Mark Neeley & Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh Present :: “Pure Animation For Now People” - a Short Film
Mark, it’s been a while since we last spoke! How is your summer and what have you and the fam been up to as of late? As I’ve said before, you're a favorite of mine and it’s always a treat getting a heads up on projects you’re working on.
Great to talk to you again Dakota, and thank you! Yeah, I can’t believe we’re in mid-July already. The heatwave started here a few weeks ago so we’ve reached the point where the initial appeal of summer has already worn off. But I’ve been staying busy with various projects. Among other things, since the last time we spoke I’ve made a few new music videos for Allah-Las, and Beachwood Sparks, both of which I was really pleased with. And I’ve been going on a lot of early morning walks with my toddler before the humidity kicks in.
Before we get into your new project, “Pure Animation For Now People”, tell me about launching the new record label, Passing By Records with the incredible Yohei. With both of you being familiar with each other’s work as well as working together in the past, how did this initially become an idea and what have you guys got cooking that you can share with us?
When we started Passing By, it wasn’t supposed to be an actual label. Disk Union in Japan wanted to put out Yohei’s record “Echo You Know” earlier this year, which I did the artwork, and promotional stuff for. We had been pitching it for a couple years. Yohei wanted to retain the rights to the music so that we could also have options to later give it a North American release (which we did with Perpetual Doom), so we came up with Passing By as sort of an imprint to make it a co-release. Later after the album came out we decided, this exists now, what if we did something interesting with it? So although there’s zero money involved, we’re currently curating, and putting out a compilation album featuring some amazing, eclectic musicians. I wish I could tell you more about the theme, and some of the artists involved, but we’re a bit too early to reveal any details. Should have an update, or two in a couple months.
You interviewed our mutual hero, the great Mark Mothersbaugh of DEVO back in October of last year. As someone that writes for and contributes quite often to Aquarium Drunkard, you understand the sometimes sensitive dynamics of being a fan and professional when it comes to communicating with musicians. Did you have any sort of anxieties, or eager stress going into that interview?
Oh, absolutely. Another one like that was with Van Dyke Parks… they just felt surreal. The reason I asked Mark Mothersbaugh about my film was definitely due to how well that conversation went. We talked a bit about his history scoring animation in the interview, and the composer Raymond Scott, and stuff. But we also had a great off-the-cuff discussion about it, and my own work. I doubt I would have even considered asking him about my little film if not for that. What’s funny is that, and I’m showing my age here, I realized that I was aware of Mark years before I actually became a huge Devo fan, because of seeing his name on animation credits when I was pretty young. Some people may not realize that that was sort of his entryway into soundtrack composition, which quickly snowballed into his commercial work at Mutato Muzika, the Wes Anderson movies and becoming this prolific Hollywood composer. But Mark has been such an inspiration of mine for so long, from Devo to his solo work and even his visual artwork. About seven years ago or so, he had an exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center here including a musical performance with a six-sided keyboard he constructed. It was such a great, singular experience. In particular, I’ve had this obscure release of his called “Muzik for Insomniaks” for a long time, a cassette of his own version of ambient background music, that is a real favorite of mine. It was just a total thrill to have him do the soundtrack for “Pure Animation”.
What were you most excited to learn from Mark and what was your particular process for preparing for that piece? Jumping into the origins of “PAFNP”, how did the marvelous idea of creating this short film that would then be accompanied by Motherbaugh’s music come about? Once you got the green-light that he was onboard, what sort of feelings and emotions came on once you heard the surreal utterance of, ‘okay, yeah sure’?
Well, it’s funny because that was basically exactly the response. I was just elated and still am. The film came about because I really wanted to do another personal short film again. I hadn’t done one since my first short “Fragments” four years ago. That film did surprisingly well at film festivals, and such, despite coming out right when the pandemic hit. But I really never anticipated that my freelance career would take off the way it did in the subsequent years, especially with animating music videos, and promotional things. I was able to do so schedule-wise by only making the film one minute long, which is actually a filmmaking experiment I’ve always been interested in. I made a loose storyboard, and worked on it slowly between commercial projects. I didn’t really start thinking about the music until it was roughly finished, and that’s when I reached out to Mark. It was pretty sporadic, and just worked out.
Mixing multiple mediums such as your signature animation, an 8mm film scene that features mixed media and photography, what was the grand vision and all around approach you wanted to take with this special project? With the film currently surfing the film circuit and time to reflect on the project, what did you think of Mark’s all around participation and style and how much did that impact you both as a fan as well as the wonderful artist you are?
I think of the film as an experiment, especially with the length. The title is a play on the original title of Nick Lowe’s debut album “Pure Pop for Now People”, which I’ve always loved because it’s obviously a sarcastic reference, but also fits it perfectly, sort of like the ethos of Roxy Music, or something. And it’s kind of interesting that back in that era, “Now” was used as this hip, intellectual adjective to describe music, or film in that zeitgeist. For example, literally as I was making the film I also noticed that the back cover of the first Soft Machine album also describes it as a “Now” sound. Of course, in this case, that irony is promoting those grandiose elements for a little one minute indie film. The essence of it is sort of breaking animation down to the pure elements: the walk cycle, transformative scenes, black and white versus colour. For that mixed media scene, I sourced some 8mm film footage, and photographs from some friends who do really great work: Satomi Sugiyama, Owen Summers, Laura Moreau, and Jannes Jaeger. There’s something a little similar in my first film with a collage sequence of 35mm photographs. I think I just like the idea of it showing up sporadically, and being a little collaborative effort. As for the soundtrack, I sent Mark the finished film, and when he came back with the muzik, I thought it was just perfect. There’s a playfulness to it that I thought was just the ideal fit. The film’s first two screenings will debut at the Indie Visionary Festival (Zagreb, Croatia) on July 16, and Sinema Obscura (Chicago, IL) on July 24.
