Earlier this summer, I had the pleasure of working with the wonderful pronoun to capture the climax of her new music video for "wrong." She describes the inspiration behind the scene in Clash Magazine:
"Sometimes being an independent artist / label in a majors world seems impossible. It's frustrating and makes me feel defeated and isolated. At my lowest I turn to my friends, colleagues, and in this case, the artists on my own record label that I started (Sleep Well Records) and they remind me that what really matters at the end of the day is having fun and trying your absolute best, together." Check out the video and my photos down below!
0 Comments
Click through for a full gallery of Cold Fronts and pronoun opening up for Alex Lahey at Bowery Ballroom, 08/07/18
Public, Ohio's latest band on the rise, hit the road with Jesse McCartney on the Better With You Tour earlier this summer. While the crowds may have entered not knowing the pop-rock trio, they certainly became fans by the time their set wrapped up. The group performed tracks from their first EP "Let's Remake It" and second release "Sweet Lemonade" as well as yet-to-be released single "One That I Want" and the consistent crowd favorite, a cover of Britney Spears' "Toxic."
Post-show, John Vaughn (guitar/lead vocals), Matthew Alvarado (bass/backing vocals), and Ben Lapps (drums) stayed until every newly minted fan was able to get a photo and chat with the band. On a personal note, it's been wonderful watching this band grow, and know that the best is yet to come with these boys! Last summer, I had the pleasure of taking part in Refinery 29's 29Rooms experience in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I brought along my Canon 70D and my Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 to capture the exhibit with my pals, Megan and Jane. Now, one year later, I'm happy to share my photos with you. It was so fun to dive back into the edits with one more year of Lightroom experience under my belt. I'll pop in a couple of before and afters too! Our first stop was a room meant to mimic a womb -- complete with headphones with a heartbeat. Up next was an open concept area in conjunction with Planned Parenthood.
I had the pleasure of joining the pronoun crew for a leg of dates throughout the northeast including Jersey City, Long Island, New Haven, Lancaster (with Basement, Citizen and Souvenirs), Brooklyn and Philadelphia (with Citizen, Angel Dust and Oso Oso). Scroll down to see shots from each city, onstage and behind the scenes.
On May 31, SHAED (Chelsea Lee, Spencer Ernst, and Max Ernst) took over the beautiful backyard space of Crest Hardware in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for an intimate set. Lee's powerful vocals along with the Ernst twins dreamy production made for the perfect soundtrack for a balmy spring evening. The set also featured special guest snny whose yet-to-be released collaboration with the trio was a standout of the night.
Click through the gallery below to get a glimpse of the evening.
Originally published on Introspxct, no longer active.
Yesterday, Alex Garskarth, lead singer of All Time Low, posted a photo including all the support acts and crew to mark the end of the Young Renegades Tour.
In the caption of the photo, he lamented that they "need more ladies around !!!" and the backlash came quick. The wording of the tweet seemed as if it were almost preemptive damage control. However, acknowledging the problem in hindsight at the completion of tour doesn't do much good. Alex responded to fans asking why he couldn't have used his position to include women, he responded by saying that that's just how the run worked out, and that All Time Low has worked with women in the past. When prodded further about the band's hiring practices, he explained that they usually just hire within their circle or based on recommendation. Therein lies the issue: The Boys' Club. When those in the industry, specifically in the plethora of successful male rock bands that litter arena shows and festival line ups only pick from their circles, they're picking people that are like them. When you're consistently aligning with people who have similar backgrounds, upbringings and social circles, more often than not, they physically resemble them as well. Note that in the photo, every single one of the men is white passing as well. When Alex reacted to naysayers by asserting that they "tour with women all the time," it was clear that the diversity issue wasn't a matter of having the incredible number of female fans that follow ATL see representation on the stage or giving women in the music industry who are so often looked down on an opportunity. It was about checking boxes.
Having past representation on a smaller scale doesn't fulfill some sort of quota for your band and allow you to continue operate under some sort of virtuous #woke paper crown. By being complacent in their hiring and network practices, bands like ATL aren't allowing up-and-coming, hardworking people with marginalized identities to have an actual shot. If this were a smaller band, it'd be a different story. Management often has a heavy hand in things of this nature. However, it is safe to say that All Time Low has the clout and pull to have a fairly decent say in the makeup of their touring cohort. And when it comes to gender diversity, it goes beyond having a single female-fronted band sharing the bill. There are whole Facebook groups full of aspiring non-male sound techs, roadies, tour managers, and photographers just waiting for their big shot.
