Blake Farber interview; Filmmaker, Director, Guitarist of Olde York

Blake Farber is a filmmaker/director from New York City. He does music videos and commercials / short films all over the world. He also plays guitar in New York Hardcore band Olde York. He had a busy few years directing videos and releasing albums with Olde York, so we figured it was time to catch up with him and see what’s what…

– When was the first time you picked up a camera and realised “this is what I wanna do for a living”?
[two_third]Blake Farber: It’s not that I’ve picked up a camera, I was born with a camera in my hand! Both my mom and dad are photographers… So it came natural to follow in their footsteps. Taking a visual thing like photography and add motion to it… On my moms side of the family they’re all musicians, my Uncle who played bass in many surf bands (including Jan and Dean, the reunited Beach Boys tours, and various other classic rock bands). So naturally, mixing the two elements together, photography with music… Alway a nice combo. Also, (funny story) My father (who is a famous respected photographer) directed some short films in the past… [/two_third][one_third_last]

“It’s not that I’ve picked up a camera, I was born with a camera in my hand!”

[/one_third_last]I used to go as a little kid and watch my dad tell tons of people what to do. Was real inspirational – not the final result haha but – you know what I mean… Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGp7bda9CSU

– Do you have any education in this field or did you learn things yourself?
Blake Farber: Actually, never went to College or anything like Film school. All my film school was from the streets. I actually honest did the punk rock thing. Half way through my high school years, I stuck the middle finger at the career counselor and said this school is slowing me down. Im out of here. And left to go be a Grip, Electric, Assistant, and PA on various film shoots. Made no money at first. So I basically taught myself from watching people. learned directing from watching the directors direct. Then did my own short films and little music videos with some friends. Just practicing from the age 16 to now…

– With the steady decline in sales and revenue that the music industry has seen the last decade or so, i’m kinda surprised to see that you are travelling all over the globe (Tokyo, Brazil, LA) to direct music videos. How do you get those gigs?
Blake Farber: Well yeah, the decline of the Music Industry going south or has already gone way down. But yet the revival of Music Videos (with Youtube/VIVO/FB and such), bands and labels need it more then ever to cross promote.
Thats the thing, the budgets sometimes are low and limited… but in order to get your name out there you must do stuff for free or even spend money to make money. So some of these international jobs of smaller bands. I either loose a little money or break even. But of course there are times where I do come back more wallet friendly.

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“If it wasn’t for hardcore and Olde York, I wouldn’t have any of these contacts. Hardcore is so connected in every business on this earth.”

[/one_third][two_third_last]Honestly, if it wasn’t for hardcore and Olde York, I wouldn’t have any of these contacts. Hardcore is so connected in every business on this earth. For a wild example: If I need a plumber, I have a great guy who’s a pro. If I need a guy who works at a pet shop, know them. or even people who work with major labels or anything music related. Just as a few examples. So over the years various global people who were connecting Olde York, I started to become friends and networking with. This then just leads to you visiting a whole new world and culture… But now its to the point where Im slowly growing and working with the next level artist from more so major labels. Both in America and overseas. Though lately international has been a lot more open and stronger. So all in all, its all about knowing the right and good people to lead you to that solid path…[/two_third_last]

– As I stated in the previous question you are all over the place. What’s your favorite city to visit/work in?
Blake Farber: Lets split that question in 2; Well, I like to say my second home is Brazil. so anything in Brazil I love to go back and be there with my good friends and “Family”.
But honestly as of lately, Ive only been in NYC less then 5 months this year, and I truthfully miss it. So New York is always my home, my base, my world HQ. So its always my number 1 favorite place.
But 2nd would probably be Rio, then Sao Paulo, then Tokyo and Rome.- Be free to ask me why…
But to work in it, it depends now. Are we shooting inside in a home or studio or out on the field? For indoors, I love shooting all over Brazil. Great hard workers and the most loving and coolest people in the world. A close 2nd is Tokyo, both the same as Brazil, lots of fun and smiles. But Tokyo would be number 1 shooting out on the streets. No need for crazy permits and next to 0 crime to stress about!

“We were shooting this one video on a huge sand dune about 2 hours outside of Rio and the locals said be very cautious its notorious for being robbed. They said while you’re filming if you see people on horses pack up all gear as quick as you can and get out of there!”

