July 14, 2025 • 48 mins
Jordan Kravitz recently joined the Primus crew to photograph some 2024 dates, including New Year's Eve. He's currently out capturing the band on numerous dates of the 2025 Onward & Upward tour, bringing us our first comprehensive look at John Hoffman in the Primus drum chair. Jordan disucsses how he got the gig, his approach to capturing the energy and presentation of the music, dealing with dim stage lighting, and how being a fan of the music impacts his shots.
Find Jordan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thevicariousobserver/
and his website: https://www.jhkcreativephotography.com/
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Find Jordan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thevicariousobserver/
and his website: https://www.jhkcreativephotography.com/
Get involved
Burn your money
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Joshua Freaky with a couple of dump shits.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hello Primates, you've found Primus tracks. Congratulations. As you know,
Primus is out on the summer twenty twenty five Onward
and Upward Tour, John Hoffman's first headlining tour with Primus
after a soft start of sorts on Sossanta.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
This week we speak with a man who will bring
numerous photos of that tour to you.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Jordan Kravitz is a California based photographer who will accompany
Primus on numerous dates. He's a lifelong fan of the
band and has a unique perspective on how to best
capture their energy and presentation. Now is a great time
to follow him at the Vicarious Observer on in Instagram
and check out his website at JHK Creative Photography dot com.
(01:05):
He has a lot of great images of Primus and
other acts. He's certainly worth a follow. Please enjoy our
conversation with Jordan Kravitz.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
I mean I was thirteen when I discovered it. Yeah,
and I was thirteen. I was watching Beavis and butt
Head with my dad. Right I was watching and the
video the you know what, the sausage video came on
with Beavis and butt Heead and I'm like and I
just started to play the drums and I had like
my influences like Ginger Baker and John Bonham and I
(01:44):
was like, what he's this and and at that moment,
my whole life changed because then I got to Tim Herbalog.
I started reading about the drummer, started reading about his
drum kit. It's like custom manufacture, porporate, like who makes
these drums? And I'm I need to get a drum
kit like this. I started tuning my snare drum like him,
(02:04):
like when I learned to play and stuff, and so
I just and that was and I'm a huge fish
hauld but this was a year or two before I
even discovered fish like I even had any idea. I mean,
I might have seen them once or twice, but like
it didn't even give a shit about that. But it
was just something about, you know, because I'd gotten into
cream as a as an early drummer, as power trio, right,
(02:27):
the fucking primise was but there was like, what are
they like? What is this like? And and you know,
as a drummer listening to the drums, I'm just like,
these drums sound so good. Yeah, and that really kind
of craft a lot of my personal musicality. And there
was just something about the just didn't just the humorous
(02:49):
nature but satirical nature of their music that spoke to me,
you know, and just like and it's interesting because I know,
finding myself, you know, shooting and working for them now
and really kind of like feeling hied like when I
you know, to the music and being able to kind
of capture them in a way. I think that identifies
(03:10):
with people. You know, It's I every what when I
the times that I shout with them is like I'm
channeling that childhoish, like that childish like whoa like every time.
And then when I got to see the whole New
Year's Eve thing, when it was like you know, like
dill in MERVH, like Scaret, like all these just monsters
(03:35):
of music, and you know when they broke into the set,
you know, the the Frog, you know, the Holy Mackerel set,
and it was just like wow, it was just you know,
and and that's the thing. It's like you know, people
tell you know, like you know, with Fish and some
other bands, it's more like, you know, the music move myself,
(03:57):
like and there's a great place for that with Primeucy
was just whoa and it was that That's really what
it was. It's like, this is going to continue to
be unique no matter how many times it's and like
this dude and just the way he like less, the
way he approached music was kind of like an allegory
(04:17):
almost for like an approach to life, you know, like
really embellishing but not taking it all incredibly serious, you know,
like in a sense you know, and I'm not going
to say that I can see into someone's musical intent,
but there are just some nuances and some parts of
that really identified with me personally, you know, but not again,
(04:41):
not to that point of like, you know, I feel
like my soul is completely you know that that whole
conversation when you have someone with who's been on the
Florida Fish concert and taking too much excess here or something,
you know. You know what I'm saying. It's like like
a Primus show is like, you know, I could complete
completely rock a Primo show totally sober, you know what
I mean. It's like that's like when you when you
(05:02):
when you're in these cultures, these people and you're like
the jam band scene and That's why when when my
Primus crossed over to the jam band scene a little
bit with Less, I was like, what is he doing
with Trey Stewart's Holy shit? Like are you kidding? Yeah,
And so you know, that's that's kind of how I've
like as far as getting involved with is like my motivation,
(05:23):
you know, it's like where it's coming from pretty much.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, I did want to ask you about that. You've
you clearly are a Primus fan since a young age.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
I think I think we're about.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
The same age, and we we discovered primates all the
same time, you know, rocking the pork soda shirt.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Nice work.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
So, uh, the way that you approach capturing them when
you're when you're taking photos, I I wonder if you
find yourself getting lost in the music when you you know,
you're holding your camera and you got you should be
taking photos. But do you ever get lost in the
music and have to refocus on that?
Speaker 4 (06:00):
You know, there was a point there was it? You know,
because the way Less is he wants his side that
he doesn't want anyone on the side of the stage.
You can't go, you know, because that's you know, it's
like hollow territory right there, So you kind of have
to shoot. If I want to get a good shot
at him from that angle, I have to use a
(06:20):
longer lens and get a little further away. And sometimes
sometimes I'll be like punched in on his hands and
I'll start to get almost like a trick. It's like
you gotta like not try and try to try to
figure out what is he doing. I'm not a bassist,
but like it's just like, why how is that sound?
(06:43):
Like I'm trying to put the demotion of his fingers
together with the sound that's coming out, And of course
there's a delay, and I'm in front of the speakers,
you know, so I'm also hearing, you know. And that's
the thing about the drums too. Is a drummer. One
of the reasons why I like being in the front
when I go to shows is I can hear the drums,
not the drums coming through a pa, you know. And
so for me being able to hear like when I
(07:05):
was back like with the drum tex. So I'm sitting
back there with him as he's like holding a piece
of brains kit that's like coming off, and I could
hear brain snare drum and then he's got this rope
just like deep palm. It's it's like a single yellow
tom right there. And when he hit that, I could
just hear and so that'll that'll do it like getting
(07:26):
lost because it's more of an acoustic you can hear
the actual drum itself, and it's like I get, you know,
because as a drummer. And and that's the thing with now.
There was a moment when I was like, uh, shooting
lair and he was playing like right before like the
New Year's Eve, like Bob Cock came out. And and
(07:48):
also when he was doing D's Diner like that guitar,
you know, and so and and and I'll after some
pretty good stuff at that point, and it'll be usually
you can kind of feel the audience getting into it,
you know, when there's like someone in an Amasha pit
or something you know, like and it's like it's like heavy,
(08:09):
and it's a different kind of energy that I've experienced
and being at like you know, jam Van shows or
things like that. And I like the kinetic. It's very kinetic.
There's a lot of physicalities, so I can, you know,
I can move around the stage and shoot and I
(08:32):
kind of get I think it did rumble the diesel
on New Year's of the night before, and I was
just like, you know what I mean, because you know,
shooting is a really it's a physical thing, and as
you get older, I mean, I'm forty five, right, okay,
and so like you know, I was talking to one
of Dave Matthews photographers about this, and I was just
like getting curious, like, what's your physical like regiment before
(08:53):
you n Towari's like about a month before I go out,
I started hitting the gym, and I have regiment. It's
a lot of step ups, you know that I do
to like you're going on and you don't have to
do all that training. You're out there in the game,
and it's it's I used to play like semi pro soccer,
so I kind of liken that to like game time,
you know, and it's it's all kind of there's a
(09:15):
build up. You have to have the right gear. Like
I drove two hours back to my house a couple
of weeks ago for a festival because I didn't have
the right gear, the right harness. I'm like that it's
like my autism or something. It's just you got things
gotta be right, Like you do one thing, you gotta
do it, you know right, and yeah, to answer your question, yeah,
(09:38):
you gonna have to edit that one. Yeah, I wanted
to ask you.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
Every time you post uh a Primus photo, I'm always
blown away because they are so crisp and crystal clear,
and I wonder how you manage as a photographer to
catch these amazing shots with a band that has a
(10:05):
notoriously dark stage.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
That's a that's a very, that's that that you you
you appended that with with the right with the right thing,
because that's that's always the challenge, you know. It's funny
and to side stamp pot answer that I just shot
a thievery corporation. A couple of times they're like and
jay Rad is one of these bands too that they
have their setup further back from the stage, so they're
(10:28):
front lit at times and it's usually darker as opposed
to spotlight. The cool thing about the way that Todd
has been lighting Primus is you have an ambiance of
you have a tone, like a dark tone because it's
it's Primus, and you've got the video projections and I'll
tell you, excuse my friends, I fucking love the combination
(10:49):
of the video projections and the lights. I mean, it
just I don't know, man, when they say like icing
on the cake or the cold foam on the coffee,
it's it's really a personality of the show. And so
when it comes to the lighting situation, you know, it
has has to do with your settings. I kind of
(11:10):
follow this rule, you know, a little into like the
workflow where my cameras are. You know, I shoot in
a manual mode and I call it the three in
the three twenty rule. And whereas my ISO is set
at three twenty, my f stop. You know. I use
lenses that have maximum aperture of two point eight, and
I'll set that aperture a little bit and stop down
a little bit three point two, three point two, and
(11:33):
then my shutters feed will started one three hundred twentieth
of the second. And so what I've realized is for
general lighting circumstances, that is like a really good place
to start. And I try my best to keep my
shutter speed there or two fifty. I don't really bring
it any lower because you get blur and that's where
you lose the crispness. And and so one of the
(11:56):
things with technology is when you have these high ISO
image with a potential noise, that's a lot easier to
manage in post production and just generally working the camera
than it is with a slower shutter. There's also like,
you know, I try hard to get the best image
(12:17):
out of the camera, but in circumstances where less is
out on stage with a disco ball hat. Yeah, and
he's got the whammola and he's got a gold jacket on,
I'm gonna spray and pray and what the prey is
kind of like it's almost like that's not really good.
