I stepped off the subway train and the station clock clicked from 23.59 to 00.00.
Maybe I was in a bad horror film. One thing was for sure. I was in the Bronx, it was midnight and I was not supposed to be there. But that was last night and today I’ve promised myself that I’ll acquire a better understanding of the New York public transport system so as to avoid being flung out to the extremities at the witching hour.
I was woken multiple times during the night by emergency vehicles and I’m hoping the bags under my eyes won’t be too visible on the promo shots and videos that have to be shot around New York today. Geoff, photographer and video documenter of this whole American adventure snaps everything I do. I can’t eat a grape without it becoming the centre of an idea in his head for a scene where smoke from a sidewalk vent drifts slowly across the shot. He snaps passersby too. In other countries this would result in angry faces and “Hey! don’t take my picture!” But here they smile and shout “Hey! put it on Insta!”. Fame, anyhow and at all costs… We’re definitely in the US.
We take in Bleecker st, Washington square, then walk the whole way along the elevated high line walkway over the meat packing district…we’ve walked and snapped until my soul has been well and truly absorbed by the lens and jet lag once more recedes. It’s a trade off in shoe leather and kilometres.
Tomorrow the real shit starts and I actually get to play in front of an audience. Everything up to now has been more like music tourism; a semblance of a tour, a slow warm-up. Some meet & greets with industry types, some promo shots, a visit to the US label headquarters in Downtown NY to get my hands on a US release copy of my album. Actually that last bit was quite exciting… but Tomorrow the show starts for real.
I’ll put it on Insta…
Barton H
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French version published daily on the ROCK MADE IN FRANCE:
