How Dangerous Faith guitarist Brian Baker’s iPhone photographs turned a visible punk rock diary

As a guitarist, Brian Baker has punk rock and hardcore credentials which are unparalleled. From successfully launching “hardcore” as a style with Minor Menace when he was a youngster to bringing within the extra melodic facet of the scene with Dag Nasty after which becoming a member of Dangerous Faith within the mid ’90s, it’s laborious to argue that any guitarist has been extra influential to their scene than Baker.

“I believe I simply have a knack for being on the proper place on the proper time,” Baker says when requested about his contributions to the aforementioned legendary bands. “The bottom line is to respect that legacy and never f— it up. I perceive it’s an enormous deal to lots of people — far more than it’s to me. I’m simply the man who’s taking part in guitar, however I’ve been lucky sufficient to be in bands which were foundational for lots of people. I take into consideration that after I get on stage daily. I need to do an excellent job each time. So long as I’m capable of nonetheless ship a efficiency that I’ve respect for, hopefully different individuals will too.”

Standing at a high-top desk below a white awning backstage at Riot Fest (Chicago’s huge punk rock competition the place many of the acts are both associates of Baker or impressed by a number of of his bands) after practically a half-century of allegedly simply occurring upon one iconic band after one other, Baker just lately launched a brand new undertaking — one which he’s labored on for nearly 20 years throughout his ongoing run with Dangerous Faith.

Each time the legendary Los Angeles punk band goes on the street, Baker (like most touring musicians) finds himself with solely an excessive amount of time to kill earlier than and after their nightly performances. To fill these lengthy hours in unusual cities, the 60-year-old D.C. native usually turns to the piece of know-how that so many use to occupy their free time, his smartphone. However somewhat than mindlessly scrolling social media or watching YouTube movies, Baker found a brand new ardour for pictures, continuously utilizing each digital camera lens on the iPhones which were in his pocket because the authentic launched within the late 2000s.

Till just lately, the fruits of Baker’s pictures passion had successfully solely existed on his private Instagram. That was till issues began falling into place (“Like many issues in my profession,” Baker says, constant in his refusal to take credit score for almost all of his successes) for him to launch a few of his favourite photographs as a ebook, appropriately titled “The Highway” (launched Nov. 4 through Akashic Books).

A mug shot of Baker’s first band, D.C. hardcore pioneers Minor Menace.

(Brian Baker)

“My spouse urged for a very long time that individuals would possibly need to have a look at my images, and I used to be like ‘OK, that’s nice,’ however by no means actually considered it,” Baker says, his bandmates and different longtime associates circulating by way of Chicago’s Douglass Park. “Ultimately, good friend of ours named Jennifer Sakai — who’s an excellent photographer and has made books prior to now — made a mock-up from my Instagram of what a ebook might seem like. I wasn’t trying to make a ebook, however she principally introduced a completed product to me, so I contacted a man I went to elementary faculty with, Johnny Temple — who performs [bass] in Ladies Towards Boys and Soulside and has a publishing firm. Very similar to my extra profitable rock bands, I walked in after everybody did all of the work, and now I’m simply going to coattail it.”

With or with out the brand new ebook, Baker says his time-killing love of pictures was born out of the veteran guitarist feeling as if he was forgetting an excessive amount of and lacking a few of his key reminiscences from his time on tour. As soon as he gave up ingesting, Baker realized that he wanted a technique to embrace the 20+ hours every day he wasn’t spending on the stage or preparing. He began filling his days with lengthy walks and visits to his favourite locales — outdated church buildings, attention-grabbing buildings, graveyards (“That’s not the goth in me saying this,” Baker jokes) and anyplace else the place he entertain himself away from individuals. And somewhat than attempting to inform the story of the final 18 years by way of his iPhone digital camera, he’s glad simply documenting these sure moments and “a variety of other ways to spend your time” in “The Highway.”

“I used to take a movie digital camera on tour, and I’d shoot a pair rolls after which overlook in regards to the digital camera and go away it on the lodge or one thing,” Baker says. “I didn’t actually do job of being a photographer, as a result of I’m not a photographer. I’m only a man with a cellphone, however having the cellphone at all times on me, I simply saved taking photos of stuff for no actual purpose. It was like ‘Hey, have a look at this bizarre factor’ or “Look what we ate tonight” or “That church is f— up” with no intention of it being a set or anybody actually seeing it past my family and friends. Ultimately, I obtained an Instagram account and a few of the stuff would go there, however I’m probably not a social media maven both.”

Dangerous Faith bassist Jay Bentley taking part in a bass.

(Brian Baker)

Apart from his pictures expertise, the discharge of “The Highway” has additionally allowed Baker to flex his storytelling muscle tissue on the numerous bookstores, file retailers and extra that he’s hitting this fall (together with early October dates at West Hollywood’s Ebook Soup and Fullerton’s Programme Skate & Sound). Though it’s a extra intimate setting than he’s used to and he’s missing his signature guitar, Baker jokes that it’s not so totally different from performing music, as a result of he’s nonetheless “on a stage with a microphone and sporting black pants.”

The ebook tour has additionally been a possibility for Baker to attach with followers and mirror on Dangerous Faith and his prior bands (together with numerous facet tasks like supergroup Faux Names and Seashore Rats). Whereas he maintains that his involvement in punk historical past largely comes all the way down to happenstance, he believes that Dangerous Faith’s multi-generational endurance stems from at all times being “uniquely retro” and having clever lyrics about subjects which are nonetheless related. Add in the truth that they’re at all times bettering as musicians and simply take pleasure in getting collectively with out trying on the larger image, and “not having a plan has confirmed to be efficient” for the stalwarts.

Photograph of Baker’s first amp and guitar

(Brian Baker)

However greater than something, Baker’s lack of planning or route round his pictures brings him again to the DIY nature of his early days creating albums that at the moment are seen because the very basis of a four-decade-old international hardcore motion.

“Anyone can do that, so it does remind me of creating data after I was very younger,” Baker says. “We have been simply making our personal data ourselves and promoting them in highschool, and that was Minor Menace. You concentrate on how vital that’s now, 45 years later, it’s the identical factor with taking photos. I simply took a bunch of images, and now somebody’s made a ebook out of them. It’s one thing you are able to do your self, and I like that about it.”