Shay Scranton by Dominik Young
O
ne common theme presented in superhero fiction is evolution. From the astonishing mutants in the X-Men franchise to the ordinary people with extraordinary powers in NBC’s Heroes, evolution is a theme that shows how something simple can gradually become complex. While they might not have superpowers, artists in general go through their own personal changes. Such as the case with Shay Scranton.
EVOLUTION
OF AN ARTIST
called “Shay Scantron”. He was annoyed at first with this new name, but would later embrace it as it became synonymous with his style of DJing electronic music. For Shay, “it just made sense at the time. When you think of Scantron, you think of something electronic.” His beginning with electronic music happened in seventh grade, when a friend recommended listening to “Fat of the Land” by Prodigy in his sister’s car. At the time, Shay was a grunge music fan and still a punk-rocker at heart. Once he got hooked into Prodigy, Shay started studying other innovators of the growing ‘90s Electronica/Trip-Hop scene
For Scranton, his evolution started in the field of art. This “first stage” was ignited the moment he looked at a childhood drawing on his grandmother’s refrigerator. Scranton saw a deeper meaning within his simple drawing – an insight that caused his grandmother to encourage him to learn more about art. As Shay began to look through his grandmother’s art books, it was the classical artists that caught his attention. He says he felt something of a spiritual bond with one in particular: Pablo Picasso. Shay loved how the Spanish artist interpreted things in his own way. During the Photo by Steven Ruud heyday of the comic book industry, Shay felt such as The Chemical Brothers, The Crystal that same connection to Mark Bagley, Spawn Method, and especially Fatboy Slim. It was creator Todd McFarlane, and Tank Girl’s Jamie the punk rock aesthetic and the sampling that Hewlett (who would later create the animated attracted him. band Gorillaz). Like Picasso, these artists were groundbreaking to Shay because they pushed As he began to experiment with this type of creative boundaries and interpreted the world music, Shay found that he had a talent for through a unique lens. In time, Shay came to creating new sounds. “DJing isn’t about mixing appreciate a number of other artistic mediums – music. It’s about creating something out of the especially graffiti art. However, this was not the parts you can find.” In essence, he was building “musical sculptures.” In order to progress, though, last of Shay’s evolution. he needed more than his own creativity. “I want Remember that evolution is a process with to get my style infused with some other people’s steps involved. Thus, we have the “second style,” he lamented. In time, Shay helped form stage.” This time it’s in the field of music – more the Waco City DJs – a trio whose purpose specifically, DJing. Shay would also get a new was exposing Waco to the electronic scene. identity to go along with this change. In third Performing under the name DJ Scantron, Shay grade, when schools started using scantron joined Justin “DJ Decent” Horrell and Brian tests, a classmate of Shay pointed out that his “DJ Rocksteady” Fillmore to make the Waco last name was an anagram. After that, Shay was
18 • bohemia • July 2012
City DJs a pillar of the town’s electronic scene. Baylor-area coffeehouse Common Grounds and downtown Waco’s Treff’s Bar & Grill were mainstays of the trio. After the Waco City DJs disbanded, Shay decided that he wanted other artists to build their own musical sculptures with his original music. “I want to be the one who made the tracks that other DJs are playing.” So he’s been working on a hip-hop project called the Disregardians, in which he creates beats to be sampled. While Shay still makes music, he’s also made a return to his first passion, art, as a commercial artist. You can see his art at Common Grounds, and more recently at the Waco Downtown Farmer’s Market. It is his most ambitious project to date that leads to the third stage of his evolution: Dead Horse. Dead Horse is a webcomic that Shay is doing with Jeremy Mercer, former manager of Baylor’s own Dancing Bear Pub. It is a post-apocalyptic zombie comedy that breaks the “Z-word Rule,” a trend made popular by the genre savvy movie Shaun of the Dead. The webcomic can be described as “Mad Max meets The Walking Dead meets the Gorillaz.” (You can find it online at www.supportyourlocalvigilantes.com.) In all of his projects, Shay strives to create art and music that forces people to reinterpret the rules and boundaries of each – and, hopefully, themselves. In the near future, Shay would love to see his art brought to life. Therefore, he’s going into the next stage in his evolution: filmmaking. “I would love to see my characters in motion, moving across the screen, interacting with each other and their environment; but above everything, I just want to tell my stories on film or in animation.” How far will this artist evolve? Only time will tell.