‘smallsongs’ is a youtube series brought to you by Americana Highways with small & stripped down performances on the streets of different cities around the world, featuring musical acts at their rawest.
August 2019, I made my first feature film in Denton, Texas in a week with a small cast & crew. We shot under the hot sun on a tight budget. The indiegogo funded movie is called ‘nosebleeders.’ More than a year later, after a pandemic and multiple film festivals, it’ll have a virtual premiere on April 24th.
The journey leading up to both ‘nosebleeders’ and ‘smallsongs’ started with a song. It’s called “Pretty Purple Top Hat” by Matthew & The Arrogant Sea off their 2008 cult classic album “Family Family Family Meets the Magic Christian.” It was my favorite song growing up, and it helped to navigate my sensibilities and my dreams.
In film school at the Academy of Art University I made a short film called ‘my phantom limb’ that featured my favorite song “Pretty Purple Top Hat.” I had reached out to Matthew Gray of Matthew & The Arrogant Sea via facebook and felt truly honored that he let me use it.
https://vimeo.com/221685939/description
That initial point of contact made way for a creative collaboration and a friendship between Mathew, me and the band. Together we’ve made multiple music videos & a short film titled “A bump on the head in three parts.”
I had creative freedom with these music videos, but all the logistics and planning and follow through that needs to take place for these projects to work led to some frustration. That’s where the idea for ‘smallsongs’ came as it was a more free & spontaneous creative outlet. I even ended up doing a small song while on set of the movie ‘nosebleeders’ which was shot by Tanner Tovar.
But Matthew and I were talking the whole time about our most ambitious idea yet. We had long conversations about the early days of Matthew & The Arrogant Sea. ‘nosebleeders’ is the true story of an aspiring musician that encounters an otherworldly presence while recording an album with his band, and then inconspicuously every other aspect of his life begins to fall apart. Rather than giving too much away, you can watch the trailer here and then get ready to watch the full thing soon!
Become a ‘smallsongs’ patron at:
http://www.patreon.com/smallsongs
For more Matthew & The Arrogant Sea go to:
www.makeamericaweirdagain.com