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xxfanfiction-emo-trinityxx · 5 years

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Debt - Patrick Stump x Reader

Request: Hi, could you do a Patrick x Reader and FOB never really made it and just do small gigs, so Patrick is working part time in a music store and falls in love with a girl he works with? Like he starts to slip little love notes into her locker etc and always gets her a coffee if they're working early mornings. Eventually she finds out it's him leaving the love letters and it's just pure fluff

Word count: 2 853

Rubbing the last sleepiness out of your eyes, you pushed open the door to the backroom of the cozy record store you were working at. Lazy morning sun light fell through the small window at the far side of the room, beautifully painting the many particles of dust into the air.

You walked past the old wooden table that stood in the middle of the room, on which the leftovers of the still broken coffee machine were resting. The old thing had given up after having worked probably longer than you were alive, and one of your coworkers had decided on tearing it to pieces, in the hopes of fixing it. Judging by the carelessly discarded pieces, he had failed.

You sighed, picturing another long morning without your sweet, caffeinated treat, before pulling open the metal door to your locker. Just like the past couple of days, a small note, written on a piece of white paper, fluttered out, causing you to take a step back in surprise, but you caught the twirling note before it reached the floor.

You did not have to unfold the little paper to know that most likely it would contain another sweet message, like the others you had found so far. So instead of immediately opening it, you quickly pushed your bag and your jacket into the locker, pinned your name tag on your shirt, and locked the door to your locker again, before you leant against the window still, and took a deep breath, finally opening the little piece of paper.

“It’s hard to look at you, and not be blinded by the light of the thousand stars that seem to sparkle with your every move. Hearing your voice is like this spherical music that sometimes plays in documentaries about space, and everything just seems to fall in place.”

You smiled at the strange little note. It was not the first time that whoever had written these messages compared you to unusual phenomena of nature. In yesterday’s note, it had said your happiness refracted light like a prism, and was more colorful and varied than the Great Barrier Reef. But you did not mind, in fact you loved the unusual comparisons, and more than once you found yourself secretly thinking of a specific blonde coworker of yours, hoping that maybe he might be the one slipping the notes into your locker.

Anyways you knew for sure that if it really would be Patrick, you would not hesitate for a single split second to ask him out. But without knowing for sure it was him, you were far too timid to do that.

You were still deep in thought about a certain pair of blue eyes, when the bell to the shop rang, signaling someone had entered. You quickly slipped the note into your pocket, and stepped out of the break room into the shop.

The delicious smell of fresh, hot coffee immediately met your nose, and you almost whined a little, being reminded how the coffee machine was still broken.

“Black, two sugars, am I right?”

Sparkling blue eyes met yours as a warm paper cup got pressed into your hands.

“Ahm, yes,” you answered surprised, but a soft smile on your face as Patrick walked behind the counter you were already standing behind, and threw his jacked onto a box with old records.

“Knew it,” he grinned before taking a sip of his own coffee.

“How much do I owe you,” you asked, also carefully sipping on your hot beverage, relishing the taste of the bitter, yet sweet liquid as it ran down your throat.

“Nothing, it’s fine,” Patrick grinned, and hopped to sit on top of the counter.

“No really, how much?”

“Really nothing,” he assured you with a sweet smile that melted your heart.

“Thank you,” you whispered over the top of your cup, keeping your eyes on the young man.

“You’re welcome,” he replied cheerfully, holding your gaze for what would have usually been slightly too long, had it not been Patrick.

~*~

It was well in the middle of the day now, and Patrick had just finished helping his last customer, which gave him a little bit of time to carefully watch you. You had been sorting in new records when a helpless young girl had approached you. Now you were both standing in front of a shelf filled to the brim with records of classical pieces. Patrick had overheard how the girl was looking for something for her grandfather, and you had made it your responsibility to help her as well as possible. For about twenty minutes now you were walking her through the different composers, explaining their individual works, and the variety of records by multiple orchestras and conductors.

Patrick watched as your gesticulated, waving your hand through the air. He had noticed that you really did it rather often, especially when you were excited about something. Obviously he was aware that it seemed creepy, him watching you so intently, but he could not help himself. Whenever you were in the room, his gaze was magically pulled over to where you were, and when you were not around, his thoughts chased after the images of you that his memories had captured.

And it was not like he was trying to do something to you. He left notes with sweet comments, at least he hoped you thought they were sweet, and he brought you coffee. Maybe one day he would work up the courage to tell you how he felt, but not very soon, as he feared. Slipping that first note into your locker had already been the most terrifying thing he had ever done in his life, even more terrifying than the first concert with his little band. No way he would find it in him to walk up to you, and confess his feelings.

While his thoughts had gone wandering, he had not noticed how the girl you had helped, had decided on a record. You had walked up to the register with her, and brushed past Patrick, which made him jump in surprise.

“Welcome back in the land of the living,” you joked sweetly at his wide eyes while scanning the bar code of the vinyl.

Patrick wanted to slap himself, feeling embarrassed about having zoned out, but the smile on your lips was taking his breath away, and was more than making up for everything, so he just giggled quietly.

Noon ticked closer, and while the shop emptied a little over lunch time, Patrick’s stomach started complaining about the lack of food.

“Hungry,” you asked, standing next to Patrick.

With the lack of customers in the shop you had started working on organizing some paperwork. Patrick blushed a little, once more feeling embarrassed. You surely had to think he was a greedy-guts now.

“I’m starving too,” you stepped away from the counter and stretched your arms behind your back, “want me to pick something up from the bakery?”

You eyed Patrick carefully, waiting for his answer, until he nodded hesitantly.

“Here, five should be enough for a sandwich, right,” he wondered, fishing a five dollar bill from his pocket and handing it to you.

“Definitely,” you grinned, taking the money, “any preferences? Ham and cheese, egg and salad, tomato-mozzarella?”

Patrick watched you as you stepped into the break room, and grabbed your jacket, pulling the thin fabric over your shoulders.

“Tomato-Mozzarella sounds great, thanks,” he answered, quickly averting his gaze as you turned back to him.

“Any dessert? Muffin, cake, waffles, anything?”

“Nah, I’m fine,” he shook his head, looking down his body judgingly, “got enough on my hips.”

Your eyes followed his, noticing how he stared disapprovingly at the little outwards dent of his shirt around his belly. Admittedly you quiet liked that he was not one of these thin, tall bean stacks. He was round and soft, and very nice to hug. But this was probably hardly the right moment to tell him that you had given the, in his opinion few too many, pounds a lot of thought.

“Your loss,” you shrugged, “I’ll definitely get some strawberry cake.”

Patrick smiled at your comment, already looking forward to seeing the pride on your face when you would come back to the shop with your treasure.

You had just walked out the door, when you turned around again.

“Last chance, dessert?”

“I’m fine,” he smiled again, and you shook your head in bewilderment, stepping onto the street.

You really had wanted Patrick to agree on a dessert so you could surprise him with paying for it. Now it seemed like you would have to force him a little, because as much as Patrick wanted to deny it, you knew he was secretly craving something sweet after lunch.

~*~

Fifteen minutes later you entered back into to small shop. Patrick was sitting behind the counter on one of the swivel chairs, and hummed along to a tune that played over the stereo.

“I hope you like chocolate,” you grinned, throwing him the small paper bag with his sandwich and a chocolate muffin.

An involuntary grin spread over Patrick’s face as he tore open the bag, and the sweet smell of chocolate reached his nose.

“You are the impossible,” he sighed with a shake of his head, trying to sound annoyed.

You hopped onto the counter, just like Patrick had done a few hours prior, propping your feet against the arm rest of Patrick’s chair, and grinned.

“You can just admit that you love me,” you laughed, unpacking your own sandwich, and taking a bite.

Patrick watched you intently, fully aware that he was staring. Taking a deep breath, he tore himself back into the present.

“What can I say,” he joked, “you make it hard not to.”

