When you’ve spent well over a decade travelling the world as a hairdresser, what comes next?
Credit: Amy Russell
For rock photographer Amy Russell, the answer to that was simple. Go back to her first love, and hit the road with her favourite band. Growing up, the Amy dreamed of working in the music industry, and she can still remember driving to Brighton “pretty much any day there was a show on”, blagging her way in to interview and review whoever was on.
Fast forward a few years, and Soundsphere is chatting to her on a rooftop terrace with Bowling For Soup frontman Jaret Reddick a few hours before the band hit the stage in Halifax for TK Maxx presents Live at The Piece Hall.
The Bowl My Bones tour with co-headliner Frank Turner has been a special one, and during BFS’ set Amy was whizzing about the stage and along the barrier snapping all of the action. “She’s one of the team. I’ve had to change the way I describe our crew now, because I’m just like, ‘nine fat guys and a really little girl,’ Jaret says with a laugh. “Well, a small woman! “She’s just so good at being a fly on the wall, but she can stay up and drink beers with us, and crack jokes just like the rest of us. She’s one of the gang!”
Amy agrees that Bowling For Soup have treated her “like family”, and she’s loved getting to know a band she’s been listening to for more than two decades. “When we were in Australia, the first time I think we met Wally, our promoter rep out there, and the guy’s are just, like, fucking burp, fart, shit, basically right in front of me,’ she laughs. “Wally is just like side-eyeing, ‘Is she okay?’ Yeah, like, we all will fart, guys!”
A‘terrifying’ leap of faith
It’s clear Amy is loving life now, but it wasn’t an easy decision to pack in her previous career and make the jump to the music world. “It was absolutely terrifying, walking away from a really, really incredible 15 year career in hairdressing, and just being like, I’m kind of like done with this,’ she recalls.” I went to awards, I traveled the world, I talked globally – like, meh!”
It was time for a change, and she ended up helping her partner with his work handling BFS’ merch. After a while, she asked if she could bring her camera along, and Jaret was quickly impressed with her work.
Nowadays, she also helps with the band’s socials, having worked on social media and marketing during her hairdressing days along with the photography, and now “all of the words have collided”.
Although there’s been a lot of progression, the music industry is still an easier world for men, but Amy is keen to point out she’s been “very lucky” in her experiences, with BFS and the business as a whole.
A friendship built on respect
She’s shot everyone from BFS and Bar Stool Preachers to NOFX, getting to snap their “last ever show”, which was a “wildly overwhelming experience” compared to her regular work with BFS, having just three songs to capture the best shots.
“And those first three NOFX songs go real fast,” Jaret laughs. It’s clear throughout the conversation that Amy has truly become part of the BFS family, and someone the boys trust.
“We have such a good respect for each other, because I will never try and push the limit of what I can get the band to do,” she explains, as Jaret echoes the sentiment.
“We always get what we need to get, but she won’t come in and, like, Gary’s asleep or something, or I haven’t had a shower. She can read the room, basically,’ he smiles. “That’s a really good quality to have, and you really can’t teach that.”
She’s mindful of their frame of mind, and happy to work around moments where Jaret’s anxiety means he just needs a bit of time before he’s ready to get in front of the camera. That respect goes both ways.
“I treat my crew as if they’re in the band. We’re all a team. We’re together all the team. We spent our days off together, we spent our vacations together,’ he says. “It’s closer than a family environment, because quite frankly, you don’t wanna be around your family as much as we’re around each other!”
Credit: Amy Russell
Looking to the future
There are other benefits too. “She has the heaviest bags and the most shit! But it’s kind of nice because sometimes I can sneak something in. I got I got tired of carrying my CPAP on the Australian tour, and she just had one little pocket available for me in her enormous case,’ the pop-punk legend chuckles, as Amy quips: “My souvenir slot, the memory of your CPAP!”
Amy is building up her connections in the music work, working with American Hi-Fi, Don’t Panic and more, and Jaret says everyone he talks to “loves her work”.
Up next, BFS are hoping Amy can secure a work visa to let her tour with them in the US, rather than just ‘visiting as a buddy”, and just our interview she finds out she’ll be coming to Canada with them in 2027. “She’ll see us through the new music,” he says, referencing the next Bowling For Soup album. “And keep going until somebody steals her.” Amy will clearly be in demand, but the idea of leaving the Bowling For Soup family for another band isn’t on her radar. She smiles: “They’d have to put up a hell of a fight.”