It Takes Two: The Travels of @rambo and Soul Singer...

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It Takes Two: The Travels of @rambo and Soul Singer @leonbridgesofficial

To see more of Leon and Rambo’s adventures from the road, follow @ leonbridgesofficial and @rambo on Instagram. For more music stories, check out @music on Instagram.

Was there a point where your creative partnership turned into a lasting friendship?

Erin Rambo: I think it was instant.

Leon Bridges: Yeah, from day one.

*******

Some connections just fall into place. Rambo (@rambo) took classic black-and-white portraits. Leon Bridges (@leonbridgesofficial) sang soul music and had a vintage sense of fashion. Their story begins in 2014, after Rambo sees Leon in concert for the first time. Still new to photography, she decides to send him an unsolicited message after the show, asking if she can take his picture. Leon accepts.

They would eventually meet face-to-face, on a rainy day in Fort Worth, Texas. The first photo they worked on was taken on her porch, with Leon in silhouette, holding a guitar. Talk soon turned to mutual interests, of which they had many. They both ate Chipotle, both watched cartoons and both liked listening to music. They were friends before the day was out.

A year later, the pair found themselves on the road in Nashville, taking photos inside the expansive turn of the century Union Station Hotel. A lot has changed in both Leon and Rambo’s lives since their first meeting. Leon, now signed to Columbia Records, has been crowned “The Next Big Thing” by almost every major music publication. Rambo, too, now works for the label, traveling on the road with her best friend to collaborate on photos.

At the hotel, they set their sights on a winding staircase.

“So walk down to that level?” asks Leon.

“Probably just that one,” replies Rambo, pointing one story higher. “Anything lower than that and you’re just going to look like a person. Also their rug is crooked. I wonder if they know.”

“Oh wow,” he says, before pretending to jump off the balcony. Rambo laughs. She’s afraid of heights and holds onto the bannister, snapping a few rounds of pictures, then huddling with Leon to discuss the details.

“Oh man, that’s awesome,” he says, pointing at one of the images.

“I love that,” she says. “I actually like that one too.”

“We’re always talking,” she adds later on, about how they approach their often-impromptu photo shoots. “And that’s been the cool thing creatively. He still has a vision.”

When labels first began courting Leon, the discussion would inevitably turn to his look: Was it just for show? Did he actually own all those outfits? And who was taking those beautiful photos of him?

“It was crazy because in the meetings, that’s all they talked about,” he says.

Those tailored suits and shiny shoes were one of the main reasons Rambo reached out to him in the first place. She was tired of using her friends as models and styling them herself. With Leon, she wouldn’t have to touch him. He looked like he stepped off the cover of a Motown record –– ironic, considering the complaints he hears now about his look, it being some carefully crafted brand awareness scheme by his record company.

“My style is not something I put on at shows,” he says. “It’s a lifestyle. When I am at a show, same thing. When I am at the laundromat, same thing.”

Fashion aside, getting Leon signed was the primary goal. But the singer also wanted Rambo to have a home too.

“It was awesome because he totally went to bat for me,” she says. “He could have been like, ‘Yeah, thanks, it’s been fun.’ But instead he was like, ‘Every image you see, it’s Rambo, it’s Rambo, it’s Rambo.’ Now I am here, and it’s cool because I – just to be cheesy – I like representing him. I love his music. I hear it every night. Still not sick of it. I like the man that he is. I like the music that he makes. I like the meaning behind it. Everything about this has been one of the weirdest relationships I have ever been in, but one of the better friendships I’ve ever had.”

**

Later on, when the sun begins to set over Nashville, a few hundred people make their way toward 3rd and Lindsley, a bar and grill located on the south side of the city, where Leon and his band are set to headline. The night before, they opened for Lord Huron at the historic Ryman Auditorium and got a standing ovation. The venue tonight is a bit looser and low-key –– people are sitting around eating chicken wings and chatting with friends. Rambo is in the back an hour before showtime, standing by the merch table, greeting fans, who give her compliments on her photos of Leon.

The 29-year-old is new to photography and has no formal training, which is surprising considering the skillful touch she brings to her work. Before taking pictures, she was a neuromuscular massage therapist. Her decision to switch careers came out of difficult circumstances.

“I was running two years ago and someone attacked me,” she says. “It’s just one of those things where I didn’t know how to talk about it and nobody knew what to do for me, so I picked up a camera.”

Rambo sometimes wishes she had the instincts of a professional photographer, but not enough to question the work she produces now, which she’s both comfortable and confident with –– particularly the stuff she does with Leon. It not only speaks to her sensibilities, it speaks to his.

“A lot of people are like, well it’s his music and your photos,” she says. “But some of it is our photos, because we have such a similar vision and because he is such a part of the process with me. We go take photos. That’s how we grow our friendship, that’s how we connect.”

Now here they are, two friends and collaborators, going from town to town, sharing their art with the world. They balance each other perfectly –– Rambo, the outgoing, rambunctious photographer; Leon, the quiet though powerful front man. They’ve been winning over crowds on every stop along the way, and tonight’s show is no different. By the time Leon hits the stage, the audience is hanging on every smooth note, every emotional lyric, every vocal inflection. Rambo watches from the back. She’s not taking photos tonight –– there will be plenty of time for that, particularly when you spend every day with a singer who understands and grasps the power pictures have in the first place.

“We haven’t seen an artist appreciate photography in a really long time, which is cool because there is a whole market of people like me,” said Rambo, earlier in the day.

“And it’s cool for me,” added Leon. “I couldn’t do this music thing without her.”

–– Instagram @music

by via Instagram Blog