Song Title: Wringer
Single Sentence Singles Review: Previewing her first album in four years, “Wringer” prickles with the pain of divorce and remains on brand with the open book approach to Loveless’ songwriting that we have never been able to get enough of.
Beyond The Track: The upcoming album Daughter (art pictured left) will be released on her new label, Honey, You’re Gonna Be Late Records, on September 25.
Not every ending is a new beginning, but for ex-NE-HI members Mikey Wells, James Weir and Alex Otake, the death of one band meant the birth of another. With Spun Out, the musicians are leaving it all on the table creatively, bringing everything but the kitchen sink to their songs, and in the process, turning old partnerships into new musical magic.
“It always feels special when we work together and I think as a group we really put ourselves out there,” Wells said in an exclusive interview with TrunkSpace.
The band’s debut album, Touch The Sound, is available this Friday on Shuga Records/Spun Out Productions.
We recently sat down with Wells and Weir to discuss adjusting in the moment, exploring the visual components of their music, and accomplishing their artistic vision.
TrunkSpace: Several members of the band were together previously in NE-HI. How did having that familiarity, and yet, incorporating new voices and opinions into the mix, impact what Spun Out would ultimately become musically?
Wells: Well, we definitely had the advantage of knowing how to play off of each other. I think we knew how to compliment each other’s playing, but we were really focused on changing up the writing process and learning how to adjust in the moment. Once we knew that we could be constantly changing that element, it was easy to bring other people’s viewpoints into the mix. There’s a lot of spontaneity happening, and making bold choices was always at the forefront.
TrunkSpace: Is there such a thing as creative soulmates and is it evident with the fact that the three of you (Mikey, James, and Alex) continued your artistic journey together? Is it easier to click creatively with some people more than others?
Wells: Starting this project, the three of us had a lot of talks about how we could make this project work. We were very reliant on each other and open about our opinions, but in very good spirits. It always feels special when we work together and I think as a group we really put ourselves out there.
TrunkSpace: Touch The Sound is due to drop August 21. What kind of emotions do you juggle with when releasing new material to the masses, and is the experience different this time around given that the entire world, essentially, has ground to a halt?
Wells: It feels interesting looking back at that time period when the writing and recording for this record was happening. The one thing that connects to the world now for me is the content of the recordings. I think there’s a universality of emotion to the lyrics, which I think plays to the tension of humanity a bit. This record feels very cathartic, which I think is positive.
TrunkSpace: Normally you would tour to support a new release, but that is not something that is possible in every state right now. How has promoting the upcoming album changed? How do you get the word out when people can’t get out themselves?
Wells: I view it as an opportunity to explore visual art in conjunction with the sounds. Making video work and collaborating with visual artists can be really exciting. Live performance is definitely a different and beloved experience, but if it’s not possible, might as well sharpen other skills.
TrunkSpace: If someone sat down and listened to Touch The Sound front to back, what would they learn about you guys and where you’re at as a band and as songwriters in 2020?
Wells: I think a listener would find that we’re a team of music makers interested in crafting forward-thinking tunes for this new decade.
TrunkSpace: Outside of the music itself, what did you want to accomplish with the production on Touch The Sound – which is so rich and full of energy – that perhaps you were unable to achieve on past projects with other bands? Did you accomplish your vision for the album as a whole when you called wrap on the process?
Weir: Great question. The kind of foundation of the band was that we wanted to just throw every idea we had at a song rather than limit ourselves to recording everything live as a band, which is basically the process we had been doing for the last four to five years, so the production end could not have been more important to us just to be able to fully experiment. I think we definitely accomplished our vision and I wouldn’t change anything.
TrunkSpace: What are you most proud of with the album?
Weir: I’m very proud of all of the collaboration that took place with family and friends and also just imagining this album from the beginning and feeling like the demos reached their fullest potential.
TrunkSpace: What has been the most rewarding aspect of creating within Spun Out thus far?
Weir: The growth we’ve experienced on the studio production end. Really coming into our own not only as musicians, but also as “still amateur” producers. (Laughter)
TrunkSpace: Looking forward, what do you envision Spun Out’s musical journey to be album-to-album? Will the follow-up to Touch The Sound be a departure musically from the songs we hear on the debut?
Weir: We’ve actually been pretty productive throughout quarantine by just creating demos through stems, so we have a nice chunk of the second already done. There will be some similarities, but overall I’d like to take it in a more organic direction, sonically.
TrunkSpace: When you’re not performing or creating music, how do you recharge the creative energy banks?
Weir: Digging for records and jogging works for me. Constantly looking for new sources of inspiration in music and running is a nice way to set everything back to square one.
TrunkSpace: Time machine question. If you could jump ahead 10 years and get a glimpse of what your career looks like a decade from now, would you take that journey? If not, why?
Weir: I wouldn’t! Important to live in the moment and trust the process.
Touch The Sound is available this Friday via Shuga Records/Spun Out Productions.
When Miles and Becca, real-life spouses who moonlight together creatively as the duo Drug Couple, collaborate musically, they strike a balance between their artistic selves and the married couple that fell in love beyond songwriting. And while that magic is apparent on their recently-released EP Choose Your Own Apocalypse, even they admit to having off days.
“No better way to ruin a studio day than getting in a couple’s fight with your songwriting partner,” Miles said in an exclusive interview with TrunkSpace.
We recently sat down with the couple to discuss soothsaying in song, escaping to Vermont, and releasing music into a void.
TrunkSpace: Couples don’t always see eye-to-eye on day-to-day stuff, so how do you manage your creative relationship together? Do you keep a clear separation between who you are together as songwriters and who you are together as significant others?
Miles: I think the only dissonance stems from the fact that I’ve been in bands for a long time, work in studio recording professionally so I can, at times, be more terse in the studio or rehearsal than I normally would be in the confines of a loving romantic relationship. So, every now and then, I have to distinguish or draw a distinction between those two things. It’s hard though, because we also originally formed our interpersonal relationship in the studio, but Becca’s band was paying me to make them a record and I pamper clients a bit more than other collaborators. It’s honestly not much of an issue though on that level, though. That’s the subtle and complex part. The far worse thing and the one that seems more insurmountable is when we’ve just had a stupid fight and are being pissy with each other before we get to/go into work. No better way to ruin a studio day than getting in a couple’s fight with your songwriting partner.
Becca: Yes and no. In general, we work really well together, both creatively and on day-to-day stuff… that’s not to say that we never disagree, but we tend to be really collaborative, and to respect each other’s input. I’ll also say that Miles is being way too hard on himself and he is an incredibly nurturing bandmate. It’s more like, sometimes we’re in the studio and he’s like, “Bec, I need you to set up the mics before you eat dinner” and then I get huffy in a way that I maybe wouldn’t if he wasn’t my significant other. We do try to put relationship dynamics aside and relate to each other as artists when we’re working – that said, Drug Couple is fundamentally us, and it’s us together as partners, so it’s impossible to separate that completely… and I wouldn’t want to because it’s part of what makes it all work.
