February 2017

Artist/Band: Love & Chaos

Members: AJ Vallejo / Kendall Beard

Website: www.loveandchaosmusic.com

Hometown: Austin, TX

Latest Album/Release: Love & Chaos EP

Influences: Fleetwood Mac, Civil Wars, Grace Potter

TrunkSpace: How would you describe your music?
Beard: Rock/roots Americana

TrunkSpace: How does the songwriter aspect of what you do work in terms of the mathematics of it? In that we mean, you’re a duo who shares vocals and musical duties… do you also share the songwriting, both musically and in the lyrics?
Vallejo: It varies from song to song. Sometimes Kendall will come up w/ a cool song concept & other times I will. Most of the time lately we’ve been more effective writing in the studio together bouncing ideas off of each other and come with something really strong. Our standards for what we’re looking for in a Love & Chaos song seems to constantly progress so we’re always pushing each other harder when we write.

TrunkSpace: In a band atmosphere there tends to be a democracy where everything is put to a vote. How do big decisions, creatively and professionally, work in a duo where two different opinions essentially wash each other out?
Vallejo: We’ve been working together so long & have such a similar vision of where things go musically with this project, so we usually communicate pretty thoroughly about whatever subject/issue comes up. We’ve butted heads a couple times ha, but so far the work process we have works well.
Beard: We’re constantly pushing each other not to settle for something that is just “Okay”. When you are writing alone, often it’s easy to settle for lyrics that are good. We push each other not to settle. Two heads are better than one and we work to make our songs the best they can be.

TrunkSpace: How did you two come together musically?
Beard: A mutual friend introduced us and AJ ended up producing my ‘All Around Girl’ album, then played guitar in my live band. We started pretty much working together around the clock musically. As far as our sound, it’s probably a combination of singing together for so many years, as well as our natural tone that we have together, that make our sound and harmonies uniquely blend.

TrunkSpace: We’ve heard that you two are very prolific together when it comes to songwriting. Is it true that you wrote 17 songs together in the span of two months?
Vallejo: Ha, yeah, a label buddy of ours saw us perform at a venue one night separately. We ended the night duetting on a handful of songs. After the show he was like “Your acts are both great, but something magical happens when you two sing together & perform onstage, you two should maybe capitalize on that..” We were both like “Does that mean he thinks we suck separately??” haha! We came back from the holidays that year and started cranking out all kinds of songs together in my studio. I suppose he was right. We’re somewhere around up to 50 songs at the moment.

TrunkSpace: Does that breakneck pace you achieved in that span put pressure on you two to do that every time you sit down to write now?
Beard: Yes and no. We’re artists. Creating and writing is what we love to do and we would do that all day-every day if we could. We actually often have to stop ourselves and take a step back and say, “Okay, we need to work on the business side of our music. Or, we really need to go back in the studio and perfect some of our songs before we move onto the next.” Id say the hardest part is trying to keep all sides of our music, performing, and artistry moving forward simultaneously. We’re always working towards that perfect balance.

TrunkSpace: Your lyrics are poignant and relatable, often times in a way that seem to transcend any particular demographic of your listening audience. How important is it to you that your music is as inclusive and relatable to as many people as possible, and in addition to that, do you ever scrap a song because it may be too narrowly focused?
Vallejo: Hmmm..that’s a good question. We pretty much write about our personal life experiences, some brutally honest, others more tongue-in-cheek. I think that, in itself, is very relatable to our listeners. We want them to hear a song and maybe relate to it personally or think of someone they know that it reminds them of. We’re hoping it’s thought-provoking enough so that maybe emotionally they get something out of the song. As far as a reason for scrapping anything, if we think it sucks, we scrap it! haha

TrunkSpace: Do you ever think about turning your songs over to other artists and writing in that sort of classic Nashville songwriter role
Vallejo: Yeah, we talk about it a lot, and would definitely entertain it, we’re just focusing right now on writing better songs and getting our live show as strong as possible. Austin is a very competitive city. If you wanna stand out here, you really have to be firing on all cylinders to make a splash here.

