Raney and her collaborator Loreal Reyes have been part of the Dallas concert photography scene for several years, attending hundreds of concerts combined and photographing artists such as Taylor Swift, Twenty One Pilots and The 1975.
With Backing the Barricade, which launched in October 2023, they’re turning their cameras away from the stage and toward the people whom they feel deserve more love: the fans.
Most of Backing the Barricade’s content is created in-line at concerts. Raney and Reyes will walk up and down the line, interviewing and photographing the fans they meet, and the best stories they find are shared online. It’s a fairly simple format, but it's a dream project Raney had been thinking about for a long time.
“When you're waiting in line, waiting for doors to open at a venue or just waiting in between acts, you kind of get to know the people around you,” Raney says. “Over the years, I’ve heard so many cool stories about people meeting their spouses or meeting their best friend or traveling across the country or to a different country to see their favorite artists. ... Concert culture has been a big part of their lives, and I really wanted an outlet for those stories to be told.”
Raney and Reyes came to know each other through the concert photography scene. When they started meeting up outside of work, it didn’t take long for Reyes to latch onto Raney's vision.
“The first day we hung out officially we went for coffee, and she told me the whole idea that she had and I was like, ‘Oh, OK. So we're doing it,’” Reyes says.
That’s when they bought that plane ticket to Miami to cover their first show as a team: The 1975 at the Kaseya Center.
“We're both big 1975 fans, and we thought that felt like the perfect show to start with,” Reyes says. “Their fan base is obviously so hardcore and dedicated.”
The photos and videos from this show reflect that dedication and largely center on fans with themed tattoos. One fan had “Give yourself a try,” a reference to one of the band’s songs, tattooed on her arm in lead singer Matty Healy’s handwriting.
“I really wanted it in his handwriting because it meant a lot to me,” this fan told Raney and Reyes. “So I’m scrolling on TikTok and then randomly this girl is like ‘I met Matty.' He wrote out ‘Give yourself a try.’ And then she put it out so anyone can get it done.”
That kind of story, in which fan communities uplift and look out for each other, is what Raney and Reyes have been traveling around the country looking for ever since.
“We were interviewing fans of Queen in Dallas, and we met this woman named Eve,” Raney says. “She was there with her daughter, her granddaughter and her great-granddaughter. [...] That was the first time she was actually seeing them live.”
Reyes had a similarly sweet encounter with a fan at a Bleachers show.
“We're talking to her and then she's like, ‘Oh, yeah, this is my 70th show,’” Reyes says. “She takes out her phone and she has a list of stuff from the very first show she went to in 2015 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It was just, like, one through 70 all of the states she's traveled to and two different countries.”
Reyes and Raney lament the culture at certain shows these days, saying that too many concertgoers care more about getting the perfect video or having their “main character moment” than having a shared experience with fellow fans. Backing the Barricade is about not just highlighting individuals, but keeping the sense of community alive.
Raney has countless memories of feeling that connection with a room full of strangers.
“One of my favorite bands in the entire world is Twenty One Pilots, and I got to go to one of their small album release shows, which is just such a cool environment,” she says. “The person to my right was seeing them for the 12th time and had stories for days. Another person to my left was seeing them for the first time so we were all just geeking out for her. ... We were like, ‘Can you see? Do you need to switch? Are you having fun?’
“It’s that camaraderie and, like, everyone looking out for each other that makes it so special."
As both professionals in the music industry and lifelong fans, Raney and Reyes are also interested in stories that mimic their own, of fans who took their love of music to the next level. That’s where their upcoming podcast Beyond the Barricade comes in.
They’ve only teased it on their social media up to this point, but were eager to fill us in on the details.
“This is the tea!” Reyes laughs. “This is the most we've talked about it so far.”
The idea for Beyond the Barricade grew from a desire to incorporate artists into their coverage while still keeping the stories fandom-centered.
“People in bands were fans of music first. That's why they are in a band,” Reyes says. “We’re going to sit down with not only bands but people in the music industry and really talk to them about their experiences as fans and how that connection put them into the position where they're doing it full time now.”
Backing the Barricade has covered fandoms ranging from pop-punk to classic rock, but it's always down to meet new people and hear new music.
“If there's a huge fan base that we're just not aware of, we want to know about it,” Reyes says. “We want to be accessible to everyone. Everyone can reach out to talk to us. It’s just two girls behind this, you know.”
Backing the Barricade’s content can be found on its website and Instagram. The Beyond the Barricade podcast will premiere on July 8.
