… he asked me really nicely for a promo shoot.
MC DRS, one of Manchester’s and Drum & Bass’ finest MCs, is bringing out an album on Marcus Intalex‘s Soul:R imprint called ‘I don’t usually like MC’s but…’ which is going to feature some of the finest production talents around, including Lenzman, Dub Phizix and Intalex himself. I haven’t heard it yet but I’m sure it will be absolutely sick. UPDATE: Buy it here (It is as sick as I hoped!)
He needed some promo shots doing for the album so he gave me a shout and we set about planning something. The first idea was to hit up a pub, a proper old man’s joint with loads of pictures and ornaments knocking about. We found a great place in the Northern Quarter called the Wheatsheaf that was not only a great location, but had amazing staff that didn’t mind us rocking up with loads of photographic equipment – go in there for a pint next time your about, if you’re really lucky you might be serenaded by a drunk old man who can’t play the piano, but tries really hard.
After leaving the pub we had a brief walk around the Northern Quarter for a couple more shots, stopping by DRS’ favourite shop on the way past, and then headed for the edge of Salford. A few weeks before I had been walking down these ends and thought the view of the city from the huge patch of wasteland was incredible. A quick and crude calculation in my head suggested it would be even better at sunset. I would recommend keeping a memory bank of potential locations to any learning photographer, you never know when you’ll need to pull on out of the bag.
Whilst planning this shoot, DRS had also mentioned that he wanted the pictures to be a bit ‘rock & roll’ if possible. I’ve had a broken bass guitar lying around in my house for quite some time as a prop and I figured what would be more rock & roll than smashing up a guitar. My subject was keen and it gave me a challenge of trying to capture some fast-moving action. The guitar took some serious punishment against some concrete blocks which gave me a few chances to capture the moment of impact – I managed it in one shot and I’m pretty happy with the results now!
Promo shots of MC DRS for his new album ‘I don’t usually like MCs but…’ coming soon on Soul:R