From the Vault - OilCan Drive Promo Photo 2002

In 2002 I was reading a lot of music magazines. From Spin to AP, from Guitar World to Total Guitar, I was reading them all. And, I really liked the way a lot of the band's promotional photos looked. So, I decided OilCan Drive needed one of their own.

Not a concert shot or one of them having an adventure but something that looked like a photographer took them out to a location and shot some promotional photos for them.

And this is what I came up with.

One odd technique I was playing around with at the time was blurring the background a bit and then turning it into a sort of zip-a-tone looking dot pattern. I think I got the idea from Chris Bachalo's work on "The Witching Hour." I haven't done it too much since but it might be a technique worth exploring again.

And, for those of you who have been following OilCan Drive, you'll notice the clothes changed a bit around this time as well. Ryan wasn't wearing his familiar hockey jersey. I'm not sure why I did this but I have a few pieces where he is wearing the black t-shirt with the old air force logo on the front. I'm guessing he didn't like it too much because he soon went back to the familiar burgundy and white jersey. But, this look might be worth exploring again in the future as well. Maybe it's what he has on under his jersey.

I do remember printing this piece out really big and dragging it to one open mic I did. I thought it would help explain more what I was doing with the project as I pulled out my acoustic guitar and sang some songs. Of course, the one time I pulled it out and successfully explained the concept I really bombed at the music part.

Nothing is worse than being half way through a song and have the sound guy try and push the microphone closer to you, causing you to stop. And, even worse, stopping mid song as you hear one lone person kind of clapping, not sure what they just heard. Then you nervously tell them, "no, I'm not done yet!" as you try to start somewhere again in the middle.

Good times, good times.