2005.10.DD - SugarBuzz Magazine - Interview with Dizzy

Transcript:
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Interviewer: Hi, I’m Diane Diamond. I’m here with Dizzy Reed from Guns N’ Roses and Hookers & Blow. We’re here in New Jersey and they’re going to be playing a set. They just started their tour tonight; it’s first night on tour. How are you doing?

Dizzy: I’m doing great. I feel fantastic.

Interviewer: You’re gonna be on here for a couple of weeks now?

Dizzy: Yeah, we’re doing a little two-week long here and we back out in the end of October, so [inaudible].

Interviewer: Uh-hah. And you’re also involved – you’re still involved with Axl, with Guns N’ Roses, right?

Dizzy: As far as I know, yes, I am (laughs). I haven’t heard any differently. But no – absolutely. From what I’m told and what I hear, there should be a record out very, very soon.

Interviewer: Dizzy, how long have you been playing? I mean, how long have you been – you play keyboards, you play guitar... Have you been doing this all your life?  

Dizzy: I’ve been in bands pretty much since I was, I don’t know, 11. I started playing bars and stuff when I was a kid. So yeah, pretty much my whole life. And I’m a keyboard player. I play guitar for fun, I write on guitar, but I don’t really consider myself a guitar player. Scott is a guitar player. Not me.

Interviewer: Do you have any new material coming out? Are you planning a CD in the future?

Dizzy: You know what, I’ve been working on a movie called “It’s a Still Life” and it’s gonna be a fantastic soundtrack. I’ve been doing the score for that, as well. Hookers & Blow have some songs coming out pretty soon for some movies and various things, and eventually a CD. And I wanna put out something of my own material, too, pretty soon.

Interviewer: It sounds like you were pretty busy. I also heard that you did some stuff just, like, on the piano at some piano bars.

Dizzy: Yeah, there’s a place called Rum Runners down in Destin, Florida, which I’ve been playing down there, like, all the holidays this year: Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day... I actually just came from there. I’m probably gonna be doing a lot of those places up in the Midwest, I think, pretty soon - but I’m not sure, so don’t mark it on your calendar yet. But it’s fun and it’s good for me. It kind of puts me on the spot, it’s good pressure. It’s a good experience. It’s a new experience and it’s fun.  

Interviewer: And then also you’re working with one of the Stray Cats, Slim Jim?

Dizzy: Well, when I’m in L.A., I play at a place called the Cat Club - that’s pretty much where I met all the guys from Hookers & Blow – which is on Sunset Boulevard there. Every Thursday night I play with the Starfuckers, which is Slim Jim - he plays drums - and a few other cats, Eric Dover and this guy, Stefan Adika - "this guy"... Stefan Adika, who plays bass (laughs). That’s so... (laughs). Anyway. Every Thursday night you can see the Starfuckers at the Cat Club in Hollywood.

Interviewer: And you have a website, and anything else you want to play while we’re doing this?

Dizzy: You know, Hookers & Blow have hookersnblowme.com, which you can find out when we’re coming to your town to terrorize you and your kids or whatever. Then also on dizzyreed.com, which has all the dates that I do with everybody, always updated – under the News page, not the Bio page.

Interviewer: Okay.

Dizzy: And you can find out. Actually, you know what? I’ll go into my Bio when I get home and talk about Hooker fugitive model girlfriends.

Interviewer: Thank you for the interview. It’s really nice meeting you.

Dizzy: Thanks. My pleasure.

Sp1at did three interviews with Joel Miller, the director of "The Still Life" movie. Joel Miller had previously worked as a roadie for various bands, including Guns N' Roses for the shows at the House of Blues and Rock in Rio in 2001. He recently released a book called "Memoirs of a roadie".

Sp1at, May 15, 2005:
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Interview with writer and director of "The Still Life", Joel Miller

Splat: What’s “The Still Life” about?

