May 19th, 2009
So it’s taken ages. It’s come through different incarnations. 3 hard drive crashes. Tens of lost tracks. Pain. Re-evaluation. Fear of computers. Determination. New ideas. A new third member. Finally AFROBEAR is here.
AFROBEAR is myself, AFROSAXON and Stac. Our three person musical project.
Hip-Hop sensibilities, a love for warm sounds and honest lyrics, a need for jokes and a philosophy that anything goes as long as is great.
We do not want to do what has been done. We are not a rhymer and DJ with a female vocalist. We are not gunning to be the ‘new’ anyone.
We are three people who write and make tracks trying to impress each other and we have a plan.
The AFROBEAR plan is to create a project that exists online. A home base where not only tracks, but the process behind the tracks, the stories underneath songs and their making are there for everyone to share.
We make lots and we will upload everything. Sketches, ideas, rough drafts, rehearsals, lyrics, video, remixes, vocals, acoustic sessions, artwork, thoughts.
There will be gigs. But you will not see us on the road relentlessly touring the well-worn paths of bands searching for something.
We know what we are and what we want, we just have no idea what will happen and we think that’s how it should be.
2009 is just the beginning and we’re excited.
www.myspace.com/afrobearmusic
May 19th, 2009
“Writers must not study cinema, they must study themselves”
Paul Schrader
I’m only excited by what I haven’t done. It took so long for me to realize that writing was something that I could do for real that my head is full of ideas. They are waiting in a line like at the supermarket delicatessen, each one with a little number waiting to be called. After writing shorter pieces to perform I started to get excited about writing something bigger in both length and density. The opportunity came up via Apples & Snakes ‘Exposed’ tour. For that tour I wrote a piece called ‘Alexander The Grape’ about family and the roles we are given and how superficial they can be.
After that I was asked what I wanted to do next and the next number in the queue stepped forward in the shape of ‘If I Cover My Nose You Can’t See Me’.
This was a big one, an idea for a story that had been in my head for years.
The idea of losing someone and what we do to replace them and cope. What are we capable of creating in our mind and what do we suppress. I went further than I had gone before in terms of writing and performance as well as working with a director (Yael Shavit) for the first time. Yael got me into the story and we developed a process of working that I now apply to everything. Goonism created the perfect visual representations of characters and scenes. He’s brilliant. The whole process was completely satisfying.
Which brings me to now and to ‘RETURN’. Leaving and coming back to a place is not an idea that hasn’t been explored in many forms. Stories about facing up to things you left behind and overcoming the past have always excited me. What I wanted to do though was not tell another one of those. “Man leaves a place to get away from bad stuff. Man has to come back for some righteous reason. Man has to face up to characters from the past to achieve redemption”. Not for me.
What I find interesting is the idea of undermining the drama. Having to come to terms with the realization that things carry on. The reality being that nothing stops.
‘RETURN’ is a story about a man who is a product of where he is from and his realization of that fact. I want to write a story about someone figuring out where they fit.
Form wise I want push myself beyond what I have already done. The first person character monologue of ‘Alexander’ and larger ‘If I Cover My Nose’ worked, so this time I wanted to narrate a story in 3rd person but also be in it. I’m working with Yael again and her input is shaping the story so that it becomes a spoken film. Can I hold an audience by simply asking them to see what I see? Can I speak a screenplay? Can I do what I have wanted to do from the very beginning and talk a film?
“The film’s precursor is the story around the campfire. In that story we hear and we imagine; in the film we see and we imagine. The structural nature of film allows the imagination to reign……” - David Mamet
