Your band Mascara Monsters - what can you tell us about your lineup,
and how would you describe
your sound?
It's me and my life/business/music partner, Brandon. I would describe it as
Electronic Love Punk. With your movies Home
Made Monster and ScUMBAG:
The Musical, you have already made two (rather unusual) musicals.
What made you take the next step and form a band?
We had a blast working with the musicians and sound designers on those
projects. But it can be harder to describe and invoke your vision to
someone else than to do it yourself. Since we are control freaks when it
comes to our work we wanted to be able to control that aspect of the
movie making process as well. So I took it upon myself to learn the
music/sound software so that we could start doing the music ourselves.
We've both always loved and found great joy in listing to music and
tried to incorporate as much as possible in our films. We'd both been in
bands before but always felt drowned out during the creative process. We
wanted to know the feeling of making music in full control.
Also to experience the combination of music and film is almost drug
like. And we like that.
How do
you see Mascara Monsters develop, soundwise? Well, I
haven't really analyzed it all that much. We haven't been doing it for
very long. I would say that the learning process is shaping the sound
right now. When I learn a new tool I'll go a little nuts with it. While
some of the songs are dark and come from somewhere serious others are
light and just pure fun. Depends on my perception of the tool.
Have
you yet played your stuff live on stage or do you plan to, and what's your
show (going to be) like?
We have not done a live show yet.
Though we seem to be getting a lot of requests. We've only been at this
for a little over a month. And I don't think we even have enough material
to play a whole set. But when the time feels right we'll be up there. I envision something performance art-like with a dash of the old girl group
feel of the 60's. You know, standing at the microphone stand with
synchronized hand movements. Flashy gold outfits maybe. Something to
assault the eye balls. Since we are such visual people, we'll have to
incorporate our love of film somehow too of course. Your videoclip to your song Sex
is quite, shall we say, provocative. Would you like to talk about that one
for a bit, and what were your inspirations?
Well, there are
a lot of inspirations. Mostly rock and roll and sex. A build up of our
lives. We do tend to shy away a bit from talking about what our art
"means". As with all things art is a reflection of the observer.
We are afraid if we say what it means to us that will affect the meaning
for someone else. It even means something different to me than it does to
Brandon, and we worked on it together. This isn't meant to be snobby but
we sincerely want people to learn something about themselves from
listening to our music or watching our films, and if we talk about what it
means we are afraid that won't happen and our work will be in vain. Sex
the videoclip was shot in 3D. Why, and what sort of a challenge was that
for you as filmmakers? We did it in 3D because we wanted to
learn about 3D. The challenge came about when choosing angles and distance
from the subject. 3D can be limiting in those aspects, you want the 3D to
be cool looking and obvious but not so extreme that it hurts the eyes.
Future plans for Mascara
Monsters?
Right now there are no plans but to learn and
make as much music for us, for our films and for those that are enjoying
it. Some of your key musical influences? Number
one influence in all of our art work and both our lives even before we met
is The Cramps. They did music on their own terms and made no apologies for
that. More recently we discovered the Rap Rave group Die Antwoord. Again a
couple that sees things from a different perspective and has redefined a
genre by living by their own definitions. Producing
music vs producing movies: What are the key similarities and differences
(which might be a stupid question), and do you see any overlap? Producing
music is a lot more solitary vs movies is great collaboration and a fun
group project. Movies are also a longer creative process, where music is
almost instant gratification because you can work at your own pace. They
both have technical and mental challenges that we love taking on. Speaking
of movies: Any new films planned from ScUMBAG
Movies in the forseeable future?
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Of course, we've
always got something going on. The current film we are working on is
titled Nazi Alien Time Travelers. And the Mascara Monsters are going to be
incorporated into the film as well. We are about half way through with the
filming process and hope to have the film done in the next four or five
months. And we also have some animated shorts coming up after that, which
you'll be able to catch the first glimpse of in Nazi Alien Time
Travelers. Your/your
band's website, Facebook, whatever else?
https://www.facebook.com/MascaraMonsters
http://twitter.com/#!/mascaramonsters
http://soundcloud.com/mascaramonsters
http://mascara-monsters.tumblr.com/
http://vimeo.com/mascaramonsters
mascaramonsters@mascaramonsters.com
Anything else
you are dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
We would like everyone to know that Mascara Monsters is a free music
project. Downloads are free on our Soundcloud page. We also give away
CDs, T-shirts and other goodies on all of the above pages often.
Also we ♥ you all.
Thanks
for the interview!
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