Sage: First off, let me say hi to you all and thanks for you support, I am really excited to be getting this EP and music video to you and to be back in LA playing a show at Hotel Café with my amazing friends from the band Carney.
Edie Sedgwick was one of Andy Warhol’s muses. She was a mod icon, actress, and important cultural figure of the time. She kind of represented The Factory. In a lot of ways she was a beautiful tragedy and that has always been something that has been intriguing to me, and to everyone I think. Many great cultural figures were beautiful tragedies: Kurt Cobain, Sid Vicious, Marilyn Monroe.
The Factory in general has been something that I have always been fascinated by. Ever since I studied in Russia and was living and working and being creative with this amazing group of people, we were working as a collective and all living together, and it made me want to have something like that over here in the states. I have been lucky to have so many talented friends, and to have a creative space where we can all come together to create, and work is something that one day I hope to have.
As far as the song goes, I was in a very creative space, working on my record in Nashville everyday. We were finishing up a lot of the tracks actually, and I was waiting around for some tech things to get done. I was fiddling around on this guitar, and that riff and the chorus just kind of came to me out of nowhere. I really liked it and wrote the whole song in about ten minutes. My producers dug it, and so we decided to add it to the record last minute. It was really fun to record that song because we recorded everything all at once, like a live performance. We got our friend Fred Eltringham, who plays with the Wallflowers, to come in and do drums and we all just jammed out. That song has always just been a really fun time for me, and I think that comes across in the recording.
You mention Marilyn in the song…as well as obviously Edie. Do you feel a special artistic connection to them as well as, for example, Andy Warhol and other icons of the 60’s?
Sage: For sure, I think I kind of answered this in the last question with the whole beautiful tragedy thing. I think Andy is a major influence on me, because I think I identify a little more with him. He wasn’t a beautiful tragedy, but was able to capture the beauty and tragedy of those people and that society in his art. His whole life was part of his art, and influenced what he did. He was a bit more calculated and structured.
The 60’s were an amazing time; there was so much creativity happening. I mean you have people fighting for their rights in the streets and you have so many different artistic movements happening simultaneously. I mean it’s crazy to think that The Factory and mod culture was happening at the same time as hippies and Woodstock. I mean, Edie Sedgwick dated Bob Dylan, talk about clash of the titans. I definitely would have been on The Factory side of things if that answers any questions about the kind of person I am.
Who inspired you to become a musician?
Sage: I’ve played music for as long as I can remember. My parents are both musicians, and there were always great musicians around my house. My mom tells me some of my first words were singing Madonna “Who’s That Girl?” in my car seat, so maybe her. Also she says I would just watch Billy Idol on MTV totally mesmerized. I think for me music is just something that I need like water, like its genetic or something so I just gravitated to it because it was something that I needed to do in order to function. As I got older and worked on my craft different musicians and people have inspired me to be better or to keep going, or shaped how I play and listen to music. My dad has always been one of those people. He got me my first guitar (and all my guitars after that). He taught me how to play and gave me a musical history from the time I was really young. My mom always gave me a venue to sing and perform and encouraged me along the way since I was 5 years old. I’ve never known a life without being a musician basically.
Who are the other musicians that played on the song? Who produced it?
Sage: On Edie, it was my producers Robin Eaton and Brad Jones playing along with Fred Eltringham and myself. Robin and Brad are both such amazing bass players and I think it really shows on this song. I love the bass line of the song!
How many songs are on your EP and what genres can we expect to hear?
Sage: There are 5 songs on the EP, and it goes in a lot of different directions. I love so many different aspects of music, and I had been traveling so much that there are a lot of influences on this EP. No two songs on it are going to sound the same. This EP has been really great for me to get my focus for the record that I am working on now. So you are going to get some old school country stuff, some pop/rock, some punk….you name it there are probably tones of it on this EP. Except not really hip/hop, dance, or rap. I have a side project, Chaika, where I am able to do all those things. In terms of rock, there are so many great ways to express a song, and so on this EP I just wrote the music for the song I was working on, the emotion that I wanted to capture, I wasn’t thinking, “oh, is this all in the same style that can be perfectly packaged and sold?” I was just doing what was best for the song.
What made you decide to hire Nikki to direct your very first music video?
Sage: Hire is a funny word to use…it wasn’t that kind of situation. Nikki is my sister by all intents and purposes. She has seen my musically journey, throughout my whole life. I am so blessed to have her, and she has always been so supportive. We create things all the time together. She wanted to get into directing, and I had just finished this EP, so we put two and two together I suppose. It’s kind of crazy how it all came together. This EP and video just came from a place of such love, there’s no bullshit, it wasn’t created by or for a label really, and everyone who worked on it, worked on it because they loved what they were doing and what we were creating and wanted to for the love of the thing. I think that says a lot about this whole process and this product, and now we get to share that love with you all, and that’s so exciting!
How long have you both been friends? Why do you think you remained friends when for most people, their childhood friends drift out of their lives?
We have been friends since birth. I think there are a lot of reasons we remain close. When we were younger we would hang out a lot at times, and then do our own thing. We weren’t with each other everyday at the age when a lot of bullshit happens and you’re young and do stupid things or grow apart. We become super close when we were a little older and knew who we were a bit more. At the end of the day we are like family, and that’s how we look at it, so the little things or the stupid things don’t upset you as much because it’s family, you can’t really drift apart from your family. We also have very different taste in men, so that helps.