People say, spray. Here's the thing about digital photography today.
(12:39):
We have these cameras that shoot up to like thirty
frames per second at full resolution. Its insane. So unless
you're does not pay attention or you're like there's something
seriously wrong, you're gonna probably get the shot the challenge
and this is it. It took me a minute to
realize this, and then when I did, like one of
(13:00):
those things is like you like when you learn and
you're like workout next thing, you know, you're like ripped
in two weeks. It's the calling of the photos afterwards.
It's when you sit down and you're like, oh shit,
I shot twenty five hundred freaking photos tonight. I'm gonna
have to go through those and I'm gonna have to
pick twenty that look really good. Whatever the call is,
the delivery is, and the time schedule. But so it's
(13:23):
it's going through and finding the moment is really because
we're all catch I mean everyone's and you have people
that like to shoot like more deliberate, so they have
proportionally less work to do on the calling. So that's
the step is finding the right photo. And then there's
you know, there's the part that you're you know, you
(13:43):
do whatever color correction or whatever and your edit, but
then it's got to go to a jpeg afterwards, like
from your photo, your your your your light room map,
and so that your compression algorithm and how you're actually
making that jpeg, you know. I that's a lot of it,
you know, because it's going up to social media and
they're going to recompress it. I have this background as
(14:04):
a TV editor, working in digital post production for twenty
five years, So I started I was working for the
one of the first companies that did video on a phone,
like in two thousand and four. So like file compression formats, algorithms,
based online codecs, all that goofy tech stuff is like
it is like my bread and butter bedrock. So when
(14:25):
it comes to preparing files, whether it's digital like a
still image video file, it's like, I'm always going to
get the best quality for the file size nice, And
that's kind of what I go for is I want
it to be as absolutely crisp and by resolution as
the user. And what's interesting about Instagram is when you're
(14:47):
on your account, the images actually look different than if
you're viewing it from someone else's account to your account,
it's a little it's a little because you have all
those like fields where you can enter stuff as the
the user, you know, but as someone who's just viewing it.
Like if I would look at your page, one of
your pages with it those images posted, they come out
(15:08):
actually clear and crisper when you guys are looking at
then when I which is weird, but that's it starts
in camera exactly. It starts in your settings in camera
and and then calling the photo afterwards.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Yeah, I would say, yeah, I'm looking at your Uh
I'll say that again, I'm looking at your Instagram feed
the vicarious observer, by the way, and the shots you
got from New Year's Eve, many of them are in color,
but you have quite a number in black and white,
and I'm curious how that approach.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Benefit will be moved. He'll be moments like you know,
for example, and again when Thieve reages they're doing the
three incorporations during this little acoustic set that in the
middle of their set, so as soon as they all
start getting right black and white, moment. Fucking thing about
these cameras. Another one of millions of cool things is
I could, for example, be shooting in the standard color
(16:06):
mode on my Nikon or my Sony, and when you
bring it into light room or really any other post
production suite, what happens is is when you shoot these
there's like ten color profiles that are automatically assigned, so
you can go through and like, you know what, I
like that deep monochrome. And so a lot of times
there's a little trick, and most concert photographers know this,
(16:28):
they should. There will be plenty of times where you know,
I'm one of these people. I just want to get
the skin tones as close as possible. If they're not blue,
they're not green, but my lighting director friend said to
me once, She's like, yeah, but I lit that blue
for a reason, And I said, okay, good, good, very
(16:49):
good point. So I try and find a happy medium.
So if it's like I get the skin tones a
certain color and then the ambient light maintains the true
lighting intention. However, sometimes it's just grizzled and it's washed.
So make it black and white, Paul to Day, go home.
That's what they say. So you just make it black
and white. You'll pick one of those profiles. But there
(17:10):
are some shots that are like, you know, when he's
got the way Moller's doing mister crinkle, depending on, you know,
the moment, and most of my it's it's weird. A
lot of my shot selection and editorial is comes from
I mean, this is art, so you know, as an artist,
(17:31):
I was from an emotional place, you know, So you know,
I could be channeling something in me that's emotional at
the moment, you know. And I try to listen to
Primus when I'm editing them that or like crazy ambient music. Okay,
I try hard, you know. The promise. The problem is
is there not enough? And I'm going to say enough officially,
(17:52):
released live primus shows, you know, like fish got the
live fish thing, because if I could get my hands,
I'm like, you know, the good quality you know, like
on iTunes, you know how they have it where you
get like the fishes, like about whatever goose has theirs
And that's another one of the things that I also
like about primates is that you can't do that, you
(18:12):
can't find all that, and that's what also makes it
interesting at the same time is they're not like everyone else,
you know, they don't decide to do that. So you know,
but I I when I'm editing, I get into a
like a like a state, and it's a flow state,
and it's it's you know, because I'm working on trying
(18:33):
to be fast, I'm trying to be efficient and the
one thing that I always stay away from, it's like
my biggest thing. My father is a photographer and he
used to say to me, don't be derivative. And that's
that's like my head. And I'm working on something like
I mean, the amount of photos that I just scrap
and I don't even post or edit compared to like
(18:57):
you know, and and and and that'll that'll happen like
and then I'll post, and then I'll be things I'll
post or i'll share or i'll send and I'll be like, eh, whatever,
And the next thing I know, I've got like thirteen
people sharing the image and like or I'll post, I'll
be like, I'm like, this is a studying contrast. This
is the white the black, and I'll wake up in
the morning and somebody, you know what i mean, nobody
(19:19):
will like have really noticed the photo. So it's one
of those things where it's emotion based, mood based.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Yeah, so you're really.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
You really dig it into it. Then when you're when
you're doing.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
This, when is uh what what was the what was
the first time you shot primis.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Honestly it was last year.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Okay, so this is this is the more reason that.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
This is the new this is the new venture. Yeah,
that's that's kind of what you know, I've been I've
been really doing live photographer for about four or five
years now, and yeah, that's the thing is like I
got to this position where you know, my father was
dying and you know, there was a lot of a
lot of complicated you know, families, families or families, families,
(20:05):
and you know, people die, people die, and my father's
a photographer for a while, so there was this weird
like transference just things happening in my life, and as
a TV editor, I kind of had some time to
like take a break and explore like a hobby. And
it got to the point where it's just things started
to take off, and you know, one thing leads to
(20:28):
another next thing, you know, you know what I mean. Wow, yeah,
And and you know, it's been one of those things
where it's like I putting myself out there to the
point where you know, you want to be careful because
you're a professional, but at the same point time, you're
in this business where it's so competitive that you've got
(20:48):
to kind of you've got to do some stuff kind
of on the on the cuff before you get to
a point where it's like because it's almost worth doing
these things on the cuff so that you're in the mix,
so that when the people that they're saturated with you
and your work, you know, And that's that's been kind
of that's been it's been the mission the last three years.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Wow, you you've caught You've caught on quickly.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Man, You're you're already uh, you know, running around with
primus and doing all, you know, scrolling through your Instagram
feed and there's all kinds of photos of a lot
of recognizable faces. The most recognizable, of course, are are
the the guys that we know. Uh there's a couple
I wanted to point out. You've got two right next
(21:34):
to each other a little ways down the feed. Uh,
there's one where Lessa's playing his forest ring and looks
very expressive, uh with his facial expression. And and I'm
very impressed you caught his facial expression during a show, because,
as Frankie said, the stage is usually poorly lit for that.
And then right next to that is uh one where
(21:55):
you caught brain uh in a moment there and I
love it.
Speaker 4 (21:59):
Oh yeah, you know Brain. The thing about shooting Brain
on that stage the thirty first it was getting on
stage and the thirty first was was a little challenging.
And again you've got you know, they're planning a New
Year's Eve gag and you know it's nothing crazy, but
they have plans to something, so you don't want to, like,
(22:21):
you know, the stage is kind of said, and so
you know, the major directions are don't go on stage left.
That's less as Land. You know, don't don't go less
less land, but thank you. You know what's funny. I
was just actually looking at this another version of this photo,
and that's what happened. Some days, I'll be working on
a phone, I'll be like, I don't like this one,
(22:43):
I don't want to post it, or I don't want
to move on, and it turns out I'll turn out
I had already posted or edited that photo. That was
the case with this. Yeah, he was difficult to photograph
from the stage from front because they had the two
kids on stage and they have you know a lot
of auxiliary hard where to the side, so that pushes
everything real relative space over. Yeah. Man, his his his
(23:07):
drumming style. The just the contrast to Tim's drumming style.
But how they both complimented primus amazingly like that. That
still blows my mind, you know, like completely like the
drum Their drums sound completely different, they're tuned different, they're
different sizes, different brands, but they both sound amazing with
(23:29):
the same the same band. And yeah, that was fun.
I got some I'd gotten some good shots with the
fish eye from the back of drums, but I going
through them, I'm like, let's let's get a frunt shot,
you know, a shot of him looking at towards the
cameras opposed to the back. You know, yeah, but thank you.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Yeah, for sure, man, these are great because we've talked
to some photographers Carla Freestep, Elizabeth Gore, J Blakesburg in particular,
is a man Jay's legend, for sure, But they said, uh,
they've all said it's difficult to capture primus due to
stage lighting and in earlier days that they were less
(24:09):
especially he was running around all over the place, so
that probably made it a challenge. Then he's he's a
bit more static now on stage.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
Surrounded by the gear. I mean, I remember the first
time I shot them, they were apostle robles. He was
having such problems with there was a there's a like
a PA legitimate PA issue, and there was a I mean,
there's a lot of in between moments where he's talking
to the audience and his appointment layer and they're like
goofing off to making jokes and you know, like about
the sound. But it's like he's got the he got
(24:40):
like the keys or like some devices like the bear.
