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Welcome to the first issue of Six/Eight Mag.Community Service: The Interview Issue features four pieces

all of which centre around one common theme: the North East music scene.

Created by Glen SutherlandInterviews by Glen Sutherland

Layout and design by David DuncanCover photo and portraits by Adam Thirtle | adamthirtle.com

Live photography by Johnny Haynes | @blindjohnny (Instagram)

Connect with us atfacebook.com/thesixeightmag | @thesixeightmag (Instagram)

CONTENTS

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A Six Pack, A Chat with A Festival, A Parade.....................2Drifts: Feeling Kinda Blue.................................................8Chris’ McManus’ Production Values.....................................12Lens Me Your Ears: Blind Johnny Talks Live Photography......14Get Connected With Strudel..............................................20

A Six Pack, A Chat

A FESTIVAL,A PARADE

“It’s a massive thing for me, how organic and close-knit the scene feels – it’s

comfortable.”

Not even a year into existence and A Festival, A Parade are already on many local’s lists as a must-see band. Originally playing shows as frontman Joe Allan’s backing band, A.F.A.P. soon named them-selves and got to work as a unit. Their fantastic debut EP releases March 14th and they’ve earned a well-deserved headline spot at The Tyne Bar at Evolution Emerging 2016, truly not one to miss. We had a couple of beers and talked about their previ-ous projects, bands hanging out with bands and open-mindedness:

6/8: So I’ve known you all for quite some time, especially Reece and Liam from the three of us playing in Shades together but A Festival, A Parade may be totally new faces to some people on the scene. Has your reception as a band been welcoming? How would you equate A.F.A.P. to other projects that you’ve been involved in?

LT: We have quite a lot of friends that have invited us into the music scene [pre-viously], that have helped us spread the news about A.F.A.P. via word of mouth which, in turn, has gained us quite a rep-utation, even without our debut having been released yet.RS: I don’t think it’s felt like people are being welcoming because we [Reece,

Liam] play in Shades or because Joe did his solo stuff beforehand. It’s been dif-ferent, it’s been totally new. Nobody has really spoken to me or Liam about Shades relating to this band. It’s been like a totally new start.JA: But at the same time it hasn’t been a struggle or anything, I think that is off the back of Shades’ merit a little bit, so that was helpful. Like Liam was saying, it was an easy start because the same contacts were there.RS: I think people trusted us before they heard us, which was quite nice.OW: There was definitely a lot of respect for everyone that was involved with the project. I think from the early days there was a bit of “I wonder what these guys are going to do” and I don’t think people expected it to sound like it does.

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Joe Allan Reece Spencer

Liam TellumOllie Winn

As a unit, you lot are relatively new to the scene. Though you all have expe-rience in some way, shape or form in it, whether being in bands previously or promotion. Do you think the experiences you have had have been important to your current popularity and confidence as a band?

JA: Definitely for me, even stuff as sim-ple as having played shows before, you know. That helps with getting psyched up for shows and being confident. And obvi-ously I already had a writing perspective as well; I knew how to write music before being in this band.

RS: I don’t know about popularity, I’m not sure if my experiences have helped with that as I don’t think we’re particu-larly popular. I think the fact we have no music out as of yet and we’ve been able to play some of the shows we’ve done and had nice things being said about us – especially from bands from the scene we looked up to when we were younger, for example Grandfather Birds, Ajimal and Let’s Buy Happiness – shows that our experiences have been worthwhile.We’re confident in ourselves as players because we’ve had [playing] experience, I don’t think it’s necessarily to do with our old projects, though that helps, but more

so the fact we’re able to gel together really well and get stuff done.OW: I think we all benefit from the age we’re at. We’re all just growing as peo-ple, you live and learn from stuff you’ve done in the past. The past experiences we’ve all had involving music are mul-ti-faceted, from playing shows to putting on shows – it all comes into what we’re doing now. We wouldn’t be in the place we are now without doing what we’ve done previously. RS: It’s been quite a comfortable start for A.F.A.P., I think, because we know most people that would care about our music at such an early stage – we’re friends with

those people. JA: Yeah, and we’re all nice people!LT: I’m not. [Everyone agrees]

This one’s specifically for you, Ollie. Unlike Joe, Reece and Liam who have experience playing in bands, you got your name on the scene as one half of Beyond The Wall, a local promotion company you

run alongside fellow musician Charlie Dancer. Now you’re playing in a promis-ing up-and-coming band, do you think putting on shows inspired you to get on the stage instead of running the stage?

