PREMIERE – SVA Theater NYC Oct. 17th, 2021 – Feature Documentary Make Me Famous
One of, if not, the most involving projects I have ever written music for, Make Me Famous is a story about art, love, death, fame and fortune, envy and talent, as told through the eyes of a drunken gay genius neo-expressionist painter struggling to get by in the 80’s East Village of NYC. He meets everyone! Everyone agrees he’s super talented. Why can’t he be famous!!!!! What happens to a person that’s right in the middle of fame with all the tools to grab it, but maybe too drunk to care about establishing etiquette. Not an uncommon story, but really never told as well as this documentary.
The score began as an 80’s inspired score that would have songs you didn’t know existed from the 80’s pop charts. I called a few singers to create some 80’s songs and went that route for a short period, before deciding to do a more arty, quirky classical driven acoustic instrumental that mickey moused the shot changes, which there are tons of!
Short aside – Brian Vincent’s editing is driving!!! It’s like a 90 minute music video. Very fast cuts with incredible color shifts and line juxtapositions.
Anyways, after writing almost a complete score we did a 180 – can I say 180’s at this point. That is, back to the 80’s inspired, but not a vocal driven, pop track type of driven soundtrack. More like a traditional score, but with vintage synths. So, I traded in my tuned timbales for a TR-808 (well, Behringer clone – anyways) and the violins became a Roland Jupiter (well, Behringer Deepmind 12) and my quirky clarinet became a Moog Mini (well, Behringer clone – anyways) etc… True story about the clones lolz.
What we created with the help of Emmy winning engineer Ric Schnupp is a trip back in time with some of the most animated, beautiful and expressive characters you’ll find in ANY documentary. This one is special. A tribute to all of the artists that did and didn’t make it in NYC. I hope you will make it to the opening!
Member of Manhattan Producers Alliance, BMI Composer, Delian Society, and contributing editor at Hit Songs Deconstructed. Past performances at venues such as Lincoln Center, National Theater Taipei, Tenri Cultural Institute, International Electro-Acoustic Festival, Galapagos Art Space, SVA Theater, etc. M.A. in Music Composition from CUNY Hunter College, 2009.