We are fans of an intimate, quiet performance here at Red Line Roots, but how about a performance high above a river on an abandoned railway bridge somewhere in the wilds of Western Massachusetts? Well, thats just what our pals at Live From Nowhere did with good friend of RLR and singer-songwriter Molly Pinto Madigan.
Without giving too much away, the new project aims to film performances of artists in places that you wouldn’t otherwise thing of playing music. Abandoned places that time has seemingly lost and forgotten, where every inch, scratch, peeling paint piece has a story to tell of its own.
We caught up with both Molly and the producers of the series, Emily Graham-Handley and Nico Rivers, to talk about the project and this episode in particular. Check it out and keep an eye out for more performances from nowhere…
RLR: The concept for these videos is really great. I have seen the “off stage performance” executed before but am really impressed with what you guys are doing. Where did the idea originally stem from? Live from Nowhere is really more like Live from ANYwhere!
Nico – I’ve always been fascinated by abandoned spaces. I was the youngest of 3 sons, so I was constantly forced to tag along to sporting events and there was this old abandoned rec. building at the baseball fields in my town. I remember finding windows to crawl in and roaming around the dusty rooms with the other “tag-alongs.” When I got older, it became abandoned hospitals, barns, mine shafts, whatever. Man, there is something surreal about visiting a place after it has been left to decay. A few years ago, I started thinking about recording music in some of these spaces to capture the sound of the environments; some of these spaces (tunnels, large empty rooms, etc.) have amazing sonic qualities. One night Emily and I were talking about this and the whole thing just sort of clicked. A few months later we were filming in an abandoned theatre.
RLR: Logistics can be tough for these types of things…what are you guys using for gears these days to make this happen?
Nico – On the audio side, we’re using the Zoom R16. This really wouldn’t be possible without that device. It gives us all the channels we need, some added bonuses and it runs on batteries. I’ve added some supplemental tools along the way to help streamline things, too. We pretty much lug a small recording studio out there and set up shop.
RLR: Molly’s video is pretty remote. How did you come across this bridge location for the shoot? Are you finding that you are hearing about places by “hey this would be a cool spot to film” conversations from people as videos roll out for the series? What are some other types of locations you are really looking to get into in the upcoming episodes?
Emily – Every time the series comes up in conversation you know there’ll be one guy who’s like “you HAVE to see this place from my hometown…” There are some places we’ve found through research but you get the best, most obscure places from people who grew up in MA and know the ins and outs.
RLR: The setting was pretty serene, but man being up on that bridge must have been a bit nerve wracking. How did the shoot itself go for you? Quite the balancing act!
Molly: The setting was beautiful. Richard King had to take the equipment in a canoe while we hiked to the bridge. The bridge was a little high, but it was above water, so we figured we probably wouldn’t die if we fell in. Everyone was more worried about the expensive cameras getting ruined. I was particularly worried about the wasps that were coming out of the blackened, fire-damaged wood. And getting sunburned, because I forgot sunscreen and am ridiculously pale. And the wasps. Yeah, they were scary. I don’t like wasps.
RLR: So Molly, how did you get involved with the video series and shoot? What did the process look like, did they say “hey we want to film on this bridge” or was it more of a collaborative “where should we film” deal?
Molly: Nico and Emily reached out to me and asked if I wanted to be a part of this video series where they shoot MA-based artists in abandoned and forgotten spaces throughout the state, which I thought sounded amazingly cool. They were scouting locations, and within the week sent me pictures of this abandoned railroad bridge. I thought, “Hey, that looks mildly perilous. I’m in!”
RLR: Who are some dream collaborations you would want to film and where?
Nico – Well, you know we’ve got our wish list of artists that will hopefully work out as things progress. We’re always on the hunt for new locations and we have a few on our radar now. There’s an old bar in my hometown that’s been shut down since 2004 that we’ve been investigating lately. We’ve found pictures online and it is dirty, dusty and glorious. Our next step is to seek out the owners and hope they’ve got a sweet spot for great music.
RLR: What are you listening to currently…locally speaking?
Emily – So much awesome music out of Boston. Ball Room Thieves, You Won’t…a lot of incredible new bands too, we just shot a show with the band Zilla, who are so tight and just released a great new album. We love Molly’s music of course…her voice and lyrics are incredible. The day of her shoot, we still had no idea which song we wanted Molly to do. I’d heard her play this beautiful song at a recent show that I couldn’t find anywhere on the internet, and was halfway convinced I was making up. I tried to relay the few notes I remembered sloppily to Molly at the shoot around 8am. She was like, “Oh yeah, that one’s brand new, hope I can remember the whole thing,” and then delivered this performance. The first time I listened to the words on playback my eyes started getting all teary in the middle of the 3rd verse, it was really startling.
Molly: It was new (the song), so I was hesitant, but it also dealt with drowning, which seemed fitting, given the location.
Nico – Lately I’ve heard so much great music around this town. So far in 2016 we’ve gotten awesome new music from Bent Knee, You Won’t, Atlas Lab and so many more. I’m also really excited for the Gypsy West record. The list goes on…
RLR: A bit part of what we are about at RLR is community. This is a great way to help musicians get a really cool live performance video unlike what they would get in a bar or typical performance.How do you see yourselves bridging that gap between music and film with the series?
Emily – I think that music videos have taken an interesting turn. They used to be all about special effects and high production value, but that isn’t as interesting anymore. New technologies aren’t as new, and I think people would rather get to know the human beings behind the music they listen to. I come from a documentary background and love the idea that live music videos strip away all the bells and whistles so you can be sure what’s happening is real. I love videos that catch a look in someone’s eye or the weird thing their foot does. Those are the best.
Molly: It was great working with Nico and Emily, though; they had a clear artistic vision, and brought a lot of creativity to the process. Plus they brought me bottled water so I didn’t die of heatstroke, which was considerate of them. They’re such kind, creative people. And no one ended up in the water! Granted, it was close when they had me balance along the rail with my guitar. The footage is about two-seconds at the end of the video, but, in reality, it was around seven minutes of me praying that, when I inevitably plummeted off the bridge, the wood wasps wouldn’t sting me on the way down. It was a such pleasure to work with Nico and Emily, and I’m honored to have been a part of the project. And I can’t wait to see all the other amazing videos in the series.
More about the future of the series…
The first batch of videos covers MA-based artists in abandoned places throughout the state, though we’ve talked about expanding to include artists/locations in other states as well. We’ll be releasing videos every couple of weeks throughout the summer and fall leading up to a final release show Sept 22 at Davis Square Theater featuring Molly, Bent Knee (from our first video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8vFuwgq1lwo) and some of the other artists and bands we’ve worked with.