Flying Skulls at F8
I am incredibly lucky to have such amazingly talented friends. If we are going with cliched things, the one I truly believe is surround yourself with people smarter and more talented than yourself, and your own growth is nearly guaranteed. This Saturday a good friend of mine, who is one half of Flying Skulls, had a show at F8 here in San Francisco. I admittedly know little about electronic music, but there is a great divide to the laptop dj’s and then what these guys are doing, which is performing totally live. We work together, and I have watched him many times sit down and write all sorts of music on the fly, hitting whatever genre and feel the company needs for a specific video or promotion. It is really impressive to see.
As a straight-edge guy into mostly punk rock, I have managed to avoid bars and clubs pretty well my entire life. But this place was cool; everyone there was doing their own thing and generally friendly, unlike most of the shows I have been to lately filled with obnoxious people talking over the music (but that is for another time). Live music is always tricky to shoot, and this was no different. People sometimes ask me for advice on shooting, and the best advice I can give is go out to all sorts of different situations and shoot them. Learning how to adapt or make do with whatever you get in a situation is huge. It was a lot of fun shooting them, and a challenge to light them up while still maintaining the energy and feel of their music.
You can check out the Flying Skulls at theflyingskulls.com