{"id":312110,"date":"2020-12-29T09:05:49","date_gmt":"2020-12-29T09:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nocomplynetwork.com\/?page_id=312110"},"modified":"2023-06-28T09:58:49","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T09:58:49","slug":"ed-syder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nocomplynetwork.com\/ed-syder\/","title":{"rendered":"Ed Syder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ed Syder\u2019s illustrations are drawn from a love for skateboarding and his vested interests in the pop culture, music and film that captured him as a kid. So it makes sense that a film that featured skating first inspired him to get a board.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Originally from Truro in Cornwall, England he now lives in Sheffield where he creates his work and produces his skate zine called Secret Curb Club. He\u2019s got a well-illustrated history working within the skate industry and beyond, with both British and US brands and has a clear admiration for the creative legends in both worlds that have inspired him to keep pushing his art.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So after we saw his work we had to make him a No Comply Network member.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Read our chat on what\u2019s on Ed\u2019s mind when he puts his pencil to paper, skating as a kid in Cornwall, the story behind his nickname Superdead and his logo for the brand of the same name, his thoughts on Ray Barbee\u2019s skating and music, inspirations from Natas and The Gonz, his spell bounding skate alphabet, sketching standout designs for Corey Duffel, the lowdown on why he likes skating curbs, Secret Curb Club, his upcoming project with Jim Thiebaud, and his favourite skate videos, spots, photos, artists and much more<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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@edsyder<\/a> at Clissold Skatepark<\/div>\n

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What\u2019s your full name?<\/h1>\n

Edward Andrew\u00a0Syder<\/span><\/p>\n

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Where did you grow up and where do you live now?<\/h1>\n

\u00a0I grew up in Truro in Cornwall, moved up north to Liverpool to go to art school, followed the wrong girl to Manchester where I stayed for 10 years. I met the right one and moved with her down to London for 5 years then we settled back up north again in Sheffield.<\/p>\n

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When did you first see skateboarding?<\/h1>\n

\u00a0Like most people my age I saw Per Welinder skating as Marty McFly in Back To The Future and then later was in the bike shop in town with my family buying my older brother a bike and saw the skate decks on the wall behind the counter. I saw a white Mike McGill deck and that was it. I didn\u2019t manage to persuade my folks to get me a proper setup so I got a sort of sub-Variflex complete for Christmas 1987.<\/p>\n

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Rad. So where did you go skate?<\/h1>\n

\u00a0I rode around outside my house on that thing and it\u2019s bubble tailbone and crumbly orange wheels all year. Some older kids at the end of our Cul-De-Sac had real skateboards like a Vision Psycho Stick and a Santa Cruz Jeff Grosso<\/a> board.<\/p>\n

I started buying RAD Magazine<\/a> from the corner shop so I started to understand how things worked. I sent off for all the shop catalogues and stickers.<\/p>\n

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Who was in your first skate crew?<\/h1>\n

\u00a0For Christmas 1988 I got a Brand -X Sean Goff and went with my little brother who\u2019d also started skating, to the old 70\u2019s park in Holywell Bay. My friend at school said there was a ramp in a field at Mount Hawke, where my auntie lived, so we started going there.<\/p>\n

I basically lived at Mt. Hawke from 1989-1992, skating all day surviving on a flask of orange squash and 2 Chomp bars per day.<\/p>\n

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How did you get into illustration and what did you draw?<\/h1>\n

I did posters for my friends in Manchester who did a monthly club night at Night & Day on Oldham Street. I gave myself the art name \u201cSuperdead\u201d, everyone was giving themselves silly names back then. I\u2019d get free beer and sometimes some money so that\u2019s when I started doing it semi- seriously.<\/p>\n

I drew women and skeletons mainly.<\/p>\n

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How did you develop your artistic style?<\/h1>\n

\u00a0I just drew and drew everyday, I taught myself how to use photoshop in a very simple way, like how to scan something in and then hit the \u2018posterize\u2019 button. Only recently have I taught myself how to make my lines into vectors thanks to YouTube videos or whatever.<\/p>\n

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Where do you skate nowadays?<\/h1>\n

\u00a0I skate the curb spot which is on the other side of Sheffield so I get the bus over there once or twice a week. More in the summer. That\u2019s where the homies are so that\u2019s more fun than going to the House where everyone is like 20 years younger than me.<\/p>\n

During the first lockdown I waxed the shit out of the curbs at the pay and display car park at the top of my road. I\u2019d go there everyday with my son on his scooter because there were no cars parked there for a good two months. We call that spot \u201cSuper Secret Curb Club\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Cool. What is the key to making great art and skateboarding?<\/h1>\n

Actually going skating! Lots of your favourite \u201cskate artists\u201d don\u2019t actually skate.<\/p>\n

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What do you like about creating black and white lined designs?<\/h1>\n

Well, I\u2019m colour blind and when I started I was very poor so black pens and paper was all I could afford. The materials I use haven\u2019t really changed much over the years, I use more expensive pens and paper nowadays though, when I started it was on printer paper from Asda.<\/p>\n

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Why do you like to use a select amount of colours in your art?<\/h1>\n

It just looks sharper to me, more effective with less colours.<\/p>\n

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You also run a zine called Secret Curb Club, what’s it all about?<\/h1>\n

\u00a0I started going to the curb spot here in Sheffield just after my dad died in mid-2019. My friend Ben Cooney had been saying I should come over and skate the curbs and once I\u2019d got back from the funeral in Cornwall I was like \u201cOK, let\u2019s go skating\u201d. I loved skating there so much that I drew a sticker and then I made a photocopied zine that autumn. The zine is about the people who skate there, but I started including more stuff in issue 2.<\/p>\n

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What are the rules of Secret Curb Club?<\/h1>\n

The rules of Secret Curb Club<\/a> are no ollieing into your grinds!<\/p>\n

Front Truck First!<\/p>\n

Listen To Mirza: Get Low Stay Loose.<\/p>\n

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Which artists have you worked with to create it?<\/h1>\n

Ben has done some art and photos for the zine but it\u2019s all me.<\/p>\n

I got some shirts made this year.\u00a0I\u2019ll get some new shirts out for the spring when it stops fucking raining.<\/p>\n

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What\u2019s been your favourite part of creating the zine?<\/h1>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ve always made zines, I think I like everything about making them. I like a physical product, it\u2019s not real to me if it\u2019s a drawing done on an iPad.<\/p>\n

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What is it about Mark Gonzales that inspires you?<\/h1>\n

\u00a0I put out a series of tribute zines the first of which was \u2018The Natas<\/a> & Gonz<\/a> Book\u2019.<\/p>\n

Gonz is our Picasso. We\u2019re lucky to have him.<\/p>\n

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What\u2019s your favourite Natas Kaupas skate section?<\/h1>\n

Wheels Of Fire was one of the first videos I ever saw. The skateshop in Truro, called Essjays, would let you rent skate videos for the weekend and my dad would copy them for us at work. I had Rubbish Heap, Video Days, Not The New H-Street Video and Spirit Of The Blitz all on one VHS.<\/p>\n

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