After 20 years of making music and performing worldwide with band Rapture Ruckus, Brad Dring – aka shortydubs – changed tack to accommodate his young family and morphed from hip hop music to street-inspired art.
“Music and being in a band was an incredible way for me to learn and scratch my creative itches, whether designing album art, editing music videos or designing gig posters, I got obsessed with learning the tools and getting involved,” he says.
As luck would have it the transition away from music happened in 2018 and Brad moved his family to Whaingaroa in 2019 before the ability to travel easily was put on pause by the pandemic.
“I really wanted my boys to grow up close to the ocean as I did, get them into surfing and be connected to the land. So hence why we chose Raglan.”
Any artist will tell you it’s hard to dampen the creative urge and Brad took up painting, which he could fit around family life.
Describing himself as an urban artist dabbling in street art, pop art and graphic design, Brad’s work often samples and reimagines well-known imagery like a King of the Pipeline Gerry Lopez photograph or a Goldie painting.
Using layered stencils, spray paint and motifs, Brad reconceptualises the original.
“A lot of the creative work I was doing, other than the performing and playing instruments, was all very computer-based. I really wanted to find a medium of doing artwork and getting dirty with wood and spray paint, and using my hands and getting it out of the computer.”
While it’s not yet bringing Brad the acclaim he found with Rapture Ruckus, he is selling a few pieces online through his Instagram page @shortydubs, and more importantly he is filling his creative bucket.
“I’m really just doing it for me at the moment and putting some stuff up online, and I’ve sold some work over the Internet.”
Rapture Ruckus first made waves in New Zealand in the early 2000s and in 2004 they headlined Parachute, a music festival held at Mystery Creek and, in their debut performance, broke the festival record for highest-selling debut act.
After winning a New Zealand Music Award (Tui) in 2007 for their debut release, ‘I Believe’, and reaching the Top of the NZ album charts in 2009 with their live CD/DVD, ‘Live at Worlds End’, they caught the eye of Seattle based record label BEC/Tooth&Nail and signed a deal later that year.
In 2010, Brad, his wife Mel and the other members of Rapture Ruckus relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, before hitting the gruelling touring circuit in the US and beyond.
Their 2015 album ‘Invader’ debuted at number 1 on the US Billboard Christian/Gospel Album Chart and reached number 57 on the overall US Top Albums Chart.
“Between 2010 -2018 we were on the road about 200 days a year performing 100 plus shows each year across the US and other parts of the world.”
Brad and Mel had their first son Roman in 2013 and Lincoln followed in 2015, and the young boys joined their parents on the road.
“We brought a tour bus in the US so the whole family could travel together. Having our family together has always been a high priority, so we converted bus bunks into baby cribs and just figured it out as we went along.”
Prioritising family and a yearning to return home to raise the boys, Brad and Mel decided to return to Aotearoa in 2018.
“As part of a plan to transition back to New Zealand and away from the extensive touring, I reconnected with friends at Fiasco Cases, a Kiwi company in the Waikato that also had an operation in Torrance, California, and became their creative director,” he says.
“In 2020, with Covid, the world’s events industry went into a tailspin, and we knew we had to pivot quickly if we wanted to survive. We put our heads together to think of ways we could produce products using our CNC machines and a supply of premium birch plywood, and Work From Home Desks was born. Within one week we were up and running, and had made our first online sale in New Zealand. The following week we made our first sale in the US, and we were off.”
Now, Brad says, with the events industry back up and running, Fiasco is back at full steam as well.
Being back in New Zealand also meant Rapture Ruckus could have their swansong where it all started for them and they took to the stage for the very last time to a sold-out festival audience in January 2020, a few short months before lockdown would have made it impossible.
“It’s been a big change, and though life now has a different pace and flow, I’m still very much an artist at my core and in my soul, and finding new ways to create and express new ideas will never stop,” he says.
“Painting has been a godsend and I feel very blessed to be living in this incredible community of Raglan, connected to nature and so many other creative people doing cool stuff.”
The born-and-bred Wellingtonian also manages to fit in music and surfing, on top of family, work and painting.
“When I’m not working or painting, you’ll find me surfing out on the Points or pushing my boys into waves down at the beach.”
He also loves working with up-and-coming young musos and artists as a mentor, sharing his journey and wealth of creative experiences.
Join Brad Dring at Artist Talks on Thursday 23 February at 6.30pm at the Old School Arts Centre.
Entry by koha | Licensed bar and refreshments for sale.
