Space Coast Podcast Network

Casey DeCotis- Snapshot Stories: A Photographer's Tale of Art, TV, and the Music Scene

January 07, 2024 Multiple Season 2 Episode 1
Space Coast Podcast Network
Casey DeCotis- Snapshot Stories: A Photographer's Tale of Art, TV, and the Music Scene
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

When the echoes of your past shape the snapshots of your present, there's a story to tell. That's what we discovered in our latest conversation with Casey, a New York-born, California-drenched photographer whose life is as colorful as his portfolio. From his origins shadowing a journalist father to his abstract interpretations of the mundane, Casey's journey behind the lens is a vibrant tale of self-discovery. Whether it's the reflective surface of a still-life or the candid vibrancy of a music festival, his photography captures the essence of each moment, framing life's vast tableau with an artist's eye.

This episode isn't just about still images; it's a moving picture of Casey's adventures through the lens of reality TV and thumping beats of deep house music. Swapping anecdotes from the set of HGTV's 'Inside Out' to reminiscing over spinning tracks at Foo Bar, Casey peels back the curtain on the creative process, both on-screen and behind the decks. His stories meander through the streets of New Orleans, shimmer under the California sun, and touch upon the human connections that define our experiences—like the story of Becca, his barber, who now shapes more than just hairlines.

We wrap up with the sensory rush of photographing punk rock legends and the serene focus required to capture the morning surf. Casey gives us a glimpse into the dynamics of founding a new community post-relocation, contrasting the warmth of old friendships with the brisk handshake of industry acquaintances. Through it all, Casey's narrative is a testament to the power of passion, the beauty of embracing your roots, and the art of balancing life's contrasts, whether you're perched on a board waiting for the next wave or flashing a smile for the next shot.

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Speaker 1:

This podcast is brought to you by Place Pros, Commercial and Investment Real Estate and NikoTour Boutique, your one stop shop for everything cool, Casey welcome to the show.

Speaker 2:

Hi, hey, hey.

Speaker 1:

Casey.

Speaker 3:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

You grew up here, yeah.

Speaker 3:

I did grow up here. I grew up here, born in New York. Born in New York, yeah City or countryside no upstate Utica White'sboro actually, but Utica nobody's ever heard of White'sboro. So Utica Then moved here when I was nine with my family, my father. It was in the newspaper industry and got hired at the Florida today.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3:

It was still kind of small, yeah Cool, before they built a big building on US One and so we moved down here when I was a kid what did he write about? Oh, he did all kinds of things. He worked on space program stuff he worked on. He got pretty well known for doing NASCAR coverage. He was a columnist.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

I got out of a speeding ticket because a guy knew who my dad was.

Speaker 1:

That's really cool.

Speaker 3:

Talked about Dale Earnhardt and he let me off. He's like I can't give you a ticket.

Speaker 2:

Tell your dad.

Speaker 1:

I said hello. That's really cool. What school did you go to?

Speaker 3:

O'Galley High School.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 3:

And then BCC used to be called.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I went to BCC. I loved BCC. That's a good school Cool.

Speaker 3:

So I picked up photography, really.

Speaker 1:

Do you remember your teachers there as well?

Speaker 3:

I do remember two of them very distinctly, but I don't remember their names. But they did have an impact on me actually yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So you picked it up at BCC and what did you start?

Speaker 3:

I actually was gonna go just for graphic design. I was just going to school to kind of go to school and didn't know what I wanted to do. But it's a classic story where you do something and the lights turn on all of a sudden. So I took an intro to photography class. It was a black and white photography class with slides and, oh yeah, Jason Noon was in that class with me. Lights out, project shout out, and I fell in love immediately.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

And then, from that moment on, I just changed all my courses to photography courses.

Speaker 1:

And just never stopped. What did you start photographing? Like what?

Speaker 3:

I started off pretty early being pretty abstract with my photos like weird abstract still life kind of things. People will often describe it as like nuts and bolts and whatnot.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3:

But it's just. I've come to find that it's part of my process is seeing the story and the life that everything actually has if you stop and pay attention to it. People walk past things all the time when I'm constantly searching my surroundings for like just moments, it's really interesting. Light, you know different.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, cause you do skating and surfing but you also do, like portraitures and music.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, music is one of my favorite things to shoot, is it? Oh yeah, it's so fun Cause you're in it, you're live, you're at the party.

