Welcome back to Hollywood Ty, catch us up on the last few months.
It’s been non-stop, certainly the most productive year we have had in well over a decade. I mean it’s the 20thanniversary year of MTTS, so that was my goal and my set focus, but I didn’t really realize that we would be creating at this pace. We’ve been releasing new music every Monday, our most recent; a true reunion song, ‘EXTRA!! EXTRA!! That I did with label mates William Zaybiane, Tenacious and T.Foxx, which was produced by J Bryant.
Our team has been in constant contact since April of this year, and as we spoke about in our last interview, our four day ’20 years of MTTS festival’ was a beautiful success in the trajectory of this legacy that I am determined to cement in the history books, and I know that’s what most of my team is striving for to, especially Tenacious, who reminds me of that every time we link.
Teamwise we are the strongest we have been in recent memory. Individually I am enthusiastic about the completion of ‘7eventh 7irkle’ which is like new new new. I mean the process of production has drug on at various speeds since 2017, but I finally buckled down and got it wrapped up, and that’s been such an incredible weight off my mind, heart and shoulders, and that’s why I am back on the boulevard, that’s why we are talking here at the TCL Chinese Theatre. Well that and it’s my 45th birthday. I am about to meet with Richard and Anastasia Elfman, who have become large areas of my motivation since I met them, to celebrate this birthday with what I might imagine will be a whiskey.
Speaking of ‘7eventh 7irkle’ let our readers know as much as you are comfortable with telling them.
With this installment of my ‘Shucks cinematic world’ I feel more comfortable revealing story points, symbolic images and the overall theme of the 16 minute short film. That’s something new for me as a filmmaker, I usually want the audience to kind of paint their own story in their minds with the visual clues and my musical score, kind of like those choose your own story books from the 1980’s, but this time is different, I am open to talking about it fully, giving my audiences a chance to dive into my brain without hiding any of my motivations for creating this.
Of course the basis of inspiration for this is Dante’s Divine Comedy, in particular the Inferno segment, with total focus on Canto XIII, so you see a lot of harpy type creatures deep into a wooded area for the core parts of the film. My intention was for this to be an unsettling journey for the viewer that overflows with tension, lots of deathly images, even one at the climax of the film that I know people will question and either be disgusted because they don’t initially understand the connection on the symbology, or really want to discuss it and pick my brain.
I opened up the film intentionally with various animals either in the wild or caged, just to remind us that we are all in fact, animals with primal instincts that are still with us no matter how much we feel we conceal them or “control” them.
While watching, we noticed the change from your usual completely silent but scored approach, to an actual dialogue in the beginning sequences, how/why was that decision made for ‘7eventh 7irkle’?
With something so dark, entering the seventh circle of hell, I knew early on I needed a stark contrast, the other side if you will. Every time I picked up Dante’s Divine Comedy to read it, no matter what edition or how it was bound, it always felt like a Bible to me, I even have a copy under the seat of my car.
My reasoning for being so connected to that piece of literature stemmed with me trying to break my own stigmatic behavior when it came to addictions and those who are addicted, I felt like understanding Canto XIII would become a spark plug for me to start thinking more empathically.
In 2021 I decided I wanted to have an unscripted prayer to begin and end ‘7eventh 7irkle’ so I reached out to an old friend, fellow musician, Marcello McNeil (Holy H3>Then) about it. When I met him in the mid 2000s, he was in a very harsh phase of his life, and within the last handful of years he really changed his life around, it’s been inspirational, so I asked him if he could come film two prayers for the addicted who are judged with the death of their innocence, I feel like it’s a powerful way to begin.
However we didn’t use the last prayer in the final cut of the film, reason being was one of my close childhood friends, Neil Hoover died in April, and it felt right to include him and his voice in the final moments, it’s an emotional rollercoaster for certain, I know I am about to lose it when I see it on the big screen and hear his voice again. I do feel confident that we will use that second prayer either in an extended version or in a future production.
Powerful seems to be a perfect word for this, we also read the review you forwarded us from Jessie Hobson at Cinedump that called it “a triumph of experimental horror” and we agree. When you read that, how did that make you feel?
I can’t lie, it’s an incredible feeling to be awarded for my works and also to get reviews that strengthen my motivation for future projects, that brings kind of a feeling of being understood. There’s always a layer of imposter syndrome when an artist creates, so reactions like this are a huge help in tackling that feeling and accepting the work for the quality it is.
Really though, time will tell if this truly is a triumphant piece of work or not. I feel like it is, at least in my life and who I am personally. Getting through this and finally finishing it was nothing short of a triumph. I was actually stuck, overwhelmed by the amount of footage we had, the lack of structure on some points, the obstacles I was facing when scoring the music, damn it was like fighting a tsunami with my bare hands, I was stressed, depressed, vexed, I was super sour at home and with my wife and kids unfortunately…more than usual.
Then during our most recent writing session, aka ‘Mighty Monday’ I decided to show the team the first five minutes of the film. Their reactions were all I needed. When we wrapped up the writing session, I pushed myself to finish the dancing sequence with Josie, Abi and Saphira and I composed a whole new piece to blend it all together.
Leading up to that, the dancing segment with the three women was where I was the most stumped, and that night/morning I stayed up past 2am to finish it, which ended up being the catalyst to edit the rest of the film so I could bring it to Hollywood and show it to yall at the historic TCL Chinese Theatres tomorrow.
Of course, what’s next and when will we see you again?
I’m working on being more focused. We are still doing our ‘Mighty Mondays’ which, in house means that MTTS meets in some shape, form or fashion to create music, whether it’s to write, record, pick beats out, whatever. It’s helped us tremendously. What that means to the outside world is we plan to release a song every Monday from now until the end of the year, which is exciting and so far so good.
We are still doing ‘First Friday Fashion’ which we are actually doing right here today in Hollywood with this piece I’m wearing from Laura Ashley Live Art that showcases the mascot and logo from my alma mater, Appalachian State University.
Along with that we are hosting ‘Third Thursday Thinktanks’ that encourage the cultivation of the arts, entertainment and culture of our community. We have completed several projects since the first one in January.
My bullseye of the year though is the grand finale for our 20 years of MTTS anniversary year which will be December 11, 2025 at the historic Sunset Theatre in my hometown of Asheboro, NC. That’s also the hometown premiere for ‘7eventh 7irkle’ alongside a comedy hour, a concert, what could be my final fashion show, a Casey Mull Arts sculpture showing, and a few more surprises, we will be working on from now until then.
As for coming back to Hollywood/L.A. it might be in feBRUary 2026, but we will see. If the opportunity is right, I always love coming back to a place that has become a home away from home. I’ll keep you up to date though, thanks for taking the time to talk with me.