TrunkSpace: Your new EP, Choose Your Own Apocalypse, has an overarching theme about falling in love during the darkest of times. You started putting these songs together in 2016, but here we are in 2020 and the middle of a pandemic, and we can’t help but think that many of them have become more relevant than when you first started writing. Have they taken on new meaning for you now given everything that’s happening in the present?
Miles: Songwriting can often feel prophetic, and I think that’s because when you’re writing a song you’re hopefully tapping into deeper truths and excavating the ether of human experience. It’s not like our current predicament came out of nowhere… it’s a confluence of events that were fully identifiable and perceivable four years ago.
Becca: I wouldn’t necessarily say that the songs took on new meaning, but I did feel that it was slightly uncanny just how prescient they turned out to be. “2027” is about NYC turning into a ghost-town after a 2020 apocalypse. “Ain’t that Heavy” and “Missing 2 Mars” both have a narrative element about fleeing town in the wake of disaster (which we literally did when we left NYC in March and waited everything out in Vermont). So, they’ve had a bit of new life for me these past few months.
TrunkSpace: Choose Your Own Apocalypse dropped on August 14. What emotions do you juggle with upon releasing new material into the world and what is the experience like given the other emotional hurdles of the times – the pandemic, social unrest, etc.?
Miles: I juggle emotions of ambivalence and indifference. Releasing something is when it stops being yours, and often for me, it just creates a huge distance between myself and the material. It stops being personally meaningful – that’s been the only healthy way to navigate that exchange for me. But, then again, I’m someone who once had to tour an album that used my own, traumatic experience of September 11th as a metaphor for my recently-failed relationship for a year and a half.
Becca: In the past I’ve felt more emotional about releasing music. This time around, not so much. I think that’s partially because these songs are so old and we’ve been sitting on them for so long, and partially because of the nature of this moment and that life looks so different right now. We’re out in the middle of the countryside in Vermont, living this very pastoral life; not playing shows in Brooklyn, which is what we would ordinarily be doing surrounding an EP release. So I do feel a bit disconnected from it, but I also think that’s okay. Like Miles said, when you release music, it stops being yours and starts belonging to whoever is listening, and weirdly feeling so far away from it all makes me more at peace with that.
TrunkSpace: Normally you would tour or gig out to support a new release, but that isn’t entirely possibly right now. How has the promotion of the album changed as it relates to what you had originally planned to coincide with its release?
Miles: I would say that in the digital era, in the streaming era, releasing an album has become a very abstract thing. It just goes from being on only your computer and phone to being on everybody’s computer and phone. It’s not the same as when you would receive a pressed copy of your album, which had a certain thrill to it…[a weight, a gravity, a sense of import]…and at this time it feels even more removed. It feels like nothing. And talking to other artists who’ve had the same experience, it just feels like birthing something into a void. There’s a duality in art where you make stuff purely for yourself, but often there’s an expectation in the back of your mind of sharing it. Like things don’t feel real or complete until you give them away, and it’s even harder to tap into that sense of giving it away. So instead of an act of giving it feels like an act of forgetting… forgetting the old so you can imagine the new.
TrunkSpace: Outside of the finished product itself, what do you think is going to be the most memorable part of giving Choose Your Own Apocalypse life? Twenty years down the road, what will you think back on with the biggest smile?
Miles: It documents the beginning of our relationship. And we just got married. So it exists as a nice little time capsule for us.
Becca: Absolutely.
TrunkSpace: If someone sat down to listen to Choose You Own Apocalypse front to back, what would he or she learn about you both as songwriters and as people?
Miles: Nothing? I don’t know, ask our therapists…
Becca: (Laughter)
Miles: She’s a little bit country, I’m a little bit rock and roll.
TrunkSpace: What do you both get out of writing with each other that you can’t achieve writing alone? Where do you inspire each other most?
Becca: To put it simply, I genuinely believe that everything I do is elevated by working with Miles. I think that the way that we inspire each other is mostly through this creative mind-meld that happens when we’re working together: where we‘re in the moment, building off of each other’s ideas, articulating the other’s thoughts as they simultaneously reach the tips of our tongues. I gotta say, after all these years, it still feels like magic.
Miles: I have found the removal of the deep stench of solitary, narcissistic ego from the songs I write to be incredibly liberating. The magic thing Becca mentioned is real too. We can just kinda plug in and get to a place and it’s just kinda been what I was looking for with music my entire life until we got together.
TrunkSpace: We have all been in some form of lockdown for the majority of 2020. How much of your time spent social distancing has also been spent creating? Have you experienced a creative jolt during this period – and will it lead to another album?
Becca: Yes. We’re recording on our next album in our studio, Freelandia, that we set up out here in Vermont. I think it’s the best work we’ve ever done.
Miles: Very much yes. We bunkered up and got to work as soon as everything shut down. It took a few months to fully put the studio together, which occupied most of my time, and then we just dove into recording.
TrunkSpace: Time machine question. If you could jump ahead 10 years and get a glimpse of what your career looks like a decade from now, would you take that journey? If not, why?
Becca: If we could time travel I feel like we’d end up in some sort of Umbrella Academy situation where we’re jumping around trying to prevent the Apocalypse, so I don’t think we’d waste time navel gazing.
Miles: It’s not the destination, it’s the journey, man. We’ll find out sooner or later anyways, so no. I’m definitely more of a travel into the past to fix things type. I’m not super curious about the future. I just more dread it due to humanity’s apparent inability to ever deal with the task at hand.
Choose Your Own Apocalypse is available now via PaperCup Music.
When the horror film Followed was released in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, it served as an incredible escape for individuals in need of a sense of normalcy, including its own star, Matthew Solomon.
“Having the movie come out during the quarantine has been really great for me too; it’s been a bit of an anchor amidst all the craziness,” he said in an exclusive interview with TrunkSpace.
We recently sat down with Solomon to discuss his relationship with social media, the long road to the big screen, and keeping his internal dictator in check.
TrunkSpace: Your latest project Followed was released in the middle of a pretty tumultuous time for not only the country but the world as a whole. In a way, is it nice to be a part of people’s escape during all of this – to be their outlet to what was “normal” once?
Solomon: I love that you asked this. Yes, it absolutely has. People have messaged me on Instagram saying they loved the movie and enjoyed having a fun distraction. It’s awesome seeing a new love for drive-in theaters and being a part of that feels special! Having the movie come out during the quarantine has been really great for me too; it’s been a bit of an anchor amidst all the craziness.
TrunkSpace: Social media is given a horrific spin in Followed. For many people, social media can be a love/hate relationship with its own share of real-life scares. What’s your relationship with social media today in 2020?
Solomon: I have never been more addicted to it than now. (Thank you Covid.) It’s a double-edged sword. I find the activism, the more progressive influencers, the comedy, and the ability to connect from far away so rewarding. But I think there are certain aspects of beauty that can be damaging to people, myself included. If you understand that what you’re seeing from people is curated and not the whole picture, I think it’s a wonderful way to connect.