Speaker 1:

You have some really good shots. Can we pull those up? They're like gritty and it makes you kind of feel like you're there and you captured this woman.

Speaker 3:

That is Becca.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, what an amazing shot. Traditional, it's cut shaves and bruise.

Speaker 3:

She's my barber. She cut my hair.

Speaker 1:

Is she Very nice? Yeah, I mean so much character in that photo right there.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, I did that at their ghouls night the last time I was in town a few months back and I was just kind of, you know, shooting the party for them. Yeah, we collaborate on a lot of things or very good friends of mine.

Speaker 1:

That's really cool. I've also seen your work at Derek Gord's gallery, yeah.

Speaker 3:

I had a show there recently. It was called Casey's liquor. It was I had. Yeah, I live in Southern California now.

Speaker 1:

Okay, when did you move?

Speaker 3:

Seven years ago 2016.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so a bit now, yeah, okay.

Speaker 3:

Minus two kind of because of the COVID debacle.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that took away some time, so I kind of surfed every day for about a year and a half. Did they let you?

Speaker 3:

Not very at first. I found places to go where I could surf, but there was a couple of beaches that were closed. That didn't really last long.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

And you know you could find a way around it if you know you're around town at all Sneak around town, but yeah, so I did a lot of surfing. But yeah, basically kind of lost two years of networking.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, everybody did though, right.

Speaker 3:

Still cool though.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and you're doing television and actual movie work down there.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, I work on a lot of reality type television shows. What?

Speaker 1:

do you work on? I'm in reality TV.

Speaker 3:

The last one I just got done with that I did a full run on, was called Inside Out. It was on HGTV. It's not on HBO, max or Mac.

Speaker 1:

Okay, what's that about?

Speaker 3:

It's Carmine and Mike. These two guys they kind of bicker over who gets the bulk of the renovation budget the inside of the house or the outside, like landscaping.

Speaker 2:

But the guys are hilarious.

Speaker 3:

It's great. They're super fun to work with, but that was a really fun experience. I think that show I don't think it's being renewed, but it's great. I think there's two seasons of it- that it's really fun to work on. I got to do a lot of fun camera work. I was a camera operator on that show, oh nice. I was able to take my style into the television world, which actually Nate Harrington House 8 Media. My boss was very open to creative shots on that show which was really cool.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, if the head honcho is.

Speaker 3:

He's like let's get creative, let's do cool stuff. That's really good, because a lot of times all kind of bosses.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, like really good footage, and at the end of the day they're like this is too much, we can't use it. Let's simplify it, let's dumb it down. Oh, that's really fun when you get to use your skills.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's perfect. That's why TV kind of worked for me, because it's hard work but it's always different.

Speaker 1:

How long have you been doing it and how'd you get into it?

Speaker 3:

Since I moved. So basically, I moved to work on a show in New Orleans called Big Easy Motors, which is a phenomenal experience living in New Orleans.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Walking around with my camera. Every chance I got in New Orleans was New York, and New Orleans are probably two go-to places for the type of photography I like to do. No, not in that sense. I haven't been back in quite a while but, it is somewhere I aim to get back to soon, just to walk around and shoot photos.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. Well, there's always a shot there, right?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, there's a shot everywhere.

Speaker 1:

That's really cool. And what do you do with movies?

Speaker 3:

I do actually in movies. I've been doing a lot of grip work, so that's. Oh, nice yeah but getting into that realm is interesting and fun, but it takes time. You've got to work your way up the ladder and whatnot.

Speaker 1:

Do you know Alec Parker?

Speaker 3:

I do not.

Speaker 1:

He's also from here and he's oh, maybe I do yeah he's a surfer, but also it's dabbling in I don't know to what capacity, Maybe just photography and I'm terrible with names.

Speaker 3:

He could be my best friend and I might not remember his name. Second best friend maybe.

Speaker 1:

He's really distinct. He's got this curly wild hair.

