music

David Bowie – Blackstar

19 November 2015 by villia Leave a Comment

David Bowie ★

What can I say? Just watched this for the first time. I have no idea what to think. Bowie has a way of doing that. He creates something completely unexpected. Sure, he is a very talented artist, but the unpredictability and the willingness to take risks is probably why I regard him as the best rock star of all time. No competition. There are lots of great musicians, great stars, but Bowie is the man. Nobody else has managed to stay interesting (not always really good, but always interesting) for 50 years.

So, what do I think? No idea. Last time I had this WTF feeling after hearing a new Bowie song was in 1995 when he released 1.Outside. That was weird, difficult, unaccessible, but after listening to it a few times, it became a favourite.

As for this. ★ It seems to be about religion. Jesus is a scarecrow, Ahmen, a solitary candle at the centre of it all, the book with the ★, the women kneeling on the day of execusion. It definitely seems to be about religion, but it doesn’t glorify it. It makes it scary. People seem to have lost all individuality. They are spastic in their prayer. On the day he died.

Musically, it reminds me a bit of David Byrne and St. Vincent.

But what do I know? Except that this song is a real achievement. Bowie could easily be churning out China Girl like songs into eternity, basking in the glory of his past. But that would be boring. He doesn’t do boring. That’s why he’s the man.

Now, I’m off to watch this again. See if I can make sense of it.

Berlin Video Soundtrack?

14 June 2013 by villia Leave a Comment

As you won’t know, I will be visiting Berlin at the end of the month. The reason for this fantastic voyage is to shoot footage for a Bowie cover band that will be touring next winter.

When I come back, I will create a backdrop for the band but I also want to edit it into a little film for myself. A tribute to the man and the city. But there is a dilemma. Do I use Warszawa from the Low album or the Sense of Doubt / Moss Garden / Neuköln sequence from Heroes?

I have a slight preference, but do tell me what you think. If you have any idea at all what I’m talking a out.

Out of Sync

4 June 2013 by villia Leave a Comment

We live in an ever changing world. We can never stay in one place, because standing still is losing out to others that keep moving. We are losing if we are not winning.

This mentality is destroying the future. Our one planet is being exploited on a scale never before seen. We are genetically modifying plants, risking whole ecosystems. We are peeling layers of the earth, whole forests, to get to whatever resources lie underneath. Tar sands that help us fuel our cars that could have run on different energy if we’d been interested in researching alternatives. Bauxite to make aluminium to build weapons and cola cans, because we can’t be bothered to recycle.

But it’s not just the future we’re destroying. We are so focused on progress and profit that we won’t hesitate to destroy the past if a few bucks can be earned. Inner cities are neglected, left to degrade and are then sold to developers that bulldoze the whole thing and build luxury apartments for the few that can afford them. History and identity makes way for profit.

I just finished editing a video I shot on Saturday with the great singer-songwriter Rik van den Bosch. His message is so relevant, so strong, that I have decided to share the video here and now. It hasn’t been made public and I hope he will forgive me, but with Istanbul in the grips of massive riots because the government is out of sync with their people, I feel that this needs to be heard. They started out protesting against a public park being destroyed to build a shopping mall. Rik sings about his old neighbourhood being erased and the people having to relocate. We were standing in his old streets, looking at the boarded windows and graffiti. Him telling me about how his grandparents had met on that spot and about the old lady that used to… you get the idea. A street full of memories, waiting for the bulldozers.

Here is the first verse, and the video:
“I’m living on the ghost side of town
They’re turning everything upside down
They tear it down to the ground, when I’m not around
and the people they keep moving out, to the outskirts of town”

Inspiration

8 September 2012 by villia Leave a Comment

It’s Saturday morning and I’m sitting in my sunny garden, drinking coffee. Organ music echoes through the neighbourhood and black smoke rises from the old steam mill’s chimney. It’s Open Monuments Day in the village.

My five year old loves music. He asks me if I’ll take him to the church. He wants to listen to the organist. We get dressed and head around the corner.

As we sit there, the sun uses the stained glass windows to paint the walls in all the colours of the rainbow. A group of elderly people sit there, some with their eyes closed, enjoying the organ sound as it fills the space. And I’m looking at them. Wondering what’s on their mind. What they have gone through. What their life has been like. Ups and downs, happiness and sorrow. Different times. Times that I will never know. They are approaching the end, but they have experienced things I never will.

And I thought of a scene in Under the Black Sand, where the protagonist walks into a church. Suicidal, as all seems to be lost. And I saw the scene in a new and different light. I saw a way to make it engaging, colourful.

Inspiration is everywhere. We just need to get out the door and open our eyes.

Everything is Possible

6 September 2012 by villia Leave a Comment

If a book is good, or at least popular, chances are that someone will make a film based on it. But how often does the reverse happen?

Under the Black Sand wasn’t meant to be a novel. It started as a short film. I wrote the screenplay in the Netherlands, where I live, but the film would have to be set in Iceland. Being an optimist, I placed a message on a website where actors hang out. I found a male and a female. I met him and liked him. I had never met her before we started shooting. She had done some stage work and appeared in a TV series. Should be good enough, I thought. And it was. They were both perfect.

The film would need music. I was heavily into Mark Knopfler at the time. His keyboard player, Guy Fletcher, was dabbling in film music and I sent him a message through his website. Would he write music for my film? A stupid questions if you realise that I was totally unknown (still am) and he was the man behind classics such as Brothers in Arms. Strange things happen though. He saw the rough cut and sent a short message. “This film needs music.”

He spent his Christmas holiday writing music for my film. The tour was finished and he had worked on Mark’s live album. They would then go back to the studio in January. And still he found the time to write music for my short.

The moral of the story is that we should never give up before we try. The reasonable thing would have been to never contact him in the first place. Why would he even reply to my message, let alone spend time composing music for my Icelandic language no-budget film? That’s crazy talk! The man played on Money for Nothing and Calling Elvis. He worked with Tina Turner and God knows who else!

But he did reply and he did write music and and the results were beautiful. I can’t really describe the feeling when I play the album he released shortly afterwards and I hear the closing song. Black Sand Theme.

If you have an idea, try it out. Don’t give up. Never give up. Everything is possible.