Upside down, cheek to cheek and back to front is what Dan Wilton’s time with LA teen dream team The Bots looks like in his photo-zine with the similarly inverted title STOB EHT.
Click images to enlarge.
Photographer to the stars of the new music scene (whoever they may be at the time), Dan Wilton’s camera has come face-to-face with Jessie J, face-to-mask with SBTRKT and has now dived lens first into a whirlpool of washed out pink, green and blue with fun-sized punk-rock band The Bots, aka brothers Mikaiah and Anaiah Lei. Documenting ten tie-dye tinted days of their tour around Europe, Dan has come out alive with 48 pages of full-colour photocopied perfection, stitched them together with pale pink thread and slipped them into a tie-dyed sleeve to make STOB EHT, adding to the riot grrrl-famed, do-it-yourself concept of the ‘zine,’ the next in our Amaze-zine series. i-D online talk to Dan about photographing the fun and take a look at what happened off-tour-duty.
How did you meet The Bots? I met them on a shoot during the summer. I’d been on the hunt for the right band to tour with for a while and as soon as I met them I knew they were perfect for it. I ended up helping them rent my old house in Clapton so they had a place to stay in London. The next thing I knew I was in the back of a van with them on the way to Dover…
Did anything unexpected happen during your 10 days with them? The tour manager jumping out of a second floor window one night, thinking he was on the ground floor, was pretty unexpected. Somehow he didn’t break anything.
What was the funniest moment from the tour? Probably the boys gaffer taping Emily (the publicist) up in her hotel room. Or me throwing her in the river in Switzerland… basically anything involving stitching Emily up.
Where was the best place you visited? Zurich was unreal. The gig venue is literally right next to a crystal clear river with people diving in off bridges, publicists being thrown in off the side and everyone floating downstream and climbing out to have a beer at different bars further down the river. I wanted to move there as soon as I set eyes on it.
Why so many pigs? We had a day off in Stuttgart and ended up going to visit the Schweine Museum – the world’s largest pig museum. If you’re ever in Stuttgart go check it out. It’s probably the best museum I’ve ever been to; 50,000 pig based works of art. The BDSM pig room was particularly special.
Describe The Bots in five words. Energetic, amazing, funny, loud, buttheads.
Who’s got a broken arm on the penultimate page? It’s Anaiah, the drummer. He doesn’t actually have a broken arm though, he’s just a bit of a drama queen.
How did it happen? He said he sprained his wrist ‘falling over on some wet grass’. But he only said that because his mum banned him from Victoria Park skate park after he split his head open in the bowl.
What fanzines did you grow up reading? I never really grew up reading any fanzines if I’m honest. I only got into photography once I was a little older. Unless The Beano counts?
If you could go on tour with any artist/band, past or present who would you choose? Talking Heads.
Which photographers do you look up to? I’ll always love Martin Parr. And I’m mad into Pieter Hugo’s work at the moment.
STOB EHT is available to buy at danwilton.co.uk
Text: Felicity Kinsella
Photography: Dan Wilton