It's just surrounded by dear you know, and so That's
also a challenge at times because you want to you know,
you want to be able to get you know, when
he's almost a crinkle with the thing, like you know,
doing that and you want to get kind of his
face and you want to get the hands and get
all this stuff in front. You can't get on that
(25:02):
side of the stage. You gotta get you want to
get kind of wide. So that's kind of the benefits
of of having two camera systems, you know, like a
longer lens and you know, a wider lens, and you'll
be able to switch them at the same time. And
you know, once in a while I will bring a
third but I pretty much have thropped two cameras for that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Wow, you're you're meeting the challenge really well.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Exactly. You know, you know, I'm one of I'm kind
of a type a personality. It's been a unique challenge
to try and make a need for it. But one
of the good things is you guys be like, we
want to interview. Holy shit, I was pulling my friend
the promise tracks once interviewing. They're like, dude, that's like
you know, that's like the fish radio, that's like fish podcast.
(25:50):
That's like Great Beyond. That's like, you know, that's like
the day Beat, that's Primuses podcast. You know, I mean
it's their unofficial official podcast. You know what I mean
when you say that.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Pretty much I've been calling it is the unofficial official.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
Punch because when you say official, then they then people
think it's run by the band. But none of these
bands actually do that themselves. They leave it up to
the fans because they know the fans are going to
create their own community.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Yep, they'll do all the work for them. They don't
have to lift a finger.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
And you know, I was telling, I was telling, you know,
managine that. I was like, you know, there's been some
good response to the photos, you know, keeping in mind
what you said, you know, and things like that. And
one thing I do want to say though, as an artist,
and this kind of ties in with branding and these
posters since since the Dominican run and I'm a poster guy,
(26:36):
I got crazy. The man, they're the best posters that
I've ever seen in my life. I like, I just
can't keep tracking that that Master Puppets one oh one.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
Yeah, yeah, that was fantastic, and you know, just learning.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
I watched I watched finally got to watch that whole
interview who did he do it? With? The last with
about what happened when he went you audition for Metallica,
And because there's new stories too, were like people try
to say that, like, oh yeah, they said Less was
too weird, don't they said Less was too good? Sure, yeah,
it was too good. And you know, and that's all
those NorCal Bay Area you know guys they all know
(27:13):
each other in the eighties, like they were all buddies
like Primus, Fatalic, Megadeth, you know, like all those guys,
and you know, learning about that history was was kind
of nice. And you know, I've you know, been following
Bay Area musicians most of my life and so the
you know when you learn about oh wow, they played
with Primus at one point interesting.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Yeah, yeah, for sure. You mentioned the posters.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Primus is certainly a visual band and that's been well
uh documented. So you mentioned you like those video backgrounds.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
Are you waiting?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Are you familiar with them enough that you know you
can hit a specific moment like you can get h
salad fingers or the explosion at the end of American
Life or something like that.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
Yeah, yeah, I was you know, I'm more impressed by
kind of just I kind of get lost a little
bit in the content, you know. And so it gets
to the point where it's again it's about timing. You know,
these are this this is what makes it kind of
(28:19):
more like a physical job. You're getting to be got
to be in that space, in that place to get
the shot, you know. And that was the thing for
New Year's. I was like, you know, what kind of
shot do I want to get this New Year's Like reveal?
Is it going to be? And I was like, all right,
I want to get the audience, but I want to
get the band in the audience, but I want to
(28:39):
get more of the audience's reaction. So that's what I
was like, I'll throw on the fish shine and get
it from like this corner right where. And interesting enough,
I was able Larry his wife came up on stage
to give him a kiss at New Year's Eve and
I had hanned over they were right there and I
got a shot at them. And it was shortly after
the flot. I was going through these photos after the fires,
(29:01):
and you know, I sent it to John and I said,
you know, I don't know a lhare like that I
don't really know his wife like that. You know, I've
become friendly with her over Instagram since then, you know,
I said, could you send John's the tour manager? I said,
did you send this to them? Because you know they've
probably you know, they're kissing each other New Year's Eve.
They've just had like this trategty and maybe you know,
(29:24):
just a nice gesture. It's a beautiful photo of it,
you know, And and I just made sure that they
got that because you know that I've been through some
ship and like when I had heard about that, I
actually went through, you know, when I was sitting here
watching the fires and then heard saw that his house,
I went on there. I was like, I gotta have
some photos of them both at New Year's Eve. And
(29:46):
while I had found one, but yeah, you know, and
as far as like you know, being introduced to you know,
the you know, backstage people, you know the families very well,
you know, as far as you know, getting into like
a new group of people, working with new people, just
the crew. They keep the crew lean and mean, and
(30:07):
they're all like the nicest, sweetest, most welcoming people. And
I think their their sound guy is also a really
accomplished photographer as well, and those guys. Those guys were great.
I mean like shooting from the sound of lightboard while
you know, doing the thing with the lights, and that's
a really fun place to shoot because you're like in
this moment of creative collaboration with these people, and these
(30:31):
people are like he's doing the video, he's doing like
he's doing his thing, and then sounds doing their thing
and everyone is in you know, it's kind of like
the guys on stage are playing the music. You know,
it's this residual energy and they're doing their thing, which
is part of the show as well. So it's a
it's kind of a it's a big privilege. Appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (30:53):
That's another thing that some people get photo passes and
then the photograph PRIs but that's it and in your
in your case, I was really amazed when you posted
those New Year's Eve backstage photos that you took over
the whole band and that's really fantastic shot you got
of above cock because he was walking to two stage.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (31:17):
Yeah, how did it come about that the band actually
requested you to take those kinds of photos, which are
kind of out of character for them because they they
don't usually allow photographers to shoot you.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
Walked into the room and said, photo, you've seen a
look of Blessed's face. Like I had three of these.
I had like four or five of these photos because
what I did was I had one camera and then
I switched to a different one, but I had one
with a flash in one without me. I wanted to
try the fish eye without the flash to see you,
because again, this is less claypool, this is primess like,
(31:53):
you gotta try a fish eye. You just have to.
But I ultimately went with the twenty four MILI because
I had the flash on it. But it was like,
and again it's a it's almost a small a little
bit of a small metaphor. I went up to manage
and I said, hey, let's get the guys in there
now that they'll like half of them are, and then
let's get a couple more in there for a shot.
He's like, and he's like, because he was putting on
grabbing me for a group shot at some point. But
(32:15):
it's one of those things that like, unless it's about
to happen, you know, and it's New Year's e and
it's like all the you know, and but I think
it was my uh and and you know, I'm the
last person to brag about myself, but in staying home,
I think it was the initiative, taking the initiative to
be like hey, you know, you know, like making like
the thing creating almost like a need, you know, and
(32:37):
she's like, hey, let's do this. It'll be great, and
just getting okay you guys, and then just all right,
and then like I kind of I did the like,
oh wait, wait, wait, I gotta get this set because
I knew it would give. Like I was fucking perfectly
set to take the photo before they even got to
the room, Like, oh my shit was that? But I
wanted to kind of see because again it's primus, so
(32:57):
someone's gonna say something clever, you know, someone's gonna have
a reaction. And then that's when Bless went up like this,
you know, like with this here, and he had this
look on his things, like slightly barely annoyed. And honestly,
I've gotten this kind of out of models that I've
worked with, like just tell just like a really annoying
joke or something that's just like a dad joke that's
(33:19):
just like what the fuck is this guy? Saying, and
it gets a look, a micro expression on someone's face.
And that's always been my thing, is the micro expressions.
And I'll send you guys, you know, when we're done,
I'll send you the three photos and you'll be able
to see because you know, you got Learr, you got Less,
you got Dylan, you got Scat, you got Brain, you
got Adam Gates, you got these guys. And they're all
(33:41):
dressed up too. It's New Year's Eve and so you know,
I think that was again more of like a metaphor
to like the whole my whole quest here in that
if you just like a little bit mudge of initiative
here and there without being too pushy about things, you
can go, you know, if you have the juice to
back it up, you know. And that's kind of like
(34:02):
where we're at in society these days, is you got
to kind of put your money where your mouth is,
like when you're you know, and that's yeah, So if
you do one good thing.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
So you have found uh the links to which you
can push without crossing the line. Uh, and it's it's
already resulted in some great photos that we never would
have seen otherwise, you know, that's great.
Speaker 4 (34:26):
You know, mingling around and just feel like, hey, you
got it's no your The one thing I got Todd
is his partner and a shot. And then there was
a couple of shots that I got a layer coming out,
you know, because there was like this walkway where you know, yeah,
the primus and then where the families are things. So
I kind of got some shots that it's you know,
it's it's it's a delicate balance and you can usually
(34:49):
tell you can usually feel the vibe when it's like
all right, I'm gonna go in the other room, you
know what I mean. It's like because you know, you
got everyone's got their different rooms and things like that,
and there was and it was funny with the Tory
manders like, y don't you get any good shots of
me leading you know everyone up the stairs. It's like,
got a couple most of them are from the back
because you know, I'm not trying to get in front
(35:10):
of you while you're doing here, you know your thing.
But you know, I think when people when people see
photos that you've grabbed when you've had to just straight
up do your job, when you work with them again,
they're more inclined to be like yeah, yeah, you know
what I mean, because well, because they know that you're
(35:31):
gonna deliver, because they know that you're not just going
there to be like on stage to be seen or
something like that. Like fuck, no, man, I don't I
don't like being a spotlight or whatever. That's why I like,
like I see photographers that wear like like designs in
their shirt, Like, dude, I can see you from like
the back of the theater. I'm all black. Nobody fucking
see me, you know what I mean. Like forget like
(35:51):
if I could do like, you know, like makeup, like
camouflage make up, like I would you know, be completely
like you know, discrete and everything. But yeah, I mean
that's that was That was kind of a very special
moment for me, Like because I talked to management. I
was like, look, it's cool for grab some bad station.
(36:12):
She's like, yeah, that's why we have you here. Like okay,
you know what I mean. And yeah, I mean, you know,
when you get a direct deposit from Primus Inc. Or
whatever it said, that's awesome, Like three days after the
New year, you know, it's it's like one of those moments.
