Drexler McStyles

Drexler McStyles resides in Asheville, NC with his wife. Born near Denver, Colorado in 1974, he spent most of his formative years drifting through Southern California; temporarily settling in Venice Beach as a young man. There, he sold his photography on the boardwalk and even dabbled briefly in the adult entertainment industry. Disillusioned with the Venice scene, he sold most of his possessions and headed for the far east, landing in Australia where he spent 6 months before ultimately moving on to S.E. Asia where he eventually became involved in the smuggling of opium. Deported from Burma, he returned to the U.S. for a brief period before setting out for Mexico and Central America, where he was to write a book on the Los Angeles underground club scene. The manuscript for the novel, near completion, was destroyed when his bungalow on Lake Atitlan burned to the ground. Details about the fire are sketchy at best, and McStyles still refuses to discuss that particular episode. Once again he returned stateside for a short time until the events of Sept. 11th 2001 inspired him to move to Morocco. It was during a stretch in the Western Sahara that an attempt was made on his life, causing him to flee to Spain and eventually return to California. This was to be the start of a new chapter for him, one in which he would meet his wife to be, Nicole Adkins. They moved to New Orleans in 2003 where they spent a year before packing up for SE Asia. Nearly killed in Malaysia by the tsunami of 2004, they returned to New Orleans to regroup. Little did they know it would only be a short time before they would be evicted from their 9th ward home by Hurricane Katrina. Taking their FEMA money and running with it, they found themselves in South America where McStyles became involved in the trafficking on cocaine. His 2nd foray in the world of smuggling would end up much like his first. With both he and his wife barely escaping the authorities in Chile and returning to the US by way of a cargo ship. The journey took 3 months. Bruised and battered, much like the city they were returning to, McStyles decided it was best to lay low for awhile. Their decision to go to India was inspired as much by wanderlust as it was to leave behind the shell of a city they had returned to. 6 month later they returned stateside. This time to California, where they would briefly gather themselves before embarking on a an unfortunate, 3 year stint in Albuquerque, NM. In 2010 they moved to Portland, OR. where he had spent an early part of his childhood. The city was good to The McStyles family but ultimately, was not what they were looking for in the long term. So, in March of 2013 they loaded up their affairs and made the long haul across the country to Asheville, where they hope to set roots and grow old. At least for now. In addition to his photography, he also pens restaurant critiques for his blog (Mouth of McStyles) and occasionally for the Asheville Citizen Times.