Oh how true, he thought to himself.

~*~

The last two hours of your shift were spent chatting quietly. You ended up sharing the dessert, both of you eating half of the chocolate muffin, half of the strawberry cake. Patrick tried to pay you for the sweets, but you declined. So he made it into a game for the last rest of your workday to try and slip the money to you. You even caught him trying to put it into the pocket of your jacket, which you had put back onto the coat rag in the break room.

In the early afternoon more customers entered the shop again, and at times it almost got a little hectic, so that you were glad when finally your coworkers for the next shift arrived.

Patrick was still helping a customer, but you were desperate to get outside, hoping to spend the sunny afternoon in the park. You pulled open your locker, and almost expected another note to fall out, but of course there was nothing. How could there? The whole day so far the only ones back here had been Patrick and you, and you honestly did not think that any of the college kids from the afternoon shift would slip sweet, secret notes into your locker.

Grabbing your backpack and swinging it over your shoulder, you slammed the locker shut, and walked out of the break room, waving at your coworkers and Patrick, before you strode out of the shop into the sunny spring afternoon. When you had gotten lunch, you had already noticed that it would be a beautiful afternoon and evening, and even though the sun was already shining warmly, the wind was still cool. Shivering you rubbed your arms. Where was your jacket?

Sighing you remembered having left it on the coat rag, back at the shop, so you turned around, and skipped the few meters back into the shop.

“Missed us already,” Ben, the young man currently working the register, asked grinning.

“Sooo much,” you laughed, walking behind the counter, “I just forgot my jacket and-“

You had pushed open the door to the break room, finding Patrick standing in front of your locker. In his hand he was holding a small, neatly folded paper, which he had already pushed halfway underneath the thin metal door. Alarmed, his head shot around, and his eyes widened comically, his cheeks flushing pink as he realized that it was you who had disturbed him.

“What-“

Questioningly you looked at him, until it finally clicked. The notes you had been receiving over the past weeks had really been from Patrick all along!

Quickly you stepped into the room, and closed the door behind you, giving the two of you some more privacy to talk.

“It’s not-“ Patrick started, but stopped himself. “It’s exactly what it looks like.”

He hung his head, the note that was still clawed in his hand slipping out of your locker again.

“So the notes were from you,” you stated, taking a few careful steps towards Patrick, whose heart was painfully beating in his throat.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, keeping his eyes locked to the floor.

“Sorry for what? Sending me cute messages that made my day?”

“Sorry for making you think it would be someone… interesting. Someone who… you know… has more to offer. You must’ve thought it was someone really cool, and now it’s just me, sorry.”

“Just you?” you raised your eyebrows, the words Patrick spoke feeling like daggers in your heart, “I hoped the whole time that it was you! And really, you are a very cool person in my opinion, so please don’t say that!”

You had crossed the room, and were now standing right in front of Patrick. Gently you brushed your fingers over his hands.

“Will you look at me please,” you asked, your voice almost a little shaky.

Hesitantly Patrick lifted his eyes to follow your plea. At first he seemed scared, vulnerable, as if he was expecting you to shout at him any moment. But when you did not, instead slowly closed your fingers around his, and smiled softly, his expression relaxed. The fear melted away, the insecurity, and revealed warmth, which you had often seen in his eyes when he looked at you, only this time it was so much more intense.

“You don’t mind that it was me,” he asked quietly, his breath fanning over you cheeks, so close were you two standing.

“As I said, I really hoped it would be you, just didn’t think that would be possible,” you admitted.

A small smile pulled at Patrick’s lips, and his gaze got even softer. Nervously his eyes flickered to your lips and back up to your eyes, and he gulped a little.

“Can I kiss you,” he asked, his voice hoarse from nerves.

You nodded; your mouth all of a sudden too dry to talk. Patrick grinned a little more, and leant forward, pressing his lips against yours for a short moment, before he pulled away again, checking your expression. When he saw the soft pink hue on your cheeks, and the shy smile on your lips, his heart skipped a beat, and he quickly leant back in, this time kissing you hard. He pulled you flush against him by your hips, before he wrapped his arms around your back, keeping you close to his body. You gasped slightly, feeling like your heart was jumping out of your chest at his sudden action. Allowing him to take the lead, far too overwhelmed with what was happening, you wrapped your fingers into Patrick’s soft hair, feeling the single strands run through your fingers. Soon both of you were gasping for air, and you pulled away, giggling immediately when you saw how Patrick seemed literally to be glowing with joy.

“What,” he asked still smiling, but rubbing his neck nervously.

You shook your head, trying to contain your wide smile, and reached up to his neck, gently brushing over the smooth skin before pulling back again.

“Just… You.”

Patrick laughed quietly, realizing you had used the same words which just a minute ago had allowed to make him realize that you had a completely different image of him than he had expected.

“Do you… I don’t know, do you maybe wanna go for a coffee,” he offered, hopefully glancing at you.

“I’d love to go for an ice cream in the park, if you don’t mind,” you suggested in return, remembering your plan on going to the park, already having the spot in mind, which you wanted definitely show Patrick.

“That sounds amazing,” he nodded eagerly, and offered you his arm to link yours with.

“Wait, my jacket!”

Quickly you grabbed the jacket from the coat rag, making a small dollar note flutter from one of your pockets.

Narrowing your eyes, you turned to Patrick.

“I told you, you don’t need to pay me for the muffin!”

In pretend annoyance you stuffed the note into one of Patrick’s trouser pockets, then took the arm he was still offering you.

He sighed in resignation.

“Okay, but then I’ll pay for the ice cream.”

“No.”

“Yes, yes I will.”

“Patrick Stump, I can pay for my own food.”

“I know you can, but I want to invite you!”

“Okay.”

#patrick stump x reader #patrick stump fluff #patrick stump x reader fluff #patrick stump #fluff #fluffy #cute #record store #record store au #coffee #fanfiction #fanfic #fall out boy

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musiconanironingboard · 4 years

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30 July 2019: Tragic Figures, Savage Republic. (2005 Mobilization expanded reissue of 1982 Independent Project release)

There’s a tiny bar/venue in Chicago called the Burlington and they aren’t great about promoting their gigs, even though sometimes they get really noteworthy acts. I was wrapping up my workday when I saw a friend’s post that he was seeing Savage Republic that night at the Burlington. There was no question about it; I dropped everything and made plans to go there as well. Savage Republic isn’t a band I’ve followed closely—quite literally, I couldn’t name or hum a single song of theirs when the Burlington gig came up—but their general aesthetic has been so interesting to me for so long that I knew I wanted to see it. Not only that, but I had just seen the fascinating Stewart Swezey documentary Desolation Center, about a series of rogue concerts held in the Mojave Desert in the ’80s. Savage Republic was one of the bands who performed there.

I gained my first appreciable knowledge of the band in my college-radio days when Independent Project Records, run by Bruce Licher, an early member of Savage Republic, started sending us records to play on air. The packaging was always amazingly handcrafted and printed on a letterpress, which gave every release the feel of a small treasure. Honestly, I liked the label’s bands for the packaging as much as I did for the music, and I started buying anything I saw on Independent Project. The truth was, however, I never played them very much, and over the years I got rid of almost all of it. This was short-sighted, as it’s impossible to find very many, if any, original Savage Republic items out there in the shops. And after I saw this gig I wanted them all back. The performance was ferocious—a lot of primal, percussion-heavy instrumentals, with member Ethan Port flailing wildly on an oil drum set up in the middle of the audience. (Another unexpected treat was an impromptu spoken-word opening set by Chicago dweller Martin Atkins, who regaled us with tales of touring with Savage Republic in the early ‘80s when he was the drummer in Public Image Limited; most of the stories seemed to end with Atkins in the hospital.)