TrunkSpace: For Kendall, how much of your experience on “American Idol” has played into how you’ve approached your musical career since?
Beard: “American Idol” was a great platform for me at the time to get my musical career off the ground. However, the show was on for so many seasons that most people don’t really even remember who was on what season and when. I think it gave me a little bit of leverage and a solid national following for about a year or so, but after that, it was all up to me to keep building my fan base and music. It was a great experience but there have been so many music reality shows that I think people have grown a bit numb to them.

TrunkSpace: Has their been a conscious attempt to distance yourself from the show and build your music career on the music itself as opposed to the attention the show brought?
Beard: The first year after the show was the most challenging as far as getting people to accept me for the type of artist I really was, versus the artist they made me out to be on the show. I was really branded as the “young bubblegum country singer from Texas.” Not that that was a bad thing, but it wasn’t really who I was. There was a lot more depth to me as an artist and a person and that’s what I really struggled with trying to make people see. Like I said before, music shows are a dime a dozen now, so I felt over time, the association faded on its own.  

TrunkSpace: For AJ, what was it like to go from guitarist to the more front and center role you’re in now as part of Love & Chaos? Was being more of a front man something you preferred and or anticipated in terms of your musical path?
Vallejo: I’ve actually been performing as a front man/guitarist for my band w/ my brothers, Vallejo for many years now. If anything, sharing the center role w/ someone else is actually new to me, but very challenging because balance is important in a successful duo. We definitely have a competitive attitude on lighting up the stage when we perform but it never feels to me like one is trying to upstage the other. I don’t know, ha, we just get up there and do our thing. Working together for close to a decade now has almost become second nature. We both have the same agenda for what we need to do with this project.

TrunkSpace: What can fans expect from Love & Chaos in 2017?
Beard: A lot of new music, more live shows, and of course more love and more chaos!

Chilling Out
Daniel Truly

Chilling Out is where TrunkSpace talks all things horror and genre with those who work on the projects that give us the thrills and chills to keep coming back for more. This time out we’re chatting with Daniel Truly, a television writer and producer who has filled his resume with impressive runs on successful series like “Law & Order: SVU” and “Blue Bloods,” but as a horror/science fiction lover at heart, he revels in the opportunity to work on projects that make his 12-year-old self smile… like when he served as writer and supervising producer on “Blade: The Series.”

TrunkSpace: You’ve been working regularly in television for a number of years now and have had your hand in quite a few massive hits. In your experience, what’s the key to finding an audience in this sort of scattered, short-attention-span age? Is there a magic formula?
Truly: I think there are two answers to this. One, personally, I feel like the idea for a show has to be singular enough and easily identified enough just to be able to get it through the noise of our current super-fragmented culture. The second version is, studios and networks need something… they need a clear idea, but they need something they can hang the marketing of it all on. That’s why so many things get rebooted, simply because people want… they just rebooted “One Day at a Time” on Netflix. And, for some reason, “One Day at a Time,” the old Bonnie Franklin show, has persisted in cultural memory in a way that you instantly know what that show is as opposed to a show called “Blended,” where you don’t know if it’s a show about a blended family or a guy that’s selling blenders on infomercials. So, when I’m writing, you always want to try and boil the idea down. How can you tell it to yourself over and over in a way that you instantly know what the show is, and in addition to that, you kind of need something that… on every network, before they choose shows, they run these shows by the marketing departments so that marketing can come up with a strategy about how to break through the amount of culture clutter and teach an audience what your show is.

TrunkSpace: So, as you’re looking at new projects for yourself, if you find something that is really unique and interesting, do you also have to look at what is the familiar theme or concept? Do you have to think like the marketing department? You hear all the time about studios wanting unique ideas, but at the same time, mostly you see regurgitated ideas getting made these days.
Truly: Well, part of that is caused by an odd thing that the networks do. People in network development, and this is the job and I don’t envy them because it’s difficult, but in development they get hundreds of pitches every pitch season and they read hundreds of scripts, so they’re very kind of… not jaded, but they have seen a lot. It takes a lot to catch their attention. So, they will make a pilot that is very, very interesting, like a couple of years ago… I think it was on CBS or NBC… there was a show called “Hostages” where the president’s family is taken hostage and it was a riveting pilot and a riveting idea. The network goes, “We know how to sell this show!” So, they develop it, they shoot the pilot, they give it notes, and when it gets picked up for series it has been passed to the current team, so the development people then go back to developing new shows and executives in current have to make that show into a… let’s just say a 10 year hit. They then discover, I believe… and the audience discovers… is that how do you keep a show at that level of tension? How do you keep the president’s family kidnapped for 10 seasons? Obviously you can’t, but how do you keep delivering stuff on that idea, and that’s where the disconnect is. The things that get bought are the big, shiny, unique objects and if you want a show… I was lucky enough to be on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” for three seasons and I just finished four seasons on “Blue Bloods.” “SVU” is, I think, in it’s 18^th season and “Blue Bloods” is in its 7^th.

