Words El Jefe.
It was one of those days. First day back at work from annual leave, up early. But I was also locked in for a quick chat with Cherie Currie, frontwoman for The Runaways, solo artist, actor, author, as well as (I had only learnt the night before!) chainsaw artist and is also about to begin her Australian tour this May. So things weren’t all bad. I dialed the number in the states (555….) and was greeted by Cherie’s very warm and friendly voice. I also found her to be very open and charismatic. And she was a whole lot of fun to have a conversation with.
Cherie: Hey, is this Jeff? How are you, great to talk to you!
EJ: Hey Cherie, thanks for the chance to talk to you, I’m really excited about this. Being on limited time, I thought I’d jump straight in. For starters, I was checking out some of your chainsaw carvings, which really intrigued me. I hadn’t seen this done before and was wondering what the inspiration to do this was.
Cherie: I had been sculpting and sketching for a long time, I was just always drawn to creating art. I was driving one day, in 2002, and passed some guys who were doing it. I was fascinated, and while I didn’t stop at the time, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I went back a couple of weeks later, and met the guys and they agreed to take me on as an apprentice. When I first told my family, they were totally against me doing it, working with chainsaws and forbid me to do it. But I wasn’t going to be stopped and being forbidden to do it just made me want to do it more. It’s not an easy thing to learn, but before too long, I was winning competitions with my carvings, and selling them as well. I have my own gallery now as well. Continue reading →
From every perspective of the people involved with this show, there was a strong element of the “unexpected” which had transpired. However, the rare and astonishing characteristic of these surprises were that they all fell under a “positive” outlook. 1000mods managed to tour our fine nation for the first time and that would have probably felt like an impossibility over their career; furthermore, multiple shows sold out at very respectable venues including Adelaide where there was tough competition also playing at other locations on this night. It would seem that the famous Cuban writer José Martí is still very accurate with this quote, even after over 120 years since his unfortunate passing: “Charm is a product of the unexpected”. Continue reading 
