Ears Wide Open: Photo Ops

Kevin Bronson on February 5th, 2019

2

Photo Ops is the folk-pop project of singer-songwriter Terry Price, once of the Nashville band Oblio (not to be confused with the Long Beach outfit of that same name) and now ensconced on the West Coast after a period of life changes and soul-searching. It was in 2016, right after releasing the second Photo Ops album “Vacation,” that Price checked out. In no small part because of the events of November 2016, Price stopped touring, dropped off social media and, eventually, moved to L.A.

“I needed to shed my skin,” he says. “I needed to look outside myself for inspiration. It’s a matter of survival to know that there is beauty in the world. So that’s my mission now: To show that there is still beauty in the world. I honestly don’t know how else to write right now.”

The new Photo Ops single, “July,” is a good start. Carved from the clay of ’70s AM radio and breezy enough for a road trip with the top down, it’s a dose of optimism from a guy making peace with his past. “I did you right / You just won’t know it for a while,” he sings as the sighing melody crescendos.

The song is from the new album “Pure at Heart,” expected later this year. Price has been working remotely with Nashville’s Patrick Damphier (Jessica Lea Mayfield, Mynabirds, Fences, Aaron Lee Tasjan, The Arcs), who produced the previous Photo Ops album. It finds him being more of a mellow fellow vocally, and there’s a reason. “In Nashville, I had a garage,” he explains. “I could go out and make as much noise as I wanted. In L.A., you have to be thoughtful about your neighbors.”

||| Stream: “July”