Some people may not know this, but my primary focus with photography was not always directed at the music industry. While in grade school, I was introduced me into the world of skateboarding by the older kids that attended my school. For the record, I was never really that good at it. Sure, I could ollie, and maybe even land the odd kickflip once in awhile, but I definitely was no pro at it. That didn’t matter much, though. What mattered to me at the time was just riding with my friends, going to Hakuna (a local skate shop at the time) as well as West 49 (which is a chain store within Canada), admiring all the skate decks and their awesome graphics. I used to watch any skate video I could get my hands on, and you could probably find me watching events like the X Games and Dew Tour. Although I don’t skate anymore, I still enjoy watching the odd skate video online, and it’s crazy to see how large the industry has become.
I recently took a trip to Los Angeles, California to visit some friends who live in the area before joining up with August Burns Red on the Frozen Flame Tour. Los Angeles to me has always seemed like the mecca of skateboarding. Hundreds of skateparks, skate shops, and some of the most legendary skate spots in the world. Also, being able to ride all year round as opposed to the 4-5 months in Canada is pretty awesome. While I was there, I was only able to observe so little, especially within skateboarding, compared to the entire city as a whole. This write up is mainly to show what I had personally observed while staying in Los Angeles.
I originally met Emilio for the first time in 2012 at the Detroit date of the Vans Warped Tour. He was working for Epitaph Records and I had a photo pass through them to photograph some of their bands at the festival. Emilio contacted me last spring asking if I would be interested in doing the entire tour for Epitaph. They were looking for someone with experience on the tour, and since I had done the entire tour in 2013 for Equal Vision Records, I ended up being a candidate for the gig. Emilio and I spent the summer of 2014 on the Vans Warped Tour for Epitaph Records documenting the tour for them. I discovered while working alongside him that he was actually a really good skater and was clearly better than I ever was. When I told him how I wanted to meet up with August Burns Red in California, he offered me the opportunity to crash on his couch for a week before hand. I was not about to turn down the opportunity to get out of this Canadian winter, so I packed my bags and set my sights on California.
Emilio is a great skateboarder. He may be stubborn and tell you he isn’t that good, but to the general eye, he is. When I watch him ride I can tell he has been riding the thing for quite some time and that he truly loves it. He keeps his board in the trunk of his car and takes every opportunity to ride that he can. While in LA, Emilio was kind enough to spend time showing me around. Whether it be good local cuisine/coffee shops, or just fun tourist type stuff I should do, he was the best host anyone could ask for. The way that I now like to visit places like this is to just dive right into whatever it is people do in that particular place. I had the best fish tacos I’ve ever had, an incredible breakfast burrito in Long Beach, and also the best burgers and pizza you could eat.
I flew into LA late Sunday with no real “plan” in mind for the week. All I knew was that I wanted to shoot as much as possible and pack as much interested stuff in that I possibly could. On the Tuesday, Emilio drove us to the famous Venice Beach, a place that I’ve always wanted to visit really badly. They have a legendary skatepark right on the beach. Although a lot of the features were too advanced for me, I had fun just cruising the park and watching the locals shred. It was awesome hanging out there as the sun went down over the ocean and we also skated up and down the infamous boardwalk. I bought a “Venice California: Muscle Beach” t-shirt with a stencil of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the middle, which was a very solid purchase if I do say so myself.
After hanging out in Venice for a few hours, we headed back to the Silver Lake area. Emilio is currently helping film a shop video with a bunch of local skaters for ThrashGnar, which is a skate shop located in downtown LA. We met up with a bunch of people at the shop and hit the streets. We first went to the Los Angeles Convention Center/Staples Center, and after we got the boot, we went to the next spot which was a ledge near an overpass in the downtown area. Once the riders got some clips in, we finished up the night at Pizza Nista for some slices.
It was a really awesome experience being able to tag along with a crew of that size for the night. On the Thursday, we woke up and headed to The Banks, which is a skate shop located in Silver Lake. The owner, Chris, was a really awesome dude who also shoots photos. Emilio’s brother Tristan works at the shop, so he met up with us there before making our way to Subliminal Projects.
Subliminal is a gallery that was created by Shepard Fairey and Blaize Blouin in 1995. The group played an integral part in introducing skateboarding culture and design to the art world. The exhibition that was currently being displayed was called “AGENTSPROVOCATEURS”, which is a collection of subversive skateboard graphics and artworks. Some of the artists included were Alyasha Owerka-Moore, Andy Jenkins, Ben Horton, Cleon Peterson, Donny Miller, Ed Templeton, Marc McKee, Mark Foster, Michael Sieben, Nil Ultra, Sean Cliver, Todd Francis, and Winston Tseng.
