Intro: Studio time with Max, recording vocals for Beetlejuice and Brown Coat Man [00:00:00]

Nicky P: Welcome everyone to another episode of We Came From Celluloid. I am Nicky P here, as always with my band mate, friend and brother from another mother and all around. Mr. Mr. And Brian Pritchard, how are we doing there?

Brian Pritchard: Good, man. Good. It's, it's, it's already been a productive day. It's only 9:38 AM and I'm like, I don't know.

I, I had a big block of time while I was working on a project with my son this morning. Just did, uh. Episode two of the, the Future Proof podcast for, you know, business stuff. And I get to do some creative stuff today. I, I, I've been trying to set aside time blocks on Wednesday, during the day, because my friend Max, who you've met, has a home studio environment and I like the idea of just showing up and.

Getting to play around with, you know, sort of lack of agenda, you know what I mean? And, see what comes out. And in fact, since I got that new drum set, I'm gonna move my old drum set, I think, into his basement, which will, could lead to some interesting stuff. I like the idea that, like coming up with a, a throwaway song.

You could like accidentally come up with something great. I know we've, we've talked about variations of that idea before that just freeing yourself of the, whatever attachments you have to, like, trying to define what, like, this band is writing a song for a, a band or a, a project. I, I love those songs too, but like.

Brian's Wednesday creative blocks and the value of intentional "throwaway" sessions [00:02:00]

Yeah, I just, I also like the idea of intentionally trying to write something that you like wouldn't write for, a band too. So yeah, that might be something I'll do later today and I'm looking forward to it.

Nicky P: Nice. So I will be visiting our, our max next Wednesday to like some vocals. Hopefully

Brian Pritchard: You guys independently made plans.

That's exciting.

Nicky P: Ryan, do you know me at all? When I'm ready to do shit, I do it Like when, when it's time to say, Hey, I need to record vocals for a song. I say, let me contact the gentleman that I'll be recording those vocals with and make it happen.

Brian Pritchard: I'm honestly just so not used to it. Not having anything to do with you just in life in general.

There's not a lot of people that like take the ball and run with it. So good for you, Nick. I'm very happy.

Nicky P: Well, no, no, no. So folks, what he means say is he's not used to people that deal with Max taking the ball and running with it.

Brian Pritchard: No, that's actually not on my mind at all. It's, it, it's, it's really just broadly speaking, I'm used to kind of having to nudge things along, like, like with music stuff, with business stuff, with a lot of things.

People talk about what they wanna do. You know what I mean? It's very easy to talk about all the things we're gonna do, make plans, making plans and brainstorming. It's fucking easy. You know what I'm saying? Doing the thing is the thing that everybody like avoids, and so, you know,

Nicky P: Well, you, well, I, I, I, I know that this isn't part of the max thing because.

We all, we, we all know that, like how I operate when it comes time to actually booking things. All right, well I have my people in contact this week and they will show up and this is booked and blah, blah, blah, blah. Usually it's, I book something and then Noel takes a couple weeks to actually show up for it 'cause he is got daddy duty.

Baz Luhrmann's Elvis documentary: the Vegas years, the style, the agenda [00:04:00]

And one of the kids is sick and this and that. It, it is different though. I'm like, because I do have the capacity to be recording myself, it is certainly new that I'm the guy going to the guy to do the recording. But it's, it was a situation where like, where we're gonna be working on Beetlejuice and maybe a one section of, brown Coat Man, that I don't feel like.

Recording in my room or in the studio here is gonna be the appropriate place to kinda do what I need to do on those songs. I need a, a little, little bit more theater space for those particular, particular recording, so I figure let's, let's call it Max and make it happen. I'm,

Brian Pritchard: I'm gonna, make a pivot there.

Segue, right? Theater space performance. You and I went to see this new Elvis movie a couple weeks back, and, I honestly have thought about it a lot since, since then. I really enjoyed it. Did you have a good time and, and enjoy the, the Elvis picture?

Nicky P: It's still a little overshadowed 'cause I got to see a sci-fi movie with you a few days later that I've been actually really looking forward to, but was definitely interested in the fact, like it was a Boaz Luhrman documentary and Voz Luhrman to me is a very, like, highly stylized director, but not of, you know, I'm not used to thinking he was doing documentaries.

