Seven Stories… Milton Stille

Photographer: Milton Stille
Site: notyourscene.ca
Based in: Vancouver, BC

ONE

This is Converge, circa October, 2002, in Milan, Italy. I spent six hours on a train both ways to get to this show and back. I was completely unversed in anything photography at this point, I just brought the first digital camera I’d ever owned with me to the show. If you look to the left, you can see Kurt is playing his guitar in a chair. This is – from my understanding – because he had broken his wrist when the band got in a rather unfortunate van accident the previous day. A roadie helped him with some of the more technical parts of “The Saddest Day”, but none of this stopped the band from putting on one of the best and most intense shows I’ve ever been in attendance for. I don’t hesitate to make this statement more than ten years later.

TWO

To anyone that knows me, it should come as no surprise that Baptists are one of my favourite bands, and based locally to boot. From being tight as fuck every time they play to just always managing to get the audience involved, this band is always rewarding to watch, no matter how challenging or perilous it gets to shoot them.

THREE

One thing that made me make an effort to learn how to take a decent picture was the urban exploration community. Somehow, I ended up involved with a small collective that refers to itself as the AU/MC, which is anything from the Associated Union of Methodist Churches to the Amalgamated Union of Meat Corporations, everything in between, and definitely none of the above. While I’d advise against deploying marine flares whilst atop a construction crane, one needs to wonder about the intrepid folk that make such wonders happen.

FOUR

We’re calling this a happy accident. It has no value as far as capturing a specific moment goes, no action is frozen, no one is displaying any kind of exceptional ability to look awesome for an instant, but somehow, and most importantly, to me it represents my friends The Living Deadbeats enjoying themselves on stage. This pretty much encompasses why music played with passion and sincerity makes me happy.

FIVE

This is Kristofer Steen from Refused. I think I sent about thirty emails in order to get permission to photograph the first 3 songs of their set. I was also told that no free media passes were being granted, and everyone was expected to shell out fifty bucks. Couldn’t help but think “What’s the frequency Dennis? I thought you were out to smash capitalism!” I suppose even the most idealistic ones grow up eventually. For what it’s worth, they played their little hearts out.

SIX

While I’ve repeatedly stated that in a way, photographing shows is what made shows fun for me again, it would be remiss of me to not acknowledge the fact that me being at a lot more shows as a result of this lets me truly appreciate when a band seems to reach the top of their game, and then surpasses it. Archspire are a prime example of this, and I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to watch them grow from “a band my friend plays in” to the technical death metal killing machine they’ve become. In spite of how bad-ass Oli looks in this picture, he’s always going to make me think of the phrase “Giant retarded baby” for as long as I know him.

SEVEN

Once one takes an interest in accessing the inaccessible, every closed door becomes an entrance, every lock a potential point of ingress. The Lions Gate bridge in Vancouver resisted steadfast over the course of numerous failed attempts to scale it, but perseverance eventually yielded yet another victory for the AU/MC. Capturing its majesty in a photograph from the summit is something I’m still yet to achieve, but this is the closest I’ve gotten thus far. Here’s to the next time.