One day : Chris Sayer - journalist
Photo: Tom Young
Location : Isolating in Devon, UK
Profession / passion : Freelance journalist and social media manger
Website : n/a
Instagram : @chrissayer00
One Day is an ongoing project sparked by the Covid-19. In the days of isolation we would like to focus on what we do best; bringing people together. Read more about the project here.
We will be posting one new day of someones life every day until we run out of contributors. See our instagram stories to experience these peoples One Day in action.
Photo: Alex Hill
A text, song or film that everyone should experience
Ha, I definitely don’t have a super smart, intellectual or definitive taste in pop culture, at least not to the extent that I feel comfortable recommending my choices to ‘everyone’.
I also have a terrible memory for things like this. A couple of books that I love and that stick out in my memory today are Barbarian Days by William Finnegan and Richard Brautigan’s Trout Fishing In America.
Both were recommended by friends of mine.
For the latter, cast an eye on this video of the author reading a chapter for a taste of just how utterly, incredibly insane it is. Also, in terms of films, watch 1995’s Blue Juice.
It’s simultaneously terrible and incredible and a guilty pleasure I feel no guilt in loving. And the band Reuben are the best. I’ve listened to their flawless debut ‘Racecar Is Racecar Backwards’ more than any other album on the planet.
What is the story behind your profession/ passion?
The TL:DR version is, I’m one of the lucky ones who knew what I wanted to do from a really early age. I loved words, loved books, loved magazines, and loved the idea (only-half informed by a phobia of moving to London) of studying journalism at Falmouth Uni. I did that, made the most of the minimal lecture hours by getting as much hands-on work experience as possible, and landed a job at a men’s magazine called FRONT in 2010, where I’d had two-weeks of WE and subsequently hounded the editor over email and text. I made life-long friends at that magazine, and cherish the 4am deadlines we all used to work to, eating pizza, drinking beer and dicking around together even if our work was completed weeks before, but just in solidarity with those having to pull an extremely late one.
I worked at FHM for three years after that, and have been freelance ever since, writing for the likes of Vice, The Guardian, ASOS, HYPEBEAST, The iPaper, ShortList, Red Bull.
The social media work was a total out-of-the-blue situation. Working as a Contributing Editor at ShortList, myself and a couple of colleagues took on the mag’s Instagram as a bit of a passion project, and did some cool stuff with it. Another friend mentioned that The North Face were looking for a UK social comms manager, and I put my name forward despite having absolutely zero capacity to take it on. Pretty stupid, but the very next day a major contract of mine fell through, giving me a huge time hole to fill. That gig has taken me to mountains all around Europe. I also recently took on a role at @Vans_europe too, working the organic side of their European Instagram. I really lucked out.
Photo: Tom Young
Photo : Tom Kirkman
What is the most inspiring text you read recently?
I recently came back from an actual two-week holiday in Costa Rica – ‘actual’ because I didn’t do any work, for the first time in God knows however long. I read a book there called Kings Of The Yukon by Adam Weymouth. It’s an account of the author recreating the journey of the King (or chinook) salmon in reverse, paddling his canoe the length of the Yukon River from source to mouth over months and months. Through meeting the colourful and hardy people of the First Nation who live along its banks, and placing the fish as the book’s protagonist, it deals with the frankly embarrassing threat that environmental change and human behaviours are having on the culture around the Yukon, and the animals that live in it. On top of the saddening and scary message, what I really took home was the reminder of the importance in experiencing and living a message to create, rather than punching something into Google and recycling, ingesting and/or believing the first result that comes up.
What traits do you treasure in other people?
I was actually thinking about this the other day, trying to get to the bottom of why I sometimes get frustrated in my work. Missing great opportunities and wading through superfluous excess are the things that bite me the hardest. I think it all boils down to just not wasting time. I’m an irritatingly impatient person, sometimes through being too over-excited about an idea and feeling frustrated when we can’t implement immediately, but sometimes because I fail to remember that others work at a different pace to me. I guess what I’m saying, in an incredibly excessive way, is that I treasure those people, professionally and personally, who make the absolute most of the time that they have, and take and make the most of the opportunities that not only come their way, but that they create themselves, too.
Last thing I learned?
Climbing and bouldering. It’s the most incredible mental and physical release. As an adult, I’ve learned we get few opportunities to tackle puzzles outside of our professional environment. In jumping on a wall and failing to reach the top, before coming back down and working out a route based on my own unique physical abilities (and the abilities of the guy or girl who just crushed it before me), it actually feels like I’m unlocking a dormant part of my brain that’s been un-used since being a kid. I’ve learned that I absolutely need a physical outlet to get the most of my work – I always get the best ideas when I’ve been exercising beforehand. It happened recently – a really simple social activation idea that I thought up whilst driving from Devon to London, without any digital distractions, and after a hard morning at the climbing wall. It was a success that didn’t change the world in the slightest, but taught me that the best creatives come when you up your heart-rate, allow yourself some time, and remove your screens for a little while.
What does freedom mean to you?Open space. In the line of work I’ve chosen/have fallen into, I feel like I’ve torn the off-switch off the wall. I’m always on, always thinking, always worrying about something minor and insignificant. But I do have the freedom to do that from wherever I want. If I’m working (and worrying) in an open space outside of a city, I feel like I’m clawing back some of that control, enjoying some level of freedom.
Photo: Maria Sharman
How do wish to see this current situation have a positive impact on our lives?
I really hope it shows employers that the traditional ‘office space’ isn’t a necessity to all lines of work. People don’t need to be in the same room to do a great job, 24/7.
Don’t get me wrong, I miss the collaboration and ability to throw an idea at someone that comes with working next to great likeminded creatives – working at ShortList Magazine was such a great example of that. But I don’t miss the requirement to be in an office from 9-5.
Having the option to adapt your working environment based on what’s on a to-do list, rather than based on an employment structure from hundreds of years ago before even dial-up existed, would be ace. But that’s small-fry compared to the major impact. We see the best and the worst of people in situations like this. I don’t need to talk about the negatives. I hope everyone learns, on any kind of level, to come together and help those in need… but crucially, without expecting anything in return. Or, at the very least, become more aware of those in less fortunate situations. It’s hard to say that without sounding like a wannabe Bob Geldof, but I’ve tried to buy from local businesses that are struggling rather than the cheap-and-easy big boys (the awesome Harbour Brewing in Cornwall are offering free delivery on beer orders over £20, and I’m waiting for my delivery to come any minute now) and spend five minutes collaborating with and thinking up ideas for other creatives that are really struggling mentally and financially with the isolation. If this kind of behaviour follows through when this situation passes, that would be really cool.