Nya recently booked me for a promo shoot surrounding their forthcoming EP ‘Driving the Nails In’, which will be released November 5th. The inspiration surrounding this shoot was their EP artwork This was designed by my old friend Steve at CWD Media. Every so often I get a blast from the past – it always happens in this industry :) Steve and I met when I was first shooting shows at local bars and venues and he fronted a band called Vert. I instantly clicked with Nesh, Dan, Woody and Joe. The shoot was super fun, and there was also Sammm Agnew working on their hair and makeup. She’s a stellar lady with amazing skills. To compliment the album artwork the guys had brought along roses and what looked like coffin nails (?!) haha. I found an old skull lying around the photo studio and we all knew what we wanted to do. Sammm put this amazing piece together while I was shooting the full band images in the first section. This creation featured in singer Anezka’s pictures and also the second half of the band shots Worked really well didn’t it? A couple of days ago Nya filmed their music […]
When it comes to location shoots, the weather can be a photographer’s best friend or worst enemy. London-based groove metal band L Sol Tace booked me for another promo shoot after a bit of a lineup change and a debut album in the making. We had previously shot in a dark venue and I said to the guys that it would be great to go to an outdoor location. They got back to me and said that near their rehearsal rooms “there’s this fence that’s kinda cool”. I laughed! Cool, a fence. Sorted! The weather that week was abysmal. Typical UK you may think. Actually, even worse, as by this point we would be basking in a little more sunshine than this. (Not edited at all and taken on my iPhone) I started setting up, the guys had a litre bottle of Jack Daniel’s in hand and they had already had a few beers during rehearsal. We kept watch on the weather and had to quickly grab everything and run inside the rehearsal rooms at the first sign of rain. It reminded me of this scene from Wayne’s World But with rain instead of cars obviously. Turns out, the moody […]
Rising rock band – Achilla – contacted me for a promo shoot recently. I must admit, I had never heard of them before. Checking out their website and doing a bit of research, I wondered how I hadn’t! Acclaimed by journalist Malcolm Dome (Metal Hammer) and a host of other music media and radio, I was very excited for this shoot. For some of the pictures they wanted to use something called ‘X-Ray Fabric’ as a backdrop. Very intriguing! This fabric was designed and made by woven textile designer Rita Parniczky, who had studied at the prestigious Central Saint Martins and, this fabric will become part of a permanent collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2013. You can imagine how excited I was to see it! Well, here it is. The X-Ray Fabric. Martamaria had part of her shoot involving this and then we did full band shots in other parts of the photo studio. The shoot session was really enjoyable and I found the guys in the band to be so interesting – hailing from Greece, Italy and Hungary. A real mix of cultures and proof that music is the universal language. Here’s one of the promos […]
Before the snow hit the UK, I went on a trek through London to Essex on a shoot for a new musical project. Full of excitement, as I have previously worked with these two, but in a very different guise. Chris has many a musical project under his belt. I knew him from the days of Biomechanical in 2006. In fact, my first ever published picture in Metal Hammer was a live image of that band. He also teaches guitar and sessions for various bands. Every time Vykki and I shoot together, we totally hit it off on a creative level and it’s super cool. You may recognise them both from the promos I shot last year along with a music video of their band Solsikk. Here’s a teaser of the promo session (click to view bigger) I will let you know more info when it’s released. Knowing the talent these two have, it’ll be something special. Mx
