This weekend I was brought in to shoot some backstage portraits of the band, Scary Pockets. While developing the photos, I was reminded of one of the greatest paradigm shifts I’ve experienced in my creative journey - both as a touring bassist and film photographer; How I define being an ‘Amateur’ and a ‘Professional.’
Getting film hand-checked every time I go through TSA is a pain… I can’t fix my mistakes like I could with a digital image… it takes longer… it’s finicky… it’s more expensive…
the list goes on, but I love it and I still do it anyway.
Join me today on the podcast to discuss why I still shoot film, and why I think it’s worth it.
I just got back from Mexico and decided to shoot the entire trip only on film. (a first for me) here are a few frames.
🎞️ These were all shot on my Rollei 35 on either Kodak 400 or Ilford HP5 (pushed to 1600 and developed in my darkroom with Kodak HC-110)
“They’ve got one in Honolulu, they’ve got one in Moscow too.
They’ve got four of them in Sydney, and a couple in Katmandu…”
Why is it, Wherever I go around the world, you’ll find an Irish pub?
What is it that makes them so special? Where do all these Pubs source their bar counters and authentic Irish brick-a-brack?
Pull up a barstool and join me in Mexico as I hunt down a pint of proper and tap into, "A Guide To Irish Pubs Around The World.”
I don’t fully understand it yet, but I swear to god that the things we create (songs, photographs, poems…) have a will, energy, desire for relationship, or preference of their own…
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This is a perfect example: I took these two photographs a year apart and was completely unaware of their connectedness until this week.
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Both of them, candid evening moments after @caitlynsmith shows. One is @caitlynsmith entering our greenroom trailer in New York in 2023, the other is her husband @rolliegaalswyk exiting ours in New Hampshire in 2022.
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Both frames are accompanied only by a meandering @stevebosmans minding his own damn business. 😂
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For some reason, I opened my archive and found them side by side. When I saw it, I just started laughing. I was so delighted by the serendipity and I’ll never be able to see one of these photos without thinking of the other.
For more thoughts on this, check out my “Daily Guinness” podcast episode HERE.
I was grabbing cocktails last night, downtown Minneapolis, with my buddy Joel Bowers and Sarah, when he picked up my Leica M6 and asked if I had a favorite photo that I made with it in 2023.
As much as I loved that question, responding to it on the spot was hard. So… as I sat down with coffee in hand this morning, I tried to narrow my answer down to a few.
For The Curious: All of these were shot on Ilford HP5 film that I self-developed and scanned or darkroom printed. I was trying out a bunch of different lenses and focal lengths, but a 35mm lives on it now. (Maybe permanently?)
Although I’m so damn thankful a Carl Zeiss 28mm was on the first photo… as allowed me a wide enough field of view to capture the entire band (minus myself) in the greenroom before we played in Missouri this summer.
Just wrapped a two-week-long run of sold-out shows playing bass with The Blenders for their 2023 Christmas Tour and the entire time, I was ruminating on a quote by one of my favorite photographers, Ansel Adams. (Shared with me via my friend Kurt.)
“[Alfred] Stieglitz’s doctrine of the Equivalent as an explanation of creative photography opened the world for me… In showing a photograph, he implied, ‘Here is the equivalent of what I saw and felt.’ That is all I can ever say in words about my photographs; they must stand or fall, as objects of beauty and communication, on the silent evidence of their equivalence.” - Ansel Adams
I became so obsessed with this thought that I even taped the words to the top of my Leica M6, “The Doctrine Of The Equivalent,” and it began to subconsciously show itself in the photographs I made over those two weeks.
Whether they stand or fall…
Here is the equivalent of what I saw and how it all felt to me.
“My dad had a catchphrase, and I said I’d never have a catchphrase…
But it turns out, my catchphrase might be, ‘Support Your Neighbor’s Art!’” -JT Bates
I had the night off in Minneapolis, so I decided to swing out to Dakota Jazz Club with a couple of rolls of film to catch my friend JT Bates soundcheck for a set with his quartet of old friends and magical musicians Jeffrey Bailey (bass), Michael Lewis (saxophone), Bryan Nichols (piano) and featuring the brilliant Aby Wolf on vocals.
It’s easy (especially music) to view only the show as THE THING. But after years of it all, I’ve started to realize that the rehearsal is THE THING, the dinner before is THE THING, the green-room hang is THE THING, and the load out is THE THING.
It’s all of it…
THE THING.
And I’d like to stay present for as much of it as possible.
Minneapolis • 9/8/23
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There’s something magical about playing the Entry at First Ave. Maybe it’s the fact that @thepretendershq played there the night before along with the hundreds of set-lists plastered in the back. Maybe it’s because Prince’s motorcycle is hidden in a secret location.
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But, even though nostalgia is my drug of choice, I don’t think that’s it.
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It’s not the ghosts of past shows, it’s the one still hot at your feet.
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◙ @firstavenue @danrodriguezmusic @natebabbs @bownotbau @andrerodriguezmusic
“…and so we spent the night, trading good dollars for rough quarters.”
“… and so I decided to reserve the right to be nostalgic for a moment I’m still in.”
