WAY OF THE BIRD - a childrens book

An interview with Andy Davis and Andrew Kidman about the making of their book Way of The Bird.

Interview by Michele Lockwood

In February 2002 Andy Davis came to Australia to visit Andrew and I at our Northern Beaches surf shack. He took refuge in our living room, often seated on the floor, belly up to a coffee table strewn with rough sketches and half-finished outlines of simplified figures riding waves, waxing up and getting tubed. In just a few days Andy carpeted his end of the old house in these 8 1/2" X 11"'s. The proliferation was endless. His drawings seemed to be telling a story.

At the other end of the house, Andrew rifled through a stack of slide sheets loaded with transparencies from his life's work in the ocean. Hunched over the light box with a loop screwed into his eyeball he'd call out to Andy, "Mate, I've got the perfect shot for that one over there on the floor". Andy laughed," Um, which one?" They were fuelled by a steady diet of chai tea, chocolaty Tim-tams and warm summer peelers a few leg lengths away. This went on for about a month - thus the conception of Way of the Bird.

Watching the process of this book unfold was like watching something magical appear, so perfect and so meant to be, as though it had always existed somewhere in the stars; It just needed a catalyst to become real. The trigger, I believe, is the idyllic partnership between the Californian and Australian; when one was slack the other filled the gap, when one was stressed the other relaxed. This ying and yang theory applies also to their work; a combination of Andrew's ultra-realistic photographs with the signature dreaminess of Andy's duo-dimensional characters. Andrew's photographs became a playground for Andy's imagination, which in turn sparked Andrew's idea for writing the story line. They completed each other.

Way of the Bird was hatched out of a common desire to give something back to surfing - an obsession that has shaped their lives. This interview took place in July 2003 at Andy's house in California. The two had just spent a month on the road showing a mock up version of the book to friends and publishers.

Michele: How did you guys come up with idea to make this book?

Andy: For me it was seeing the photos Andrew had taken of all the empty waves, beach scenes and scenarios. I'd kind of seen the same things through my surfing experiences and it was really exciting to see that. I was really stoked on those pictures and I thought 'wow' those would look really good with illustrations done on top of them. So that kind of became our clothing companies advertising.

Michele: How did Andrew get involved with it?

Andrew: It's a funny story 'cause Andy was telling me he wanted to use some photos in the Byrd ads, and I was like, "Yeah, what are you going to do with them?" and he was like, "I was thinking about drawing some stuff on them." and I was kind of "I don't know about that." 'Cause I was thinking I kind of like them how they are, I thought he was just going to ruin the photos.

Michele: Were you surprised by what you saw?

Andrew: Yeah, well that was it. 'Cause when I saw them I was like, "Oh my God." It was unbelievable. It was the marriage complete. I've always loved taking those kind of photos and I've always wanted to do something more with them, but I'd never found a way to use them that I was completely happy with. When I saw the pictures I thought, "That's it." When you take photos of empty waves you're riding the wave with your eye, you're surfing the waves without anyone on them. And Andy was able to put the surfer in there, and as soon as I saw it I thought how perfect it all was and how it would make a great kid's book.

Michele: So you guys wrote the story together?

Andrew: Yeah, pretty much, it's taken from our own surfing experiences so it wasn't that hard.

Michele: What was the creative process like of choosing and combining the images with the illustrations?

Andy: Andrew gave me the idea when I came to visit last year (2002). He said, "What do you think about doing a kid's book?" I said "Yeah, that would be super fun." And we just did some brainstorming on how the story would be and it just started evolving. Andrew was like "I've got a picture for that, I've got a picture for that" and I was like "I can draw that, I can see how that's going to work." We took a couple of weeks, playing around with the different ideas, some things worked, some things didn't but it came together fairly quickly.

Andrew: We learnt a lot from it as well, we were second guessing ourselves a lot, like "Is that really how the tides work?" so we had to research stuff, so for us it was really educational in that respect.

Michele: Also you had to look at how you actually do a cutback.

Andy: That was fun, but I think we got a bit too anal about it, I mean the guy doesn't have a face. We were like "The spray's not right." and I'd have to draw it again. To a point you've got to get it right 'cause style is everything, but we went a bit too far.

Andrew: It either looks right or it doesn't, it just pops - he's not floating above the water anymore- he's in the water, putting his rail in.

Andy: It took time. 'Cause I just drew them by hand, it wasn't like I traced them over the wave, but it came out really cool.

Michele: It seems more than just a kid's book.

Andy: Even now, where it's at, I think it's beyond a kid's book, and a lot of people who have seen it say that as well. They say, I think children will appreciate this, but I think it's going to appeal to a broader spectrum.

Andrew: It's also because of the story. It's like if you don't know anything about surfing you'll find out something from the story. We tell the story through the eyes of this kids journey in becoming a surfer, from riding his first wave, to wiping out, to building his first board.

Andy: Riding different kinds of waves and seeing what goes on day to day in surfing and in the ocean.

Andrew: We told the story through these two characters, the kid and this old man.

Andy: The old man is like the guru, who's teaching the kid.

Andrew: He's like Skip (Frye). He's imparting knowledge onto this kid and that's how you learn about surfing.

Michele: He's the inspiration.

Andy: He's the Zen master.

Andrew: You find out a lot about surfing, the story of the Duke is in there.

Michele: So you get a bit of history.

Andrew: Yeah, you find out where surfing came from. I think a lot of people out in the water today don't even know that.

Andy: It's valid.

Michele: I think also if you took it to the street, to an urban setting most people wouldn't think of surfing as having much of a history.

Andrew: I think the people out there that really care about surfing have knowledge of the history. But you do find in the water there are a lot of people that are just clueless. They think surfing is just this competitive activity, and I don't think that was the reason why Duke Kahanamoku was teaching people to surf.