OW: Oh yeah. I was so jealous of all of my friends that were doing anything musically. I’d sit and watch bands/artists play who were doing well last year like Shades, Charlie [Dancer] and everyone else I’d made friends with from putting on gigs. I didn’t really do anything musically except occasionally play in a funk band and, I mean, I play bass so I wasn’t going to bring out a solo record anytime soon.

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I play bass and I released a solo EP. It was bad though.

OW: [Laughs] I can’t actually play anything other than bass. I’m pretty incompetent [laughs]. What I’m doing in this band, is exactly what I wanted to do in a band.

Do you guys think that’s why a lot of people in our scene start bands? Seeing their friends playing and thinking “I want to do that”? That’s exactly what happened to me – although I’ve been going to shows and playing guitar for around ten years, it was seeing my friends’ bands that really made me want to do it myself.

JA: Probably. It’s a massive thing for me, how organic and close-knit the scene feels – it’s comfortable. Having lived up in Edinburgh for a bit then moving back to Newcastle, I’ve noticed a huge differ-ence. There’s no hostility between bands. I think that’s testament to the scene, It’s not daunting or scary for new people to get involved. Seeing my friends play and get along with other bands was my incentive. RS: There isn’t any intimidation in the scene or within the group of bands we’ve become friends with. There probably are parts of the scene that may spawn some cockiness but everyone we know, everyone we’re friends with or even just come into contact with since we started, is really friendly. We’ve made a lot of strong friendships band-wise. When I was younger there was always one band who were close with another – they’d always play together, drink together, help each other out – which I thought was evident from a viewer perspective. My incentive was seeing bands play music, yeah, but it also helped to see them hang out together and just have a good time. OW: For me, it was all a product of being young, going to see my favourite bands;

seeing these blue-collar dudes that just finished their nine-to-five get on stage and play. That was my inspiration.

The scene in the North East is pretty big and a fair few people play in two or three bands, including a couple of you guys. Do you think this is a prom-inent characteristic of the scene? Is it important?

OW: It definitely gives a sense of familiarity. RS: It is important that people know each other. I guess it does happen a fair bit; people starting other bands with other friends to create something new or differ-ent to what they usually do.OW: Some people who know us from previous projects might think “Oh, I know that guy from...” and then expect us to

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Reece @ Little Buildings

sound the same or similar. But we don’t. And most bands that share members here don’t sound the same either – it’s a good thing. RS: People have assumed that we’re a modern punk band, or going to be quite shoegaze-y or have some sound stem-ming from post-hardcore.

Do you think people thought that because you and Liam play in Shades?

RS: I would think so, though it is quite a departure from any other bands we’ve played in. A lot of people have spoken to me after A.F.A.P. shows and talked about the sound and performance element of it and mentioned those of us that play in other bands don’t look or play the same on stage, a different presence in a different band. Bands share members but they are

different bands.JA: I don’t think bands sharing members necessarily pushes the scene forward but it’s quite endearing. I like how everyone is pals, it’s nice.

On the topic of previous projects, I’d say there are few similarities between Joe’s earlier solo stuff, Shades, Schultz and A Festival, A Parade. That being said, I’ve noticed you do attract simi-lar crowds. There are new faces at your shows, of course, but there are also a lot of familiar ones too – I think this is pretty representative of the scene. People here are open minded and want to know what others are up to. Would you agree?

JA: Definitely. Like you said, while there’s not a lot similar between our other pro-jects, I think people like to come along to show support. I know I thrive off know-ing what stuff is going on in the scene. It’s happened a couple of times recently where a new band has surfaced and I’m interested straight away and try to find out more about them – I think a lot of people do that here. OW: Shades is a good example of this – there’s people who have attended various Shades shows who are not necessarily fans of post-hardcore but are there to see a local band, or their friends band.

Yeah, we get the La Dispute/mewith-outYou comparison a lot. We like those bands but I think a lot of people that attend a show of ours may not be into them so much, if at all. It should be noted that these people aren’t posers, of course!