Joel: It’s about a guy who paints a painting, and then destroys the painting in a fit of rage. The next day, an art critic comes and really likes the destroyed painting. Together, they create an art movement called “destructionism”. The guy finds it really difficult to put all his creativity into this product knowing he has to destroy it. And it messes him up as an individual. He becomes popular off of something he didn’t anticipate, and unfortunately it takes away from his creativity and who he is. When someone attacks who you are inside, your creative product, it’s a heavy-duty thing. And it takes a toll on him personally because he has become something he never wanted. The whole movie is a learning curve for Julian (the main character), a lesson for “stay true to who you are.” When he tries to change things up and become a “true artist”, he finds it’s too hard now because he’s become known as whom he is, the “father of destructionism”. It’s because he’s built up as this persona and it isn’t who he thinks he is.

Splat: Would it be right to say that this guy feels like he’s been pigeonholed, and he hates it?

Joel: He’s definitely been pigeonholed and he learns to hate it. It takes some time.

Splat: What inspired the story for “The Still Life”?

Joel: The first thing is that I feel that people don’t look into things anymore. We like things for face-value purposes. If a song’s good, cool. We don’t necessarily listen to the lyrics, and we don’t listen to a lot of what’s behind it. So, I picked art. Julian’s an artist. People don’t look into art. So, if you like Van Gogh you need to understand why you like Van Gogh, and why you like Van Gogh isn’t because everyone else likes Van Gogh, but because the guy was amazing, and the guy was amazing because his art was so emotional. To paint a painting with that much emotion is pretty amazing. What makes a song good a lot of times is the emotion behind it. But, what’s behind that emotion? People don’t think about what goes behind the creation. There’s this song called, “God Don’t Like It” by Blind Willie McTell. An old, old blues song from the 1920’s. It’s a song I really dug because to me it’s like the original punk song. The guy’s basically saying “God don’t like it, and I don’t either.” And he’s talking about drinking. So, you work all week, and get one night off to go out and get drunk, and have some guy there telling you not drink because God don’t like it. That’s pretty damn punk to me. The idea of diamond-in-rough, this guy just disappeared in the city, they don’t really know what happened to him, I really liked that. With Julian, I wanted to create that same sort of person, that diamond-in-the-rough, that didn’t always do what was right. Then I wanted to create something with art because I knew a lot about it. I wrote about what I know. Then I wanted to create an art movement, ‘cause that’s what every artist wants to do because it’s so hard to make something new up. When I was young, me and my dad went to see a Manet painting. My dad thought it was amazing that centuries after he died, people still come to see and revere his work. I was young, like 10, and I was like, “What do you care? You’re going to be dead anyway.” And it’s not the nicest thing to say, but it’s something that kind of stuck with me. And it’s something that’s a good idea to explore, and it could be a good content to write about. That’s where the catch-phrase comes out, “Is an artist's art really worth his reward?” Is it worth it if you’re the kind of artist who goes through a lot of misery, is it worth it to leave your mark knowing you got to live a crappy life for it? Those were all the things I was trying to explore. You got to spend a lot time to understand the people you revere, and also understanding their faults.

Splat: Did your touring experiences help in the writing/directing of the film?

Joel: No, not really. Managing people is the only thing. Managing a lot of stage hands.

Splat: What kind of obstacles came up that you hadn’t anticipated before the project?

Joel: My caterer left in the middle of the production. It’s a big deal when the crew isn’t happy getting fed. I had to go to Costco to food on top of shooting. It sounds like “blah, blah, blah”, but it was a big deal. I had my mom catering, and my girlfriend helping. The make-up guy had stuff stolen out of his car, while he was hooking up with some girl. Then he decided not to come to work anymore without calling me. That was a fiasco. It’s hard to be able to shoot. Finding a good shooting environment is a difficult thing. Cops came down fives times to the production. I didn’t have permits. You got to schmooze them and hope they go away. They did, they were actually very cool to me the whole time. They just wanted to make sure we weren’t doing porn. We were shooting in Chatsworth, which is the porn capital of the world. The cops drove by and were like, “You’re not in the street are you?” “No sir, no way.” They said, “O.K.”, and then they drove away. The everyday stuff is the hardest part. Just makin’ sure it’s cruisin’ through. There was so much paperwork. But, we had fun. Everyday people told me how much they enjoyed the set. My whole crew worked for free. You got to make it fun. People were amazed at what a chilled set it was, and how much fun people seemed to be having.

