Adam Gnade

When you release a new album, your record label asks you for a photo to use for the press run. I don’t think I’m telling you anything new here when I say that promo photos are pretty much shit. The band sitting on the curb looking down at their sneakers. The band with their hands in their pockets, all looking different directions, brooding. The wacky shots. The shots where the band wears clothes they would never wear in real life. The band—or singer, as it may be—standing in the middle of the woods or in a field of wheat, pretending to be from the country (or the ’60s.) It’s all crap. Which is why doing the press week stuff can be frustrating. For Surrenderland, I gave my label a candid photo from the night of the Great Portland Blackout, where me and Jamey lost power in the house during a big howling storm and got candle-lit drunk (which is the best kind of drunk.) It’s not very press photo-y but whatever; it’s a photo of a good night and to me a good night means a lot.

-Adam