of the funding came from events help in Belgium and London where all of the profits made are pumped back into the project.

The company have a full schedule with an array of upcoming events to look forward to, including a performance in Verse Vis where they are competing for a chance to play in the Leffinge Leuren festival. They are also holding their third Funky Beatz competition, which invites artists of any experience to submit their work for collaboration and promotion in the underground hip hop scene.

FunkyFresh prides itself on being open to everyone. They have no rules, limits or barriers, and only ask for a desire for passion and creativity. They want participants to “evolve on their own as conscious artists who can fully understand and value the power and responsibility that comes with the freedom and creativity of expression through words, visuals, sounds and movements”.

The company are currently planning more trips to Nepal. Hopefully the success of their last ELEMENTS programme will encourage schools and youth groups across the country’s capital of Kathmandu, and possibly beyond, to take advantage of everything that FunkyFresh can offer.

The FunkyFresh community continues to grow because, as Kush and Mamita say, “hip hop is all about Peace, Love and Unity!”

To learn more about the project, visit funkyfreshmovement.com or to see Mamita’s documentary, visit youtube.com.

By Susie Thorne

[Image courtesy of FunkyFresh]

Mohamed Nabil’s work forms part of the Egyptian National Art Collection. He currently lives and works in Cardiff as a full time artist, but previously worked as an accountant. Abandoning the profession to focus on his artistic talent, his story is an inspirational testament to the strength of self-belief and determination. With his first photographic exhibition currently on display at the Butetown History & Arts Centre, Cardiff, The Fresh Outlook wanted to hear more about his story.

Working successfully in Egypt as an assistant financial manager, Mohamed Nabil found himself changing his ambition in life almost overnight. “One day I was sitting at a street café with friends, and I closed my eyes for a second, and saw two images. I saw an old man, in a basement with light coming through a small window, and he was drawing. The second flash was everyday life, the florescent lights, the files behind me, the computers. From that moment, I changed. I chose the old man and his ideas, and I started doing everything I felt.

“People around me told me that I was crazy, but I didn’t want to do that anymore. I wanted to focus on something I liked. I wanted to be myself, not an accountant. I believe that God gave me something, and I wanted to do something with the talent he gave me. Everyone has something special they can do. Everyone in the world has a talent, you have to search inside yourself, open your mind and search what’s inside.”

He describes the time after that as his “study”, using pastels and charcoal to draw, making sculpture from limestone, and using a mobile phone to take photographs. Attending a workshop, Mohamed remembers clearly showing his photographs to the artistic director, who told the group: “This man is an artist”.

Encouraged to share his photographs, Mohamed started walking the streets, taking photographs of what he saw around him in nature. He says: “That’s why I love photographs; I can catch any moment of my life.” Capturing the interplay of colours, light and motion, Mohamed’s portfolio covers both abstract and natural themes, and alongside photographs of nature and light, there are portraits of everyday life and people. A lover of nature, he says: “Everything in art is already created, but we discover it through feelings and sensations. Art looks into the details of the world

“They are not just portraits – they give a sense of the people”

His new exhibition, ‘Chance Encounters’, is a collection of photographic portraits taken in Cairo, inspired by the lifestyle of the Egyptian people. Talking about the exhibition, Mohamed says: “I wanted to show my portraits, as well as my style of painting light. They are not just portraits – they give a sense of the people, the feelings of the people. I wanted to show how the people there are all living in their frames. Everyone has their own frame; the children live in a frame that the government and their education are built around them. They all have a talent inside them. A girl could be a famous artist or singer if she had the chance and education, or if they were in another country.”

Unlike other photographers, Mohamed portrays his subjects in a positive and realistic light. It would be possible to take distressing, dramatic photographs of those living in poverty in the city, but, as Mohamed highlights: “It is reality, not an abstract. It’s not poor people in dramatic black and white, I took photographs of people smiling and enjoying their lives.”

The exhibition displays Mohamed’s talent as an artist, but he explains that he really hopes for his collection to send a message: “There is an election for the new president, and I want not to just vote by putting a name in a box, but to send a message for the president, whoever he will be – Islamic brotherhood or Liberal, it doesn’t matter to me. He is for the Egyptian people. He must be thinking about Egypt and the people, the detail in the streets. Give the people a chance of a better life.”

Cardiff and Cairo are miles apart; however, Mohamed’s philosophy resonates in any society. He says: “We have the same feelings. We don’t have the same language, but we have the same feelings”.

Ever thankful to the people who have encouraged him throughout his artistic career, in particular Dr Glenn Jordan, director of the Butetown History & Arts Centre (BHAC), as well as his mother who encouraged him from an early age, Mohamed believes in giving others an opportunity to find their own talents: “Don’t have limits in your life. Open the door and change what is around you. Don’t let things around you affect you. You can change them. Trust that you can do it.”

‘Chance Encounters’ is on display at the Butetown History & Arts Centre from April 22 to May 20.

By Jo Powell

[Image courtesy of Jo Powell]

On Tissue Culture’s Facebook page, the Newcastle based indie band describe themselves as ‘shoegazingmathpop’ but their strangely chosen genre is no where near as unique and exciting as the six-piece band itself.

Although the average age of the band is only 17, their music has maturity beyond their years and last year their talent won them the O2 Academy’s talent competition ‘NExposure’.

Tissue Culture are experts at combing touching lyrics and melodical vocals with beautifully brash guitars and tinny drums to make a sound like no other. One of their most popular songs is one that epitomises this balance: ‘Anna’, which tells a tale of love gone wrong, is a brilliantly written song that draws you in so well that you can’t help singing along to the words ‘ohhh Anna, how could you stoop so low?’ in the chorus. This quality is not restricted to just one song but to most of the music Tissue Culture create. However, the defining characteristic of the band is not their ability to make catchy songs but there ability to make such a variety of catchy songs. Each piece the band creates is unlike the last and it is this variety and freshness that makes Tissue Culture so addictive.

When asked about their music style, each band member offered a different description of what Tissue Culture does. Bass player Kurtis Jones describes it as “80’s shoegaze with a twist of dance”, with Synth player Andrew Potter adding: “Technical fuzz is how I’d probably describe it.” Drummer Duncan Arnold, though, simply calls it “a mix of old and new”.

This mixture is an important one as the boys all agree their passion for music comes from their parents. “I think my dad has to be where my passion stems from,” says Andrew. “He started playing me the likes of The Smiths and Elvis Costello from a very early age and I just think it all developed from him – cheers Dad!”

“I would have to agree with Potter,” says Duncan, “most of what I enjoy listening to derives from the old man’s record collection”.

The only exception to this paradigm is lead guitarist Josh Bell whose love for music comes from somewhere else entirely:

“I first wanted to play guitar after seeing Back To The Future,” he tells The Fresh Outlook. “The scene with Marty playing Johnny B Goode had a little nine-year-old me playing air guitar in front of my TV with that scene on repeat, but that feeling you get when you sit and listen to an incredible, thought provoking album is what truly made me want to make music.”

Although the band appreciates all types of music from past to present, their strongest influences are bands such as The Maccabees and The Horrors. But even with such influences, Tissue Culture manage to achieve a sound that is exciting and unique. As each of the band members list the artists they personally admire, Josh tells us: “Music doesn’t have to be complicated to be good. Music isn’t about the individual. It’s about the textures you all, as a band, create.”

The band are proud of their achievements so far, with Kurtis stating that things have “gone well”. After winning NExposure the band were singed up to Tiny Lights, a small independent record company based in Gateshead, and since then have moved from strength to strength. “I believe we’ve done well just to survive and constantly gig in a city without a huge scene in our genre,” Duncan explains. “Newcastle is a big scene for heavy/scream music”.

The band don’t yet have plans for the future, instead they are just enjoying where they are. “Personally I just want to carry on as we are, just having a laugh, because that’s what music is all about when it all comes down to it,” says Andrew, and the others nod in agreement. Josh adds that all he wants from Tissue Culture is “just to gather a loyal fan base, and get ourselves out there. I’m not bothered about the money, that’s secondary. If one kid came up to us and told us we were an influence on the music he was making, that would make our collective life”.

The band dream of being on the road and taking their music around festivals so they can share it with more people, although drummer Duncan has a more specific aim – “to write a symphony!”

Tissue Culture are a distinctive and electrifying band who represent the best of the north east’s indie scene. What the future holds for them, whether its a symphony or a single, only time will tell.

If you want to find out more, visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/tissueculture, or listen to some of their music on their YouTube channel www.youtube.com/user/TishCult.

By Heather Arnold

[Image courtesy of Tissue Culture]