TrunkSpace: And those are both procedurals, which seems better suited for a prolonged series with staying power. 
Truly: One hour… kind of close-ended shows… work well in perpetuity because you don’t really need to know what happened the week before and you come in and there’s a case. What makes a big, long, hit show is not necessarily what makes an exciting pilot. Every year you see a lot of exciting pilots and then you ask yourself, “What is episode 3?” Or, “What is SEASON 3 of this?” So, I tend to do procedurals. I tend not to do super, intricate serialized shows, just because I can’t keep up with that stuff. I try to keep in mind what I’m good at.

TrunkSpace: And it seems like networks sort of own the procedural space as cable continues to focus its attention elsewhere.
Truly: Yes. When I was out pitching pilots this past fall, what I kept hearing was that the networks were finally deciding that they weren’t going to really try with what cable does. They wanted billion dollar, SVU-like shows that they could syndicate and have dynasties with. Because, for a long time, especially when cable really ramped up over the last 15 years, all of the development executives… that’s where the excitement was. A show like “SVU” or “NCIS” are not critically-loved shows. The critically-loved shows are “Breaking Bad” and “The Sopranos.” Every development executive and every writer… you want to be involved with exciting stuff, so for the longest time, the networks tried to do what cable does and yet they were limited because they can’t do sex and violence. They can’t do language. They can’t really get as gritty as cable can get. And also, from a corporate level, the corporate overlords are asking for very, very successful, long-running shows. I mean, Les Moonves who runs CBS and Viacom and all the rest of it… he has very publicly said that he doesn’t care about Emmys. He wants very successful shows that please the shareholders of those companies. A lot of people are like, “Well that’s horseshit!” But you know what, that’s nothing to sneeze at! That is as difficult as making a very kind of creatively exciting cable show.

TrunkSpace: What was it that hooked you to look at Hollywood as a career?
Truly: When I was 12 I saw “Jaws” and it changed my entire existence. That movie blew my mind and I said, “I’m going to go to Hollywood and do whatever that was.” I really didn’t even know what job that was going to be.

TrunkSpace: You just knew that you wanted to be a part of it.
Truly: I wanted to be a part of that thing because it was just incredibly exciting that this could be something that… it’s like you want to go on that roller coaster again. And then you find out, you come out to the business and you find out that most of the rides are like “It’s a Small World After All,” and it’s boring. (Laughter) But, every once in awhile you’ll find that roller coaster and you get to be a part of something. And to this day… I mean, there is a friend of mine who does an internet radio show and I just happened to be there when the writer of “Jaws,” Carl Gottlieb was on. And the production designer Joe Alves was on! And this was the greatest moment of my professional life. And, the second greatest was, when I was a kid I saw a TV movie with Richard Thomas from “The Waltons” who was playing a guy in a snowbound house and he was tormenting somebody. And all I remember is that the end of the movie… this was probably on ABC… they stabbed him in the back with a pair of scissors and he ran out into the snow and he couldn’t get the scissors out of his back and I thought that was really, really chilling. So, on an episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” I had Eric McCormack playing a girl’s dad and I had the daughter stab a pair of scissors into Eric McCormack’s neck. The character was instantly in shock and pulled the scissors back out and this big jet of blood goes across the squad room and I remember sitting on the set, and there’s the special effects guy and they have the tubes and they’re ready to squirt the blood, and I was like, “Okay, this was all because when I was a little kid I saw that.” But, that was very, very exciting.

TrunkSpace: And what could bring it full circle is, someone saw that episode of “SVU,” found it equally as chilling, and one day may write it into something they’re working on a decade or two down the road.
Truly: (Laughter) You know, I like to pay forward the idea that scissors are far more dangerous than we think they are.