TrunkSpace: Walk us through what the experience was like to see Followed brought to fruition, because from what we understand, you originally worked on it back in 2016, correct? Was it a surprise to then see it released four years later and to ultimately find an audience?
Solomon: Not only did we work on it in 2016, I was cast for the project in 2015 before the script was finished, so I have had the unique experience of watching this project from the very beginning to the very end. I feel so attached to this team and this story, seeing it through, watching it get #1 in the box office, seeing how critics are receiving it – it’s the best feeling. But nothing about this is surprising because I know how hard this team works. Our director and producers are some of the most persistent people I’ve ever met so I knew no matter how long it took, that it would happen.
TrunkSpace: A person can change a ton in a four year span. What would the Matthew Solomon of 2020 have done differently with his performance in Followed? What choices did 2016 Matthew make that you wouldn’t make today?
Solomon: I believe if you talk to any creative about a project they made four years prior that they would have changes they want to make. Mike was such a fun role and considering who I was at the time, I’m very proud of the performance. I mostly wish I had the confidence back then that I have now. I would trust myself to carry the more emotional moments because it was all there, I just doubted myself. But also I wouldn’t be as confident now if I hadn’t played Mike in the first place. Getting to play the lead in my first feature film forced me out of a lot of that doubt because frankly, there’s no time for it.
TrunkSpace: For fans, the final product of a film or series is always the most memorable part, but for those involved in a project, we’d imagine it goes much deeper than that. For you, what is something about your time working on Followed thus far that you’ll carry with you through the course of your life/career?
Solomon: I think what I just said about trusting myself is the biggest takeaway. There are maybe 10 minutes of that movie where I’m not on camera so I had to just go, go, go. The other big takeaway is my friendships with the cast, especially Sam Valentine and Kelsey Griswold. Any time I get to see them is a gift. When we get together it’s that feeling of returning to summer camp.
TrunkSpace: As an actor – a profession where you generally are required to work directly with other people in a scene – how have you kept the tools in your toolbox sharp during this extended period of isolation?
Solomon: It is so hard! I would love so much to be in a studio working with other actors. Fortunately, my acting teacher, Joe Anthony, has been doing zoom scene work with us. Strange? Yes, but honestly it’s great practice for auditioning, and there are so many projects these days with video chats. Followed had so many video calls in it! So it’s an opportunity to sharpen a very specific acting tool. But I really miss being in a studio shouting at another actor and wondering if the office next door thinks we’re actually fighting.
TrunkSpace: Where are you hardest on yourself as an artist and how do you overcome those self-critical insecurities?
Solomon: Oof. Where does the list begin? I come from a family of go-getters, I went to very competitive schools, so I’m sort of hard on myself about everything. What I try to do is check that voice. I refer to him as the dictator. Those ideas and criticisms I have for myself come from external negative messaging, so I remind myself that they aren’t reality. I look that dictator in the face, smile, and say, “I’m good for now but thanks for your thoughts!”
TrunkSpace: If you could sit down and have a conversation with your 16-year-old self, would he be surprised by the trajectory of your career, and if so, why?
Solomon: He certainly would – firstly 16-year-old me wasn’t planning on a future as an actor. For most of my teen years I had given up on the idea and applying to theater school was an impulsive choice. I’m in the unique position where acting is my job, and nothing else is. I didn’t expect that to happen while I was in my 20s.
TrunkSpace: What has been the highlight of your career as a whole thus far?
Solomon: I think this is the highlight right now; having my movie premiere during what could have been the slowest point for my career thanks to the pandemic, having the movie do well in the box office, and making Thrillist’s best horror movies of 2020. That’s all pretty cool! What’s so gratifying is that every step forward in my work has been a highlight, so I look forward to newer and bigger highlights in the future!
TrunkSpace: Time machine question. If you could jump ahead 10 years and get a glimpse of what your career looks like a decade from now, would you take that journey? If not, why?
Solomon: I want to be cool and say no, but I definitely would. Because there are small moves here and there that I can definitely go back and say, “You should have listened to your gut.” So yes I would like that glimpse, and hopefully I would be prepared for a few pivotal moments.
As smooth and as beautiful as Alicia Viani’s music is when it flows from her guitar, the emotions she pours into each and every song paints a more complicated portrait of an artist who celebrates the good and the bad that life has to offer.
“Life to me is a beautiful, hilarious, sorrowful circus with incredible highs and incredible lows and unfairness and injustice and growth and evolution and hopefully some of those themes, if I expressed them well enough and people listen close enough, come through the ‘warm country folk,’” she said in an exclusive interview with TrunkSpace.
The singer-songwriter’s self-titled debut is available now.
We recently sat down with Viani to discuss the process of putting a record together, embracing mental health during the pandemic, and why she doesn’t hesitate to skip to the end of a book.
TrunkSpace: Who is Alicia Viani the artist, and, would the you who first picked up a guitar and started playing be surprised by the answer you’re giving today?
Viani: Nope, wouldn’t be surprised. I first learned C and G chords for a Joni Mitchell song while backpacking in the Trinity Alps at 15 and I’m still singing in the mountains! I’ve always had a full life with music as the consistent thread. Sometimes front and center like when pursuing classical oboe performance in high school and college, and sometimes background like singing songs with random people in random corners of the world. That’s still how it is.
TrunkSpace: You released your self-titled debut album on July 24. As far as moments in your life to-date, how big of an accomplishment is it for you to have this collection of songs out into the world?
Viani: While the debut is super gratifying, I mostly loved the process. Working with a producer for the first time and hiring musicians who put their own spin on things, which was an interesting exercise in trust and relinquishing control for the goodness of collaboration, being in the studio, forming a band locally to release it… I loved all the steps leading up to the release. It’s such a vulnerable thing to release original music and the positive feedback has really lifted me. It’s the coolest thing to know your songs touch people and when they recite lyrics back to you that meant something to them.
TrunkSpace: With the pandemic happening not only in the country but around the world, did you consider pushing back the release? How did what was happening with Covid-19 impact your roll out of the music?
Viani: We did push back the release. It was originally set for April. We had a lot of momentum just beforehand with it charting #4 nationally on folk radio so it was disappointing to feel like the release kind of crashed and died, along with everything else live and collective! But in the grand scheme of things it was okay. The band was still excited about the songs and we were committed to doing it somehow, so Scott Oliphant (drummer, part of the Color Study, and owner of Parkway Sounds) offered his studio. We did a live online release with fabulous sound. He did an amazing job. So while it was a pause, we figured it out. We’re still sharing live music that way.
TrunkSpace: While you were no doubt focused on the album and promoting that particular collection of song, have you found yourself to be creatively-inspired during the pandemic? Has isolation lead to increased songwriting?
