Music by Adam Torres/Nostra Nova
Video by Brian Wiebe/Ethereal Epitome
While playing in Southeast Engine, Adam Torres wrote Nostra Nova in the mid-aughts. In extremely DIY fashion, he handed.out CDs to select friends around Ohio. Friends handed it to friends who handed it to friends. Each was stunned by the album’s beauty. Soon, Nostra Nova became something of a cult classic. Misra Records is proud to finally give it a proper release. “Torres’ work is a collection of tiny, beautiful things. It’s a way of seeing the world, with the realization our own odd adventures and small brushes with mortality are important but just one piece of a larger shared experience.”
Here is an excessive amount of information taken from an interview (with Wiebe) about the video:
How did you become involved with the making of the video?
It started at Casa. Lola Indiana had just played our first show. And you (Brian Koscho) introduced me to Adam. I expressed my love for his album, and the subject of making a music video came up, but only in very vague terms.
I interviewed Adam for a potential Aquabear podcast—that may still see the light of day. Interviewing Adam was a very good experience—he really illuminated the thoughts behind the songs. A lot of artists don’t appear to want to explain things any further. Sort of the idea that ‘if it could be expressed in another way why wouldn’t I have just done that?’ Which I agree with to some degree, but I also think sometimes that is a mask to hide behind. Anyhow, we kept talking about doing a video in vague terms—until I struck up a conversation with Adam at the Aquabear County Fair 2007. He told me he had seen an old film at Carabar and wanted to do something with “menacing wizards.” He had some different activities for the wizards to do and that got my mind going. We had some meetings at the Village Bakery, brainstormed and the rest is history.
What kind of imagery does the song make you think of?
The story that song tells was incredibly vivid in my head. It was all I could see when I listened to the song for the longest time. It really took Adam uttering those magic words –“menacing wizards”–to break me from the spell. The way I said that is ridiculous but I am completely serious.
What made you want to work on this project?
That’s an easy one—Adam’s amazing, beautiful music. I don’t want to come across as a shameless ego stroker, but that is one of my favorite albums of all time. And Adam Torres backs it up live. If I go on, we will all start blushing.
I believe there are a lot of different ways of making films, and–for that matter–great films (which is what all filmmakers want to make). There are no hard and fast rules. Sometimes being very formal and rigid works, and other times flying by the seat of your pants works. I have learned to be open to accidents, luck, mistakes. Most of the time I don’t understand the meaning until after the smoke has cleared. I didn’t know what this video was going to look like or what it was going to be about until all was said and done. I think the “method” used in the creation of this video really lent itself to that idea. We had costumes, scenarios, and rules in mind, but no shot list that was set in stone. It was really a documentary approach. Also, it should be noted that Ryan Bajornas, the cinematographer, brought so much to this video.
Explain the underlying theme of nature.
This came about for a couple of reasons. Adam didn’t want anything modern in the video; anything that people would immediately reference as part of there day to day life—a car for example. Nature is really the only escape from that. Rocks, water, smoke, and various elements became the props. Some modern elements managed to sneak into the video, but a lot of those were referencing water or air, balloons for instance. And again, Ryan Bajornas played a big role in this. As I mentioned, we had scenarios in mind but we took sort of a documentary approach. A lot of times, I would be positioning people or getting them in costume, and Ryan would be rolling on all the bugs, grass, etc. that surrounded us. Also the video was shot in stages, so after I watching some footage, I would say to myself, “Well that water splashing looked amazing, why don’t I go get some more of that!” So that is sort of how it came about being captured, but how it came to be a theme goes back to the idea I was talking about of the meaning revealing itself after the fact. I want people to take away from this video whatever they want, but for me it really came to be about the destruction of purity. Man versus nature or perhaps his own nature. There is also the whole idea that an act of destruction is an act of creation. Humanity has a love/hate relationship with explosions.
Who all was involved?
No actors were members of the screen actors guild, but some of them sure could be. Everyone was a friend. Sherri ended up as the main character by accident—she was there to help and be a wizard, but she ended up being ‘Jane’ because the dress fit her. She was amazing. Most of the time I said “wizards,” and people responded with a, “hell yeah, I want to be a wizard!”
Where did you film?
My good friend JJ, an MVP wizard, suggested his parents’ place outside of Athens. It was a great spot. Another place was Stroud’s Run. Another place is where I now live—along the Little Miami River.
Torres and his band – comprised of Thor Harris (of Swans), Aisha Burns, and Dailey Toliver – will head out on a run of U.S. dates in June. Beginning with a Daytrotter session in Davenport, IA on June 2nd, the tour will wind through the midwest and southeast before wrapping up on June 11th in Lafayette, LA. A current itinerary is below.
The Fat Angel Sings 