Music People

behind the promo photo with Will Spurrier

Howdy partners. We continue on with our celebration of promo photos, the bands in them, and the people who take them...

...today we've got Will Spurrier, who sent over this frankly incredible photo he took of the Grand Rapids, MI-based pop punk band Harper Kill, an homage to an especially locked-in photo of Young Thug in the studio...

I asked Will a few questions about the behind-the-scenes process of getting this sweet pic...read on...

[Molly] What's your general photography background - how'd you get into it, and how did you get into music/band photographer specifically?

[Will] My primary background is actually in video, though nowadays you end up doing a little of everything. I joined my college radio station’s Video Team as a freshman and got the chance to dabble in both video and photo. Small gigs initially (my first was an acoustic Jeff Rosenstock set in 2016), but some very cool opportunities followed, including a week at SXSW in 2019. After I graduated I continued to pursue it mostly as a hobby until I landed my current job overseeing media production for a cluster of radio stations, where I’m happy to be back at it again in the photo pit (most recently for Green Day at Comerica Park).

How did you get linked up with Harper Kill to begin with?

Dylan (far right in the photo) and I linked up on “music Twitter” back in 2017 and have been tight ever since. He recently moved to Grand Rapids and so we’ve been taking advantage of finally being able to collaborate. This was only the second time we’d seen each other in person, and my first time meeting the band. I sat in on a Sunday rehearsal and then we went downtown.

Do you remember where you first encountered that Young Thug photo?

Definitely Twitter when it was first making its rounds. I suppose being very online is in our DNA. The band met each other via a Green Day fan forum.

How easy/hard was it to recreate?

It was pretty intuitive, though we didn’t necessarily go for 100% accuracy. I think the final picture evokes it more than it necessarily parodies it. I used a wide angle lens that I still had from doing real estate photo during COVID, and found an angle next to the monitor that I thought was closest to the original image. I offered a tiny bit of direction but otherwise just started taking photos as they riffed on the idea.

From a photographer perspective, any advice or tips for other bands for getting through a promo photo shoot unscathed?

I should mention this was my first time ever doing band promo shots! I was a bit nervous to have the responsibility of posing, but that ended up being less of a factor than I’d anticipated. We did a mix of ones that were intentionally posed and static, and ones that were more improvised and dynamic (we did one where the guys attempt to drag Dylan into a dumpster).

Looking back, getting to hang at the rehearsal space was beneficial because I was able to get an idea of their senses of humor, their group dynamic and individual personalities. Then it became less about posing and more about giving them “roles” and letting them improvise. They also came with many ideas of what photos they needed (these are also their first set of promo shots), which helped us stay on track and keep it casual.

Thanks Will! Here is Will's Instagram and website.

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