I also picked up a copy of Shepard’s book, “Supply & Demand”, which highlights his massive body of work from 1989 until 2009. I have always been a fan of street art and how it has become such a global phenomenon, so it was really awesome being able to see Shepard’s gallery and grabbing a copy of the book, which just so happened to also be signed by the man himself.
On the Friday morning before Emilio drove me to Pomona, we went to check out a mini ramp in the middle of Silver Lake. The ramp belonged to Chris, owner of The Banks, and he was kind enough to let us come check it out and ride for a bit. It was very well built and the views from his back patio were incredible.
The thing that makes me really enjoy staying in a new place with someone you know is that you will find yourself in situations where you have the opportunity to observe people doing the things they normally do. As opposed to being in an environment full of tourists all doing the same things and taking the same photographs. Yes I walked the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame and did other tourist things, but what I wanted most out of this trip was to see or do things that a normal tourist wouldn’t have been able to. Visiting Los Angeles for a week’s time had only allowed me to scratch the surface as to what it really has to offer. With that being said, I hope to have the opportunity to visit again in the future to continue this exploration of the skateboarding, music, and art culture that exists within Los Angeles.
Instead of showcasing a bunch of my favourite photos from the year, I decided to write up a blog post on one of my favourite shows. It is extremely hard to single out one band’s set, but this to me was a no brainer. As some of you may know, I had the privilege of traveling on the Vans Warped Tour for the second time this past summer working for Epitaph Records. I got to work closely with seven awesome bands who all brought something unique to the tour, so it was a great variety and kept the days interesting. The band I am going to focus on in this write up needs no introduction, but I will discuss why they are an important band not only to me, but to a lot of people.
Every Time I Die have a been a band that I have truly loved ever since first photographing them back in 2011 while they were on tour with The Chariot. They played a 250 cap venue called Call The Office in London, Ontario and I believe it was sold out. During ETID’s set, a stage diver kicked the flash unit right off the top of my camera. About 80% of my time was spent making sure I didn’t get kicked in the head and the other 20% was spent shooting. It was absolute mayhem, and I was hooked.
During the Vans Warped Tour, some of the shows for most bands can contrast one another due to how similar the set up is each day. Although, whenever a band plays their hometown or close enough to it, those sets tend to get crazy. I had been looking forward to the Buffalo date since the beginning of the tour because that is where Every Time I Die is from. The show took place just outside of the Darien Lakes Amusement Park (which may not be exactly Buffalo, but close enough).
The day began sunny and stayed that way until about 11 a.m. After that, the heavy rain started and pretty well went to about 5 p.m. or so, causing pretty well the entire Warped Tour grounds to be covered in mud. Everywhere you looked, it was probably wet and muddy. ETID’s set was around 6 p.m, and all I remember is thinking to myself, “This set is going to be absolutely insane.” Days when it is raining on Warped Tour are my favourite because you get unique, captivating images of bands in a scenario that can only be found at an outdoor festival.
I got to the stage roughly 20 minutes early and of course the entire crowd area was completely covered with mud. Sometimes I would shoot from on stage, but because the band had tons of family and friends at the show, I decided to just shoot the first three songs from the barricade and then go into the crowd after. It was now sunny and the rain was long gone, but the festival grounds were muddier than ever.
Once the band finished their third song, I left the barricade area with the rest of the photographers and headed straight for the crowd. By the time I got out there, the mud-throwing was in full force. Armed with my camera and Wonder Years rain jacket, I braved the mud and got right in the action. At first the security tried to stop people from throwing mud, but how do 8 security guards stop hundreds of pissed off teenagers from doing something? You can’t.. So they eventually just stopped trying and let it happen.
For this set, I tried to focus my attention on the crowd and what the fans were doing. How often do you get to photograph crazy fans throwing mud at each other? I knew going in that I’m probably going to get really muddy, but that didn’t matter. It felt like I was at Woodstock 1994 during Green Day’s legendary set (if you haven’t seen this, youtube it immediately!). I like to think that capturing real, unforced emotion is what I love doing most. Whether it’s a band on a big stage or some random person rolling around in mud, documenting all of these things matter a lot to me. Sure I could have put my camera down and watched and not risk my gear getting trashed, but taking photographs like the ones you will see below is a great example of doing whatever it takes to try and take the best possible photograph I can.