We were shooting this one video on a huge sand dune about 2 hours outside of Rio and the locals said be very cautious its notorious for being robbed. They said while you’re filming if you see people on horses pack up all gear as quick as you can and get out of there! 3 hours into filming we see in the distance 3 little kids on horses coming towards us… All the crew and cast start to head towards the van to get out of there… but our Van was stuck in the sand! we put cardboard and wood to get out of the sand… The producer said, ahh they’re just little kids they won’t harm us… so we keep filming and half the crew and cast is in the van waiting to escape! The kids were hired by the local favela gangs to look out for tourist and come back to scout whats going on. So we left right away and shot in a sand dune that was partly similar in a much safer location…

– Earlier this year you went through a pretty crazy ordeal in Brazil, can you tell us a bit about it?
Blake Farber: Oh man… yet another crazy Brazil story. After all the negativity that happened to me in Brazil… there is always a huge positive sides that over weigh the negative ones…
[three_fourth]Hmm a short way to describe; Well in Sao Paulo, I always stay with my friend Chris singer of the band Banandos and his dog Zeca. One day while going to take his talk for a walk.. going downstairs in the elevator. 4 guys with machine guns in the lobby pointed guns touching my face… Was about 15-20 armed robbers total. Stole the dog, tied up and held all of the building hostage for 3-4 hours… Including Chris and my friend Denis from the Sao Paulo HC band – The Vendetta. Being the american one they really treated me like shit, abused the fuck out of me, pointed many guns touching my face. Including stealing over 5,000 $USD worth of my equipment… It became such huge National news in Brazil that both Chris and I were interviewed and on all of the major papers, TV Stations and TV Shows… Tons of youtube links to show. But I recently described the hostage situation fully in an interview with the Mass Movement webpage…[/three_fourth][one_fourth_last]

“They really treated me like shit, abused the fuck out of me, pointing many guns to my face”

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From these crazy negative experiences you have to turn it into back to positive moments… So what im doing is Children’s Book about the stories of the Dog Zeca and what happened. Of half the profits will go to educating kids in poor slums/Favelas in Brazil… Out soon!
Also working on a feature film, 1st draft of the script almost complete! So please stay tuned to the next adventures!!

– You have worked with some pretty big names recently. How is working with someone like Beyonce different from working with smaller/upcoming artists…
Blake Farber: Working with Beyonce was such a privilege and honor! I know now why people say she’s such a superstar and full of talent… It really does show. While filming her video she was 6 months pregnant dancing and singing take after take for 2 – 14 hour days. Then afterwards she would take all the footage herself and make selects in final cut pro of the best footage from that 14 hour day. Was so amazing to see this, such a strong hard worker who believes in what she does. Now what Ive noticed about more upcoming singers is that they come in with a huge ego thinking they’re the best and the director is talentless and so forth. So please if you’re an upcoming singer do as what the pros do… Most of them aren’t “rockstars” theyre just normal hardworking musicians who treat people mostly equally…
Next up im shooting this Brazilian Pop singer in both Las Vegas and also Rio… So stay tuned for that! Also, gonna do a new video for Sepultura on their new album – early next year. Should be fun!

– Name your five favorite video’s [you worked on] and why they are in the list..
Blake Farber: Oh man… Can I say none? hahah Perfection is never self liked…
But as of lately I’ve been obsessed with this type of a perfect room/hallway. Some sort of rectangular room where everything is even. So Ive been secretly putting it in a lot of my videos. Photo example below. So all in all… Any videos where I could include this in really makes me happy… Especially when I can sell the artist/label this type of room/location idea…

– Currently you’re living in New York.. Did you grow up there as well? Did you see the city change a lot the last decade or so?
Blake Farber: It’s like there aren’t many of us left… Yes, I am a native New Yorker. I have lived various other places also, but was mostly and always in NYC… I have seen a lot of changes through out the years. Especially living in Manhattan’s Lower East Side… Recently, have seen the various changes go through New York…More so the last 10 or so years has been this fake artist movement… Hipsterism… Which I have no idea where it came from. The real hipsters like Sinatra, Basquiat and so forth they really put NYC on the map… but these new people are fake artists who come from trust funds, move to NYC, and think they’re artists. Just confuses me so, so much… It’s prove (sadly), that Art is Dead… Really hate to say that since my family are all artists. But all great things come to an end…

“The real hipsters like Sinatra, Basquiat and so forth they really put NYC on the map… but these new people are fake artists who come from trust funds, move to NYC, and think they’re artists”

– Who’s in Olde York with you and give us a rundown on the history of the band…
Blake Farber: Ted – singer – he played in a big 90s Connecticut HC band called BiG MiSTAKE. Jammie Jasta of Hatebreed was very influenced by them actually.
Mike – Bass player Aka Harris. Also plays bass in Dijans new band – Sai Nam.
Dev – My brother on drums.
And I….