It's like Okay, okay, I've done something. But you know,
(36:35):
like even if it's just this one time, which it wasn't,
and so it's like, you know, you're grateful because it's
one of those things that like it's entertainment business, it's music.
You know, we're in today's society and shit can be
gone just as quick as it happened. And you know,
I think if everyone really trying to remember that and
(36:57):
just as a life lesson, you know, like go just
just as quickly as a game, Like all the work
that you did to get somewhere something like that can
go in a second. So I've savor every moment, like
I literally like do breathing exercises. I'd like this. This
theer is most terrible, but I'm part of it. But
(37:18):
I'm part of it, you know what I mean. It's
just like and then it's usually these venues usually smell
like cigarettes and weed or something. But otherwise, yeah, that's
that's a concert for you.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yeah, we have a few more minutes. I wanted to toss
out there that you also on your Instagram stream have
some great photos of our pal Rory Dolan banging on
some drums.
Speaker 4 (37:42):
Roy Is. Those guys are the sweetest group of like
pair your face off heavy rock music that I like.
When I when I saw them the first time, I
was like, what the like, I have to photograph these
guys and I'll tell you man. Roy would have also
been a great choice to play his skins for Primus.
You know, that guy's insanely talented. So but he's going
(38:04):
places with that band anyway.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
It was really cool as I was scrolling, uh, you know,
looking at the Primus stuff, and then I paused and said.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
I know that guy. It's Rory, all right, so it's
really cool to see that.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
Yeah. Ry is like, yeah, he's he's he's he's solid.
I mean as a drummer. Again, you know watching these guys,
you know, watching these guys play, and it's just like
they make it look so insane, Like some of these
guys like the Hoffer and there was that other guy
that tried out with him was a Brazilian dude or
something like that, or the Hungarian dude. Oh guru, yeah yeah,
and like between those two, I was like, I don't
(38:36):
know how they chose. You know, it probably came down
to like logistics and you know, like don't pay that
you know who knows. I mean I don't know, but yeah,
those guys are both. That was nuts.
Speaker 5 (38:48):
You have a masked a really incredible collection of photographs.
Have you considered curating your work and putting out a
primus book?
Speaker 4 (39:00):
I was, I was thinking about that, and one of
the things I'd like to do is I'd like to
shoot more primus. I'd like to get more a bigger
body of work, because you know, it looks can you know,
in all honestly, looks can be deceiving. There's a lot
of show, a lot of shots of a limited amount
of shows, and so you know, the presentation of that is,
(39:20):
you know, because I when I when I present, the
standard has to be high. You know, it's it's it's
got to be as best as it can be in
the moment. And I'm very critical, you know. And again,
something like that would obviously have to be approved, you know,
buy management, you know, licensing and things like that, and
and and I don't think that would really be an issue,
but it would be more something that like, I want
to get to a point where it's like and that's
(39:44):
something that I've also started to do is that one
of the good things about this Instagram is that represents
a uh, you know, basically a best of currently of
the stuff that I'm working on. And you know these
by resolution JPEGs are going up and their original they're
all saved and backed up in the clouds, so those
(40:04):
can go to print anytime. And that's another thing. I
also any image that you see like available for like prints,
you know that you can print out, like I have
a great press that I use that you know, welling
up to and including sixteen by twenty even larger enlargements
get delivered right to people's doors and had there were
some people that reached out, and I've had a lot
(40:26):
of in the last couple of years, not necessarily for privates.
Actually wasn't for Fish weird enough. I've only shot Fish
a couple times officially. It's mostly just been from the
front row with really good cameras and people just love
the photos. I mean, that's that's one of those bands
that they're just really tricky to actually shoot, like I
am shooting for Primus because they have their people and
(40:49):
you know, I'm friendly with their creative director, but they're
they're just they're locked out and that's how they are.
And I spent a lot of time wanting to shoot
for that.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
I wanted to toss something at you. You're going out
on the Onward and Upward tour this summer with Primes
will probably be going on by the time people are
hearing this. You have a unique opportunity because, uh, you know,
Hoffer went out with Primus on Sasanta, but as we
know of, photography was severely.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
Limited on that tour.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Do you have any kind of game plan for capturing
Hoffer on these dates because your photos will probably be
the first looks a lot of people really get seeing
him live with Primus.
Speaker 4 (41:29):
And don't think for a second, I haven't thought about
that many yet. No pressure as a drummer. You know,
it's like, and there's a photographer and he's a fan
of the music. It's kind of like, all right, you know,
put Charlie into candy store and give him the golden ticket,
you know what I mean. It's like it's like that
type of thing, because you know, that's what I've been thinking.
I'm like, Okay, this and he anothing. He's also really
(41:52):
camera friendly, he likes and this is what he's doing
for his brand. I mean it's I mean, it's great marketing.
It's absolutely what people should be doing. And I'm excited
because I think I take some good photos. I think
once he figures out who I am and he sees
my photos, you know, because it's funny. I've been like,
I have a Facebook page with a completely different name
(42:12):
and profile. It's like it's just a page that I
used to have fun with, and I've been going the
following year's Facebook page and because he's posting a lot
of it is I'm taking a rocking cheese steaks, going
out with the crew, this, that and the other. Like
he's a Philly I'm from Philly's age cheese steaks, and
I've been hitting them up. I'm like, yeah, just wait
till my friend Jordan privates is it's sort of taking
your picture, You're gonna love it. It's just like put
(42:34):
the little put these little like Easter egg bear. But
you know, in all seriousness, that's what I was saying,
is like he's sponsored by all these brands, so his
kit is gonna look sick. It's gonna brand new freaking heads,
brand new shiny symbols. And I'm I mean, as much
as everyone loves shooting lesson and I mean, I'm just
so stoked to capture, you know, and as a drama
(42:54):
and just like getting to watch him play the drugs,
you know, from that angle, it's just like, I'm like,
it's just it's just the greatest thing, because I mean
when I I couldn't get on stage when I shot Pam,
but I mean that was like, yeah, you know because
again as a kid, you know, it's just like you
(43:15):
watch it and and someone come to me, you know,
pulled out that a DeLorean, said hey, guess what, guess
what you're gonna be doing in twenty and you know,
in like twenty two years, you're gonna be that. I
would have been like, so, you know, forget about it,
you're full of it. But here we are.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
It is interesting.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
We're at that point where these guys have been around
long enough that they're now employing people who were fans
of theirs and are fans of theirs. And I'm sure
that's a different dynamic obviously than it was thirty years
ago for them. But it sounds like you are on
the right side of the line between fan and fan boy.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
So you're doing great.
Speaker 4 (43:57):
I could see why, you know, the people fish might
and like, hey, we we might not want to because
I have been like a major fish fan, like fanboy
just with promise. It's it's kind of it's different because
it's like I don't know how to say. It's like
I kind of grew up as an inspire Like that
(44:17):
moment seeing that video kind of creft it, like you know,
the many worlds, theories, different pants you can take, you know,
taking that path, you know what was it? What did
be this? But egg called the sausage like you know
they something like that, and it just like at that moment,
you know, I just was totally obsessed with that drum sound.
(44:41):
And so as a young kid, you know, with with
with kind of like you know, undiagnosed autism and ADDHD,
at the time, I can only kind of really kind
of get my piece was playing my drummers or playing soccer.
I put the headphones on, going to the drum room
and you steal some of my dad's a reefer and
get a little high and play and like I play
along the might and that, and I get the timing
(45:03):
and then trying to do the bait. Because I only
had a single pedal for a while.
Speaker 7 (45:06):
Before my dad bought me a double pedal, it's like
a whole freaking ordeal, and I would have to do
those tom and try and get it right, you know,
and so then you know, and having all this time,
you know, going into fish and then being able to
revisit all these you know, it's it's.
Speaker 4 (45:22):
Like, I'm like, exactly like you said it the right,
fan fanboy, you know, into it enough where I can
really connect with it, but not like obsessively where I'm
going to be, you know, embedded twenty four to seven
in the culture.
Speaker 3 (45:37):
Yeah, you know, yeah, excellent, man.
Speaker 5 (45:40):
Just wanted to complement your work, Jordan. You have taken
into some of the most amazing primus shops I have
seen in my lifetime as fan.
Speaker 3 (45:49):
Thank you for sure, You've got you.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
I appreciate your realist attitude towards the gig too. It's
great you're I'm glad you're in the fold with those guys,
and I hope it's bountiful for you and us.
Speaker 4 (46:02):
Yeah, thanks a lot, man, you know, it's it's I
appreciate you being able to discern the how you would say,
the realistic approach that I have to because at this age,
what I've realized it's trying to be straight and direct
with everything. And that's one of the benefits about being
and I'm gonna go ahead and be an agist. Is
that being this age and doing this kind of work.
(46:23):
It's kind of like I don't have kids of single,
I got my dog. I kind of take it down
the low key. When people hire me, they know that,
you know, well, I don't have these types of obligations
that nobody would prevent someone from going on a tour.
Speaker 7 (46:34):
You know.
Speaker 4 (46:34):
And my dog he's asleep, God bless him. I just
had just had that no cancer, Thank god. He's he's
pretty much my like my kid, like my companion, like
my dog. You know, I've got like guardy daycare set
up for possible tour dates where nice stuff like that.
You know, he's uh, you know he meets anyone in
the crew or something like that. Forget about it. You know,
(46:56):
people are gonna fall in love with them. It's just
it's one of these things that people like stopping me
in the tracks. I'm walking down the street table dog
like I gotta tell you about my boss and Tyre.
I'm like, look, I'm gonna start charging you people. But
he's like the perfect promise dog Bus and Terror just
gotta get a little monocle and ship. Yeah right, yeah, man,
(47:19):
thank you so much, like and and and the kind words.
It's like, you know, you know, it's your tortured artists.
I'm just sitting here cracking away getting content out, and
it's like, you know, people, you're just you're in the
zone and I say torture artist again, and then like
you step out of it and you're like, whoa, thank
you man. It's awesome.