OW: Of course. Shades playing shows with bands like And So I Watch You From Afar, Such Gold, Pulled Apart By Horses etcet-era probably helped you gain fans that are into post-hardcore/punk/emo. But playing

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with the likes of The Great Curve, Drifts and even Bernaccia; they’re pretty mixed bill shows of only local bands. You’re maybe playing to people who haven’t heard anything like you before. If they like it, they might try to find other bands like you. They might not. I’m not a huge fan of the genre Charlie [Dancer] plays, but I think his stuff is great. I want to support him, you know?RS: There’s still a shit load of bands here that I haven’t seen yet. I had no idea

there was a glitchy/electronic/sound art/noise scene until I started university and I met a load of the guys who are doing it. A band called Supertunes, I think, who I go to uni with, are one of them.

And you would go and see them because you’re interested or curious as to what they’re doing. Knowing you, that’s not something I think you’d sit down and lis-ten to, but if you went and saw them it might change your perspective – which I guess is the point of the question.

RS: Yeah. I’ve looked into stuff like it before but I think, because of what you know about Newcastle, you assume it isn’t happening.

The penultimate question: You lot are all in your very early twenties. What advice do you have for young musicians or artists wanting to get into the scene?

OW: Listen to BBC Radio 6.

RS: Go to local shows; check out the listings for the Cluny, The Head of Steam and Think Tank. Do what you want to do, musically. Make friends with people. Be nice!OW: The cheesiest piece of advice: it’s not what you know it’s who you know.

And finally: what are your individual favourite memories of, or moments in the scene?

LT: Mine is probably the house show Schultz and James Carroll played to help celebrate our single release.JA: Mine is definitely playing Evo Emerging last year. It was the first proper things I had done on the scene; a nice change from playing pub gigs to no one. Just get-ting asked to play, the venue being busy for my set and then going to see loads of other mint bands after – it was all good. Evo Emerging is always a mint time.OW: I guess the last year as a whole; from promoting to joining A Festival, A Parade. I’ve made a lot of good, like minded friends in that time. RS: Mine is probably the Young Liar, The Great Curve, Ten Sticks show not too long ago at the Cluny. Mick Rolfe told me he’d written a song about me to the tune of “I Became a Prostitute” by The Twilight Sad and sang it to me in a Scottish accent [laughs].

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AVAILABLE MARCH 14TH

FACEBOOK.COM/AFESTIVALAPARADEAFESTIVALAPARADE.BANDCAMP.COM

UPCOMING SHOWS:MARCH 19TH - EP RELEASE SHOW - CLUNY 2, NEWCASTLE

APRIL 8TH - NARC. 10 YEAR SHOW - POP RECS, SUNDERLANDMAY 28TH - EVOLUTION EMERGING, NEWCASTLE

Feeling Kinda Blue

DRIFTS“If you support like-minded people on a local level you’ll invariably become acquaintances and

then friends.”

Lavotchkin, The Mercury League, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaind, The Future-heads, Frankie And The Heartstrings. Everywhere from metal to punk to pop. These are just a few bands that members of Drifts have played/play in. With a wealth of experience in many scenes, you can imagine they know what they’re doing – and they do! Their debut EP Blue is a clever and focused fifteen minutes of alternative indie/rock with DIY ethic in its blood and melody on its sleeve. We caught up with Drifts via email as they were on tour and recording in Norway. Have a read about the Ouseburn, all-dayers and the importance of local support below:

6/8: You all have a lot of experience playing in bands in general, though most of your projects, whether past or present were born out of the North East. Other than because this is where you live, why start a band here in the North East?

DS: So many North East scenes are very supportive of its younger/newer artists and bands and this is true of the inde-pendent and DIY music communities we’ve all been part of over the past 16 or 17 years. Although the landscape has changed somewhat in recent times there remains a common mindset amongst the people who continue to contribute and work extremely hard to make things happen - often against the odds - and

support. I think the motivation for this is in part down to the relatively isolated geography of the region’s bigger towns and cities in comparison to the rest of the UK. Traditionally, we’ve had to make and support it ourselves.

