“After all, this is Austin, isn’t everyone you meet a musician?” This might be slightly embellished truth of the internationally proclaimed ‘Live Music Capital of the World,’ where hundreds packed up their guitars, found low rent shared houses, and sought after mythical well-paid gigs. Those of us who aren’t blessed with musical talent still are entertainment consumers, crowding downtown clubs, and not often enough stepping back to consider ourselves lucky for multitude of available sound. Filmmaker Nathan Christ saw an opportunity to capture a year of changes, struggles, and issues facing Austin musicians in his feature film, Echotone, which navigates the building up of the city skyline while musicians on the ground starve to play out. Christ, along with Daniel Perlaky, owner of Indierect Records and City on Fire design, who is also a prominent subject in the feature, had dinner with us to discuss the unique status local musicians balancing on the edge of commercial success and creative freedom. Together, Nathan and Daniel highlight their experience of creating a film representing an accurate portrait of the Austin music scene made by and for the people involved in it. After two years in the making, the film has a date for it’s World Premiere at the Marfa Film Festival in early May. Read about the process of making the feature, the favorite moments of the director, and as to how this film makes a larger statement on the economic realities of succeeding in music.
The First Echotone Teaser Trailer 1280×720 HD from echotonefilm on Vimeo.
Nathan Christ is a native Texan, born in San Antonio, and he has lived in Austin off and on since 2002. He graduated from UT after studying film, and found himself becoming increasingly impressed with the music scene in the city. “I came to Austin with a completely different impression of the music scene — I thought it was more Texas Roadhouse Blues, with the Stevie Ray Vaugh statue on the river, but I had my mind continually blown by what was happening musically. I think it started with Sound Team in 2002, and it is ironic that after all these years, their story and the story of Bill Baird became the forefront of the film.” Christ’s knowledge and love of the city shines through with his ethereal shots capturing the emotions his characters wear as they encounter the harsh realities of an unstable business. Their flashes of worry, and joy are then intertwined with breathtaking views of downtown sure to cause even the most jaded Austinite to laudably gasp. Christ is a storyteller using film to bring the lives of a few unique, enterprising individuals to serve as insight on a greater theme of dreams achieving reality.
Daniel Perlaky, who often plays Devil’s Advocate in the debate between selling out and success, was born in Budapest, Hungary to parents who were able to leave the country after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Perlaky relocated to Texas, attended high school in Houston before moving to Austin to go to UT for Graphic Design. Design then lead to an invested interest in the music scene. “I was designing a magazine called Feedback 4 or 5 years ago, and they were covering SXSW, and while I was doing all the press stuff, no one knew where to go to see interesting acts, especially the international crowd. I was being helpful, talking about my friends’ bands, which turned into me driving around all these people to see shows not at traditional venues. I realized none of the bands I was taking people to see had the resources to get write-ups. Bands didn’t even have demos to give out, so that is where Indierect Records started, as a place where my friends and I could donate our time to build the appropriate structure for bands.” Since, the label grew as a venture to support releases from progressive Austin acts. Perlaky is the man behind the popular unofficial kick-off to South by Southwest known as Art Disaster, as well as ATX Converge and Emerge, all of which are events giving local bands coveted spots at well-attended venues during peak time slots. He not only appears in the film, but also served as facilitator with the project to ensure the involvement of the bands, and he designed the film’s promotional materials.
Christ films Perlaky for Echotone
Nathan and Daniel came together through Reversal Films, an upstart producing the picture comprised of several like-minded creative former UT students. Nathan recalls, “While in New York City, and I heard there was a band called Belaire in Austin, and in one night I heard their entire album that Indierect put out. I was blown away that this type of sound was coming out of Austin. I met Daniel a few days later at Mohawk, and it was great to have a spokesperson for this band [Daniel serves as the manager of Belaire].” Christ with cinematographer Robert Garza began filming rehearsals, and performances by the band with the innate observation of a developing story starting in April 2008. “We made a 5-minute demo, which was a rough template, and we knew there was something there in the story with Daniel and Belaire. It was just a bunch of people in their 20s trying to make something happen for themselves. We kept in touch, the project was reignited with the ATX Converge event that Belaire, White Denim, and Black Joe Lewis all played.”
The title of the film is a play on the word ecotone meaning an area of transition between two adjacent but different communities, be it between nature and urban development, which also serves as a point of mending, of the gradual blending of two supposed opposites. In this crossroads where seemingly one side must give, instead the film weaves together the lives of strangers with the commonality of desiring to share their sound. Appearances from songstress Dana Falconberry blend with the technical progressive Electronica of Machine as the signing of a record deal for Joe Lewis crosses with the uncertainty of starting a new with Bill Baird [of Sunset]. Baird, whose project Sound Team was dropped as a symptom of larger economic downturn and reshuffling from Capitol Records in 2007 in particular has defining moments in the film for Nathan. As he recalls, “Bill Baird got burned bad by the industry. You’d think that by looking at him and listening to the music that he makes, he wouldn’t want to open up about his experiences in front of cameras, especially. He didn’t know us well, but it was shocking and completely refreshing how when the cameras began rolling, he was on. He had a story to tell, he was charismatic, brilliant, and intelligent, and blindsided us with his willingness.” Baird’s story plays against the life of Joe Lewis, who in the same landscape of a growing skyline, is by night having people throw themselves at him as he fronts Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybears, all the while working as a fish delivery guy come daylight. For Nathan, “There was an obvious contrast there we had to explore, all the same time, he [Joe Lewis] was getting signed to Lost Highway, Daniel and Bellaire were doing it all grassroots, from the ground up.”
