A Chat with Movie Club (02.10.2020)
When you face a time when words fail you, Movie Club is here to give you the instrumental boost you need. This Venice Beach duo includes Jesessamyn Violet (drums) and Vince Cuneo (guitar). Along with two special guests, the pair have released their newest single ‘Rainshadow’ for the world to enjoy. We sat down with Movie Club to talk about the new single, their music video, creative process, music and much more!
OSR: How did you meet and decide to start playing together as Movie Club?
Violet: It’s an insane story, actually. Vince and I met at the Cat & Fiddle in Hollywood one night in April 2017. My friend, well-known bass player Eva Gardner, was guest bartending, it’s her family’s place. I was keeping her company at the bar and someone came and ordered a drink next to me. She took his card and said, “You two have the same last name.” We turned to each other in shock. Neither of us had met anyone with our Italian last name (Cuneo) before.
It turned out we were both the same age and both musicians. We kept in touch, eventually started seeing each other, and then about a year into dating, Rami (Jaffee) mentioned he was throwing a pre-Cal Jam party. Vince and I wanted to perform, so we wrote a few instrumental rock songs and named ourselves Movie Club. It was so well received that we decided to just keep it rolling.
OSR: What was the inspiration for your new single ‘Rainshadow’?
Cuneo: It was a rare rainy night in Venice Beach and we were jamming. We wanted to set the mood to the vibe outside so we created a dynamic song that matched the storm.
OSR: The single features Rami Jaffee and Jessy Greene, how did you connect with them?
Violet: I originally met Rami and Jessy about five years ago through the Venice Beach community. We hit it off right away as we loved music and bike rides. We have collaborated a lot in the past, they have a project Songs for Pirates and I performed with them several times at Fonogenic Studio parties in the past. I’ve performed Jessy’s personal material with her live a handful of times, and she and I started a recording project with Eva Gardner as well called Little Sandwitch in 2016. Rami also sat in for one song on Movie Club’s first set at the pre-Cal Jam party at Fonogenic Studios and Jessy sat in on our first release show as well. So we’re basically long time fans of each other as musicians and people. Jessy and Rami have an ambient project going at the moment, so we figured their talents would fit perfectly for the mood of ‘Rainshadow’.
OSR: What was your creative process for ‘Rainshadow’? Did you start with a concept or a melody?
Violet: We have a pretty streamlined process for turning jams into songs. For most of our songs, we try to keep straight-ahead, but for this song, we weren’t so worried about time or structure. We just wanted to make it an emotional, psychedelic journey. We got a lot of inspiration from one of our favourite all-time tracks, ‘Maggot Brain’ by Funkadelic.
OSR: The release date for this single is linked to the history of the band, can you tell us more about this?
Violet: We were thrilled that we could coincide the release of this track featuring Rami and Jessy almost exactly two years from when we formed a band and played that first Fonogenic show with them.
OSR: You have also released a music video for the single. How did you determine the creative direction?
Cuneo: I made the video by layering natural scenes to create a simple, visual video that embodied the rainy vibe and foreshadowed Black Flamingo.
OSR: How has the pandemic affected how you make music?
Violet: Initially, we were flooded with energy to suddenly have all this free time to get our album together. 13 songs never firmed up so fast. I’d say that overall, it’s been hard to sustain the excitement to play without any live shows to look forward to, but we still make sure to write and rehearse.
Right now is a really great time to release music and our first single ‘Thunder’ has gotten great traction, so we’re feeling new energy to put even more material together as the uncertainty of an end to the pandemic stretches on.
OSR: ‘Rainshadow’ is the second single off your upcoming album Black Flamingo, can you tell us more about the album?
Violet: Black Flamingo is representative of Movie Club because we’re doing something very different. Black flamingos are extremely rare in nature, only captured once on film in history. This is our first full length album and we’re printing up a limited run of vinyl to celebrate as well.
OSR: If people could remember only one thing about the band, what would you like it to be and why?
Violet: Movie Club is the choose your own adventure of music. We’re built for everyone. You can make your own lyrics, you can put us on to focus and do work, you can put us on to headbang it out in your bedroom. Each song means what you want it to mean, can be the soundtrack of whatever is going on in your life.
OSR: Other than the album, what else can we expect from you in the future?
Violet: We’re working on a very unique music video for the title track of Black Flamingo with magician, musician and director Ran Pink. We’re constantly coming up with new material and can’t wait to travel the world to perform it.
Thanks to Jesessamyn Violet and Vince Cuneo for chatting with us! You can find more about Movie Club on their website, Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.
