Kool Things: Punk In Practice

Part 1: How a Shy Girl Built a Loud Life

👋 Welcome, Dreamers

Last week, I gave a talk for CreativeMornings/Vancouver at the Vancouver Art Gallery called Kool Things: Punk in Practice—a love letter to DIY creativity, late bloomers, and saying yes before you’re ready.

The video will be out soon, but I wanted to give you early access to the full talk through a mini-series of posts. Below we’ll dive into Part 1: The Origin Story. I hope you enjoy! Please comment below to continue the conversation.

As always, thanks for being here. You can support my work by subscribing to Daydream Trash (free or paid), or if subscriptions aren’t your thing, I just set up a Buy Me a Coffee page, linked below—a little caffeine goes a long way and fuels the late-night writing sessions from me to you.

Adam, Jason, Kendall, Me, and Chris, my tattoo mentor 🖤

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🧬 The Shannon Starter Pack

Good morning everyone. Thanks for waking up with me. I’m glad they fed us this morning because usually this is my breakfast 😄

Ok let’s begin, I’m Shannon. I’m a musician, tattooer, and visual artist.

I was born in Vancouver and grew up just outside the city in Richmond.

I’m a reformed shy girl that found my voice in music; first behind the camera…

Then as a graphic designer…

and eventually at the front of the stage.

Today, I lead the dream pop band LEATHERS, and play synth and sing in the acclaimed post punk band ACTORS.

When I found out this month’s theme was PUNK, I was excited. Not just to talk about a moment in culture—but because punk’s DIY principles have always been at the heart of my creativity.

In Kool Things: Punk in Practice we’ll dive into how the spirit of punk pushes us to create with guts, heart, and without apology.

A *small* PSA before we continue… there will be some cursing. Sorry, punks swear.

Let’s do a brief history, I present The Shannon Starter Pack. We have a lot of bread and cheese, iced coffee. There’s Kleenex for the crying. We’ve got a stack of amazing 90s music mags, Polaroids, traditional tattooing. Oh and that ‘79 Trans Am was our family car! That’s not my dog and cat though.

This is my dog Mary.

And the cats; Bob and Dale…

And Frank. They are my creative familiars.

Let’s go waaay back. I come from a super blue-collar family. We’re blue collar as fuck!

This is my grandpa in his machine shop in Kelowna, BC, he made real deal steam engines. A literal SteamPunk. In my family, the women are nurturers. The men are makers and mechanics, with grit under their nails. They’re resourceful, patient, and incredibly hardworking. That DIY work ethic runs deep in my genes.

I’m an 80s baby and the only girl-child among boy grandchildren. Here I am—looking a little rough in my first photoshoot. (But don’t worry...)

I had a brief glow-up as a toddler before entering an awkward phase that lasted about 30 years.

Even though I was a shy kid, I’ve always been curious, and adventurous with my interests. In those three decades, I tried approximately one million things to figure out what I truly wanted from life.

There was a brief punk panic in the ’90s, but my folks were pretty cool with me being a little bit weird.

I went to concerts. Dyed my hair pink. I listened to records and pored over the album art and liner notes.

Fell in love with a little band from Seattle called Nirvana. And I learned to play guitar.

📷 From Darkrooms to Design

My high school had an incredible darkroom program, where I learned how to use cameras, develop film, and print images the old-school way. I started photographing bands and live shows.

After graduation, I studied photography at Langara College in Vancouver and later worked on staff at The Georgia Straight and CBC Radio 3 capturing portraits of bands on location and in-studio. Eventually, I moved into graphic design and worked at a boutique design studio here in Vancouver for almost 15 years.

Then in 2017, I was ready for change. And the universe called.

Well —Jason called! My now-bandmate in ACTORS literally phoned me at work one day and asked if I’d fill in on keyboards for a few shows.

See, I had secretly dreamed of being in a band. But I was super shy. I had no idea how to get there. I was scared.

I hadn’t touched an instrument or sang much since I was a teenager. (I spent a winter in hell working at the GAP to buy this Yamaha keyboard.)

But I said yes—and what started as a few shows turned into something I never could’ve imagined.

Since then, ACTORS has taken us on the greatest adventure of our lives.

In 8 years—we’ve logged over 400 shows in 20 countries, and I got to experience it all with my besties, my band family—Jason, Kendall, Adam, and our photographer/merch/tour assistant extraordinaire Houdah. 🖤

And it started with one yes. That brings us to our first KOOL THING:

💥 KOOL THING #1: JUST SAY YES

Even when you’re scared. Especially then.

With ACTORS underway we began to develop my solo project Leathers too. We released a couple of singles—and with just three songs in my catalog, I was offered a record deal. That’s it. Three little songs. And nothing else in my back pocket for later.

I remember the fear creeping in. It was a three-album commitment—how could I possibly finish my first album, let alone two more? But I said yes anyway.

Fuck the fear—I uppercutted it. I didn’t have a master plan, but I was ready to get to work. Signing the deal gave me deadlines, encouragement, and a goal to work towards.

Saying yes doesn’t mean you’re ready. It means you’re brave enough to find out what happens next. Sign the deal, take the leap.

Here’s the album.

🌈 Next Up…

In Part 2, we’ll dig into the art of DIY: how making your own album art, zines, and music videos can build an entire creative world from scratch.

xo,
Shannon