Robert Garza, Jonathan Christ of Machine with Nathan and Daniel at Noise Pop in San Fransisco
Unsure of the outcome, Nathan’s film project about the beginning success of a band turned into a greater story about Austin. “It was hard to tell whether the story of the musicians would reflect upon the city of Austin itself. We realized the city created the Live Music Taskforce that same year to deal with the ‘live music crisis’ as they called it, which was the problem of musicians being unable to pay their rent due to low paying gigs while venues were being threatened by downtown development. If these venues serve as the offices for musicians, they play there day in and day out, night after night, and suddenly, their existence is threatened, then what does that mean for downtown culture? That was our hypothesis. We pursued it, we bought two cameras, and started filming.” Daniel adds regarding the changing scenery and development of Austin as becoming an integral part of the story, “You could see it, there was a bright bulb in front of us all about to pop. At the same time, we’re having to move, can’t afford rent downtown, and the ‘artist verses real life’ subject is relevant for everyone, and each person in the movie approaches the economic situation of being an artist differently.”
Achievement of success however self-defined serves a theme for the film, providing commentary on the problems Austin as a city and the musicians living in it face in dealing with the balancing the border between ‘selling out’ or starving. “There is a lack of infrastructure. Everyone involved in the business-side knows it is impossible to turn a dollar off of music here. There has to be that balance between art and business. I used to hate business, I just wanted to draw all day, but then I realized that didn’t put food on the table. My biggest advice is to be independent minded in every aspect of one’s life. Anyone can have fun playing, and jamming music, but if you want this to be your life, then you have to spend time learning the business side,” Daniel elaborates. For Nathan, the film had him challenging preconceived notions of the conflict between art and money. “I think there is a antiquated idea of ‘selling out’, it’s like the Wild West right now, and ‘selling out’ just needs to be defined. Is selling out pulling your music in a commercial? Is selling out using your music in a way where you don’t have total control? You have to commercialize somehow to be able to sustain, to make it a livable thing without compromising your integrity. It’s a question that needs to be asked, and redefined.” Instead of giving opinions, or establishing an ideal outcome, the film creates dialogue.
Nathan Christ and Daniel Perlaky
As part of the dialogue, Christ presents a take on South by Southwest from the eyes of a local, realizing the benefits of the spectacle with an understanding of how visitors to Austin have a single week to enjoy what the rest of us experience indefinitely. As a climax for the film, the infamous festival serves a stark contrast from Austin during the 51 other weeks of the year. “You’ve spent 75 minutes with the characters in the city, with the musicians, with the developers, with Daniel, with writers [Sean O’Neil of The Onion], with Louis Black [of the South by Southwest organization, of The Austin Chronicle]. You have a whole group of people who you’ve become very close with; you have an intimacy with the city at that point, even with the people at Council meetings complaining about the noise. Then, you take a breath, and know SXSW is coming. It just hits. The streets you’ve gotten so used to become flooded with people. The rest of the world knows Austin as only South by Southwest, but that scene turns the projected image of the festival on its head.”
Watching Nathan speak about Echotone, his watery, focused eyes are full of excitement coupled with uncertainty after spending 2 years of late nights in downtown clubs holding 40+ pounds of equipment in an effort to capture the fascinating lives around him. Noticeably heard in his voice is the obvious connection to and love for Austin, a love assigned visually via moments in the film of breathtaking aerial shots of downtown. As a defining sequence, Nathan recalls, “Robert Garza, who is the cinematographer, climbed up 70 stories on the tallest crane in the city, and was wheeled out to the very edge in a basket, and was spun around for 30 minutes getting amazing shots of the city. Something about those images just made the story more universal. People who live here have seen those shots, and tell me they feel part of something – part of a community.”
The filmmakers cite the willingness of Transmission Entertainment, several downtown developers, and the musicians for their help in making the film become a reality. “The developers were open to it — we start the film with one of the developers saying: ‘It’s always fashionable to carp about how the city is being ruined and how wonderful it used to be.’ A lot of documentaries made in the past 10 years, during the Bush era, have a very ‘Us verses Them’ mentality, and that is not what we wanted to do. The truth is, there are no answers in the film, it is only a snapshot of a clash of events happening in the city all at the time.” Daniel adds, “The real message of the film is love wherever you are, and enjoy it while it is there. I’m not too worried about losing a music district, cities shift and change, for example, the east Austin thing has been happening more for a few years now. I feel like music in Austin will never go away, but I want to appreciate and support the Red River district while I can. I want to have musicians make more music, and that is what the movie is about for me, there are no morals or concrete solutions.”
Echotone is currently on the festival circuit, having most recently played at San Francisco’s Noise Pop. The filmmakers hope for a full release due in the Fall through Reversal Films and they are excited to officially announce the World Premiere of the film will take place on Friday, May 7th at the Marfa Film Festival. The closing celebration of the desert festival also features performances from Echotone artists Sunset and Dana Falconberry. The movie also has its Regional Premiere at the Talking Pictures Festival in Chicago that same weekend. Currently, the project is taking advantage of new media with Facebook, Twitter, and their website to release B-side footage, as well as additional music from the film. On the future of the film for Nathan, “I think that it makes sense to make this idea into a series, to film Brooklyn, maybe Chicago, but the story in Austin continues as well. We want this project to have another life outside of just the movie. We want to engage with the community that the movie is about.”
Visit the Echotone website, follow the film on Twitter, and become a fan on Facebook for B-side releases and updates regarding upcoming viewings.
[Breaking Bread with... is our weekly feature of profiling people involved in all aspects of music in Austin. We seek to meet, have dinner, and a good conversation with bands, bloggers, promoters, DJs, writers, or anyone with a love for and investment in Austin music because we believe that every aspect of the scene is important have a successful community of supporting local music. Have a story to tell? E-mail us, and we might just have you over for dinner. Thanks Daniel, Nathan, and Nicholas Jayanty for their help with this story.]
