April 2014

Earlier this week, I tuned into the Tonight show and saw Jaime Foxx start an impromptu rap segment. The Roots (the house band) started playing along with him as if they had rehearsed for hours- although they didn’t rehearse at all.

This reminded me of what a great band they are. Every time I photograph them I am in awe of their talent. And…they are really nice guys to boot!!!

A couple of years ago, I was hired to shoot an ad with Questlove as the subject. I had the Fallon show set for exactly one hour. (union rules).

When Questlove sat down at his drums, I asked him if he could just start playing a beat so that I could walk around him to shoot pictures. He started a perfect beat, and I started shooting. The rest of the band joined in, while he kept that perfect beat. All of a sudden, I looked up and we had spent ½ hour, and his timing never changed!

I finished up the shoot and complimented him for his cooperation and his musicianship. He shrugged and said “That’s what I do.”

On another note, in the recent Rolling Stone, Dolly Parton is interviewed. From Dolly:

“Back in the old days,you’d have an album done in just a few days time. But, Lord, now we have to slave over it until we kill all the fun and the naturalness.”

Couldn’t be more true!!!

I have been photographing G. Love for many years, but until yesterday, I never heard his story. And a good story it is. Should be reading material for anyone who is trying to “Make it” in the music industry. G is 41 years old, celebrating the release of his first album on its 20th anniversary. He started out playing on the streets pof Philadelphia for tips. He graduated to playing three sets every Friday night at a bar in Philly for $150 a night, 3 pitchers of beer (one for each set) and three sandwiches.

He was discovered at a music conference in Philly, and started releasing albums (15 of them to date)

 But his strength is his live performance. He tours all the time, playing anywhere anyone wants him to play. And he plays great!! His music is a combination of  hip hop and blues, the band is him on guitar and harmonica, a drummer and a stand up bass player. His attitude is to win over new fans every night and then keep them. Some people tell him after the show that they have seen him play 40 times, others are seeing him for the first time. He wants all of them to come back. He was asked during our interview how he deals with mistakes and his answer was that they try to turn a mistake into something cool!

So for anyone that wants to go from small clubs to large arenas, I say- check this guy out and be happy playing small and medium venues and continuing to do that for the next 20 years!

This week I spent a wonderful few hours with a singer named Christina Perri. She is touring behind her new album (her 2nd). She first became famous when one of her songs was sung by an American Idol contestant, before her first album came out.

So, during the interview we conducted, she was asked how hard it was to come up with songs for her new album. (There is a saying in the music business that it takes an artist their whole life to write their first album, and then they have to write the next one in a year while they are touring to support the first one!) Her answer was: “I walked into the studio with 42 new songs- we recorded them all and picked the best 13!!” Tell that to the people who can’t write 12 songs for a new album.

Later in the interview, she was asked how she keeps getting better at putting on shows. Her answer: “I show up every day ready to work.”

Man, I wish everyone these days had that kind of attitude!

About a month ago, my friend Jason    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Narducy asked me to take some publicity pictures for his new project. He is a great guitar player, who tours with Bob Mould, among others. He came over, I set up a background, and took some cool photos of him. At the end, he asked me to take a few pictures of his elbows. HUH????

After I did, I asked him why he needed them. He replied that he was making a video describing himself as the rock star with the sexiest elbows in the world. Sounded pretty weird, and it got weirder when he asked me to be in the video!! So we went downstairs and he picked out some photos from my files of musical stars with their elbows exposed. I printed them out.

A few days later, I arrived at the location of the video shoot. Shortly after, John Stirratt from Wilco arrived, as we were both being filmed that day. We both filmed our parts, and I left, thinking that the thing was pretty weird, but fun.

A few weeks later, I got an email from Jason saying that the video was being run on the Jimmy Fallon show that night!!! Yikes!!1 Nationwide stardom. Since then, the video has gome pretty viral, and I receive about 5 emails a day from people that saw it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9l5Wzq2dEc

Weird way to become a little part of video history, but I will take anything I can get!!!