South East Performer article - Jan 2001
Set Scene: Inside the lounge area of The Zone Recording Studio, located in Atlanta GA. Characters: Five musical blokes that make up one of the hottest bands in Atlanta right now. Lead in: Recollecting the past and dreaming about the future. The Plot: Conquer as much of the city (and then the Eastern Seaboard) as possible with their highly charged, free-floating matrix of metal meets melodic. It is the mixture that has won this band of super heros/rockers acclaim from both the music biz, as well as the local scenesters.Cameras are set. Cue the cast. Alright, quiet on the set. And...roll FILM!
It’s late, and I just got put smack dab into rush hour traffic by the keyboardist/ publicist/ comic relief for the band, Film - a fast-talking, yet highly affable Brit named Iain. The band is gathering at a recording studio up in Gwinnett County. Here, the guys are putting the finishing touches on a song recorded for the major motion picture, Losing Grace, which filmed partially in Atlanta. The lads have already contributed four other cuts to the movie’s soundtrack, including the title track, "Losing Grace." The band also performs in the movie.
After taking what seemed to be a right turn around the state of Georgia, I finally locate the Zone. A quintet consisting of three Americans (Michael Sickeler, Guitar; Christian Prichard, bass; and Fred Hines, drums), and the aforementioned British gentleman, Iain (keys), Film is a band that you don’t put into an already existing genre. Instead, you just let the music speak for itself. And it won’t take long to find out that when the music does speak, you simply sit back and enjoy.
The musical moniker of Film has been around for almost two full years; yet it’s the current incarnation, that has all of Atlanta buzzing about what could be the next big band to come out of the birthplace of Coke. "We started out as a two piece, with Fred and myself," says guitarist Mike Sickeler. "We then heard good things about Christian from another band, met him, and became a trio."
And the how did the other members come to be a part of the band? "I knew Mike (Sickeler) from his wife, who also is British, [and I] would bump into him at some of the all-English shows like the Blur, The Charlatans, shows like that," recalls Iain. "I never knew that he had a band; he never knew that I played keyboards; and then, one night, I was wasted in this bar and Mike and Fred the drummer were sitting together. I go up to them, I find out that their looking for a keyboard player, I tell them that I’m looking for a band!" "He was just what we were looking for," adds Sickeler. "Yeah, a loud, obnoxious Brit!" chimes Christian Prichard, the band’s bassist.
"Fred and I, along with Christian, were performing then in different formats. Iain completed it then, and it took us a while to find a singer," Sickeler adds." I was doing most of the singing at the time, and we went from there."
To spend any amount of time with Film is to almost become part of a musicial fraternity, one that has a rollicking good time doing even the most mudane things. For example, telling all is an experience that most bands fear, but these guys use the opportunity to show just how comfortable they are with both the sound, and the components that make up this band. It is a testament to their creative prowess that they are just as comfortable with each others’ influences - influences as diverse as dance (Iain), bands like Crowed House, and the harmonic stylings of Simon and Garfunkel (Mike Sickeler). But, Canadian wedding songs, Fred? "Hey, if it has a beat to it, I’m into it," Hines quips.
But in all honesty, the Zen drummer of the group really gets his mojo running when he is able to perform numbers influenced by jazz or funk. " Truth be told, I didn’t really start performing any kind [of] rock-n-roll until I hooked up with these cats. I was into the funk scene. But that’s not to say that I’m not into [rock] - quite the opposite," he shares.
Throw in Prichard’s love for heavier rock, as well as a hankering for mainstream music (morphed from The Red Hot Chilli Peppers to Live and eventually to alternative rock), you can understand why the sound of Film has been described by some as an "edgier Creed meets a hipper Radiohead."
"I always admired Simon and Garfunkel for the way they wrote songs, and of course, the Beatles for all the melodic components in the writing," Sickeler says. "I grew up about ten, fifteen years behind my brothers, so they picked on me a lot for missing the good music when it was actually happening." He also sites Prichard as having broadened some of his musicial boundries. "Christian introduced me to the Stone Roses, which changed the way I write some of the tunes."
Do all his bandmates, however, share his affection for the Fab Four? "I’m probably the only Brit in history that can’t name ten Beatles songs," retorts Iain. "Do you mean Brit or twit?" jokes Prichard. The trouble with any new music in today’s market, especially with the ridiculous attrition rate, is when any kind of new act pops onto the scene, everybody with half a shot glass of musical acumen wants to peg said act’s sound into an already existing genre.
Film’s sound, as alluded to earlier, will throw the average fan back to the days when Creed first started rockin’ for the Big Man up yonder. The pristine vocals, however, combined with the aesthetic lead guitar of Sickeler, gives the band a an idiosyncratic, as well as charismatic, sound that pumps up the boys as they play. Add in the ‘tight-as-the-electoral-vote-in Florida bass of Prichard, and top it off with Hines’s hellacious hodge-podging on the kit, and you have a sound that both appeals to the grandeur of a rock god, while gently teasing the fat funk hep cats trapped in all of us.
"The key is to always have a melodic sound, while maintaining the girth of a rock band. We’re a very percussive band, and it has very tight grooves," Sickeler said. "The groove is very important. It’s really who we are."
The songwriting process, while primarily coming from the mindspring of Sickeler, is also a duty taken on by his musicial mates. For instance, Film is recording a song tonight that was written by Fred Hines. Entitled "Getaway," it is the final of the six songs the band are contributing to the soundtrack for "Losing Grace." How did a band still so relatively new end up not only recording the title track for (along with four others, including the song from the movie trailier, "Lead Machine"), but also appearing in the flick as well? "They found us on MP3.com!" proclaims Sickeler.
"It was really quite excititng to appear in the film (no pun intented) while being able to do what we do most naturally–performing," Iain adds. The film is tentatively set to premiere at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. "That’s in Utah, right guys?" I asked. "Seriously, it’s in Provo, isn’t it?" His mates laugh. "Even I know that it’s in Colorado, and I’m from the United [expletive] Kingdom!" Bellows Iain. (Note: Sundance is located in the majestic mountains of South Park, Colorado. Stan and Cartman will serve as this year’s Masters of Ceremony)
If you are wondering whether or not the lads will attending the movie’s premiere at Sundance, we can hardly blame then if they can’t make it for Robert Redford’s annual gala for independent cinema. The kids are currently hard at work on their debut EP, which they hope to have out sometime early next year, and plan on hitting the road in support of it.
Film has played the highly successful Music Midtown festival the past two years. They have been headliners at the last two Atlantis Music Conferences. They have also moved over a thousand copies of their first single, "Coming Down, (Can You Feel It?)." Additionally, they have played almost every venue in town, and tons on each coast. And, if that wasn’t enough, they recently won the regional Lucky Strike band competition. Because of that honor, they will soon be taking it to the streets of Charlotte and Miami to participate in the Lucky Strike Battle of the Bands Play-offs.
At this rate, Film is destined for success. Take a picture. They won’t be local long. And that’s a wrap...