Speaker 3:

Oh, maybe I don't know, I don't know.

Speaker 1:

he was younger than me, so I don't know, maybe you guys missed generations.

Speaker 3:

Possibly I'm a little older. Now I'm in this guy's category. I'm a little older than you two.

Speaker 1:

Well, I heard you used to Talking to the producer over here. Guys, yeah, jesse, jesse was telling me that you guys work together at the Foo Bar. Yeah, yeah, yeah, tell me about that. It's back open.

Speaker 3:

Oh man, that was a. I got discovered by the owner that many of you out there know who's the owner again At a house party. The owner now is bare. He used to work there, but the former owner was Kimberly. She no longer owns Foo Bar but she saw me DJing at a house party at my house and you know I was just playing some like deep Miami house, you know some funky stuff, and she dug it and she was opening this new posh place.

Speaker 2:

It was so cool. When it opened she was like, hey, you'd be perfect.

Speaker 3:

And I was like what, like, tell me about it. And I went and hung out with her before it was opened. We hung out there a lot before it was open, maybe a month, two months. It was just ready and done, but the doors were just closed, so it kind of had that little mystique to it. But anyway, the first night I went in there it was her and her interior designer. She designed the place and we just hung out and drunk wine all night and partied and I played music for him and it was great. But that was basically how that place was.

Speaker 2:

It was just like a little clubhouse with super rad.

Speaker 3:

I met all my best friends there, every different walk of life.

Speaker 1:

And you would just play music for them.

Speaker 3:

I would show up. My kind of backbone in that place, which was also interesting, was like kind of more deep house and tech house, because Brevard in Southern Florida is known for break beats and kind of more Miami based style music. So going into it I knew that I wanted to play the groovy stuff, the stuff that I like More deep.

Speaker 1:

And people appreciated that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I think it worked more because the place was so cool and different. The music was cool and different. The vibe was cool and different what years were that 2006. 2006, I think 2006. Jesse, jesse coming through. Where's the Google work man.

Speaker 1:

Jesse were you. Yeah, but yeah, the place is fantastic.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, like.

Speaker 3:

I said I met all of it. I met Becca the Becca oh. Yeah, yeah, check these out are these available online?

Speaker 1:

and that Becca there and Rob five when he's case shop.

Speaker 3:

Oh, she's rad.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, she's the best where is she bartending at the she works at traditional's caches and brews.

Speaker 3:

Okay, she's a hairstyle. I keep hearing about that place.

Speaker 1:

It's both a barbershop and a bar.

Speaker 3:

A bar in the skate shop next door and Santa Collective is next door. That and Derek Gore's gallery is around the corner.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and that's where it's at now. That's, it's the new, it's the.

Speaker 3:

It's a you know it's going to be. Downtown Melbourne on steroids is gonna be better than it was down there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's more chill, it's more of an art vibe. So there's also that second story venue, pineapple. Oh, there's a couple other places. Yeah, they're building one. I.

Speaker 3:

Saw DRI at pineapples the other night. That was wild. I came into town, I went and saw Robert 518 and he's like hey, dri is playing tonight. It was my first day in town, like I just got here.

Speaker 2:

Yeah he's.

Speaker 3:

I was like oh yeah, yeah, it was sick, it was sick, it was awesome, I was like pineapples no way. It was odd, unexpected, but that's kind of how Melbourne.

Speaker 1:

Tends to be like that, you know back in the day kind of was yeah, it's just bigger now.

Speaker 2:

We have more access now I think what to?

Speaker 1:

choose from, but it was always kind of sick like that.

Speaker 2:

I mean oh.

Speaker 3:

Well, when things started, derek Clifton, chandler, myself a bunch of people.

Speaker 1:

I wasn't there was around.

Speaker 3:

Like you know, the foobar opened, like we're doing so many things, and galleries were opening and we were just throwing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, I was here for that. I left in like 2003.

Speaker 3:

Dude.

Speaker 1:

Growth and like I would always come back like on Thanksgiving or Christmas and just go to like Igobods or something.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I like about some Christmas.

Speaker 1:

It was, yeah, is it still?