The merchandise table was outrageous. I wanted one of everything. Bruce Licher is no longer in the band, but his Independent Project Press continued to manufacture the packaging for reissues of the Savage Republic catalog that emerged beginning in 2002 on Mobilization, an imprint run by Ethan Port himself. I quite randomly selected a copy of Tragic Figures, not realizing it’s the band’s debut album. A perfect choice, then. I remember seeing this album in the ’80s and its use of Arabic text felt so exotic. I can imagine some bands shying away from that imagery nowadays, and I am glad Savage Republic has not. This issue contains the original studio album as well as the tracks from two 7″ singles and two more tracks from compilations.

Above we see the front of the “discfolio” and its reverse, followed by what is seen when you open the first flap. Below are some more pictures of the discfolio being unfolded to reveal the CD, which is just in there floating with no support. I put that in a Japanese sleeve to protect it. Also included are some random tidbits, including what looks a like a bookmark. If the images of this release on Discogs are any indication, these little odds and ends vary from copy to copy. I should also note that Mobilization first issued this in 2002 with much darker red ink. If you have the lighter red ink, it’s a 2005 repress. The package is much more appealing in real life than I’ve been able to capture in these pictures.

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harrisonstories · 6 years

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George Harrison performing at the Royal Albert Hall (1992)

Guitar World Interviews George Harrison (released Jan. 2001 - original interview from 1992)

George Harrison looks back at the days when he played lead guitar in The Beatles, the greatest rock and roll band the world has ever known.

By Vic Garbarini

“So, you’re a real loony too,” laughs George Harrison, with the familiar droll, nasal Scouse (as they call it in Liverpool) accent. “Remember lying in that room all day, needle in your arm, feeling dazed, staring up at that ugly lime green ceiling?”

Well, yes, actually I do. And no, we weren’t shooting dope together in some dive. The lead guitarist of the most important group in rock history is reminding me of when we met a few years back in Dr. Sharma’s clinic in London. Sharma is an M.D. who is also an internationally recognized expert in alternative medicine - in particular, homeopathic and Indian Ayurvedic medicines - and it was these treatments that appealed to Harrison’s Eastern philosophic bent. Her waiting room looked like backstage Live Aid: Tina Turner and members of the Police, Pink Floyd - and of course an occasional Beatle - were drifting in and out. Through Sharma, I’d been promised an interview with George Harrison, and now 10 years later - we were finally sitting down to talk. It was late 1992, and George was promoting Live in Japan (Warner Bros.), the concert album of his 1991 tour with Eric Clapton and the last album he released to date.

So why is this interview finally finding its way to print eight years after the fact? Simple: it was lost. Parts had appeared in Guitar World and other places, but the body of the tape disappeared when the famous 1994 L.A. earthquake turned my apartment into a cosmic Cuisinart. Recently, while I was cleaning out a closet, the long-lost tape literally fell into my lap. The timing couldn’t have been better: All Things Must Pass, Harrison’s superb 1970 solo album, had just recently been issued in a remastered and expanded format. What’s more, the massive Beatles Anthology (Chronicle Books) has once again put the Fabs back in the limelight; but while the book is crammed with minutiae that will fascinate anyone with any interest in the Beatles, it contains little information on how the group created its music, the source of its internal conflicts or how those two elements interacted over the years.

I found that Harrison needed a little prodding before he would discuss the band’s inner turmoil. Once he opened up, though, he gave a most revealing and candid interview in which he expressed his true feelings for his fellow bandmates. Although Harrison was the first lead guitarist to become an equal in a major band (pre-Beatles guitarists like Scotty Moore, from Elvis Presley’s band, were clearly hired guns), he was sandwiched between the two most towering songwriters in rock history - and they often wanted to control his playing - or even do it for him. And of course, getting a decent hearing of his songs was no picnic either.

Perhaps it is for these reasons that Harrison has a reputation as the most dour of Beatles; yet he was witty and upbeat during our talk. He forgave Paul McCartney’s controlling tendencies and John Lennon’s indifference - but, it was clear, he hasn’t forgotten. He seemed emotionally evenhanded, even when angry, balancing the good with the bad and always seeing the positive dimension to all his struggles.

“I’m a Pisces, you know,” he joked. “One half always going back where the other half has been.”

George was also surprisingly willing to talk about the Beatles from the unique perspective of a guitarist as well as that of a composer. He told how he developed a guitar style that combined the music of the Mississippi Delta with that of India’s Ganges Delta, thereby creating his distinctive sound. He spoke of his relationships with Lennon and McCartney: who was more stimulating - and difficult - to work with, and why. He also described how he sneaked Eric Clapton into the studio to rescue one of Harrison’s greatest songs, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” And he answered the long-standing questions about whether he was bored during the making of Sgt. Pepper’s.

This may well be the most comprehensive, free-ranging discussion Harrison has ever granted on his years with the Beatles. So, now, here’s the man from the band you’ve known for all these years: Mr. George Harrison.

Guitar World: John Lennon said, “I grew up in Hamburg - not Liverpool.” Is that also true of the Beatles as a group?

George Harrison: Oh, yeah. Before Hamburg, we didn’t have a clue. [laughs] We’d never really done any gigs. We’d play a few parties, but we’d never had a drummer longer than one night at a time. So we were very ropy, just young kids. I was actually the youngest - I was only 17, and you had to be 18 to play in the clubs - and we had no visas. They wound up deporting me after our second year there. Then Paul and Pete Best [the Beatles’ first permanent drummer GW Ed.] got deported for some silly reason, and John just figured he might as well come home. But when we went there, we weren’t a unit as a band yet. When we arrived in Hamburg, we started playing eight hours a day - like a full workday. We did that for a total of 11 or 12 months, on and off over a two year period. It was pretty intense.

GW: Paul McCartney told me that playing for those drunken German sailors, trying to lure them in to buy a couple of beers so you could keep your gig, was what galvanized the band into a musical form.

HARRISON: That’s true, because we were forced to learn to play everything. At first, we played music of all our heroes - Little Richard, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers, Ray Charles, Carl Perkins - anything we’d ever liked. But we still needed more to fill those eight-hour sets. Eventually we had to stretch and play a lot of stuff that we didn’t know particulary well. Suddenly, we were even playing movie themes, like “A Taste of Honey” or “Moonglow,” learning new chords, jazz voicings, the whole bit. Eventually, it all combined together to make something new, and we found our own voice as a band.

GW: I can see how all this musical stretching gave you the tools to eventually create your own unique sound. But it’s hard to believe drunken sailors would want to hear movie ballads.

HARRISON: No, we played those things because we got drunk! If you’re coming in at three or four in the afternoon with a massive hangover from playing all night on beer and uppers, and there’s hardly anybody in the club, you’re not going to feel like jumping up and down and playing “Roll Over Beethoven.” You’re going to sit down and playing something like “Moonglow.” And we learned a lot from doing that.

GW: Did those tight, Beatles vocal harmonies also come out of Hamburg?

HARRISON: We always loved those American girls groups, like the Shirelles and the Ronettes. So yeah, we developed our harmonies from trying to come up with an English, male version of their vocal feel. We discovered the option of having three-part harmonies, or lead vocal and two-part backup, from doing that old girl-goup material. We even covered some of those songs, like “Baby, It’s You,” on our first album.

GW: When you broke through in America, Carl Perkins and Scotty Moore, Elvis’ guitarists, were clearly your main influences as a guitarist. And, like them, you were using a Gretsch guitar. What was it about that rocka-billy style that captivated you?

HARRISON: Carl was playing that simple, amazing blend of country, blues and early rock, with these brilliant chordal solos that were very sophisticated. I heard his version of “Blue Suede Shoes” on the radio the other day, and I’ll tell you, they don’t come more perfect than that. Later, when we met Carl, he was such a sweet fellow, a lovely man. I did a TV special with him a couple of years ago and I used the Gretsch Tennessean again for that, the one I like to call the Eddie Cochran/Duane Eddy model. And you have to understand how radical that sound was at the time. Nowadays, we have all this digital stuff, but the records of that period had a certain atmosphere. Part of it was technical: the engineer would have to pot the guitar [adjust its level and tone] up and down or whatever. It was a blend that was affected by the live “slap echo” they were using. I loved that slap bass feel - the combination between the bass, the drum and the slap, and how they would all come together to make that amazing sound. We used to think that the drummer must be drumming on the double bass’ strings to get that slap back - we just couldn’t figure it out.