– Your band plays old school New York Hardcore. When did you first get in contact with hardcore / punk and what attracted you to it?
Blake Farber: Started back in high school. When I was a little street punk kid… Mohawk and all… Was always trying to bring my school under like Pink Floyd or something… The raw aggression really caught my eye… How can I release tension without causing or starting any violence… So I played in little bands and such… then met Ted (our singer), and my brother Dev who was always a drummer, so he started to join us. Later down the road we found the young talented Mike (bass)… And that became Olde York… Well a very short story version…

– You released Olde York’s first cd “Empire State” on the Italian label Countdown Records, how did that connection come about?
Blake Farber: Well I used to work in Italy and visit it a lot in the early/mid 2000 era. And met up with my good friend Luca from Countdown Records… We talked a bunch and he actually got me a lot of video work… Luca actually moved full time to NYC. so we hang out a lot when im in town Luca will actually be the next Donald Trump of NYC… Or Donaldo di Trumpo (italiano version)!
But otherwise him and Countdown did an awesome job with our very first release and Euro Tour. It was released in every continent besides Africa and Antarctica (of course). Actually all cds are pretty much sold out… and while traveling I saw it at a record store selling it worth 35 bucks at one place… crazy!

– The new cd “Shallow World” was released on a Dutch label, WTF Records, you guys are pretty international, how did you hook up with those guys..
Blake Farber: The new album Shallow World is released from our friend Tim. Great guy, and great label… Check out his next releases and more! We were shopping for labels and we asked him… at the time he wasn’t ready to put out a new band… but months later he became really interested and with full force, he released this album! Also saying its his best release to date… So really happy that he’s happy about it!!

– Are there any plans to release the cd on a US label?
Blake Farber: Our other good friend John Franco from Dead City, at first wasn’t interested in doing another release… So then we found Tim and WTF… and after the release Franco was disappointed he didn’t release it. But who knows maybe can work out with him sometime… But sadly its been hard for us locally in America… USA doesn’t show much love for us… either at shows or online sales. Though our over seas friends are showing so much more support and heart… its interesting…

– “Shallow World” was produced by Mike Dijan. He did an excellent job, his production is clear and cripsy but still hard and a bit dirty. Why did you choose to record with Dijan & how was working with him?
[one_half]Blake Farber: Dijan is probably one of the best producers out there now. Im super surprised people aren’t knocking on his door asking them to produce their record. Not just great ears but also strong musicianship to see what works and doesn’t. just worked out so nicely. Check out his great new band, Sai Nam…. Also with the help our friend Dean Ex Wild Arctic studio… Bassist for Supertouch… He’s an amazing engineer and master’er… [/one_half][one_half_last]

“Dijan is probably one of the best producers out there now. Im super surprised people aren’t knocking on his door asking them to produce their record”

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– what are the plans for Olde York in the near future? Tours coming up?
Blake Farber: Olde York’s current goal is to release our CDs, Vinyls, Merch throughout the world… and hopefully get there to travel… To play for new faces and meet new solid friends along the way… A tour coming up is our 2nd Euro tour in Jan 2013. MAD is booking it… so come down! And also Gonna release a Shallow World Vinyl probably on Spook records from Poland. And also a re release of the same album down in South America… Can’t tell you the label yet, will be a surprise… So stay tuned!

– What’s the NYHC scene like nowadays. from what I can gather there are good, big shows every now and then, but is there still a good underground scene with new bands, small venues…?
Blake Farber: NYHC is mixed… on the smaller size… venues and great spots are closing left and right… So less and less places to play… When there’s a big show, they’re always strong and fully packed… but medium to small shows are usually hit or miss… So its kinda sad a lot of times. But for years we booked shows to bring it back.. though the clubs wanted to make their money from the hipster scene rather then us guys. So its damn hard. But no idea where its going. At least good people who really keep it alive are Cuz Joe and especially his BnB Radio show…

– Anything else to add?
Blake Farber: Well guys! Thanks for taking your time to read this… Please be in touch with either Olde York or I…
Hope you enjoy our next adventures and stories…

Get Olde York’s Shallow World cd here:
iTunes: Shallow World – Olde York
Amazon: Shallow World – Olde York

Cd (USA): RevHQ
Cd (Europe): WTF Distro

Websites:
Blake Farber: www.blakefarber.com
Olde York: www.oldeyorknyhc.com

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www.facebook.com/oldeyork
www.facebook.com/blakefarberfilms