TrunkSpace: That’s why we’re taught to walk with them while holding them upside down!
Truly: Exactly. You know, I should do a scene where a kid runs with them the other way, the scissors go right through his eye socket, pushing the eyeball out the back of his head. See, that’s… I have done a lot of genre and I have done a lot of crime shows and stuff, but at heart, I’m kind of a monster kid. In film and TV it was “Planet of the Apes,” and “Jaws,” and “The Road Warrior.” And even in music it was Alice Cooper and KISS. When I revert to my inner 12-year-old, that’s kind of where it really lives for me.

TrunkSpace: When you look at the current television landscape, one that has embraced shows based on popular comic book properties, do you think “Blade: The Series” was ahead of its time in terms of mass audience conception for a show like that?
Truly: I think so. And I also think that the infrastructure of fans being able to talk to other fans about these things… look, I loved doing “Blade: The Series.” It was everything that I wanted to do. It was genre. It was blood. There were girls. We shot international versions so we did cursing and nudity. I’ve known David Goyer for 30 years. Geoff Johns, who now runs DC, was the number two on the show. So, it was this neat little perfect storm of a lot of fun stuff. And, we almost got a second season, but you know… it surprises me that they have not tried to reboot “Blade” as a series because it’s perfect. I like to think that we were a little bit ahead of our time. I wished that we had gotten a second season, but that’s the way it goes.

TrunkSpace: If the series was released today in the form that it was originally created in, do you think it would find an audience? Or, do you think that things have progressed so much in terms of what people are willing to consume on television that it is already dated?
Truly: Well, it probably has in terms of… just the amount of visual effects you can do on a TV show now. We did wire work. We did some CG. But, we were always kind of bumping up against the technical limitations and certainly the money limitations. But, it airs on the Chiller network every once in awhile, and I mean… I would hope that people would find it. Just because, you know… I always know that if I’m having fun on a show, then I think it translates. When I’m not having fun on a show is when I know it’s a dog because if I can’t find something to be excited about then…

TrunkSpace sits down with the affable Nate Torrence, an actor whose laugh is as infectious in real life as it is onscreen, to discuss his memorable guest starring role as Sam’s imaginary friend Sully in “Supernatural,” appearing as Clawhauser in the smash hit “Zootopia,” and achieving his Hollywood bucket list goals.

TrunkSpace: Congratulations on everything that’s been happening with “Zootopia,” especially with the Oscar nomination.
Torrence: Yeah, it’s been a really crazy ride. That was pretty amazing. I’ve been a part of that thing for like five years, so for it to come to this fruition…

TrunkSpace: It’s amazing how far animation has come, not only in the animation itself, but in the storytelling. It’s incredible.
Torrence: It is. You know what was cool about that process was, to watch the writing and plot just how much they were putting into it. If it’s not working, they work themselves through it and I really respected that. Obviously it’s Disney and they’re on this peak in that all of their stuff is really hitting and doing well and being embraced… like a renaissance for their animation.

TrunkSpace: What’s so wonderful about animated films now is, both kids and adults can watch them and enjoy them in two very different ways.
Torrence: Yeah. And I feel that’s so new. I know that with the directors and guys I was working with… it was “Wreck-It Ralph” and “Frozen”… it just feels like they’re getting really great at creating these worlds first and then creating plots that happen within those worlds. I feel like that’s a real, now, a style of writing that is really getting in-depth. I would like to be a writer, but I’m not to those levels. (Laughter) I really respect it and I took a lot out of it.

TrunkSpace: And in those worlds, what’s nice is that because it’s animation, you can literally do whatever you want visually.
Torrence: Exactly. And the detail that they go into on them… I mean, it was like two years of just saying, this what we want “Zootopia” to be, now let’s try to create the greatest story from that world. And how much time and effort they put into it… we got about two years into that and then they decided to change it. It was like, “We think this is a better idea… we think it’s better to come from the bunny’s perspective rather than Nick’s perspective.” Because that’s where they were coming from… this predator aspect and then they were like, “Let’s go this route.” I was just like, “You guys just got balls!” (Laughter) Literally, we had already done testing internationally. The toys were being made and they were like, “We’re changing the script.” (Laughter)

TrunkSpace: That’s awesome. It’s almost like a television mentality in that they were still making big changes while in the process of production to make the best end product possible?
Torrence: Totally. They did. On the DVDs or the Blu-ray… I’m sure it’s like the Blu-ray set or something… they have a documentary they did on the last couple of years of “Zootopia” when that change happened, so it’s kind of interesting. But, it was cool to be a part of. I literally just sat back and was like, “Man, this is just 101 in the idea of killing your babies as a writer.” (Laughter) And now it’s winning Golden Globes and Oscars!

