There’s a beautiful song called County Line by Cass McCombs which I often find buzzing round my head so when I was offered the chance to shoot the man himself, I was thrilled. The offer came with a footnote warning however that Cass hates doing press. Everyone in the industry I mentioned the upcoming shoot too stressed how much he hates talking about his work and having his photo taken. So no pressure then.
To my relief on meeting, he was incredibly undaunting and actually very charming. I had a worrying start as he disappeared off to find a loo which made me wonder if he would return (he walked off stage at a concert once because he didn’t ‘feel’ it). Fortunately he did and what followed was a pleasurable half hour spent in the wooded area of Holland Park chatting a stream of consciousness with topics flitting from soup recipes to American road trips. I was pleased with the naturalistic essence of the portraits which sum up my experience of our meeting, I only hope weren’t too painful for him to create.