0003 - music nights
My taste in music has been an ever-evolving palette. Embarrassingly enough the first artist/album I ever really got into was Eminem’s Recovery album. When I was a sophomore in high school that album came out and with it, I first started to dive into music. Driving home from high school cross country practice playing Recovery on repeat from an aux-cord cassette adapter on my Zune (yes I am that much of a pick-me) I began to form my first-ever opinions on music. Up until roughly that point in my life, I was on a steady diet of Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Buffet, Carlos Santana, and Train. These were the artists that my parents kept in regular rotation on our living room stereo.
As I grew older my taste in music thankfully progressed from Eminem. New friends, playlists, concerts, and interests started to shape my taste and I began to explore the medium more and more with each passing year. As an artist, my vector is undoubtedly photography. And my photography is influenced by many things; other photographs, graphic art, paintings, zines, movies, tv shows, etc. But, one of the biggest influences on my work is music. It’s one of the most easily accessible forms of art to consume. In the year of our lord 2023 being able to listen to any kind of music is almost an afterthought. Spotify, Soundcloud, Youtube, Tidal, Pandora, Vinyl, CD’s, the Radio, etc there are endless ways to explore the art form, and it’s something that nearly anyone with an internet connection can take part in.
I think that people from all walks can be unified by art. People of different languages, political opinions, financial situations, etc can still enjoy the same paintings, books, photographs, and music. However, music is one of the few mediums that can be so easily accessed by (nearly) everyone. There are hundreds of different ways to consume it and its appreciation largely does not interfere with day-to-day activities. Literally, as I write this entry right now I am listening to my Spotify Discover Weekly playlist. And as much as I love incredible paintings like Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights its work has a far greater barrier to entry for it to be able to influence my photography. It’s not as easy to buy a plane ticket to Madrid to see it in person. And even though I have the luxury of owning a 32-inch 4k display, viewing a painting in this way is still imperfect. It’s like taking a photograph through a dirty window. It doesn’t capture the texture, scale, or fine detail. Additionally, there’s a lack of digital infrastructure around other mediums of art like Spotify that music has. As cool as it would be there’s not yet a social following for apps that create a “discover weekly” of paintings or photographs. Music still reigns supreme.
Recently my best friend and next-door neighbor, Noah, and I started to host sporadic “music nights” to decompress and share whatever we’ve discovered in the past few days or weeks. Usually involving a bottle of wine, some pent-up frustrations about life, and a notepad to doodle on we confine ourselves to one of our living rooms and queue up enough songs to last for hours. It’s a cathartic exercise. It’s a night dedicated to spending time with friends as well as sharing art that we both enjoy. It’s a small exercise in vulnerability. Anyone whose unexpectedly been handed the aux cord in a car full of friends can appreciate that aspect.
“What if everyone thinks this sucks?”
I suppose that those of you who have any amount of self-confidence probably can’t relate to that phenomenon but for the rest of us, it’s a very tangible anxiety. So having a dedicated space to share the music we most intimately enjoy with our friends is an incredible luxury. Music nights also function as a space for creative thinking. For me, photography is obviously my go-to, for Noah who recently took up 3D design work in Blender, Music Nights are a chance to exercise these creative paths. For this particular music night, we were in my dimly lit apartment. Armed with my D850 I decided to only use my 105mm macro lens and shoot the scene as we traded songs on the queue. A 105 f/2.8 is not my go-to choice for this style of photography. In fact that lens is not even in my top 10 lenses that I would likely grab for this scenario. However, paired with a healthy level of intoxication and an inquisitive Noah we launched into an impromptu lesson in photography.
Which might honestly been more of a situation in which my patient friend was placating my overly excited self. Regardless, the night progressed with lessons in aperture, iso, shutter speed, focal length, etc all while being accompanied by everything from mid-west emo rock to vapor twitch. At its core, I believe that music night is a place to share what you love and care about the most. Whether it’s gaslighting your friend into becoming a photographer (spoiler alert Noah now owns a film camera and eagerly takes photos on our evening walks) or seeing what your friends are learning to make in blender, having a dedicated evening to sharing art and interest is good for the soul.