Drifts is very close with Pop Recs, Sunderland’s unique record shop/café/DIY venue ran by Dave Harper and Michael McKnight of ‘Heartstrings whose recent-ish Kickstarter campaign to help re-open the shop was an incredible suc-cess. To me, this shows a healthy music scene is important to our region – I’d imagine you’d agree.

DS: Absolutely. Incredibly important. The lads in the Heartstrings worked extremely

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Ross Millard Simon ‘Hub’ Hubbard

Dan ShannonGraham Thompson

hard to get Pop Recs Ltd to the point you know it as now because, more than most, they know the value of that space to those who support and work in it. The recent Kickstarter campaign was very encouraging but it’s still true that develop-ing and engaging people in a wide variety of cultural activities remains a significant challenge in Sunderland. There’s some great stuff happening (Pop Recs, MACQ, Cultural Spring etc.) but we still have a way to go to match Newcastle in that respect. It’s definitely on the up though.

We spoke to A Festival, A Parade about the open-mindedness of the people here and I think you guys are a band that would know a lot about that. Though Drifts wouldn’t be placed in either cat-egory, a lot of your fans are friends and former band mates from the hardcore/punk scene (please do a hardcore ver-sion of XR3I) who most likely supported your other projects whether heavy, fast or poppy. That being said, I’d argue that this isn’t just a product of friendship

– you each know the scene very well, has it always been so supportive?

DS: Yeah, it’s definitely the case. If you support like-minded people on a local level you’ll invariably become acquaint-ances and then friends. It just happens like that organically, doesn’t it? Those scenes you mentioned have always been pretty supportive so it just makes sense that the friends we’ve made in them would continue to support something else we’re doing.

My favourite part of our scene is The Ouseburn. It has, for as long as I can remember, been a place where music and community meet. Venues/pubs galore, practice rooms and studios are literally five minutes away from each other and there are multiple shows to go to every month – a lot of which fea-ture local talent. Do you think the area gives musicians and gig-goers a good representation of what’s on offer in the North East?

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GT: It’s certainly a big part of our world. Our practice room is down there, we play quite a few gigs down there too. Beyond that if we were going out for a drink it would more than likely be at one of the pubs down there, Hub even works

in one of them. I think it’s fair to say it represents a portion of the indie/punk/alternative gigs in Newcastle, and some of the more interesting music being made in Newcastle happens down there. I think it’d be foolish to say that it represents all that is happening in the North East, I’m sure there are other small scenes we don’t come across or don’t see a lot of. Saying that there’s probably no better starting place for someone new to the city looking for a taste of venues/bands/artists doing interesting things on a fairly small scale.

Of course Evolution Emerging and Narc Fest use the entire area to showcase a heavy amount of local talent across many genres. These all-dayers are a fantastic way for everyone to keep up to date with local music and the attend-ance is always incredible. How do you think they have affected the scene?

RM: In my experience, all-dayers have been quite a significant part of DIY cul-ture in the NE for many years, because it serves as a useful platform for local pro-moters/bands to connect and celebrate

what is going on at any given time. Those two particular all-dayers you’ve mentioned notably stand out from other all-day events because they actually serve two purposes. To act as a plat-form for local artists to play in front of

a combined/mixed/new audience, which they absolutely do, but they also work as a call-ing-card or marketing tool for other things, namely Evolution Festival (RIP) or Narc Magazine. That’s also fair, but is worth noting as it allows, particularly in Evolution Emerging’s case, the organisation which is promoting the

event has access to funds/public money. Amongst DIY promoters, that’s more or less unchartered territory at this point, though considering how tight money is getting for everyone/everything in the NE, I wouldn’t be surprised if that changed. Maybe Arts Council will get more and more applications for funding more inner-city festivals around the NE?

And lastly (this is the question everyone gets), what are your individual favourite memories of, or moments in the scene? This can be anything!

SH: Something we’ve all been involved in to an extent is the annual charity karaoke party, Grafteoke. Seeing a huge propor-tion of the independent music scene in the North East come together to support Cancer Connections by forming covers bands and perform one-off 20 minute sets, in addition to the hundreds who turn up to support and have the craic, has been a big one over the past few years. In all honesty, it’s become an untamed beast. Long may it continue.

