This is the first episode in the REBELRAVE series that I had to outsource. Luckily some time ago I came across Jocie Cox after she made this video for Mulletover in London, who I immediately got in touch with when I decided I wasn’t able to make it to Miami for the Get Lost party due to the Plastikman film (which I’m still working on).
We kept in touch via Skype while she worked on the video from her base in Ibiza, and once the general edit was built, I got my hands dirty by working on mixing all the music and audio together into a single track.
I was nervous at first about handing an episode to someone else, but seeing the first cut was really exciting, and I’m really happy we can keep the series going in one way or another even if I’m tied down with other work. Love the slomos!
Back in January I had the good fortune of being offered to go with Damian Lazarus & friends to visit Peru for their party on a beach in Lima.
The REBELRAVE series has been an evolving creature ever since it began, and each episode is a very clear representation of where I’m at personally in terms of video experience. Not only in terms of video production, but also in terms of taste in audio visual experiences.
For this episode the upgrade from the previous episode was to shoot on a 5D mark II. Compared to the Sony Z1 that I’ve been filming with all this time, the quality of the footage is far superior. And in terms of grading, this has been a completely different ball game, so I was really able to play with the colours a lot more than usual without losing information.
I don’t have much time to write about this, but you might find some more info when I last wrote about it for the trailer here
And you may want to see some photos I took on the way here.
In January I spent a week with Damian Lazarus wandering around Peru, before heading down to a REBELRAVE beach party outside Lima. During this trip we also flew to Cuzco and paid a visit to Machu Picchu. One of my favourite trips so far.
I’ve been very excited to start making this episode, however I’ve had to delay this edit until I get some other projects out of the way, which should be in the next 5 weeks or so. So for now I made a quick teaser for the episode, which also includes a second part to promote the Rebels’ “Get Lost” party in Miami in March.
The music is all upcoming on Crosstown Rebels new sublabel Rebellion, I’m very proud to be involved with this special group of people and such amazing label. Track list: -Solomun: Daddy’s Jam -Russ Yallop: The Crossroads
You can check out some photos I took in Peru here.
The beginning of my new year in New York kicked off with producing the visuals for the REBELRAVE tour. I made a 25 minute video, an assortment of various visuals and graphics that were played at the various gigs around the US and Europe. Anyway, that’s old news, but two days ago I dug it out and used a short segment of it as a video promo for Crosstown Rebels’ latest release, named after the video series/tour/brand.
“Crosstown Rebels present Rebel Rave” is a collection of some of Crosstown’s best music, classic and current, here’s a sampler.
In other news, in the next couple of days I’ll be publishing a 8:50 music video for JPLS, accompanied by a separate video promo for his latest single “Spook Trax Vol III”. Exciting stuff!!
Here’s a small promo made for Damian Lazarus‘ mix for Fabric 54. I wanted to replicate the album cover and to bring it to life in the video, so I made an animation in Flash with a few crosses and the Fabric logo and just projected it onto a wall in my flat mate’s room. With the help of my adventure partners Marc Regas and Zahara Gallardo we filled the room with smoke and they dressed me in white silk as I stood over a fan pretending to be creepy for the camera.
My face was also covered and there was no way for me to review the footage until we finished the whole shoot, so it was just a leap in the dark. But watching it back for the first time with the contrast pumped up was a really good feeling, it was a surprise at how it came out even better than planned. Smoke and projections are amazing companions.
The audio is Yoyo by Lee Jones, with my vocals on top.
In other news..
Interview on Visao Media A nice chap called Alex Trujillo ran an interview with me for his blog Visao Media. Here it is in two parts: Part 1 and Part 2 Feels very awkward to read such an in-depth story about me, and I’m not sure who would bother reading the whole lot, but it’s exciting nonetheless!
Lydia K screened in NYC Over the next few weeks Lydia K will be shown on rotation at this open air cinema (with sound!), a project lead by Kimpton’s Eventi Hotel and the Big Screen Project. N9 Productions, who originally got in touch with me about this, are curating the fashion side of the project. You can watch Lydia K here and read the official press release here.
The one thing I loved about this episode was the footage that Damian and Jamie sent me, filmed on their little digital cameras. I couldn’t go on all of their dates of the REBELRAVE Tour so I asked them to do some filming, hoping that it be usable in the episode. It turns out that it’s the most exciting footage to watch, mainly because it gives a real insight into their worlds, which is what their fans and friends love the best. Also their footage was just perfect for being twisted and warped out of shape, playing around with the audio, and just making it become rather “dreamy” (my mum reads this).
It’s been a huge project to work on, as the film needed to feature footage filmed over two months, the last date being in Miami. But before I even flew to Miami I had already half of the video ready with the footage from New York, LA and San Francisco. So the edit has been a bit of a journey, when I began in February and ended last week, and that’s why it feels very choppy, but probably that’s a good thing.