Splat: It’s cool that you can keep that kind of environment going on.

Joel: In any boss-type role, if you can be chill, you can get people working for you to do way, way better. That’s because they’re not scared, they’re not stressed out. If they’re not stressed out, they can do a good job because their brain isn’t cluttered. That includes actors and everybody. When I wanted them to be aggressive I was aggressive in telling them. But, I didn’t do any Hitchcock stuff, like throwing cold water on them. The success of anything that has come, or will come from this project is all out of public relations. You know, just being cool. If you’re cool, people will be cool back.

Splat: Any concerns on your part, or the people around you, that the musicians’ cameos might be distracting to the audience?

Joel: No, I made sure they didn’t have those concerns. The reason was they’re musicians hired as actors. I’m not hiring them as anything else. The roles were written in a way that could be really good. Jonathan Davis is good. Josh Todd is really funny. Doug (Descendants) is funny, he plays a security guard. Louise Post is a good actress. She did a good job. Things have a really neat way of working themselves out. There’s no position I regretted having a rockstar in.

Splat: You think the roles they were in could bring out their strengths?

Joel: They were all regular people roles. It’s not cool to have people who are not regular people playing regular people. It’s not like they had 15 pages of dialogue to remember. It’s a lot easier then. It’s chill. It’s not like I had eight million takes because the guys were so bad. Dizzy plays piano really well, surprisingly! (laughs). Louise remembered how to play the guitar (laughs). If they don’t have any fear about doing a bad job, they’ll do a good job. It was really damn fun.

Splat: What’s the film’s soundtrack going to be like?

Joel: Well the plan is to have Josh Todd and Dizzy put it together. Dizzy and Louise Post are doing an acoustic version of a Veruca Salt song from the first Veruca Salt album. In the movie, Dizzy’s playing piano and Louise is playing guitar and singing. Matt Nelson sings a song on the soundtrack. We’re going to use stuff from Delaney (Bramlett), too. Josh didn’t sing in the movie, but will be on soundtrack. I had heard a bunch of Dizzy’s new material. He gave me a 10 song demo of his new stuff. I just wanted to hear stuff from him without Guns N’ Roses. It’s really good. I’m sure we’ll steal a couple songs for the soundtrack (laughs). Basically, I’m just putting Josh and Dizzy together in a room and saying, “You guys figure it out.” That way it’ll come out a lot better. Whether they want to do one of Dizzy’s songs, or if they want to start writing stuff together.

Splat: How would you describe Dizzy’s stuff, stylistically?

Joel: It’s rock. It’s just good old-fashioned rock. It’s pretty aggressive. It’s got great harmonies.

Splat: Were they just tracks, or was there everything on them?

Joel: There’s everything on the demos, guitar, bass, piano, drums and singing. He produced them all himself.

Splat: So, there is every instrument part, or he recorded every instrument part?

Joel: He played everything on it. Maybe he did the drums on the keyboard. I don’t know, I haven’t asked him. When you hear his solo stuff you can really hear his voice. When you listen to Guns stuff, you’ll be like, “Wow, you can really hear him.” He sounds a lot like Axl. I think so, but maybe that’s because they've been working together for so long, I want him to (laughs).

Splat: That soundtrack sounds really cool. It sounds awesome.

Joel: It’s something I’m looking forward to. It’s something I’m excited about.

Splat: You were a roadie for GN’R for the HOB 2000 and Rock In Rio III shows. What was that like?