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AVAILABLE NOWFACEBOOK.COM/DRIFTSBANDNEDRIFTSBAND.BANDCAMP.COM

UPCOMING SHOWS:MARCH 26TH - STOCKTON CALLING, STOCKTON

APRIL 2ND - THE LEXINGTON, LONDONMAY 6TH - JT SOAR, NOTTINGHAM

MAY 7TH - DEAD PUNK FESTIVAL, BRISTOLMAY 28TH - EVOLUTION EMERGING, NEWCASTLE

Production Values

CHRISMcMANUS

“I’m still making new friends, hearing new

awesome bands and learning from

other creative people”

Newcastle’s favourite producer and sound guy is probably the busiest man in the North East. Also playing in both speedy-tech punk band Pure Graft as well as experimental quintet Cauls, Chris took a much needed break from his busy sched-ule to talk to about founding Blank Studios and scene knowledge:6/8: Blank Studios has been open for a good few years now, since being founded in 2008. How did it get started? Were you there in the beginning?

CM: It all started when I, John Martindale, Sam Grant and Douglas Redfern met in college. We all wanted to start developing something we could do when we left the course, as early as possible. I think we just started talking about music and record-ing, but then hit it off and started talking about running our own studio one day. We started out recording our friends in practice rooms and at the college studios. After a while we were getting regular work and a name for ourselves so we decided to get a building of our own. That’s where we operate from now, but we have plans to upscale to bigger premises in the next few years, all going well!

Was there a gap in the market for an affordable, local and quality studio here in the North East at the time?

CM: I think the gap we filled wasn’t nec-essarily being affordable or good quality but more caring about music and the project, no matter who you were. I think some studios didn’t care about what you were doing and just saw it as time and money kind of thing. We tried to break the mould by having good rates and great results, but also really taking an interest in the projects and advising bands on what to do to get the best possible sounding record they could. This was all based on our experiences as musicians in other stu-dios, so we kind of had a clear idea about our standards and what we wanted to give people.

I’d argue that, given your roles at Blank and The Head Of Steam, you see more local bands and artists than just about anyone involved in the scene. No doubt this expands your knowledge of local music but it also means you get to know a lot of musicians on a personal level. Do you think you’ve seen a lot of

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what the North East scene has to offer?

CM: The North East music scene is some-thing that just keeps on giving. I’ve been around it since I was 16 (14 years!) and I’m still making new friends, hearing new awesome bands and learning from other creative people all the time. I think as it’s ever changing, if you embrace your local scene, it should never stop offering you opportunities. It’s one of the things I love about what I do – it’s always changing and always exciting.

As I mentioned, you’ve worked with many local bands across many genres. Anywhere from Future Horizons to Bernaccia, from Hunting Game to Old Prides – not to mention both A Festival, A Parade and Drifts too! With such an eclectic portfolio of work under your belt, it seems obvious that the North East scene can cater to a lot of tastes. Do you think the scene is expanding? Not only with the amount of

new bands/artists surfacing, but also sonically?

CM: I think music generally goes through phases or waves; it has its ups and downs. On the surface the North East can seem really booming yet sometimes really dead. But to me, if you look a lit-tle deeper it’s never stopped expanding or booming with interesting music. I can’t recall a year where there weren’t a hand full of bands that made me say “That’s so different and interesting” or “These guys are unreal they should be on tour playing around the country!” So in short, yeah I think it is but to me it always has been and probably always will.

Aside from your years as a producer and sound engineer, you also have a lot of

playing experience, drumming in both Pure Graft and Cauls – two very differ-ent local bands. With all your experience in mind, both behind and in front of the mixing desk, how would you describe the North East scene to those curious about it? CM: Like I said before I think it’s rich with an eclectic range of amazing artists, you just sometimes have to dig a little deeper to find them! Also it’s probably one of the most friendly and welcoming I’ve seen. I think with Newcastle being a small city,

once you’re in the scene and gigging, it’s not long before you’re mates with all the other great creative people.

Finally, the question everyone gets. What is your favourite memory of/moment in the scene?

CM: That’s a tough one. The times keep getting better as they go. But if I was going to pick one of my top things it would be any time a band I’ve worked with releases their record, have a big blow out gig, you see them smashing it either live or in videos, the crowd are going for it and people are buying their records and merch. They’re having a blast and you think, “I helped that happen!”

