Hello, its been a while since I’d last made an entry here, I’ve been running around doing a lot of things I’ve haven’t had the time to post on here, so below are some of things I’ve been up to lately:

Online Crowd Funding Adventures

As we’ve seen over the last 18 months on the internet, online crowd funding is the new thing as I’ve put in some money to some initiatives.  One of them was towards a music documentary episode called Metal Evolution: The Lost Episode.  So in 2011 you may have seen a documentary series called Metal Evolution on MTV’s VH1 in the USA or the ABC in Australia, this series looked into the history of heavy metal and hard rock music through 11 episodes, each episode exploring a sub-genre of metal and hard rock and featured bands like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, KISS, Motley Crue, Metallica, Slayer, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot and Mastodon. It was hailed as one of the best music documentary series created and was greatly recieved by the heavy metal fan base, however for some metal fans, they felt that they missed out on one sub genre which delved into some of the more darker styles in metal.

In 2012 the group behind the original series called Banger Films decided to launch a campaign on the Indiegogo website to get fans of heavy metal to help fundraise the money so that the “The Lost Episode” can be made. Their Indiegogo campaign was in 2 stages, one to get funding for the research, interviews and recording of the episode and the other for all the post production costs, licensing  and rights acquisition. In total they managed to raise $75,851 (in Canadian dollars) which is quite an achievement and showed that there were people out there wanting to see this episode get made. 

As a reward for my contribution I’d recieved a digital download of the episode and a mention in the credits, which is always nice.

One of the other ones I’ve donated to was to one of my favourite bands in Australia called Twelve Foot Ninja. In 2013 they put out a pledge for funding a music video they wanted to make, in which the video tackled the subject of online bullying and internet trolls. The target they set was $45,000 (AUS) and not only did they achieve that but they went over by  $7600 to reach an astonishing $52,600 which was one of the highest funded projects at the time on the Pozible website (click here to see the page). Now I made a two contributions to this funding venture, one was a $50 contribution which was the digital bundle which included some of the storyboards from the video, some acoustic recorded tracks from the band and a nice thank you song recorded by the band.

Twelve Foot Ninja BBQ Crew

Twelve Foot Ninja BBQ Crew

The other contribution was helping a group of fans (including some of my friends) raise money to get the band to perform the BBQ acoustic performance pledge (which meant the band come to your house, cook up a BBQ and do a acoustic performance for you and some friends in your own home). When the band beat their pledge target is was only a matter of finding a time to put on the BBQ that could fit in with the band’s touring schedule.

The video got released onto YouTube on 3rd February 2014 and it features the band Periphery, a Penthouse playmate and a violent battle between one of band members and a nasty internet troll. You can check out the video from here (warning if you don’t like blood and gore then I do advise you shouldn’t watch this video).

Twelve Foot Ninja Acoustic Performance

Twelve Foot Ninja Acoustic Performance, April 2014

Now back to that BBQ thing I’d mentioned earlier, well the band honoured that reward and during recent the Easter break the band made some time available during their Perth tour and we had the BBQ at one of my friend’s house.

It was surreal that you ring the doorbell and the bass player opens the door to greet you and welcomes you into the house and getting to hang out with the band and have a BBQ with them was something I’ll never forget and overall a good day for all involved. I did take some snaps of the event so you can check those pics out from here.

Melbourne Trip 2014

Melbourne Museum

Melbourne Museum

For second time in 7 years I’d visited the east coast of Australia and once again I’d returned to the city of Melbourne. My last trip there was in 2007 when I went to see the Australian national soccer team (or Socceroos as they’re known) take on Argentina.

This time around it was more sightseeing and doing more touristy things and I’d managed to catch up with a friend who ended showing me some cool graffiti artwork in some of Melbourne’s lane ways.

I also did the Great Ocean Road trip which was one day I’ll never forget as I got to see some breath taking sights like the Twelve Apostiles and Loch Ard Gorge, the town of Port Campbell and the lovely Apollo Bay.

I’d also managed to catch the Melbourne Comedy Festival while I was over there and tell you what as it was my first time experiencing it and I’d enjoyed seeing comedy on most nights I was over there as one of the venues was literally 5 minutes away from my hotel. The other thing I did was the Melbourne Sports tour which included visits to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), the National Sports Museum, Flemington Racecourse and had lunch at Etihad Stadium and the people I was on the tour with were very lovely people.

Latest Music Photography

The Jezabels @ Astor Theatre

The Jezabels @ Astor Theatre, May 2014

After a slow start to the year, I’ve started to pick up some gigs lately which has been good (mind you I did enjoy the odd break here and there) and it’s been good getting the camera out for some snaps here and there.

One of the shows I’ve shot recently was a metal festival called “The Stormrider Metal Festival” which included local and interstate bands in Australia. Most of the bands played thrash metal and power metal which was very enjoyable and the quality musicianship from the some of bands on the day were very high and it made it good for photographing.

Some of the others included The Jezabels who are always good value live, upcoming artist Thief, who actually surprised me with his unique voice and last weekend We Are Scientists from New York. That was a cool show to go to, those guys were challening but good to photograph and they liked to talk to and interact with the audience and cracked the occasional joke here and there which was refreshing to see as most bands these days just play their music.

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