So it, it was this very. Artistically clearly with an agenda version of a documentary about Elvis during the Vegas years, and I learned some interesting stuff. Even like in a, not like, where it wasn't clearly wasn't a documentary to like teach you a whole lot. It definitely, it put a few like. Elements, a few little factoids that like, I guess I never really thought about, like the idea that Elvis had never played outside of the North America was weird to me because you think of how big Elvis was, but then like the sheer number of gigs that he did in Vegas in his later years, like it was, no wonder the guy like you, he say he died.

Elvis's three-shows-a-day Vegas residency and the amphetamine math [00:06:00]

You know, choking on pills and sandwiches on a toilet, you know, but he was doing like sometimes three shows a day during those Vegas runs, and you're like, that's, that's stamina. Like, the way that he did a show that seems almost impossible to do in, in some ways. Like these, those are big,

Brian Pritchard: You know, I've been around enough people, uh.

Playing with amphetamines and, and uppers like that, right? That. That definitely to me stood out in his physicality in the rehearsal space and stuff like that. And, and knowing what was going on with that at, at the time. It, it, it does all tie into going like, yeah, sort of, sort of like, you know, where, not quite the same thing, but I th my mind goes to Michael Jackson and the Propofol, propofol or whatever, like the sleep stuff that ended up killing him and, and going like.

Military speed in Vietnam: go-go pills and the airport story [00:07:00]

I, I bet Elvis had some fucking half-ass doctor in his life that was giving him, you know, a lot of speed and, I think it fucking killed the dude's heart. But like, yeah, he, he, he was amped up in a, in a way that really did seem, like. That's not just natural. It's not just that he's having, he's digging the music.

He, he was, he was like cranked up, you know what I mean? And, yeah, it seemed unhealthy too.

Michael Jackson, Propofol, and the enabler-doctor pipeline [00:08:00]

Nicky P: It's funny, I was, I was watching some reel yesterday and, it was some dude talking about coming back from. The, from Vietnam and you know, he brought some of like the his go-go pills that he got from like the military because he had just said it had some of 'em left over.

And like he gets at the airport and they're like, sir, you know what, what's this probably I, I was administered these by, what's it called? Blah, blah, blah. And then they bring up like the superior comes like, sir, do you, are you aware of this is speed?

Like, they are my go-go pills from, from the military. And you know, they're just straight up giving us soldiers speed so they can like, survive the jungle.

Brian Pritchard: Yeah.

Nicky P: You know, you know, it's, it's okay when, when, when people,

Brian Pritchard: Wow, wow, wow.

Nicky P: But just the idea of like, you know,

Brian Pritchard: It's not surprising. I mean, you know.

Elvis covering the Beatles in rehearsal; one icon meeting another [00:09:00]

Like that sort of shit is what led to, good old Jacob's Ladder, you know what I mean? Um. That, that's part of the, the foundation of that whole story is, is like, soldiers being experimented on in, in Vietnam and stuff like that. But yeah, no, that, that, that doesn't surprise me. I hadn't heard that story, but it doesn't surprise me.

But no hearing, hearing him cover, those Beatles tunes I thought was really cool. I, I was looking, there, there's a soundtrack for it on iTunes, doesn't have any of that. Stuff. So, so it's, it's buried inside the, the, and it didn't look like he really did much of it on stage. It just looked like during rehearsals those must have been enough, like in, in the, popular culture and in the air at, at that time that like, you know, he, he just wanted to jam on with his bands and, and, but it, it, it made me happy to see one.

One icon covering another icon. I'm like, I'm like, damn. That's, that's crazy Hearing Elvis cover The Beatles, you know?

A Little More Conversation and the campaign to give Elvis more UK #1s than The Beatles [00:10:00]

Nicky P: Well, it's funny you mentioned like the Beatles there and, well, the thing that I was thinking in my head is, I'm not sure if you remember like, it would've been when we were still in high school.

Do you remember when they released the, the new Elvis song? Elvis hadn't released a song in a number of years, 'cause obviously he was dead, but they released a little less satisfaction. Or a little more conversation, little more action, whatever.

Brian Pritchard: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nicky P: But the reason they released that song as a dance song in particular way that they did was because they wanted Elvis to have more hits in Europe or than England, than the Beatles.