Joel: It was pretty amazing. The first CD I ever bought was Appetite For Destruction, so to be able to work for a band so influential and important to me personally, was as rewarding as any life experience could be. It was just great. On top of that, to hear them and they’re still really good, was even cooler. Axl was really cool to me. I got to watch them rehearse when there were only two or three other people in the room for months. It’s like getting a lifetime Disneyland pass. The band was just coming together, and there was a lot of hanging out. I talked to Bucket a lot. He was a really nice guy, really into horror films. He was very polite and gentle. Brain was cool. He was like a king on the throne on the drumset. You can just see that he’s about to rock. I remember it was a big deal because of the three guitar players. Robin’s awesome, really, really amazing. He was very interesting. He’s extremely intelligent. So, getting into a conversation with him was really interesting because he’s a very smart guy. The neatest thing was sitting there and watching. It was so cool.

And a few years later, Dizzy’s manager called me and said, “Have you heard of Dizzy Reed?” I was like, “Yeah, I worked for him.” Also, Dizzy had a long conversation at the wrap party with Angelo (Fishbone). Which was really cool. Here’s these two music icons that I’m friends with, talking about music.

Splat: I saw the band (Guns N’ Roses) play the year after (Rock in Rio III and HOB 2000) at the Joint, which is the club inside the Hard Rock Hotel, and I was completely blown away by how powerful the band sounded.

Joel: They’re pretty strong. There were a lot juices going through it.

Splat: Oh yeah, the old material didn’t sound old at all. It sounded really fresh and really vital. And just so aggressive, it was downright nasty and amazing.

Joel: There you go, there’s one thing I remember, Axl said I could make a good of tea because there’s English blood coming out of me. It was really big deal for the first guy that contacted me from your website that I was from England.

Splat: Did you get to hear any of the new GN’R stuff that they didn’t play live?

Joel: No, not really. I think everything I heard, they played live. Did they play “Silkworms” live? I remember that was a Dizzy song.

Splat: Yeah, I remember that Axl said at the Rio show that Dizzy and Chris Pittman put it together.

Joel: Then, you know about “Madagascar”, “The Blues”, and “Chinese Democracy”. There were a few others, but I don’t remember. It was a while ago.

Splat: What are the future plans for you personally, writing and directing, and Albion Entertainment?

Joel: I’ll continue to write. I’m working on another screenplay. Albion will continue to produce and manage products. I want to manage talent. I’m going to probably manage talent. I’ll be representing Al Snow, the wrestler. I’m probably going to manage music talent for acting. I’ll produce and direct another film through Albion.

Splat: Anything you’d want to say to all the people who read our site?

Joel: I really appreciate all the support and all the fans that think what I did is cool. I really appreciate that. I won’t let anybody down. There are good performances across the board. I want to thank my girlfriend.

Splat: And the good Persian food.

Joel: And all the good Persian food (laughs). I think it’s cool that bands like Guns N’ Roses can maintain a dedicated following that’s this strong for this amount of time. I think it’s amazing and really impressive.

Splat: Thanks again for the time. Take care of yourself, Joel.

http://web.archive.org/web/20060707002308/http://www.sp1at.com/item.php?id=401

Sp1at, August 22, 2005:
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Interview with Joel Miller (The Still Life) Part 2

This is Splat’s second interview with writer/director Joel Miller, who’s upcoming film, The Still Life, is set to feature Josh Todd of Buckcherry, Dizzy Reed of Guns N’ Roses, and Louise Post of Veruca Salt in the film and on the film’s soundtrack. Dizzy Reed is also scoring the film. In our latest interview, Joel gives an update as to the status of the film, and describes the process by which Dizzy Reed writes the film’s score.
Joel Miller Interview – Part 2.

Splat: What’s the latest on the film?

Joel Miller: We locked the picture which means the editing of the footage is locked in, which means it now looks how it will appear in the theaters when it is released. So we started doing the music on Monday (August 8th). Dizzy and I have been working together on the music. Dizzy’s pretty much the music supervisor. Dizzy’s been composing everything. He started composing music on Monday. In the studio it’s been me, Dizzy, and Eddie Hedges from Blessed Union of Souls. Eddie has been engineering and putting it together, Dizzy’s been writing stuff on the piano. We’ve been locking in scenes for characters and things like that. The submission deadline for Sundance is September 16th, and our goal will be to have everything completed by then. And the posters are on the webpage, and will be completely done by the end of the week. The visual effects are now being done in San Francisco.