Speaker 3 (47:38):
Yeah, thanks thanks for capturing these images of these guys.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Uh so j HK creative photography dot com and at
the Vicarious Observer on Instagram.
Speaker 3 (47:49):
Great places to follow Jordan
It's Joshua Freaky with a couple of dump shits.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hello Primates, you've found Primus tracks. Congratulations. As you know,
Primus is out on the summer twenty twenty five Onward
and Upward Tour, John Hoffman's first headlining tour with Primus
after a soft start of sorts on Sossanta.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
This week we speak with a man who will bring
numerous photos of that tour to you.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Jordan Kravitz is a California based photographer who will accompany
Primus on numerous dates. He's a lifelong fan of the
band and has a unique perspective on how to best
capture their energy and presentation. Now is a great time
to follow him at the Vicarious Observer on in Instagram
and check out his website at JHK Creative Photography dot com.
(01:05):
He has a lot of great images of Primus and
other acts. He's certainly worth a follow. Please enjoy our
conversation with Jordan Kravitz.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
I mean I was thirteen when I discovered it. Yeah,
and I was thirteen. I was watching Beavis and butt
Head with my dad. Right I was watching and the
video the you know what, the sausage video came on
with Beavis and butt Heead and I'm like and I
just started to play the drums and I had like
my influences like Ginger Baker and John Bonham and I
(01:44):
was like, what he's this and and at that moment,
my whole life changed because then I got to Tim Herbalog.
I started reading about the drummer, started reading about his
drum kit. It's like custom manufacture, porporate, like who makes
these drums? And I'm I need to get a drum
kit like this. I started tuning my snare drum like him,
(02:04):
like when I learned to play and stuff, and so
I just and that was and I'm a huge fish
hauld but this was a year or two before I
even discovered fish like I even had any idea. I mean,
I might have seen them once or twice, but like
it didn't even give a shit about that. But it
was just something about, you know, because I'd gotten into
cream as a as an early drummer, as power trio, right,
(02:27):
the fucking primise was but there was like, what are
they like? What is this like? And and you know,
as a drummer listening to the drums, I'm just like,
these drums sound so good. Yeah, and that really kind
of craft a lot of my personal musicality. And there
was just something about the just didn't just the humorous
(02:49):
nature but satirical nature of their music that spoke to me,
you know, and just like and it's interesting because I know,
finding myself, you know, shooting and working for them now
and really kind of like feeling hied like when I
you know, to the music and being able to kind
of capture them in a way. I think that identifies
(03:10):
with people. You know, It's I every what when I
the times that I shout with them is like I'm
channeling that childhoish, like that childish like whoa like every time.
And then when I got to see the whole New
Year's Eve thing, when it was like you know, like
dill in MERVH, like Scaret, like all these just monsters
(03:35):
of music, and you know when they broke into the set,
you know, the the Frog, you know, the Holy Mackerel set,
and it was just like wow, it was just you know,
and and that's the thing. It's like you know, people
tell you know, like you know, with Fish and some
other bands, it's more like, you know, the music move myself,
(03:57):
like and there's a great place for that with Primeucy
was just whoa and it was that That's really what
it was. It's like, this is going to continue to
be unique no matter how many times it's and like
this dude and just the way he like less, the
way he approached music was kind of like an allegory
(04:17):
almost for like an approach to life, you know, like
really embellishing but not taking it all incredibly serious, you know,
like in a sense you know, and I'm not going
to say that I can see into someone's musical intent,
but there are just some nuances and some parts of
that really identified with me personally, you know, but not again,
(04:41):
not to that point of like, you know, I feel
like my soul is completely you know that that whole
conversation when you have someone with who's been on the
Florida Fish concert and taking too much excess here or something,
you know. You know what I'm saying. It's like like
a Primus show is like, you know, I could complete
completely rock a Primo show totally sober, you know what
I mean. It's like that's like when you when you
(05:02):
when you're in these cultures, these people and you're like
the jam band scene and That's why when when my
Primus crossed over to the jam band scene a little
bit with Less, I was like, what is he doing
with Trey Stewart's Holy shit? Like are you kidding? Yeah,
And so you know, that's that's kind of how I've
like as far as getting involved with is like my motivation,
(05:23):
you know, it's like where it's coming from pretty much.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, I did want to ask you about that. You've
you clearly are a Primus fan since a young age.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
I think I think we're about.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
The same age, and we we discovered primates all the
same time, you know, rocking the pork soda shirt.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Nice work.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
So, uh, the way that you approach capturing them when
you're when you're taking photos, I I wonder if you
find yourself getting lost in the music when you you know,
you're holding your camera and you got you should be
taking photos. But do you ever get lost in the
music and have to refocus on that?
Speaker 4 (06:00):
You know, there was a point there was it? You know,
because the way Less is he wants his side that
he doesn't want anyone on the side of the stage.
You can't go, you know, because that's you know, it's
like hollow territory right there, So you kind of have
to shoot. If I want to get a good shot
at him from that angle, I have to use a
(06:20):
longer lens and get a little further away. And sometimes
sometimes I'll be like punched in on his hands and
I'll start to get almost like a trick. It's like
you gotta like not try and try to try to
figure out what is he doing. I'm not a bassist,
but like it's just like, why how is that sound?
(06:43):
Like I'm trying to put the demotion of his fingers
together with the sound that's coming out, And of course
there's a delay, and I'm in front of the speakers,
you know, so I'm also hearing, you know. And that's
the thing about the drums too. Is a drummer. One
of the reasons why I like being in the front
when I go to shows is I can hear the drums,
not the drums coming through a pa, you know. And
so for me being able to hear like when I
(07:05):
was back like with the drum tex. So I'm sitting
back there with him as he's like holding a piece
of brains kit that's like coming off, and I could
hear brain snare drum and then he's got this rope
just like deep palm. It's it's like a single yellow
tom right there. And when he hit that, I could
just hear and so that'll that'll do it like getting
(07:26):
lost because it's more of an acoustic you can hear
the actual drum itself, and it's like I get, you know,
because as a drummer. And and that's the thing with now.
There was a moment when I was like, uh, shooting
lair and he was playing like right before like the
New Year's Eve, like Bob Cock came out. And and
(07:48):
also when he was doing D's Diner like that guitar,
you know, and so and and and I'll after some
pretty good stuff at that point, and it'll be usually
you can kind of feel the audience getting into it,
you know, when there's like someone in an Amasha pit
or something you know, like and it's like it's like heavy,
(08:09):
and it's a different kind of energy that I've experienced
and being at like you know, jam Van shows or
things like that. And I like the kinetic. It's very kinetic.
There's a lot of physicalities, so I can, you know,
I can move around the stage and shoot and I
(08:32):
kind of get I think it did rumble the diesel
on New Year's of the night before, and I was
just like, you know what I mean, because you know,
shooting is a really it's a physical thing, and as
you get older, I mean, I'm forty five, right, okay,
and so like you know, I was talking to one
of Dave Matthews photographers about this, and I was just
like getting curious, like, what's your physical like regiment before
(08:53):
you n Towari's like about a month before I go out,
I started hitting the gym, and I have regiment. It's
a lot of step ups, you know that I do
to like you're going on and you don't have to
do all that training. You're out there in the game,
and it's it's I used to play like semi pro soccer,
so I kind of liken that to like game time,
you know, and it's it's all kind of there's a
(09:15):
build up. You have to have the right gear. Like
I drove two hours back to my house a couple
of weeks ago for a festival because I didn't have
the right gear, the right harness. I'm like that it's
like my autism or something. It's just you got things
gotta be right, Like you do one thing, you gotta
do it, you know right, and yeah, to answer your question, yeah,
(09:38):
you gonna have to edit that one. Yeah, I wanted
to ask you.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
Every time you post uh a Primus photo, I'm always
blown away because they are so crisp and crystal clear,
and I wonder how you manage as a photographer to
catch these amazing shots with a band that has a
(10:05):
notoriously dark stage.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
That's a that's a very, that's that that you you
you appended that with with the right with the right thing,
because that's that's always the challenge, you know. It's funny
and to side stamp pot answer that I just shot
a thievery corporation. A couple of times they're like and
jay Rad is one of these bands too that they
have their setup further back from the stage, so they're
(10:28):
front lit at times and it's usually darker as opposed
to spotlight. The cool thing about the way that Todd
has been lighting Primus is you have an ambiance of
you have a tone, like a dark tone because it's
it's Primus, and you've got the video projections and I'll
tell you, excuse my friends, I fucking love the combination
(10:49):
of the video projections and the lights. I mean, it
just I don't know, man, when they say like icing
on the cake or the cold foam on the coffee,
it's it's really a personality of the show. And so
when it comes to the lighting situation, you know, it
has has to do with your settings. I kind of
(11:10):
follow this rule, you know, a little into like the
workflow where my cameras are. You know, I shoot in
a manual mode and I call it the three in
the three twenty rule. And whereas my ISO is set
at three twenty, my f stop. You know. I use
lenses that have maximum aperture of two point eight, and
I'll set that aperture a little bit and stop down
a little bit three point two, three point two, and
(11:33):
then my shutters feed will started one three hundred twentieth
of the second. And so what I've realized is for
general lighting circumstances, that is like a really good place
to start. And I try my best to keep my
shutter speed there or two fifty. I don't really bring
it any lower because you get blur and that's where
you lose the crispness. And and so one of the
(11:56):
things with technology is when you have these high ISO
image with a potential noise, that's a lot easier to
manage in post production and just generally working the camera
than it is with a slower shutter. There's also like,
you know, I try hard to get the best image
(12:17):
out of the camera, but in circumstances where less is
out on stage with a disco ball hat. Yeah, and
he's got the whammola and he's got a gold jacket on,
I'm gonna spray and pray and what the prey is
kind of like it's almost like that's not really good.
People say, spray. Here's the thing about digital photography today.
