Actress Christie Campagna has been waiting for her big break. Although she has appeared with Brad Pitt in the original Oceans 11, and had a small roll in Scorpion King with The Rock, she is still waiting for the perfect hollywood leading lady role. Who would have guessed that it would be her 6 month old baby Riley that would be following in his moms footsteps? ” He can finally start paying me back for diapers” Jokes Campagna on his recent guest roll on the Sarah Silverman show. Sarah also cast Christie’s daughter Bailey to star as none other then Sarah Silvermans own daugther on her hit comedy sitcom. Talk about a family blessed with star quality! Daughter Bailey Campagna is represented by the Osbrink Agency, the same agency that represents child stars such as Dakota Fanning. While pregnant with her mini celebs, Christie was represented by the modeling agency Expecting Models, that has represented a range of celebrity baby bumps like Ali Landry and Kristen Holly. http://www.expectingmodels.com/

I have the honor to be able to photograph the Campagna family on a regular basis. The thing about being a child star, is you need a new head shot every month!

Pregnancy is such an amazing time in a woman’s life! I feel that it is so important to artistically document the changes your body goes through, as most of us gals only go through it a couple of times in our lifetime. There are several different ways you can be photographed, depending on what you feel comfortable with. A lifestyle shoot would be you just having fun, doing your day to day things like watering the plants or picking up flowers at the market. You can do something more fashion forward and posed if you are wanting something a bit more edgy. Lastly, I would suggest some tasteful nudes. By nude, dont think EEK! Im naked. I would suggest using a sheet discreetly wrapped around you, a silhouette next to a window, and posing you comfortably and naturally to show off your baby bump.

From time to time I get asked if I shoot family portraits. The answer to this question is YES! I love shooting families. I suggest that the families dress similar in color scheme. Avoid black and super bright colors and busy patterns. The beach is always a great place to shoot in the afternoon, as is a park. If there are babies in the group, be sure to pack plenty of toys to keep them occupied!

What a truly amazing season for the die-hard fans of the San Diego Chargers. By ending their season in the midst of playoffs at 11 Wins and 5 Losses, it was an intense year for the players. Luis Castillo, San Diego’s Starting Left Defensive End, definitely felt that pressure. Castillo aggressively attacked this season with a hard-hitting 32 tackles – 20 solo tackles and 10 assisted.

Making it that far in the playoffs was no easy task. After winning the wildcard playoffs against The Titans 17-6 and then going on to defeat The Colts for the divisional playoffs 28-24, The Chargers and their fans were very optimistic about the final outcome of the season. Unfortunately, as Luis Castillo put it during the postgame for the Conference Championships against the Patriots, “I know we got beat. They beat us in every element of the football game”. However, The Chargers did not end the season empty-handed; they earned the title of 1^st for American Football Conference (AFC) West.

I had the wonderful opportunity of doing an interview with the extremely talented and motivated Preston Swirnoff, and now I will share it with you.

Helene: What got you into the fascinating world of music and how long have you been making your own music?
Preston: I was classically trained on piano as a child and remember hearing music in my head since I was a baby. As a teenager, I discovered the worlds of punk rock, free jazz/improv, electronic, hip hop, industrial/drone, and all these new universes that changed the way I approach music. I started playing in bands in my late-teens and that led to teaching myself how to operate in the studio: record, mix, master, and produce records.

Helene: You have your own recording studio, a huge accomplishment I might add, called Habitat in Golden Hill where you have recorded some fascinating tracks. Who would you say are some of the bigger names that you have worked with at your studio?
Preston: I’ve been really fortunate to work with some amazing musicians and composers who have come through my studio. Many of them are big names in ‘my world’ but barely blips on the radar of the mainstream, haha. For me, it’s not so much about big names but artists whom I admire and respect. Recently, having Charles Curtis (the amazing avant-garde cellist and student of La Monte Young and Pandit Pran Nath) play and record at our studio has been a great experience. Collaborating with Mad Professor, Dudley Perkins, and Dub Traffik Control have been rewarding musically too.

Helene: As a musician, what would you say some of your greatest achievements are?
Preston: I think creating the growing discography of releases I’ve worked on in a variety of projects is what I’m most proud of. To see it continue to grow every year feels really good and leaves me with a feeling of accomplishment.

Helene: Who is your ideal director or what is your dream project to compose a film score for?
Preston: Wow, there are so many great directors I would love to work with on a film score so that is a tough question. But off the top of my head, working with people like Paul Thomas Anderson, Fernando Meirelles, Werner Herzog, Lynne Ramsay, Abbas Kiorastami, or Pedro Almodovar would all be dream projects.