TrunkSpace: And not only that, but it is 1 of 28 films to reach 1 billion dollars worldwide. That’s huge!
Torrence: Yeah! And on the international scale, what was crazy was… I think in seven or eight countries, we’re literally the number one movie. We took out “Avatar” in like, I know it was Ukraine, Spain… all of these countries. And not just as an animated film. I’m sure it will be defeated at some point, but just how cool! It was so funny because the whole cast got together to watch it with John (Lasseter) and it was really cool. They kind of make it a special evening and we all watched it… maybe a month before it premiered. And none of us knew what to say. “Is this thing going to be good?” We really loved it, but I had no idea! I think it gave me a lot of peace with my career whereas you just can’t predict anything. So many times I’ve been on the other side of it where it’s like you think it’s going to go great and then it doesn’t and you’re like, “Aww, crap.” (Laughter)

TrunkSpace: And what’s hard is that it’s always so difficult to lock down just what that lightening in a bottle is that made it so accessible to so many people. Obviously studios have teams to break all of that down, but you can never purposefully catch that type of lightening in a bottle.
Torrence: No. It’s so true. It’s funny you bring that up because what was crazy was… there were focus groups and testing on different levels. I just learned this because I had to do a lot of junket stuff with one of the producers so I had heard Clark (Spencer) talk about it a bunch and in the Asian countries specifically, they were infatuated with the story’s take on forgiveness. There’s this moment where how quickly Nick forgave the bunny for what she did… just this small scene… and they said that, culturally, that had such a heavy hit that people were really emotionally being charged about how quickly he forgave her for wronging him. That was like this huge niche where people were seeing it again and again. And also, coming from rural to a large population, which obviously happens in a lot of countries, but again… you’re just like, “Wow!” I’m seeing kind of the back end business side of this thing because it was such a global phenomenon and I’m really just trying to learn as much as I can.

TrunkSpace: You hear the term “grounded in reality” thrown around so often, and while it was a world of animals inhabited by animals, it really was grounded and relatable.
Torrence: Totally. It was a whole year… just the press alone… was a whole year of my life. I went straight from it going and just never stopped. Then we went straight into DVDs and into awards. And with these larger awards, obviously I’m not playing a huge part in it, but every now and then you’ll do an interview or something. But yeah, what a ride. It was pretty cool. (Laughter) And I got like stuffed animals of myself! Action figures and stuffed animals! And I’ve got two kids, so literally that’s on my small list of things I want on my bucket list. My Hollywood bucket list is pretty much complete with an action figure.

TrunkSpace: They make some pretty odd things overseas based on popular brands and characters. Have you seen any bizarre things based on Clawhauser?
Torrence: (Laughter) Well, mostly I just see some really messed up stuffed animals. You’re like, “Wow, that’s a take. I’m an artist, but boy, that’s pushing the limits.”

TrunkSpace: (Laughter) The unlicensed versions you can win at carnivals.
Torrence: (Laughter) Exactly! Clawhooser! (Laughter)

