My first assignment for Rolling Stone was to shoot the folk punk band, Violent Femmes. Their classic, self-titled, first album was full of amazing songs Gordan Gano (vocal, lead guitar) had written in high school. It was a really big deal for me. I went to meet them in Brooklyn with one strobe light, my one 35mm camera and no assistant. When I started setting up, my strobe would not fire. It got dark and I was a wreck. Instead of giving up, we planned a trip for me to visit them a week later in Milwaukee. I think I was getting $75 for the whole assignment.

Victor, the drummer, and his wife, Karen (who was pregnant), offered to put me up. I found a place in Chicago that would rent me a car with cash - I didn’t have a credit card - and I drove to Milwaukee. We shot everyday for a week. It was close to 10 below zero. The photoshoot was on an abandoned highway and the band was bundled up inside the car, staying warm. I set up a light outside, and jumped on the front of their car just trying to get something good. The strobe was blowing in the cold, I couldn’t see inside the car, and this picture only existed in my mind until I saw the film a week later. I was trying to play rock photographer but I was really only at the very beginning of my career and just learning the dance of trying to make things appear down to earth and bigger than life at the same time.

Twenty years later, I was invited to see the bass player, Brian Ritche’s band at a NYC club called The Kitchen, and the drummer was none other than Victor and Karen’s baby, Malachi. Malachi later came to work with me - making music mixes for shootings and charming us all.