Dean Sherwood – A Life on the Road

You tour with one of the most famous bands in the world, how did that come about?

I actually used to live with Joe, one of the band’s management team, in a very stereotypical rock and roll way. Living with another band that Joe was managing and I was photographing and filming at the time. We were living in a 5 bedroom house in London. Everyone had messed up sleeping patterns, it was pretty unhealthy! Certainly not sustainable. When Joe introduced me to The Vamps and we started working together it was great, I ended up being signed into their record deal. That was over 8 years ago.

What is life like with a band, are you The Fifth Beatle – do the fans know who you are? How does it impact your life in a non-pandemic year? It must be fun, but it must put pressure on daily routines. Or is there no such thing as a routine?

I think the fans that are into photography and video do, yeah. It’s pretty cool seeing them shoot shows and then tag me in their work after, I always have a look through, if I have time I’ll give them some kudos. I’m definitely not the fifth Beatle though, ha. Routine has to be flexible for sure. We’ll have days on tour when I get in from a show at 11pm, I’ll need to edit the day’s photos, sometimes a video and have it either posted that night or ready for the band to see the next morning. I’ll get to bed around 2am and be up at 5am ready to grab some coffee, pack my bags up and head to a radio show with the band. After that, we could be heading to TV, or a fan event, and then onto another show. All the time I’m shooting and editing. In some ways, the routine is the same, but in others, it’s completely unpredictable. You have to be able to just get on with it and do your job. It sounds rough in some respects to some people, but, the flip side, I’m travelling the world, I’ve seen a lot of beautiful, inspiring places, I’ve been lucky, but yeah, it’s hard work.

Going back, how did you get into photography? Was it always a career goal or did it evolve and become that?

It was an evolution. I started by building my portfolio with friends, we’d just go and shoot in parks and stuff, at their houses, normal stuff. I was trying to work out cameras and light. Learning composition, experimenting. I just wanted to shoot every day. One of my friends, Leon, was a singer in a band and he asked me if I wanted to tag along for some shows. I got hooked. I started messaging bands in the area asking if I could photograph them. My portfolio got stronger and stronger. I mean, now I look back on it and I’m horrified by some of the photos, haha, but you know, at the time it was working for me, it must have been. I started shooting bigger bands in better venues and got my first paid job with Ian Brown for NME magazine. From that, I went onto shoot loads of cool bands like Kasabian, The Charlatans, One Republic, Foals etc. I just kept working hard, learning and loved it and luckily it kept leading to the next level for me until I got to where I am today, working full time for a band – being a part of their journey.

What’s your relationship with music, are you a frustrated pop star or a fantastic music lover?

I’m a music lover, but it hits me a different way. Music inspires me in so many ways. From the work, I do to getting myself motivated. It’ll help me relax when I need time to think or it’ll get me off the couch when I need to get stuff done.

What about sport in general, are you a big sports fan either as a participant or supporter?

My Dad was a professional footballer back in the ’80s, so I love football. I played golf when I was younger, I mean I still do, but in my late teens it got serious and I gave it a go, I turned pro when I was 20 and tried to make it but ultimately I just wasn’t good enough, the step up from amateur to pro was too much for me. I don’t regret it. It was harsh and I think mentally it drained me. To say to yourself ‘you’re not good enough’ at anything is tough, but this was another level. I was trying to make putts for money so I could play next week, the pressure was a bit too much, mentally I wasn’t strong enough. My parents were amazing and helped me so much to keep going for as long as I could but it just didn’t happen. There aren’t many sports I don’t like to be honest. Sport is a big part of my life, I’m very competitive and tend to be the one in my group of friends that’s ‘good at everything’, I think it’s in my genes.

Cycling is a growing sport and pastime in Britain with newcomers swelling local clubs, commuters and crit races. How / why and when did you get into cycling in general?

Backtracking to 2018. It’s March, I weigh myself and I’m 17 stone. I mean I’m 6’3” but I’m a skinny 6’3”. I was overweight, I was unfit and I’d hit a point where going upstairs carrying my camera gear was getting harder and harder, I needed a change. Apart from changing my diet, I started to workout. I’d always been fairly fit, definitely slim, so this wasn’t really ‘me’. I hated it, so it became an obsession. By the end of the year, I was down to 11 stone and running 70km’s a week on average. I fully got the running bug and by March this year, I was training for my first half marathon with a marathon lined up in August as well. Obviously, as we all know, life took a different direction for everyone, so I eased up with the training a bit and gave my legs a break by getting a second-hand road bike. I knew nothing about bikes. I hadn’t ridden, other than renting one around London, in years. We are talking zero bike skills! Anyway, I got out for a ride and that was it. In my first week of riding, I did a 100km ride. I had a base fitness, aerobic fitness, but my body felt broken. Different muscle groups – a new challenge. Cycling took over from running. I still run, but nowhere near as much.

The identity of cyclists, especially with this boom in cycling, is made up in all manner of ways. Some convert from other sports, as a result of commuting, as a ‘progression’ from other cycling disciplines. Would you define yourself as a cyclist or is cycling just one of the things you do?

I think it’s one of the things I do, but it’s, at the moment, the predominant form of exercise I do. Last week I did just over 11 hours on the indoor trainer, a mix of endurance rides and a Zwift training plan I’m doing. I guess that’s a pretty big chunk of my time so maybe I’m a cyclist!

Aside from the physical, cycling can be a very visual world. Long rides become adventures of discovery, is there any extra appeal to you as a photographer in that? Does photography ever bleed into cycling; capturing moments on a ride, shooting others, documenting the experience — or is a separate endeavour entirely?