Viani: I’m trying to get outside more to exercise for my mental health, and I do my best writing on trail runs along the river with my dog. So that’s been fruitful. I’ve been more inspired to write from the huge civil rights movement going on, so I’ve got some ideas kicking around my head wanting to come out somehow.
TrunkSpace: What could someone learn about you as both an artist and as a person in sitting down to listen to your debut, front to back?
Viani: I’ve heard feedback that even though it’s easy and pretty to listen to and my singing has been compared to Nora Jones (which annoys me, I wasn’t going for easy listening, but oh well), that my brain and emotions are actually complex as fuck! Life to me is a beautiful, hilarious, sorrowful circus with incredible highs and incredible lows and unfairness and injustice and growth and evolution and hopefully some of those themes, if I expressed them well enough and people listen close enough, come through the “warm country folk.”
TrunkSpace: What are you most proud of with the upcoming album?
Viani: There is something so rad about a nice tidy bow on a completed project that is the fruition of many years of living, processing, crying, being in love, trying to jam big awkward concepts into a song, editing… it’s kind of the sum of my life to this point. In a CD case.
TrunkSpace: Where are you hardest on yourself as an artist and did that manifest during the creation of this particular collection of songs?
Viani: Performing and promoting the songs have always been the hard part. I’m a musician and a writer but have never taken much to the performance bit. I’m trying to embrace this concept that I have a “gift to share,” like people tell me! In between songs at a live show I have to remind myself to speak and tell some stories because it always stuns me when people want to hear from the artist. I’m always thinking we’re here for just the music, right? Also, releasing a record while there’s so much other important stuff going on in the world with the Black Lives Matter movement, the pandemic, people’s basic needs not getting met, was challenging because even though music makes everything better I wanted to be careful about how much space I took up.
TrunkSpace: This year has been an emotionally trying time for everyone and the divide between people – at least in this country – seems to be growing. What kind of hand can music have in helping people find an internal balance and possibly even bringing people together? We have always been drawn to the idea of music being a shared experience, regardless if we get something different out of it than someone else.
Viani: I love this question. Too many songs, especially political ones about social justice issues, tell people what to think. That’s not a good song. I wrote “Good man” after Trump’s election and had plenty of opinions to share about how white dominant culture wasn’t holding this man or ourselves accountable, but instead wrote the story of a guy named Jackson to explore racism and why one person wasn’t stepping up to interrupt racist acts. I was exploring through song something that was pissing me off in my life. Good stories enable us to feel empathy in places that surprise us, and while we’re holding ourselves and others accountable in this civil rights movement, we can all work on developing empathy to continue to see each other as human. I aim to write story-songs that draw people in and make them feel something about topics that usually repel people who are stuck in rigid corners about issues. And of course I go through the whole journey myself as the writer cause I can get rigid too, for sure.
TrunkSpace: What do you get out of songwriting on an emotional level? What is it about the process that most excites you even today?
Viani: Singing and writing puts me directly into that flow place where I’m in touch with my emotions but also being creative with them. Doing something about them. It’s just the best feeling. It’s precisely where the best songs come from. And then hopefully they prick at someone else’s emotions to help us connect to ourselves and each other. I live for that as an artist and a listener. When I get the chills or start to cry or think deeper from a song, there’s nothing better.
TrunkSpace: Time machine question. If you could jump ahead 10 years and get a glimpse of what your career looks like a decade from now, would you take that journey? If not, why?
Viani: Oh my god, absolutely. I cannot resist the temptation. I am the person who will read the last page of my book when I’m in the throws of a drama that’s just wrecking me with the suspense. I’ll still read the rest of the book of course, but let me know what the hell happens!
Viani’s self-titled debut is available now.
Name: Mauricio Caballero Peza
Website: https://www.behance.net/morizeraky
Favorite Comic Book Character Growing Up: Spider-Man
Favorite Comic Book Character Now: Bat man
Latest Work: Inked: Lay A Price (Neymar Jr. Comics) – Premiering Today!
TrunkSpace: How would you describe your art style?
Caballero: My art style is midway between manga, American and European style. I try to bring the dynamism of the manga comics, the charismatic expressions of the American style and the interesting proportions and experiments that many Europeans display.
TrunkSpace: How important were comic books in your life growing up and is that where you discovered your love and inspiration for drawing?
Caballero: When I discovered the wonderful world of comics and the possibilities that I would be able to do with it, I decided that I wanted to tell my own stories to the world. After all, all I needed is my imagination and a lot of hard work. It’s the best decision I’ve ever do.
TrunkSpace: Was there a particular artist or title from your childhood that you remember being drawn to and inspired by?
Caballero: There where many, but the first artist that absolutely inspired me was Todd McFarlane doing Spider-Man. It was like a big smack into your face. I wanted to see his art over and over. I tried to imitate his art style for a while. Great times.
TrunkSpace: How did you decide to approach your career in comics? Did you formulate a plan of how you wanted to attack what is known for being a hard industry to crack?
Caballero: I was very persistent. I had to start working in kitchens as an assistant cook when I was very young. With all the money I earned I spent it all on materials to keep drawing even after work. Since my parents saw that I was very stubborn with comics, they put me in contact with an old school artist, and I worked/studied with him for some time. Later on when I had many more artist friends, I was brought into an animation studio. Somehow the director of the studio saw potential in my comics and he decided that I would work in the animation studio as a layout artist. I did learn a lot from them – things that would eventually help me in comics. So from then on I’ve been working, some time in animation and some other time in comics. It has been a fun ride so far, although some times life is tough.
TrunkSpace: What was your biggest break in terms of a job that opened more doors for you?
Caballero: When I worked on the comic Helm, which is an independent comic. To tell the truth, I didn’t know if it was going to have a future or not, all I knew is that when I saw the script I absolutely loved it and I decided to give my best effort ever. Then, surprisingly, we where nominated to the Will Eisner Industry Award in 2017. We didn’t win, but the mere fact that we where nominees was a big reward, so every time I need to introduce my work to a new client, that is my best reference I can give. I’m still producing a single page each week, by the way.
TrunkSpace: A lot of people say that breaking into comics is the hardest part of working in comics. How long did it take you before you started to see your comic book dreams become a reality?
Caballero: In my case I was very lucky. I finished my first work with the animation studio and I dedicated myself to create my own comics. After all, that was my very own goal in life. Since I did not have many obligations, I decided to make my own comic called Zeraky. Even my brother helped me bringing some ideas to life. It became a project so rich and I was learning so much – and somehow I did 10 comics before the release of the first one. So the lucky part comes when my brother met a very warm-hearted lady who fell in love with my art, comics and dedication – and she sponsored us for five comics, which we released in our country. We, as brothers, became famous for a short period of time for our comic. This was in the year 2000. I still think that I will come back some day with my comic, with a renewed art style. And I hope this time, we come back for good.
TrunkSpace: Is there a particular character or universe you always find yourself returning to when you’re sketching or doing warm-ups?
Caballero: I rarely do warm ups, but when I do, I love to draw monsters out of me imagination.