GW: The other major factor in your playing was Chuck Berry. I remember being a kid and hearing you do “Roll Over Beethoven” and thinking it was a Beatles song. We never heard black artists on the radio in those days.

HARRISON: Oh, that’s still happening. We did a press conference in Japan when I played live there with Eric Clapton [in 1991], and the first question was, “Mr. Harrison, are you going to play ‘Roll Over Beethoven’ in concert?” And when I said yes, the whole hall stood up and applauded! It was such a big thing for them, which seemed so funny. Then I realized they must still think I wrote it.

GW: Going back to the Beatles’ early touring days, Ringo Starr told me that you all gave up on playing live because you literally couldn’t hear each other, due to all the screaming and the primitive amplification.

HARRISON: We couldn’t hear a thing. We were using these 30-watt amps until we played Shea Stadium, at which point we got those really big 100-watt amps. [laughs] And nothing was even miked up through a P.A. system. They had to listen to us just through those tiny amplifiers and the vocal mikes.

GW: Did you ever give up and just mime?

HARRISON: Yeah, sometimes we used to play absolute rubbish. At Shea Stadium, [during “I’m Down,”] John was playing a little Vox organ with his elbow. He and I were howling with laughter when we were supposed to be doing the background vocals. I really couldn’t hear a thing. Nowadays, if you can get a good balance on your monitors, it’s so much easier to hear your vocals and stay in pitch. When you can’t hear your own voice onstage, you tend to go over the top and sing sharp - which we often did back then.

GW: The Beatles stopped touring in 1966 around the time of Revolver. That album was a quantum leap in terms of the band’s playing and songwriting. Rock could now deal with our inner lives, alienation, spirituality and frustration, things which it had never dealt so directly with before. And the guitars and music warped into a new dimension. What kicked that off? Was it Dylan, the Byrds, Indian music and philosophy?

HARRISON: Well, all of those things came together. And I think you’re right, around the time of Rubber Soul and Revolver we just became more conscious of so many things. We even listened deeper, somehow. That’s when I really enjoyed getting creative with the music - not just with my guitar playing and songwriting but with everything we did as a band, including the songs that the others wrote. It all deepened and became more meaningful.

GW: Dylan inspired you guys lyrically to explore deeper subjects, while the Beatles inspired him to expand musically, and to go electric. His first reaction on hearing the Beatles was supposedly, “Those chords!” Did you ever talk to him about the way you influenced each other?

HARRISON: Yes, and it was just like you were saying. I was at Bob’s house and we were trying to write a tune. And I remember saying, “How did you write all those amazing words?” And he shrugged and said, “Well, how about all those chords you use?” So I started playing and said it was just all these funny chords people showed me when I was a kid. Then I played two major sevenths in a row to demonstrate, and I suddenly thought, Ah, this sounds like a tune here. Then we finished the song together. It was called “I’d Have You Anytime,” and it was the first track on All Things Must Pass.

GW: Paul told me that Rubber Soul was just “John doing Dylan.” Do you think Dylan felt that?

HARRISON: Dylan once wrote a song called “Fourth Time Around.” to my mind, it was about how John and Paul, from listening to Bob’s early stuff, had written “Norwegian Wood.” Judging from the title, it seemed as though Bob had listened to that and wrote the same basic song again, calling it “Fourth Time Around.” The title suggests that the same basic tune kept bouncing around over and over again.

GW: The same cross-fertillization seemed to be going on between the Beatles and the Byrds around that time. Your song “If I Needed Someone” has got to be a tip of the hat to Roger McGuinn, right?

HARRISON: We were friends with the Byrds and we certainly liked their records. Roger himself said that the first time he saw a Rickenbacker 12-string was in A Hard Day’s Night, and he certainly stamped his personality onto that sound later. Wait - I’ll tell you what it was. Now that I’m thinking about it, that song actually was inspired by a Byrds song, “The Bells of Rhymney.” Any guitar player knows that, with that open-position D chord, you just move your fingers around and you get all these little maladies…I mean melodies! Well, sometimes maladies [laughs] And that became a thrill, to see how many more tunes you could write around that open D, like “Here Comes the Sun.”

GW: When you did that tour with Eric Clapton in Japan, you opened with “I Want to Tell You,” from Revolver. The song marked a turning point in your playing, and in the history of rock music writing. There’s a weird, jarring chord at the end of every line that mirrors the disturbed feeling of the song. Everybody does that today, but that was the first time we’d heard that in a rock song.

HARRISON: I’m really pleased that you noticed that. That’s an E7th with an F on the top, played on the piano. I’m really proud of that, because I literally invented that chord. The song was about the frustration we all feel about trying to communicate certain things with just words. I realized the chords I knew at the time just didn’t capture that feeling. So after I got the guitar riff, I experimented until I came up with this dissonant chord that really echoed that sense of frustration. John later borrowed it on Abbey Road. If you listen to “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” it’s right after John sings “it’s driving me mad!” To my knowledge, there’s only been one other song where somebody copped that chord - “Back on the Chain Gang” by the Pretenders.

GW: Around the time of Rubber Soul and Revolver, you met Ravi Shankar and went to India to study Indian classical music, which is full of microtonal slurs and blends. When you came back, your guitar playing became more elastic, yet very precise. You were finding more notes between the cracks, like you can in Indian music - especially on your slide work. Is there a connection there?

HARRISON: Sure, because whatever you listen to has to come out in some way or other. I think Indian music influenced the inflection of how I played, and certain things I play certainly have a feel similar to the Indian style. As for slide, I think most people - Keith Richards for example - play block chords and all those blues fills, which are based on open tunings. My solos are actually like melodic runs, or counter melodies, and sometimes I’ll add a harmony line to it as well.

GW: Like on “My Sweet Lord” and the songs on your first solo album [All Things Must Pass].

HARRISON: Exactly. Actually, now that you’ve got me thinking about my guitar playing Indian music, I remember Ravi Shankar brought an Indian musician to my house who played classical Indian music on a slide guitar. It’s played like a lap steel and set up like a regular guitar, but the nut and bridges are cranked up, and it even has sympathetic drone strings, like a sitar. He played runs that were so precise and in perfect pitch, but so quick! When he was rocking along, doing these really fast runs, it was unbelievable how much precision was involved. So there were various influences. But it would be precocious to compare myself with incredible musicians like that.

GW: When you came back from India, did you intentionally copy on guitar any of the techniques you learned there?

HARRISON: When I got back from this incredible journey to India, we were about to do Sgt. Pepper’s, which I don’t remember much at all. I was into my own little world, and my ears were just all filled up with all this Indian music. So I wasn’t really into sitting there, thrashing through [sings nasally] “I’m fixing a hole…” Not that song, anyway. But if you listen to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” you’ll hear me try and play the melody on guitar with John’s voice, which is what the instrumentalist does in Hindustani vocal music.

GW: Paul told me you wanted to do a similar thing on “Hey Jude,” to echo his vocal phrases on the guitar, and that he wouldn’t let you. He admitted that incidents like that were one of the causes of the band’s breakup. And Ringo said you had the toughest job, because Paul in particular and George Martin as well would sometimes try and dictate what you should play, even on your solos.

HARRISON: Well, you know, that’s okay. I don’t remember the specifics on that song. [pauses] Look, the thing is, so much has been said about our disagreements. It’s like…so much time has lapsed, it doesn’t really matter anymore.

GW: Was Paul trying to just hold the band together, or was he just becoming a control freak? Or was it a little of both?