Speaker 3:

I don't know Haven't drank on here on Christmas in a minute. You were in Jacksonville just recently, yeah, I went up there to visit with some friends and see my fiance's Grandmother and family.

Speaker 1:

You're newly engaged. I am cool. Congratulations, thank you very much. Thank you very much, the video is kind of popular. Oh my god, how did you do it?

Speaker 3:

No idea. Um, I Was waiting for her to like come up with a plan to go like do something excited.

Speaker 2:

I wanted to just play it super dry yeah and she's like man, we need to get out of town.

Speaker 3:

I was like yeah, Sure, I'll go back down to Laguna again because she liked it. We went to Laguna Beach one time.

Speaker 2:

She really liked it.

Speaker 3:

She's like yeah.

Speaker 1:

But was she planning it, knowing that?

Speaker 3:

you know she had no clue, she just she just wanted to like, not even a weekend, just drive out of town for a day, just cruise around. So you're like let's go take a picture on that rock that we took a picture on last time.

Speaker 1:

I was like Now, do you take your own pictures? Do you bring the tripod? I just know, I just had my phone, okay, and I was like okay, I'm gonna set it on a timer and I like set it up and when I hit record it was recording video.

Speaker 3:

Oh my goodness, that was fun. I will give it a. Give it a look. It's on my case. It goes to Instagram so you can watch for yourself to see how it happens this past year.

Speaker 1:

It's pretty funny though.

Speaker 3:

Um, yeah, I happened A couple months ago, wow.

Speaker 1:

Are you guys already planning wedding Now that? We're home, our own family, it's oh yeah, I'm bet you're getting a lot of questions starting into Be more serious yeah. Will you get married here?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I'm sure we will.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there I, it's Jesse's telling me that I have to, so I have to. He's the boss. Have you guys seen Casablanca?

Speaker 3:

Oh, I'm sure it'll be fantastic. I think we might have to do something small Um yeah, you guys a ceremony and then have something afterwards, so that everybody in Brevard County can come.

Speaker 1:

You guys should check out Casa Bonita, because I can't not invite every single person.

Speaker 3:

I know because I love everybody so much yeah.

Speaker 1:

No, there's a new venue and it's super cute and it sounds like it's intimate, and then you can have a little party there. There's a bar. Have you heard of it? No it's like what is it?

Speaker 3:

Casa Bonita, maybe I've heard of it.

Speaker 1:

No, it's brand-new. Do you know the Cinegoys?

Speaker 2:

Yeah it's her place.

Speaker 3:

Oh, no way somebody like it's a team of people.

Speaker 1:

It's a really nice Start by 7-eleven.

Speaker 3:

Okay, that's Spanish looking cool, cool, cool drop in there with your fiance All right, I don't know you're gonna be blown away. Well, I dropped off at the airport this morning.

Speaker 1:

Oh, you did she gone? Oh, all right pictures Susie's her name.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, how did you guys meet? Oh, oh yeah, I'm around town just here, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Oh, so both of you left.

Speaker 3:

No, I left and dated her for six years long distance. Yeah, it worked out perfect. I was busy, she was busy, it worked, we liked each other, so it didn't matter, I was, you know so you met you with it. We were tight To go do your TV production work in school and stuff, and she was working real hard. So school. Here we were busy, so you know it worked.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, it worked, but you would go see, oh yeah.

Speaker 3:

We'd see each other all time.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, oh my gosh. And so has she moved.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, Killer spot and killer yeah where you at seal beach, just south of Long Beach. Okay, I'm close to LA, where most of my jobs are yeah but I'm far enough away that it's See, you'll be just kind of isolated. There's like a naval station and like a bridge over to Long Beach, so it's kind of like its own little spot. It's right on the beach I surf every day that I'm not working Cool. Yeah, you have managers the coffee shop right in front of our house.

Speaker 1:

Really, oh my gosh, that's pretty great.

Speaker 3:

It's expensive and it's hard. The industry I'm in is not like guaranteed, so yeah, no, I know, I mean. I could work non-stop for three months, and then I have a job again for another couple months.

Speaker 1:

I think I worked one month last year or two and I just got back on a gig. So I hear you, yeah.