TrunkSpace: Is there a specific title or character that you’d like to work on in the future and why?
Caballero: I would love to draw Batman. I love the dark tones and hard shadows drawn into that comic, even if it is different than what I usually do. I also love the contrast of the classic architecture of Gotham against the high tech of Batman’s gadgets.
TrunkSpace: What is your ultimate dream when it comes to your career in comics? Where would you like your path to lead?
Caballero: I’m convinced that my subconscious has a plan that I’m not aware of, but somehow my destiny will be doing Zeraky again. I daydream that the people all around the world will look at it, and see potential in “the story of the heroes that nobody anticipated, and no legend foretold their arrival.” But before I do start with that, I need to buy my own house first, otherwise, the rent will haunt me forever. It does not matter if I start Zeraky at 70 years old.
TrunkSpace: What would you say is the greatest strength as an artist?
Caballero: I hang on. For example…
1.) It does not matter my parents told me I had no future in it
2.) It does not matter if some people used to mock me for my drawings
3.) r not getting paid sometimes
4.) That I’ve missed parties or vacations
5.) Not having as much friends as I wanted to
I’ve resisted hard times. One animation director told me to hang on. I keep working tirelessly and I resist the difficulties of life. So far, everything has paid off. Good news: everything gets better, slowly and steady but it does. I hope it keeps that way.
TrunkSpace: How has technology changed your process of putting ideas/script to page? Do you use the classic paper/pencil approach at all anymore?
Caballero: I love working on paper, and sometimes I’m even faster and the artwork looks more alive. But the problem with it is that it is a lot of effort physically, so instead of doing three pages at day (my ideal), I do two or even one and a half. Maybe I need to get used to it because maybe in the future I will seriously work on it again.
TrunkSpace: What advice would you give another young aspiring artist who is considering a career in the comic industry?
Caballero: You have to be very, very stubborn. You will have to pass many hard trials that life will give you in order to earn one of the most beautiful and passionate jobs in the world – of all time. Be obsessed with it. Focus on improving your artwork in order to move people’s feelings – to tell a story that was born in the back of your head and in the bottom of your heart. And don’t forget, as an artist, sometimes you learn more from a motivational speech than a dull art class, because our art depends more in the motivation than technique. Have an iron will!
TrunkSpace: Making appearances at conventions: Love it, leave it, or a combination of both?
Caballero: I absolutely love to go, mainly to say hello to my colleagues, buy my favorite comics with a signature of my favorite artist, and (when I used to have my own comic) sell my comics and meet my readers. There is no better fuel and reward for your spirit than to hear your readers exited with your stories. This is the very best feeling you will ever have after love.
Singer-songwriter Shira questioned if she should be releasing new music in the middle of a global pandemic, but in the end, she chose to push forward, hoping that the love she pours into her writing will help others find sunshine in the midst of the 2020 storm.
“At times like these, the most healing and beautiful thing we have is music,” she said in an exclusive interview with TrunkSpace.
Her EP, Birds of a Feather is due September 18. The title track is available now.
We recently sat down with Shira to discuss having to call a promotional audible, connecting with fans over social media, and why she has always felt like an outsider.
TrunkSpace: We are all feeling the uncertainty and a cornucopia of emotions given the current state of the world and the varying levels of quarantine we have been experiencing these last few months. How has that impacted you as an artist? Have you found yourself to be creatively-inspired during this span?
Shira: It’s been really rough. Not gonna lie… I’ve written 3/4 of a song in four months. So not my most fruitful time. Also, as someone who is used to playing shows every week, it’s been really hard not sharing that connection with the audience. But I have found a deeper connection with my audience through social media. I’ve played 15 online shows and they keep me going with their love and gratitude and I am so happy to be releasing new music! At times like these, the most healing and beautiful thing we have is music.
TrunkSpace: In the middle of it all, you’re set to release a new EP, Birds of a Feather, on September 18. How have you had to change your promotional focus during this time to ensure that this work you’ve poured so much of yourself into has the best chance at finding an audience?
Shira: Honestly, deciding to release it now in the middle of a global pandemic was not easy. I had a crazy release plan, which included releasing a full album after performing at MUSEXPO in LA, the same festival where Katy Perry, Jessie J, and the Temper Trap were first showcased. But of course, all the plans turned to dust. Instead, I found myself with A LOT of time on my hands so I had more time to connect with my audience through social media and I saw that the more music I shared the happier they were. I realized this is actually the best time to release music. So I focus my attention on my people – the ones that have been with me for years and the new ones that join every day. I am here for them with healing music and love.
TrunkSpace: What could someone learn about you as both an artist and as a person in sitting down to listen to the EP, front to back?
Shira: That I am an eternal optimist with a touch of melancholy. That I’m a poetry buff (you’ll feel it in the lyrics). That I love to love.
TrunkSpace: These songs will ultimately also appear on your upcoming full-length album, Birds of a Feather Flock Together. As we understand it, they were all set to live together originally, but the pandemic forced you to reconfigure how you’d roll the collection of songs out into the world. When you decided to release the EP, how did you come to decide on WHAT songs would make the EP cut?
Shira: The songs on the EP are the songs that resonate the most with where I am right now and the times. “Usually” and “Go Uncharted” are an invitation to trust your intuition and the universe and go, keep moving forward even if it’s not the road you planned to take, just take it and trust there’s something there. The lyrics in “Birds of a Feather” are almost ominous since I recorded this before the pandemic; “Come find me before the flood. We’ll brave the storm together. Birds of feather.” Finally, “Wait For Me” is about being away from the one you love. I, like thousands of others around the world, have been separated from my partner because of COVID. The song is about the excitement of seeing your love after you haven’t seen them in a long time (151 days for us) and the fear of, “Will we make it?”
TrunkSpace: What are you most proud of with the upcoming album?
Shira: The amount of love and hope that are in every note and every lyric. Times are super hard for a lot of people (myself included) and this album is an invitation to “Go Uncharted” and let love lead the way.
TrunkSpace: Where are you hardest on yourself as an artist and did that manifest during the creation of this particular collection of songs?
Shira: Every song for me is a precious pearl that flows through me and comes out as a song. Everything that happens after that is in order to serve the song. Everything from the musical arrangement, to the music video and the PR. The most important thing for me is to let the song shine. I’ve nixed a few recordings and music videos, because they were just “pretty” and “eye-catching,” but didn’t elevate the song.
TrunkSpace: You were born in Rochester, NY but spent much of your childhood in Israel. How has where you’re from impacted you as an artist? Would you be a different artist if you grew up in a different city surrounded by different people?
Shira: I always felt like the outsider. Like I don’t belong 100 percent anywhere. Well, until I moved to NYC… the home of the outsiders. But before that, when I was growing up I found myself escaping to the music when I didn’t have friends or the culture barrier was too much for me to bear. I’m sure I would have been a very different artist had I not experienced so much bullying and had to find my own path away from everyone else. I think that’s part of the reason my songs carry so much hope. I need a constant reminder.
