PAUL

What is your name?

Paul Anthony Sayer (@paul.slayer)

Where is home?

Glasgow, Scotland, Europe

How/when did kendama/SK become part of your life and who was involved?

I’ve had friends who are into circus-y stuff for a very long time and naturally at house parties and jams they would start playing this weird wooden toy thing. I didn’t take much interest at first as I thought it was super dumb to be honest – how wrong was I! The way I actually got into dama though was as a thanks for proofreading my best mate Calum’s application for Ollerup (a parkour school in Denmark), he ordered me a purple dama to my door without telling me and I was hooked from there. I had felt this warm, fuzzy feeling which has never left me. I try to spread this feeling through kendama and through the work I do with SK.

That was around February/March 2015. I played non-stop all Spring and Summer and by November I’d founded Sound Kendama (the name was inspired by my sister who had a ceilidh band at the time called the Sound ceilidh band). I began by sharing Scottish players exclusively, but of course after a short while I realised SK could be much bigger than that and I began incorporating the rest of the UK fam and beyond. SK grew slowly but surely from there and particularly in the last three years, with the addition of dedicated team members whom I’m eternally grateful for.

Describe your play-style in three words.

Balanced, I hope.

Preferred string length/wood type/shape etc.

Tricky one. For general play I go for around 11 fingers as it gives me plenty of room for jugs and taps etc. String flow is when I’ll shorten it down to like 6-8 fingers. Maple is my fav wood for it’s responsiveness, availability, aesthetics and durability. Shape wise, anything which is balanced and honed for a varity of tricks. It also can’t be that beefy as I have wee hands.  

What is your most cherished kendama memory?

Becoming British Champ in 2018 and winning a flight to Romania to compete in the Euros.

What else are you passionate about?

Lots of things. I’m a hobbyist, much like a lot of the guys on SK to be honest. I won the P.E award two years running in secondary school and went onto do an NQ in outdoor sports at college – I love the outdoors in general. I am passionate about film making. I coached parkour when I was a teenager, which gave me a solid base level of fitness which I still benefit from today. I cycle every day. Check out my Instagram story highlights to get an idea of the other hobbies I practice such as slacklining and juggling. Besides all that, I am passionate abouts brands and marketing in general. Philosophy, psychology, art, good times with the homies and learning new skills are all things I love too.

What music do you listen to?

Damn. So the earliest memories of actually being a ‘fan’ of a band are in school when I was obsessed with Coldplay (X&Y album in particular). At that time, I also naturally delved into what my mates were listening to so Funeral for a Friend, Killswitch Engage and Bullet for my Valentine all have a special place in my heart. In more recent years I have become connected to deep house (Anjuna Deep is my fav label for this genre). I love hip-hop from late 90’s-early noughties era. Liquid DnB as well. Anything Jungle, Reggae etc. is deffo up there too. Ben Howard and James Blunt are big inspirations for any of my guitar playing/singing. I couldn’t say I regularly listen to it, but Jazz get’s me pretty damn hype if it’s live. If it’s just me and I wanna chill, I’ll stick on Hammock or The Album Leaf. So basically I’ll sponge anything which is good and fits the mood.

Fun fact about yourself?

Pierce Brosnan, when he was probably like 20-25 y/o, lived in the gaff I grew up in.

Final thoughts/shout-outs

If you are passionate about something, be prepared to travel for it. This could be across the town, or 1000 miles to another country and beyond.

S/O the tribe, the UK dama fam, Europe gang and the rest of the world. Without my parent’s support we’d not be here, so S/O them. Big up yourself for getting to this point, I thank you for your interest in my story and that of the rest of SK and kendama in general. You are amazing <3

P