They definitely link. I can be annoying to ride with I bet! I’m always ‘looking’, thinking about a photograph I could take and sometimes will stop and take, or looking at places and thinking ‘this would be a cool place to shoot a music video’ or something like that. I think that’s what I originally loved about running. When I started to run, the day before a tour with the band, I didn’t set out to run in every city we visited across North America, but I did, and it was a way for me to see the cities. When you tour you rarely get more than a few hours to see places, and I’m sometimes too tired, but running was giving me energy and giving me memories I’d never had before. Cycling is a step up. I can cycle way further, see more places and explore, it’s so much fun.

Did you have anyone to lead you into the world of cycling, a mentor or source of inspiration?

Not really. I started watching YouTube videos and some of the runners I enjoyed following would often do cycling on their ‘off’ week to rest the legs, I think that’s what enticed me. I needed a way to stay fit, to keep exercising, but not break myself. Once I got the bike I realised I had a lot to learn so watching people like Francis Cade helped. There’s also a dude in America called Tyler Pearce, he’s vegan, which I am, and he’s a pretty sick cyclist too, so he’s inspired me a lot as well as he talks about food choices and cycling.

How much does the aesthetics of cycling appeal to you? Bikes, gear, apparel. There’s a technical side to all of them but also a style and culture element. Are you the sort of person who wants the beautiful object or the technological best? (or both!).

I would think 99% of people want both. Whether that’s attainable is a different thing altogether. It’s an expensive sport if you want both though. I think being such a visual person if that makes sense, I prefer things to look good for sure but to be honest, I’m more about the competition with myself. Can I be better today, can I push myself a bit more, or, even, can I recover better.

How much do you care about the rules of cycling? The unwritten ones that say ‘sunglasses over the top of helmet straps’ and ‘socks a certain length’?

Someone needs to teach me these I’m guessing! I’m a long socks lover though for sure.

How have you found cycling this year, with all the constraints (or freedoms) of a pandemic? What has changed?

Being so new, this is all I know. I’m a pandemic born cyclist.

At what stage in your cycling life did indoor cycling play a part, from the beginning or later on? What was the motivation for it — was it purely fitness-based, to ease time constraints or some other reason, such as the global online community?

Luckily my girlfriends boss is a very keen cyclist and straight away he turned up at ours with a smart trainer for me to try. I still have it Scott by the way! I started cycling in September so we were already getting hit and miss weather days, I loved being able to jump on Zwift if I couldn’t get out. I fast learned I’d push myself harder indoors. I guess because it wouldn’t matter so much if I bonked maybe. I feel like a lot of the gains for outside have come from being diligent indoors and putting the hours in.

What’s your platform of poison, do you Ride On on Zwift or prefer another method?

I started with Zwift, tried TranerRoad, which is awesome, but I came back to Zwift, the different world’s side of it, the community and the races and group workouts, it’s all in one place and it’s great fun which makes a 3-hour indoor ride a bit more tolerable for sure!

What’s your home setup, tell us more about the gear you use from turbo trainer to screen. Are you a Permanent Pain Cave man with a widescreen HD telly and 5 fans or is it assembled when required in some corner of your home?

I’ve got a nice setup, with a widescreen, fans, bottles of water, gels etc… I’m definitely geared up to work and be entertained. I just got a wicked new laptop stand by a company called Tons, it’s so clean and sustainable so I’m a big fan of that as well.

What’s your ideal dream set up, were space, money and science no object?

I think I’d have a bike room. It’d have my bikes, a workstation, a kitchen for pre/post fuelling and then a pain cave section for the bike, big TV setup, air conditioning and a wet room for after. Maybe a hot tub for having the recovery drink in after would be nice.

Do you listen to The Vamps on the turbo, or have you had enough of them by then!!? Tell us a bit about what you do to get you through a session.

Ha, no. Actually, that’s a lie. If I’m working on ideas for a video, yes. I just have the song playing over and over. One song and I’ll drift off somewhere and hopefully, come back and need to pause my workout to write down the idea so I don’t forget. Mostly though it’s either podcasts, playlists or I’ll stick YouTube on or a Netflix series. It depends on the workout. Today I just have a zone 2 session for 90 mins so I’ll probably watch something. If it’s an intervals session though it’ll be music or a podcast.

What’s the hardest ride or session you’ve done indoors? Have you ever raced or taken part in a tough group ride?

So my first indoor race was 100km. Dude. What am I doing? I have no idea of pacing myself over 3km let alone 100km! It was so hard. The aftermath afterwards of sweat, gel packets and empty bottles was hilarious. Way out of my depth but I learned a lot! Workout wise, I just did a 2 hour 15 min session of long intervals that was brutal, but I did it. I felt horrible though, partly due to a lack of sleep the night before.

What’s your attitude to indoor cycling, is it a necessary evil or a new strand of cycling that deserves credit in its own right? What do you love and despite most about training indoors?

To be honest, I look at exercise as a privilege. I get to do this. I get to make myself fitter and stronger. It’s not a burden. Somedays, for sure, it’s easier than others, but in all relativity, this is awesome and I’m lucky to get to do it. Indoor cycling is great because it’s so efficient. There’s no cafe stops indoors. It’s ‘i’ve got an hour workout today’ – easier to fit into a busy schedule, less washing as well! The worst thing about it is all the times I’ve started a workout and not been able to stop to turn the fan on I forgot to switch on at the start!