TrunkSpace: What do you get out of songwriting on an emotional level? What is it about the process that most excites you even today?
Shira: I don’t have kids… But every song is like a little birth. It’s like a piece of stardust flows through the universe implants in me and out comes the song to be shared back into the universe. For me, it’s a calling.
TrunkSpace: If you sat down with your 10-year-old self and gave her a glimpse of her future, would she be surprised by where her musical journey has taken her thus far?
Shira: I think she would be proud… that I made my own path and that I’m still exploring uncharted paths every day. That’s all she wanted to know… that she can be the unicorn she is.
TrunkSpace: Time machine question. If you could jump ahead 10 years and get a glimpse of what your career looks like a decade from now, would you take that journey? If not, why?
Shira: Nah… I like not knowing… keeps me on my toes. If there is something I like about this world that I’m in, it is that there are constantly infinite possibilities that I couldn’t even wish for before I know they exist.
“Birds of a Feather” the EP is available September 18. The title track is available now.
Although he tends to live life with as little expectation as possible, Michael Desmond, aka Local Nomad, is aware that the art he creates can be perceived differently once he turns it over to the universe.
“Once I create a song and put it out into the world, it’s no longer mine,” Desmond said in an exclusive interview with TrunkSpace. “I relinquish control of what people think of my music.”
We recently sat down with Local Nomad to discuss being away from the road, guys named Kevin, and his self-titled EP, which is available now.
TrunkSpace: Your self-titled EP dropped on July 10th. What kind of emotions do you juggle with when releasing new material to the masses, and has the experience been different this time around given that the entire world, essentially, ground to a halt?
Local Nomad: I’ve had these songs for two years so overall it feels like a huge relief. I tend to just go with the flow and live life with little expectation. “Normal” operations may have come to a halt from COVID, but people still need music and since writing is my therapy, I’ve been going full speed ahead.
TrunkSpace: Normally you would tour to support a new release, but that is not something that is possible right now. How has promoting the EP changed? How do you get the word out when people can’t get out?
Local Nomad: I’ve taken this time to write new songs and stay engaged on social media. It’s really humbling to speak with hundreds of kids from around the world who say they just got their first guitar and are learning “Love is Gone” or “Gates.” This type of social media interaction did not come naturally to me, but it’s the only type of connection to the fans we have right now. I miss live shows so much, but I only want to be back on the road if it’s SAFE.
TrunkSpace: People need an escape now more than ever and music is a great way to forget about the world for a brief period of time. What has music been for you over the years and how do you perceive that relationship from the perspective of an artist? Do you hope that people have the same experience with your music that you have had with other songwriters/bands?
Local Nomad: I’ve learned to tell my true story with music. It’s the man-in-the-mirror learning that being vulnerable is ok and that change happens through acceptance of what is and we need to just to do the best we can to learn from our experiences. Music has always been a spiritual place for me and it became more clear as I got older that it’s an actual living thing inside of me. Once I create a song and put it out into the world, it’s no longer mine. I relinquish control of what people think of my music. It’s theirs to interpret and I hope they can see a bit more of themselves with every listen.
TrunkSpace: If someone sat down to listen to the EP front to back, what would they learn about you both as an artist and as a person?
Local Nomad:
Once I was in love, now I’m not.
Once I was a kid, now I’m not.
You can visit these memories, but ultimately it’s time to move on.
TrunkSpace: We love a good lyric here… the kind that makes us curse that we didn’t come up with it ourselves. What’s a favorite line or snippet from the EP that you’re particularly proud of and why?
Local Nomad:
Frankie went to Maryland
Timmy’s still in town
Mitch had cancer and survived
But Kyle’s not around
Pat made it to the minors
While Michael’s having kids
Matty’s burning out and well
Kevin’s just a dick
(Everyone knows a “Kevin”)
TrunkSpace: What are you most proud of with this collection of songs?
Local Nomad: I’m proud that I was able to communicate this group of songs from a turbulent time in my life and then have kids message me on social media that these songs are doing for them what they did for me – cope and move on.
TrunkSpace: We have all been in some form of lockdown for the majority of 2020. How much of your time spent social distancing has also been spent creating? Have you experienced a creative jolt during this period – and will it lead to another album?
Local Nomad: I’m always writing songs. Even when I’m not playing music, I’m always thinking of new ideas. Like I said earlier, it’s spiritual and it’s my way to cope with life. I’ve been going on a lot of long walks and thinking about what’s next. I finished a dozen songs during this quarantine which will be released in 2021 for my debut full-length.
TrunkSpace: Where are you hardest on yourself as an artist and how do you overcome those self-critical insecurities?
Local Nomad: I embrace my failures and keep moving. It’s hard for people to understand that you need to fail to be successful. I fail every day and then I pick myself back up and keep moving. In the writing process there’s always a forest of bad songs. Sometimes I hit a streak of them to navigate through to the other side until I get one that I think is good. Finish the song – even if it’s terrible. Get it out of your system and move on. Also, I’ve reached a point in my life where I think being a good person is just as important as the art you make.
TrunkSpace: If you sat down with your 10-year-old self and gave him a glimpse of his future, would he be surprised by where his musical journey has taken him thus far?
Local Nomad: My ten-year-old self would probably be very confused, because my ten-year-old self really liked Limp Bizkit. I don’t know if ten-year-old me would like present day me! (Laughter) He would be pumped that we are still making music, but he was a lot more guarded. He would 100 percent be pumped that the dream is alive and we’re still making music though!
TrunkSpace: Time machine question. If you could jump ahead 10 years and get a glimpse of what your career looks like a decade from now, would you take that journey? If not, why?
Local Nomad: Always down with time travel. I would take the trip because regardless of what I see I know that at the end of each day I’m giving this everything I have to make this dream a reality. What do I see? SpaceX residency just outside of the Gargantua black hole from Interstellar.
Local Nomad’s self-titled EP is availble now. The latest single, “Summertime” is available today.
As someone who seeks out the weird while also connecting with the working class, Thomas Johnson, frontman for Killer Whale, writes music from a place of empathy, a skill that is apparent all over the band’s latest album, Tastes Like Yesterday, due September 18 on Devil in the Woods.
“I think my desire to empathize with everyone leads to a connection with certain places and definitely effects my writing,” he said in an exclusive interview with TrunkSpace.
We recently sat down with Johnson to discuss collaboration, staying positive in the age of Covid, and canoeing when not creating.
TrunkSpace: What we love about your upcoming album Tastes Like Yesterday is that it surprised us throughout our journey with it. While it was all very much Killer Whale, it was also a unique adventure track-to-track. When you set out to write the songs that would make up the album, what did you anticipate the journey would be for the listener? What were the musical goals in bringing this collection of songs all under one roof?
