CALUM MCMILLAN

1. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions! In addition to focusing on the artists themselves, one of my goals for this site is to also profile the people around the artists, so to speak, who are so integral to the music industry. Would you please introduce yourself for the reader—where you’re from and what you do in broad strokes?

So I’m Calum McMillan. I’m a photographer and cinematographer working with a bunch of artists, mostly in the alternative/heavy music scene around Scotland. I’m also part of the organising team for Damnation Festival where I lead the media team, do all the video content, graphics and a bunch of digital marketing stuff.

2. Being a music site, we are largely going to stay there as our home base, but what are some of the projects or shoots outside that world you’re most proud of?

So my day job is working as in-house photo/video production for a creative agency and there I’ve done a load of stuff from tourism campaigns, rebrands, corporate films, event coverage, food & drinks photography, Christmas films and loads more. I’m quite proud of the versatility of my work and the fact I’ve been able to turn my hands to loads of things.

The biggest name drop I have though is working for Time Magazine doing event coverage when COP was in Glasgow a few years back. Wasn’t a huge deal for me, but it definitely made some of my family and friends really take notice of what I was doing.

3. Can you walk us through your career to date? How did you get started? What brought you to this point?

It’s less than linear, but I don’t think that’s very uncommon for any professional creative. I went to university to study Philosophy, and while I was at Uni towards the end of my third year I had a bit of a rough patch mental health wise and took some time out. While I was doing that I started to get really involved in writing a blog about the local Glasgow music scene, and also going to shows and taking pictures of those shows. It became a pretty intense passion and time sink for me, all my money from my part time job went on trains to shows and new camera kit.

Luckily, I was privileged enough to be able to live at home with incredibly supportive parents which allowed me to pursue these passions any moment I wasn’t studying or at work in Tesco.

From there, I graduated from my undergrad, no idea what I wanted to do and after a bit of an aborted attempt in the corporate world at Tesco, I went back to Uni to do a Masters in Digital Journalism to put all the photo/video, writing and digital skills from being so involved in making stuff online about music into an actual career.

The masters was great, I met a lot of amazing people and we won a load of awards for our class project. From there, it was a mix of freelancing and more fruitless job applications than I could count until I got my first part time comms/content role and then after a role at a start-up I was made redundant from I landed my current job.

Largely in part to still dumping almost every spare second I had into getting better at photography, video and how websites and social media worked. The combination that worked from me was the mindset, time management and ability to collaborate that comes from going to Uni combined with the dedication to getting better at my craft outside of that really helped me turn being creative into a career.

To this day, my life is still a mix of my professional day job projects and my passion projects on the side. The latter are now larger and there’s less of time, but it’s still a big part of what I do.

4. In the world of alternative and heavy music, who are some of the major artists and industry figures you’ve captured on film and/or video? Are there any experiences that stand out in particular?

The biggest name drop here is probably Sleep Token. I used to do photo/video coverage for them in Glasgow until they went stratospheric. They were a great client and I really enjoyed getting to work with them so early on and document their progression from a not sold-out, small room in a converted church into arenas.

Other than Sleep Token, I used to do a lot of work with The Downbeat on the clothing side of things before Craig moved to America and my biggest name ongoing gig is being part of the team for Damnation Festival since 2022 with 2025 making my first year as part of the organising team as well as media.

But I’m proud of a load of my projects that aren’t the big names. I really love getting to collaborate a lot over time with artists and be trusted to be a part of how they show themselves to the world. I’ve worked with Scottish artists from soul to death metal over the years and I’m really proud that my work is seen as so versatile it trascends a certain scene.

But if we’re looking for just a big name drop here’s a few artists I’ve done direct work which are all amazing to me: Better Lovers, Deafheaven, Alyx Holcombe, While She Sleeps, Vlure, Karnivool, Salem, Dead Pony, Ashenspire, Frontierer, Lift, Godeater, Crashes, Becky Sikasa, Blood Command, Tiberius, Half Formed Things, DVNE, Mason Hill and loads and loads more.

5. Full transparency I know next to nothing about this, but I am positive there will be readers who want to know: for the “gearheads” out there, what does your kit look like?

