Monthly Archives: April 2010

So many brilliant people came out of my high school. After a day like today, running around to three assignments that resulted in nothing but average photographs, it was good to get some inspiration from old acquaintances. I read an interview with fellow California High School* alum Phil Jaurigui, who runs Swing House Studios in Los Angeles. Those are some of his clients listed above. Read the list and weep. Phil was my partner in a high school Photo class (which I flunked). Phil probably got an A. He had skills, like so many Cal High students. For example, check out Cal High’s own F Scott Schafer, an amazing photographer who taught me everything I know about working in a darkroom.

Here’s a great quote from the end of the interview with Phil, which to me says as much about photography as it says about music:

If you’re a new band, just rehearse as much as you can, write and record as much as you can, and don’t look to anybody else to help you as far as building your sound and your audience. The only way you can do that is just by playing, playing, playing, playing relentlessly. The bands that survive—Wilco, AFI, Green Day, and a few others—they’re great bands, they’re valuable bands, and they’ll go on forever and forever because they never stopped touring and never stopped recording whether they had a record deal or not. That’s the way you gotta look at it, that it’s do it yourself. If you do it yourself long enough, you’ll eventually get good at it, and someone will notice it.

I needed something like that. As proud as I was of my photo of Karl Rove’s ear today…

…I’ve got to keep shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting relentlessly.

Here’s the full interview: Interview with Phil Jaurigui of Swing House Studios | LA Music Blog

* That’s really the school’s name, see: