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"Musician, PLHS graduate sets score to short film"

A recent short film includes a 1994 Prior Lake High School graduate’s name in the credits.

Devlin Andersen, now of Minneapolis, created a musical score for the short movie “Renegotiations.”

The mob-influenced drama/comedy is a 14-minute film that Andersen touts as good enough for short film festivals. Available for viewing at www.myspace.com/renegotiations, it pokes fun at the film industry.

“I think [short films are] the best fit for my music; it’s all instrumental and emotion-driven,” Andersen said. “It’s all computer-generated. It’s kind of like a puzzle.”

The film, produced by Mark Skupen and Robin Hong from rPlatform of Los Angeles, stars Alan Feinstein (“Nip/Tuck,” “Law and Order”), Emilio Borelli (“Monk,” “NYPD Blue”), Gino Dentie (“Poolhall Junkies”), Paul Caroul (“Joan of Arcadia,” “Reno 911”), and Pamela Clay (“California Heaven”), as well as Ryan Christensen and John Quincy Miller. The film launched online, and may be entered in film festivals.The film launched online, and may
be entered in film festivals.

Andersen, who released a CD of his electronic-style music in 2006, worked to find film placements for his songs. When nine of his previous songs were placed in movies and Web animations, he decided to pursue a larger project.

The recent project seemed to fall into place.

“It was all filmed before I even touched it. Watching it without music, it was well-done, but a film without music is just boring,” Andersen said.

He was contacted to produce three seconds of Bach music for the movie, but he offered the filmmakers a sampling of his own music, too.

“It was maybe 15 to 20 seconds worth of music, and they really liked it,” he said.

Andersen’s method of composing is unconventional. There are no musical instruments in his recording studio – just a computer.

“I have this huge library of sounds. The hard part is making it flow,” he said.

Andersen watched the movie scenes over and over until he got it matched correctly.

“It’s difficult, but it’s a lot of fun,” he said. “Maybe the way I do it is unconventional.

His music plays off the dialogue on screen.

“They kind of wanted to spoof on that,” he said. “It builds to an intensity, and then there’s this playful music.”

“I sent over an original score. I think it was a little darker and a little more electronic than what they were looking for,” he added. “We kind of met in the middle.”

Andersen said it took just over a year to create the musical score.

The film may be entered into festivals that don’t require the work to be a premiere, he said. He’s also hoping for feedback from people visiting the Web site.

“I like it when things happen unprompted,” he said. “When I get comments like that, when it’s genuine.”

He’ll also keep working on his own music without acting accompaniment.

“I have about four songs done for a new album,” he said. “I’m always chipping away at that.”

Online

Visit www.myspace.com/renegotiations to view the short movie, “Renegotiations,” and to leave comments.Learn more about Devlin Andersen’s music at www.thehypetheory.com and www.myspace.com/hypotheticaltheory .

Joanna Miller can be reached at (952) 345-6375 or jmiller@swpub.com. - By Joanna Miller, Staff Writer, Prior Lake American


"Abbey of Thelema" - a dark comedy about "the wickedest man on Earth""

The movie "Abbey of Thelema" presents the life of the versed and controversial Aleister Crowley. The director&producer Vince Jennings agreed to reveal some of the backstage secrets of the movie. The official premiere will be on October 15th, in Tivoli Theatre, St. Louis, Missouri, to celebrate the St. Louis actors and crew. The general release will be on December 1st, to celebrate the 60th commemoration of the English writer & occultist. The cast includes, among others: Mike Ketcher (Aleister Crowley), Lynn Mastio-Rice (Leah), Blandine Fromont (Ninette), Erin Marie Hogan (Mary Butts), Lena Ketorah (Betty May), Natalie Nicole (Francesca), Ron Jeremy (Father Pacianus).

- NATIONAL JOURNAL / JURNALUL NATIONAL: How did you get the idea of this movie?
- VINCE JENNINGS: A more accurate question may be---how did the universe come up with the idea to use Vincent Jennings to make a movie about Crowley? From day one I have felt like an elemental, carried by the 93 current. It was a gradual process, a culmination of all of my life experiences from birth. If I had to pinpoint a time when a decision was made to make the movie, I would say when I watched the movie about The Doors on Jan 1, 2007... Jim Morrison is responsible for sparking the making of the movie! HA HA Seriously, I was listening to The Doors music and scenes concerning Aleister Crowley's life started appearing in my head. And I thought, wow, it would be cool to make a movie about Aleister Crowley using the Doors music. Well, I checked into using the Doors music and they wanted $20,000 a song - -so we dropped the idea of using the Doors and got something better, The Devil (Devlin John Andersen) and also five other different musicians who were drawn to the movie. From there we took baby steps, one baby step at a time... one door would open and another door would open and that is happening even now--one door at a time... again, it ties in with The Doors. Anything the mind can conceive, one can achieve. We did things in this movie people said could not be done.