“I had a boat to catch in Cape Town. What happened on the way, who I met and all of that, was incidental. I had not quite realized, the interruptions WERE the journey.” - Excerpt from “Jupiter’s Travel’s” by Ted Simon
I can’t think of a better way to celebrate my 38th birthday than playing a show with Caitlyn Smith and the band, in the Ozarks, opening for Dirks Bentley. The show was sublime, the sound-check a shit show.
I’m reminded of how I used to view the set as what it meant to be a musician. I now know… all of it is all of it.
We’re playing just a few miles from my grandparents’ home where I spent my summers growing up and (since all birthdays turn me into a wandering existentialist) I can’t help thinking life might be the same way.
Now that I think of it… sure, I had a blast playing, but it was the conversations in the green-room and in the van that I won’t quickly forget.
“Grief’s a crafty little fucker. Sneaks up on you.” - Shrinking (Apple TV, S1E3)
EVERY SINGLE used film camera I’ve bought (and I have quite a few) turned out to be owned by someone who passed away, sold by someone who loved them.⠀⠀⠀⠀
A dad’s cherished Leica M3, a brother’s Rollei 35, a mom’s Minolta Hi-Matic, the list goes on…
I love Craigslist and meeting up in person for this reason. I can’t tell you how often I’ve ended up hanging out for an hour talking and listening to memories.
“She would be so excited this is going to someone who will love and use it!”
Yesterday, I met Shannon who was selling a 1980s Olympus OM-1. Turns out, once again, it belonged to someone she cared about that recently passed away. It only felt right that I went for a walk in my neighborhood cemetery to run the first roll of film through it.
Well… not it’s first roll.
🎞️ Ilford HP5 400, shot at box speed and developed in Kodak HC-110. (delusion B)
"Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown." - Anthony Bourdain
It’s Sarah’s Birthday. We had the weekend off and thought we’d head to Belgium.
Most of our time was spent wandering the streets of Gent and Brussels; my Rollie 35 hanging from my wrist and a spare roll of Ilford HP5 in my pocket.
“Now the work comes in every once in awhile, they pay ya pennies on the dime.” - “Gun” by Erik Koskinen
A pre-show walk with my buddy Erik and his band in minneapolis.
“Good things come to those who wait, but only the leftovers from those who are fast and bold” – My wife Sarah
It’s 10pm and I just got back in town from a run of shows. A buddy calls me up and tells me there’s a band playing tomorrow night that I should meet Their name is Wildermiss.
“I cannot rest from travel: I will drink Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy'd Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those That loved me, and alone, on shore and when Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades Vext the dim sea[.] In “
- Ulysses
Flying to another country, only to play one night, is a whirlwind. Often, one’s glimpse of a city is only that which can be seen through a hotel window. So, we decided to stick around for a couple of extra nights as a band on this trip to Mexico: family diners, a desert show, and a short dance in the Pacific.
“It's so cold, it keeps the bad people out.”
- Prince in 1996 on why he lived in Minnesota
Over the past 18 years living in Minneapolis, I’ve spent my fair share of time in First Ave (We actually rented the whole building out to rehearse before and Asia tour with Owl City)
Funny enough, I’ve actually never played its side room “7th Street Entry” before tonight with Airlands.
"Our grandfathers were soldiers, so our fathers could be farmers, so we could be artists." ~ John Adams
My Grandfather passed away in January. It’s now July and the ground has finally thawed.
Dad and I stick around after the service to bury him ourselves. We smoke a cigar together, lit with Papa’s Zippo.
I miss sleeping with friends.
Tell me…
Is there another career, outside of music, that regularly involves slumber parties at 2 am in a hotel room?
Does a career in marketing ever include non-sexual pillow-talk with a co-worker? Lying in bed wondering how to fall asleep.
Do you just stop talking? Do you announce it and say, “Will… I think I’m going to sleep now. Goodnight!”?
For the curious, here’s how it works:
In music, the smaller the gig, the closer you are to your bedfellow.
Large tours, you’re getting your own hotel room. Mid-level, two to a room with your own bed. Grass-roots van touring, you’re pulling a “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” - sharing a bed and praying that you keep your sleeping hands to themselves.
Me: “André, I had the weirdest dream last night that I was visiting a petting zoo.”
André: “I know…”
And I’m not talking about sharing a king-size people! We’re talking, two men over 6’ sharing a double!
And it’s not just your close friends!
Seriously, I can’t think of any other job where, as a GROWN ADULT, you may meet a coworker for the first time and that night, you’re sharing a hotel room.
But one thing’s for sure, if you weren’t close before, you are after. For better or for worse.
It’s a closeness that only comes from learning someone’s most intimate sleeping habits and tendencies - and they learn yours.
Do they snore? Or does their nose just make a cute, quiet, little whistle as they sleep? Are they a side, back, or stomach sleeper? Do they like falling asleep watching tv? How many times do they hit the snooze button before getting out of bed? How fast, after waking up, do they take their morning poop? Are they organized, or is their suitcase a micro-bomb that goes off at the end of each day?
I know the answer to every one of these questions about every one of my friends I’ve toured with.
And I tell ya what. After this past year…
I kinda miss it.
