On the Road: Prince Daddy and the Hyena at SXSW

The Albany-based punk band Prince Daddy and the Hyena took some of our Simple Use Film Cameras on their SXSW 2018 tour. Exploring photography for the first time for some of them, the band photographed the people they met on tour, friends new and old. We got to talk to some of the members about their experience using the cameras and analog media.

Hi everyone, welcome to the magazine, can you introduce yourselves?

Hi there I'm Zakariya and I play bass guitar!

Hey, I’m Cameron and I play guitar.

You just finished some touring with Pictures of Vernon and Retirement Party, even going to Mexico, how was that?

Zakariya: It was a blast! Our first international experience as a band and I think first international experience for some of us.

Cameron: It was my first time leaving the country so that was very very cool. Plus pictures of Vernon and Retirement Party are always great to be around. Except that James guy, I don’t know what’s going on with him.

As a band you all tour very often, what challenges do touring present to you?

Zakariya: We don't have any air conditioning in the bus! I think overall we are pretty content or used to the lifestyle, something that makes it harder in general is making long drives with little sleep because you can't get real rest while in transit so you rack up some serious sleep debt.

Cameron: Struggling to have a steady sleep schedule or any money. Also sometimes you “gotta go” at really inconvenient times.

You release your music on various streaming platforms as well as on tape and vinyl, how important is analog media to you as musicians?

Zakariya: I think it makes the music more tangible, you can properly appreciate the album art and layout design as well which is great because streaming just gives you a compressed image of the front of the album to look at. From a musician's perspective music is only going to sound as good as your speakers though so I think the experience of analog media exists beyond the music itself and has more to do with the intent that might come from having to set up the device and read along to the lyrics or look at the album cover. That applies mostly to vinyl though, I think tapes are just a more accessible form of that because they're cheaper!

Cameron: I think having a physical copy tends to make someone listen to a whole album front to back, beginning to end instead of just listening to the singles, which is how I feel a lot of artists intend it to be listened to (although I could be wrong).

How was it using the simple use cameras?

Zakariya: They were neat! It was kind of a shot in the dark with some of the flash filters because I wasn't sure how much the actually changed the photo. The daylight photos came out really nice I think though!

Cameron: Sometimes you’re waking around at night and you think you hear a ghoul so it’s nice to snap a pic with the flash just to see if it’s safe.

Have any of you dabbled in photography? If so what are your experiences?

Zakariya: We've brought a few disposables on tour before but beyond that and taking pictures on my phone I don't have any I can really think of!

Why do you think photography is important in the music industry?

Zakariya: Well not only do photographers at shows capture the energy of a performance to showcase to the rest of the world but I also can't imagine what PR might look like for most artists without photos of the artist or band to give a quick portrait into how they are trying to portray themselves whether it's unique to them as an individual or if they're trying to fit the mold of some already existing 'brand'

Why do you think that analog media across all platforms, both visually and audio wise has had such a major resurgence in the last decade?

From what we understand you tend to surround yourselves with a multitude of artists and creatives, ranging in a variety of mediums, how do these people affect you as artist yourselves?

Zakariya: I think being surrounded by lots of creative-oriented makes being creative feel a lot more natural and you're met with a lot more immediate support from people around you to pursue whatever process or idea you're reaching for. Everyone can share tools and ideas and you can create art that is greater than yourself which is an incredible experience. It's more stimulating which can be good and bad depending on yourself as an individual.

Now have worked with film, how do you think film photography sets itself apart from digital photography?

Zakariya: The process is a lot more mysterious, like I thought I would get a lot more exposure in the dark with flash then I actually ended up getting, and it's definitely not as crisp-looking as it could be but it's still not as offensive as a cheap digital camera.

Cameron: I think film photography adds a little more pizazz.

Would you work with film photography again?

Zakariya: I'm definitely thinking about buying more disposable cameras!

What can we see from Prince Daddy in the future?

Zakariya: More tunes and endless tours!

Cameron: Hopefully our very own brand of cereal.

You can catch Prince Daddy on tour with Rozewell Kid and touring more and more over the summer.

You can check out their music here

written by sarahlindsayk on 2018-06-01 #gear #people #sxsw #simple-use-film-camera #prince-daddy-and-the-hyena