So my main kit I try and keep it pretty compact. I don’t need bags and bags and stuff. I want as versatile a set up as I can get that is as small as possible. So my bag is essentially just:

Canon R5C

Canon 24-105 2.8

Canon 85mm F2 Macro

Canon 16mm 2.8
A lot of batteries

A few very cheap lens FX filters
Rode Video Mic & Wireless Go ii kit
A really well used on the verge of death Zhyiun Gimbal

3x Aputure MCs

There’s obviously more kit like larger bits of lighting and stuff for projects that need it but as far as my bag for doing most music related things go that’s it. One camera, a few lenses and a couple of key accessories and that’ll cover me in tiny clubs and arenas alike.

6. How and when did your love affair with music start and who were some of your foundational influences?

I must have been around 14 and my dad was big into music, albeit not much of the same music as I am, and he had some sampler CD with a magazine he bought that had a Motorhead track on it and soon as I heard that I was hooked on that.

So it went Motorhead to more obvious big names like Metallica & Iron Maiden to then the more modern end of metal like Pantera as my big initial loves but around 16 I found Killswitch Engage, and it was really the hardcore element of that really, really got to me. The older I got the more I wanted that end of things and less of the traditionally metallic stuff. Sikth were also a huge influence in driving me into the arms of music that was extreme in terms of musicianship and melding genres together.

Around 18 or so I came a little out of the bubble a lot of teenagers are where they only like one thing and I really embraced a lot of the late 00’s pop music that was about as well as stuff like Aphex Twin and that more ambient side of electronic and as I got older again, it became a lot of more just about stuff was adventurous and interesting whether it was heavy music or pop music.

To give a bit of an example as to where my tastes lie now, my favourite artists are Nine Inch Nails, The Cure, Tom Waits, Dillinger Escape Plan, Charli XCX, Converge, Chelsea Wolfe, Deftones, Deafheaven, Enter Shikari, Everything Everything. Radiohead and Refused.

7. What’s some practical advice you have for anyone looking to get into photography and/or cinematography as a career path?

You just have to keep doing it. The only way you get better and you get seen more is to keep on doing it. I know loads of people who studied it, did just the course work and then didn't immediately get a job so stopped making stuff. The way you prove yourself is by doing it.

Gear matters a little, but not as much as you think. Make with what you have until the limitations are too much for what you know you could achieve and then buy the best stuff you can that fixes that problem. Run that all into the ground until you hit new limitations that you cannot overcome without the new kit, sell the old kit, buy the new kit. Don’t be sentimental or envious about tools.

Crucially though, even more important than being good is being good to work with. No one cares how talented you are if working with you is a real slog. Loads of people are better than me, but I think I am good to work with and the amount of repeat clients I have speaks for itself in that regard.

Also, don’t gatekeep or try and undercut anyone. We’re all in this together and a high tide raises all ships.

8. As some who writes, teaches writing, and is deeply immersed in the arts I have numerous philosophical objections to the encroachment of AI in what are fundamentally expressions of what it is to be human. I don’t want to grandstand here, but I do feel like I need to ask: what is your stance on AI?

My main take on AI is this: the generative photo/video/written stuff is a tool specifically being designed to give the wealthy access to skill without giving the skill access to wealth and anyone who doesn’t see that is kidding themselves.

I’m sceptical how good it will ever become, how widely it'll be adopted and how cost effective it will be when the tech companies inevitably start charging the rates required to offset the investment in computing and energy mass AI adoption requires. And I’m also sceptical how many people want things that aren’t made by people. I don’t think it’s as many as the big tech oligarchs are trying to convince it is.

Plus anyone who uses it is well aware how temperamental and unreliable it can be.

That being said, I am all for technology that improves our workflows and saves us from tedious tasks. So I absolutely utilize it for object removal in photos or help masking subjects or transcribing audio to get me further, quicker. And I think anyone should do stuff like that, no amount of AI workflows enhancement will make a photo or video that isn’t good any better, but it will help someone who is skilled make it better.

9.  Last question: if you were stranded on a desert island by yourself and could only have five albums with you to listen to, what would they be and why?

It’s a tough one, and I’m not sure it would ever truly satisfy my desire to have all sorts of music all the time but probably

Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth

Tom Waits - Small Change

Deftones - White Pony

Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92

Dillinger Escape Plan - Miss Machine