I'm a big Dallas Green fan. His voice is unreal. Of the 4 or 5 times I've filmed him, this is one of my favorites. The lighting. The cinematography. A dude and his guitar. Here's a clip of Dallas performing Paradise from Guitar Center Sessions.
CALLING DR. FEELGOOD - NEW FILM WITH MICK MARS OF MOTLEY CRUE
The first cassette tape I remember buying was Motley Crue's Dr. Feelgood. The sounds of the guitars on those records melted my brain. The huge riffs. The whammy dives and the talk box solo on Kickstart My Heart. To this day, Motley Crue is still one of my favorite bands and getting the chance to work with Mick over the years has been an absolute joy. One of the nicest guys you'll ever meet and an even better guitar player.
Stoked on our latest film - Ernie Ball String Theory with Mick Mars.
PURSUIT OF TONE: FROM DICKMAN TO SPACEMAN - A RETROSPECTIVE
This week marks the anniversary of the premiere of our documentary with Tom DeLonge and one of the films I'm most proud of - The Pursuit of Tone.
I got my first guitar and punk record when I was 15. Mike Harder handed me a CD for his new band Pulley - "Esteemed Driven Engine" and a list of records to buy including The Vandals' "The Quickening," NOFX's "Punk in Drublic," StrungOut's "Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues," and Blink's "Chesire Cat" among others. That list, those bands, those songs changed my life.
A few months later, I saw my first punk rock show at The Palladium. Blink opening for The Vandals opening for NOFX. Fat Mike and team slayed it. Warren and Josh were great. But these three dudes with buzz cuts, super sloppy songs, and dick jokes stole the show. That night I stickered up my Fender Stratocaster and my friends, and I started our first band. Tom, Mark, Scott, and then Travis were our Sex Pistols. They opened up the door to The Descendents, Fugazi, Propagandhi, MXPX, and a roster of bands that defined our adolescence and influenced the following decades of our lives.
Fast forward 20 or so years and a slew of projects with the bands that I looked up to, I called Michael Moses and Kari DeLonge about an idea for a new series I was working on. A concept Tom was perfect for. I had just come off more than 10 seasons of Guitar Center Sessions and was looking for far more immersive and emotive stories to tell. Tom was neck-deep in the middle of leaving Blink 182, and the rumors were rampant. I was dying to tell his story as it had shaped my life.
It took some serious convincing and a few start and stops, but Tom signed on. Haven and I wrote a meticulous storyline. From the studio where Tom recorded Dude Ranch to his childhood home where he started Blink, the record shop that stocked Buddha tapes to the To The Stars HQ in Encinitas where he now makes the music and films that inspire him. We spent more than 30 hours with camera and crew digging into the past 30 years of the fantastic story of a kid from San Diego who was a real-life Bart Simpson, enamored with punk rock, skateboarding, space, family, and farts.
I was severely stressed that I was going to fuck this up. It took so much to get this done, and I wanted it to matter. It wasn't until the film's premiere, where up until 20 mins before we rolled the film, Tom was in the car watching it for the first time with his wife on the phone. "Fuuuuuck. Seriously?" I said to Kari. "He hates watching himself," she said. A room full of press, artists, filmmakers, bandmates, and family.... he was just now watching a 90-minute film about his life. 10 mins before we introduce the film, Tom walks into the lobby. Silence. Hugs. Then the words "Thank you. My wife said she finally understands me".
I could not have made this without the fantastic cast of humans who have joined me on this and many other journeys. The incomparable cinematographer and camera spartan John Belinski. My co-writer and director Haven Lameroux. One of the best music supervisors on the planet, Mason Cooper. Kari DeLonge for controlling the uncontrollable. Lisa Clifford for making sure Tom was there every day. Chad Bamford - the only man and engineer I trust to make the audio sound so sweet. Aaron Rubin for finding the guitars and amps and pedals that shaped Tom's sound. Michael Moses for stoking the fire and helping push open the door. Chris Long and Bart Peters at Directv who have for some reason continued to willingly spend millions of dollars so I can make the things in my head. My lawyers Kate O'Brien and Stephen Sessa... HEROES. A long list of crew too impossible to list.
I ate burritos, talked conspiracy theories and music with the guy that inspired me to play guitar. All while telling the absolute shit out of his story. While the film is still on-demand with Directv, you can watch it here.
From Dickman to spaceman, this is the story of Tom DeLonge.
From The Archives: Biffy Clyro "Biblical"
Every so often I dig up something from the past that still stands up. I love Biffy Clyro and looking back, we did a pretty solid job capturing this radical performance of "Biblical." One of my favorites from the series. ALMOST makes me want to start a new performance series.
Ah, fuck it. Here's another one. Dudes are so good.
New Film: Inspired By Hunter Hayes
Stoked to debut our latest film with country singer-songwriter and guitarist Hunter Hayes. This is the fifth or sixth project I've produced with Hunter over the years, including the full-length documentary - The Pursuit of Tone for Directv.
Most don't give Hunter the credit he deserves as a guitarist, but the dude can play. Great look at what inspires him, and his custom Ernie Ball Music Man Cutlass guitar.
Billboard has the exclusive, but you can watch it here.
RollingStone Debuts New Film With St. Vincent
RollingStone has the debut of my latest film with Annie for her signature Music Man guitar Filmed over the course of 3 months as Annie geared up for her Coachella headlining slot, we captured Annie in her home studio, in rehearsals and at her pre-coachella warm-up show in downtown Los Angeles.
The aim here was to highlight Annie's intentional disruptive creative approach in the crafting of the St. Vincent persona, her brilliant visual aesthetic, approach to songwriting and of course guitar design.
Will did incredible work on the directing and cinematography. He was able to really capture the concept for the film. Thanks to Annie and Michael/Gaby at SAM for helping make this great.
String Theory: Laura Jane Grace of Against Me
A new episode of String Theory will Laure Jane Grace of Against Me is here. I love this episode. You can really feel her passion for making music. Reminds me of why I am obsessed with the guitar.
String Theory with Tim McILrath of Rise Against
Newness! Tim from Rise Against's killlller episode of String Theory. Filmed in Chicago. Tim did a rad job producing this, and Will is really growing into absolute killer behind the camera.
WHERE THE WHITE BUFFALO ROAMS
I loved making this film. Shot in Joshua tree over 15 hours by my great team of Will, Lee, and Ryan, the film captures Jake Smith (aka The White Buffalo) in his native habitat. An American troubadour going from town to town with a guitar and a handful of songs. We were lucky enough to film inside the Integratron and capture Jake's grizzled, yet beautiful performances of a few songs off his album "The Lightest Lights and the Darkest Darks."
The concept of the film was a collaboration between his manager Jeff Varner who had presented the title for the film in advance of any creative, my desire to film a western themed epic that captured the vast oasis that is Joshua Tree and catching the songs inside the Integratron as the sun natural descended and Will's concept to shoot each of the 3 songs in a different style and formate.
We filmed the entire piece leaving the breaks in between the songs for Jake to write the narrative. He delivered, big time.
Mixed by the incomparable Chad B.
Enjoy. One of my favorites.