On the shelf
The Street, by Brian Baker128 pages, $37.27 Should you purchase books linked on our web site, The Occasions could earn a fee from Bookshop.org, whose charges assist unbiased bookstores.
As a guitarist, Brian Baker has punk rock and hardcore credentials which can be unparalleled. From successfully launching “hardcore” as a style with Minor Risk when he was an adolescent to bringing within the extra melodic aspect of the scene with Dag Nasty after which becoming a member of Dangerous Faith within the mid ’90s, it’s arduous to argue that any guitarist has been extra influential to their scene than Baker.
“I think I just have a knack for being at the right place at the right time,” Baker says when requested about his contributions to the aforementioned legendary bands. “The key is to respect that legacy and not f— it up. I understand it’s a big deal to a lot of people — much more than it is to me. I’m just the guy who’s playing guitar, but I’ve been fortunate enough to be in bands that have been foundational for a lot of people. I think about that when I get on stage every day. I want to do a great job every time. As long as I’m able to still deliver a performance that I have respect for, hopefully other people will too.”
Standing at a high-top desk below a white awning backstage at Riot Fest (Chicago’s huge punk rock pageant the place many of the acts are both buddies of Baker or impressed by a number of of his bands) after almost a half-century of allegedly simply occurring upon one iconic band after one other, Baker lately launched a brand new undertaking — one which he’s labored on for nearly 20 years throughout his ongoing run with Dangerous Faith.
A shot of Baker’s guitars on a wooden pallet.
(Brian Baker)
Each time the legendary Los Angeles punk band goes on the street, Baker (like most touring musicians) finds himself with fully 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 typically turns to the piece of know-how that so many use to occupy their free time, his smartphone. However relatively than mindlessly scrolling social media or watching YouTube movies, Baker found a brand new ardour for images, continually utilizing each digital camera lens on the iPhones which have been in his pocket for the reason that authentic launched within the late 2000s.
Till lately, the fruits of Baker’s images pastime had successfully solely existed on his private Instagram. That was till issues began falling into place (“Like many things in my career,” 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 pictures as a guide, appropriately titled “The Road” (launched Nov. 4 by way of Akashic Books).
A mug shot of Baker’s first band, D.C. hardcore pioneers Minor Risk.
(Brian Baker)
“My wife suggested for a long time that people might want to look at my photographs, and I was like ‘OK, that’s great,’ but never really thought about it,” Baker says, his bandmates and different longtime buddies circulating by Chicago’s Douglass Park. “Eventually, a good friend of ours named Jennifer Sakai — who’s a great photographer and has made books in the past — made a mock-up from my Instagram of what a book could look like. I wasn’t looking to make a book, but she basically presented a finished product to me, so I contacted a guy I went to elementary school with, Johnny Temple — who plays [bass] in Girls Against Boys and Soulside and has a publishing company. Much like my more successful rock bands, I walked in after everyone did all the work, and now I’m just going to coattail it.”
With or with out the brand new guide, Baker says his time-killing love of images was born out of the veteran guitarist feeling as if he was forgetting an excessive amount of and lacking a few of his key recollections from his time on tour. As soon as he gave up consuming, 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, fascinating buildings, graveyards (“That’s not the goth in me saying this,” Baker jokes) and wherever else the place he entertain himself away from individuals. And relatively than making an attempt to inform the story of the final 18 years by his iPhone digital camera, he’s pleased simply documenting these sure moments and “a lot of different ways to spend your time” in “The Road.”
“I used to take a film camera on tour, and I’d shoot a couple rolls and then forget about the camera and leave it at the hotel or something,” Baker says. “I didn’t really do a good job of being a photographer, because I’m not a photographer. I’m just a guy with a cellphone, but having the phone always on me, I just kept taking pictures of stuff for no real reason. It was like ‘Hey, look at this weird thing’ or “Look what we ate tonight” or “That church is f— up” with no intention of it being a group or anybody actually seeing it past my family and friends. Ultimately, I bought an Instagram account and among 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 images expertise, the discharge of “The Road” has additionally allowed Baker to flex his storytelling muscle tissues on the varied bookstores, file retailers and extra that he’s hitting this fall (together with early October dates at West Hollywood’s E book 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 completely different from performing music, as a result of he’s nonetheless “on a stage with a microphone and wearing black pants.”
The guide tour has additionally been a possibility for Baker to attach with followers and mirror on Dangerous Faith and his prior bands (together with varied aspect initiatives like supergroup Faux Names and Seashore Rats). Whereas he maintains that his involvement in punk historical past principally comes all the way down to happenstance, he believes that Dangerous Faith’s multi-generational endurance stems from at all times being “uniquely unfashionable” and having clever lyrics about subjects which can be nonetheless related. Add in the truth that they’re at all times bettering as musicians and simply get pleasure from getting collectively with out wanting on the greater image, and “not having a plan has proven to be effective” for the stalwarts.
Picture of Baker’s first amp and guitar
(Brian Baker)
However greater than something, Baker’s lack of planning or route round his images 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 world hardcore motion.
“Anybody can do this, so it does remind me of making records when I was very young,” Baker says. “We were just making our own records ourselves and selling them in high school, and that was Minor Threat. You think about how significant that is now, 45 years later, it’s the same thing with taking pictures. I just took a bunch of pictures, and now someone’s made a book out of them. It’s something you can do yourself, and I love that about it.”
