Ordinarily, my job as a musician runs alongside my work as a visual artist. However, these are not ordinary times and, as such, I haven’t been able to perform with the band for almost a year now. In light of this, I decided to try and get ‘close’ to my instruments again and represent them in a lino print. This is the result – intentionally black and white and intentionally simple. I do play guitar as well but another instrument would have affected the balance of the image.
More as a diversion than anything else, I decided to redraw and cut a lino print of the logo I have used for many years for my ‘Short Supply’ musical output. I did use it on the label for the one and only 7″ single I put out in the early 1990s, called “The Day The Earth Stood Still”. We (Justin – the vocalist and myself) recorded it in Rotherham at The Powder Room studios. It features cut ups from the film of the same name and a killer chorus – haha!
As a working, performing musician, the current lockdown situation has obviously had quite a profound effect on my activities. Ordinarily, I am out every week singing with either the band ‘The Rogues’ or my duo ‘Meadowland.’ With The Rogues, we have chosen a number of songs and individually recorded our separate parts in our own homes, which I have then pieced together both visually and musically. These can be found on our Facebook page: Rotherham Rogues.
This week, Meadowland have made a recording in a similar way. In keeping with my artistic intent of looking at “Contrasts and Anomalies” we chose a classic dance track by Avicci and performed it in a very different, almost Bluegrass style, using mandolin, banjo, guitar and ukulele. The video can be found on my Facebook page (Kevan Cadman) or on my Instagram feed: @grooveware_art
Click on the title below to hear the audio track.
Obviously, due to the current Coronavirus pandemic, working in my studio is not an option. This has kind of put the brakes on my visual art output, as I don’t have the equipment at home to do the printing I had planned. However, I am allowed to leave the house for exercise once a day, so have been riding my bike around Rotherham, often going through the centre of town where, clearly, there aren’t any people anymore. Today, I decided to strap my iPhone to the handlebars and, using the Time Lapse function, film part of the trip. The accompanying music is an original composition.
grooveware art 