Andy: It's the spirit of Aloha, it's a sacred thing, and we've lost that. Certain people still have it; but on your day-to-day surfing experience it's pretty rare that you see it, when you do it's pretty special. If you could teach that to kids at an early age it would be great, it's really important. As opposed to going out and being really aggressive and getting engulfed in how it is right now. Elements of it are still really beautiful and there are some elements that are really, really ugly- just like anything.

Andrew: I guess that's why when you look at the book it is a kid's book, but it's not really a kid's book. There's a lot of people coming into surfing now and it's not at a young age that they're beginning.

Michele: Are the characters based on people you know, people that respect the sacredness and aloha in surfing?

Andrew: Yeah they're givers not takers. Like a guy like Skip, everything he does he gives.

Michele: As you were writing it were you thinking about this?

Andy: Yeah, we were thinking about Skip, The Duke, ourselves, some of our friends and some of the people we grew up surfing around that were older people that we saw surfing that made us really excited to surf. "Like wow, this is going to take over my life," and it has for so many people - surfing is everything. Whatever it does for each different person it's a sacred thing. I think the book visually is a medium that hasn't been seen before so I think from a child's point of view it's really captivating, because their imagination can just run away with itself, but also for adults who have been surfing before they can just look at it and it makes them feel good. And that's what I saw when I saw the photos and bringing them to life with illustrations was just fun.

Michele: It really brought the photos to life and I think it gave your drawings a fresh, unique new look.

Andy: Yeah, it's fun, it's something we can do together and we can keep telling the stories we've experienced, through the travelling we've done or people we've met. And things we still want to do and dream about.

Andrew: For me what was interesting about using Andy's illustrations is that we were able to remove the "image". I mean, surfing is represented by all these personalities and they all have this image they're selling. But with these drawings they became faceless and nameless. It became about their journey and what they did in the ocean. It wasn't about anything else.

Michele: So you were able to strip it back?

Andrew: Yeah, to what surfing really is, for us anyway.

Andy: That's kind of how that whole style started for me, I'm a really spacey person and I'm day dreaming all the time, and that's kind of what I saw, not so much somebody, but everyone's experiences when they go surfing, everyone has a different experience and it could be me, it could be you. That was just how that style came about.

Michele: Is this book the end of it or the beginning?

Andrew: It's the beginning. It's an overview, an introduction to their friendship and their lives as surfers. And they have many more adventures to come.

Andy: We're going back into the past and into the future.

Michele: Like Star Wars?

Andy: Yeah. We're going to feed off it, once the seed gets planted, we'll decide where they're going to go, and what they'll do. We're just excited about doing more.

Michele: Do you see it as an animated thing?

Andy: Definitely. It's just the time and we're living apart in different countries and things are crazy in our life right now (laughs). It'll evolve too, it'll be neat to see where it goes, I'd love to do it, I've thought about doing it for a really long time and Andrew's super excited to do that to. It's only a matter of time.

Andrew: The characters can do anything. If you can imagine doing it you can animate it.

Andy: It's all up to your imagination. Hopefully it inspires people to go out there and try it. Hopefully it's in a good way. It'll help us grow as well, and we can put our little tweak on it. Hopefully people get a good feeling from it and it's not demeaning towards anybody and it's not making too much of a statement other than "Go out and have fun." We want to give something back to surfing for everything it's given to us.

Michele: Have you had any luck with publishers, what was the reaction when you showed them?

Andrew: We've had a really awesome reaction to it from people who understand surfing and where we're coming from. We took it to some bigger publishers in the hope we could get a wider distribution, but they didn't get it. They wanted us to re-write the story and change the illustrations before they would consider publishing it. They didn't like the mystery in the story or simpleness of the characters. For us that was the whole point. Surfing is mysterious, it's esoteric, and you get that feeling from the way this book is, we were trying to reflect that, give it another dimension. Kirk Gee from Consafos Press really understood where we were coming from, so they're going to publish it, which we're stoked about.

Michele: It's a pretty exciting thing to show people.

Andy: They automatically laugh. They go, "what's that?" Then they're like, "is this really a kids book?"

Andrew: It's been great seeing people's reactions, they laugh - they get excited. Matt Warshaw was like, 'It makes me want to surf again." If you can do that for people then you've done a good thing. Given people a gift.

Andy: It's refreshing, surfing is so in you're face these days. You can get it anywhere- it's like McDonalds. Most of the surf shops are like department stores and you can't tell the difference between anything, nothing stands out. Nothing has a philosophy or a soul, it's just a marketing slogan, there's no depth. Surfing has depth but you don't see that now. It's pretty mindless, it's fast and easy, you don't even know why you're buying it.

Andrew: I sometimes wonder if people even know why they're surfing.

Andy: That's why it's great if you can find those little out of the way places to surf with your friends and enjoy it, maybe the waves aren't as good, but it's a special time to share. It's getting harder and harder to find these days. But in saying that, I think the doors are opening up, some people have made some great films in the last couple of years. I think with it growing the majority of it is crap, but there are good things coming out of it also.

Michele: It's just a matter of wading through it and staying positive so those positive things come to you.

Andrew: Yeah, that's what the book is; it's a positive energy, you look at it and you read it and you're stoked.

Andy: It makes you feel good. As much as there is stuff out there that can bother you and upset you, there's so much beauty in it too, you have to manifest that side of it. And you can take it for what it is or you can make it what you want it to be.

Andrew: I guess that's what we did with the book we made it how we wanted it to be. Like Willy Wonka and his chocolate factory- he created his own world.

Michele: It's nice that it brought the two of you guys together to make something.

Andy: Surfing has brought so many people together. It's made my life an amazing adventure. We're super blessed.

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email: andrew@litmus.com.au