All of this leads to a broader issue in music. Many women trying to make it in the music industry simply aren't taken seriously. They're considered "fan girls" or "groupies" (both terms that are misogynistic and target the demographic of young women as a whole) who just want a way into the band's inner circle. The sooner that women are seen as potential colleagues, employees, coworkers rather than people that want to sleep with the band, the sooner that some of the rungs on the upward ladder to success can be repaired. More often than not, though, we still need a hand to reach down and pull us up (I say "we" and "us" as a woman who sees myself in this situation as well). This hand comes in the form of established bands who have the platform to allow us to grow. And while there are bands like Diet Cig who have taken active stances on diversifying their touring cohorts, they are in the minority. Proper allyship means using privilege to help others who may not have the same experiences and connections. Alex, women in the industry can absolutely put this on you. The onus is on you to make the change, rather than lazily caption a photo on Twitter. Proactive behavior by those in power are the only way to change up this Boys' Club of a scene. Atlanta-based artist Demo Taped (AKA Adam Alexander) turned the Bowery Ballroom into a full blown dance party when he opened for Amber Mark. Check out the shots below and keep up with the artist on Instagram.
Originally published on Introspxct. Yoke Lore, the solo project of Adrian Galvin, was born out of one-off acoustic gig under the banner of his old band Yellerkin. “I was asked to play this set and me and the person who I had been doing Yellerkin with had a falling out and I had been writing a bunch,” Galvin explained. “They asked me and I said I would just do an acoustic show. I played Beige for the first time, I played Snow Day, and I played Heavy Love. I introduced myself as Yellerkin, and by the end of the show I wasn’t Yellerkin anymore.” This Greenpoint gig in the summer of 2015 established the foundation for Yoke Lore, and the Far Shore EP was released less than a year later in May 2016. Since then he's released the Goodpain EP, toured with acts like Overcoats and Aquilo, and just last week was added to Taylor Swift's "Songs Taylor Loves" playlist. From its inception, Yoke Lore was an inherently personal project, albeit one with a desire to be “useful to people,” as Galvin says. The decision to go by Yoke Lore, as opposed to simply Adrian Galvin, was made in order to expand the project to its fullest potential. “I didn’t want to limit myself to just my identity and Adrian Galvin’s history and experiences. I wanted to leave room to acknowledge that this is something other than Adrian Galvin, and though it uses a lot of Adrian Galvin’s words and perspectives, I need it to be a little bit more.” However, it would be remarkably easy to fill EP upon EP with his own experiences and encounters in his artistic endeavors alone. In his studies is at Kenyon College, Galvin created his own major, which he recalls was titled “Encountering Self Divinity: Paths in Liberation Theology and German Social Theory.” He studies included religion and philosophy classes, and even a one year stint in India to practice as a Buddhist monk. All the while, he took dance classes and was a formative member of Walk The Moon. Galvin says he first encountered music through worship, with a cantor coming to his home on Fridays for Shabbat and his father singing at Catholic mass on Sunday mornings. A combination of this early exposure to performance along with being surrounded by creative individuals in his family reinforced the idea of strong skill-building, “My parents really stressed the importance of [the arts] becoming serious ways of interacting with ourselves and the world.” While his two siblings were clear actors from the get-go, Adrian fell in love with dance. “Me and my cousins used to choreograph dances to Michael Jackson songs when we were little babes," he recalls. "I guess it was a way for me to participate in doing it my own way but still participating in the family thing because that was very important to me.” His dance background clearly carries through in his performances with Yoke Lore, almost as if the music has nowhere to go but through his body. His kinetic energy can also be found in the performances he does with Boomerang Dance and Performance Project, of which he is also a founding member.
Galvin is pretty protective of Yoke Lore -- he does all the merch and album artwork, choreographs his own videos, only worked with one producer, Ariel Loh, for both EPs and shares the stage with a just drummer for the live show. But the two person performance always ends with a tender moment. “Yeah I always like to have a nice hug after we’re done,” he says. “We accomplish something together, it’s a marathon partner. And at the end you just want to acknowledge that to each other and to the crowd.” As for future live shows, Galvin would be open to possibly adding keys as the stage grows, as well as a couple more vocalists. “My dream is to have a boy choir. Like a group of boy sopranos. Not a lot of people can sing as high as I can sing but I want the male quality, so it’d be perfect to have a bunch of twelve year old boys singing at the top of their lungs,” he laughs. “There are these awesome choirs in London, there’s a London boy choir and it’s so gorgeous. There’s one at the Vatican. They’re all over the place, so at one point I’m just gonna snag a couple.” While the addition of the boy choir might be a bit further down the road, there are some more immediate plans for Yoke Lore. Galvin is looking forward to releasing new music and shares that he the next drop will also be an EP, as that allows him to “move faster [and] be prolific.” This spring he hits the road with FRENSHIP for a two-month long run across the country. He’s especially excited to hit spots like Albuquerque and Phoenix. “It’s going to be really hot when I get there which is nice because I’m looking out at a snow storm right now..." he begins to trail off, distracted, before shouting, "Holy shit that’s the FATTEST cardinal I’ve ever seen! You’ve gotta see this bird. I can’t believe it gets off the ground.” Check out Yoke Lore on Instagram and Twitter. |
Archives
September 2021
Categories |