Posts filed under 'Duke Special'
Duke Special at the Irish Breakfast in ‘06.
I wasn’t at this show with Ryan, but I vividly remember him talking about it when he got home from SXSW that year. He hadn’t seen Duke Special in eight years, and the last time Ryan had seen him, he was just your average looking Irish man and had pretty short hair.
As you can see, his look had changed quite a bit since then! But what struck Ryan even more than his long dreadlocks was Duke’s amazing performance that morning. It left a huge impression on Ryan, and I can only imagine the rest of the crowd at the Irish Breakfast. Just hearing Ryan describe it, made me feel like I’d been there too.
I’ve been lucky enough to see Duke Special perform several times since then, and he’s easily one of my favorite artists. He’s so incredibly talented that it really is a true pleasure to see him in action. And every time I watch him perform, especially when he plays “Salvation Tambourine”, I remember standing in the kitchen of our old apartment and listening to Ryan describe the dreadlocked frenzy of Duke pounding the piano as he chanted “I could go to London…” at that special show in Austin.
- Kim
January 15th, 2010
Here’s a shot from the music video shoot I directed with Duke Special on Monday. Somehow, we found ourselves filming in Saint Olave Church, a medieval cathedral and one of the few buildings in the city that survived the Great Fire of London in 1666. Definitely an interesting location to film a music video, and we actually shot two songs there, both off the recently released Mother Courage and Her Children record.
December 10th, 2009
Here’s a shot from a photo shoot I just finished with Duke Special outside The National Theatre, where he’s been performing for the past few months in Bertolt Brecht’s “Mother Courage and Her Children.” I finally got to see the play last night; it was a beautifully chaotic production that easily exceeded my already high expectations. And of course, the music was fantastic.
December 5th, 2009
I don’t want to stand still
I just want to freewheel
I don’t want to lose this
- Duke Special Freewheel
November 30th, 2009
As I was packing today for my flight to London tomorrow to collaborate with my good friend, Duke Special, I found myself looking through some old shots from one of my previous trips over to the UK. I took the above pic in the spring of ‘06 before a concert Duke performed at Bush Hall in London. I was over to film a short documentary on him to help promote the release of his debut album, Songs from the Deep Forest, and as a result of this trip, I ended up directing two animated music videos for two of the singles off that record. Needless to say, I’m very grateful for the opportunity to get back over to a city that’s very close to my heart, and to once again be working with Mr. Special.
November 29th, 2009
I was thrilled to recently learn that I’ve been accepted to show some of my work at this year’s Hard Working Class Heroes festival in Dublin. The HWCH is an annual, independent showcase of Irish bands & musicians, with a hundred acts performing over a long weekend in October. The fest also has a photography exhibition, and fortunately for me, they opened up the competition to photographers beyond the Emerald Isle. So for this week, I thought I’d post the five photos I’m submitting to the exhibit.
The theme we’ve been given for this year’s exhibition is RE:ACTION – ie. our reaction to music, others reactions to music, crowds reactions to musicians and/or musicians reactions to crowds. And one of my favorite “reaction” shots is the above sequence that I took of Duke Special last summer at the Splendour Festival in Nottingham. I was following Duke for over a month, filming the documentary of the making-of his latest record, and in the midst of his recording sessions in London, he took some time to play a few gigs in England.
For anyone who’s ever had the privillege of seeing Duke Special play live, you know that he puts on special show indeed. Regardless of the venue or the size of the crowd, the guy really gives it his all, and the above concert was no exception. Having a backstage pass and being able to literally be on the stage while Duke and co. performed, certainly offered me the opportunity to get some angles not often afforded to concert photographers. So when the band finished their set in an absolute frenzy, I was able to quickly snap off these shots of Duke flipping over his piano and then crashing down upon it.
September 21st, 2009
Our trip to Ireland was more of a working vacation, and the work part of the equation was my filming a music video for Duke Special’s “Sweet Sweet Kisses.” I thought it would be fun for the video to feature loads and loads of people kissing, so we commissioned a kissing booth to be built, and we set it up in the lobby of Dublin’s National Concert Hall for Duke Special’s gig with the RTÉ Orchestra. I could be wrong, but I’m fairly certain it’s the first time the National Concert Hall had ever had a kissing booth on the premises.
Anyway, the concert was absolutely amazing, and afterwards, we had over a hundred thirty Irish folks come through the booth and kiss on camera. It was a quite a scene. We had this incredible line of people waiting to participate, with Kim and our friend Angela running around trying to get everyone to sign release forms. And it being the end of the night, more than a few of the volunteers were well on their merry way, so there was a lot of showboating and some pretty hard core making-out sessions in the booth. Probably the strangest “shoot” I’ve ever been a part of, but it was a lot of fun nonetheless.
August 28th, 2009
In between recording sessions for “I Never Thought This Day Would Come,” Duke went on a short tour in England, which included a gig opening for Duffy at the Somerset House in London. If the tour taught us anything, it was that “Diggin’ an Early Grave” was quite the crowd pleaser. That and always bring your umbrella to outdoor concerts in the U.K.!
August 9th, 2009
After finishing their work at Pogo Studio, Duke and the gang headed up to Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio in Chicago for an interesting little side project. In 3 days, they recorded 12 songs inspired by the 12 silents films of Hector Mann. “It was absolutely intense.” – DS
August 8th, 2009
When did I become a habit
That you kicked long ago
A tired refrain on a broken down train
Old lantern buried in snow
I tried to reach you with science
To find a familiar phrase
A word that sticks, that helps to fix
The fragments of your face
I never thought this day would come
Now it won’t go away
- DS
August 7th, 2009
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