Speaker 3:

It's like a day here, two days there, like yeah, but if you get on a show, yeah and you know even that the short, you know day playing stuff where you just work in a couple days. I mean the pay is decent, so it's okay you know it's it's enough to like hold your over a little bit. Yeah, you know, consistency is the key, but it's hard to be consistent.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you really need to get on show. That's already doing well and yeah, I got a hustle.

Speaker 3:

Yeah lots of different types of work to keep it going most of people.

Speaker 1:

I know have down at the drive.

Speaker 3:

Uber or they, you know, do you have different things to?

Speaker 1:

supplement. I heard that I mean there's like forums, like on Facebook, of people being like what is going on in the industry? What are you guys doing to stay afloat, because lately it's been really dry? Yeah yeah, but I mean it's. I don't think it's.

Speaker 3:

I guess it depends. I guess it depends on what your gig is. But yeah, yeah, yeah, there was definitely obviously the strikes. The strikes, yeah, kind of changed the landscape a little bit. They did, but there's still a lot of non-union stuff that you can work on or do your own projects, which I'm very into.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm doing my own project, so your latest project is the t-shirts. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love that one.

Speaker 3:

This is the next one, I think. So it's just another kind of art project I love. I'm a t-shirt freak. I have way, way, way too many and continue to purchase them, and I've always wanted to make my own yeah. But until kind of more recently it was harder to do, but now there's ways to do it.

Speaker 2:

I don't have to like, order 10 of them, or, yeah, order 100 of them to make them affordable.

Speaker 3:

Right, which I've looked into doing Did you tell us where we could get them KCDCodismyshopifycom right now.

Speaker 1:

And the link is in your Instagram bio. Yeah, and.

Speaker 3:

Facebook and whatnot Very awesome. But, right now I only have the Rekka Beka up, the one that I showed you.

Speaker 1:

Oh, really.

Speaker 3:

That's the first one. I'm going to be kind of meticulous about it. That's kind of part of how I envisioned this project. You know it'll change as I change, I imagine. But to take my time, I guess, is a more accurate way to do it. You know, pick the specific t-shirt I wanted on. I don't want to have like 10,000 colors. Like I want this color, this t-shirt. Boom, here it is.

Speaker 1:

It's like I like that philosophy yeah.

Speaker 3:

Because it's an art project.

Speaker 1:

You can't rush it.

Speaker 3:

That you can wear. But you want it to be like being a t-shirt fanatic, Like I'll buy a t-shirt If I don't like the t-shirt, no matter how dope the print is, I'm not wearing it, I'm just.

Speaker 1:

it's see you later. Do you have favorite brands and cuffs?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, there's a couple. Ok Player is rad. They just record label OK Player. They did the roots and whatnot. But they have a killer shop. Yeah, there's a few out there. There's another one, I can't think of the name of it right now, but yeah, there's a few that I frequent.

Speaker 1:

So are you just sticking to t-shirts, or does the shop have? I have sweat shirts also, ok.

Speaker 3:

And the better I get at interacting with the things that I have to use, the tools I have to use to build all this stuff. I'm sure more things will be available, but it's going to be essentially tops for now.

Speaker 1:

Do you think you'll like put them up at like local shops?

Speaker 3:

at all, possibly One step at a time. This is still very new, so for now I want to kind of get a hang of getting the t-shirts out, doing them right, making them look good, making sure they have everything I want them to have, and then kind of one step at a time.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, will they be like limited supply?

Speaker 3:

No, no, I don't think so. I mean there may be one here or there, that might be limited supply. But I have to get my feet on the ground, really. And get a little organized with how I want to do these and release them.

Speaker 1:

Cool, and we'll look forward to seeing that yeah.

Speaker 3:

Maybe we'll get Jessie on one. He's giving me a thumbs up, so I think that's a yes guys.

Speaker 1:

I love t-shirts like that. You know, Shargood.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, she just had.

Speaker 1:

I don't know who did the photography, but she just released a couple that are really clever.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I've seen she's got some cool stuff out there. She actually spoke to her about Food Bar on Facebook the other day. She's like, oh, I was too young for the Food Bar and I was like, oh, you would have fit right in that place would have been perfect for her. She would have played violin while DJing, guaranteed. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2:

Guaranteed.