And so they put that number out and he officially had more number ones, I think in England than the Beatles because of that song may like getting as popular as it did, and it was just somebody like who owned his catalog or whatever, thought it would be an interesting little anecdote and history. A little footnote there.

Real Love, the Beatles Anthology, and the Beatles vs. the Beach Boys [00:11:00]

Brian Pritchard: That's funny 'cause the one I do remember, as you were saying, like remember that, you know song they released after you get him going? Not at all, but I remember is Real Love from the Beatles coming out with the anthology series. Right? Do you remember that song?

Nicky P: I remember the anthology series coming out.

I. I could, I could never quite get into the business. It's funny, it was like I had a, was very, very close with my music teacher in high school 'cause I was friends with his, his son and they were both Beatles people, but more than Beatles people. They were both. Beach Boys people. And so I kind of always firmly came up on the Beach Boys side of things.

Like basically, you either believe that the Beatles are the greatest band ever, or the Beach Boys are, and it's no compar. I always say no since, you know, Paul McCartney thought that the Beach Boys were the best band ever. I'd side with him on that one.

Blur vs. Oasis: the battle Brian missed entirely [00:12:00]

Brian Pritchard: That's funny. I mean, I hear people talk about Beatles versus The Stones.

I've always really loved the Bill Murray quote of, there's two types of people, those who. Love Neil Diamond and those who don't. She loved him about his ex-wife. From What about Bob? But no, I, I I hadn't, I don't know that I heard people go, it's the Beatles or the Beach Boys. You pick.

Nicky P: And I think it's more of an in the course of history, like, so obviously and during the time was the Beatles and The Stones.

'cause it was a, the competition, the burden's always been the competition for who the most important band in Britain is. Like when we were younger, it was. Is was Blur or was it Oasis? Who's the biggest band in the world and. Technically blur one on the day, but lost the war kind of thing.

Brian Pritchard: See, I don't even know who the fuck blur is, to be honest.

I know at least who Oasis is.

Nicky P: Blur. Blur is one of my favorite bands. You'd probably know. The Blur is Front Men More for what he did after Blur, which was gorillas.

Damon Albarn, Gorillaz, and how a cartoon band eclipsed Blur globally [00:13:00]

Brian Pritchard: Interesting. I saw that goofy guy on, Saturday Night Live, the other day.

Nicky P: The other, yeah, he was a couple weeks ago. But yeah, he, I mean, blur never, they only ever had the one song here, song two.

So like got popular, but they had album after album in your over in England. That was huge. And frankly, I'm, I am a huge fan of the music because it's just, it's definitely very British. Like he sings with an English accent and like does that and it works awesome. Like the songs are also super englishy and like their context like.

Yeah. Park Life or you know, legend of a Charmless Man kinda shit. And they're just very like, oh, you guys are very English, and this is quaint, isn't it? But the idea that, like, later on he, he al he's had a number of bands about history, but Blur, and then eventually Gorillas overshadowing them, like in from a God.

Good Luck Have Fun Don't Die: Brian goes in cold, Nicky goes in hyped [00:14:00]

A global stage has always been interesting to me, so,

Brian Pritchard: Well, yeah. And then, you know, I, I think it was literally as we were, we were walking out of, of Elvis that one of the other marquees has the, good luck, have fun, don't die. Which I then say, Hey, my sister's boyfriend said that, that was like the best sci-fi movie that he'd seen, and now I wanna see it.

And you went. I told you I wanted to see it like a month ago. You know what I mean? And I was like, okay. And, and, and so we went, you know, I, one thing, well, then I, what, what I'll just say briefly is that, I immediately thought of how another one of my favorite sci-fi movies, is, uh. Edge of tomorrow, which then became Live, die, repeat.

And, and thinking about how, boy, they've really made it, you know, tougher than they needed to with that title. You know what I'm saying? That like, good luck, have Fun. Don't Die is a great, appropriate title for the work. But it, it is one of those things. And, uh. Hard to market. Hard to market. Hard to market.

Edge of Tomorrow vs. Live Die Repeat: long titles and the marketing problem [00:15:00]

You know what I'm saying? I'm like,

Nicky P: Well, I will say they promoted the hell out of that movie. I watched that trailer so many times like that. It got pitched to me.

