The Return of the Music Project
While out on a leisurely feral cat/bird watching outing I unexpectedly stumbled upon a birthday jam session that blew me away.
This past Saturday, our foster daughter, Wolfy (1) had a sleepover and so Erin and I had a little more “us time” than usual. As we like to do we went on a nice long walk around our neighborhood in Ocean Beach. We were walking toward the jetty to go visit the feral cat colony and do some light birding (#alwaysbebirding) as per the usual. As we approached the skate park (which is on the way) we could hear some loud music being played (mostly drums). We weren’t sure if it was a drum circle or what but it did sound a little more complex than your run of the mill OB drum circle (no offense), and those usually take place about a mile or so away over by Newport so I was a little confused, but either way the rhythm had me hooked.
As we got to the outside of the skate park we could tell there was what seemed like some kind of a jam going on inside. Erin could tell she’d be a little overwhelmed/uncomfortable if we went in together and offered to chill outside the skate park for a little while I went into the park and checked out the scene and shot a little. (2) So I confirmed she was cool (3), set a timer for 10 minutes, and went inside to check out the scene.
Walking up I saw there were two drummers both rocking full kits, a bass player keeping it funky, and a young dude getting jiggy wit it on the keyboard as another dude tickled the keys a little over his shoulder. There were some balloons and a handmade sign showing that it was someone’s birthday but I didn’t focus on that too much because my time was too tight and the music was too intoxicating. It was a rad scene to pull up into and I wanted to maximize on the experience.
Because I was on a time crunch I didn’t have much time to hesitate so after my quick assessment I started working the scene. I started wide shooting the whole scene and pretty quickly some of the musicians noticed me. I started locking in on them as they played and it became a clear give and take where the musician I was focused on would start what can only be described as: “fuckin’ playin’ that thang.” I shifted my way around the circle going from musician to musician as they took turns ripping it up. I felt like a director as I tried my best to make some quick portraits in my short window. I was using a compact camera which allowed me to really be able to get close and play with my compositions. The musicians “going off” really was an incredible energy exchange and a fun impromptu collaboration that made the photos. I could not have had more fun in that moment.
My time ran up much quicker than I would have liked but I was happy to have had that experience. I left my card [and no money](SORRY!) in a tip jar looking thing in the hopes that someone would reach out and eventually I connected with the birthday boy himself on insta. After connecting with him online I learned this was a jam/drum battle a.k.a. a “drum shed” that was organized for his birthday. After seeing some of the videos on his insta I realized I didn’t get ANY shots of him because he was not playing while I was there shooting (D’oh!). At any rate I had a blast and am just so thankful that all the musicians were so generous with their talent and their space. It also makes me super thankful to live in an area where there is real ass art and creativity all the time. I hope my pictures do “the shed” some justice and please go check the birthday boy (@john_mdrums) out on insta and his band Sweet Myths also on insta. They have an upcoming show on April 27th at The Holding Company in OB so check that if you can and aside from all that ummmm… remember to always keep it funky I guess.
I dunno.
I love you.
Bye.
-Richard :)
(1) Not her real name but also if you want to keep up with me subscribe to my newsletter.
(2) How fucking awesome is she?
(3) She was.
Stuart Todd Whitworth: The Music Project Strikes Back
My extremely talented singer-songwriter friend, Stuart Todd Whitworth and I collaborate on a multimedia project.
I’d written before about my chance encounter with the incomparable Stuart Todd Whitworth briefly as an aside in another story regarding my music photography/project but as a refresher for us all I'll go into more detail (in case anyone is interested).
I’d first run across Stuart while I was filming some person-on-the-street interviews for a yet to be released video project. I had been bouncing all around San Diego County over the summer and fall during 2020 looking for places with people around and on this day I happened to post up in La Jolla. I had gotten some decent b-roll, a handful of participants recorded, and had been about at the end of my day. It was about the end of the day’s day as well as the sun had already set by this time, but something about Stuart’s… I dunno… aura (?) when he approached me made it feel like I NEEDED to shoot this one last interview.
Stuart gave a great interview and afterwards we started talking and he told me he was a musician and blah blah blah. I remember being pretty cooked by this time and therefore I didn’t think too much about Stuart or the fact that he was a musician. We traded information as Stuart had mentioned that he was always looking for someone to help with photo/video stuff but at the time, music work was not really something that I thought about pursuing in any degree.
Fast forward 6 months and I’d been inspired by a local jazz band that had been rehearsing near my girlfriend’s old place. I decided that there’s tons of great local musicians and I’d like to try and collaborate with them, if they’ll have me. So I’m at the Subaru dealership waiting for my car to be serviced when I get a random call from Stuart asking if I’d be interested in filming a show for him the upcoming weekend. I had plans already so it didn’t work out but I mentioned to him that I would be interested in collaborating on a photoshoot or some other project if Stuart would be interested.
He was.
Over the course of a couple months we’d catch up on the phone and meet up in person to brainstorm. Stuart told me all about his impending album release and his unorthodox process of completing the album, we listened to some of his music, and we tossed some pasta at the wall. Eventually we had a project idea that stuck and we both felt it would fit our style and artist voices. We decided on a photoshoot and interview to be smashed into a self-narrated slideshow and that is exactly what we came out with and I’m beyond excited to be able to say that it is available for everyone to watch RIGHT NOW!
I’m very proud of how this video came out so thank you for watching. If you enjoyed the video, you should definitely check out more of Stuart’s music. You can find all of his music videos on his website, or you can follow him on social to keep up with him. You can find all of his socials here. And lastly, but certainly not leastly, if you really want to support my man, Stuart, you can show love by buying his album which not only comes with a disc and download code, but also a really cool book with amazing artwork renditions of the cover art from multiple artists across multiple mediums. Like the man and the music behind it all, the album presentation is unique and beautiful.
Support the artists you love so they can keep making the art you love.
