About six weeks ago I had the privilege to photograph one of my favorite bands, Sloan, when they came to Portland. But as usual, we didn’t have much time. In fact, we couldn’t get all four of them in one place at the same time. So I came up with a plan to photograph them each individually and combine the images into one portrait. I borrowed each of the band members for a couple of minutes during their sound check, and shot the portraits right next to the stage.

I think the concept suits the band really well, as all four of them are distinct individuals within the band, but contribute pretty much equally to every album. I had intended to give each of the band members one quadrant of the space (in a 2×2 pattern) but when I started to put them together it didn’t look right. Kind of dumb, to be honest. So I tried layering them in thin horizontal strips and … it clicked!

But occasionally messages get garbled or lost along the way, especially when an artist is on the road (i.e. all of the time).

Such was the case a couple of weeks ago when I was scheduled to photograph Julie Doiron for an internet publication before her show in Portland. Between the person I dealt with and Julie, something broke down and she had no idea I was expecting her.

Not a big deal, it happens. The good news is that I had plenty of time to set up the shot. On the down side, when she did arrive, we had almost no time to shoot. We needed a horizontal shot for the publication, so it was one wide shot, one tight shot, a vertical just in case, and the whole thing was over in less than five minutes.

The shot itself was pretty straightforward—one medium softbox straight in front of the subject, and a gridded rim light to her far left. Shot with a 50mm f/1.8 nearly wide open (for the wide shot, as far away as I could without falling down the stairs). It was dark in the balcony when we did the shot, so I had Julie’s tour partner, Will Kidman, shine a flashlight on her so I could focus. Thanks Will!

That set the band back four or five months, but they’re back on track now, rocking as hard as ever. And that’s pretty damn hard.

I made a portrait of Brian King (guitar) and Dave Prowse* (drums) before their show at Holocene, and then shot the show as well.

[The mysterious extra guitarist you see in one of the pictures is John Paul Pitts of the opening band Surfer Blood. During Japandroids' set he jumped up on stage with a guitar (unplugged) and rocked along with Brian for a while.]

*Clearly, not the guy who embodied Darth Vader.

Po’ Girl are one of those bands that is constantly touring. They’re officially based in Vancouver, but I’m not sure they even have a real residence there.

Their travels bring them down the West Coast on a semi-regular basis, and I had the chance to make some portraits of the two central members, Allison Russell (above, at left) and Awna Teixeira, when they were in Portland for a taping of Livewire.

Alli had to run off somewhere while I set up my lights in front of a convenient wall across the street from their hotel. As Awna and I chatted, it came up that I grew up (partly) in Timmins, Ont.

Timmins is an isolated city of about 45,000 in Northern Ontario, a long way from either Vancouver or Portland. But Awna immediately perked up when I mentioned the “city with a heart of gold.”

“I know someone who grew up there,” she said. Oh really? Yep, turns out one of her best friends (now living in B.C.) was just a year behind me in high school, and we even were in one class together. Small world indeed.

While I didn’t get to see them play that time, I tried to see the band’s concert in a park this summer. Unfortunately, a timing mistake had me arriving just in time to see them breaking down their kit. And they were back in Portland last weekend, when I was out of town. But I know they’ll be back.

Vancouver’s Dan Mangan has the reputation of being the nicest guy on the Canadian music scene these days. I only met him once, last year in Portland, but he certainly lived up to that rep. And he’s talented too: among other accolades, Dan recently won the $25,000 XM Satellite Radio Verge Music award for Artist of the Year.

We made this portrait at Union Station, and then he invited me to his show at the now-defunct Towne Lounge. That bar may have been the darkest little room in Portland, but I was able to make a few shots of his performance. Click on the thumbnails below to see the photos. And check out his new, comical video for “Robots” below that.

I was fortunate to find a school bus parked next door to the venue, and it seemed strangely appropriate for a band called No Kids (which band leader Nick Krgovich says is a description of “a certain font of person that’s kind of whispered about at dinner parties”). He brought along a vinyl copy of the soundtrack for one of my favorite movies, Mulholland Drive, and with a couple of unmodified speedlights we were ready to go.

Julia Chirka and Nick Krgovich of the Vancouver band No Kids. Photo by Matthew Ginn © 2009.

I’m not sure which portrait will go with the interview, but here’s one I like. Check out those amazing eyes!

The interview will be published in mid-November. Maybe a bit sooner for the concert photos.

Jeremy Fisher. Photo by Matthew Ginn © 2008.

Back in 2007 Jeremy Fisher‘s homemade video for “Cigarette” went viral on YouTube, and now it has been viewed more than 2 million times. Jeremy’s music is upbeat and infectious, and he’s a cool guy. On some of his earliest tours, he crossed North America by bicycle. Crazy! I had the chance to interview and photograph him last year before his show at the Roseland here in Portland. We made this portrait (above) in a really narrow hallway of the Roseland, with me lying on the floor looking up at him, trying to get all those cool posters in the background. My shirt got dirty, but the shot turned out pretty well.

Here’s the video:

Hayden performs at Portland's Aladdin Theatre on his 2008 In Field & Town tour. Photo by Matthew Ginn © 2008.

Photos of Hayden performing at the Aladdin Theatre in Portland in June 2008. Click the thumbnails to view the images.

It was great to talk to lead singer Ryan Guldemond before the show, and then after photographing their set I managed to pull all five band members together for a lightning-fast three-minute portrait session. Click on the thumbnails to look at the photos. The portrait of Jasmin Parkin, Ali Siadat, Molly Guldemond, Ryan Guldemond and Jeremy Page was shot in the club near their merch table during Sam Roberts’ performance.