Brian Pritchard: It, it never made its way to me. All at all. I never, it was not on my radar at all.

Nicky P: And I think that they were trying to, I think they were trying to make it feel not necessarily like a sci-fi movie, but like something bigger and weirder than a sci-fi movie.

Like the idea behind

Brian Pritchard: You have that, every, I'm thinking about how everything everywhere, all at once also has a really fucking long title. And one best picture, right? Like, a couple years ago, didn't it make it all the way to, to Best picture? I didn't really like that movie to be honest, but I think it did win.

Everything Everywhere All at Once, Short Round, and movies that win despite long titles [00:16:00]

I remember, short round winning his best supporting actor Oscar, which is nice, but what's his name? Kay. Something like that. I liked him.

Nicky P: I, I don't remember honestly. Like I remember that movie coming out. It was nothing that interested me, so I didn't bother with it. I was, there was o other stuff on there,

Brian Pritchard: But I, I'm just thinking about how like, it's like, oh God, and I could, having not even seen the trailer as you were describing that, that I'm going.

Yeah, I could see how from a marketing perspective, somebody could have tracked and gone. That was a success to a fairly large degree, both financially and critically, and tried to present something heady Along those lines, I mean, you had being John Malkovich, you know, number of years ago, kind of managed to break through kind of into the mainstream for a minute, but.

Being John Malkovich and breaking into the mainstream [00:17:00]

Nicky P: I mean, 90% of that's 'cause you have John Cusack like labeled in the movie I think at the time. Yeah. What's funny is that I haven't bothered even, I, I haven't even bothered to look and see like how well the movie actually did. I know it wasn't in theaters very long, but what is these days? But I haven't looked to see like, is it actually doing well in Rotten Tomatoes or anything like that?

I've just kind of went and let, I went, I let, I went, and I went and just kind of let the experience be my experience with that movie. I, I, I haven't heard anybody talk about usually, like I, you know, I've got a couple people I'll follow for movies online, and I didn't even check any of them really. I didn't really care.

I mean, I think it would've been so busy in life. It didn't matter to me, but I was, I was very, very, uh. Some of the stuff, I guess, seemed very, very on the nose to me within the scope of the movie and like the writing. But at the same time it was super interesting and it was very, very fun. It, it, it did things that I think.

The school shooting sequence: how good storytelling handles uncomfortable topics [00:18:00]

Had they happened a couple years earlier in film, I might've gotten pissed off and, oh, they're just trying to make some stupid political statement. But like, we've been kind of out of that world enough where I, I see less and less of it overtly that like, oh, it is just a fun element of a movie. The thing that particularly comes to mind was just like the, the joke that they make about school shootings.

Which could have been a very overtly political joke, but it was like kind of a necessary part of the setting in this movie. And the way that they approached it wasn't from a political standpoint, it was just a. Here's the thing that happens. It's kind of a sick part of American culture and we're just gonna take it for granted that it's a part of American culture and run with it.

So like the idea that like, oh, this is your first, like some people have had like multiple school shootings on the same kid. Like it was it. It was played for, played for a bit and I appreciated the way they managed to approach it. For sure.

1984, Orwell, and the tradition of systemic critique in storytelling [00:19:00]

Brian Pritchard: No, it's, you know, like stuff like, 1984 and the many, many works that, that orwell's stuff inspired, you know what I mean?

That's almost become its own sort of genre that I, I, I, I feel like regardless of who was in power politically at any given time, there's, enough of those. Things sort of entrenched into social hierarchy or whatever. This us versus them, you know, rage against the machine. You know what I'm saying?

It's like, like that, that there is a thing, that, that people feel, and maybe young people in particular, whatever, that, that, that, that, that there's. There are people in power and decisions being made and, and all this, this stuff, right? And, and even to find ourselves at a moment in history where some of those things are way more on people's, you know, minds and, and in conversation than, than,

Maynard James Keenan's Puscifer albums and the "get off your phones" theme [00:20:00]

Nicky P: I mean, you can, you can just watch them happen more upfront in front of your face.

