UK hip-hop legend Ed Scissor and Scrawl collective artist Will Barras speak on both the magical and mundane moments that inspired their new book TERRESTRIAL
“From the city to the sticks on slicks we lay our revolution out” proclaims TERRESTRIAL, as a shadowy figure stares out across a thin-inked skyline on the cover. Comprising poem-like meditations from rapper-slash-wordsmith Ed Scissor and emotive line drawings from artist Will Barras, the book moves at a gentle pace, offering a double-glazed window into the subtle surrealism of suburban life.
Even in the rap scene Ed has always been a bit of an odd-ball. His lyrics oscillate between the stars and the gutter, but rarely touch Earth. A foundational member of legendary hip-hop outfit Contact Play, whose members (including Dirty Dike, Jam Baxter, Mr. Key and Ronnie Bosh) have since formed a crucial backbone of the nation’s hip hop-output over the last decade, few have sharpened their proverbial scissor-tongues quite like Ed has.
His debut solo LP Better.Luck.Next.Life arrived in 2012, wandering off from the drunken debauchery of Contact Play and into the murky alleyways that lay beyond. The project was a jaded tale of urban underbellies and maligned mental states, featuring accompanying artwork from Will Barras and a book of musings titled POST SLEEP. “It just felt like the stars aligned”, Ed says of this first collaboration. Will agrees: “I was certainly inspired to create the artwork for it. Records like Better.Luck.Next.Life stay with people”.
12 years on, the duo join forces once again on TERRESTRIAL. Born from a creative dialogue between them – Ed reading the words and Will drawing whatever came to mind in response – below, the pair speak to Dazed about the magical and mundane moments that inspired the book.
How did you first meet?
Will Barras: I first met Ed in a flat on Kingsland Road, must be 15 years ago. He was visiting, I was painting in the living room.
Ed Scissor: Will was kneeling in the living room staring at a canvas of swirling colours as if he was trying to figure out his next move. On visiting the same flat a couple of weeks later I saw the finished painting alive with skyscrapers and biker gangs.
What can you tell us about the shadowy figure on the cover?
Ed Scissor: The first piece in the book simply reads… ‘Cities Distant From Seen’. Will drew that figure in response and he instantly became the poster boy. I love him.
What sort of moments were TERRESTRIAL’s passages written in?
Ed Scissor: TERRESTRIAL has travelled with me over the past couple of years. The beauty of an iPhone means nothing gets lost, so I collect references wherever I go. My notes are bulging with movie quotes, misheard lyrics. I even wrote one of the pieces in a dream.
Fresh off the back of writing my previous book POST SLEEP I felt hyper-connected to the world around me, especially the repetitive suburban settings that dominate my life. It’s calm and serene and you can really observe without interruption. I found myself staring at the patterns of the everyday until they became abstract, like when you say the same word over and over until it loses all meaning. TERRESTRIAL attempts to articulate those moments of abstraction.
At what point did it start taking form as a cohesive book?
Ed Scissor: It started as a series of short observations, but quickly snowballed into a wider collection of works. I tinkered with a high energy for a few months, before letting it sit for a handful, eventually returning to it with Will in mind. Once Will was involved it began to feel real and his contribution really brought the book to life.
“I found myself staring at the patterns of the everyday until they became abstract, like when you say the same word over and over until it loses all meaning. TERRESTRIAL attempts to articulate those moments of abstraction” – Ed Scissor
Over time, and through music and print, your writing has evolved into something unlike anything in either space. How would you describe this journey?
Ed Scissor: It’s hard to describe. What I am certain of is my commitment to putting words on paper. I love writing songs but feel total freedom when writing in or to silence.
I will definitely return to songwriting soon and I do love the idea of writing a full-tilt rap record full of punchlines and multi-syllables, but realistically the music is only going to get weirder and weirder from here.
Are there any particular stories behind certain passages that you’d like to share?
Ed Scissor: The vast majority of the works are heavily situated in the dead-end burbs where I live or the fens where I grew up and the art of finding something in nothing through escapism, hedonism, drugs and searching out lore and low fantasy in the process.
The final piece I wrote titled “Bodiless Voice” was inspired by that brilliantly weird French TV show “Les Revenants” about a bunch of dead people returning home and the ensuing chaos.
Will, you employ a very distinct visual language here, what inspired this style?
Will Barras: Ed read the poems and explained some of the ideas behind them. As he spoke, I started drawing. Ed was keen for me to work in a very loose, simple, reactive way. I guess to get to the essence of the ideas. I’m moving from one subject to another at a pace. Some of the ideas and scenarios spoke to me; the suburbs, long summer days, riding mopeds across golf courses. There is that sense of escaping from the place where you grew up. I think I could just disconnect and let these images flow out of the pen.
What was the vibe like in the studio as you were creating?
Ed Scissor: We filmed the entire thing and it has been super interesting to revisit. The most interesting thing for me is how educational it was to talk through the works with someone who sees the world through a similar lens, but expresses his view in a totally different fashion. The energy was strong, and the conversation was very two-sided; Will asking questions about the works as I read, and the many tangents and sub-plots only added to the vibe. I think we did a pretty good job of keeping the energy up over the course of the five hour session.
Will Barras: It was great to meet up again after a long period. Things started fairly slowly as we began the conversation and gathered momentum as we found the rhythm of the words and pictures. Sometimes Ed would give me a prompt or idea for an image and I would just run away with it.
TERRESTRIAL is out now
