It's funny how you can take members of several popular bands across different genres of music, and instead of having more people come out to hear how they sound together, you actually have less. I guess most people like their music in easily identifiable categories, so when a band tries to break out of the mold that compartmentalizes its members, people get confused.

I bring this up because Followers consist of members who are accomplished in the technical rock, jazz, and singer/songwriter genres, but this music is none of those things. I know when I first heard of the lineup, I was a bit taken aback too, but I was curious to hear what the end result would be with this group playing together. I'll be the first one to make the observation that their name is a sarcastic comment that they don't actually follow in anyone's footsteps.



I've shot them before so I won't bother with introductions, but if you consider yourself a local music fan, you've seen at least one of these guys before. In this incarnation, they take the jam band sound and turn it around.





I don't like calling music "experimental" since a band shouldn't be subjecting an audience to an experiment, which should be confined to a rehearsal. If you're going to get on stage and demand a room's attention, make sure you have something to say. These guys have something to say that wouldn't fit in their other projects and it deserves a wider audience.

The free nature of the music gave me a bit of leeway in processing. I went for a desaturated look, trying to pull out as much color without going to total black and white.







I had some fun with zoom blur and cropping.





They're in the process of recording a CD, so hopefully they can invite some more popular bands for their CD release to bring in some people to see what Followers are all about. All it's going to take is one show for people to have their eyes opened to what various influences sound like when stirred together.