There are some really quick shots of clouds, a fetus, a white rabbit… Those were part of the visuals that I made for the tour: I made a 25 minute edit that Damian could take on a DVD to the various clubs around North America to be projected during the parties. At Avalon in LA I actually VJ’d, mixing these visuals live using VDMX, which is why I got someone else to film the party.
Getting the chance to fly to New York for another REBELRAVE episode earlier this year turned out to be a life changing experience in a weird way. I came back to London with a hunger for drastic changes, and New York was the gateway that could make that happen. Six months have gone since then, and lots has happened on the personal side of things, but most importantly I am in possession of a one-way ticket to the USA which I’ll be making use of on the 7th of January 2010. Exciting? Yes.
So I went to New York for the 8th installment of REBELRAVE to document the happenings in and around the “Wolf+Lamb” crew: their magical parties have become something of a myth, set in their extremely cosy home/studio/party-venue/pseudo-hotel. Zev and Gadi from W+L were really excited about me filming and made sure we got everything covered, with the help of Lee Curtiss who surprised everyone with his Blind-Date host skills.
A whole day’s filming interviews with the various W+L members was followed by a 18 hour party, which speedily moved through the deep hours of the night into a hot summer’s day, sun rays streaking through the sky light, filling the dance floor (the living room) with an incredible energy. I’ve attended quite a few after-parties and this was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. I came away inspired, the kind of inspiration you feel when waking up after an amazing dream.
So editing the footage just brought all those feelings back. Seeing what these guys do is a real inspiration to me: their Burning Man projects, Deniz Kurtel‘s art and music, their Black Label, the Marcy Hotel, their unforgettable parties, all the artists on their label. Finding a way to tell this whole story has been an impossible task to fit in a 10 minute video, so unfortunately you’ll only get a taster of some of what Wolf+Lamb is about, but hopefully you can get the general picture!
Go see this on rebelrave.tv (contains tracks info and links to buy)
The bubble has popped and I’m back in the real world: REBELRAVE #7 is out. Probably the most significant episode so far for me, as it has really affected me on different levels in combination with Damian’s world tour (read about that here), and an overload of other work. Well, I say I’m now back in the real world, but that’s not really accurate as it’s now 8AM and I’ve just been working solid for the past 20 hours!
Once again, there’s just so much to write about this as it’s a very convoluted story, so because I don’t have much time on my hands I’m going to keep this one short. The only thing I’d say about this episode is that it’s the first of a two-part series; the second part features a very special crew in New York who I went to film a few weeks ago, but this edit will only come into my schedule in the next few weeks. Again, this is going to be a very special episode, which will also feature a short personal take on dinosaur documentary-making.
Many thanks to the lovely Anna once again for doing a great job at being in front of the camera, and to Marko and for his help and advice on the postproduction, and to all the guys in LA! A special thanks goes to Red Earth Studio (my brothers’ production company where I rent my desk) for the huge support.
Moving on in the latest news headlines, things to expect in the next few weeks are the launch of the Skunk Anansie website (finally!), some visuals for Mark Knight, a video promo for a really cool hair stylist, and finally a music video for a hot new band!
Marko Perendija, who is becoming more and more involved in the hardcore work force that is the Laz Machine, put together this little promo for Damian. The dodgy camera work is my own, and while Marko did a great job of putting the issue to me as politely as possible, he just got on with a nice piece of editing.
We just dug up a few episodes of REBELRAVE and used some footage from the visuals we made for Damian, which is the first time we’ve shown any of it online. Quite happy to see LazWabit in there too!
The track is called “Lullabies” and is taken from Damian’s album “Smoke The Monster Out”
Damian appears to be gloriously taking over my portfolio in a way that would put my other clients to shame – yes, shame on you! In December last year he asked me to produce the official music video for his single “Neverending”. As exciting as this may sound to some people, I found that once again I had taken on more than I could handle, with close to no experience in the field.
So once again Marko Perendija came to the rescue and got the project rolling by calling up his friend Vanessa Whyte, a young and talented DoP. She popped round the next day and by the end of the evening we had an idea that we sent off to Damian. From that point on things moved very quickly, and a crew of very clever people suddenly took shape.
Vanessa took on the role of directing the video, and did an impressive job at carrying the project from start to finish. I enjoyed playing around with some effects towards the last stages of the project, whilst Marko churned away at grading over 300 different cuts.
Once again I’m sitting around waiting for a video render to finish: I’m working on the second part of Damian Lazarus’ visuals, which will be played in full for the first time this thursday in Stockholm. I consider this to be the second beginning of his world tour, as so far he has only been performing half of his set.
Anyway, I’ve been staring at the render progress bar for far too long, so I decided to upload a little Flash toy I made to be used in Damian’s visuals, the “Random Shape Generator”.
The past 10 days have been a much welcomed change of scenery for me. As I write now I’m sitting on Damian’s sofa, looking out from Echo Park onto the valley and hills of Hollywood. I arrived here primarily to film the next REBELRAVE episode, dedicated to the Droog boys and their new label, Culprit, but also to “vj” for Damian’s first show of his world tour. Read my previous post to know more about how I’m involved in this.
