Tusk Journal is an online platform for exploring contemporary independent culture in the North West of England. Founded by Alexander Lester and James Falkingham, Tusk prides itself on celebrating creativity, innovation and aesthetics. I chat to Alex about his journey, as he proves it isn't all grim up North.
Firstly, thanks for doing this, I bet Tusk keeps you pretty busy?
It certainly does. I think that when you embark upon a new project, whether it’s a publication, start-up company or whatever, you immediately inherit the baggage that associates itself with ‘going it alone’. Whether it manifests itself in the form of a sleepless night, full diary or a weekend spent working, there’s always something to keep you from falling into the traps of mid-week lethargy.
What does a typical day as editor consist of?
In ‘normal’ life, a routine can be the essential recipe when making it through Monday to Friday’s respective hurdles. My day starts with a coffee and ends with either a walk or a book. In the middle there’s a lot of emailing, meeting, phoning and writing.
Up until January I worked in a local primary school in a bid to pay the rent – but as this was taking up too much of the valuable daylight hours, I decided to swap the 9-5 (PM) for the 9-5 (AM). Working in a bar can help alleviate the stress of running your own project and offer the chance to unwind (in a weird/backwards way). With office hours starting at 10am and finishing at 6pm, there’s normally a nice little window before work begins behind the bar, which can occasionally run on ‘til 1am. On paper it’s a really long day, but I’m pretty sure that sacrifice is essential if you’re pursuing a dream.
What did you do before co-founding Tusk and what made you set it up?
I tried being ‘an adult’. I hated it.
I graduated in 2012 and headed straight into a job as a Teaching Assistant – but as was the case in high school, I soon discovered that I hated teachers and the politics that reside within school corridors and classrooms. I was working the 9-5 and wearing a shirt and tie, and whilst the kids I was working with were fantastic, the lifestyle of ‘living for the weekend’ did not sit well.
After a few months of morning commutes and 10’o’clock bedtimes, I decided that I wanted to pursue something outside the relatively safe world of teaching. As a result, I started writing and found myself teaming up with Liverpool-based graphic designer (and friendly companion), James Falkingham. Together we formed a ‘typically post-grad’ blog and soon discovered what it is we wanted from our 20s. Rather than settling for a ‘wage’ or selling our souls to 9-5 devil, we decided to start working on Tusk Journal – an online journal highlighting all that is great and good about the respective towns we called home (Manchester & Liverpool).
We’d always had a bit of friendly banter whenever we saw each other, with James hoisting the colours for Liverpool whilst I flew the flag for Manchester. It didn’t take long for us to see each other’s point of view – both cities were awesome and needed celebrating. We’ve lived in both cities for roughly 5 years, but it wasn’t until last year that we felt the distinct winds of cultural change echoing around the region. We’re passionate about where we live and want to share that passion with other likeminded people throughout the region – it’s a steady process, but rewarding in its entirety.
Any challenges along the way?
I recently delivered a speech to a host of third year students at MMU regarding the question of ‘challenges’ that a post-grad (especially in the arts) is likely to face. Rather embarrassingly, I found myself quoting JK Rowling’s speech to Harvard University in 2008. In this speech, I emphasized the role that failure inevitably plays when embarking upon an entirely new project – and how important failure is in regard to character building and the development of an individual’s persona.
There’s naturally a tendency to take the ‘safe’ route in life and I think that, although I perhaps tried this safe route myself, there’s something quite tragic about that. Of course there have been failures and challenges along the way but it’s these failures and challenges that have made James, Tusk and I who/what we are today.
Do you prefer an online format to print?
Even in the earliest stages of Tusk’s formation, when all we had was a basic website and hazy philosophy, the ambition and desire to head into print was always in our minds. We’re both huge fans of printed media and always felt that we could add something to the market we love so much. There’s so much out there at the moment that’s fantastic: both Intern and Cereal have been great to us over the past few months and there’s a real community spirit in the world of independent magazines. It’s a great industry to be getting involved in.
People are naturally skeptical about our venture into print, but that’s understandable. We realize that there’s been a huge boom in online/digital publications of late, but there’s still something quite romantic, renaissance-esque and beautiful that enters the mind when opening the fresh smelling pages of a printed magazine.
What can we look out for next?
We’re currently working on Vol.1 – our second run of Tusk Journal in the form of a printed publication – set to launch in May. I don’t want to give too much away – but Vol.1 will basically be an extended version of Vol. 0 (released in Dec’13) with more content, interviews and artwork for our lovely readers to get their teeth into.
We like our Journals to hold a steady element of longevity, offering a documented account of the region’s changing landscape whilst celebrating the artists, baristas, companies and galleries that reside within Manchester & Liverpool.
As well as the launch of Vol.1 (May) & Vol.2 (November), we’ll be working away on our website, www.TuskJournal.com, throughout the year – delivering the finest goings from throughout the region to our beautiful online audience.
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