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VIOLENCE

LIFE IS A MOVIE

I DON’T HATE YOU

It was five years ago when Chris Walters first sat down with members of the band Yellow Pop.  Walters, a veteran cinematographer shooting a music video for the band, was an amateur musician, but decided to pick up a guitar and join in on an impromptu jam session with the band.  In just one sitting, a balance was struck with Yellow Pop members’ Roy Gurel and Asi Spector, uncovering a unique sound, which manifested in two original songs by the end of the session.  Walters, Gurel and Spector reunited the following day for another improvised musical dialogue.  The result was Creepy Pretty, which will release its first album this spring, with a visual twist. 

To distinguish the band, Walters plans to utilize the skills he acquired from decade-long career as a cinematographer by introducing an album that will utilize new media to tell a story.  Walters said the group will produce a narrative-style video series that will sync with the music.  “It could be sort of like a movie that’s broken into 13 parts or however many songs there are,” said Walters.  The video series, which will feature the band members as the characters, will begin production upon completion of the songs for the album. 

The unnamed album will feature 13-14 tracks with Walters as lead singer, Spector on guitar and Gurel playing percussion.  Walters said 11 songs are in the works, two of which are finished and three that are 90% done. Walters directed, sang and starred in a video for one of the finished songs, “I Don’t Hate You”, which is available on TheFreeStyleLife.com.  “Hellow of Merry” is the other finished song.

Walters said his sound was influenced by Living Color and Ned's Atomic Dustbin when he was a younger.  “Nirvana certainly changed how I saw music, which I think it did for every rock ‘n roll fan,” Walters said.  “Radiohead too, I remember when I first heard the Pablo Honey album.  That really changed my perspective as well.”  My Bloody Valentine, The Pixies and Sloan, a band from his native land of Nova Scotia, also affected Walters Sound.

Walters, who is making his rock ‘n roll debut with this album, said making new music has been relatively effortless for the band, which pieces songs together from fragments of elongated improv

sessions.  “Out of a one hour jam session, we’ll play a bunch of crap, but for five minutes we’ll all just get in the right space [musically] and there will just be a song, complete with chorus, bridge and verses,” said Walters. “I don’t know how to describe the music, but its almost like the songs are already written, we just play and they happen.”

Having shown a knack for creativity his whole life, the 34-year-old has been making music and videos since he first picked up a camera at age seven.  “I am not a business man or a strategist,” he said.  “I just spend every minute that I have making something, whether its a film or a song.”  Walters is hoping his concept offers the band another way to market itself as an evolved rock band taking on the world of new media.

“This day and age record companies are kind of obsolete,” Walters said.  By combing film and music, Walters hopes to produce a single creative endeavor branding the band as ‘unconventional’.  “We won’t just be a band, we’ll be a sort of media engine that makes entertainment,” he added. 

Walters said the rock ‘n roll narratives will be marketed as ‘wireless content’ to wireless providers like Verizon. 

Meanwhile, Walters said he will continue to work in film as a director and cinematographer.  “I want to focus on everything,” he said. This summer he is scheduled to direct an independent film he wrote titled ‘A Time to Run’. 

In the past, Walters has worked on music videos with hip-hop stars like Snoop Dogg and Fifty Cent.  He has also worked on and directed numerous documentary films, Indie films, shorts and commercials for various Fortune 500 companies.

Reporting by Page Robinson