Like we watch people. Like, what is it? What is it? Like a 78%? We don't want to be in Iran right now, like from the country standpoint, and yet what are we doing? Because people at our higher level are making decisions that don't really give a shit what we think anyways. And it's, it's frustrating as a person to watch that happen.

Brian Pritchard: Yeah. And, and, and so, you know, the, the, there were things that to me, right off the rip in, in that movie, hearing people. Say, get off your phones. Right? When I, when I go see, Pusser in concert or tool? In concert and, and I, I did really enjoy, the experience of how strict they were about the phones and stuff like that.

Jessica Jones Season 2 and the anatomy of agenda-driven writing [00:21:00]

But like there's also this feeling May Maynard has now devoted his last two albums, existential Reckoning, and Normal isn't, um. Are basically combined, you know, 20 plus songs, 20 or 25 songs that are kind of redundant in, in feeling to me, in, in terms of, bringing up that same point. But, but, but I, I also have said for years that like.

There can be a a, a sense, I I I, I've never really been a protestor, but I, I don't wanna live in a world where, where that doesn't exist is how I've put it. Right. That, that I, I, I, I, the world needs to have people who are trying and care enough to try. I don't wanna live in a world of complacency. Even when it's, sometimes I can point to any number of gestures that somebody else makes.

Orwell was a communist: Animal Farm and the irony of its legacy [00:22:00]

And for me, I feel like God, I, I have a hard time justifying, you know, spending the time. I don't know. Ultimately, I, I end up. As much as I can rationalize it, there's, there's probably a simpler answer, which is just that like, yeah, I can be selfish with my time. You know what I'm saying? And I'm grateful for the fact that people care about that.

Tying that back into stories, I'm saying even at a moment, frankly, where I. I'll, I'll give an example that I found cringey. I, I loved Jessica Jones, season one, Jessica Jones, season two. I remember feeling immediately like the dialogue no longer felt like real conversations that people have. They felt like a writer with an agenda trying to get that.

Trying to like lecture me through their characters, you know what I'm saying? And, and insert these ideas through their characters. But, but I'm saying on the one hand that, I don't want to live in a world without that. And a lot of work that I admire has those qualities, I guess. One way of looking at it is that you can either be a fucking good storyteller or a shitty storyteller and be real

Nicky P: Clear.

No, and, and, and that was my point. That was my ultimate point because, you know, me and Jessica Jones, season two, we've had that conversation many times, but it, it's the idea of you can either write well or write shitty. Like I, I don't mind people having an agenda. I've, you know, I'm a big fan of Orwell amusingly people use, animal H or Animal Farm to kind of be an anti-communist fair fable, when in fact, Orwell was in fact a communist.

Sam Rockwell, scenery-chewing, and physical media advocacy [00:24:00]

And it was, it was more a matter of we like the Trotskyist versus the, the, the Leninist communists. It's. Whichever flavor of communism we like better. It was more of the story for Orwell, but, you know, take it as it is. He had things to say. It, it is certainly like, to me it was, you, you have a way to do things that works and, and it feeds the narrative or you have a way to do things that just feels like unnecessary dialogue.

And that was always the problem with Jessica Jones is 'cause it was such a stiff departure from the writing of the first, first season. And it just didn't make sense in the context of the show that that would be like you spent an entire season building up what a badass this character is and kinda make me fall in love with that.

And then you're kind of like, it seem like, well, every man is a threat to her. No, it's not at all the case. She's a badass. We've already established this, so now you're kind of like doubling back on how you wrote this character to be and it seems stupid. I. Anyways. How, how did you end up walking outta that theater?

Like I, I walked out like very happy.

Brian Pritchard: Yeah, no, I, I went in, cold intentionally that I, I hadn't seen a trailer. It was, John who'd seen it recommending it. And your interest. That and, and my liking, Sam Rockwell enough who's on the poster, and so I know that he's involved. Right. But beyond that, I was like, this is a rare opportunity.

I say opportunity, like right now, if I open up the Regal App, there surely are. Movies. I haven't heard of that. I could go in blindly, but I'm not going to, I'm not in fact willing to give my time to it. It, oddly enough, even with bands, I, I feel that same reluctant where it's like, it's like, no, I don't wanna go in like, and like just on a whim and find out, like spend an hour finding out if a band is good or spend two hours finding out if a movie's any good.