Splat: For those of us who are not film-educated, when you talk about the visual effects being done on the film, what does that mean?

Joel: The end of the film is strongly changed by visual effects. What that means is that they take the film itself and components to it. So, I could make you look like a tall, big-boobied girl, and people would like you better.

Splat: Yeah, probably.

Joel: There are little things in the film that I don’t like that most people probably wouldn’t notice. In the background in the wall, there might be a mark on the wall that doesn’t look good. There could be a rip in a piece of furniture that we can cover up. Things that we can hide that are in the background. There’s a scene where they’re just talking in the car, the main character, played by Jason Barry, and the lady who owns the apartment building he lives in, her name is Mrs. Stratford, played by Terry Moore, and in the background you see a drainpipe. I don’t like the drainpipe, so they’re going to erase the drainpipe and make it green like the grass. Little things like that. I think it’s actually really cool that they can do things like that, I’m really into it.

Splat: Is there a point where the actors may have to come in and re-record lines of dialogue?

Joel: I’m actually on my way there tonight. It’s called ADR. I’m going to do ADR with Rachel Miner, who’s the female lead. What that is, is that she comes in and re-does a few lines. Either they didn’t come across well because the mikes didn’t pick up her voice perfectly. Or, when we’re finished, the line delivery is not exactly as I like it. I’ll have her stuff finished this evening, for the most part. There will be a couple of other actors who need to do ADR but we didn’t have to do much of that. We had good actors, so we didn’t have to worry about it too much.

Splat: So you have the visual editing, the visual effects…

Joel: And the sound.

Splat: And the sound?

Joel: That’s the last component. The sound is two things, so there’s dialogue editing, which kind of fits into ADR. Dialogue editing means depending on which take we use, there are different sounds in the background. You see you and I on a screen talking to each other, that’s one take, and you see a close-up of me and you’re not standing next to me, that’s another take. If a car drives by on a close-up of me, and I was integrating you and I, I’d have to get rid of the (sound of the) car. So, that’s what he’s doing as far as that kind of stuff. Also, the main character’s car drives up and turns off, we have to add the sound effect of the car turning off. It wasn’t picked up the way we wanted it. Doors closing, feet shuffling, glass breaking, things like that. And that is everything that’s left on the film. Then it will be packaging, which, we’ll have the posters done soon. So, that should be pretty quick, too.

Splat: Right, and the (film’s) message board is up and running, for those of you who don’t know yet.

Joel: The message board is up and running. People can go there, they can ask any questions they want to about any of the actors. They can post any observations or comments they want to. They can also open up new threads to talk about stuff. They’re welcome to check it out, and its’ www.albionentertainment.com. I’ve also got www.stilllifemovie.com, and we’re going to integrate that into the site pretty soon, so they can type in either one, which ever one is easier for them. Feel free to post whatever. I like the message board, it’s kind of a neat thing to have. It gives people an opportunity to get into things. It’s pretty cool. I’m going to start posting information on the film, so people know what’s going on with the film.

Splat: So, go to the message board if there’s anything you want to ask! (laughs)

Joel:Yeah, and if they want to talk about molecular biology, you can help us out.

Splat: Yeah. If you have any questions about science as well, I can help out with that. (laughs).

Joel: Those are important questions too, Ali.

Splat: (sarcastically) Yes, let’s not diminish the significance of science. I can’t let that happen. It’s an important thing. (laughs).

Splat: Going back to something you said earlier, Dizzy acting as the music supervisor. Is Dizzy actually scoring the film then?

Joel: Yeah, he is.

Splat: Oh, wow! Sweet!!

