At Dan’s Tunes, we work to bring you a comprehensive picture of the Seattle music scene, and musical artists are a big part of that. But, an album doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It takes a whole host of people to bring a musician’s vision to life. In this series, “Behind the Scene,” we’re taking a look at all of the people who are integral to the process of making music that you probably haven’t heard of before — from producers and radio DJs to vinyl cutters and photographers. Our goal is to make the series both educational and a resource for artists looking to expand their teams. Today, we’re chatting with Travis Trautt.

If you follow music in Seattle, chances are you’ve seen Travis Trautt’s work. Trautt has shot for publications like The Stranger, KEXP, and local staple Nada Mucho; venues like Neumos, Barboza, Tractor Tavern, and The Sunset Tavern; and festivals like Seattle’s Capitol Hill Block Party and Freakout Fest, Austin’s Levitation, and Joshua Tree’s Desert Daze. When he’s not shooting shows, he’s throwing down portraits of bands like Monsterwatch, Asterhouse, and Smokey Brights.

I sat down with Trautt to talk about how he got into music photography, how he goes about capturing the best moments of live shows, and what advice he would give to aspiring music photographers. Below is our interview, edited for length and clarity.

How did you get into photography? 

I grew up in photography. My father worked as a sales rep for a photo studio. He also managed models. Eventually, he owned his own small agency that was primarily product photography. They did catalogs and then prints. As a young child, I was a model for Halloween costumes and Legoland California. As I got older, I started assisting on shoots or just being a grunt, you know, just there. Eventually, they started teaching me lighting and how to help out on that end. I didn’t actually pick up a camera until I turned 30.

[At that point], I was still living in San Diego, and [my wife and I] moved to Seattle quite quickly after that. When we got here, I had no friends. And I’ve been sober for a long time now, like 13 years, since 2007. So when I got here, I started going to shows by myself, but being sober at shows alone gets a little bit lonelier than, you know, the normal. So I started bringing a camera to the smaller shows, and that’s how it kicked off. I shot a photo of Sleep, and it was a good photo, I guess. From there it spiraled quite quickly. Within a year I was working for festivals and publications. It was kind of wild.

I started late, which is crazy. Starting at 30, married and with kids, I’m like, “Oh, I missed out on that whole younger side of photography.” It’s just so much different, I think, than where I am now.

What do you mean by “the younger side” of photography?

Due to me having a career, having a family, having all this stuff, the only time I had to shoot was at night. The only thing I could shoot that I wanted to do was music, versus being able to go off on a whim. I have a lot of friends who didn’t have families who were traveling all over the place and shooting different types of content. [But] I was lucky to find music, [since] that’s something I love already.

So you did really just fall into music photography.

Yeah. What’s crazy is I had no ambition to make it a thing off the bat. It was just like, “I want to go see this band, and I need a reason to be there. Being sober, when I go out to see friends at a bar, I like to go to places that have a pool table or some recreational activity for me outside of just drinking. I can only drink so many ginger beers.

After one or two shows, I fell in love. It went from an occasional show here and there to three to four nights a week for a long period of time. It was anything and everything. And it really brought music back to life for me. It got me back out there and wanting to be a part of it. 

Had music died for you? 

I wouldn’t say “died.” It had disappeared a bit. I used to go to a lot of punk shows when I was living in LA, but I didn’t really vibe with that. The friends I had were going [to the shows] basically to get into fights. They wanted a lot of aggression and negativity behind it, and that’s not why I wanted to go. That put a negative taste into live music for me. Then I saw The Black Angels open up for Roky Erickson. That show really opened my mind to a lot. That’s where it kicked off, at least for seeing shows and music again.

And then shooting opened the whole world to me. When I started shooting bigger shows and bigger festivals and getting more and more access to more and more people, it opened up my mind, finding something I truly love doing. I love trying to capture that moment, that feeling, Especially at a heavier rock and roll show, you’re in it. There’s times where I’m shooting, and the next thing I’m in the pit. I’m just in it.

How do you capture those pivotal moments of live shows?

Half that shit’s luck (laughter). After a while, you learn to anticipate what’s coming. I start being able to see where or how the person is starting to act or react to the crowd. Like, there’s that photo of Amy [Taylor] from Amyl and the Sniffers where she’s spitting. I knew what she was going to do when she put that drink in her mouth. I knew she wasn’t going to swallow that beer in that moment. So I was able to follow it happening. But to be honest, the only reason that photo came out the way it did was because a photographer on the other side of her took a photo at the same time. So his flash backlit the water. You can’t replicate that photo. It’s just that moment. So outside of me trying to anticipate what’s going to happen, it’s pretty much luck and understanding where you should be standing when things are gonna happen. I find myself shooting a lot of the same bands that come through town and knowing how they are on stage already. I’m then anticipating where I should be standing within the group to make sure I’m angled at the right point. If King Gizzard [& the Lizard Wizard] comes to town, I want to get the photo of him upside down. It then starts becoming this long play of, “What do I want to get out of that moment?”

Trying to find that moment from [each] show is a very difficult thing. The bigger the band the less opportunities you have. If you shoot a bigger band, you only get to shoot the first three songs, and that’s it. When you’re shooting a newer band that’s thriving and there’s no rules, you’re in it until the end when they’re sweaty and gross, and you’re like, “That’s it. That’s what I want.” I don’t want this pristine, perfect moment where they’re trying to play the guitar. I want that dirty feeling when everybody’s in it. The crowd’s in it, they’re in it. It’s that moment that’s different. When bands tour, they’re playing most of the same content. So how do you find that moment that fits best for you? 