What was it like working together? Was it easy because you’re so close or did that make it harder?
Sage: We have always worked together, on all sorts of different projects. When we were young, and to this day actually (when she can) Nikki always did my hair and make-up for shows. Nikki and my hair have their own relationship.
We really trust each other creatively so it is easy to take suggestions and direction, and we both respect each other as artists, and that goes a long way. Plus knowing each other so well, we are able to communicate really well to know exactly what we are trying to get for a shot.
Seeing as this was a first for both of you, how daunting was the project? Were you nervous or was it all pretty relaxed?
Sage: We went in knowing that we were going to do a kind of guerrilla style shoot, and for the kind of shooting we were doing it went really smoothly. I don’t think we were daunted going in, just really excited. I think at certain point’s realities of making a video that we hadn’t anticipated became daunting, but we didn’t go into the video with fear. We had a vision and we wanted to play and have fun with it. It wasn’t like “oh, this is our first thing, what will people think?” We didn’t put that kind of pressure on ourselves, we were like, “Hey let’s make this video it will be really fun, and you will be able to direct for the first time, and I will be able to have my first video, awesome! Let’s do this together.” That being said, we made sure to really make sure that we created something that we would be proud of.
Why did you guys choose Johnny Flynn to be in the video?
Sage: I’m really lucky to count Johnny as one of my good friends; he is such a kind man and such an incredible musician who influences me all the time. Nikki and I were getting ready to do the video, which we were filming in London, and I had called Johnny to hang out, and as I spoke with him realized how amazing it would be to have him in the video. Johnny is also an actor, and for this video he was perfect, because there is a lot of androgyny in the video, and for some reason people think that Johnny and I kind of look a like, so he was just the perfect choice. Also any reason to be able to work with Johnny is a good reason. He was excited about the idea, and so we did it, and it was a blast. He is such an amazing actor; everything he did was just perfect! Can you tell I think Johnny is really cool? Haha. Everyone should go buy his new record right now, it’s a revelation!
Who came up with the idea behind the video? Was it a collaborate effort and does the end result look like what you had in mind originally?
Sage: The song really influenced the video. With the subject matter of the song we already had a really strong palate to work from about how the video should look. After we found out that Johnny was going to be in the video that shaped a lot about what the story would be as well. Nikki had been thinking of ideas and coming up with things for a while prior to shooting and so I think she had a very clear vision of how she wanted it to be shot, and she was helped with that by our amazing DP Sam Brown. Nikki had a strong vision, and then we all came up with kind of different scenarios, and we were influenced by the locations that we were able to find. Then our editor, James Simpson, was able to really put that kind of Andy Warhol look on the whole thing, which is one of the coolest aspects of the video. It was definitely a collaborative effort guided by Nikki’s vision.
Can we look forward to any more collaborations in the future?
Sage: Definitely, I think it’s clear from this interview that I am all about collaborations; you get some of the coolest things that way, and everything is more fun, and I am so lucky to be surrounded by so many amazing artists that I want to be able to do as much as I can with them. Creating my Factory you know.
Have you always had ambitions to direct? It’s a lot of responsibility to take on board - was it easier or harder than you expected it to be?
Nikki: I’ve always had the desire to do more than just act, and I love the combination of being in charge but also collaborating. We had a lot of fun making the video. The biggest challenge for me was learning how take the vision that I had in my mind and properly discuss it and combine it with Sam’s (cinematographer) ideas . We also had to come up with somewhat of a storyline which is difficult to accomplish in a 2 minute video. Last but not least of course finding the right locations and funding anything yourself is always challenging.
Obviously directing is very different from acting, was it hard to get used to your different role in this production? You’ve acted in a music video before, so did you enjoy being on the other side of the camera for once?
Nikki: I was nervous, especially bringing Johnny Flynn on board. He is an artist that I have a tremendous amount of respect for, and I wanted him to feel comfortable and have confidence in me.
The video is fantastic. Did any directors or perhaps other music videos influence you at all and if so, who?
Nikki: I’m new to all of this, although I have been fortunate enough to work with some amazing people. There isn’t one specific director that I would like to model myself after, but Catherine Hardwicke is certainly someone that I admire and have learned a lot from. Niki Caro, James Cox and David Fincher are a few other’s that I love.
The video has a pretty distinct look. What made you decide on the visual choices you made, such as the quick cuts, spot coloring, and the old film look?
Nikki: The old film look was inspired by the lyrics of the song, and many of the jump cuts are actually stills that we put together to look like moving footage. I thought it was appropriate given how much energy Sage has when she performs, as well as a way to capture the ambiguity of the video.
Where did you guys shoot the video and why did you select those particular locations?
Nikki: We shot in London. Sam Brown our cinematographer was a huge part of why we chose to shoot there. He was very helpful, we had similar ideas, and he was extremely passionate about Sage as well.
How long did the video take to shoot?
Nikki: We actually shot two videos over the course of about 10 days. The second one will hopefully be released later this year.
source
~Robstenfan
0 comments:
Post a Comment