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Lens Me Your Ears

JOHNNY HAYNES

“I remember getting home, putting the

images on my computer and

thinking that there must be more local bands I could get

into”

When he’s not nine-to-five’ing at well renowned skate shop, Native, “Blind” Johnny Haynes is mostly found skateboarding, drinking fire bucket cocktails and standing right in front of the band that’s on now, camera in hand. In a closed, half lit Native we chatted about his tour bus driver neighbour, being new to the scene and of course, live photography:

6/8: You’re quite new to the local scene, having been shooting local bands for a year or so, though I’ve known you for around eight years and I know you’ve always been into music. Is it something that you grew up with?

JH: Yeah, it’s always been something that’s been in the household, I think I’ve got a mix of my family’s tastes. My big brother would literally listen to whatever was in the charts, so he has a really mixed music taste. My mum likes those all-time-classic tear jerkers, you know, bands like Edison Lighthouse, The Tremeloes, T-Rex, stuff like that. My dad he’s into Cream, Canned Heat. His favourite band is Mountain. I’ve seen Mountain with him like two or three times. I hear these bands stuff on the radio and know all the words, I’m like “How do I know this?!” [laughs].

You’re into a lot of modern bands too, though. I remember being fourteen or fifteen, staying at your house to skate and you forcing me to listen to The Subways and selling me The Living End merch because you knew I loved them – I bought one small and one extra-large The Living End t-shirt from you!

JH: The Living End! I’m not a massive fan but basically, my next door neighbour was a tour bus driver and bands would just leave merch on his bus. He knew I was into music so he’d give me what he found. I got a load of The Bronx t-shirts from him once, but they were all girls’ sizes and fits. They’re probably still in the bottom of my wardrobe somewhere. But, yeah, I try to keep up to date on new music but of course it’s good to get all nostalgic every now and then. One of my

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favourite bands is Bloc Party, and I guess that ties in with my love for skateboard-ing. One of the first skate videos I ever watched was Blind’s “What If?” and there was a Bloc Party track on there, maybe ‘Banquet’ or ‘Helicopter’ and I remember thinking “This band is fuckin’” rad! My taste extends as far as the likes of At The Drive-In, Basement, The Front Bottoms to name a few. Of course, I try to keep up with local stuff as well!

We share a lot of mutual friends who have played in various local bands for a good while. Did they introduce you to the local scene, or was it your interest in music that led you to it?

JH: Around ten years ago when I was fifteen, sixteen, I’d go to gigs almost every week. Bands like The Futureheads, Maximo Park and The Kooks would always be around – they were a good few years for shows. As I got into more bands over the years, though, I noticed a lot of tours would miss Newcastle. You know, there’s a Manchester date, a Leeds date then

a Scottish date, no Newcastle. So I just kinda stopped going to gigs, the bands I was interested in the most weren’t really coming here and I didn’t really know much about the local scene.

People could think the fact that bands aren’t playing here must reflect a lack of a local scene, or a bad one – which isn’t the case.

JH: Yeah! Then I met Harvey (Dench), one of my best buddies. He knew I took photos and he asked if I’d shoot some for his band, Picture Frames who were playing with Kenneths and Bleach Blood. At the time, it [live photography] wasn’t really my sort of thing. I’d shot a few gigs before as part of university – but all the equipment needed I borrowed from the university. Shooting Harvey’s band for the first time, I didn’t have a speed light or anything so I just shot, what I consider, bad photo’s, compared to the stuff I shoot now. Then the next one I shot was actu-ally the Shades release show. With local

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bands, I always had this thing where I thought “They’re local bands, they’re not going to be any good” then you go and it’s like “They were actually class” – so I just started going to gigs every week again, to see local bands and take pho-tos. I don’t get paid for it; I do it because I like shooting photos. I get home and pho-toshop what I’ve shot straight away then send them to the bands for free, which gets the bands hyped.

Drifts’ EP Launch at The Mining Institute with Canyons, Rice Milk and Black Lung Club was the first local show, I noticed, where you were super excited to shoot every band.

