James Mastro will present pictures taken throughout his music excursions in Hoboken exhibition, ‘The Passenger’

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MEAGHAN TAYLOR

James Mastro will present his pictures at 503 Social Club in Hoboken.

As a musician, a songwriter, a producer and the proprietor of a guitar retailer and an artwork gallery/efficiency area, James Mastro has helped form Hoboken’s musical group for the reason that Eighties. Branching out into a brand new space, he’ll current an exhibition of his pictures, titled “The Passenger,” at his personal 503 Social Club. It will open with a reception, Oct. 12 from 2 to six p.m., and be on show till Nov. 23.

Mastro’s pictures remind me of his lyrics — each inform tales counting on fascinating, ironic or intelligent juxtapositions of photographs and phrases. He takes the sting off haunting themes with humor.

Fans can observe him on his travels as a touring musician by way of his stirring pictures, which he usually posted on social media; “The Passenger” will assist viewers expertise what he has seen and felt all throughout America and elsewhere, together with Greece and The United Kingdom.

On tour, Mastro has all the time saved journals, however currently, he snaps a photograph to report the day.

“I get a song lyric or idea out of many of the images I capture,” he says. “They put me back in a scene, and then the imagination just adds more color.”

On his current excursions, Mastro has been performing songs from his poignant and highly effective debut solo album, Dawn of a New Error (2024), on MPress Records. He has not too long ago been displaying his guitar virtuosity opening for and accompanying Alejandro Escovedo and Marshall Crenshaw.

JAMES MASTRO

“Movie House.”

Mastro’s followers have been following him since his days enjoying at Max’s Kansas City and CBGB in the course of the rise of New York’s punk rock scene, within the ’70s. As a young person, he performed on Television guitarist Richard Lloyd’s 1979 solo album, Alchemy, and within the ’80s he turned a member of the Hoboken’s rock band The Bongos. In the early ’90s, he fronted the alt-country band The Health & Happiness Show and in 2001, he joined Mott the Hoople frontman Ian Hunter’s Rant Band. He additionally has appeared on Hunter’s albums, and carried out on the Mott the Hoople reunion tour in 2018 and 2019.

Often the key weapon the bands of different artists, he has additionally added a recognizable and expert sound, over time, to the music of Patti Smith, Karyn Kuhl, Rachael Sage, Freedy Johnston, Garland Jeffreys, Lenny Kaye, Ivan Julian and others.

We spoke at size in 2024 and, once more, not too long ago, about his exhibition and upcoming plans.

Q: When did you first grow to be focused on pictures?

A: I’ve all the time loved taking pictures, however I’d say conceptualizing and directing my three newest movies obtained me to take my pictures extra significantly. You play with gentle, you zoom in or out and attempt to discover the essence of what’s within the body. I additionally discovered it a a lot faster method to hold a diary. I can take a photograph after which look again at it later and recall precisely what I used to be doing, what I used to be pondering, the place I used to be going.

Q: What conjures up you to snap a photograph? What catches your eye?

A: I like decay loads. Give me a rusted automotive in a subject or an outdated storefront signal and I’m a contented man.

Color will usually appeal to me first, after which that may power you to seek out the wonder in one thing. Move your lens somewhat bit and an entire new perspective can seem that all of the sudden is sensible, or tells a narrative. Space in a body can say as a lot as the topic itself generally, forcing you to fill in that void with your individual sense of steadiness.

Q: Are you telling a narrative by your pictures or making a temper?

A: I believe the tales are already within the pictures, I’m simply capturing it and placing it below a microscope. But once more, I wish to have viewers be at liberty to wander into the body and add their very own connection to it.

JAMES MASTRO

“Apartment With Clothes Drying.”

Q: Can you share some particulars with me concerning the photograph of an house with garments drying?

A: To me, the story on this photograph is the garments within the window drying. Though not seen, I can think about the particular person now within the different a part of that home, possibly having a cup of espresso after washing these by hand. I didn’t discover the garments till after I took the shot, which made me really feel like I received the lottery.

Q: And the film home photograph? (see above)

A: I see so many faces on this photograph, not empty seats. Did they just like the film? Did somebody have their first kiss right here? Who tried to cover the actual fact they cried when the hero died?

Q: What do your pictures have in widespread along with your songs?

A: Well, I like my lyrics to hold a visible with them, to place you in a spot. As a child, my favourite challenge at school was once we needed to make dioramas in shoe bins — creating little miniature scenes with figures and different small decor. That’s what I attempt to do with my lyrics and pictures alike; put you in a spot that possibly you’ve by no means been earlier than.

Q: Can you inform me about different photographers you take pleasure in?

A: Dorothea Lange’s pictures from the Dust Bowl period are gorgeous. You can see folks’s total lives in the best way they stand, or are one thing. And the geography of the land is etched within the traces of their faces.

There was a current exhibit at Fotografiska NYC of Vivian Maier, a nanny whose cache of pictures wasn’t found till after her dying within the 2000s — which I discover encouraging! Most are candid, unposed, life because it’s being lived. She was only a spy, snapping away, and forsaking a wealth of knowledge.

Q: What’s subsequent for you musically? Personally? Artistically?

A: After this exhibition opens, I’ve obtained a number of weeks of touring in November opening for Marshall Crenshaw, together with a co-bill with The Bongos at Sony Hall in New York on Nov. 10. And scattered in between all which can be some dates sitting in on guitar with my buddy Bob Perry on Oct. 19 at 503 Social Club, and a Cramps tribute at Bowery Electric on Oct. 30. And I’ll be doing a present with my band The Gold Stars on Dec. 7 at Mercury Lounge in New York, with The Silos. After that, it’s time to begin serious about making a brand new report. And the following photograph exhibit!

For data, go to jamesmastro.net, facebook.com/503socialclub or mpressrecords.com.

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