(12:39):
We have these cameras that shoot up to like thirty
frames per second at full resolution. Its insane. So unless
you're does not pay attention or you're like there's something
seriously wrong, you're gonna probably get the shot the challenge
and this is it. It took me a minute to
realize this, and then when I did, like one of
(13:00):
those things is like you like when you learn and
you're like workout next thing, you know, you're like ripped
in two weeks. It's the calling of the photos afterwards.
It's when you sit down and you're like, oh shit,
I shot twenty five hundred freaking photos tonight. I'm gonna
have to go through those and I'm gonna have to
pick twenty that look really good. Whatever the call is,
the delivery is, and the time schedule. But so it's
(13:23):
it's going through and finding the moment is really because
we're all catch I mean everyone's and you have people
that like to shoot like more deliberate, so they have
proportionally less work to do on the calling. So that's
the step is finding the right photo. And then there's
you know, there's the part that you're you know, you
(13:43):
do whatever color correction or whatever and your edit, but
then it's got to go to a jpeg afterwards, like
from your photo, your your your your light room map,
and so that your compression algorithm and how you're actually
making that jpeg, you know. I that's a lot of it,
you know, because it's going up to social media and
they're going to recompress it. I have this background as
(14:04):
a TV editor, working in digital post production for twenty
five years, So I started I was working for the
one of the first companies that did video on a phone,
like in two thousand and four. So like file compression formats, algorithms,
based online codecs, all that goofy tech stuff is like
it is like my bread and butter bedrock. So when
(14:25):
it comes to preparing files, whether it's digital like a
still image video file, it's like, I'm always going to
get the best quality for the file size nice, And
that's kind of what I go for is I want
it to be as absolutely crisp and by resolution as
the user. And what's interesting about Instagram is when you're
(14:47):
on your account, the images actually look different than if
you're viewing it from someone else's account to your account,
it's a little it's a little because you have all
those like fields where you can enter stuff as the
the user, you know, but as someone who's just viewing it.
Like if I would look at your page, one of
your pages with it those images posted, they come out
(15:08):
actually clear and crisper when you guys are looking at
then when I which is weird, but that's it starts
in camera exactly. It starts in your settings in camera
and and then calling the photo afterwards.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Yeah, I would say, yeah, I'm looking at your Uh
I'll say that again, I'm looking at your Instagram feed
the vicarious observer, by the way, and the shots you
got from New Year's Eve, many of them are in color,
but you have quite a number in black and white,
and I'm curious how that approach.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Benefit will be moved. He'll be moments like you know,
for example, and again when Thieve reages they're doing the
three incorporations during this little acoustic set that in the
middle of their set, so as soon as they all
start getting right black and white, moment. Fucking thing about
these cameras. Another one of millions of cool things is
I could, for example, be shooting in the standard color
(16:06):
mode on my Nikon or my Sony, and when you
bring it into light room or really any other post
production suite, what happens is is when you shoot these
there's like ten color profiles that are automatically assigned, so
you can go through and like, you know what, I
like that deep monochrome. And so a lot of times
there's a little trick, and most concert photographers know this,
(16:28):
they should. There will be plenty of times where you know,
I'm one of these people. I just want to get
the skin tones as close as possible. If they're not blue,
they're not green, but my lighting director friend said to
me once, She's like, yeah, but I lit that blue
for a reason, And I said, okay, good, good, very
(16:49):
good point. So I try and find a happy medium.
So if it's like I get the skin tones a
certain color and then the ambient light maintains the true
lighting intention. However, sometimes it's just grizzled and it's washed.
So make it black and white, Paul to Day, go home.
That's what they say. So you just make it black
and white. You'll pick one of those profiles. But there
(17:10):
are some shots that are like, you know, when he's
got the way Moller's doing mister crinkle, depending on, you know,
the moment, and most of my it's it's weird. A
lot of my shot selection and editorial is comes from
I mean, this is art, so you know, as an artist,
(17:31):
I was from an emotional place, you know, So you know,
I could be channeling something in me that's emotional at
the moment, you know. And I try to listen to
Primus when I'm editing them that or like crazy ambient music. Okay,
I try hard, you know. The promise. The problem is
is there not enough? And I'm going to say enough officially,
(17:52):
released live primus shows, you know, like fish got the
live fish thing, because if I could get my hands,
I'm like, you know, the good quality you know, like
on iTunes, you know how they have it where you
get like the fishes, like about whatever goose has theirs
And that's another one of the things that I also
like about primates is that you can't do that, you
(18:12):
can't find all that, and that's what also makes it
interesting at the same time is they're not like everyone else,
you know, they don't decide to do that. So you know,
but I I when I'm editing, I get into a
like a like a state, and it's a flow state,
and it's it's you know, because I'm working on trying
(18:33):
to be fast, I'm trying to be efficient and the
one thing that I always stay away from, it's like
my biggest thing. My father is a photographer and he
used to say to me, don't be derivative. And that's
that's like my head. And I'm working on something like
I mean, the amount of photos that I just scrap
and I don't even post or edit compared to like
(18:57):
you know, and and and and that'll that'll happen like
and then I'll post, and then I'll be things I'll
post or i'll share or i'll send and I'll be like, eh, whatever,
And the next thing I know, I've got like thirteen
people sharing the image and like or I'll post, I'll
be like, I'm like, this is a studying contrast. This
is the white the black, and I'll wake up in
the morning and somebody, you know what i mean, nobody
(19:19):
will like have really noticed the photo. So it's one
of those things where it's emotion based, mood based.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Yeah, so you're really.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
You really dig it into it. Then when you're when
you're doing.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
This, when is uh what what was the what was
the first time you shot primis.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Honestly it was last year.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Okay, so this is this is the more reason that.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
This is the new this is the new venture. Yeah,
that's that's kind of what you know, I've been I've
been really doing live photographer for about four or five
years now, and yeah, that's the thing is like I
got to this position where you know, my father was
dying and you know, there was a lot of a
lot of complicated you know, families, families or families, families,
(20:05):
and you know, people die, people die, and my father's
a photographer for a while, so there was this weird
like transference just things happening in my life, and as
a TV editor, I kind of had some time to
like take a break and explore like a hobby. And
it got to the point where it's just things started
to take off, and you know, one thing leads to
(20:28):
another next thing, you know, you know what I mean. Wow, yeah,
And and you know, it's been one of those things
where it's like I putting myself out there to the
point where you know, you want to be careful because
you're a professional, but at the same point time, you're
in this business where it's so competitive that you've got
(20:48):
to kind of you've got to do some stuff kind
of on the on the cuff before you get to
a point where it's like because it's almost worth doing
these things on the cuff so that you're in the mix,
so that when the people that they're saturated with you
and your work, you know, And that's that's been kind
of that's been it's been the mission the last three years.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Wow, you you've caught You've caught on quickly.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Man, You're you're already uh, you know, running around with
primus and doing all, you know, scrolling through your Instagram
feed and there's all kinds of photos of a lot
of recognizable faces. The most recognizable, of course, are are
the the guys that we know. Uh there's a couple
I wanted to point out. You've got two right next
(21:34):
to each other a little ways down the feed. Uh,
there's one where Lessa's playing his forest ring and looks
very expressive, uh with his facial expression. And and I'm
very impressed you caught his facial expression during a show, because,
as Frankie said, the stage is usually poorly lit for that.
And then right next to that is uh one where
(21:55):
you caught brain uh in a moment there and I
love it.
Speaker 4 (21:59):
Oh yeah, you know Brain. The thing about shooting Brain
on that stage the thirty first it was getting on
stage and the thirty first was was a little challenging.
And again you've got you know, they're planning a New
Year's Eve gag and you know it's nothing crazy, but
they have plans to something, so you don't want to, like,
(22:21):
you know, the stage is kind of said, and so
you know, the major directions are don't go on stage left.
That's less as Land. You know, don't don't go less
less land, but thank you. You know what's funny. I
was just actually looking at this another version of this photo,
and that's what happened. Some days, I'll be working on
a phone, I'll be like, I don't like this one,
(22:43):
I don't want to post it, or I don't want
to move on, and it turns out I'll turn out
I had already posted or edited that photo. That was
the case with this. Yeah, he was difficult to photograph
from the stage from front because they had the two
kids on stage and they have you know a lot
of auxiliary hard where to the side, so that pushes
everything real relative space over. Yeah. Man, his his his
(23:07):
drumming style. The just the contrast to Tim's drumming style.
But how they both complimented primus amazingly like that. That
still blows my mind, you know, like completely like the
drum Their drums sound completely different, they're tuned different, they're
different sizes, different brands, but they both sound amazing with
(23:29):
the same the same band. And yeah, that was fun.
I got some I'd gotten some good shots with the
fish eye from the back of drums, but I going
through them, I'm like, let's let's get a frunt shot,
you know, a shot of him looking at towards the
cameras opposed to the back. You know, yeah, but thank you.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Yeah, for sure, man, these are great because we've talked
to some photographers Carla Freestep, Elizabeth Gore, J Blakesburg in particular,
is a man Jay's legend, for sure, But they said, uh,
they've all said it's difficult to capture primus due to
stage lighting and in earlier days that they were less
(24:09):
especially he was running around all over the place, so
that probably made it a challenge. Then he's he's a
bit more static now on stage.
Speaker 4 (24:17):
Surrounded by the gear. I mean, I remember the first
time I shot them, they were apostle robles. He was
having such problems with there was a there's a like
a PA legitimate PA issue, and there was a I mean,
there's a lot of in between moments where he's talking
to the audience and his appointment layer and they're like
goofing off to making jokes and you know, like about
the sound. But it's like he's got the he got
(24:40):
like the keys or like some devices like the bear.