Joel: He’s scoring the film. So, when I say “us”, I don’t play an instrument. I definitely have sounds in my head. Most of the time, a director will be like, “No, no. This scene is supposed mean this.” My terms are pretty obvious. A lot of the parts are like, “This guy’s a mean, mean man.” It’s kind of like, “No kidding.” He’s (Dizzy’s) coming up with, do we want a sound to sound too sinister, too chill, what kind of vibe are we taking? So, what Dizzy wrote yesterday, we took from the scene and we have Peruvian flutes and things like that. So, it’s kind of, I would assume, uncharacteristic of what you would expect to hear come out of Dizzy’s head, but it just shows that the guy’s a musical genius. He’s awesome. We are going to try and provide a wide variety of eclecticism in the music, and it’s all pretty much out of Dizzy right now. Dizzy’s written everything so far. Tomorrow we’re re-recording the song from Matthew Nelson that he played in the movie. It’s called “Movin On”. And on Friday, we’re going to re-record the song with Dizzy and Louise for the soundtrack, too. Louise (Post) from Veruca Salt. After that’s done, we’ll get back into the scoring. Dizzy’s doing the score. Dizzy’s going to write some tunes, I think, for the soundtrack. But, right now we’re trying to focus on the score.

Splat: So, the whole purpose of scoring is that underscores the mood, or enhances the mood in the film. Is that really what you’re going for with the film score?

Joel: Well, it either underscores or enhances it. It can bring out, or it can delineate. Music, as you know, can change the effect of anything. It gives it feel. So, we’re giving it feel right now.

Splat: The song that Dizzy and Louise Post did, was that in fact a cover of a Veruca Salt song?

Joel: Dizzy actually told me yesterday, I wasn’t aware. But, I put Dizzy in touch with Louise. Louise has a song called “Spiderman ‘79”, on Veruca Salt’s first album, and Dizzy took it and he made a piano song. And Dizzy told me that, apparently, Louise was like, “That’s awesome!” So they took the song, which I’m told sounds really, really different than Dizzy and her did, and they made it more so it’s like the piano and her singing, playing guitar. Louise really dug it. It sounds really cool in the movie. I need to go and get the original and check it out, and see the difference. But, from what Louise has told me, it’s a pretty big difference. So, that’s the deal with that song.

Splat: I don’t recall the original, either. So it will be cool to compare and contrast the two.

Joel: It will be cool to check it out. I think it’s one of their bigger hits because Louise has a message board on her website. Some of her fans were talking about it. And one girl posted that it was her favorite song of theirs.

Splat: Can you say who is, or who will be in the end, featured on the film’s soundtrack?

Joel: Right now, we’re kind of composing who will be involved. I can tell you for sure Dizzy. I can tell you for sure Eddie Hedges (Blessed Union of Souls). I can tell you for sure Dean Dinning from Toad the Wet Sprocket. Josh Todd (Buckcherry) is going to write a song. I should have some more names for you, but I prefer to wait until we talk next time, and I’ll tell you. Louise (Post) will be (on the soundtrack). Matt Nelson will be (on the soundtrack). I could tell you the other people by next week. I don’t want to throw a lot of ifs, ands and maybes at you. I don’t want to be that guy.

Splat: Oh, I understand. I understand. I appreciate that.

Splat: So, at this point, because you’re still working on the score, you don’t have a firm idea of what kind of material will be on the soundtrack, right? I mean, is it going to be hard rock, singer-songwriter type?

Joel: I’d like to vary it up. I have Dean’s song already and Dean’s song is with a guy named Sonny Mone. Sonny was the singer of Crazy Horse before Neil Young. It’s very James Taylor-sounding. He gave me a five-song demo, and it’s the song that I listened to and was like, “Yeah! That’s a cool song.” So, we pulled that one. Dizzy’s stuff is going to be more rock. I think what Josh is writing is going to be him and the guitar. I think he’s going to play the drums too, I’m not sure. But, that’s what I think he intends to do. Josh is actually in Japan doing a few shows, so he’s going to get to it when he gets back. Eddie Hedges and I wrote a song together, actually. I wrote a lot of the lyrics for it and Eddie wrote the song. It’s more of a pop-type song. That’s the vibe that I know of right now, but we’re not even half-way there yet, so things might change. Matt Nelson’s song is a folk-type song, and I really like it. Lousie’s song is a rock song that sounds unplugged. I’m really into singer-songwriter stuff, personally. So, you can never really have too much of that. But, it sure is nice to blend it up with some real-deal rock. Which Dizzy’s pretty good at (laughs)!

