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Facebook: Luke Shaw Poet
YouTube: Lukeshawpoet
Interview
What are your main influences?
The music that I've listened to throughout the years, such as Twenty One Pilots, Eminem and Kendrick have shaped my work more than anyone else. I don't draw my inspiration from anything as such though. I just write. I can't choose to write about anything, things randomly spring to mind and I need to write about them - anything from fast food to current affairs.
Tell me about your past
When I got old enough to think for myself, I realised that everything wasn't as normal as it should of been and I figured out what I wanted and what I thought a child should have. I had to respond to that and ended up growing up quite quickly because of the things that I saw and was exposed to. Also, from being tossed from pillar-to-post, from living with my Mum, then my Grandma, then my Dad and then my Grandma - there was never a stable home, so there was a lack of parental influence. This means that I had to learn for myself and me having to act upon that.
When I grew up I found writing as a coping mechanism and I wrote my first poem just by chance. I managed to grasp and wield all of these thoughts, feelings, emotions and memories that I've had and put them into some sort of written work. Not necessarily to help other people - even though it did kind of turn into that - it was more just as a coping mechanism and something to be proud of.
It was to create a piece of work, like, any sort of art, it's to create something out of raw emotion. You are creating something completely new, that no one has done before. It's got your mark on it, no one will ever have that exact same mark on it. It was to create something that was completely me and completely mine at first. And then, I did it because I liked it, then I encouraged myself to do it more - and it took over.
Now it's like I have to do it - I have to do it every single day, I have to do it if I'm at work, like, the only thing that will get me through the shift is writing. It's not something I do to relax, it's not something I do to get hyped up, it's something I do consistently throughout the day, I think about what I'm writing and toss rhyming schemes in my head and write them down on my phone. I've got every thought and every rhyme I've thought of whilst I'm waiting for a bus or on the toilet, or whatever since about September 2015.
So, would you say that writing spoken word is an impulse?
It's not an impulse, it's not something that I was born with the ability to do, I found it and then just got better at it, you develop an ear for it and what works well with what. It's an impulse now, but it wasn't when it first started, and it wasn't until it became a routine.
What's your creative process?
I just have a thought or a word that I want to write about then I'll rhyme it. Then I sit down and 20 minutes or 4 hours later there is some sort of final piece. And if I don't think it's finished I'll go back to it a couple of days or hours later. I tend to know when it’s finished though, it just feels right. I write all my notes on my phone, then when I’ve got a minute, I'll throw whatever I’ve got written down around my head for a bit, and see what happens, there’s a rarely any plan to what I’m doing though to be honest.
What do you like or enjoy doing?
I take most opportunities I can to go out be it for a walk or go to a new place but I do spend a lot of time sat at home writing - often not sober. The majority of my day is driven by writing or ideas or thoughts that could be turned into something. It does sound like I'm forcing writing into the answer, but, it is always there as a constant. But as for things that I enjoy doing other than that, I genuinely struggle to sit down and watch a film unless I'm at the cinema without someone saying a word and that turning into a thought or something. I like listening to music, being with my mates and writing. That's about it to be honest.
The music that I've listened to throughout the years, such as Twenty One Pilots, Eminem and Kendrick have shaped my work more than anyone else. I don't draw my inspiration from anything as such though. I just write. I can't choose to write about anything, things randomly spring to mind and I need to write about them - anything from fast food to current affairs.
Tell me about your past
When I got old enough to think for myself, I realised that everything wasn't as normal as it should of been and I figured out what I wanted and what I thought a child should have. I had to respond to that and ended up growing up quite quickly because of the things that I saw and was exposed to. Also, from being tossed from pillar-to-post, from living with my Mum, then my Grandma, then my Dad and then my Grandma - there was never a stable home, so there was a lack of parental influence. This means that I had to learn for myself and me having to act upon that.
When I grew up I found writing as a coping mechanism and I wrote my first poem just by chance. I managed to grasp and wield all of these thoughts, feelings, emotions and memories that I've had and put them into some sort of written work. Not necessarily to help other people - even though it did kind of turn into that - it was more just as a coping mechanism and something to be proud of.
It was to create a piece of work, like, any sort of art, it's to create something out of raw emotion. You are creating something completely new, that no one has done before. It's got your mark on it, no one will ever have that exact same mark on it. It was to create something that was completely me and completely mine at first. And then, I did it because I liked it, then I encouraged myself to do it more - and it took over.
Now it's like I have to do it - I have to do it every single day, I have to do it if I'm at work, like, the only thing that will get me through the shift is writing. It's not something I do to relax, it's not something I do to get hyped up, it's something I do consistently throughout the day, I think about what I'm writing and toss rhyming schemes in my head and write them down on my phone. I've got every thought and every rhyme I've thought of whilst I'm waiting for a bus or on the toilet, or whatever since about September 2015.
So, would you say that writing spoken word is an impulse?
It's not an impulse, it's not something that I was born with the ability to do, I found it and then just got better at it, you develop an ear for it and what works well with what. It's an impulse now, but it wasn't when it first started, and it wasn't until it became a routine.
What's your creative process?
I just have a thought or a word that I want to write about then I'll rhyme it. Then I sit down and 20 minutes or 4 hours later there is some sort of final piece. And if I don't think it's finished I'll go back to it a couple of days or hours later. I tend to know when it’s finished though, it just feels right. I write all my notes on my phone, then when I’ve got a minute, I'll throw whatever I’ve got written down around my head for a bit, and see what happens, there’s a rarely any plan to what I’m doing though to be honest.
What do you like or enjoy doing?
I take most opportunities I can to go out be it for a walk or go to a new place but I do spend a lot of time sat at home writing - often not sober. The majority of my day is driven by writing or ideas or thoughts that could be turned into something. It does sound like I'm forcing writing into the answer, but, it is always there as a constant. But as for things that I enjoy doing other than that, I genuinely struggle to sit down and watch a film unless I'm at the cinema without someone saying a word and that turning into a thought or something. I like listening to music, being with my mates and writing. That's about it to be honest.