Sink With Me, a band that became my “first”
Where it started
It was March 2023. I brought a camera to a place called “The Fete” in Providence, RI. Honestly, not really a great experience I’d say. Terrible lighting, weird layout, and just an overall makeshift room that’s supposed to look good, but doesn’t. Speaking of lighting, the entire night was the worst shade of blue, and it was the first time I’d bring my Sony mirrorless camera with me to attempt to photograph a show. The first band on was called “Late 9”. They were ok, but at this time I wasn’t to familiar with such small venues and opening bands there, because I’d mostly been to larger shows. Bands with less than an EP out weren’t usually on my radar. After they broke down, Evan came up on stage with the brightest pink hair I’d ever seen under the blue light. And from there a future was soon to be built, but I wasn’t aware of it. Not just yet.
Who is “Sink With Me”
Secrets — a song that will forever be the one song I’ve listened to over and over and over. As I listened to this song on the way home, I kept thinking about that god forsaken blue lighting and how the hell was I gonna make these photos look “ok”… I got home and decided to transfer one image from the camera to my phone, and it was a single shot of Evan’s face (with such a blue/purple cast I didn’t think it would even look good) but I tried a few tweaks, and with my knowledge and past decade of camera work and editing, I managed to get something decent... I posted this photo in a Facebook group and it gained the attention of that singer — Evan Middleton.
Evan is the singer and one of the songwriter’s of Sink With Me, as well as a graphic desginer and fellow photographer / videographer as well. He’s worked with many hardcore and other emo bands around NH, RI, MA, and CT. You may have seen his work with Gina Fritz. Accompanying him is Apollo on bass, Stephen on guitar, and Dakota on the drums. Together, these 4 are a family bound together by music, and you can see it on stage.
With Evan, Apollo and stephen being the original standing members from 2020, Dakotawould soon join in around 2022. But tragedy struck in the very beginning when their first songs were stolen from band in the summer of 2020. As terrible as that is to happen to a band, SWM stuck together, and instead of quitting, pushed through and would release their singles and Ep until 2023 when the band and myself would cross paths. Its only up from here.
My Work With SWM
The last three music videos I was able to partake in filming. But the last one (“Bound by Blood”) was full-on, ground-up design — from a 3 hour call, a 100 degree fever, and a slew of lighting all around, we started to put together a story, which was a big step forward from their previous videos…
For their first video (“Misfoturne”), I drove a couple hours or so north to help them film. After pulling up to the address, I thought to myself, “Where am I?” — it was a shed-like garage with people moving things around on a forklift, and cars gathering outside unloaded musical gear. I saw Evan as he walked to the car and asked “What is this?” Turns out we were using a spot that was a storage facility for a rental equipment company. As I walked to the steel garage door opening, I saw the guys in the band hanging massive sheets from the ceiling to create a ragged room. From there, we started to design the biggest makeshift space that was crazy enough to actually work.
So here we are, over two years later
The Shaskeen Pub — picture walking into a pub with a rustic red entryway. A dimly lit opening to what looks like an older restaurant. A smell of spilt alcohol, beer and mid tier perfume lingers in the air. There’s a bar on your right and seating to your left. You walk down a tiny hallway, past a run down type of bathroom, and see a tattooed gentlemen guarding a door leading to a dark speakeasy-like entranceway that opens to a live room with the darkest lighting pierced by the soft green glow of a neon beer logo. A stage erected about 3 feet in the air is about hold 4 crazy bands over the next 4 hours.
“May We Meet Again”, “Everchanger”, and the band that had some professional 2 stepping going on, “Shapethrower”. When “Shapethrower” got on stage, Evan said to me, “I’m gonna head out of this pit before I die, I still need to do my set!” All the bands on this bill were amazing. Some solid, hardcore heavy-hitting music you’d expect to find as if it was movie scene where the main character got lost in some underground London showcase.
Almost perfect
I’m really big on photographing backlighting. And there wasn’t much of that — that would be my only gripe. But let’s touch on this set from sink with me. First off, Apollo was not able to be there. So in true family fashion, he was on FaceTime, hanging out on the amps so he could still be with us (and yes, I had to pick ‘him’ up about three times throughout the show, lol). But one thing I’ll never forget is the face Dakota made the second before I heard the crash cymbals ring out, a no-turning-back-now moment, a true “I’m about to fuck shit up face.” The face you know means you’re about to die in the pit.
They started their set with an unreleased song, which is the best reason to go to shows like this. Imagine in 10 years you can brag to everyone about how you were at the show and heard the song before anyone else? You know you’re that person as you read this, and I bet you’re saying “No I’m not.” Sure…
The set played out with “Fall from Grace,” and then “Innocence” (wanna know the meaning behind the song? Go to the show, it’s an eye opener for sure…),“This Isn’t Home,” “NOCTYD,” and then “Misfortune.” But closing out the set was “Bound by Blood,” which is honestly probably my favorite of all. But you know, it wasn’t in the book and I didn’t get the memo, but apparently they were being told to sing an encore, and what better song to encore with? “Secrets.” The song that introduced me to this band in the beginning — we’ve come full circle, ladies and gents. And this, this is where I leave you … as I bid you guys a farewell and head off to bed, please don’t be afraid to drop a comment and let me know if you’ve ever seen this band? Would you see them? Have you ever heard of SWM before? Make sure you put them on your playlist, because we’ve got a surprise coming soon... just you wait….