Splat: Yeah, he’s got a little bit of a track record with that (laughs).

Joel: Yeah, he’s o.k with that part (laughs). So, it should be good.

Splat: Yeah, I think he’s got that part down.

Joel: So what we’ve been doing, to sum it up, is we’ll play a scene, and Dizzy will watch the scene, and what’s neat is that he’ll watch the scene one time, and then he’ll just come up with it right away on the keyboard. It’ll be like, “How did that sound?” He’ll be asking me, and I’ll be like, “Yeah, that sounds good, of course (laughs)!” What’s really neat to watch is how quickly he can come up with these things that are really ingenious. So when it comes time for you to listen to the score, it wasn’t something that he took weeks and weeks to plan out. It’s something that came quickly. I think that’s really, really cool because the main character is an artist, and art is from inspiration. And really good art is something that comes to you quickly. Most people will tell you that a great song, or a great painting, or whatever, was done quickly. It came to them, and they just churned it out, and it was just there. Every now and then there’s a lot of work and chemistry, and weeks and weeks of re-writes, but sometimes its’ just like, “boom and it’s right there. A lot of times, that’s the neatest stuff. And with Dizzy, everything he’s done so far has been that. It’s been just the first pass. It’s been, “Yeah, that’s sweet!” And then we play through it again and add this, add that, this and that being the drums, violins, flutes, things like that. But the guy really is just incredible to watch him work. If you can call it work, I don’t know if you can call it work, really. But, it works for me (laughs).

Splat: So, he just watches a scene and whatever it inspires in him musically is what he’ll play that out?

Joel: He’ll play that out and then he’ll ask me. Actually, what he’ll do is he’ll ask me what the kind of feel is I have for the scene. And, I’ll tell him the feel I had in my head, and we don’t always agree but we will kind of both change it up to what we feel we’re seeing. I just want opinions. So, it’s interesting to see the decision they made recently is a pretty cool decision. The opinion I have is not necessarily the best one. People can give you varied opinions. We’ll talk about what we think it should be. And we’ll re-do it until we think it’s perfect.

Splat: So these other instruments you’re talking about, the flutes and violins, is that something that’s done with synth? I mean, are there synthesizers that are doing this?

Joel: Yeah. We just throw it all out there. He’s (Dizzy’s) actually playing all those instruments through the keyboards. We’ll probably have musicians come in and replace stuff, I think. Right now, I think we’re putting down strong temp tracks. So, we’re doing scene to scene to scene, and we’ll have to interlace them. Then we’ll probably get other musicians to play certain things on them. I think Dean from Toad the Wet Sprocket is going to be playing bass on some stuff. We’ve talked about other people coming in. Right now, it’s just getting it down to check out and get a feel for.

Splat: Is there anything else that you’d like to add to the people who will be reading the interview on the website?

Joel: Yeah, go ahead and ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask something. If you don’t understand anything about film making, ask something and we’ll answer you. Thanks to Splat for contacting me and helping me out.

Splat: Alright, Joel. Thank you and best of luck the rest of the way.

The Still Life can be pre-ordered on NetFlix by clicking on the link below: http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=70038122&trkid;=90529

For answers to questions about The Still Life, and filmmaking in general, go to: http://albion.socialsuicide.com/index.php

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Sp1at, October 28, 2005
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Interview with Joel Miller (The Still Life) Part 3

This is Splat’s third interview with writer/director Joel Miller, who’s upcoming film, “The Still Life”, is set to feature Josh Todd of Buckcherry, Dizzy Reed of Guns N’ Roses, and Louise Post of Veruca Salt in the film and Dizzy Reed on the film’s soundtrack. Dizzy Reed is also scoring the film. In our latest interview, Joel gives an update as to the status of the film, the film’s soundtrack and talks about the process of putting the soundtrack together.

Joel Miller Interview – Part 3.

What’s the latest with the film? Can you give us an update on its status?

