A DAY IN THE LIFE WITH THE REGRETTES
Being a photographer slash accidental journalist, I am always challenging myself and thinking of ways to improve and create great content. For this year’s SXSW Music Festival I wanted to do something that really put focus on my primary skill set, photography.
As the term itself implies, what better way to combine photography and journalism than doing a photo journal piece? As obvious as it seems, we see less and less of this type of content.
Perhaps it’s the current rapid fire nature of society where most media companies don’t see the value in time intensive content like a photo journal, especially being that it would realistically only produce one editorial in the end of it all.
At Highlark we don’t mind spending time and taking the harder road to create quality content.
Taking inspiration from Annie Leibovitz‘s work when she did a photo journal of The Rolling Stones’ Tour of the Americas 1975 and a piece our music editor and photographer Brittany “NO FOMO” did last year for a different publication, we came up with our own photo journal series which we gave a simple and self explanatory title to, A Day In The Life.
MARCH 16, 2017 – AUSTIN, TEXAS
The story of The Regrettes is not the norm by any means. Parts of it read like a fairy tale. They formed in December of 2015, and had landed a record deal with Warner Bros. by January of 2016.
They performed at SXSW last year but I found out about the band when their publicist sent us their first single “A Living Human Girl.” It was a great song. Well crafted musically with familiar yet creative melody lines and socially relevant lyrics that are cleverly conscious while being fun and playful.
The surprise of it all was the fact that singer/guitarist Lydia Night, now 16 years old was then 15, while guitarist Genessa Gariano, bassist Sage Nicole and drummer Maxx Morando were not much older themselves. I had been following their career since then, including their first New York City performance at The Studio at Webster Hall last September leading up to the release of their debut album Feel Your Feelings Fool! last January.
It was an impressive set, fundamentally sound and they even crushed the vocal harmonies. If there was any doubt before, there was none now. The Regrettes are legit. They are the real deal.
This was precisely why I wanted to follow this band in particular around. I pondered the same questions we all have about bands.
How are they like in real life? Do they actually get along? What do they do on their free time or on tour? What do they do before their shows? Are they down to earth or full of themselves?
// 1:00PM – HILTON AUSTIN
I was scheduled to meet up with The Regrettes at the lobby of the Hilton Austin. I had done a phone interview last August with Lydia so it was great to finally meet her in person.
I introduced myself to Lydia, Genessa, Sage and Maxx. I got a great first impression from them. No signs of pretension, just genuine and approachable.
I was told they had wanted to grab lunch at Austin Taco Project which was in the same building as the hotel, and so my day with The Regrettes began.
// 1:05PM – AUSTIN TACO PROJECT
I always like to build a little bit of rapport before getting into any shoot so I chatted with them while they waited for their order to come. The waitress brought over some hot sauces which had varying heat levels and flavors.
Lydia was having some problems with her throat, so she gave me a heads up she wouldn’t be talking much today in an effort to keep it in the best possible condition for the show later. I always forget this extra concern vocalists have and the good ones usually pay close attention and take care of it much like Lydia was doing.
It’s not an easy thing to do. It takes discipline.