When I got back to the bus after the set, my friend and incredible photographer, Matt Vogel, took a photo of me before I cleaned off. I ruined my shorts and hat and it took me over an hour to clean my camera, but it was worth it. I couldn’t be happier with how my photos turned out and I’m proud to say that I didn’t let a little bit of mud get in the way of me photographing one of my favourite live sets to date. Later that night, Every Time I Die were in charge of the after party BBQ. Keith and Jordan’s father made his famous wings for the entire tour and they were incredible. It was just a great way to cap off another great day on the Warped Tour.
Last month, I attended the first ever Alternative Press Music Awards. I have been reading AP for years now and have even had a handful of my photos published in their magazine. I had never been to an awards show within the music industry before, so I was ecstatic that I had been given the opportunity.
The band I was riding with on Warped Tour wasn’t going to be making the trip to the awards. Since I was on Warped Tour working for Epitaph Records, The Ghost Inside were ever so kind to let me hop in their bus so I could come enjoy the festivities. I had such a good time at the event, mainly because I had a lot of freedom with what I could photograph. Like most people, I work much better when there isn’t a ton of pressure.
My goal was to get as much content of the Epitaph bands that were in attendance that I could. A few of the bands on their roster were nominated for different awards:
Artist of the Year: Bring Me The Horizon
Album of the Year: Bring Me The Horizon - “Sempiternal”
Breakthrough Band: letlive.
Song of the Year: Bring Me The Horizon - “Shadow Moses” & Falling In Reverse - “Alone”
Best International Band: Parkway Drive (AUS) & Bring Me The Horizon (U.K.)
Best Vocalist: Oli Sykes - Bring Me The Horizon
Best Guitarist: Jacky Vincent - Falling In Reverse
Best Drummer: Ryan Seaman - Falling In Reverse
Below are some of the photos I captured from the day. I had such an awesome time at the event and it would be awesome to attend in future years to come.
I recently made up a frame with a bunch of my favourite laminates/passes for one of the hallways in my home. It really made me stop and reflect what I’ve done in my life, and being only 22 years old, I feel extremely fortunate to have experienced what I have.
This Deftones show was easily one of the best experiences shooting photographs that I have ever had. It took place on March 1st, 2013 at a venue called Kool Haus in Toronto, Ontario. The venue is actually going to be demolished in the near future so they can build condos and apartment complexes. Before this show, I of course knew who Deftones were, but was never really a “huge fan” per say. Going in, I didn’t know what to expect, but I was excited as it was sold out and I heard they were an awesome live band.
They opened their set with Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away), a song I had heard a bunch of times. As soon as the music began and Chino, their vocalist, began to sing, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. They were FLAWLESS. The energy, the music, everything was so in line with one another that it was just incredible to witness. I had my good ear plugs in, and it honestly sounded like I was listening to an iPod. At a few points during the first song, I actually caught myself just standing there and watching with my camera at my side. I was so locked in to what the band was doing, I completely forgot why I was even there. I was on cloud nine the entire time.
After realizing I needed to quit just simply watching and “do my job” per say, I spent the rest of my time in the barricade looking through my viewfinder and simply trusting my instincts with settings. I didn’t want to miss anything, so I didn’t even look at the photos I had taken until after the show. This was one of the first times while shooting a concert that I left the barricade and instantly went to the back of the crowd to watch. Songs like Diamond Eyes, Minerva and Swerve City absolutely floored me. Their set is so perfectly outlined that it keeps you wanting more and more, song after song. At most shows, I usually just hang out beside the barricade for a song or two and then go on my way. I had roughly an hour drive back to Guelph, where my friends were letting me crash for the night, but instead of leaving after shooting, I stayed up until the encore.
This show alone actually changed the way I take photographs at a concert, and ever since, I listen to a Deftones song almost every single day. They have become one of my favourite bands and I regret not getting into their music earlier in my life. They turned one individual from someone who barely knows their music into a person that can’t stop listening to them, from just one show. To me, that is pretty incredible and also rare for the newer generation of artists. Moulding a person into a life long fan is not easy, but Deftones did it with ease.
I recently had the opportunity to travel with August Burns Red for eight days on the “Break Down The Walls Tour”. The following are black and white scans from the three rolls of film I shot through my Leica Mini of the various cities and places we visited. Films used were Kodak Tri-X 400 and Illford HP5+.