My time here has been full of stories to write about, and I’ve kept my close friends and family posted with essay-length extracts (according to Anna) of my daily happenings: the days spent in Damian’s studio rehearsing, flying to Texas for SXSW, staying at the “Bunker” (Droog’s villa in Hollywood), gawping at the views from the rooftop of the Standard Hotel in Downtown LA (check the mind-blowing photos from the party here), laying on the beach in Santa Monica, thrift shopping in Melrose Avenue, and tomorrow flying to Miami for the third and final leg of this trip. But I’ll delve no further than this list, and in fact I’ll keep this blog post short and sweet, and hope you enjoy the video: Damian Lazarus live at La Zona Rosa, SXSW, 18th March 2009.
The visuals were made by myself with an enormous helping hand from my friend Marko Perendja, who spent many sleepless nights and days at my side as we filmed and edited all of the content. Without him this project wouldn’t have turned out the way it has.
As Pete Tong says on Beatportal: “By the end of the set everyone in the room was mesmerised, not only by the mad K-hole visuals but also by this unique and engaging character who looked uncannily like Fagin in Oliver Twist, mumbling, sometimes screaming into the mic (on an awkward 6” stand) over dubby dark and minimal techno beats. It rocked. Full marks for having the balls to do something original.”
Damian Lazarus’ debut album “Smoke the Monster Out” is coming out in a couple of months. To promote this release, Damian will be performing at some of the biggest clubs around the world over the next few months, starting in a couple of weeks where he will be playing at SXSW in Austin, Texas.
I’ve been producing the visuals for his show, which will also see me VJing alongside him. I’ll have to go into more detail about this at some other time, as right now I’m racing against time to get the content ready before I go to L.A. next Saturday.
So while you anxiously wait for me to write my next post about this, you can rest your eyes on Laz Wabit, who will be one of the creatures entertaining thousands of clubbers around the globe.
Six months ago I started this blog as an excuse to kill 10 hours’ waiting time at Stansted airport: I had just missed my flight to Barcelona where I was meant to spend the day with Dinky shooting a story about her for a future RebelRave episode. My next flight left us no time to film any interviews during the day, in fact as I landed in Barcelona I was driven to the hotel, then to the restaurant, then to the club, all within the space of an hour.
I felt relieved that Dinky didn’t throw anything at me when she saw me, as she had been up from the crack of dawn to fly in from Berlin. As a matter of fact she was rather forgiving and managed to make me feel better about the whole situation – she’s very nice, you must know.
Liquid is a fantastic club, I would love to go there again and would recommend it to anyone. It’s on the bottom edge of a hill on the west side of Barcelona, with a large outdoor swimming pool. Swimming pools and clubs usually don’t go well together from what I can gather, having witnessed the nauseating happenings at the Aquarium (Old Street, London), but the setting at Liquid was a small tropical paradise in comparison, and I often fought off the urge to jump in. Dancing awkwardly with camera in hand to the sounds of my favourite DJs on the side of a pool surrounded by palm trees and a starry sky is something I often look back on, especially when, like now, I happen to be staring out from my studio window onto a dark, gloomy and wet East London street.
Gosh, as usual there’s a lot to tell and I’d probably end up writing pages of all the endevours to produce this episode, so I’ll stop right here and move right onto mentioning the people who helped: -Anna did a fine job at presenting the show for a second time. -Her parts were filmed by my brother Adam on his big camera. Apart from its size I know nothing about it: it’s got big lenses, big tapes, a big bag. It’s also very heavy. It was really good to get his expert help on this, you’ll most probably notice the difference in filming quality! -The photos taken at Stink are by Rob Low, who also does the press photos for Damian and other DJs on the label.
The next episode will be an exciting one, for which I shall be spending a couple of weeks in LA with Damian following part of the tour promoting his debut album. I’m also very excited to announce that I shall be producing the visuals for this tour, which will see him playing live at the best clubs around the world.
Shortly after editing REBELRAVE #2 back in February 2008 I was struck yet again by my usual and almost predictable luck: the external hard-drive I saved it on suddenly stopped responding (not to be confused with the time when my laptop died some time after), and I was left with nothing but a low-quality version I had uploaded for the Crosstown Rebels to preview. So we had no choice but to use that for the Rebel newsletter (rebelrave.tv didn’t exist at the time). And when rebelrave.tv went live I simply skipped this episode, to the confusion of many visitors.
However today, after 11 months, I came across a folder on another drive which I had simpy forgotten about. It contained a good quality export of the video. Not perfect, but good enough to go up on .tv!
My friend and housemate Robbie is featured in the intro. Illustrations are by Martin Wollerstam. This episode sees Damian Lazarus playing at Goa in Madrid. There I met Anja Schneider, Shinedoe, Pan-Pot, and Exercise One.
