Finding my feet in 2012.
I’m currently in a hotel somewhere on Central Coast NSW with The Chariot, they’re all asleep after long, delayed flights from LA, and just playing a set. Ryan, good friend and guitarist of Vanity, is here too as they know him from playing together last year in Perth (if you know The Chariot, you know what happened in Perth). Being here feels both foreign and grounding at the same time. See, the last few weeks have been weird; I’ve recently moved to Sydney, where I have few friends and no contacts in the scene, so I am basically starting fresh. There’s no one here to recommend my name when bands want footage, let alone make sure I have door spots, and I don’t question ‘why not?’ because I really haven’t been taking my camera out and going to shows to make my presence known as I’ve had a lot else on my plate. I’ve had a new relationship to settle in to, and it’s been wonderful. It’s only 26 days in to 2012 and we have had some serious ups and downs and hopes and doubts in that time, and now it’s all levelled out and heading an amazing direction. There there was today.
Ryan and I only just made a bus to Central Station, where we just made the train to Wyong for The Chariot. Leading up to this show I haven’t been very enthusiastic. I’ve been saying ‘Yeah it will be great’ just because .. just because I usually say that in the lead up to amazing bands that I’m filming, but because I have been so outside of that for the past two months it wasn’t feeling the same - Then they played, and I filmed, and energy filled the room, and I tried my hardest to capture every little bit of it while still feeling it as well, and everything rushed back to me.
It almost feels weird to be in this room with 5 guys I don’t know that thousands of people admire, but then I think about it and I realize - or more remember - this is what I do. Last year I filmed The Chariot, Touche Amore, The Wonder Years, Title Fight, and Defeater. That’s just the bands that people usually lump in to the same conversations, I’m not going to name every heavy band I filmed, which is quite a lot considering I only missed about 4 shows that Break Even played and accompanied Statues to Adelaide.
I have footage from Perth, Adelaide, Hobart, Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane to tick the city’s off, all the towns these bands migrate to in order to spread their fan bases add up too. Today has reminded me how interesting it is being at a new venue is, and how amazing meeting new people is. All the people that run the shows, and the genuinely nice people who are just there to be a part of it and help you out for no reason other than you are someone different. Then there’s the bands, meeting them and seeing how long it takes before they warm up to feel comfortable with you shooting them. I always love spending time with bands because you get a small insight in to the endless in-house jokes that are contained within a group of people that are stuck through thick and thin with each other, and when you spend a week or two on tour you become a part of that and often create incredible friendships with at least one of them that will last until you see each other again, some place in the world.
Today I have remembered that I am living a pretty amazing life, and I can’t wait for this year to unfold. I am excited about every aspect: my love life, my music, photography, filming, and putting it all together not just for myself, but anyone that appreciates the end result.