TrunkSpace: In season 11 of “Supernatural” you portrayed Sam’s childhood imaginary friend Sully. What we found so interesting about your portrayal of that character is that you brought humor and heart to it in a way that another actor may have approached differently and completely missed the mark on. On paper, it sounds like a character who would be very one-dimensional and built solely for comic relief, but that was not the case at all.
Torrence: Yeah. I had a lot of talks too because, quite honestly, in my career, a lot of my characters can be a little broader and whacky and I wanted to touch into that. I think there’s an innocence sometimes that I love to portray in a lot of my characters. That’s what I get looked at and booked for. But, this one specifically, because you’re dealing with so much fantasy around you and this aspect of supernatural to the show, you knew it had to be so grounded in those moments and that was a team collaboration. I mean, that set… they take it so seriously, which was so cool. And they’re so laid back, but then also, there was no arguing. That’s what was cool. When I gave my first… we get to the set and I read the scene… I’m trying to remember because the biggest scene that we definitely had was when we were in the garage and I got to give that speech to Jared (Padalecki)… and that day, I think we did it just one time in rehearsal and got no notes. They’re like, “Yeah, let’s just film it.” I was excited about that because you never know. With that one, I read one scene on tape and sent it in and they went with me, so I hadn’t actually read anything. They shoot in Vancouver and I was obviously flying in, so, you never know if you’re going to get heavy notes after you give your portrayal. And they were like, “It’s perfect… let’s do it.” And it just got better from there. And it got more grounded from there. And when it was in a two shot… aww… so good!

TrunkSpace: One of your most powerful scenes in that episode was in the motel room with the actor playing young Sammy.
Torrence: He was so great. I think we did it all in seven days of actual shooting and I think it was two weeks total. I give Speight (who directed the episode) a lot of credit in that scene because his staging of it… having us hang off the bed… those are all choices that need to be made. You’re in a room and the last thing you want to do is be like a talking head. And then, just having that energy… they would always allow me to have enough innocence and playfulness that wasn’t human necessarily, but at the same time, just not jokey. I was so concerned about that. Literally, I think what I asked every time I did something, I’m like, “Am I annoying? Please, I don’t want to be annoying in this.” (Laughter) We knew in the first scene with all of the candy that we wanted to come out big and establish that it’s this one whacky, fun character, but at the same time, to have like this ebb and flow. Oh, and then with Sparkle on her face! That day was so fun and amazing and… I mean, it was… it was a highlight last year for me as far as a project and a role. They all know it, but I would die to bring Sully back. (Laughter) Pleeeeeease! Please bring him back!

TrunkSpace: As an actor it must be kind of daunting going into a role like that, because in a way, you’re participating in completely rewriting what viewers know of Sammy’s past… at least in terms of his motivation.
Torrence: Oh, man. That’s exactly it. One, thank you to anyone who watches and comes up and says hi to me. They’re the sweetest, most amazing, supportive people in the world, but that idea… we knew that we were dealing with doctrine. It’s like, “whoa, whoa, whoa… you can’t throw this in and expect it to stick without being very, very aware.” And that happened quite a bit. When I was in that hotel room with young Sam, this idea of how forceful I should be… how much am I trying to convince him. This idea of what have we already created that we think he’s experienced and gone through. And it was… it was high stakes. And you felt it the whole time. It could have just went south. It could have been a hated character of like, “How dare you say this has been happening and this happened in this sense!” And, once we brought Sully out, you can’t make him crazy and just say, “Oh, that was all nonexistent” because then that hurts what we think of Sam now. But, they did… they weighed it with that much. And they would talk to me. They’d be like, “Hey, this is why we’re putting the army soldiers here. This is why we’re putting the LEGOs here. This is the story we’re telling and creating that has happened already and this how you should react. And this is how you should react to Dean!” You know, this idea of… some of my wording was frustrated and angry with him, but that idea that it was always surface hurt. I actually knew that I loved Dean because he did take care of Sam and I was aware of that, but he was always hurtful to me or mean to me… so I was allowed to react to those jabs, but that it was never a trait of his personality or character. Like, I respected his character, so, those were great. Nothing is better than as an actor to come in as a guest star… because you’re just coming in and you’re like, “I don’t want to interrupt this world at all.” (Laughter) And to be able to jump in and get that deep into things… and then on the personal level… the guys on the set, I’ll tell ya, I’ve been the part of a lot of TV shows in my career, unfortunately (laughter)… quick one-offs… and just like we said with “Zootopia” with what lightening in a bottle looks like, and they sure got it up there. And I think it is, it’s in their work ethic, and they’re just good people. Even to the idea… I’m a Midwest guy. I don’t know what that means necessarily besides that I like to work hard and I like to be a nice guy and I like to be supportive. And boy, the Texas boys got it too.

