Meet Men Of Many Talents Spotted On The Streets Of Sydney


Dudes have been getting unjustly pigeonholed with character-defining
labels since forever: Fancy some vinyl? You’re a skinny jeans-wearing hipster. Own a sports car? You’re going through a mid-life crisis. Wear a suit? You must be an accountant. Sure, sometimes dudes are dead ringers for their society defined stereotype but these are a bunch of multi-talented men who refuse to follow convention and have more layers than a cake – hell, even an onion!

Bespoke brew purveyor James Squire is dedicated to breaking down these stereotypes with Rogue Tales, a series of short films that showcase some of Australia’s most roguishly charming men who defy pigeonholing. Take Tim Kill,
for example. His love affair with bending wood began when he was 16 and repaired his first guitar. Now, 15 years later, he handcrafts a diverse range of custom designed stringed instruments that truly are a thing of beauty. On the flipside, the dude’s also got a serious – but healthy – obsession with old motorcycles and tends to get a glint in his eye whenever someone happens to mention they’ve got a a bike or even some crusty parts just lying around their backyard.

We know Tim isn’t the only dude out there with hidden talents. Taking
inspiration from James Squire’s Rogue Tales, Pedestrian went out onto
the streets in search of men who are more than just what meets the eye.
Armed with our own bearded man ex-surfboard shaper and
vagabond photographer Ted O’Donnell, we stepped outside our office ready
to capture these men in their natural habitats. Continuing on with our manhunt for
undercover Clark Kent types, we quickly realised we didn’t have to look
far – turns out men with roguish charm and a diverse – and unexpected –
range of talents are easy to come by. Take a look at the men we met in
our own backyard.

Meet James Irving. We spotted his paint-covered overalls in Redfern as he was heading home after a long day on the worksite. A carpenter by trade, James likes to mix things up a bit and incorporate his friends’ artwork into the things he builds. For instance, why make a white picket fence when you can contain your yard with some great panels of art? Especially when it’s outside your lounge room window and you’ll be staring at it for the rest of your life. When he’s not being a man’s man and hammering shit, you can find James singing along to his favourite musicals, or just making up his own! After a few beverages, he’s been known to bring his friends back home to teach them a song or two from Les Miserables, and why not? There was also this one time, where he brought a man back to life just by belting out a tune (okay, it may have been a coincidence but James swears it was his notes that did it..).

Meet Harry Hunter. We caught him while he was taking a break from producing stuff for Entropico, a film, visual media and print production collective. He’s currently working on a doco with his friends all about the stuss – remember that ‘S’ symbol you used to draw all over your math book at school? Well, he’s planning on bringing it back. Not just skilled at joining a bunch of parallel lines, turns our Harry is quite handy with a sewing needle. Teaching himself to sew aged 19 because he wanted to attach some ears to a hoodie, he’s now branched out to sewing different linings into jackets. When he’s not getting his craft on or workin’ on projects, he’s checking out terribly made depression era Russian sci-fi movies, because well.. they’re so bad they’re good.

Meet Sindy Sinn. We discovered him hanging around some rather
derelict brick buildings in St Peters, taking a break from screen
printing band shirts. Working for APRA|AMCOS, if you need to know
anything about music licensing and copyright, Sindy is most definitely
your man. When he’s not thinking about the creative law, Sindy is a
freelance illustrator with a penchant for big and bold ‘90s style
cartoons (think Ren and Stimpy). Currently customizing a motorcycle
helmet (which is rather hard considering it’s like painting a bowling
ball) Sindy needs to keep his hands busy otherwise he feels odd. Aside
from that, Sindy is really – and we mean really – passionate about burritos.

Meet Eli Galbally. We smelled the coffee he was brewing at Mary Street Café in Surry Hills and decided to pop in for a pick me up. Opening up the vegetarian café eight months ago with his sweetheart, Eli and his girl have a pretty easy commute to work every morning – they only live upstairs! After being gifted 300 skull shot glasses a few months back, Eli has become quite the accidental horticulturalist.  First attempting to serve coffee in the skulls, Eli soon found his calling planting saplings where the gin coffee brain would be. From there, he’s branched out to planting pineapple tops in anything and everything he finds around the shop. Waste not, want not.

These beaut snaps were taken by Ted O’Donnell.
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