HARRISON: Well…sometimes Paul “dictated” for the better of a song, but at the same time he also pre-empted some good stuff that could have gone in a different direction. George Martin did that too. But they’ve all apologized to me for all that over the years.

GW: But you were pissed off enough about all this to leave the band for a short time during the Let It Be sessions. Reportedly, this problem had been brewing for a while. What was it that upset you about what Paul was doing?

HARRISON: At that point in time, Paul couldn’t see beyond himself. He was so on a roll - but it was a roll encompassing his own self. And in his mind, everything that was going on around him was just there to accompany him. He wasn’t sensitive to stepping on other people’s egos or feelings. Having said that, when it came time to do the occasional song of mine - although it was usually difficult to get to that point - Paul would always be really creative with what he’d contribute. For instance, that galloping piano part on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” was Paul’s, and it’s brilliant right to this day. On the Live in Japan album, I got our keyboardist to play it note for note. And you just have to listen to the bass line on “Something” to know that, when he wanted to, Paul could give a lot. But, you know, there was a time there when…

GW: I think it’s called being human - and young.

HARRISON: It is…[sighs] It really is.

GW: How difficult was it to squeeze your songs in between the two most famous writers in rock?

HARRISON: To get it straight, if I hadn’t been with John and Paul I probably wouldn’t have thought about writing a song, at least not until much later. They were writing all these songs, many of which I thought were great. Some were just average, but, obviously, a high percentage were quality material. I thought to myself, If they can do it, I’m going to have a go. But it’s true: it wasn’t easy in those days getting up enthusiasm for my songs. We’d be in a recording situation, churning through all this Lennon/McCartney, Lennon/McCartney, Lennon,/McCartney! Then I’d say [meekly] can we do one of these?

GW: Was that true even with an obviously great song like “My..uh.”

HARRISON: "Piggies”? You mean “While My Piggies Gently Weep”? [laughs] When we actually started recording “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” it was just me playing the acoustic guitar and singing it [This solo version appears on the Anthology 3 CD-GW Ed.] and nobody was interested. Well, Ringo probably was, but John and Paul weren’t. When I went home that night, I was really disappointed, because I thought, Well, this is really quite a good song, it’s not as if it’s shitty! The next day, I happened to drive back into London with Eric Clapton, and while we were in the car I suddenly said, “Why don’t you come and play on this track?” And he said, “Oh, I couldn’t do that. The others wouldn’t like it.”

GW: Was that a verboten thing with the Beatles?

HARRISON: Well, it wasn’t so much verboten; it’s just that nobody had ever done it before. We’d had oboe and string players and other session people in for overdubbing, but there hadn’t really been other prominent musicians on our records. So Eric was reluctant, and I finally said, "Well, sod them! It’s my song and I’d like you to come down to the studio.”

GW: So did that cause more tension with the others? How did they treat him?

HARRISON: The same thing occurred that happened during “Get Back,” while we were filming the movie [Let It Be, (Apple Films) 1970]. Billy Preston came into our office and I pulled him into the studio and got him on electric piano. And suddenly, everybody started behaving and not fooling around so much. Same thing happened with Eric, and the song came together nicely.

GW: Yet, rumor has it you weren’t satisfied with your performance on the record. Why?

HARRISON: Actually, what I was really disappointed with was take number one [i.e., the solo version]. I later realized what a shitty job I did singing it. Toilet singing! And that early version has been bootlegged, because Abbey Road Studios used to play it when people took the studio tour. [laughs] But over the years I learned to get more confidence. It wasn’t so much learning the technique of singing as it was just learning not to worry. And my voice has improved. I was happy with the final version with Eric.

GW: Did you give Eric any sense of what you wanted on the solo? He almost sounds as if he’s imitating your style a lot.

HARRISON: You think so? I didn’t feel like he was copying me. To me, the only reason it sounds Beatle-ish is because of the effects we used. We put the “wobbler” on it, as we called ADT. [Invented by a Beatles recording engineer. ADT, or artificial double tracking, was a tape recording technique that made vocals and intruments sound as if they had been double tracked (i.e., recorded twice) to create a fuller sound. The technique also served as the basis for flanging.-GW Ed.] As for my direction I may have given him, it was just, “Play, me boy!” In the rehearsals for the Japanese tour, he did make a conscious effort to recap the solo that was on the original Beatles album. And although the original version in embedded in Beatles’ fans memories, I think the version we captured on the live album is more outstanding.

GW: Want to play rock critic for us and critique his playing?

HARRISON: Ah, well, he started out playing the first couple of fills like the original, and the first solo is kind of similar. But by the end of the solo he just goes off! Which is why I think guitar players like to do that song. It’s got nice chords, but it’s also structured in a way that gives a guitar the greatest excuse just to wail away. Even Eric played it differently every night of the tour. Some nights he played licks that almost sounded like flamenco. But he always played exceptionally well on that song.

GW: You talked about the pluses and minuses of working with Paul. What about John? He was a much looser, more intuitive musician and composer. Did you help him flesh things out?

HARRISON: Basically, most of John’s songs, like Paul’s, were written in the studio. Ringo and me were there all the time. So as the songs were being written, they were being given ideas and structures, particularly by John. As you say, John had a flair for “feel.” But he was very bad at knowing exactly what he wanted to get across. He could play a song and say, “It goes like this.” Then he’d play it again and ask, “How does that go?” Then he’d play it again - totally differently! Also his rhythm was very fluid. He’d miss a beat, or maybe jump a beat…

GW: Like a lot of old blues players.

HARRISON: Exactly like that. And he’d often do something really interesting in an early version of a song. After a while, I used to make an effort to learn exactly what he was doing the very first time he showed a song to me, so if the next time he’d say, “How did that go?” we’d still have the option of trying what he’d originally played.

GW: The melody on side two of Abbey Road is a seamless masterpiece. It would probably take a modern band ages to put together, even with digital technology. How did you manage all that with just four - and eight - track recorders?

HARRISON: We worked it all out carefully in advance. All those mini songs were partly completed tunes; some were written while we were in India a year before. So there was just a bit of chorus here and a verse there. We welded them all together into a routine. Then we actually learned to play that whole thing live. Obviously there were overdubs. Later, when we added the voices, we basically did the same thing. From the best of my memory, we learned all the backing tracks, and as each piece came up on tape, like “Golden Slumbers,” we’d jump in with the vocal parts. Because when you’re working with only four or eight tracks, you have to get as much as possible on each track.

GW: With digital recording today you can also do an infinite number of guitar solos. Back then, did taking another pass at a solo require redoing almost the entire song?

HARRISON: Almost. I remember doing the solo to “Something” and it was dark in the studio and everyone was stoned. But Ringo, I think, was doing a drum overdub on the same track, and I seem to remember the others were all busy playing. And every time I said, “Alright, let’s try another take” - because I was working it out and trying to make it better - they all had to come back and redo whatever they’d just played on the last overdub. It all had to be squeezed onto that one track, because we’d used up the other seven. That’s why, after laying down the basic track, we’d work out the whole routine in advance and get the sound and balance. You’d try and add as much as possible to each track before you ran out of room. On one track we might go, “Okay, here the tambourine comes in, then Paul, you come in at the bridge with the piano and then I’ll add the guitar riff.” And that’s the way we used to work.

GW: “Something” was your most successful song. I think every guitar player wonders, did you get that riff first?

HARRISON: No, I wrote the song on the piano. I don’t really play the piano, which is why certain chords sound brilliant to me - then I translate them onto the guitar, and it’s only C. [laughs] I was playing three-finger chords with my right hand and bass notes with my left hand. And on the piano, it’s easy to hold down one chord and mostly the bass note down. If you did that on the guitar, the note change wouldn’t come in the bass section; it would come somewhere more in the middle of the chord.

GW: But you did play that Beatles-sounding bridge riff in “Badge” on Cream’s Goodbye album, didn’t you?