Helene: How many bands are you currently a part of and do you participate in any DJing on the side?
Preston: Right now I have a lot of things on the burner! I work with my friend Ilya Monosov on Monosov Swirnoff and The Shining Path, I do my own solo works as Preston Swirnoff, I make dub music as Habitat Sound System, I play piano and percussion with SeeSaw Ensemble, I play and do production with Hedonic Islands, Dub Traffik Control, and something else I’m probably forgetting haha. Occasionally I do DJ things here and there, would like to do more when time permits. I love exposing people to music they may not have heard but love as soon as it hits their ears.

Helene: So I heard that you have 5 records coming out this year, is it true? If so, that is a major congratulations on finding the time and energy to accomplish that.
Preston: Thanks! Yes, 2008 is a big year for releases. It just kind of worked out that way after spending muchof 2007 working on lots of projects in the studio.

The releases in 2008 so far are:
Habitat Sound System- ‘Zebras in the Dancehall’ 7″ (Gematria Records)
Preston Swirnoff- Maariv CD (Last Visible Dog Records)
The Shining Path- ‘Take You So Low So You Can Fly So High’ LP (Planaria Records)

The Shining Path- to be titled 12″ on Holy Mountain
The Shining Path- ‘Live at the Voltaire Commune/Lonely Hearts’ 7″ (Trensmat Records)

and in the works for late ‘08/early ‘09 are:
Habitat Sound System- ‘Murder On Golden Hill’ 10″/CD
DJ I and The Hedonic Islands 12″ (with Dudley Perkins, Georgia Muldrow, Rye Rye, Addiquit, more) (Gematria Records)
SeeSaw Ensemble- CD with Elliott Levin on Porter Records
and maybe more!

So yeah 2008 is turning out to be a very productive year- now we just have to hit the road and do some live stuff- it’s been awhile!

Helene: What were some of the thoughts going through your head when the Mad Professor mastered your debut Dub album? And for people like me that do not know what Dub is, could you explain it?
Preston: I was just happy and grateful that he found it worthy enough to want to work on with me. It was a great lesson in just believing in myself and that you never know what can happen unless you pursue it. Dub is a lot of things now but it started as a strain of Jamaican reggae in which the mixing engineer uses the studio as an instrument and plays with the tracks in a song to create new ‘versions’ that emphasize the drums and bass and bring the other elements in and out of the song using effects like reverb and delay. This is the origination of the ‘remix’. It became wildly popular in the dancehalls of Jamaica in the 1970’s and influenced the creators of hip hop, punk, disco, drum n bass, techno, and almost every other musical genre that came after it.

Helene: If you could choose anyone, singer or band, who would you choose to go on tour with? Remember, youwill be stuck with this person or band for months on a tour bus…
Preston: Hmm..another tough one. As tempting as it is to name someone I admire who I’ve never met- the honest answer is I’d most like to tour with my friends who I’ve known for years and played music with. When you are in the trenches of tour life it’s best to be with people who know you well and you feel comfortable with. The kind of friends who you can get into a fight with and make up 5 minutes later and laugh about it. When you are on tour you realize that the amount of time you actually spend playing music on stage is about 2% of the total time on tour- it’s the other 98% that people don’t think about.

Helene: What kind of people do you dislike, musically?
Preston: When I was younger I probably could have given you a laundry list for this one. If you would have caught me in a grumpier mood maybe I’d have an answer for this one haha. But honestly, while I don’t care for a lot of music that I hear, I can’t really be moved to dislike someone because of it- I kind of just filter it out and move on. There’s no accounting for taste.

Helene: Who would you say has had a major influence on your music career?
Preston: There have been so many influences on me musically throughout my life. The synagogue music I heard and sang along with as a young child, my childhood piano teacher, my parents’ support, my brother’s friendship, the punk rock and hip hop I listened to as a teen are all my formative music influences. Later, people like John Coltrane, Gyorgy Ligeti, Keith Hudson, Brian Wilson, John Lydon, Daphne Oram, and so many more have influenced me not only by their music but by the way they approached it and dedicated themselves.

Helene: Career wise, where do you see your music going?
Preston: I’d like to continue to make great records and see my music grow. I’m always open to collaborating with more like-minded partners. One thing I’d like to improve upon is to have a greater live presence- playing more festivals, tours, and shows overseas. I think playing live is one of the most rewarding experiences in being a musician and I’ve felt a little lopsided on the studio side of things for the past few years. But I’m pretty happy with how things are moving along with my music these days.

To find out more information about the wonderfully talented Preston Swirnoff, or to stay up to date with his many projects, please visit these websites:

www.myspace.com/prestonswirnoff

www.prestonswirnoff.com
www.myspace.com/habitatsoundsystem