Speaker 3:

I used to bring friends in with bongo drums or plug in barfly RJ's guitar into my mixer and have him like riff, like blues riff. So I was mixing and stuff.

Speaker 1:

I loved doing stuff like that. That's awesome. So what have you been up to this holiday season?

Speaker 3:

Man, what haven't I been up to Making the rounds, really, I shot the agnostic front show Iron Oak. That's the highlight of my trip so far, minus seeing my family and friends. But that was sick. 518. Put that on Rob. What up, rob, it was sick. Murphy's Law it's the first time I saw Murphy's Law live and it was sick. It was a loved it.

Speaker 1:

And you photographed. Oh yeah, I'll stop in there. Yeah, it was great. That's like my favorite thing to do. Is that it Right there? Oh, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, that's Murphy's.

Speaker 3:

Law. That's something he does every show. I guess he opens a beer, then he likes a joint and passes it around.

Speaker 1:

Oh my, gosh, this shot is amazing. That's yeah, that's sick. Were you on the stage and then he popped out?

Speaker 3:

No, I was holding the camera above my head and walking around, there was a pit going over. So see, those guys are kind of circling in.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Stigma and there's a pit around the guys blocking stigma so he could play. It was so rad. Oh my god. I got a bunch of shots of that. I've only posted maybe two, three shots so far.

Speaker 1:

They're so good I've got so many. How do you get the lighting to do that?

Speaker 3:

I was using flash.

Speaker 1:

You were.

Speaker 3:

Yep, yep, yep. I usually don't. I'm not known for using flash, but I've been like way more into it recently and I've been looking forward to. I came early for the show. I flew to Florida early so I could shoot this show because I was like, I came and rock the flash. I got some new things I was gonna try and that was a perfect opportunity. So when Rob told me about the show, I was like I'll just book my flight early so I could come and get stuff like this.

Speaker 1:

So, that's why I live for this. I love that so much Amazing. What else do we have? Yes, this one's on your t-shirt. I'm wearing that, yeah.

Speaker 3:

It's my friend Ryan Dodge. She's a chef for the Broncos now, but he's local from here. Also a foobar cat.

Speaker 1:

Oh really, he's a local.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah, yeah was. He lives in Denver, but he came down and visited me for three, four days. We just drove around and skated and shot photos. I mean this one's amazing Got him, you know.

Speaker 1:

It looks like religious almost.

Speaker 3:

Rocking his board right on the sun.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

I was at Long Beach.

Speaker 1:

Cool, I love this one. Yep wearing it, it's my nephew.

Speaker 3:

Oh, that's a place I've Channel Street Skate Park. I found it by chance under a bridge in San Pedro.

Speaker 1:

Really.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so you drive over, like the Long Beach, where all the shipping is and whatnot, and there's San Pedro out there and there's a skate park under a bridge. That's like a DIY style, and yeah, so me and my nephew did the same thing. Me and Ryan did. Just drove around, looked for skate parks shot photos.

Speaker 1:

This one's your nephew.

Speaker 3:

Yep, yep, Nevin Martin.

Speaker 1:

Cool, you have family over there. No, nobody's over there.

Speaker 3:

My friend Laura Littman. Hi Laura lives in up north near San Francisco, but that's kind of it. Close friends wise. I have some local friends finally, it took me a few years to get friends out there, but that was the hardest part.

Speaker 1:

It is a hard part.

Speaker 3:

Because here it's like the mafia.

Speaker 1:

I know everybody.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, melbourne mafia.

Speaker 1:

All right. Do you have like industry friends though?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, that's where I met the people that I'm friends with.

Speaker 1:

It's either that or like neighbors.

Speaker 3:

But very few of them do you actually become friends with.

Speaker 2:

You know like.

Speaker 3:

I have numbers and I say hey man, how you doing, but there's only a couple of people, a handful of people that are actually like they're my homies yeah.

Speaker 1:

Do you guys do like holiday parties and stuff your?

Speaker 3:

cruise.

Speaker 1:

Or like rap parties.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I mean there's rap parties.

