Although Shoot the Image is a band of the new millennia, their story began the old-fashioned way–on a drunken night out with friends.

After being floored by their future lead singer’s voice at an after party, the friends put together some initial demos in Pro Tools. Through MySpace, they connected to their future producer Boz Boorer (Boorer is most known for his work founding the new wave rockabilly group The Polecats, and later for his work as a co-writer and guitarist with Morrissey).

The MySpace connection eventually led to the recording of their debut album with Boz, deep in the mountains of Portugal.

Below, the band discusses recording off the grid, finding inspiration in lost places, and their unexpected dream collaborator!

1. Wow, how cool that Morrissey guitarist Boz Boorer produced your debut. How did you initially link up? What was it like working with him?

Believe it or not, we initially got in touch with Boz Boorer through MySpace by sending him band and film recommendations.  This began a dialogue that carried on over the course of a year.  We booked a show at the 12 Bar Club in London England and invited him to come.  To our surprise he actually showed up.  We ended up hitting it off and he invited us to record at Serra Vista Studios in Portugal.

Working with Boz was amazing.  He really understood how to bring out the best in our band and the songs.  Serra Vista Studios is located deep in the mountains of Portugal, no cell phone or internet service meant no outside distractions and full attention paid to recording.

The work days were long but laid back and fun.  We had a ton of laughs, ate great food, drank great wine and made an album.  Boz and his wife Lyn were fantastic hosts.  What more could you ask for?

2. What inspired the songs on “Cranes in the City”?

We originally envisioned our debut album to be mostly electronic with a lot of focus on drum loops and keyboard presence.  During pre-production more and more guitars started to sneak-in.

Once we had the initial mixes we spent the winter of 2010 driving around the City finding melodies for the songs in the car.  We started to notice that a ton of our favourite places and buildings were being torn down and or replaced.  A lot of the songs are tributes to lost places.

3. How did the band come together?

After a drunken night out in 2009 our now lead singer launched into a version of Nina Simone’s ‘My baby just cares for me ‘ at an after party. This was the start of everything. The rest of the band was totally blown away by her voice! She’s an Urban Planner by trade and had never played in a band before.

We purchased an MBOX and learned how to use Pro-Tools and started recording drum loops to single keyboard tracks. Shoot the Image was born from these demos.

4. Who, if any, are your dream collaborators?

It was always our dream to work with the man who wrote ‘Jack the Ripper’ and we look forward to working with him many times in the future.

We would also love to work with Fran Healy from Travis, Nick 13 from Tiger Army, Alan Wilder from Recoil, producer Alan Moulder and Janelle Monae. She rocks!

The debut album “Cranes in the City” is set for release in the New Year.

MySpace page

Follow Shoot The Image on Twitter

I used to be the type who was agreeable to attending almost anything – I blame the Second City improv training that brought us the concept of “yes…and.”

If you asked me to see a band play, I’d say yes even if I secretly thought the band was crap. If you asked me to meet you for an after work drink, I’d say yes then later realize it’s logistically impossible to do so.

Triple booking on a Thursday night left it impossible to attend all events in question.

I had earned a bit of a reputation of what my mom likes to call a “flibbergibbit”. Maybe it’s a fear of commitment – I’m not sure, but I’ve gotten much better.

Facebook makes me face these issues head-on to a degree. Are you actually attending this event? Are you friends with this person?

Simply put: Yes, or NO?

And of course there’s a loophole for events: the option of saying …”maybe”. What do all of those maybes mean anyway?

Do we really mean “I’ll think about it and actually consider attending your event?” or are we just being polite?

My friend Jeff sees it all on my FB feed. “Are you really going to all of these events?” He asks. I told him the truth – mostly, I will.

Mostly.

Friend requests are easier. Either I know you, or I don’t.

Velvet rope. Easy. Decision made.

At first it was hard to kibosh friend requests – aw, this person wants to be my FRIEND! How sweet.

I learned fast when the new friendship almost immediately turns sour, when my news feed quickly becomes cluttered with random musings from a total stranger.

Groups are an easy one to moderate because once you join, you can control how often you’d like to hear from the group.

Pages are trickier because they’ll also show up in your feed and do I really want everyone to know that I’m secretly a fan of Wienerschnitzel?  (speaking hypothetically here. The truism for me would be more like, hypo-allergenic vegan non-soy based vegetable protein).

MySpace was a mad race to connect to everything and everyone. With that lesson learned, FB has taught us to be more selective. This forces us to make decisions about who and what we want to include in our (online) life – and how that can apply to decisions we make every day.

My friend Leila is seeing two guys. I say, good for her! It’s interesting because she communicates with each of them in two totally different ways.

The first has absolutely zero presence online. No profile on a company website, no Facebook page, no Flickr feed of his latest holiday or comments left on blogs for her to dissect. He’s a young attorney and “doesn’t have the time”.  In fact, according to Leila he’s even elusive on e-mail. Basically she can’t find any dish on him at all (c’mon, you know you Google your dates too!).

They primarily communicate by speaking over the phone a couple of times a week (yes he does have a RAZR) and they see each other a couple of times weekly.

The second guy she’s dating is totally plugged in. He’s on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, Vimeo, Digg, you name it.

They communicate several times a day via iChat, SMS/MMS text, and e-mail. They’re “friends” on Facebook. And, thanks to Twitter she always knows what he’s up to. Is he seeing anyone else? Who needs a magic 8 ball – ask Twitter!

Interestingly enough, although she communicates much less with guy #1 she feels closer to him.

While communication with guy #2 is consistently frequent it feels superficial because she doesn’t have his undivided attention. Oh, and it doesn’t help that she rarely sees him in person.

Guy #1, while she sees him on a regular basis, has more to talk about with IRL (In Real Life…hah). She also has no pre-conceived thoughts about him that she’s garnered herself from digging up dirt online; no assumptions as to who he may be as a person. She’s gotta find this all out on her own.

If we communicate more frequently with someone thru different mediums does it necessarily promote a healthy relationship?  it doesn’t appear that we’re getting to know a person on a truly deeper level, maybe even at all. With so many of life’s distractions online and in real life, is communicating with anyone on a meaningful level even possible? Have we become all “action” and no “talk”?

A relationship of any kind is meant to be rewarding. Each party wants validation from the other. In a narcissistic world where most online profiles are carefully self-groomed for vanity, the concept of nurturing any kind of relationship becomes a hall of mirrors where each friend appears just like the next.

Maybe the relationships of the future will revert to old-school techniques and mannerisms – like sitting down in person and having a conversation. Even then the smoke and mirrors ambiance of a dimly lit restaurant, music, and people-watching exist. Perhaps just having the opportunity alone to get to know someone – who they really are, not just online and via mass-emails – is what creates a meaningful relationship.

What do you think? Leave your thoughts by clicking on the comments field at the top of this post.