Your highly entertaining documentary
feature film Underground,
Inc. tells the story of the
rise and fall of the U.S. alternative
rock scene in the 1990s. It feels
like it was a real labor of love for
you. Please tell us more about
how you got involved in making
this film.
Thank you, I’m really happy to
hear that wider audiences, so
far, have been engaged and entertained
by it, especially since
it came out of a very niche-like
obsession for these unknown
bands. It was a long, long labor
of love and at the time I began
the process of making it, it definitely
seemed like something I
absolutely had to do. The bands
featured in the film have had such
an important impact on my life,
and it was strange to me that every
time I played some of these
bands in either the record store
I was working at, or to friends, I
was always getting the same response
from people saying, “how
come I’ve never heard of these
guys.” There were so many bands
who during that time got sucked
in to that major label machine
and simply never made another
album afterwards. I had to raise
money, privately, to fly over to the
States from Australia and get to
the bottom of what happened.
These artists had done so much
for me and I wanted to tell their
story.
How long did it take you to make
it? How much footage did you
end up shooting?
It took 5 years to complete. I did
shoot way too much footage – 90
hours....so in that regard I learned
a lot. It was difficult to figure out
what to include but I’m still happy
I now have a detailed record
of these artists and their experiences.
NJ STAGE - ISSUE 74
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