surreal state of mind
on set for "through the mirror"
greetings earthlings,
tomorrow (sunday!) is the final day to purchase pre-sale tickets for the crystal trench new years eve release show at four star theatre, presented by dizzybird records. pre-sale tickets are hugely helpful for DIY events like this, so if you are planning on attending, purchase your ticket now and save a few bucks. presale tickets are $15, after sunday they will go up to $20.
four star theater is an independently run venue in the process of being restored, and in my opinion the most unique and interesting space for live events in grand rapids right now. i love a weird space for a show, something off the beaten path. i will always opt for a hidden gem, even if it means more work to make the thing happen.
i keep joking that planning this show has been my version of planning a wedding. four star theater is the perfect canvas for this project. i love to shape an event around the space its existing in. we’re leaning into the vintage circus themed interior— the red and white striped curtains framing the stage, a caged balcony only accessible by ladder, the original partially-functioning neon hanging from the ceiling, the crumbling marquee, the revolving bar. this space has such a depth of history that a shiny corporate venue funded by live nation could never even compare to. alex perez and claire gold will be designing the stage lighting with live visual projections & a light show. the theater doesn’t have any in house sound or lighting, so to make the show feel immersive, we started from the drawing board entirely.
to me, this challenge is inspiring. lately, i’ve been reminiscing on my middle & high school theater days. the older i get and the more i find my groove in creative work, i realize my time spent in theater was such a formative foundation for me. the costumes, the alter-egos, the hand-built sets, the drama, the personal transformations, the creative problem solving, the absolutely essential teamwork & collaboration required to produce a scene. theater in my youth was a world i could drop into whenever i moved schools every few years and make new friends right away. it was the place the queers could be queer before they even understood what that meant, or were even safe to be fully out.
today, i write to you from the windy city. i woke up early on a couch in the kildare studio in chicago where we are posted up this weekend, filming a music video for through the mirror. on set, with all windows blacked out, its easy to untether from what time of day it is in here. its 3pm and i actually don’t think i’ve even seen the light of day yet. we’re in the middle of day two out of three of filming. right now, i’m in a robe with globs of hair gel dried on my face and mascara blotty and running (a look that is a real challenge to emulate with authenticity), while the film crew sets up our next scene, a mysterious watery canvas serving as a portal to another world.
surrealism is a theme woven into all of my work, when the impossible becomes true, the mirage becomes tangible, the strange and sublime are embraced.
the video is being created by my friends jeremiah noel and spencer “spud” brown, two brilliant minds who are both about as extra as i am when it comes to executing a vision. the new EP was recorded in the basement of the space we’re working in, the two of them live in an apartment upstairs. this special building has been a hub for my creative projects over the past few years, a home away from home. when i was here at the end of the summer recording, they came into the studio and heard the rough mixes of all the tracks and were immediately inspired to create a video to go along with. the rest is history.
my friend and style alchemist lauren witvoet (aka puppy luv vintage) is on set doing all wardrobe and styling. we all sat up late last night and shared in our awe of the power that clothes carry to transform and tell a story, how the older something is, the more magically charged up the garment is. in the shoot, i’m wearing a silk night gown and jacket from the 1930s, a sheer black gown from the 1940s. i wish i could explain to you the way these clothes smell, almost 100 years of life embedded in the threads.
here are some behind the scenes glimpses of what we’ve all been cooking, and a preview of what we’ll be bringing to the stage new years eve.
i can hear water flowing from in the other room, my cue that it’s almost time for the scene. i hope you’ll join us for the grand reveal of this project i’ve been nurturing slowly and carefully. can’t wait to see you on new years eve :-)
xoxo, ness