Remove Records recently spoke with Brandon Fecteau, drummer in the band Doctor Daisy and local photographer. Checkout Doctor Daisy https://doctordaisy.bandcamp.com/releases
Read the interview below and visit his website below for a ton of great photos!
Instagram : @imperfecteaunist
Brandon: My name is Brandon Fecteau and I play drums for Doctor Daisy as well as have started my own photography brand, imperfecteaunist. The name comes from a general mispronunciation of my last name, “Fecteau” and found the easiest way to explain it to people was by saying it’s pronounced similar to perfecto. In today’s age of social media being the main way to promote one’s photography, I got sick of seeing massive amounts of over-edited photographs, and decided that I was going to attempt to reach the roots of photography, and go back to the days of when photography was once about just capturing the photograph straight out of the camera, developing the film, and what you see is what you get. With some of my more abstract photography, I have chosen to use specialized filters to achieve a certain effect rather than just uploading it onto Photoshop and messing with the overall integrity of the photograph itself. I started off as a landscape photographer, as I feel like many who pick up the camera for the first time are drawn to do, and over time have strayed away from that more. I feel as though the direction I now want to head in would be a documentarian or art photographer, something that really evokes emotion out of the viewer. One of the main reasons I started getting interested in photography is because of how quickly life is moving and it’s a way of capturing one single moment for eternity, or as long as that negative or photograph is existing in the physical world.
Remove Records: What are some of your influences?
Brandon: Drum-wise, I would have to say my biggest influences are Alex Sowinski from BADBADNOTGOOD, Mitch Mitchells, and Robert Wyatt. All phenomenal drummers who I feel have perfected the jazz or “jazz-rock” style and who I hope most to emulate and adapt into my own style.
For influence in the photography scene, I’m definitely more drawn to photographers and cinematographers from back in the 60’s/70’s scene, not to say there aren’t still incredible photographers nowadays, but it draws back to my spiel earlier about going back to the roots of photography. The only two photography courses I have ever taken were both History of Photography and Intro to Filmmaking, and I found throughout that I was much more drawn to what they were doing back then, and utilizing physical materials to “edit” their photographs rather than to digitally manipulate them. That being said, some of the largest influences would have to be Robert Frank, Allen Ginsberg (he wasn’t famous for his photography but still got some incredible Beat scene photographs with his camera), Lee Friedlander, and Henri-Cartier Bresson. I feel like the list could just go on and on, but I really dig street photographers and seeing how life was before my time on this world.
Remove Records: What are some of your favorite galleries/venues?
Brandon: For music, 20 Front Street in Lake Orion is one of my personal favorites. I helped them set up their live streaming for their shows, and it’s just such a nice intimate space. The people there are all the most genuine venue owners I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Some of the best I’ve personally performed at would have to be The Crofoot, The Loving Touch, and The Magic Stick.
For my favorite galleries, the ones that I have actually visited would have to be Library Street Collective in Detroit, UICA in Grand Rapids, and The Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati Ohio. The internet is so helpful on being able to witness art that you cannot actively go and see firsthand too, there are so many galleries I’ve found through Instagram I hope that I can visit one day.
Remove Records: What advice would you give to someone just starting out in art/music?
Brandon: My biggest advice to someone just starting out is to keep keep KEEP at it. So many people give up because they feel like they’re “not good enough” or are seeking out approval on social media. Even if you’re not getting likes on your posts, just do it for your own personal enjoyment. Your work will only get better if you want to keep working at it and really hone your craft. Also, make sure to practice as much as you can! Instead of spending hours watching tv or sitting on your phone, do something proactive to better yourself at whatever medium it is you are going after.
Remove Records: What messages or themes are you trying to convey through your art/music?
Brandon: A big message I’ve found through my attempt to write lyrics is a sense of how everyone is looking for something, whether it be love, purpose, etc. In my photography I am just looking to capture the world in a way it has never been seen before and to offer my own viewpoint of the world, or how it’s seen through my own eyes and how I can capture that through the lens of my camera. I also want to have a more abstract look to some of my photographs to bridge it together between a painting and a photograph, something that people look at and wonder what exactly is going on in that photo or the process behind taking it.
Remove Records: What are you working on next?
Brandon: I have a few projects in the work right now. The main objective is two photo zines I have in the works, one will be from the nationwide trip I took over this summer of camping and driving across the whole U.S. and the other is a study on the idea of home and what it means to other people. I’d also like to actively start printing my photographs for print work, so that will be something I’ll be advertising soon. In the near future I also want to start doing more cinematography work as well, I’ve started one called “Instant Memories” which is a capture of the moments leading up to taking a specific photograph.
Brandon: I’m extremely curious to see what the future holds for both scenes. With this digital age, I feel like photography is slightly losing it’s natural feel, but there are still people out there creating some phenomenal digital art. Music has also gotten to be too “perfect” sounding. People can manipulate any sound they want and are using pedal effects on Ableton or Pro Tools rather than to actually have a physical pedal. There’s still some great works coming out of that also, but the big pop artists of today are nowhere near what the “pop” music of the 1960s and 1970s were doing. For example, even though The Monkees didn’t write or perform some of their songs they had so much more feel to it. I think there’s still hope for the art and music scene in the future and there is the possibility of a resurgence of an old scene or art is going to take on a new form altogether. I’m really looking to follow the people who are using old mediums to incorporate new ideas and there’s definitely a scene for that going right now.