JH: That and [Charlie] Dancer’s EP launch. I didn’t really know Charlie; I’d only met him once or twice. I got to the show, real-ised there was a load of other good bands on and thought I might as well shoot the whole thing. The other bands were hyped I was there getting photos and from that I’ve had messages from each of them ask-ing if I could photograph them again. I’ve gotten some other work from shooting at

gigs, too – I’ve been doing promo shots for a couple of bands. It’s not really the sort of thing I enjoy doing but these peo-ple, through meeting at shows, are my friends.

Would you say that the Bleach Blood show with Kenneths and Picture Frames was the one that really sparked your interest in shooting bands?

JH: Totally. They were lively and jump-ing around and having a good time. As I said before, at the time live photography wasn’t really my thing but I remember getting home, putting the images on my computer and thinking that there must be more local bands I could get into and shoot.

I’d argue that most of your experience in photography is skateboarding based. We’ve skated together for as long as I’ve known you and you’ve pretty much always had your camera in hand. Has your near-decade of photographing skateboarders helped you with photo-graphing bands?

JH: With skateboarding, I’m used to lying on the floor in the middle of a public space in my shorts shooting photos of peo-ple jumping around. Sometimes the person you’re shooting has been trying a trick for two hours, so you can be there for the long haul. There’s this unwritten rule that the photo of the attempt that the skater lands, should be the one that is used [on the internet, mag-azines, adverts etc]. You do get people staring at you like “Why is that boy on the floor? Why does he have a camera? What are those flashes?” and that helps when shooting live bands. You walk into a venue

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with your camera and a little speed light and people give you looks, but they know why you’re there, regardless of whether you’re shooting your friends or not. It’s obvious that your work has its own style; your images of skateboarders are very recognisable, as are your images of musicians, yet you shoot both with different approaches. Is this something you work on?

JH: I don’t so much ‘copy’ them, but my work shooting skateboarders is influenced by people like Leo Sharp, CJ and Wig Worland – these UK and European based skateboard photographers. I saw their images and I was like “I want to shoot stuff like that” and I try to kind of mirror their work. I did a lot of experimentation because I didn’t know how to get my photos like theirs until I met them. I’d ask them ques-tions like “How did you shoot that? Where did you have your lights?” and I guess I devel-oped my own style out of my experimentation and their advice. With gig photography, I’ve never really met an expe-rienced photographer, so I’ve never been able to ask anyone how to shoot bands effectively. In a lot of my [live photography] work I use a rear-synched flash; I always use a fish-eye lens so I’m always really close which warps the perspective. I do use photoshop a lot too, layering shots over one another to put more motion into the image, which puts emphasis on the energy of the band or individual and in turn reflects the atmos-phere of the gig.

As you said, you’ve not really met an experienced live photographer here in

the North East. From the top of my head I can only really think of a few, arguably the most prolific being Graeme J. Baty at Blank Slate Creative. Do you think there’s enough opportunity in our scene for budding live photographers to make a name for themselves?

JH: Definitely. The scene seems to be growing right now; a lot of bands from Hartlepool and the surrounding areas like Plaza and Future Horizons are visiting to play shows. There’s a local show almost every week, I’d say, and you’re spoilt for choice with genres. The lads that run Beyond The Wall are putting on a lot of indie/alternative shows, there’s pop punk/punk/hardcore shows every now and then as well as quiet, chilled ones – plenty to get your teeth sunk into and pretty much frequent enough to always be involved.

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What advice do you have for budding live photographers?

JH: Just get stuck in there, really! Don’t feel like it’s weird that you’re stood there with a camera in front of a crowd – no one’s really looking at you. People are there for the band, they’re not going to be bothered that you’re flashing a camera around; it’s all part of the show.

People spend a lot of time with their phones out taking photos at shows any-way, sometimes for the whole thing!

JH: Yeah, exactly. You’re just doing it with professional equipment!

Do you think live photography is impor-tant to our (or any) scene?

JH: Of course, if anything, it’s for the bands so they can have a good social media output, if you know what I mean? I think it’s a lot better for a band to have [live] photos shot on a proper camera. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with camera phone photos but it looks a lot more pro-fessional when the photos are taken and constructed well.

I understand. For example, if I didn’t know Drifts but ‘liked’ them on Facebook and saw they had some shots done that look professional, it would give me the impression that they’re up to some-thing good because they have people interested in going to their shows and spending their time to take photos.