Johnson: I’m not sure that I ever anticipated a journey when making the record. I had a certain sound in my mind that I tried to dial in with a couple years of mixing and recording demos in my room in San Francisco. I wanted to create an album that sounded totally original, and I felt like I was getting there with these songs and the demo production. I also was starting to feel like taking my demos and letting another musician help with the final production. We had done a couple of shows with Spooky Mansion and I really got into Grayson Converse’s production on those albums and singles. I think I just casually asked him in the bathroom of the Verdi Club one night and he said yes. So, long story short, I had a direction with the sound and Grayson really helped dial in the final direction. Scott Sibley (drummer/engineer) and I put together the song list to be a full LP listen, so I hope folks dig in!
TrunkSpace: You’re New Orleans based, but your travels take you from creative ports of interest like Austin and San Francisco. As an artist, how does WHERE you are impact WHO you are as a songwriter? How does the geography trickle into your music?
Johnson: I try to absorb the feeling and vibe of everywhere I go. I want to know the weird shit and I want to hang with freaky people, but I also work a laborious job and have always connected with working class folks. I think my desire to empathize with everyone leads to a connection with certain places and definitely effects my writing.
TrunkSpace: As you travel down the creative road you’re currently on with Killer Whale, would 10-year-old Thomas be surprised or was this always your creative destiny?
Johnson: Oh man, I don’t know. I certainly have always loved rock n’ roll.
TrunkSpace: Your new album Tastes Like Yesterday is due to drop September 18. What kind of emotions do you juggle with when releasing new material to the masses, and is the experience different this time around given that the entire world, essentially, has ground to a halt?
Johnson: I feel better about this release than my previous ones… I guess I’m really comfortable with how it came out. A lot of my friends helped me make this and I think we made something worthwhile. Not touring to support it is a huge bummer but there’s nothing I can really do about it so I try to stay positive and work on creative ways to connect with fans.
TrunkSpace: As you mentioned, normally you would tour to support a new release, but that is not something that is possible in every state right now. How has promoting the upcoming album changed? How do you get the word out when people can’t get out themselves?
Johnson: Still working on figuring that out!
TrunkSpace: You recently released the single “Plenty Of Time.” For you, what is the process like in deciding what the first singles will be from an album, because in a lot of ways, they become the first impression for listeners, and as we all know, first impressions count?
Johnson: This album was tough to decide; I really like all the tunes. I just asked the band, my manager, and the label to pick three and we chose the most picked ones.
TrunkSpace: If someone sat down and listened to Tastes Like Yesterday front to back, what would they learn about you as both an artist and person?
Johnson: As an artist, I hope one might understand my dedication to creating original music and my love for sound and its ability to move people. As a person, you might learn that I love a good band!
TrunkSpace: What are you most proud of with the album?
Johnson: Sounds cheesy, but I’m most proud of how it all came together with all of my friends helping out. This was a truly collaborative record with the band and the producers all the way to the mastering. I feel like everyone got into it, put love into it and the result shows that.
TrunkSpace: We have all been in some form of lockdown for the majority of 2020. How much of your time spent social distancing has also been spent creating? Have you experienced a creative jolt during this period – and will it lead to another album?
Johnson: I actually haven’t… I’ve been canoeing more. I am constantly writing songs and making demos at my house… it’s just what I love to do.
TrunkSpace: Time machine question. If you could jump ahead 10 years and get a glimpse of what your career looks like a decade from now, would you take that journey? If not, why?
Johnson: No, time travel would probably be pretty weird. I guess we only get so many years, so I’d like to soak ‘em in.
Tastes Like Yesterday is available September 18. “Plenty of Time” is available now.
Pop culture junkies will recognize actress Jaime Ray Newman from her incredible catalog of on-screen performances that span both film and television, and while she considers herself an actress first, it is her work as a producer that is enabling her to now control her own creative destiny.
“If you want to be a storyteller, you have to take responsibility to tell stories that you feel passionate about also,” she said in an exclusive interview with TrunkSpace.
After taking home the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film in 2019 for Skin, she and her producing partner Guy Nattiv, who is also her husband, have a packed slate of projects in development – 14 by the current count. On camera, Newman can be seen in the recently-released Hulu series Little Fires Everywhere opposite Reese Witherspoon and in the film Valley of the Gods, arriving on VOD August 11.
We recently sat down with Newman to discuss chasing down the producing bug, creating in the time of Covid, and why she loves playing baddies.
TrunkSpace: As a producer, you won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film alongside of your producing partner and husband Guy Nattiv. Is that where your journey beyond acting began?
Newman: Well, I’m an actress first, but in a way, especially now, I feel like you can’t just do one thing. You just can’t. It’s too competitive. But even beyond that, you have to take some responsibility. If you want to be a storyteller, you have to take responsibility to tell stories that you feel passionate about also.
TrunkSpace: So it helps you control your own creative destiny?
Newman: Of course. As an actor, you are sitting around, you are auditioning 95 percent of the time. You look at these success stories, they’re like one out of a billion. Careers ebb and flow, and if you want to be busy in the artistic process, you have to be creating your own content. I was lucky that I met Guy 10 years ago. I had always wanted to produce – the first thing I produced was when I was in high school. They let me graduate high school a half a year early, a semester early, because I was producing plays. I used my bat mitzvah money. There was a play that I wanted to do called Keely and Du. Every year they would pick a production to produce and they wouldn’t produce the script because it had to do with abortion, and they thought it was too controversial. So I was like, “Okay…” and I literally took this $3,000 from my bat mitzvah account and rented a theater, turned it Equity and hired adult actors in the adult roles. And my dad actually directed it. (Laughter)
TrunkSpace: Wow. What a commitment, especially at that age.
Newman: It was a life changing experience for me. I loved it. So when I came to LA, I got really swept up. I got on a soap opera right away. I started acting pretty consistently straight out of the gate, but I always had the producing bug. I just didn’t know the material. I had trouble finding the material. So when I met Guy, I loved his work in Israel. And before we even fell in love as two humans, we started working on an American-Israeli collaboration together. And it was through that. The project never happened, but we fell in love. I mean, he’s my muse, and I’m his muse. We’re like mutual muses.
TrunkSpace: So in order to stay in the creative process, how important has it been to have these projects to work on during the pandemic? Has it been more apparent this year just how critical it is to control your own artistic destiny?
Newman: Yes. I wake up every morning thanking the stars, Guy, whoever you want to say. When you’re just an actor, you are completely at the mercy of someone else. And I couldn’t bear that. Guy and I are so fucking busy. I mean, I could show you in our office, we have a board with all of our projects. We have 14 projects. We are in development nonstop. We are the busiest we’ve ever been right now. Would I love to be on set, acting? Would I love to be auditioning for things? Yes, but I do feel creatively satisfied because our projects are heavily in development right now.
TrunkSpace: Would those projects not be as far along in development if you did not have this time of extended lockdown to focus on them?
