An Interview with Attic Space, October 2024
How did the topic of the Dust Mothers documentary come up?
Well, back after I went on the mini Texas tour with Dust Mothers (and Pique and Hazelwart), I edited the footage I shot into a little “Digital Mini Zine” that I posted on Instagram, and I originally intended to do the same thing for the final/farewell Dust Mothers show. But after shooting some footage, and having some conversations with my partner, Nat, it became clear that this was worthy of a proper documentary.
How is this documentary important to you? (why make it?)
When Roger announced he’d be leaving and Dust Mothers would be playing a farewell show, I think everyone realized the impact it would have on the scene. To some degree, it almost felt like a necessity to capture this point in time before things changed. It also felt like I was sorta the right person, in the right position to make it happen, so I went for it.
How did your initial idea for the film differ from the end result? (how did your feelings, wants and direction change throughout the filming process?)
I’d say there wasn’t much of an “initial idea;” for most of the lead-up to the show, I just showed up everywhere and filmed as much as I could. It was really during the editing process (which mostly happened after Roger had already left) that the structure and concept took shape.
What were some highlights of shooting?
There were many. All in all, I captured around 6 hours of footage during the filming process. I think my favorite time was Roger’s solo rehearsal the morning of the final show. It was just me and him at his house, and we were both a little tired, and honestly nervous, and I think I got a nice raw look into his process and his feelings towards the whole thing.
Why is the Denton scene important to you? What was the significance of including other bands/people in the documentary?
This is where I got my start, in all my creative endeavors. Roger’s old band Bad Dad Jokes was the first band to hire me to run visuals for them, so from that point forward, I’ve felt extremely connected to the scene. All the growth I’ve done as an artist has been because of them, and all the other amazing people in the scene here. I think I wanted to show, at least in my small way, the scope of the scene, and how interconnected it can be, and how everyone is striving to support each other.
How can others help/support the scene? How can people work together to keep the scene thriving? (ex. Going to shows, buying merch, sharing music, making films/music, etc.)
I think the best way for the scene to thrive is for more and more people to get involved in any way they can, whether that’s coming to shows, or putting on shows, and adding new interesting elements that haven’t been done yet. Every band that breaks up, or venue that closes just leaves space for more people to come in and do new things, so I just hope people keep pushing and trying new stuff, and exploring new territory.
Why specifically the Sony digital 8? What specifically appealed to you about shooting on film & how did the process of editing differ from digital filming? What was the desired effect, how did shooting on a physical medium change the meaning of the documentary? (oftentimes when I take film photos, they hold a much greater importance and sentimentality to me than digital photos because of their physicality and the effort it takes to preserve them!!)
Well specifically the Sony Digital 8, because that was the camera I happened to find at my Job a couple years ago. But more generally, I could definitely sit here and give some cliches, like how shooting analog is “warmer” and has a better “feel” and how it’s all about the “aesthetic” (and that’s all true) but really for this project I think what was important was capturing something raw and pure, which, to me, is a big part of the Dust Mothers ethos. There was a chunk of time where I thought I’d run parts of the footage through my visuals gear and have big glitched out and trippy sections, but after a while I realized I wanted this all to be as straightforward and “true” as it could be. Also, the 7 tapes I used for this were literally the only tapes I owned, so there was something finite and valuable about each second of footage that was shot.
Where is the physical film now?
Haha well as I answer this question, I’m currently sitting in my studio, at my desk, and the tapes are currently stacked up on an old pioneer floor speaker that doesn’t work, balanced against a small CRT. Everything has been digitized, which relieves a lot of the stress I had about them sitting around, but I’ll have to figure out somewhere good to keep them. (or maybe I’ll tape over them all in the next project, who knows haha)
(personal question as I’m always curious about audio when shooting film) - how do you balance/edit audio when it's transferred from a tape?
I’m lucky in that the Sony Digital 8 has a fantastic mic, with a super balanced EQ and a nicely compressed audio capture, so I didn’t have to think about it all that much. 95% of the audio you hear in the doc is coming straight from the onboard mic. The rest was recorded off my phone’s audio recorder, but that was only ever used as overlay audio, so it never had to be synced with footage. The only challenge was making sure the audio from various shows/rehearsals had a similar loudness in the final edit, because the setups were widely different in each venue, but I just did whatever felt right, and I think it all evened out pretty decently.
On the subject of editing, what was your process of editing a full-length documentary? Do you have experience with handling this much film/footage? How did you tackle and organize it all?
No, definitely not! Luckily, for the most part, it worked out that each individual tape was one individual event, so when I was digitizing it all, I made folders for each day of recording. Instead of digitizing a full tape at a time (that would need to be chopped up later in the editing software), I did it in short 4-10 minute chunks (basically creating video clips for any given scene), and then put all those chunks into the appropriate folders on my laptop. And then from there, instead of editing the film in one big project, I basically edited each day separately, and once those were all done, I just glued them all together into the final project (at which point I went through and added things like subtitles and song names). The whole process was additive instead of subtractive, if you will. But honestly it was all very tedious and I’m sure there were MUCH more efficient ways to do what I did haha
What prompted you creatively to film dust? How did you incorporate your own stylistic editing/lighting into the film?
Honestly it was all pretty run-and-gun, at least in terms of filming. I went out of my way and bought some lights that I intended to use but never even got around to using them. I tried to keep it all as simple and diy as possible.I think the place I was really able to let my style shine through was in all the title cards and credits and things like that. I spent just as much time on creating all the titles as I did on the edit. And don’t even get me started on the “ASS FILMS” production graphic.
Is there anything that challenged you while making this? Anything you learned? (I noticed a lot of your portfolio consists of short-form video and music-oriented, highly stylized work - how did shooting an analog documentary differ from your previous work?)
I would go as far as saying that every single aspect of this project was a new thing for me to learn. I really don’t have any experience doing something like this, especially on this scale. I think the most exciting realization during this whole process was that you can genuinely just do whatever you want. Filmmaking was always something I was very interested in, and excited by, but it always felt so scary and complicated to get into, especially as someone without experience or training, but I think once I really wrapped my head around just doing it all myself, in whatever way I wanted top, it felt very liberating.
Tell me about your work in graphic design! What inspired you to start designing show flyers? Are you self taught or did you go to school for it?
My experience with graphic design reality started in my young teenage years, when I was a DJ, and needed flyers and album art and things like that, but didn’t know anyone who could do it, and didn’t have money to pay professionals, so I began to teach myself, mainly out of necessity. I, naturally, spent years and years making really garbage art, but got to learn what worked and what didn’t over time, and once I got into the local band scene, I found myself in a similar situation and started making my own stuff again. People started to notice that, and started to ask me to do work for them, and it all snowballed from there.
Which do you prefer; film or graphics? Why?
I think it all depends on the objective. Putting together a poster, making a film/video, and performing visuals live all evoke very similar creative feelings in me, and it really just comes down to figuring out what gets the job done best. That being said, I think working on a film of this scale really felt like a true combination of all of my creative abilities, which was very satisfying.
What was it like sitting in rehearsals filming everything?
Usually very hot and cramped haha. It was always fun, it felt like I got a private concert put on by my good friends every other week. Plus, it was truly awe-inspiring seeing how skilled these guys are, and getting to see how they approached the musical process.
Do you plan to make more documentaries like this one?
I’m not sure what’s next. I know for sure I want to do more films, but whether that’s another doc, a short film, a narrative, or whatever else remains to be seen. I might even use the “ASS FILMS” resources to help other people bring their visions to life, who knows.
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