Speaker 3:

There's rap parties when you're done with a gig that are usually pretty crazy.

Speaker 1:

They're fun, they're fun. Oh, this one's nice. Where's that one at?

Speaker 3:

That's on the beach here.

Speaker 1:

Really.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, last time I was here. I wake up so super early these days. I don't know when that started happening, but I wake up at like five o'clock every morning. I came here and I'm waking up five o'clock every morning, and so I decided to go run around town, shoot some photos, maybe start a new project based around this area, possibly Just start collecting images.

Speaker 1:

Did you use like a special lens on this one?

Speaker 3:

This is a 16 millimeter 2.8 Canon.

Speaker 1:

So crisp.

Speaker 3:

But that's 16 mil Using my. I have a new gear. I have a Canon R5 that I'm using now, so that's shot with that. So it's very high megapixels very, very nice fancy camera.

Speaker 1:

It's almost like you could touch the grit of the sand there. I love it.

Speaker 3:

I love it. When I shoot that, I imagine it like gigantic, big printed, like somewhere.

Speaker 1:

Got a wall wallpaper it.

Speaker 3:

Oh, this cross street for my house in California. Oh yeah, yeah, that was last two Januarys ago. It was a bomb cyclone swell. So the surf it's like this. It's like this right now. Check surf, find guys, check Southern California breaks and surf find.

Speaker 3:

It's huge. Right now I saw the reports are 10, 15 feet. I was looking at a place in Newport that I surf all the time and it was gigantic. Anyway, that last shot was a place that I've heard of, that my friend, tommy in California, told me about. He says, oh yeah, sometimes it breaks out at the end of the jetty. I was like whatever, and there's an oil rig out there called Esters and he said it breaks. Sometimes it breaks out by that jetty and it breaks at the oil rig. And I was like that's, I mean I believe them because he's from there. But I was like this is not true, how is that even possible? Because I surf out there all the time.

Speaker 1:

And you never saw it.

Speaker 3:

I mean you can't even imagine how it's possible for waves to break where they were breaking. But literally I don't think I sent you guys a copy of the photo, but I have a photo of a guy going back side grabbing his rail and you could see the oil rig in the background. It's actually quite far away but there was guys towing in on like foils and stuff on the waves that route, by the jetty or not by the jetty, but the oil that would make a really good picture, but it was wild, but a weird.

Speaker 3:

I have a few these printed in California that have sold and, like you know, I hang out in the coffee shop and stuff yeah, do do hang them in galleries or two, not yet not yet. I'm eyeing a couple places, I've talked to a couple people, but I haven't found that like somebody I like, really like it yeah, might just do what we started doing here and just find a place that maybe isn't even supposed to be for that at all and just throw a party yeah so that's probably what I'll end up doing.

Speaker 3:

I'll line up some musicians and I'll do cool stuff. You know, just take the vibe out there yeah. I brag about this area all the time, oh yeah it's like a little, because I'm like oh where you from. I'm like oh Florida and everybody's like oh Florida. A lot of people are familiar. I mean they travel and people do things.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, but they don't know that it's actually super sick here yeah like I mean people from here.

Speaker 3:

You guys know, you guys do this. We even come back all the time, man we have, like you know, internationally known artists and bands and, you know, people doing interesting things, all kinds of industries too, right?

Speaker 1:

oh yeah, forget about me that's really cool that you visit. How often you come back? Probably at least twice a year but you're still tied to the area, because what do you? What is your title at Livewire? I'm creative director and photographer and you share that with Chris Maslow yeah, creative director yeah, and barfly RJ okay, okay but RJ, rj, really does the brunt of the work yeah, how's that going?

Speaker 3:

it's going all right. Right now we're reformatting how we release it. Yeah, I think you know RJ's over one with work and so we want to go maybe less times a year and just thicker and better and prettier. I think that makes sense, yeah. So yeah, I've taken a couple steps back right now to take three forward later. Yeah and yeah.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, keep an eye out, yeah, how does like a musician get your attention? Contact us, contact us, okay. Facebook message.