TrunkSpace: It certainly could have been a disaster, at least how it looked on paper, but it worked on so many levels.
Torrence: Yeah. Well, and even when they put me in the outfit. (Laughter) I went to wardrobe and I was like, “Oh man… these pants… I am busting out of them.” (Laughter) They were like three inches too tight and I was like, “I kind of think it’s funny.” (Laughter) I just like poured out of them. (Laughter) We were all like, “We are really going to have to ground this thing… and do some dark lighting.” (Laughter)

Be sure to check out Nate’s short film, “We Think Nate Torrence is Dead,” below!

TRUNK BUBBLES PROFILE

Name: Dustin Evans

Website: instagram.com/dustinart/

Hometown: Tulsa, Oklahoma

TrunkSpace: How would you describe your art style?
Evans: My style is very animated, whimsical and over-the-top. I’m not afraid to swing for the fences with exaggeration when the opportunity presents itself. I really like to have fun and amp up facial expressions, movements or moments of action. Even if I’m drawing something that is dark or scary, I still look for those moments to inject some humor and fun. I guess you could say my style is just an extension of my own personality.

TrunkSpace: You’ve got some work coming from the folks behind “Imprinted” where you serve as artist, but on this first release you’ve taken on coloring duties. Stylistically, what was the thought process going into the book? What did you hope to bring to Fernando Peniche’s art to help set the tone for the story?
Evans: I think the key to coloring “Imprinted” was discovered with some back and forth between myself and creator, Jason M. Burns. Fernando draws this beautifully detailed line art that spans not just the regular world in “Imprinted,” but other planes of existence like Purgatory and Hell. The challenge was, how do we set the worlds apart and give them their own personality? The real world is pretty straight forward in terms of color, but when the different spirits or entities present themselves, I went with cold and stark hues of blue along with a wispy trail of energy. I wanted to create a very drastic difference between the realities. When we are transported to Purgatory, I wanted something haunting and spooky, but not cliché. I chose to go with a scarred, red sky that is always cloudy. Even the characters that appear in this realm have a subtle red tint to them. The colors are based on common light source laws, but it’s skewed in a way that makes you feel as if you are somewhere very different. If you look at the line art, you would see what resembles a desert scene. Add in the digital colors and FX, and you’re transported to a truly haunting land.

TrunkSpace: For those who don’t know the process, can you walk us through what it’s like to receive an inked comic page and how you personally put colors to it?
Evans: When I receive an inked page the first thing I do is open the page in Photoshop to clean up the line art, darken the line work and separate the line art from the background. This means that I now have one layer of line art and I can create layers below and above the line art. Just try and envision an animation cell with multiple layers of paint being applied above and below the artwork to create a finished look. After the line art is separated, I use a program called Clip Studio to add flat colors to the line art. The flat colors are place holders and may not reflect the finished color, but they give you a starting point. I like to keep flats separated so that one character will have a layer for eye color, one layer for hair color, one layer for clothing, etc. Once all the flat colors are in place, I go back in Photoshop and begin the shading process. This is where the magic really happens. It depends on if I’m coloring a night time, day time or other worldly scene as to what colors I use, but I use the same essential method. I use the lasso tool to individually select areas of the characters or backgrounds, then using the “multiply gradient” setting, I drag the gradient across the color to make the area darker. I may make one or two more selections repeating the darkening effect. This is where drawing knowledge helps make a great colorist. You have to know anatomy to know where light will hit raised surfaces. Once I have all my dark colors laid in, I go back with a brighter color, usually a light orange, and using the same lasso tool and “color dodge gradient” option, I begin dragging the gradient in places to add light. Once I’m happy with this result, I go back with an environment color and add some small gradients. If it’s night time, I’ll use a deep blue or purple to add some reflective lighting and tone to the character. Once the characters are all colored, I go in to the background and begin using the same steps I described earlier. The only difference is that I like to inject texture into the environment. Buildings, roads, trees, grass… all of these things need some texture. I will either create my own brush or a pre-made brush to lay in texture to the environment. Restraint is key here. You want some texture, but you don’t want to go crazy and make it too busy-looking. For the final touches, I will go back and do any special FX or lighting on top of the line art. For “Imprinted” I create a layer above the ghosts and manually use an airbrush and smudge tool to give them a ghostly presence. Finally, I save the file out and upload it for the letterer to put their finishing touches on the page.