It's just surrounded by dear you know, and so That's
also a challenge at times because you want to you know,
you want to be able to get you know, when
he's almost a crinkle with the thing, like you know,
doing that and you want to get kind of his
face and you want to get the hands and get
all this stuff in front. You can't get on that
(25:02):
side of the stage. You gotta get you want to
get kind of wide. So that's kind of the benefits
of of having two camera systems, you know, like a
longer lens and you know, a wider lens, and you'll
be able to switch them at the same time. And
you know, once in a while I will bring a
third but I pretty much have thropped two cameras for that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Wow, you're you're meeting the challenge really well.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Exactly. You know, you know, I'm one of I'm kind
of a type a personality. It's been a unique challenge
to try and make a need for it. But one
of the good things is you guys be like, we
want to interview. Holy shit, I was pulling my friend
the promise tracks once interviewing. They're like, dude, that's like
you know, that's like the fish radio, that's like fish podcast.
(25:50):
That's like Great Beyond. That's like, you know, that's like
the day Beat, that's Primuses podcast. You know, I mean
it's their unofficial official podcast. You know what I mean
when you say that.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Pretty much I've been calling it is the unofficial official.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
Punch because when you say official, then they then people
think it's run by the band. But none of these
bands actually do that themselves. They leave it up to
the fans because they know the fans are going to
create their own community.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Yep, they'll do all the work for them. They don't
have to lift a finger.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
And you know, I was telling, I was telling, you know,
managine that. I was like, you know, there's been some
good response to the photos, you know, keeping in mind
what you said, you know, and things like that. And
one thing I do want to say though, as an artist,
and this kind of ties in with branding and these
posters since since the Dominican run and I'm a poster guy,
(26:36):
I got crazy. The man, they're the best posters that
I've ever seen in my life. I like, I just
can't keep tracking that that Master Puppets one oh one.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
Yeah, yeah, that was fantastic, and you know, just learning.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
I watched I watched finally got to watch that whole
interview who did he do it? With? The last with
about what happened when he went you audition for Metallica,
And because there's new stories too, were like people try
to say that, like, oh yeah, they said Less was
too weird, don't they said Less was too good? Sure, yeah,
it was too good. And you know, and that's all
those NorCal Bay Area you know guys they all know
(27:13):
each other in the eighties, like they were all buddies
like Primus, Fatalic, Megadeth, you know, like all those guys,
and you know, learning about that history was was kind
of nice. And you know, I've you know, been following
Bay Area musicians most of my life and so the
you know when you learn about oh wow, they played
with Primus at one point interesting.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Yeah, yeah, for sure. You mentioned the posters.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Primus is certainly a visual band and that's been well
uh documented. So you mentioned you like those video backgrounds.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
Are you waiting?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Are you familiar with them enough that you know you
can hit a specific moment like you can get h
salad fingers or the explosion at the end of American
Life or something like that.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
Yeah, yeah, I was you know, I'm more impressed by
kind of just I kind of get lost a little
bit in the content, you know. And so it gets
to the point where it's again it's about timing. You know,
these are this this is what makes it kind of
(28:19):
more like a physical job. You're getting to be got
to be in that space, in that place to get
the shot, you know. And that was the thing for
New Year's. I was like, you know, what kind of
shot do I want to get this New Year's Like reveal?
Is it going to be? And I was like, all right,
I want to get the audience, but I want to
get the band in the audience, but I want to
(28:39):
get more of the audience's reaction. So that's what I
was like, I'll throw on the fish shine and get
it from like this corner right where. And interesting enough,
I was able Larry his wife came up on stage
to give him a kiss at New Year's Eve and
I had hanned over they were right there and I
got a shot at them. And it was shortly after
the flot. I was going through these photos after the fires,
(29:01):
and you know, I sent it to John and I said,
you know, I don't know a lhare like that I
don't really know his wife like that. You know, I've
become friendly with her over Instagram since then, you know,
I said, could you send John's the tour manager? I said,
did you send this to them? Because you know they've
probably you know, they're kissing each other New Year's Eve.
They've just had like this trategty and maybe you know,
(29:24):
just a nice gesture. It's a beautiful photo of it,
you know, And and I just made sure that they
got that because you know that I've been through some
ship and like when I had heard about that, I
actually went through, you know, when I was sitting here
watching the fires and then heard saw that his house,
I went on there. I was like, I gotta have
some photos of them both at New Year's Eve. And
(29:46):
while I had found one, but yeah, you know, and
as far as like you know, being introduced to you know,
the you know, backstage people, you know the families very well,
you know, as far as you know, getting into like
a new group of people, working with new people, just
the crew. They keep the crew lean and mean, and
(30:07):
they're all like the nicest, sweetest, most welcoming people. And
I think their their sound guy is also a really
accomplished photographer as well, and those guys. Those guys were great.
I mean like shooting from the sound of lightboard while
you know, doing the thing with the lights, and that's
a really fun place to shoot because you're like in
this moment of creative collaboration with these people, and these
(30:31):
people are like he's doing the video, he's doing like
he's doing his thing, and then sounds doing their thing
and everyone is in you know, it's kind of like
the guys on stage are playing the music. You know,
it's this residual energy and they're doing their thing, which
is part of the show as well. So it's a
it's kind of a it's a big privilege. Appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (30:53):
That's another thing that some people get photo passes and
then the photograph PRIs but that's it and in your
in your case, I was really amazed when you posted
those New Year's Eve backstage photos that you took over
the whole band and that's really fantastic shot you got
of above cock because he was walking to two stage.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (31:17):
Yeah, how did it come about that the band actually
requested you to take those kinds of photos, which are
kind of out of character for them because they they
don't usually allow photographers to shoot you.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
Walked into the room and said, photo, you've seen a
look of Blessed's face. Like I had three of these.
I had like four or five of these photos because
what I did was I had one camera and then
I switched to a different one, but I had one
with a flash in one without me. I wanted to
try the fish eye without the flash to see you,
because again, this is less claypool, this is primess like,
(31:53):
you gotta try a fish eye. You just have to.
But I ultimately went with the twenty four MILI because
I had the flash on it. But it was like,
and again it's a it's almost a small a little
bit of a small metaphor. I went up to manage
and I said, hey, let's get the guys in there
now that they'll like half of them are, and then
let's get a couple more in there for a shot.
He's like, and he's like, because he was putting on
grabbing me for a group shot at some point. But
(32:15):
it's one of those things that like, unless it's about
to happen, you know, and it's New Year's e and
it's like all the you know, and but I think
it was my uh and and you know, I'm the
last person to brag about myself, but in staying home,
I think it was the initiative, taking the initiative to
be like hey, you know, you know, like making like
the thing creating almost like a need, you know, and
(32:37):
she's like, hey, let's do this. It'll be great, and
just getting okay you guys, and then just all right,
and then like I kind of I did the like,
oh wait, wait, wait, I gotta get this set because
I knew it would give. Like I was fucking perfectly
set to take the photo before they even got to
the room, Like, oh my shit was that? But I
wanted to kind of see because again it's primus, so
(32:57):
someone's gonna say something clever, you know, someone's gonna have
a reaction. And then that's when Bless went up like this,
you know, like with this here, and he had this
look on his things, like slightly barely annoyed. And honestly,
I've gotten this kind of out of models that I've
worked with, like just tell just like a really annoying
joke or something that's just like a dad joke that's
(33:19):
just like what the fuck is this guy? Saying, and
it gets a look, a micro expression on someone's face.
And that's always been my thing, is the micro expressions.
And I'll send you guys, you know, when we're done,
I'll send you the three photos and you'll be able
to see because you know, you got Learr, you got Less,
you got Dylan, you got Scat, you got Brain, you
got Adam Gates, you got these guys. And they're all
(33:41):
dressed up too. It's New Year's Eve and so you know,
I think that was again more of like a metaphor
to like the whole my whole quest here in that
if you just like a little bit mudge of initiative
here and there without being too pushy about things, you
can go, you know, if you have the juice to
back it up, you know. And that's kind of like
(34:02):
where we're at in society these days, is you got
to kind of put your money where your mouth is,
like when you're you know, and that's yeah, So if
you do one good thing.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
So you have found uh the links to which you
can push without crossing the line. Uh, and it's it's
already resulted in some great photos that we never would
have seen otherwise, you know, that's great.
Speaker 4 (34:26):
You know, mingling around and just feel like, hey, you
got it's no your The one thing I got Todd
is his partner and a shot. And then there was
a couple of shots that I got a layer coming out,
you know, because there was like this walkway where you know, yeah,
the primus and then where the families are things. So
I kind of got some shots that it's you know,
it's it's it's a delicate balance and you can usually
(34:49):
tell you can usually feel the vibe when it's like
all right, I'm gonna go in the other room, you
know what I mean. It's like because you know, you
got everyone's got their different rooms and things like that,
and there was and it was funny with the Tory
manders like, y don't you get any good shots of
me leading you know everyone up the stairs. It's like,
got a couple most of them are from the back
because you know, I'm not trying to get in front
(35:10):
of you while you're doing here, you know your thing.
But you know, I think when people when people see
photos that you've grabbed when you've had to just straight
up do your job, when you work with them again,
they're more inclined to be like yeah, yeah, you know
what I mean, because well, because they know that you're
(35:31):
gonna deliver, because they know that you're not just going
there to be like on stage to be seen or
something like that. Like fuck, no, man, I don't I
don't like being a spotlight or whatever. That's why I like,
like I see photographers that wear like like designs in
their shirt, Like, dude, I can see you from like
the back of the theater. I'm all black. Nobody fucking
see me, you know what I mean. Like forget like
(35:51):
if I could do like, you know, like makeup, like
camouflage make up, like I would you know, be completely
like you know, discrete and everything. But yeah, I mean
that's that was That was kind of a very special
moment for me, Like because I talked to management. I
was like, look, it's cool for grab some bad station.
(36:12):
She's like, yeah, that's why we have you here. Like okay,
you know what I mean. And yeah, I mean, you know,
when you get a direct deposit from Primus Inc. Or
whatever it said, that's awesome, Like three days after the
New year, you know, it's it's like one of those moments.
It's like Okay, okay, I've done something. But you know,
(36:35):
like even if it's just this one time, which it wasn't,
and so it's like, you know, you're grateful because it's
one of those things that like it's entertainment business, it's music.