HARRISON: No, Eric played that! He doesn’t even play on the song before that. We recorded that track in L.A.: it was Eric, plus Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce, and I think the producer, Felix Pappalardi, played the piano part. I was just playing chops on the guitar chords and we went right through the second verse and into the bridge, which is where Eric comes in. Again, it sounds Beatle-ish because we ran it through a Leslie speaker.

GW: Any contemporary bands that strike you as having a bit of the same spark that your early heroes had?

HARRISON: I can’t say I’ve really heard anything that gives me a buzz like some of that stuff we did in the Fifties and Sixties. The last band I really enjoyed was Dire Straits on the Brothers in Arms album. To me, that was good music played well, without any of the bullshit. Now I’m starting to get influenced by my teenage son, who’s into everything and has the attitude. He loves some of the old stuff, like Hendrix, and he’s got a leather jacket with Cream’s Disraeli Gearsalbum painted on the back. As for recent groups, he played me the Black Crowes, and they really sounded okay.

GW: You made music that awoke and changed the world. Could you sense that special dimension of it all while it was happening, or were you lost in the middle of it?

HARRISON: A combination of both, I think. Lost in the middle of it - not knowing a thing - and at the same time somehow knowing everything. Around the time of Rubber Soul and Revolver it was like I had a sudden flash, and it all seemed to be happening for some real purpose. The main thing for me was having the realization that there was definitely some reason for being here. And now the rest of my life as a person and a musician is about finding out what that reason is, and how to build upon it.

GW: Finally, any recent acid flashbacks you care to share?

HARRISON: [laughs] No, no, that doesn’t happen to me anymore. I’ve got my own cosmic lighting conductor now. Nature supports me.

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arichhipster · 4 years

Text

Extra! Extra! Life As a Movie Extra in New Mexico

(LIFE OF A MOVIE EXTRA...... Er, I suggest.... BACKGROUND ARTIST)

As I left the house, I glanced on the outdoor thermometer. It examine five under. Thankfully the car started out. Once on the street, as I approached my destination, in the nonetheless-morning darkness, I became off the primary street and observed the road of purple tail lighting up the hill's dirt music in the direction of the properly-lit tents above. Through the frozen tundra, I walk from the auto to the primary tent, greeted through warm smiles and friendly exchanges as I checked in, thankful that the changing room turned into amply heated https://new-solarmovie.com/countries After six previous workdays, the changeover from civilian to duration western garments turned into old hat now; long johns first, fast adding blouse, pants, each with severa buttons, suspenders, boots, jacket, work gloves and hat, all of the even as speaking to my fellow comrades. Next, stand in line to get grubby, as hair and makeup girls dirty you up. I look inside the mirror, thinking who that desperado is that's staring returned at me.

Finished, I throw my civilian jacket over cloth wardrobe, and walk returned outdoor into the frigid air, trying no longer to slip on snow, ice and cables as I slowly assignment towards the eating tent for some short breakfast and important hot coffee. People are often subdued internal, something to do with the numbing bloodless.

A closely jacketed woman with a headset steps into the tent and yells to us "The van is right here!" Begrudgingly we step returned out into the bloodless, slide into the vehicles and tour closer to the western town this is just beginning to emerge in the dawning mild. Crawl out of the van. If the temperature rises above freezing, the snow we are hiking through turns into a muddy mess later. Somebody yells "I see Props" and we go and outfit ourselves with our weapons and holsters. More salutations from bundled team contributors as you walk towards the protecting facility hoping for one ultimate cup of coffee which of course isn't always brewed but. Too overdue besides, you're needed for the first shot of the day. It's time to play make-agree with. You locate solace questioning at least Russell Crowe and Christian Bale appearance cold as properly.

You glance round at your surroundings and say. "Hey, here I am, status inside the center of a Hollywood movie, ready to play a gunman in an Old West town." There's simplest one character I recognize who would be silly enough to position up with these situations for so little pay...I MUST BE A MOVIE EXTRA (or heritage artist as we within the commercial enterprise choose to be called). Forget approximately my close-up shot, I thought. Just area me inside the warm temperature of the solar!

And so starts another day as a movie greater on a movie manufacturing set. Usually the climate situations are not so intense as this particular New Mexico January day changed into at the set of "3:10 To Yuma", but while they're...Properly, that simply provides to the story.

Given those conditions, why could one want to be an Extra? Is it for the cash...Hardly ever, although for many it's far a paying activity which human beings are finding tougher to come by in recent times. Is it for the hazard to look your face on the silver display, if most effective for a 2d? There's the carrot on a stick enticement, the opportunity of having a speaking component, which right now catapults you to a higher pay scale, and a cooler pair of sunglasses. The rumor whisperers proclaim, "You know so-and-so large call actor began his career as an additional".

How about the opportunity for a departure from the normal habitual, gambling a man or woman that's quite one of a kind out of your ordinary self?

Other reasons might be the social benefit the prolonged circle of relatives bond offers that develops amongst fellow extras who have worked together on preceding movie productions; the capability to have a look at moviemaking firsthand; and the ego enhance you experience when you receive a pleasant nod or salutation from a chief movie star. And sure, there is additionally an inexpensive paycheck and complimentary food.

For me, it's a majority of these reasons, and maximum veritably for the tales.

In current years, Hollywood has arrived with a vengeance in New Mexico, a country with a moviemaking records so long as the enterprise itself. When I first moved right here in '94 several movie and TV productions have been ongoing. A woman pal of mine told me about a casting name. I stood in line in the resort lobby till a person in casting took my Polaroid and asked if I turned into to be had in two weeks. One surprise smartphone call later, I turned into attempting on my new western cloth cabinet for the TV mini-collection "Buffalo Girls". I've been in most cases available ever considering the fact that.

Movie hobby quick lapsed into a lull during the late 90s; but, new tax incentives for the film industry (and our a lot less expensive hard work force) created a resurgence in moviemaking in the past 5 years. Today, whilst the tediously lengthy casting call traces and Polaroid headshots have given manner to new methods like Internet bulletins, digital pictures and e-mailed resumes, lifestyles as a further has remained highly the identical. One moment hasn't modified; the manner you experience after a long twelve-hour workday, having worked due to the fact earlier than sunrise to sundown; you are cold and tired, standing in line within the dark ready to return your wardrobe so you can check out and go home...All at once exhausted and gratified.

If you are trying to pursue history greater work as a full-time profession, my advice would be high-quality to hold your day activity. A bendy paintings time table (unemployed being the exceptional) is a prerequisite for running as a further. The nature of the enterprise is to be geared up to paintings at a moment's observe which is near not possible if you paintings a often scheduled task.

It's no marvel Hollywood enjoys working with us New Mexicans, and plenty of production human beings will gladly country this reality. The majority of extras I've labored with are a very courteous, amiable, uncomplaining, cooperative, tolerant lot, some distance distinct we are informed from our "large town" cousins lower back in LA. Of course, even within this high-quality group of New Mexico extras there are constantly those exceptions, the demanding standouts: The Braggart, whose alleged credentials are without problems challenged; the Movie Star Wannabee Schmoozer who's determined for the large danger, willing to dangle and cajole all of us who they assume will assist circulate them up the stardom ladder; and of path, every big group has at the least one chronic complainer. Fortunately, those individuals get weeded out quite rapid.

I appreciate the eclectic, unbiased, iconoclastic kind individuals who often gravitate to this bendy innovative line of work: the creative, impartial people (artisans, rock band roadies, jack of all trades); the worldly iconoclasts (hippies, vacationers, philosophers); the tough-working, generous blue-collar souls who love the hazard to act out special roles inside the movies; the destiny movie makers; the unemployed; the curious; the ones looking for a loving, worrying circle of relatives; musicians between gigs; ex-veteran pensioners; those folks who come from sad houses and economic conditions looking for escapism and happiness; the real cowboys; those pursuing movie production careers; the coolest souls whose honesty and wellknown kindness has harm them in the cruel, actual global of commercial enterprise; and those individuals stepping out in their recurring exercises.