- NJ: Such as...?
- VJ: People said we would not shoot a feature film in ten days--they were right, we shot the film in NINE days. Folks have been talking about making a movie about Aleister Crowley for almost a century, since 1914. We were the first ones to do it. Yes, a partial movie named Perdurabo was made a few years ago but Aleister Crowley was not in the movie. This is the first feature film about Crowley. "Abbey of Thelema" is a dark comedy, it is a very very funny movie. And the more you know about Crowley and the law of Thelema, the funnier it is. And there are levels in the movie that will be enjoyed according to one's enlightenment. We have alot of Thelemic tidbits in the movie. And we work alot with light and shadows. And we work alot with colors--every color has a meaning in the movie. Every shadow has a meaning in the movie. And the movie is a time warp. You watch the movie, which is now close to 90 minutes long and it seems like you have only watched it for five minutes. The movie is one continuous seemless flow--there is no choppiness in the movie--it is one continuous stream.

- NJ: How many actors were at the casting for the main role? How did you chose Mike Ketcher for the leading role?
- VJ: We had 80 people we cast and an additional 3000 in reserve in Los Angeles, which thank goodness we did not have to cast. We had four actors that we flew in for the movie. The rest were from Missouri. We chose Mike Ketcher because he was the best.

- NJ: I saw you mentioned "shots in Cefalu". Did you film the Abbey?
- VJ: We had some photographers who provided us footage and shots of the Abbey in Cefalu. We reconstructed the Abbey digitally.

- NJ: Will you use footage of Crowley?
- VJ: We have reviewed supposed film footage of Crowley but we can not be certain of the authenticity. He was leaving a taxi cab in London. It is still debatable at this time if we will use any actual photos of Crowley in the epilogue or prologue of the movie.

- NJ: Can you tell me more about the premiere schedule? When will it be?
- VJ: We are premiering the Abbey on Oct 12th, the birthday of the Beast and we plan on having the general release on Dec 1, 2007 which is the 60th anniversary of the passing of the Beast. Unfortunately, we could only book the Theatre's hall for October 15th, so the world premiere had to be rescheduled accordingly.

- NJ: Did you sign any contract concerning the movie distribution?
- VJ: We are already on Netflix and we have several DVD distribution companies. We will approach movie distributors once we have a final product. And we will also submit the movie to various Film Festivals. We couldn't miss Sundance, the largest independent film festival, an event attended every year by around 45.000 people. Also we submitted to movie to Berlin International Film Festival and to Santa Barbara Film Festival. We'll also reach Australia, during Mardi Gras Film Festival in Sydney.

Background:
Aleister Crowley: Beast or Genius?

60 years after his death, the English writer and occultist Aleister Crowley remains a controversial figure. Since Beatles (who featured him on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"'s cover, among other important figures of the 20th century) and Led Zeppelin and until Ozzy Osbourne and Tiamat, the rock bands couldn't neglect his influence. A large number of biographies has been written, and Lawrence Sutin's remains the most well-informed and unbiased one. The movie's citadel remained untouched though, if one neglects Kenneth Anger's documentary "Thelema Abbey" (1955). Though this year the producer, scriptwriter and director Vincent Jennings is presenting his own vision in a dark comedy titled "Abbey of Thelema". Jennings is tackling the most controversial part of Crowley's life, since his New York period, when the artist was earning his money by painting, then the founding of the Abbey in Cefalu and until the moment when Mussolini regime forced Crowley to leave Italy. The Abbey, founded in 1920 in Sicily, was a forerunner of the hippie communities in the US, but it scandalized the over-retentionist Victorian England by the unlimited experimentation in drugs and sexuality. On one side, the media campaign against him, led by a couple of London tabloids (who named Crowley "the Englishman we'd like to hang" and "the wickedest man on Earth"), and on the other side Mussolini's desire to abolish every closed society (from Mafia to occult ones), in order to strengthen his power, ere two of the reasons to consider Crowley a "persona non grata" in Italy, so he had to flee the country (and the Abbey) in 1923. Though, for almost every person nowadays, the three years spent in Cefalu remained the central point of Crowley's life - a man whose personality covered many aspects. Though many people tend to neglect several aspects: his two expeditions in Himalaya (on Chogo Ri / K2 and Kanchenjunga) - he failed, but he opened the path to the top, and the top was reached half a century afterwards, almost on Crowley's footsteps; Crowley traveled around the world, reaching the Far East, and he was among the first Europeans to study yoga and buddhism, decades before the spread of the "Far East's fashion" in the Western World; Crowley's poetry - although so neglected nowadays - opened new paths and influenced many lyricists. His fiction novels were often compared to novels written by famous writers, e.g. H.P. Lovecraft. Fine arts was another field of work; besides, he met Leah Hirsig (his partner for a decade) in his painting studio in New York. As an occultist, Crowley is named by Lawrence Sutin "one of the rare human beings… to dare to profesy a distinctive new creed and to devote himself to the promulgation of that creed". - by Catalina Iancu - Journalul National (Romania) (Oct 17, 2007)


