elijah wells

I'm at syd's right now. it's 11:34pm, they leave tomorrow for a work trip.

I met elijah four years ago.

wells was a band with elijah and hayden (their brother). I was doing a lot of freelance show coverage for sleezehog, trash mag, junior high, and whoever else had a gig that needed photos. somehow my name made it to elijah and I got hit up to shoot one of their shows. that first irl meeting was at kiss kiss bang bang. we'd see each other again a month later when wells played breakroom 86.

we wouldn't see each other much at all or work together after 2022.

those early "post-pandemic" years really were a time to rediscover who we were, find our motivations, explore different ideas. it made sense to not really come across the same people you knew in the past in those new years. my closest friends at that time were nat and sara. I'd see them often, but usually in relation to the shows they'd book. when they retired from those independent endeavors, we got busied up.

I have no idea what elijah was up to in that four year gap. I knew them then, I know them now. I'll never know all the people they were in between. versions of them people loved, people dissed, people created with, people cried with, people partied with, people got to see grow...

this is the life we have now. we are right now. and we will be.

in the gaps, I'd see elijah pop up. kyla would post and comment. I'd see credits for them being involved in either photo, video, or being in the live band of some artist. I wish I could remember when elijah and I got to loop back around into each other's lives. I think it was at the hysteria57 show (technically the 3rd annual mud wrestling show hosted by cobrasnake but who cares). I just finished taking photos of dakota on that stage and elijah was there with a few friends towards the back like wallflowers. it was nice seeing everyone. we made the tentative plans to do a session together, and we finally did.

oh fuck I just remembered that I saw elijah earlier. it was the day after I did the first half of my session with dakota.

I went to go see dylan thom play at some cafe/bookstore the day after seeing him play an acoustic set in el sereno. on stage was elijah on drums, running a sampling machine and handling other shit I'm not inclined enough to know about. I don't think I stuck around to talk, I had to go meet up with luna a few blocks down and I'd eventually splinter off to visit vicky for her last noise set as beauty supply.

then later in the month, that's when I saw elijah at the show and we both got to shower each other with little compliments. a sweet little reunion.