TrunkSpace: What was the most difficult aspect of coloring “Imprinted” issue 1? Was there a particular scene or character that was tough to crack?
Evans: Definitely! The carnival scene in issue 1 was super tough and very time consuming. Fernando drew this beautiful scene that blew my mind. It’s a carnival scene at night. You see all the crowds of people, the games, the toys, the rides and the crème de la crème, the full size Ferris wheel complete with blinky lights, passengers and moving parts. At first, when you get a page like this, you just sit there in awe for a few moments…then it’s time to get to work! You just have to start. You can’t over think it at first. Once I start laying in the flat colors, my brain starts problem solving the most efficient way to color the page and separate the areas to draw the reader’s focus. The payoff for working on a scene like this is seeing the finished page. You know that when readers see this page, their jaw is going to drop, and they are going to look harder at this page than they did at a “Where’s Waldo” book when they were a kid.

TrunkSpace: You’ve worked on a number of big brand titles and recognizable brands over the years. How do those experiences differ from something like “Imprinted” where the world is being created as opposed to already existing in some capacity?
Evans: Yes, I’ve been very fortunate to work on some big properties like “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Sesame Street,” “Kung Fu Panda,” and many others. The challenge for working on licensed properties is that they already have a massive bible of how they want things to look. You might color Grover blue, but it might not be the shade of blue that is needed to be used in accordance to the character bible. At first this is very daunting, but there is nothing like getting to work on a licensed book. If I could go back and tell my 6-year-old self that I would be working on a “Sesame Street” comic when I got older, I would have lost my mind…and probably not have believed my future self. (Laughter) The exciting thing about working on fresh properties like “Imprinted” is that you have a chance to put your stamp of creativity on this book. Maybe 20 years from now some other young-blooded artist will be trying to get the right shade of red hair to match the “Imprinted” character bible.

TrunkSpace: What piece of work are you the most proud of as you look back on your career?
Evans: Whew! That is a tough one to pick! I have to say penciling “Pirates of the Caribbean” for Disney Adventures. The reason I am most proud of this is not because of what I drew of even that it was “Pirates of the Caribbean.” Ever since I was a kid, I had a dream of working for Disney as an animator. I grew up on the classic Disney animated films, and it helped create my interest in art. Unfortunately, the older I got, the more traditional animators were not needed anymore at Disney. I still wanted to work for Disney in some capacity, though. Getting to draw “Pirates of the Caribbean” fulfilled my childhood dream. It taught me that dreams really can come true, it just may not be exactly how you dreamed it up to start.

TrunkSpace: You have been designing the weekly posters for the Musical Mondaze feature. Each one is so different and yet so in tune with the style of music being featured that particular week.
What has that process been like, particularly from a creative standpoint where it seems like you’re able to play in so many different sandboxes?
Evans: Working on the posters for Musical Mondaze has been pure joy. It’s like getting to eat ice cream every day for breakfast! The process is really just art inspiring art. The good folks at TrunkSpace send me the artist to be featured along with some examples of their music, websites, social media, etc…and I just sit back and drink it all in. After researching and listening to as much music as possible, I simply create based on my inspiration from the bands. Sometimes the inspiration will come from the look and style of the artist. Other times it will come from the vibe and sound I get from the artist. Stylistically, I am using all different styles and techniques. I attribute this to trying to survive as a freelance artist for over 10 years. Having hundreds of different clients with different demands has made me very versatile. It’s something that I really enjoy, and it keeps the artwork very fresh and exciting.

TrunkSpace: What else can fans of your work look forward to in 2017?
Evans: In 2017 fans can expect to be very entertained! I have several comics in the works with Plymouth Rock Creative. I am coloring the “Imprinted” series, of course, but I also have several other titles in the works and on the way this year! I’m not just coloring this year, though. I have done some very cutting edge illustration work for a comic book that I don’t think has been done in comics ever before. It’s truly groundbreaking stuff. I also have a creator owned property in the works called, “Death Bugs” that I’m writing, drawing and coloring. Imagine if Robert Rodriguez, Eli Roth and Quentin Tarantino all got together to make a comic book… well, that’s the best way I can describe “Death Bugs.” It has elements of horror, comedy and some real life experiences that will make your jaw drop. The first issue is complete and the second issue in the works already.