Q&A - THE CAKER & SPIDER SINCLAIRE
What's better than a love story about Spider and Jordan?
The tattoo love story Spider tells in this interview.
Big thanks to our Valentine's Day muses, Spider and Jordan
@thecaker & @spidersinclaire
Who’s the romantic in the relationship, and which one's more likely to forget your anniversary?
I'd say Spider is the more romantic one!
In terms of forgetting our anniversary it's either that neither of us forget, or both of us forget, there's never been an anniversary where just one of us forgot.
Favourite love songs?
Most songs by John Lennon, but Out The Blue is one we hold close to our hearts because it's tied up with lots of special memories.
Spider - can you tell us a sad/ funny/ tragic love story that you’ve heard while doing (or covering) a tattoo?
Many years ago a Māori family came into Two Hands with a young Italian girl who didn’t speak a word of English. They brought with them a Tā moko design, which she wanted tattooed on her arm. I asked why this Italian girl was getting a traditional tattoo and they told me the most beautiful love story:
When her grandmother was a young girl her village was occupied by the Nazis and the Māori battalion liberated their village, fighting from house to house. A young Māori soldier was injured while saving her family’s life. For weeks afterwards, her family nursed the handsome Māori soldier back to life and the young girl fell in love with him. But he had to return to his battalion. She never forgot about him, she even named her son after him and the family always had a photo of him kept above the mantelpiece. 60 years later that little girl's granddaughter came to New Zealand to find the soldier's descendants and reconnect with them.
The family decided to honor the granddaughter with a Tā moko.
Jordan - any cute Valentine’s Day stories from the Caker over the years?
This didn't happen on Valentine's Day, but this is a cute story that happened recently in Los Angeles. A lovely guy ordered a cake, a matcha cherry cake, which, according to his order notes, was girlfriend's absolute favourite. When I saw an email literally 2 days later from the (then) girlfriend of said lovely guy, inquiring about getting a matcha cherry wedding cake, I found out that he had proposed that night with the cake he had ordered. As she put it, it was partly the reason she said yes.
What are you most looking forward to about being home?
Honestly, just being around people. We spent a great deal of 2020 in lock down and it started to get to us towards the end there because we fell into such a routine of all work and very little play. It's so thrilling to be back in Auckland where things are pumping, there's positive energy in the air, and there's so many amazing new restaurants, bars and things to do. Plus it's summer, which means fish and chips at the beach, nostalgic walks through Ponsonby and Grey lynn where we grew up, bumping into friends along the way, patting cats and inhaling the scent of jasmine in the balmy air. Being home is so magical.
Favourite romantic movie/ movie scene?
At the end of Lost in Translation when Bill Murray, on his way to the airport, finds Scarlett Johansen in the street, just in time to whisper something in her ear. It gets me every-time.
Something each of you has discovered about the other through all the drama of 2020
Jordan: It was reconfirmed to me that Spider unfalteringly has my back. For the first time in a long time I needed someone to hold my hand and tell me it's all gonna be okay, and he did that whenever I needed it. 2020 was not always smooth sailing, but in the roughest of seas we stayed afloat because we had each other. Love trumps all.