You know, we're in today's society and shit can be
gone just as quick as it happened. And you know,
I think if everyone really trying to remember that and
(36:57):
just as a life lesson, you know, like go just
just as quickly as a game, Like all the work
that you did to get somewhere something like that can
go in a second. So I've savor every moment, like
I literally like do breathing exercises. I'd like this. This
theer is most terrible, but I'm part of it. But
(37:18):
I'm part of it, you know what I mean. It's
just like and then it's usually these venues usually smell
like cigarettes and weed or something. But otherwise, yeah, that's
that's a concert for you.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yeah, we have a few more minutes. I wanted to toss
out there that you also on your Instagram stream have
some great photos of our pal Rory Dolan banging on
some drums.
Speaker 4 (37:42):
Roy Is. Those guys are the sweetest group of like
pair your face off heavy rock music that I like.
When I when I saw them the first time, I
was like, what the like, I have to photograph these
guys and I'll tell you man. Roy would have also
been a great choice to play his skins for Primus.
You know, that guy's insanely talented. So but he's going
(38:04):
places with that band anyway.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
It was really cool as I was scrolling, uh, you know,
looking at the Primus stuff, and then I paused and said.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
I know that guy. It's Rory, all right, so it's
really cool to see that.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
Yeah. Ry is like, yeah, he's he's he's he's solid.
I mean as a drummer. Again, you know watching these guys,
you know, watching these guys play, and it's just like
they make it look so insane, Like some of these
guys like the Hoffer and there was that other guy
that tried out with him was a Brazilian dude or
something like that, or the Hungarian dude. Oh guru, yeah yeah,
and like between those two, I was like, I don't
(38:36):
know how they chose. You know, it probably came down
to like logistics and you know, like don't pay that
you know who knows. I mean I don't know, but yeah,
those guys are both. That was nuts.
Speaker 5 (38:48):
You have a masked a really incredible collection of photographs.
Have you considered curating your work and putting out a
primus book?
Speaker 4 (39:00):
I was, I was thinking about that, and one of
the things I'd like to do is I'd like to
shoot more primus. I'd like to get more a bigger
body of work, because you know, it looks can you know,
in all honestly, looks can be deceiving. There's a lot
of show, a lot of shots of a limited amount
of shows, and so you know, the presentation of that is,
(39:20):
you know, because I when I when I present, the
standard has to be high. You know, it's it's it's
got to be as best as it can be in
the moment. And I'm very critical, you know. And again,
something like that would obviously have to be approved, you know,
buy management, you know, licensing and things like that, and
and and I don't think that would really be an issue,
but it would be more something that like, I want
to get to a point where it's like and that's
(39:44):
something that I've also started to do is that one
of the good things about this Instagram is that represents
a uh, you know, basically a best of currently of
the stuff that I'm working on. And you know these
by resolution JPEGs are going up and their original they're
all saved and backed up in the clouds, so those
(40:04):
can go to print anytime. And that's another thing. I
also any image that you see like available for like prints,
you know that you can print out, like I have
a great press that I use that you know, welling
up to and including sixteen by twenty even larger enlargements
get delivered right to people's doors and had there were
some people that reached out, and I've had a lot
(40:26):
of in the last couple of years, not necessarily for privates.
Actually wasn't for Fish weird enough. I've only shot Fish
a couple times officially. It's mostly just been from the
front row with really good cameras and people just love
the photos. I mean, that's that's one of those bands
that they're just really tricky to actually shoot, like I
am shooting for Primus because they have their people and
(40:49):
you know, I'm friendly with their creative director, but they're
they're just they're locked out and that's how they are.
And I spent a lot of time wanting to shoot
for that.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
I wanted to toss something at you. You're going out
on the Onward and Upward tour this summer with Primes
will probably be going on by the time people are
hearing this. You have a unique opportunity because, uh, you know,
Hoffer went out with Primus on Sasanta, but as we
know of, photography was severely.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
Limited on that tour.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Do you have any kind of game plan for capturing
Hoffer on these dates because your photos will probably be
the first looks a lot of people really get seeing
him live with Primus.
Speaker 4 (41:29):
And don't think for a second, I haven't thought about
that many yet. No pressure as a drummer. You know,
it's like, and there's a photographer and he's a fan
of the music. It's kind of like, all right, you know,
put Charlie into candy store and give him the golden ticket,
you know what I mean. It's like it's like that
type of thing, because you know, that's what I've been thinking.
I'm like, Okay, this and he anothing. He's also really
(41:52):
camera friendly, he likes and this is what he's doing
for his brand. I mean it's I mean, it's great marketing.
It's absolutely what people should be doing. And I'm excited
because I think I take some good photos. I think
once he figures out who I am and he sees
my photos, you know, because it's funny. I've been like,
I have a Facebook page with a completely different name
(42:12):
and profile. It's like it's just a page that I
used to have fun with, and I've been going the
following year's Facebook page and because he's posting a lot
of it is I'm taking a rocking cheese steaks, going
out with the crew, this, that and the other. Like
he's a Philly I'm from Philly's age cheese steaks, and
I've been hitting them up. I'm like, yeah, just wait
till my friend Jordan privates is it's sort of taking
your picture, You're gonna love it. It's just like put
(42:34):
the little put these little like Easter egg bear. But
you know, in all seriousness, that's what I was saying,
is like he's sponsored by all these brands, so his
kit is gonna look sick. It's gonna brand new freaking heads,
brand new shiny symbols. And I'm I mean, as much
as everyone loves shooting lesson and I mean, I'm just
so stoked to capture, you know, and as a drama
(42:54):
and just like getting to watch him play the drugs,
you know, from that angle, it's just like, I'm like,
it's just it's just the greatest thing, because I mean
when I I couldn't get on stage when I shot Pam,
but I mean that was like, yeah, you know because
again as a kid, you know, it's just like you
(43:15):
watch it and and someone come to me, you know,
pulled out that a DeLorean, said hey, guess what, guess
what you're gonna be doing in twenty and you know,
in like twenty two years, you're gonna be that. I
would have been like, so, you know, forget about it,
you're full of it. But here we are.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
It is interesting.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
We're at that point where these guys have been around
long enough that they're now employing people who were fans
of theirs and are fans of theirs. And I'm sure
that's a different dynamic obviously than it was thirty years
ago for them. But it sounds like you are on
the right side of the line between fan and fan boy.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
So you're doing great.
Speaker 4 (43:57):
I could see why, you know, the people fish might
and like, hey, we we might not want to because
I have been like a major fish fan, like fanboy
just with promise. It's it's kind of it's different because
it's like I don't know how to say. It's like
I kind of grew up as an inspire Like that
(44:17):
moment seeing that video kind of creft it, like you know,
the many worlds, theories, different pants you can take, you know,
taking that path, you know what was it? What did
be this? But egg called the sausage like you know
they something like that, and it just like at that moment,
you know, I just was totally obsessed with that drum sound.
(44:41):
And so as a young kid, you know, with with
with kind of like you know, undiagnosed autism and ADDHD,
at the time, I can only kind of really kind
of get my piece was playing my drummers or playing soccer.
I put the headphones on, going to the drum room
and you steal some of my dad's a reefer and
get a little high and play and like I play
along the might and that, and I get the timing
(45:03):
and then trying to do the bait. Because I only
had a single pedal for a while.
Speaker 7 (45:06):
Before my dad bought me a double pedal, it's like
a whole freaking ordeal, and I would have to do
those tom and try and get it right, you know,
and so then you know, and having all this time,
you know, going into fish and then being able to
revisit all these you know, it's it's.
Speaker 4 (45:22):
Like, I'm like, exactly like you said it the right,
fan fanboy, you know, into it enough where I can
really connect with it, but not like obsessively where I'm
going to be, you know, embedded twenty four to seven
in the culture.
Speaker 3 (45:37):
Yeah, you know, yeah, excellent, man.
Speaker 5 (45:40):
Just wanted to complement your work, Jordan. You have taken
into some of the most amazing primus shops I have
seen in my lifetime as fan.
Speaker 3 (45:49):
Thank you for sure, You've got you.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
I appreciate your realist attitude towards the gig too. It's
great you're I'm glad you're in the fold with those guys,
and I hope it's bountiful for you and us.
Speaker 4 (46:02):
Yeah, thanks a lot, man, you know, it's it's I
appreciate you being able to discern the how you would say,
the realistic approach that I have to because at this age,
what I've realized it's trying to be straight and direct
with everything. And that's one of the benefits about being
and I'm gonna go ahead and be an agist. Is
that being this age and doing this kind of work.
(46:23):
It's kind of like I don't have kids of single,
I got my dog. I kind of take it down
the low key. When people hire me, they know that,
you know, well, I don't have these types of obligations
that nobody would prevent someone from going on a tour.
Speaker 7 (46:34):
You know.
Speaker 4 (46:34):
And my dog he's asleep, God bless him. I just
had just had that no cancer, Thank god. He's he's
pretty much my like my kid, like my companion, like
my dog. You know, I've got like guardy daycare set
up for possible tour dates where nice stuff like that.
You know, he's uh, you know he meets anyone in
the crew or something like that. Forget about it. You know,
(46:56):
people are gonna fall in love with them. It's just
it's one of these things that people like stopping me
in the tracks. I'm walking down the street table dog
like I gotta tell you about my boss and Tyre.
I'm like, look, I'm gonna start charging you people. But
he's like the perfect promise dog Bus and Terror just
gotta get a little monocle and ship. Yeah right, yeah, man,
(47:19):
thank you so much, like and and and the kind words.
It's like, you know, you know, it's your tortured artists.
I'm just sitting here cracking away getting content out, and
it's like, you know, people, you're just you're in the
zone and I say torture artist again, and then like
you step out of it and you're like, whoa, thank
you man. It's awesome.
Speaker 3 (47:38):
Yeah, thanks thanks for capturing these images of these guys.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Uh so j HK creative photography dot com and at
the Vicarious Observer on Instagram.
Speaker 3 (47:49):
Great places to follow Jordan
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