"Musician’s CD spins emotion"

Devlin Andersen had news to share at his CD release party in Prior Lake Dec. 1.
The local musician hopes people will soon hear his music as a background score in a film, television, or video games.
Andersen’s latest release, “A Tempting Emotion, recorded under his stage name, The Devil, landed a licensing agreement with Chi-Len Music out of New York.
“If they can place something, it will be a big deal for me,” Andersen said.
Andersen said the company specializes in pairing music with visual media[…].
“I’m really just trying to covey[sic] a feeling and put it into music,” Andersen said of his work.
As for his perhaps controversial name, Andersen said there’s nothing sinister – it expanded from a nickname he’s had for years.
“It’s really a play on my name. It’s not a nock[sic] on religion or anything like that. A friend of mine said you already have 30 years of marketing into your name,” he said. “I’d hate to have somebody not listen to what I do because of a preconceived notion of what I go by.”
The CD’s tracks are created on a computer, and are a blend of what Andersen calls “sound loops,” which are short clips of music he mixes to create a full-length track.
The best way to describe his work?
“It’s like the instrumental side of Nine Inch Nails,” he said. “It’s really hard to categorize because it spans across so many genres. It’s an experiment with expression.”
“I know it’s not mainstream,” he added.
However, even though it’s not “main stream” it has been featured on Mere Music International, broadcast by the BBC out of Spain and on the Internet, where it has climbed onto the Top 20 list at no. 16.
Andersen said he’s still finding markets for his unique style.
“I don’t think I have a huge demographic, but I think it’s out there,” he said.
Andersen’s interest in music began with traditional instruments before he branched-out into computer generated work.
He played in multiple Prior Lake High School groups, including the marching band, jazz band, and orchestra.
While he can play trumpet, French horn, drums and is learning guitar, he said electronic music allows him to get a high-quality sound without a recording studio.
“I’m well versed in the composition side of mixes and engineering a song,” he said.

Recording a track

Now that Andersen has a few CDs in his background, including his first extended play disc, “Songs from Hell” and his most recent remix of the song, “Suck,” by Trent Reznor and Pigface, he and his Producer, Jeremy Watkins have a recording studio in mind.
Andersen said he’d love to bring a full-fledged studio to Prior Lake someday, to capture talented bands south-of-the-river on record, along with bringing in national talent.
Andersen said with digital recording, it allows bands to record music more affordably and to perfect the sound.
“You can mess around with it more. You don’t have to take 18-tracks[sic] to get a good one,” he explained.
He recently finished a two-year degree at Normandale Community College, and is continuing on at Concordia College for a business degree.
“Now we can get to work,” Andersen said. Since the CD release launch, he hopes to focus more on his and Watkin’s business plan and identifying investors.
For now, he’ll await word on placement of his full-length tracks, along with his submission of the remix to Invisible Records for a spot on an upcoming CD.
“I added my own sound to it with other sounds. I’m pretty proud of the remix I came up with,” Andersen said.

On the Web

Check out “The Devil – A Tempting Emotion” on the web at these sites:

The record label homepage, www.thehypetheory.com
On Myspace.com, www.myspace.com/hypotheticaltheory
Buy the CD at www.cdbaby.com/cd/thedevil
Visit Chi-Len music at www.chilenmusic.com
Joanna Miller can be reached at (952) 345-6375 or jmiller@swpub.com - By Joanna Miller Staff Writer – Prior Lake American Newspaper


Discography

October 31st, 2005 - Songs From Hell EP (out of print)

October 31st, 2006 - attempting emotion LP

July 4th, 2007 - Heresy - Rite of Passage (Episode I) - Film Score Composer

January 25th, 2008 - Open Mike Cafe Artists Album, Vol. II

July 4th, 2008 - Heresy - