MAT LLOYD

Not sure what we were doing here, but the blond is Hannah

I recently got to sit down with my friend Hannah Bailey for an upcoming episode of 'The Skateboarder And...' podcast.  If you missed the first episode of series two, I got to hang out in artist Mr. Browns studio and talk skateboarding, hip hop, creativity and his new album of course.  

Since I've been doing the podcast I've met a vast array of talented people, many of whom I'm glad to say are my friends, discuss their passions, choices and how they made time to make things happen.  The people I've met have inspired me, I definitely don't think by latest book would have come about if it hadn't been for sitting down with photographer Ben Gore for the first episode of series one. 

 One of the recurring topics in each episode is 'side hustle'. What I mean by that is, no matter what the persons job, family situation or cash flow, they find time to focus on their main passion/gaol.  And by focusing just a little at a time, day by day, week by week, their main passion in some cases is becoming or has become there full time occupation.  They find time.

When I met Hannah to record for the podcast it was at a House of Vans fund raising event for Skateistan.  Hannah who works for Skateistan as their Communications manager had organised the fundraiser which included an exclusive screening of their new animation "Her Story", a showing of the Highsnobiety documentary about Skateistans Skate School in Johannesburg "The Skateboard and The City" and the UK PREMIERE of all-girl feature length skate film Quit Your Day Job Vid.  It was a really positive night for Skateistan, female skateboarding and just skateboarding in general.

Of course on top of co-ordinating all of this she gave me an hour to chat about skateboarding, her career choices and how she ended up living in Berlin and working for Skateistan.  Another person whose positivity and drive inspires me to keep pushing forward.

Hannah's episode will be out in March however fear not the next episode of 'The Skateboarder And...' podcast will be available on the 1st of January.  Till then you can listen to the teaser below:

The Creativity Series: Mat Lloyd - Skater & Poet from Edd Hawkes on Vimeo.

Today is National Poetry Day here in the UK and usually due to work I miss out on getting involved, not this year!!!  The theme is 'Messages' and I wrote a poem called 'Yesterdays News', a little message for well, you read it and let me know who you'd be aiming this at?  Below you can see the finished piece and even listen to a recording.

Feedback is much appreciated and welcomed with open arms.  Drop me a mail via matlloyd@hotmail.co.uk or reach me via twitter or instagram on @MatLloydpoet thanks for reading/listening:

"Hearing faggot all the time, made me think at a young age, that it was really dangerous to talk about it." - Brian Anderson

Last week VICE Sports released a video titled; 'Brian Anderson on Being a Gay Professional Skateboarder', in the moments and days that followed my Instagram feed was awash of people posting screenshots and praising BA for coming out.  I'll be honest I had mixed feelings; not about Brian Anderson being gay, but more the reaction from the wider community of skateboarding.  

For a start, I thought we (skateboarding) already knew he was gay, if you watched Pretty Sweet from 2012; Mike Carroll's GAY! t-shirt in BA's section was at least a statement of sorts or at least a hint if you didn't already know.  Shit VICE originally wrote about it in 2009!  Whether people did or didn't know, my main issue was the fact that its 2016, is someone sexual preference really an issue?  It's 2016, do we really care?

When you look at statistics like the 5,597 hate crimes against gays and lesbians in 2014-15, a rise of 22 % on the previous year recorded by the police, even I can see my view is naive.  I choose to surround myself with like minded people who aren't prejudice, but cannot be blind to the fact that skateboarding has been full of homophobia:

"There's a lot of homophobia in skateboarding, there's a lot of homophobia in everything.  It's not just skateboarding, you know, it's the world." - Mike Carroll

I hope that Brian Anderson coming out, and the wider skate communities wholly positive reaction goes some way to help others feel confident to 'come out', and show others that the culture as a whole has moved on.  There isn't room for homophobia in skateboarding, as Jake Phelps says in the video it's about skateboarding, "who gives a fuck if you're gay!"

Set aside some time today and enjoy watching a show of unity and support from skateboarding, for the love of Brian Anderson, for change.






Check out more from https://sports.vice.com/

Photo of me looking gormless for the podcast

I was stoked to be interviewed for the latest episode of a great new podcast called, 'The Thinking, The Striving, The Breathing'. Hosted by my old friend Anthony Christofi or Toffy as I know him, it aims to showcase inspirational personalities (his words not mine) and ways that you can make improvements to your life.

We sat down for half an hour and discussed careers, poetry, skateboarding, smoking, inspiration and much more. Listen to me say the word 'like' way too much and Toffy slip in a mum joke! The podcast is positive and just long enough to listen to on your morning commute.

Listen via iTunes or soundclound, and don't forget to subscribe!

iTunes direct link:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/thinking-striving-breathing/id1132990729

Soundcloud direct link:
https://soundcloud.com/achristofi/002-mat-lloyd

Ok, first things first.  I am writing this on my MacBook Pro, and I love my MacBook Pro!  I use my MacBook Pro to edit photos, videos, podcasts and sometimes a little music.  It's awesome and I genuinely believe if my house burnt down, I'd only be gutted about losing my skateboard (of course) and my laptop...everything else can burn.

The only problem I have with my laptop is that I just can't seem to write new poetry on it.  By that I mean, for some reason, typing ideas/lines for a new piece on my laptop, seems to sap the creativity out of me, and I find myself staring at a blank screen.  Seriously I can have a great idea (of course I'd say that) and by the time I've loaded up 'Word', it's just floated out of my head.  It's like staring at my laptop screen automatically gives me 'writers block', well 'poetry block' to be exact.
Like many writers I tend to opt for a pad & pen, I'm rarely without one close at hand, but I do see more and more poets writing into their phones.  I've done quite a few gigs recently where poets will stand up and read directly from their phones (it infuriates me when they pause to scroll down).  I use my phone as an absolute last resort when it comes to writing on the go as it seems to have the same effect as my laptop.

To make me sound even more kooky (read eccentric), and I'm not try to be 'that guy', about a year ago I bought a typewriter.  Yep an old skool Seiko Silver Reed SR180 Deluxe, it's older than me and I love it!  Maybe even more than my MacBook.  It doesn't seem to have the same effect that writing on my laptop has and whilst it can be frustrating to have to type something out repeatedly due to the lack of a delete button and my sausage fingers, this repetition is helping me learn the piece!  It also looks pretty great on my Instagram too!  Obviously it hasn't replaced the need for my note pad and certainly isn't as portable as my laptop but there is something pleasing about banging away on those keys.  And if like me, your handwriting fluctuates from readable to what the fuck is that mess - a typewriter makes a lot of sense.

Maybe I'm just a paper and ink type of writer?  What's your choice? Are you a pen and paper writer or are you all about the digital?

PS. a lot of people ask me about the note book in the picture, it's from Explorer Press.

Thom Gunn's 'Jack Straw's Castle' is one of my favourite books.  I feel like I need to include a 'caveat' with that statement and tell you that Thom Gunn is not one of my favourite poets.

When I first started performing in London a poet I respected greatly read a poem from the book called 'Courage, a Tale'.  It's about a boy who is told if he masturbates 100 times he will die.  Yes you read that right...if he masturbates 100 times he will die.  I loved the poem and when I discovered it was published in 1976 (before I was born) that seemed to make me love it more.  I sought out a copy of the book which I discovered was out of print, and found a copy at a second hand book store in St. Albans.

The collection is full of beautiful work by Thom Gunn but 'Courage, a Tale' will always be a favourite, and 'Jack Straw's Castle' will always be one of my favourite books.  If you're lucky enough to stumble across a copy, don't hesitate to grab it.  Hell, theres not many poems by well respected and established poets about masturbating.

Thom Gunn died in April 2004.