What Artists Brandish: Amanda Machon’s Cough Drops

ByClarke Condé 28/10/201524/10/2026

Amanda Machon by Clarke Condé – Pyragraph

Welcome to another installment of Brandish, a Pyragraphic portrait series featuring artists of all energies along with the unsung tools that they brandish—those tools without which the artists would not be able to do their specific batches of creativity.

“It’s my little friend, the cough drop. It gives me a little love before and after the show. I’ll do my warm-up and then I’ll throw a cough drop in and chill before we start, and when we’re done I put one in just to kind of sooth everything. I’d have a hard time living without it.”

—Amanda Machon | Lead Vocalist of Red Light Cameras

Clarke Condé

Clarke Condé is a photographer, New York expatriate, and Pyragraph’s Managing Editor (though not necessarily in that order). He has held high positions at lowly publications in New York, but has settled in Albuquerque, New Mexico to live the simple life of a food and folk photographer. His hobbies include washing dishes, rewashing dishes and throwing out perfectly good food. You can see more of his work at his website or in his latest book, Work in Rochester.