OKAY… Andy Barron is a SUPER cool guy. and this is probably one of my favorite creative interviews yet. AND he is one of my favorite music photographers. Andy has known Brian and i now for sometime… He has known Brian for longer. Andy is layed back, super fun & funny, and SOO not intimidating. He has one of those personalities that makes you feel like you have known him forever. In my opinion that is the BEST personality to have as a photograher. It makes your subjects feel super comfortable/confident in the environment and in their own skin.

This interview is full of honesty, truth, fun, and totally lets you in on Andys life. He didn’t tell you this… but he went on cruise tour with the new kids on the block photographing their shows in the Bahamas. ahah. I read on nydailynews.com that the tour was including “musical performances and schoomzing”. hahaha. schoomzing. i bet that was a happenin time. haha. I posted a few of the photos from that tour in this post. CHECK OUT ANDY’S WEBSITE!! and FOLLOW HIM ON TWITTER.

1. Who are you? What do you do? Where have we seen your work?
I am photographer/graphic designer working out of Los Angeles. My photos have been featured in USA Today, Paste, Relevant Magazine, Pollstar (cover), The Printed Blog, spin.com, and mtv.com. My clients have included Atlantic Records, ATO Records, SONY/BMG Records, Disney/Hollywood Records, EMI/Credential Recordings, Azoff Music Management, Tooth and Nail Records, and To Write Love On Her Arms. I can usually be found at Amoeba Records or the taco truck on Alvarado just north of Sunset.

with switchfoot too i recently started to help with some of the website and mailing list stuff and just general art direction and visual communications for the band. oh ya, i also just found out a shot of mine is going to be the cover of the next relevant. oh, and another one is in the new rolling stone. what can i say, it’s been a good week

2. Describe your work
photowise – i usually take a pretty journalistic style and would rather just be somewhere hanging out and happen to have a camera as opposed to being pushy photo guy telling people to bunch up and look at me. i’ve learned this has pros and cons, but i tend to think more pros, and it just fits my personality better. designwise – i tend like really clean, open types of work. which is funny, because my bedroom is usually in a constant state of kinda messy.

3. When and how did you start taking photos, did you go to school for it?
i took photo in high school because i knew a girl in that class and i heard it was an easy elective. i remember kind of liking the class and my then teacher saying i was pretty good, so i just kind of kept at it. who knew. after high school i went to college to work in a recording studio cause i thought i wanted to be a record producer, but then i switched majors to art and now have a degree in art with an emphasis in graphic design.

4. What was your first paid photography gig?
well i worked at my college’s newspaper when i was in school, so i guess that might count as my first real paid job shooting photos. on my own though, i made a poster for switchfoot when i was a sophomore in college that they paid me for and i guess that technically was my first paid thing. the switchfoot guys have really been encouraging and amazing to work for and i cannot thank them enough for being a creative driving force in my life still to this day. heck, i even still like the first poster i made for them almost now 7 years ago now, which is a good sign i guess.

5. How do you market your work? How do you get jobs?
good question. to be totally honest, i’m still figuring the business side of this creative world out. i have been lucky to make a lot friends and have a good word of mouth about me (at least i hope) going around, so that helps a lot. i also try and update my website and blog whenever i can.

6. Do you have a business schedule? office hours? do you work at home? studio?
no, no, yes, no. pretty much my office consists of whatever seat on my couch i find comfortable at the moment. i have a laptop that i do everything on, but lately i’ve been thinking of investing in a good desktop, probably because i actually have a good desk for one now.

7. Describe a typical day for Andy Barron
wake up, check emails/facebook/twitter/etc, reply back to emails/facebook/twitter/etc, usually from this i’ll make a mental (or actual) list of what to do later, get food, work on the list, take a break and play beatles rock band, work on some more list, go for a walk and get coffee, come back and work on more stuff, eat dinner, maybe go to a show or amoeba or work on more stuff, watch conan (i try to as much as possible), and go to bed.

8. What is one mistake you wish you could take back?
not seeing sunny day real estate on the rising tour at the glass house back in 2000. i had a ticket and everything and i stayed home to do homework like an idiot. i was still in high school at that point and figured i would see them on the next tour, then they broke up. i was bummed. fortunately they recently reunited and i just saw them like 3 days ago and pretty much lost my voice singing along.

9. What was your most discouraging moment?
there was awhile there even as recent as a year ago where i got really discouraged about photography because a lot of people i knew would get digital SLRs and ask me questions about shooting stuff and i would see them do photography because its so easy now these days. i think it was just some dumb mental block i had to get over because if people really do seem to like my work, then who cares if everyone and their mom has a good camera these days, it’s what you do with it that matters, and i just hope i keep making work people enjoy and respect. i really tried to word that without sounding like a jerk, so i hope it worked.

10. If you were not a photographer..what would you be doing?
man, i really don’t know. probably working at the apple store or something. i know it would have to involve some sort of creative outlet though, or i else i would go bonkers. hows this, i’ll let you know when my camera breaks.

11. What is your most used gear? favorites??
my workhorse is a canon 5d and a 24-70 f/2.8. i do a lot with that setup right there, but i also have a 70-200 f/2.8 and a 15 f/2.8 fisheye. i also have a mamiya medium format that is mildly neglected, but i’ve been vowing to use it more. switchfoot also recently got a new 5dmarkII so when i’ve been out shooting video for them lately, it’s been with that. the new music video for switchfoot’s single ‘mess of me’ is actually a lot of footage i shot on that thing (here’s an early version of the video). it’s kind of stupid how good the footage from those things looks. the only bummer is when i try to edit footage from it on my little laptop, i think my computer wants to punch me in the face. oh well. it knows i’m the boss. oh, i also just got the new fuji instax, which is their version of a polaroid. it rules.

12. Besides art and photography… what does your heart ache for?
hmm. i would have to say traveling. i definitely enjoy being home and recharging that way, but gosh i love traveling. i’m fortunate enough to have been to every continent (except antarctica, duh) and seen almost every state and i think it has definitely enriched my work and kept me motivated. even just driving north up out of LA on the 101 is probably one of my favorite things in the world to do ever.

Also, i would have to say vinyl records. i have quite a little collection and i love buying and collecting it. it takes my love of music and design, and combines it pretty perfectly. (i even belong to this website) where you can catalog your collection. i even need to update this pretty badly. hmm, maybe tomorrow.)

13. What is next for you? what is your dream job or photoshoot? any goals to share?
well, i just finished all the artwork and video stuff for the new switchfoot record ‘hello hurricane’. there’s a standard version, a cd/dvd digipak, a vinyl version, and an 84 pg collectors edition that consists of a hardbound book, cd/dvd, a poster, and a cd full of goodies from the making of this record. it’s quite the package, and i’m pretty proud of it. so yeah, that said, next is taking a little break, which i am in right now. it’s pretty nice. i just moved to pasadena, so i’m enjoying it.

i feel weird saying this, but i think i kind of have my dream job. i obviously would love to grow and expand as an artist and a designer and a businessman, but i honestly love what i am doing right now and hope that i can reach a point with it where doing this is enough to sustain me and down the line, eventually a family.

14. anything else?
i still owe you those fujiroids i took at your wedding. i’ll send them off soon, i promise. wait, that wasn’t a joke about your name. Crap. i mean, i’ll send them off soon, for reals. little known fact: a couple of the fujiroids from that day even ended up in the pages of that fancy collector’s edition of the new switchfoot record cause i just thought they looked cool. (the stained glass windows, and the fan cause it was hot as crap in that sanctuary)