photo diary: Doe

In a special Photo Diary series, we’ve teamed up with Topshelf Records to post a selection of words + photos from some Topshelf artists that attended SXSW. This photo diary comes to you courtesy of Doe.

The first time we played SXSW was in 2017 - we went along to the Topshelf Records showcase at Cheer Up Charlies and thought ‘wow, imagine if we could play this one day!’. Fast forward to 2019, landing in Austin after 16 hours traveling, heading straight into town to play the Topshelf Records showcase and being handed 3 disposable cameras by sweet Kevin D!

It’s a lot of pressure to capture 3 cameras worth of material in a few days. We went about it in a fairly characteristic way; Dean got all the arty Austin scenery snaps, I (Nicola) mainly got pictures of friends and Jake left his until the last day and ran around taking pictures of anything. The final result is a nice mix of a very nice time, with some surprise-camera-in-face shots for good measure.

Our shows in Austin were the first of a West Coast tour. It was so lovely to begin the trip catching up with familiar faces and eating familiar delicious things in a place we’ve become very fond of. We managed to stay away from the central chaos this year and instead sought out more DIY-minded shows like the Grey Estates one. We were lucky to have that first full day off after we arrived, so spent it in good company discovering bands we’d never heard of and seeing some we’d been looking forward to for a while. Highlights included Nova One, Weakened Friends, Potty Mouth and Pope.

There are gross industry elements to SXSW, but there’s also a wonderful community of people who are there to support each other’s music and make new friends. Each year we make a bunch of new friends and leave feeling all warm and fuzzy from getting to hang out with such kind, supportive and inspiring people.