Speaker 3:

Instagram. Yeah, it's basically myself or RJ barfly kind of running through most that stuff and we take. We take people like yourself, my friend, over here. Anybody who hits us up is like, hey, oh, check out this person or that person, or super into it yeah, I mean it's small as we're time. You know, it's not like this is a giant thing going on.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but it's prominent, it's. Let's tell them that you were trying to find one in town and you just couldn't. Yeah, I came in, I came in and she was like hey, man, can you like to?

Speaker 3:

show the mag and I'm like, oh, I didn't think of it, I didn't bring any.

Speaker 2:

I was like.

Speaker 3:

I'll run down to a galley and grab a couple and I went to like six places and everybody's like oh no, everybody likes them, they take, that's what they said three people said that to me. Well, everybody likes them.

Speaker 1:

They did they snatch them up okay cool, I guess now I have nothing to bring. I know, just my smiling face yes, well, yeah, it's bittersweet to hear that they won't be so consecutive, but everybody loves them, so, yeah, I think it'll be better to be honest with you, there'd be more attention more time you know to really get it yeah, I mean, I'm all about that.

Speaker 3:

I'm very critical over critical. I'm sure I've learned to stop.

Speaker 1:

You know, cut yourself off like okay, it's good yeah, don't mess with it until next month yeah, but uh, do you find it hard to like find people in town, to like delegate the work to?

Speaker 3:

sort of. I mean because at this point it's not a paid gig for anybody. I mean, we were trying to set up a way where you could get some money, but it was basically more of a passion project, just another art project. Yeah, you know, as I'm kind of known to do, but that's kind of how it started. And then there's this like more interest and where people liked it, and but you know, it's just, it's a lot to juggle for like one person or two people three or right so okay, but uh, yeah, but we were always looking for people to who were interested in writing or creating their own kind of segment.

Speaker 3:

You know what I mean. Like somebody to cover a punk scene, like like goes out all the time and just like wants to write. Like it's an opportunity for anybody who's interested in being creative and having something in print like it's there.

Speaker 1:

That's good to know. I think there's a lot of like hungry young ins around. That's what we're hoping for. That's what I was.

Speaker 3:

I was telling my friend Barfly that we need to maybe find some young kids who are maybe into sales. Have some time where people were just into being involved if somebody came to me when I was 25 and was like hey, we got this thing. We're just looking who wants to? Wants to do something?

Speaker 1:

sick in print oh.

Speaker 3:

I'll be all over it yeah, and then I'd have ten people with me yes you know what I mean. So I don't. But I you know, I don't live here anymore. I'm not in touch as much with the younger, the younger folk in town.

Speaker 1:

I know all the old farts all right to send my niece in there do you think you'll ever come back and live here? I don't know. I mean anything is possible. Never, I mean I love it here.

Speaker 3:

I miss it every single time. I hate going back to Calvary and strong time, but then when I wake up in a couple days and it's head high and yeah, peaky surf, I'm gonna be pretty happy well, it's really nice having you here is there anything else that we can look forward to for 2024?

Speaker 3:

man just keep. I mean, I'll be coming up with projects all year, I'm sure yeah driving around doing something and I'll be back here, hopefully for the next punk in the park, which the dates may change, but I want to come shoot that so.

Speaker 1:

I'll be here for that, for sure. What is that, jesse? When it's it's up in the air, oh really, but is it spring time, summer time?

Speaker 3:

typically it's in May. I think, but that might change, just cuz rain and stuff yeah, I don't know, I'm not. I have nothing to do with any of that scheduling or anything like that, so I just want to shoot it completely out of my knowledge base yeah, yeah. I just want to shoot it. So whenever it is, I'll be there and you'll take time off for work yeah, I might not be working, or if I am, I'll take time off. Yeah, 100% these days, cool, cool.

Speaker 2:

It was really nice meeting you yeah, you too for stopping by the studio my pleasure and hopefully we'll see you again when you come back awesome.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I'd love to cool.

Speaker 1:

Thank you all right thanks to be a sponsor or nominate a guest. Hit us up on Instagram at local underscore celebrity underscore Brevard. Until next time, goodbye.

Casey's Journey in Photography and Life
Working in TV and Music Industry
Casablanca, Weddings, and T-Shirts
Photography, Music, and California Surf