If you catch Heffron Drive’s Kendall Schmidt during one of his days off while he’s on tour, there’s a good chance he’ll be looking at life through the lens of a camera. Take, for example, his recent tour of Italy, which included accepting the Ischia Global Icon Award. “On my days off, I would run around taking pictures,” he tells us.
“I would go out in Florence, for instance, and I would have my Pentax K1000, and I also had one of those instant mini Polaroid cameras strapped to my shoulder.”
Schmidt knows that his love of film, versus digital, makes him a bit old school, saying, “It’s kind of out of character to see a normal camera anymore.”
Although his passion for photography is relatively new – he estimates he started to get serious about it within the past year – he knows it had been bubbling up inside him for a while.
“I can’t tell you how many cameras I have that I purchased from the Best Buy kiosk at the airport,” he says with a laugh. “I have so many Sony Cyber-shots, because I would go on a tour, and I didn’t have a camera ... so I would buy one of those cameras. Eventually, one day, I don’t know what came over me, I just wanted to take film photos. I got a Lomography camera when I was in New Zealand, and I came home, and took a couple photos, and I just loved it. I went on eBay, I got myself a 1977 Pentax K1000, (and) I figured it out. Now, Pentax is a learning camera. I’d eventually like to get to a place where I could get a Leica, or a Hasselblad, or something like that.”
Interestingly, in an age of social media, where everyone is quick to share everything, Schmidt has kept the vast majority of his photos private. “I’ve taken 50 rolls since last year, so far, and I’ve posted like seven pictures,” he says of his photography. “It’s 95% for me, and I’ll share the stuff that’s like, ‘That’s too cool. I have to post that.”
Schmidt continues, “I’m a very nostalgic guy, and I really want these photos for later on in life. That’s a really big reason why I’m taking them ... I’m trying to document more for my kids eventually, and their kids. It’s a historical thing, as well.”
While Schmidt’s passport is already littered with stamps, five places still on his photography bucket list include...
Eastern Asia
“I’m a big animal guy. A place like Borneo is like one of the most biologically diverse places in the world, and it’s experiencing a lot of extinctions, so that would be an interesting trip to take.”
Russia
“I think taking pictures of the government buildings in Russia, and all the Russian design buildings, would be great, especially in black and white.”
Under The Sea
“Beautiful, clear, underwater images that are digital are cool, and everything, but there’s something about being underwater, and having it on film. Being that film and water don’t go together, there’s something really interesting about that, that I think is very cool.”
The Great Barrier Reef
“I’d love to go to the Great Barrier Reef, especially since it’s arguably dying. I want to check it out before it’s gone.”
The Rainforests
“I’d love to go to Brazil. I’d love to go see the Amazon. I’d love to go down the Amazon River.”
Currently, Schmidt is enjoying the first time he’s had four consecutive months at home in six years. “I’m loving it. I get up in the morning, and I go to work in my studio, polish off a song, and send it out.
“This is like a vacation for me, being able to make up whatever my heart desires, and come up with any ideas I have. It’s wonderful. I’ve been needing some creative time like this.”
In addition to finishing up the next Heffron Drive album, the lead single from which he hopes to release either before the end of this year, or in early 2017, Schmidt is running his label, TOLbooth Records, and working on production for a number of artists, including Instagram, and YouTube, fave Avonlea.
For Schmidt, he sees a big similarity in his passions for music, and photography, saying, “It parallels in the sense of creativity, because a good photo is just being in the right place at the right time, and having the right eye to know that something’s gonna turn out well.
“I’ll give you an example, when I was in France I went to this cafe. I just wanted bacon and eggs. I was cool with croissants, but after a while you just want bacon and eggs, so we found this cafe, and there was this honey bear (squeeze bottle), and I had this idea of taking this photo of the honey bear with silverware in front of him, like he was ready for breakfast."
"At the time, just taking the picture was a really stupid idea, and then when I got it printed up, and saw it on a larger scale, it was actually a really cool photo. It looked very artistic, and very interesting. That’s the same thing with music. In music you experiment, you try things. A lot of times, the first half of a song that you did in the beginning, you end up erasing, and using the second half. It’s really just a creative avenue for me to express, just like music is.”
Come 2017, expect Schmidt to hit the road again for his music, strapped with his cameras.
“I’ve done probably 5% of the traveling that I’d like to do, and I’ve had pages added to my passport twice. I’ve gone a lot of places, and I also want to go to a lot of places still.”
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