Newman: That’s a great question. There’s two projects, one that came to us through our agents, and one that Guy and I – it’s a true story – that we were actually going to do as our next short. And because of lockdown, a production company said, “Listen, we will give you the development resources to write this. Just forget the short and go straight into the feature. Guy, write the feature.” And that would not have happened. We wouldn’t have had time. It’s an amazing story. And I think that it’s happening – Guy writing it – because of lockdown.
TrunkSpace: In looking at the projects you have in development, many of them are based on real people and real circumstances. For a producer, is there such a thing as a “producer’s voice” like there is for a writer?
Newman: One hundred percent. These are great questions. Hello, Terry Gross. (Laughter)
I think that our slate is pretty eclectic, but every piece of content that we are developing has some sort of social message – social or political. Just entertainment or escapism, I think is very important, it’s just not the stuff that we’re interested in producing. It takes years – decades – to make a project, and for us to spend that much time, literally for free, working on something, it has to have a deeper, more significant meaning.
We have a project about the first stunt woman in Hollywood called A Stunt Woman. It’s about Julie Ann Johnson. It took us almost two years to get her life rights. She wanted nothing to do with Hollywood anymore because she had been blacklisted for outing all of the bad behavior. And the thing that we love about this project is that it’s fun, wild and it’s set in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. It’s a period piece, crazy stunt work, all women, bad-ass, like Tarantino-esque, but it has the social underpinnings. The underlying foundation of it is a Norma Rae kind of woman, who couldn’t take it anymore and took the system by storm, and was punished for it, but changed our business forever because of it, for the better.
TrunkSpace: And it’s a story that, in many ways, has kind of been lost to history.
Newman: One hundred percent. She was the first Me Too movement. She was on the cover of TV Guide in 1978, and everyone gave her kudos for two weeks, and then everyone went back to business as usual.
TrunkSpace: One thing that is great about all of the projects that you and Guy are working on, and this includes Skin, is that they feel like the kind of movies we USED to be able to see before everything was a franchise or based on an existing brand. How important are things like VOD and streaming platforms to projects like those that you two have in development?
Newman: I am so grateful for the streamers. I think that independent cinema is going to survive because of the streamers. I really hope that there is still a world for not just Marvel movies in the theaters after we survive this pandemic. There’s an amazing article that our producer wrote – he produced Skin with us, and our next project, Harmonia, is also with him – a guy named Oren Moverman. He just was interviewed by the Hollywood Reporter on the state of independent cinema right now and the streamers. And you should just read it because he’s so intelligent and has such a pulse on what’s happening.
But, Harmonia is our next film. I really want to see it on a big screen. It hasn’t been made yet, but it’s something that I really want to witness on a big screen, just like Roma. We sought out Roma in the theater and went to see it. And I have friends who are like, “I fell asleep watching Roma.” And I’m like, “Did you watch it on your couch at home?”
TrunkSpace: Yeah, that’s true. It’s easy to not be as invested in a film when you are in the comfort of your own home.
Newman: You didn’t have the experience of it. It’s the Ikea theory, that if you build it… if you buy it and put your time and effort into it – tears into it – you’ll appreciate it more. It’s psychological in a way.
But these streamers… I was in Little Fires Everywhere, and it is very cinematic, but at the same time, Hulu paid for a 10-hour movie. No one’s going to go to a movie theater to see a 10-hour movie, but Lynn Shelton was able to make a 10-hour movie. So the streamers are allowing us to do that. Would I love to see A Stunt Woman on a big screen? Yeah, but am I so grateful that we potentially get to make this big, epic saga, but in a televised way, where you have to see it at home? I’ll take that trade off.
TrunkSpace: There are just so many ways for people to find a project today, which of course can be a double-edged sword. Really, all you can do is make the film or project that you want to make and then hope it finds its audience and connects with people.
Newman: That’s it. Because, like I said, you have to do so much work for free, and it takes decades and years, and you dedicate your life to something that you want to go see. And the truth is, the short was only made because we found Byron Widner, who Skin, the feature, is based on, 10 years ago. It was based on a documentary on MSNBC about the tattoo removal process, and it took us years. Guy wrote the script and every producer in town passed on it. We started shopping it in the summer of 2016 and everyone was like, “Hillary Clinton is about to become president. Racism died with Obama. This stuff doesn’t exist anymore.” Guy and I were like, “What are you talking about? We just spent years of research. Of course this shit exists.” And that’s why we made the short as a proof of concept to get the feature made.
TrunkSpace: When you’re acting in a project that you’re also producing, does actress Jaime ever butt heads with producer Jaime in terms of what they both want to achieve?
Newman: I will get back to you in about a year. (Laughter)
With Skin, the short, we paid for it with our retirement funds. I was such a basket case on that set because every one minute of overtime was coming out of our retirement money. I was such a mess on that set for the five-day shoot. There’s no way I could have acted in it. There’s no way. In the feature, there was a moment in time when I was going to play Julie, the female role, but we met Danielle Macdonald on the short and she was so perfect. She was so authentic. She’s so good. Both Guy and I were just like, “This is Julie.” There’s this quality to her that really is the real woman. And I think that it was such a learning experience for me shooting the feature that I’m glad I was just a producer on it.
When I did Little Fires Everywhere, Reese Witherspoon and I spoke mostly about producing, and I watched her juggling – on the phone producing and then she had her quiet space for the work. What I’ve learned is that producing is extremely chaotic. It is just wrangling in the chaos. Acting is very still. It is very focused. Even when you have a chaotic scene… they call it relax-itration, a relaxed concentrated nature, because then creativity can flow. So I have amazing examples of badass producers who’ve done it in the past, and I’ll just figure it out.
TrunkSpace: What is one lesson that you learned in making Skin that you’re going to apply to the next project?
Newman: Don’t invest your own money. (Laughter) I can’t even say that, because we changed our lives. I tell the story all the time. Guy was having so much trouble launching his career in the US. It had been five or six years. He hadn’t made a movie, nothing we were working on was being made, and we went to our financial advisor, sent him the short and we said to him, “We have a short, and we don’t know how to raise money for a short. Do you think that we should put our own money into it?” He was like, “No.” And then we said, “Can you read the script? I know you don’t normally read movie scripts, but it’s 20 pages. Can you read it?” And he called us Monday morning, and he was like, “You have to make this.”
TrunkSpace: You have been in so many great television series over the course of your career. What is one character you wished you had more time to spend with and explore further?
Newman: I played this crazy, werewolf basically, in Grimm. She was like this motorcycle-riding, leather-clad Blutbad. I did a couple episodes of that. I was supposed to do more, but then I think a show that I was on got picked up, and so they had to kill me off. I love playing the bad-asses. I don’t get cast in them that often, but I really like them. Even in Midnight, Texas, I started off as this sort of like Southern genteel, and then you find out that she’s just evil incarnate – this old thousand-year-old she-devil. I like playing the baddies.
Skin, the short, is available now on Amazon Prime Video. Little Fires Everywhere is available on Hulu. Valley of the Gods arrives August 11 on VOD.
