With Greylag

These are far, far overdue. As some of you may know, my friends in Greylag recently (read: a few months ago) finished their first country-wide tour, playing with Augustana. My proverbial hat goes off to the boys for an excellent job well-done. They’re now very, very hard at work on some new music. I can say from personal experience that you’ll want to keep tabs on these guys. Really (really).

Anyway, we happened to take these photos as promotional awhile back. I still like them, as I don’t usually find myself involved with enough projects that require copious amounts of cut up construction paper to be tossed around my living room. Four months later, and I’m still finding confetti in my clothes.

Also, right now, listen to Greylag’s debut record The Only Way to Kill You. It’s the business.

With Kimbra Johnson – SXSW

Normally, I’m not really one for performance photography, but I dig Kimbra (if you haven’t seen this or this (lordy, those shoulder shrugs), you’ve probably been doing something else the last few months). So I made a point of making sure catching one of her shows was on my “things to do while in Austin” list. And considering that SXSW was her first time playing in the US, the timing was right for exceptions.

Kimbra played three or four shows during her stay in Austin, and I only made it to the first two — sadly, neither of them were during daylight hours. But in any case, here are a few shots from her first set during the Nikon party at La Zona Rosa. I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect as Kimbra followed acts by a beat boxer (who’s name I may have purposefully forgotten) and a blue grass set via the Punch Brothers. It definitely felt like someone had left things on shuffle. Let’s just say, though, that ‘expressive’ is a pertinent adjective with regards to Ms. Johnson. Either way, it was a real fine thing to be able to see her live. She has the goods. Yes ma’am.

While we’re all talking about Kimbra for a minute, it happens that her Portland show is kinda sold out. So, with that in mind, if you are a person who’s going and have an extra ticket, it’d win you infinite hugs if I could tag along.

Oh, and also, yes, she is as charming in person.

With Anya Marina and Felony Flats

Where to begin with this one? For starters, it’s a fact that Anya Marina’s newest record Felony Flats just dropped today(ish). It’s also a fact that I was lucky enough to have Felony Flats be the first real album cover I’ve shot, which is kind of a big deal. So I guess it’s been sort of a big day for her and I both.

In all earnestness, though, being able to work with Anya was such a privilege. She really is a sweet and humble and unassuming person. Our first meeting was more about our mutual love for Russia rather than photography. And I don’t think I’ll ever forget the afternoon I met Anya at her home to discuss work where she ended up making me tea and stir fry as we talked about location options. More than anything, though, the lady just exudes an atmosphere of comfortability.

Gushing aside, Anya’s down-to-earth and easy-going nature simply made it really easy to work with her. In total, we ended up shooting for about a day and a half, and I can confidently say that more than a few of the resulting images are some of my all-time favorites. Below are the photos that were included in the packaging artwork for Felony Flats, along with one or two or three of my own personal favorites.

Regarding the album itself, I always seem to get in trouble whenever I try describing what bands sound like. Felony Flats has become a bit of a personal favorite for Anya, though, and she talks more in depth about things here and here and here.

In short, though, all you really need to know is that Felony Flats is totally jam-worthy, Anya is flippin awesome, and if you haven’t already gone here to check things out, ya should.

The end.

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With Radiation City

Plainly stated, I’ve grown to love the boys and girls of Radiation City and their music, and I was recently privileged enough to get the chance to shoot some promotional photos for the band’s upcoming EP release “Cool Nightmare” due out in April via Tender Loving Empire.

Now I suppose the first thing that bears noting about all this is that before we got together, a piano was destroyed for this new Rad City music video (a video that in no way should remind you of Office Space, btw). And we all decided that a photoshoot involving the broken remains of said piano might be a good starting point.

Originally to that end, we had planned a pretty ambitious two-day affair, involving another piano being chopped to bits and then either being glued back together or turned into something else entirely. Alas however, due to the limitations of scheduling and time, things were trimmed to a more manageable scope.

Constraints aside, things turned out pretty swell.  There is something about Randy’s portrait I especially dig — perhaps because it bears a semi-intentional resemblance to this guy.

Also of note, if you find yourself in the Austin area during the third week of March (like many of us are), make sure you take the time to catch one of their shows. They’ll be playing here and here and here and here and here and here. Oh, and also of interest, I plan on being at one of the above gigs, so if you wanna come give me a proper howdy-do, you have a 1-in-6 chance of guessing which one I’ll be at.

Good luck and I’ll see ya there!

With Greylag

Andrew and Dan are some of my closest friends, and I’m almost as fond of the music they make as I am of them. I spent a pretty sizable portion of 2011 following these guys around the continent with a camera and until now I’ve sat on the vast majority of the resulting photos at a loss as to how I was going to properly share them.

Well no longer!

To kick things off, I submit the following modest set of five images. These promo shots were taken to mark the auspicious occasion of Greylag signing to San Francisco-based label Ninth Street Opus, and just happen to be some of my favorites of the boys to date. I am especially fond of the first in the set. I think it’s the mountains that get me. Also, speaking of being signed, the band has a set of singles due out in only a few short weeks, so make a note of things in iCal.

So yeah. Expect to see the faces below frequenting my blog. I think we can all agree that it will be a blessing — like an unexpected-but-welcome mental back massage after a long and rewarding hard day’s work.

Oh, and if you aren’t already listening to their music yet, you should fix that. I think it’d be only fitting.

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