Film

It was about this time last year that Atlanta-based Film were making significant wanes on the local and national scene with their critically acclaimed independent release '..rolling..'. It seemed like every time you turned around the band was flying to New York or Los Angeles to showcase for a major label or to play gigs at venues like Los Angeles' House Of Blues. What ever happened to them? On the eve of signing a major deal with the Madonna-owned Maverick Recordings last March Film's singer Mike Lee abruptly left the band to pursue a solo career. This decision, although welcomed by many Film purists who missed the less mainstream sound of original singer and current guitarist, Mike Sickeler, left the band stranded but not defeated. After a considerable amount of thought rehearsals and auditions, the band moved ahead drafting friend and former Lizardmen frontman Michael Meyer. The group then opted to travel down the high road to independent label land "there seems to be so much more integrity in the indie world than in the major label world", says Film keyboardist Iain Bluett. "With an indie label we're more likely to be able to do what we want rather than what we're told."


Adopting a new singer is no easy task, buy Meyer seems to fit in just fine as evidenced by a recent show at the Dark Horse Tavern where the band played to an excited Tuesday night crowd. They've shed some new skin by re-tooling their sound with the addition of not only Michael Meyers vocals, but also his guitar work, which adds fullness to their already lush sound. New songs, such as 'Sorry', 'Take It All away' and 'Groove' were met enthusiastically and verified the brilliance of 2000's '..rolling..' was not just a fluke. In fact, the band played all but one brand new song within their hour long set. Film, now managed by Nicole Jurovics of Stress Management (Peter Searcy) is currently in the studio recording demos for several independent labels who have show considerable interest in the band. Its been a year since their last release but I can assure you it will be well worth the wait.<BR><BR> <BR> - Local Corrspondent