If youāre looking to book me to shoot your show then youāre out of luck – I donāt take bookings, at all. I only ever go to the shows I want to, and I won’t tell you in advance if I’m going to your show. That’s because I give away all my photos for free – if I let people book me, or let bands know I’m showing up, then I might take a legit booking away from an actual photographer. If you want to ask me about whoād be a great shooter to book for your show, feel free to ask me – I know of loads of them out there (and theyāre all better than me anyway btw).
If youāre asking about playlist submissions, feel free to Insta DM or email me. I don’t always reply because of time but I check out every band, and usually follow you on Spotify etc.
If youāre asking about review submissions, I actually don’t really do reviews either. What I do is pick five of my favourite tracks each week from the playlist and write a few words. Just let me know your track’s out.
If youāre just looking to just get in touch then, again, Instagram DMs or email are probably your best bet. I’m occasionally sort of friendly, but also again, I don’t always respond just because of time etc.
Please also see my personal Music Industry Collaboration Commitment. It seems everywhere you look in music someone’s being an asshole. I hope to leave the place a bit tidier than I found it.
I started this particular thing back in 2014 because it was basically what Iād been doing for about a hundred years prior in different shapes and forms in London, in Scotland, and now here in sunny Sydney. I started off writing about bands in fanzines in the 90s, then for magazines and then websites through the 00s, then filming them doing live sessions. These days I mostly just shoot live shows by emerging artists, write about a few tracks I love each week, and dork out to numbers and stats about what’s happening on the playlists. That said, recently I’m thinking that the core of this thing is more of a fanzine, so maybe I’ve come a bit full circle.
The consistent theme behind it all (if there is one) is that Iām deliberately veering away from the ābigā bands, and more towards newer, emerging artists – my default is for smaller shows. Iām not such a twit that I think bands get worse as they get bigger, itās just that I have so much more fun shooting at a venue the size of my hat, where I can run into the band afterwards, where I donāt need to have a photo pass, where I donāt need to care about āfirstthreesongsonlynoflashā and all that (although I never use a flash and I try really hard to be done quickly, and stay out of the way). Itās more personal in smaller venues, itās sweatier, itās closer to the action. Itās also usually a lot more raucous and unhinged.
Iām also not in this for any money either. I actually have a Day Job that I really like, so this is my little way of putting something back into a scene that Iāve taken so much from. I pay for every single small show I go to (the only exceptions being the ones where I need a photo pass), I spend money behind the bar, and Iāll try and buy records or merch whenever I really like the bands. I think Iām also buying enough late night kebabs from the places near me to put their kids through college. Anyway, I try to be a net contributor to the band economy. And seriously, who asks for a guest list for a show that costs the same as a single drink and where the artists are barely getting paid anyway? Shitehawks, that’s who.
Sydney may not exactly be world-renowned for its musical scene or its nightlife – in the way that a London, a New York, or a Berlin is – but as an immigrant to Australia Iām still consistently blown away at how much fun it is, how brilliant the bands are, and what a generally friendly and smart scene it is here. Live music as an industry lives a pretty precarious existence, so itās more important than ever that we all ā the discerning music fans ā get out to the exactly the types of venues Iām usually lurking in. Not because of the usual sanctimonious āsupport your sceneā bullshit, but simply because itās just such bloody good fun. The more of us that go, the more fun there is in the world ā and thatās a thing worth doing, right?
From a creative perspective, I also do it because I wanted a project that would capture the action in Sydney’s smaller venues. These venues are the hearts and lungs of music in any city, and I wanted to record that. Since 2014 Iāve shot over a thousand sets, and posted over ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen twenty twenty-five thousand photos, all of which I’ve given away to the bands. Sometimes Iāve been in the middle of a moshing frenzy, sometimes Iāve been the only punter there ā Iāve loved it all. Letās stop apologising for not having millions of followers, and letās start celebrating what weāre part of instead ā a thriving, pounding, pulsating underground.
Anyway, I hope you like all this nonsense. You can follow me on the usual stuff, but itād be really cool to see you at a show. If youāre at Wayward’s, or The Captain Cook, or Mary’s Underground, or The Oxford Art Factory, or The Lansdowne, or The Valve Bar The Alley, or Moshpit, or Frankieās, or The Sly Fox, or The Hideaway Bar HiWay, or The Duke, or any of the other great rooms in Sydney (that are still in business š¤¦š»āāļø) and you see a lanky scruffbag in a stupid hat semi-drunkenly changing a lens or trying to edit photos on his phone, come say hi.
See you down the front.