Man behind the murals - the Liverpool artist who worked with Banksy and Gorillaz
What do Liverpool Brewing Company, Beak Fried Chicken, Waterloo Amateur Boxing Club and King's Leadership Academy all have in common? Each of them has commissioned the same street artist to design incredible murals for their organisations - a man who has, over the years, had a profound effect on popular culture.
Austin Wilde, born in Liverpool, raised in Essex and now living in Waterloo, might seem like just another town local, often found sipping a Guinness alongside his dog Aggy in the Volunteer Canteen pub. However, over the years, Austin has worked with some of art and music's biggest names, including Gorillaz, Mark Ronson and Duffy - oh, and Banksy too - not that he'd reveal his identity!
Nowadays, the 50-year-old paints colourful murals around the local community and beyond, with his latest design currently in the works on Waterloo's South Road, right opposite the railway station. He describes the new artwork, commissioned by Waterloo Town Team and featuring notable local landmarks such as Crosby Beach and Rimrose Valley, as a "celebration of the nature on Waterloo's doorstep".
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Austin was born in Liverpool in 1974 and his family moved to Essex when he was young. He described Essex as "a 'new-town' back then, like Skelmersdale. There wasn't much there in terms of creativity."
However, everything changed for Austin in the early 90s. Hip Hop was in full swing, prompting himself, like many other youngsters, to take an interest in the graffiti and urban art sub-culture, which he was involved with throughout his teens. There was just one problem: he "had no idea how to make a living from it."
He said: "To make money, I started working at a screen printers and DJing at weekends. Soon after, I got a job at an electronic dance club called Renaissance in Nottinghamshire, and later ran their first season in Ibiza." Austin eventually made the decision to leave the nightlife music scene, going to work for record company DMC, and then later starting his own label, Whoa. It was here he founded the Late Night Tales compilation-album series, which is still running today. Many of the albums end with a story track, read by famous people including Benedict Cumberbatch, Will Self, Brian Blessed and Patrick Moore.
While running Whoa, he shared an office with Banksy's first manager, while the secretive street painter worked with Austin to create artwork for another compilation series. Ultimately selling the company, Austin moved to EMI Records as creative director, scouting talent and working with the likes of Mark Ronson and Gorillaz. During his time there he signed many successful artists, including Duffy and Beirut.
Austin moved back up north ten years ago after his father died, in order to be closer to his mum. Since being back in Liverpool, he has worked at the Philharmonic Hall and as a lecturer at LIPA. He now paints murals, designs logos and writes old-school signs, working for himself under the name 'No Fresco Yo!'
He said: "I always have to be creating, and having new experiences, I can't sit around doing the same thing every day. We all need money, but it's not the most important thing." Speaking about his latest mural, Austin said: "The mural is a celebration of the nature which we have on our doorstep in Waterloo and Sefton. It’s 15 metres long and has taken two weeks to paint and three to design.
"I wanted to highlight the skies we have here, and the Iron Men and the beach. The Iron Man has been painted using metallic paints and gilded with Italian copper leaf which will degrade in a similar way to the actual Iron Men over time, so it’s a kind of living mural.
"The lettering is drawn by hand and the effect changes depending on what angle you look at it from. The colours I’ve used are both estival and autumnal. One end of the mural highlights Rimrose Valley to show visitors that we don’t only have a beach, but a great country park."
Austin completes the mural tomorrow (Friday September 20). All of his artwork can be found on Instagram @nofrescoyo or at his website here.