“I was trying not to be afraid of being cheesy, of not trying to be cool. I get so tired of this angst-ridden music: disturbed, young, angry boys on their guitars,” says Usama. “I love this artificial landscape, when you take reality and heighten it, for me it creates an emotional response that is very real. And it’s fun.
“It’s a release; I need the balance. If I made only music videos I’d go crazy, but since the war started in Iraq, I’ve been making a lot of films that were very dark. I mean, did you ever watch a really heavy movie and then afterwards you just need to watch a Bugs Bunny Cartoon?”
The album was released February 20th by Thrill Jockey, but filming is expected to last until late spring. Bobby and Usama plan to release the videos onto the internet as they finish them (“King for a Day” is already up on sites like YouTube and MySpace). After shooting all of the videos, Usama expects that re-editing will take place to create a more coherent narrative feature.
Although Bobby insists that the rock opera has “no broadcast potential, being made on a budget of zero,” and neither Usama nor Bobby expects the movie to be commercially successful, both men are relatively unconcerned.
“Besides being a musician, I’m an art handler,” says Bobby. “The songs I write are about the American obsession with success that is based on my spending time in bazillionaire’s homes with their art collections. Very few bands make money. Biographies of artists are never happy.”
“I’ve been teaching documentary. I work as a freelance contractor at the Chicago History Museum doing all their audio archiving and film transfer, that’s decent. I’ve done some stuff for Nerve.com, I’ve done some stuff for fashion magazines. I work with my wife a lot, she’s also a filmmaker, so we collaborate. I produce porn. I paint,” explains Usama.
“Like I said before I don’t make any money [doing film],” he laughs, “so I’m not pulled in any commercial direction. I have nothing at stake but my soul, you know. So I guess it’s about reputation as an artist, if a lot of people like your work, or you just want your work out there so that people can see it. I don’t even care if people like it, I just want it out there.”
-Story by Kim Velsey, Photo by Casey Sachen