So, I’ve always pretty much stayed away from these moog guitars because they looked like some silly 80′s Ibanez design, except for the lap steel version. But now there’s a moog custom shop option that looks really cool. What they really should do is sell strat kits so that adventurous people like me can just get a guitar we like for whatever price and just buy the electronics it needs. In fact I’m going to call right now and see if that’s even an option. Because if that is, things just might be different for me here…

I love the way these product photos look. So moody.

Via this russian blog you can see some amazing examples of artistic ingenuity.

So I’m working on a new personal project on DIY music culture that centers around hand-made synths, circuit bend instruments and other alternative music interfaces and the people who use them. I contacted Eric Archer who makes the Drone Commander (one of my obsessions) and he told me that there was a user in Chicago that I should contact (Natalie Chami) if I wanted to film some footage of it. Turns out Natalie Chami makes amazing music and I filmed her performing as Tal in her house with Nicholas Davis, a regular collaborator.

Without getting too far into this, I’m adding a screen shot of what the video looks like. I was simultaneously listening to natalie talk and had the performance going at the same time and it’s a really fantastic fit. Now just to shoot some more B-roll somewhere that fits the atmosphere and feel of this all.

Roger Ballen, the acclaimed photographer from S. Africa that’s known for his photographs of the strange looking people in his country just directed a music video for fellow S.Africans Die Antwoord called ‘I Fink U Freeky’.

It’s fantastic seeing people collaborate to celebrate the unique people vs the typical showing of shiny, typically pretty things. Also, visually, the video is absolutely incredibly shot and lit. I hope there’s more of this coming from this collaboration as I think it’s an amazing fit. Its rare that pop culture and contemporary artists work together so seamlessly, but I love it.

I have a friend who I frequently have talks with about making music, films and photographs. He’s the kind of creator who plans, writes, thinks, rewrites, analyzes and then creates. The result is often stunning and he gets a very repeatable, predictable result. This largely comes from his background in music composition and planning filming schedules.

I come from a different perspective, where my work relies on reaction and experimentation after a few rules are made to see what happens. And the reason why it seems to work for me is that as much as I love knowing that things are just going to work, improvisation is one of my strong suits. I need the room to throw out a few rules, or to try something new. The different approaches keep my brain happy and my curious side satiated.

Without further ado, here’s a photo of my apt this sunday and an improvised ambient track I made with a few different analog devices connected to a computer and an ipad for pattern generation, or as what’s known by synth nerds as sequencers. The whole piece resolves at about 8:30 in, so be

This last month, a fantastic surprise happened. An old friend of mine from Madrid was going to be in detroit and let me know he’d be flying in to Chicago for a few days. Since leaving Madrid, Marcus Hurst started a fantastic blog called Yorokobu and started making the beautifully designed Ling inflight magazine for Vueling, a Spanish airline. He asked if there was anything in Chicago he should do a piece on and one of the first things that came to mind was Specimen in Humboldt Park. They make amazing hand made guitars, tube amplifiers and have been making grammaphone-esque cone speakers for Andrew Bird for the last ten years or so. They’re so interesting they recently put up a huge installation of their pieces in the MCA in Chicago. One of the “inventions” of the owner Ian Schneller is a massive amp with a set of 2 rotating cone speakers that make the most lush sounding stereo chorus effect when a guitar is run through it. It filled the whole space with this gorgeous tone and made me want to just sit and listen for days. It reminded me of why I love my job. I get to meet interesting people making gorgeous things with varied stories. I’ve always been curious and photography gives me this pass to access so many things I’d never get to see or maybe never put the energy in to see. Being a tourist in my own city is fantastic.

This guy’s about to blow up. He’s been working all year on an album, swinging mics above his head to create stereo effects, banging out jangly strat tones and singing sweet, sweet melodies. He takes americana, adds a bit of sweetness to it all, but never forgets to be honest. He’s only 22 but has already done a stint in Italy and written some great music. I had a great time shooting with him, and we ended the shoot with an hour long jam session in the studio, playing musical guitar where we used a loop pedal and traded back and forth, creating layers. I love my job.

I shoot regularly for Gilt City here in Chicago. It’s a bit of a challenge as normally I get an email 24-48 hrs before I need to schedule and shoot the images, and occasionally have another day to get the edit to the photo editors off in NYC. The process is difficult but I like having the obstacle of almost zero planning, and telling a story about a place I may have never visited before. I like it because I go somewhere and imagine I’m a customer, walking in for the first time and shoot what strikes me as special about the location.

This week’s great shoot happened at Tesa Cigar shop in the west loop – BYOB and stocked to gills with classics like macanudo and their own brand of cigars made in Nicaragua, its a cigar smoker’s heaven. The humidor was massive and at one point I even saw what looked like an erupting volcano of humid air puffing out of the humidifier. It turns out the owners and their friends built the whole walk in humidifier themselves. I love when people take their spaces into their own hands. But enough talking, here’s the images.

Unreal.
This piece is showing in Paris at Galerie BSL. I love when artist work with light, especially when it’s not that cheezy, hey here’s a tilted florescent bulb kind of way. The way this reflects the color spectrum is pretty fantastic and adds so much dimension to the room with the colored lines.
Thanks mocoloco.

I don’t really keep in touch with too many people from college, but this guy Jordan was always playing out in school and writing solid bits of pop and this new EP is a good representation of a classic american pop album (pop as in melodic, not as in Kesha). The arrangements are really well done, and the melodies an easy listen. It’s good not because it’s some challenging artistic endeavor as much as it’s just well crafted and quite a bit of fun. A bit of The Beatles, a bit of Elliot Smith, and a whole lot of personal touches make this album worth the listen. It’s free for download still, so feel free to check it out.

Download it here.