Learning the Hollywood lingo is a part of the process's attraction: terms which includes "back to at least one", "that turned into extremely good--- permit's do one greater", "martini shot", "checking the gate"' "this is a wrap", "silence on the set"' "checking sound", and "Action!" For a veteran history artist, this film jargon coats you in a mantle it really is fun to put on.

What is an ordinary day on the set? Days are lengthy. While on some productions you are working an awesome portion of the day on set, regularly you're waiting in some preserving room or tent, possibly hours in length, 9 hours my document, before you are referred to as for a scene. During these off digital camera moments, it is as much as you whether to make the most of the waiting state of affairs either thru social conversations or through quietly analyzing a ebook, gambling playing cards or chess, ingesting snacks, or, as what came about after nine hours of waiting on the "Beerfest" film set retaining location, breakdancing and lap dancing. Otherwise, you may pick to whine, pout and be commonly uninterested in the revel in. That man or woman can constantly move lower back to paintings on the thrilling vocation of financial institution clerk.

Regretfully, as an additional you are stored broadly speaking within the dark as to the storyline and the way your small contribution applies to the context of the movie. Very little is told to you approximately the scene or what sort of person you are gambling, so regularly as an extra you tend to create your very own person tale. You pay attention "Action!" yelled so that you begin to pantomime your imaginary speak with others as you sit down at a desk or stroll down a street. Suddenly the director yells, "Great...That turned into exceptional, everyone" and the scene is over. This method your cognitive instincts for the scene were spot on tremendous, or your presence wasn't even on digicam so it didn't depend what the heck you have been doing. I examined this concept out on "Into The West" by using acting Monty Python fashion backward funny walks at some point of my history crossings, and the scene turned into perfect; just as I idea, not on digital camera.

A given truth but is when you are seen on digital camera, and you're not doing what the director needs, to your know-how or in any other case; a director's tongue-lashing can arise, plenty to your humiliated chagrin.

On the rare occasion a director, AD, AAD (assistant, assistant director) or casting director actually enlightens us film extras as to the context of the scene we are approximately to movie and its relevance to the screenplay, it is significantly liked and facilitates us get prompted and obsessed on our position.

We're the background coloration, an imperative function in the scene's final outcome. We complete the scene's surroundings by bringing "the set" to lifestyles, offering the social environment from which the principle actors play off of, in place of forcing them to paintings in a vacuum.

Sometimes one's first-time more enjoy can be hard. One negative woman on the set for "Wild, Wild West" fainted difficult after succumbing to the mixed results of August heat and suffocating corset. Stoically, she attempted again the following day, only to be nearly trampled by horses at some stage in the chaos scene. Never noticed her again after that.

There's an artwork to getting on camera with out being too pushy or apparent. Get stuck mugging the digital camera, and, like what occurred to a pricey friend of ours, you are fired instant, which of direction now provides an possibility for a person else. The vintage standby, the casting sofa, or trailer, or tent, can nonetheless paintings, as a minimum temporarily. I have also discovered that one's possibilities are substantially improved in the event that they work on a comedy, for there are actually higher screen opportunities for extras on comedies than in dramas. Mostly, however, the best manner, which is totally out of your manipulate, is having "the right look" that a director wants. Before you understand it, you're positioned in a scene prepared to confront Pierce Brosnan or Liam Neeson. Suddenly, the director yells "and...Action!

Sometimes your digital camera time might encompass a few exciting computer graphics and make-up. If you've got been painstakingly, grotesquely rearranged via makeup artists to play a zombie, augmented with horrifying prosthetics, it is able to only be you that recognizes yourself whilst your horrifying face debuts at the screen.

I did a particular double-take at the "Unspeakable" movie jail set after I walked past Dennis Hopper's head sitting on a table, after which Dennis Hopper himself exceeded me via within the corridor.

You might not experience the dramatic scene you are taking part in, while status in front of a computer graphics "blue screen"; but, your jaw-losing aghast reaction may want to measure your appearing competencies since you're supposedly responding to a robot monster achieving towards you, no longer a scraggly droopy-pants group member.

On the "Beerfest" movie set, the emphasis changed into whatever however actual beer in our mugs. First, production attempted an ineffective vacuum system designed to suck near-beer out of our mugs, frequently with hilarious outcomes. Next process turned into to digitize the beer into our empty mugs. We because the Irish beer drinking group took moderate offense at these methods in view that first, in fact, we would have out drank the Germans, and 2d, we should have without problems drunk real beers in report competitive time!

And with set layout it is excellent not to look too closely, for in the course of the ones dramatic funeral scenes, the somber cinematic mood is probably broken if the audience knew who is without a doubt written on those movie styrofoam cemetery tombstones like Yo Mama, Three Stooges and Jethro Tull.

In some instances the story in the back of the film is greater pleasing than the film itself. The city of Madrid become selected via Disney to represent the all-American town ready with white-wood fences, flora, lace curtains, heat nearby diner, and Chili festival. However, there aren't any white wooden fences here in actual lifestyles; extra accurately associated with black wood enamel, gauged through some of the locals' abusive usage of crack. The city's decor is more raw and cool, than homespun, seeing that its origin as a coal mining metropolis and later, a hippie haven. The diner, now a tourist enchantment, turned into built in particular for the movie and any actual local would say, "We do not need no stinkin' Chile festival!"

There is the symmetry connection with Disney that is also charming. Flying over Madrid, an old coal mining city inside the overdue 20s, Walt Disney became so captivated by way of the metropolis's twinkling display of Christmas lighting, the scene inspired him to years later create the Disney World Parade of Lights. Disney, the company, had lower back to pay their respects to Madrid, in their personal warped corporate manner.

On some of films our old prison has been used for more than one units, occasionally at the same time as an antique jail which includes on the film "Unspeakable". Over twenty years in the past, the old jail have been witness to a macabre, deadly jail riot massacre and siege. Even nowadays blood stains are still visible from that horrible occasion and tales ran rampant at the set about team member's character reports with ghost sightings and other eerie sensations.

I'll regularly listen people ask "How do huge actors behave--- are the rumors true?" I recognize our tabloid-pushed inquisitive minds need to accept as true with the memories of prima donnas, spoiled brat temper tantrums and privileged treatments; however, in truth, the actors I've visible behave in a professional, conscientious manner on the set. They pay attention attentively to the director's recommendation and vice versa. Some actors can be very personable with the extras, other extra remote, staying in person or reviewing their lines. Some actors are very secure, taking the off digicam moment to journey their horses or trip their bikes between scenes. Sometimes you overhear the actor's occasional disgruntled tone which a few manufacturing member tried to speedy assuage. Heck, you pay attention those tones from us all the time. It become difficult however to restrain from giggling or yelling "Martin, come on!" while Martin continually arrived on the "Wild Hogs" Madrid set with his bodyguard entourage, pushed in a Mercedes golfcart for the arduous 3 blocks from his triple-decker luxurious bus whilst a beautiful assistant carried a mini-fan to hold him cool.

The movie and TV industry has been so prolific at some stage in the Santa Fe/Albuquerque/Las Vegas place, your day by day distinctions among fiction and reality start to blur. The second felt surreal while, after having watched "Swing Vote", I left the film theater simplest to pass the equal grandstand featured in the film on Rodeo Road simply ten minutes later. Blink, look again, and there may be "Astronaut Farmer's" united states of america fair. South of metropolis there may be one rural stretch wherein I assume to come upon the simultaneous convergence of "Wild Hogs" bikers, Billy Bob Thorton's rocketship, and a rough-searching Colorado Volunteers marching regiment.

Even a avenue crossing on downtown Albuquerque's Central Ave. Takes on a new dimension when you have to be cautious of large Transformer robots stepping on you!

