What did you listen to growing up?

My dad had Pink Floyd and Creedence on full blast, and my mum always sang Ringo’s “Octopus’ Garden” to me, so those are my earliest musical memories. My older brother had a big Queen phase whose cassettes he played and we air-guitarred to on an old hi-fi in our basement. My neighbour was an old Italian man who blasted beautiful opera out of the windows. Later on, as a student at art college in Malta, indie was the big scene so we partied to British indie bands and french electronic / Italo-disco music. The occasional reggae always went down well at a festival. And then I eventually opened up my ears to jazz and world music and that’s pretty much what I’ve listened to since then.

And what’s on heavy rotation for you at the moment?

While living in London it was really exciting to experience the South London jazz scene unfolding in front of me, watching young artists like Nubya Garcia and Joe-Armon Jones was an absolute privilege, so that music is always on my playlist. But lately I’ve been really into Arab jazz and desert blues from the Sahara. The Mali greats like Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate are a constant, but there’s also an amazing new wave of artists like Bominbo, Tinariwen and Mdou Moctar, who built his own guitar out of scrap using old bicycle cables as strings. Music from Saharan Cellphones is an amazing project by Christopher Kirkley, who compiled music that was exchanged by villagers and self-made musicians in the desert, where wifi doesn’t exist and music is therefore exchanged by bluetooth and sim card.

What’s happening in your creative world at the moment?

A few years ago I left my job in London to focus on developing myself as an illustrator while spending more time in nature. I’ve worked relentlessly on my self-development since then, and almost three years later I feel like I’m beginning to find my creative voice.

I’m particularly driven by lending visuals to political / social or environmental campaigns, and I’m lucky enough be trusted by some organisations who are out there doing vital work to keep this wobbly planet adrift. I recently took a sabbatical to spend time volunteering at a permaculture project, and that’s heavily influenced both my outlook on work and my lifestyle in general.

I’ve recently been dabbling with clay sculpture, attending evening academic drawing classes and trying my hand at painting, with the everpresent aim of spending more time off-screen and dedicating it to sensory creative outputs instead.

Where can we find you?

eddingli.com / @eddingles

Thanks Ed!