Which is admittedly kind of a lousy attitude to have as a creative type. You sort of want people to not feel that way, but, yeah, yeah, yeah. All that to say it was, I, I, I don't know that I can think of very many. I really have to sit and think about, the last time I went to a movie theater without having seen a trailer first.

Right. And, um. That enhanced the experience tremendously. I, I, I loved that movie. I look forward to seeing it again. It probably, I have a weird feeling that like, it, it won't be better the second time than it was the first time. In part because of some of those reasons coming in cold, stuff like that.

Like, I'm, I'm probably slightly over-inflating it in my mind as like, oh my God, that was like one of the best things I'd seen in, in, in, in a long time. But I, I just also genuinely love, liked it. I, I really did like

Power outages, camping gear, and riding out the apocalypse with DVDs [00:27:00]

Nicky P: It. I have a feeling there's gonna be a lot of. Stuff that I didn't even notice in it. This is one of those movies that like, I can't wait to to hear the commentary on, like the commentary track is the reason that movie exists.

If for no other reason than to hear the director talk about Sam Rockwell, like playing that character and just Tim chewing obs scenery with it, which he did. It is super fun. Man, I, I hope people are gonna learn their lesson in the next couple years on why physical media is so damn important. But, you know, always waiting.

Brian Pritchard: During these, windstorms the last few days, you ran outta power. Did you still, could you get on a lap?

Nicky P: Oh, no, Brian, I've, I've had, I've, I've not had pro power, most days of the week, this past week, like we, I'd come home from like the, the quote unquote day job and power would be out until like two in the morning.

So it's been a, it's been a weird kind of week like that. I had difficulty getting on working because no, I don't have a laptop that functions at that level. Right now, I've got a DVD player, but once again. It, kinda uses, needs to be plugged in to last for any real length of time. So I've just been watching stuff on my phone.

We have a, we have a battery block that we use, we that we use to keep the phones charged and lights and stuff working.

Brian Pritchard: There's definitely enough, like I, I, I have some memories of, of moments like that, even when they are short-lived and, and the battery's dying that like. I don't know. I'm quite fond of, it's, it's, it's a fascinating impulse even sitting in like darkness and like it's huddled up that I'm like, I still wanna watch 20 minutes of quantum leap on my phone right now, you know?

But I will,

Nicky P: Well, well for, so for us, for us, it doesn't always change the whole ton. 'cause we we're campers here, so we have all the camping gear to do camping stuff and so we can, we can live pretty normally, like when the power goes out, we just kind of. Pull a few items out of the garage. Basically what it amounts to, or I think actually maybe from the basement is where Liz has been keeping, like the stuff that we use a lot, 'cause been a lot of power outages in the past year in this neighborhood.

The Ohio meteor and Brian's immediate Creep Show association [00:29:00]

So.

Brian Pritchard: Well, you know, I, I didn't, I was lucky in that the lights and main power didn't go off. Our internet was spotty, was my big, you know, complaint. Right. But, but you reminded me of it just talking about the physical media side because like that always is, I, I have smug satisfaction when everybody's internet is down and I'm sort of like, hm.

I have so many choices, so many choices. The meteor yesterday, people were talking about the, we had a meteor yesterday. The, the timing as we're recording this, there was a meteor that exploded in the sky yesterday and it made me think of creep show, right? And, and the Stephen King segment of, of creep show.

Outro: Go find some satisfaction, people [00:30:00]

And it's not streaming anywhere, but it's sort of like, no big deal. I've got creep show upstairs. I'll go grab creep show. Right?

Nicky P: For sure. I've got that one up there too. It's always been a, I've always been a fan. It's the rare Romero meet Stephen King thing that you get back when like Stephen King could have fun with his writing and stuff.

So anyways, boss,

Brian Pritchard: I hear you. No more time. Yeah, we should, right?

Nicky P: Well, yeah, I, it's, you know, we're hitting that half hour mark and, you know, we don't want to give 'em too much of an insight into what's going on in our world. Just, just enough, just a glance, just a, that weekly little, little nibble into the inside world.

Anything you wanna send them off with today?

Brian Pritchard: I don't know. Well.

Nicky P: Go find some satisfaction people. That's, that's what the man said. That's what the man said.