Not discounting the great current successes of so many diverse film and TV cutting-edge project topics made on this country, New Mexico's center essence nevertheless embodies the traditional American Western. Once you are fully outfitted in western garb, and you are taking the moment to absolutely embody your environment, a dusty, windswept street within the middle of a western metropolis, a very special feeling envelops you. Your mind can also flashback to youth fantasies, gambling a cowboy or gunfighter, remembering studying testimonies of the Old West or seeing your first wild west TV display or film. On western sets the heritage artists virtually appear to be our pioneer ancestors, a length of records which was honestly only some generations ago.

Pierce Brosnan turned into fascinated by how much our motley institution clearly sported long hair and beards, wore cowboy hats, chewed tobacco, demonstrated know-how of horses and guns, and who nonetheless slept in tents.

While at the set, youngsters fast modify and revert to less complicated pleasures. Townsmen tip their hats to women in bonnets at the same time as the gunslingers exercise twirling their plastic weapons, hoping to be issued real guns for the shootout scene.

Western movies generally tend to have the most tough climate situations, either blistering hot within the summer, blow-dried dusty inside the spring, and brutally bloodless at some stage in the wintry weather months, which perversely is the favorite season for maximum productions.

The western set can also be the most hazardous. A properly-skilled choreographer and horse wrangler coordinator is obligatory for, if ill-prepared, tragedy may additionally strike. Such have been the instances on the primary day of shooting on "3:10 to Yuma" wherein a horse changed into mortally wounded and rider critically injured, or the primary day of filming the Sand Creek Massacre reenactment on "Into The West" wherein severa horse accidents took place. And, during the filming of "Wild, Wild West", there are careless acts along with the dearth of notification to some forgotten extras that they had to clean the western set earlier than production blew it up. Fortunately, no extras were blown up! And they worry approximately animal mistreatment.

With the latest proliferation of film activity, many new faces have arrived inside the business, while most of the players of just ten years in the past have left the region or long gone on to other endeavors. Sometimes you have to permit own family members go away the nest. Except for the few envious ones, most of the people of us extras are pleased whilst a person from our extended circle of relatives receives a speakme element.

It's a profession wherein one minute you are ready to retire, especially after a grueling fourteen hour day, however then you definitely get the itch to get returned into it, for some other shot at stardom, for some other interesting story, and primarily due to the fact you leave out your buddies.

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girlieinterns · 5 years

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Today on Professional Confessional I spoke with Nick Williams, writer, musician, and objectively the Coolest Person. Check out the interview below:

If you had your own Wikipedia page, what would the synopsis/definition say?

Culture journalist, editor, and musician.

Tell me your best story.

Oh man! So many stories. On my first day at Billboard, Lisa Loeb came to the office and walked around the office performing her ‘90s hit “Stay” on acoustic guitar. I didn’t know it was happening, so I was just filing mail or something and looked up and there she was… I only hear what I want to… Very surreal.

Where do you work currently? Speak a bit about your position and the company itself.

Currently, I am an editor at Billboard Magazine, working on the Backstage Pass section which focuses primarily on business stories and ad-driven packages. I first started at Billboard as an intern back in the fall of 2012 after interning at Girlie Action that spring. I was hired full-time in March 2013 — first as an editorial assistant, and then was promoted twice to assistant editor and associate editor — before leaving the company in 2017. I am currently based between Tucson, Arizona, and Los Angeles, California and work remotely. I also freelance for other outlets as well including THR, Variety, Harper’s Bazaar, Robb Report and more.

What is a typical day like for you in the office?

I work out of my own home office so the typical workday usually involves me waking up, having an extra-strong espresso, and liaising with the editorial team in New York to coordinate and plan each issue. I also spearheaded the launch of a new section of the magazine called “My Billboard Moment,” which highlights executives in the biz and achievements from their career that touched Billboard. We’ve featured everyone from MAC Presents’ Marcie Allen to Motown’s Ethiopia Habtemariam, songwriter Justin Tranter and more which has been incredibly rewarding.

What would people be surprised to know about your job?

Every story and issue is unique, but the biggest misconception is that print is dead. I’ve been fortunate to work on both sides of the biz and I feel like it’s given me an edge over other writers in that I was trained in print first which has proven invaluable.

Talk about the steps you took to get where you are now.

It’s a mix of luck and hustle, I would say. I felt very confused about what path to take in my career after attending a very liberal arts college, where my capstone project was writing, producing and acting in a short French film. To say it didn’t prepare me for the real world would be an understatement! But after some time has passed, I think that creative framework helped me have a more eclectic range of interests and skills that has allowed me to really thrive in different parts of the biz.

Interning is the worst, but in my experience, it was really the only way to get into the industry. Once I had the visibility of working for a large organization, I tried extra hard every day I was in the office to get noticed. I had been given a transcription to do for a large print feature — I think it was about K-Pop and PSY / “Gangnum Style” — and I took my time and stayed late to finish it on time. I went over it several times to make sure I didn’t miss anything. The editor who had given me the assignment ended up being an advocate and mentor to me and recommended me for the editorial assistant job based on that one transcript alone when it came up the next year. I was very frustrated when my internship wrapped and I hadn’t landed a paying gig in the biz anywhere. I was a bartender at the Meatball Shop in Brooklyn at the time and resigned to just continue focusing on that instead when I got the call for the interview with Billboard. While it might not feel like anything you’re doing has an impact as an intern, people see and remember hard work and hustle. Sometimes going that extra mile will translate to an opportunity down the line. Karma is real!

What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self?

You’re SO YOUNG!!! I thought I was so old when I graduated college at twenty-two, and boy was I wrong. I loved to sing and never really wrote songs or did music at all beyond a cappella and choir, and believed that that would never be possible since I didn’t start as a teen writing songs. After a few years in NYC, I joined a band called Twin Wave and wrote my first tracks and began playing around the city. Now I make music under the moniker Nic Pool and it’s been a really wild ride that I truly never expected. Even if no one believes in your or encourages your dream, if you believe in yourself, that’s all that matters at the end of the day.

What advice would you give people interested in working in your position?

Everyone is on Twitter like crazy these days trying to be comedians, but I would stay out of that world as much as possible. It might seem like a prerequisite to being a writer but it’s not. A lot of the seasoned journalists I know rarely use it and it’s a distraction at its core.

Always trust your instincts and follow the best stories. Crafting the perfect pitch is tricky and sometimes editors will pass for reasons that have nothing to do with you. It’s okay. Sometimes editors will pass and then run the same story the following week with one of their own staffer’s by-line (or their own). It’s okay. You learn slowly and as you go who your advocates are and who aren’t. Some people will just not jive with you and that’s okay. If nothing is working, throw out the playbook altogether and think outside the box. I just got my first airline magazine feature booked and it’s something I’ve thought about for years. Just because you can’t accomplish something immediately or within a specific timeline, doesn’t mean it won’t happen. Make a list for the day, the week, the month, the year and beyond listing out your goals - use that to cross things off and keep track of both your short term and long term plans.

Another thing is it’s very important that you work with people who respect you and treat you with kindness. I am a highly sensitive person and have worked with all different types of personalities. If you’re in a toxic dynamic or situation, it’s okay to bail and start over. Life is too short to get yelled at every day.

Name an artist/band that everyone should know.

I’m really into everything about ROSALIA right now - what a force! Also the new MUNA single “Number One Fan” is a perfect pop song and I’ve had that on repeat. Also, have to shout out my own project, Nic Pool!

If you could have dinner with one person, living or dead, who would it be and why?

Amy Winehouse. She’s my absolute favorite and I got into the business the year after she passed away, so was never able to write about her, really. I also never got to see her live since her touring schedule was always so thin stateside. A perfect night would be to see her play Back To Black in its entirety at an underplay gig and then follow her post-show adventures, just shooting the shit with her playing pool. She was so hilarious but also, of course, deep and thoughtful and profound. It would be so epic.

Take a look at Nick’s website for more information!

#askaprofessional

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