Too lazy to digitalize these but I slightly changed up Jax and Emma's designs! I mainly fixed their hair so it looks better overall. If I'm not too lazy later I'll draw them digitally so they actually look nice, but for now here's this.
The celebrated New Zealander independent label, Flying Nun Records, celebrated its 40th anniversary this year with a movable celebration. City by city across the country, with allowances for COVID-induced lockdowns, bands from throughout the label’s history toasted the landmark date. The Pin Group, which recorded the single that bears Flying Nun’s lowest catalog number, was not one of them. The combo had last played together in the 1990s, and drummer Peter Stapleton’s death the previous year of cancer ensured that even if they wanted to reunite, they could not. But Roy Montgomery, who sang and played guitar on that record, observed forty years in music his own way. He made four new albums, which Grapefruit has been releasing as supply chain issues permit throughout the year. Rhymes of Chance is the third.
Montgomery’s singing (disclosure — in the 1990s I helped operate a record label that issued a couple of his records) has grown more assured over the years without gravitating above his original subterranean pitch, his brittle, trebly guitar tone has sunk deeper into a pool of reverb without losing hold of form, and the keyboard drones that he has added to his musical toolbox keep things grounded. While chaos never creeps into the performances on Rhymes of Chance, it blows through its songs like a random, pitiless wind. “It’s just a game of chance,” he sings at the album’s outset, and then goes on to recall people that still exist in his memory, but haven’t managed to accompany him to the current round in the game. It’s hardly a surprise that a guy in his 60s has lost somebody — who hasn’t by that point? A few tracks on, when he intones, “You just keep on dancing,” sheer perseverance, not abandoned hoofing, is what comes to mind.
Montgomery doesn’t get too specific about his personal losses, which makes the music more applicable to the listener’s experience. And he doesn’t bother to sing on every track; alternating presence and absence, after all, is a form of rhyme. The six-part suite that takes up side one and three long tracks on side two is divided evenly between reflective instrumentals, tracks sung by Montgomery, and others sung by Christchurch-based singer Emma Johnston, who previously collaborated with Montgomery on the LP, After Nietzsche. Her delivery is more ornate and graceful than his, and his strumming brightens when she steps up. These variations in tone put the plural in Montgomery’s rhyme scheme; each beat carries on, but there’s more than one pattern playing through.
Amazing new set from saturday with the stunning Emma Johnston from Edinburgh/Broughty Ferry. What an exceptional model and great day, not sure why it's taken us so long to shoot together but can't wait to shoot again.
Makeup by the wonderful Kirsty Miller at Signature Makeup.
Check the photo diary for more and get in touch if you fancy a shoot.