I can happily say we are actually pretty much DONE! Dizzy and I dropped the score in on Tuesday. We recorded the last song with Dizzy singing on it on Saturday. It is called “Silent Light.” It is a pretty cool song. Dean and I put it together and Dizzy sang it. And then I’m super stoked to tell you guys that Darius Rucker sang the last song yesterday. Darius flew out here to sing the song cause he liked it. I wrote it with Dean. How cool is that… Darius told me he was hanging out with Adrian Young last week and Adrian asked him if he was gonna come sing on the soundtrack for the movie. Darius said Yep and cruised in this week as planned. Two classy guys. I have a lot of respect for all the musicians who came to help me out.

Last time we spoke, you said Dizzy was scoring the film. Any update’s on the film’s score?

Yeop, Dizzy composed about 90% of the score. Snake Sabo did the rest. It just rocks. Wait till you check it out. I’ll be honest in telling all you people that if you are looking to watch Batman you won’t dig the film. I didn’t have any kind of budget for that. Hell, Batman’s cape cost more than this movie. If you dig independent film though we really kicked some ass. Now for the score we are as cool as Batman. It ALL rips. The few people who have heard it (suit and tie people basically) are blown away!

Has the soundtrack been set, and if so, can you tell us about the artists that will be featured on it?

Yep we finished it with Darius. Here is a list of the people who performed on the soundtrack. Dizzy Reed (Guns N Roses), Adrian Young (No Doubt), Snake Sabo (Skid Row), Darius Rucker (Hootie and the Blowfish), Dean Dinning (Toad the Wet Sprocket), Louise Post (Veruca Salt), Eddie Hedges (Blessid Union of Souls), Matthew Nelson (The Nelsons), Delaney Bramlett, Doug Carrion (The Descendents), and Peter Finestone (Bad Religion) How is that for a combination of musicians?

Can you give us an idea of what the material on the soundtrack sounds like, stylistically-speaking?

It is honestly all over the place. There is a lot of punk stuff. There are a few bluesy songs, a few pop/rock songs, and then the finale song that Dizzy wrote that is a badass, full on, Rock song.

Is the soundtrack going to be available for fans to purchase? If so, what’s the latest on getting distribution for the soundtrack?

At some point yes. I am talking to a couple distributors now and trying to figure all that stuff out. To be honest all the paperwork stuff gets complicated so it’s been hard for me to manage all the stuff from that end. But we are almost done with it now. But to answer your question yeah it will be and I’ll let you know as soon as I sort out through who.

What’s been the most exciting part for you in the whole process of getting this soundtrack together?

What is really cool is to hear the feedback from the musicians about the project. A couple of the guys have told me now how really amazing it is that we got such an eclectic group of musicians on the album. Who would have ever thought that Dizzy would sing a song that one of the guys from Toad the Wet Sprocket co-wrote. Dizzy said that getting to write a song with Delaney Bramlett was one of the best experiences of his life. Hearing that kind of stuff just makes you feel good. I dig that part.

Looking back, what do you think are the most important lessons you’ve learned during the course of making this film, scoring it, and putting the soundtrack together?

I wish we started working on the tunes earlier. Dizzy is a busy guy. He’s always touring around. It has been hard trying to get all the music we need from him and also juggling his schedule. But in the end we got what we needed so it’s all good. All in all things have really gone well. In the film I wish I was able to have some other producers to take some of the weight off my shoulders but now that it is done I can’t complain. It was hard work though, real hard.

What’s next for the film and the soundtrack?

Distribution, distribution, distribution. I am talking to people now and trying to sort out how all that works. I have submitted the film to Sundance and Slamdance though so we’ll see what happens with that. I’m also going to submit to South by Southwest.

Is there anything you’d like to say to all the people who will be reading this?

Yeah, I love the fact that you guys are totally supporting the film and it seems that you find it interesting to see how all this stuff work. I’m like most of you in that I don’t know either. So I’ve been learning along the way. What is great for us is that we know we have a group of people that are supporting us all the way through. That kind of stuff keeps you going and I really (No Shit) mean that it has helped me get this far. I think you will all dig the film when we are done though so it will all have been worthwhile.

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