JH: Yeah, that’s exactly it. I think that’s what bands need. They might go unno-ticed if they haven’t got a good social media presence, that’s the key in my opin-ion, and photos help. Kylver are a good example of this - great band and their gui-tarist Johnny Scott actually works here at Native, he does our shop’s social media so

Last question! What is your favourite moment in, or memory of the scene?

JH: Any show at Little Buildings, which is actually a practice space. Cole (Gilroy) runs it and he does a good job, bring-your-own beer and usually free. Sometimes there’s a small fee for a touring band or a recommended donation for charity. Most of the shows I’ve seen there have been mixed bill but you know people will attend regardless of genre. It’s pretty much always the same people going, but they’re a good crowd. Like a family gath-ering, I guess [laughs]. There might be a few people there you don’t know but by the end of the show you’re friends with them. It’s always a good time.

he knows what he’s doing with the bands. I shot photos at one of their shows and when I arrived I noticed Graeme (Baty) was shooting too, but Johnny pointed out that our styles are very different so it’d be good to have both. He also asked Adam (Thirtle) to do their promo shots, which isn’t necessarily what Adam does, but his style of photography is a lot more art-based than mine or Graeme’s. So, yeah, Kylver have three different styles to use for promotion and it works!

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Johnny

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Immy Williams @ Surf Café Charlie Dancer @ Mining Institute

Pulled Apart By Horses @ Pop Recs

Shades EP Release Show @ Head Of Steam Sanity Check @ Three Tuns

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STRUDEL

Ajimalwww.facebook.com/ajimalmusicajimal.bandcamp.comBernacciawww.facebook.com/BernacciaMusicwww.bernaccia.bandcamp.comBlack Lung Clubwww.facebook.com/blacklungclubwww.blacklungclub.bandcamp.comCanyonswww.facebook.com/canyonsukwww.soundcloud.com/canyons-1Caulswww.facebook.com/Caulsbandwww.cauls.bandcamp.comCharlie Dancerwww.facebook.com/charliedancerukwww.charliedancer.comFrankie And The Heartstringswww.facebook.com/frankieandtheheartstringswww.frankieandtheheartstrings.comFuture Horizonswww.facebook.com/ftrhrznswww.futurehorizons.bandcamp.comGrandfather Birdswww.facebook.com/grandfatherbirdswww.grandfatherbirds.co.ukHunting Gamewww.facebook.com/Huntinggamebandwww.huntinggame.bandcamp.comJames Carrollwww.littlelrecords.bandcamp.com/album/disconnect-yourself-from-the-machineJimmy Floyd Hasselbaindwww.facebook.com/jimmyfloydhasselbaindwww.soundcloud.com/jimmy-floyd-hasselbaindKylverwww.facebook.com/kylvermusicwww.kylvermusic.com

Every local act mentioned, in one easy place.

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Lavotchkinwww.facebook.com/Lavotchkinwww.lavotchkin.bandcamp.comLet’s Buy Happinesswww.facebook.com/LetsBuyHappinessukwww.letsbuyhappiness.bandcamp.comMaximo Parkwww.facebook.com/maximoparkwww.maximopark.comOld Prideswww.facebook.com/oldprideswww.soundcloud.com/oldpridesPicture Frameswww.facebook.com/pictureframesbandwww.pictureframesuk.bandcamp.comPlazawww.facebook.com/wernotplazaPure Graftwww.facebook.com/puregraftwww.puregraft.bandcamp.comRice Milkwww.rrricemilk.bandcamp.comSchultzwww.facebook.com/SchultzUKwww.schultz.bandcamp.comShadeswww.facebook.com/weareshadeswww.weareshades.bandcamp.comTen Stickswww.facebook.com/tensticksnewcastlewww.soundcloud.com/ten-sticksThe Futureheadswww.facebook.com/thefutureheadswww.thefutureheads.comThe Great Curvewww.facebook.com/thegreatcurve.newcastlewww.thegreatcurve.bandcamp.comThe Mercury Leaguewww.themercuryleague.bandcamp.comYoung Liarwww.facebook.com/youngliarwww.young-liar.bandcamp.com