What’s your usual lens?

I have this weird lens. It’s a 50 millimeter, 0.95. It goes really, really wide open, and then the focus is like, hair thin. It’s a knock-off, kind of shitty lens. But LED lights hit it in very weird ways. It makes a lot of distortion in the image. One of the first photos I took that I fell in love with is a guy from The Black Angels, Christian Bland. He’s playing his guitar and he’s down in his hair, but [the lens] put this perfect, distorted ring around him. Everything about their music plus that, it blew my own mind that I did that. That’s where the distortion of images kicked off. I like to destroy the image as much as possible through the lens, versus in post. So I try to capture as much as I can through the camera.

How do you decide what bands you want to photograph? 

If I’m just going to go shoot a show for me, it’s the music I want to see. Nowadays, if I want to see a show, I’m at a point with the venues — well, I was. We’ll see when we come back — where I could email them the night before, like, “Hey, I’m going to shoot this.” I don’t really have to tell them who, what, or why. They just know if I’m going to be there, it’s cool. So they’ll put me on to shoot. If it’s bigger bands, then I’m starting to ask around for publications. Once it’s the Paramount Theatre or bigger, you gotta have the right publication, which I don’t think I’m going to have coming out of this. I’ve seen a lot of people not working for the publications. Things are changing. Money. There’s not a lot of money in this industry for music photographers. Publications don’t really want to pay much anymore.

It depends on the photographers I know and the people I trust in music, too, that are like, “This band’s coming through, and they’re sick.” And you’re like, “Okay, cool. I have to go see that.” The hardest thing is knowing what’s coming. There are times where I miss a show, and I’m like, “Fuck, how did I miss that?” So making sure I’m in the right circles outside of [Seattle] to make sure I see when people are coming, because we’re normally not the first stop.

Towards the end, if I knew a band wasn’t going to do anything crazy, then I didn’t want to go. I needed something to give me like, “Yes, I’m in this.” I think it’ll be a good shift for me after COVID just going again, versus it having to be a show for me. It got to the point where I was like, “I need to see some crazy shit. If you’re not gonna do something crazy up there, I don’t want to be here.” That’s kind of a sad thing to say. There’ll be times where I’m like, “Okay, I got to get back into what’s new and around town.” I’ll start going to little shows and trying to showcase new bands. I love music that isn’t necessarily that crazy. You should have a good balance between the two. 

What are you planning once live shows are available again? 

I have a strong belief that things are going to get pretty crazy here when they open up. It’s really going to be the local bands playing for the first few months before any touring band can make it through. It’s going to be pretty wild. I have an idea in my mind that I’m going to be at all these shows when this happens, because it’s just going to be chaos. I feel like bands are going to go fucking crazy. They’re going to be so psyched to be back on stage, and crowds are going to be happy being there. So I’ll probably go to more because I’d love to just start shooting. 

I’ve been thinking about that a lot, actually. I was like, “Man, I gotta look at Eva Walker‘s list of who she plays on Audioasis. I need to know what’s happening.” I don’t know anymore. I really feel out of it. And so I’ve been thinking about trying to get back involved now so that when everything does reopen, I’m in the know. It’s hard to shoot when you don’t know.

What do you miss most about shooting?

Just being in it. I do love shooting shows, but at the same time, I’m more happy to be there than I am to be shooting. I just want to feel it again, feel that music. I want to do more. I want to bring my film camera and shoot a roll of film every time, no matter what. I started archiving all my film, and I realized I’ll go shoot a show and have a roll of film that had like two photos from all these different shows. I’m like, “Man, I really should have shot that whole roll.” So I want to try to do that a bit more, but it’s just being back with my friends. I know most of the people that are going to be at the shows, the people working at the shows, and the bands, too. I know I’m going to see somebody. Just being back out there with people, humans. That’s pretty much it. That connection is much needed for me.

What advice would you give to aspiring music photographers?

Just go for it. There are photographers that are staples here, and I felt very insecure in that. You don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing when you’re new. So just go for it. Do what you want. Find that moment you’re looking for. When I first started shooting shows, I’d love destroying and fucking up photos and using weird shit to shoot through. People weren’t doing that so much in Seattle. I was seeing it a lot in LA and Austin in that psych scene. Early on, it wasn’t about that perfect photo. It was like, how can I bring something different to it? So I used to take a piece of broken glass or a beer bottle and put things in front of the lenses to get something different than most of the [other] photographers. 

Find your rhythm and what you want, and don’t worry whose toes you’re stepping on. Everybody already has the publications you’re going to want, so you have to figure out your way in. As much as I love all the other photographers, there’s only so many spots. If you want to work for a festival, you gotta figure out the right people to talk to. And don’t burn bridges. I’m telling you to do whatever you want, but, at the same time, don’t burn bridges. The relationship I built [with the guys at Freakout] put me into contact with KEXP, and that’s like I won the lottery.

I snuck my camera into so many shows in the beginning. I’d show up at The Showbox and go through the metal detector. They’d be like, “You have a photo pass, right?” I’m like, “Yeah, of course.” And then I’d run off like I have a photo pass. Just be there and do what you want. Fuck it. 

To get in touch with Trautt about band portraits, a live show, or any other forms of photography, message him on IG or email him at travistrautt@gmail.com.

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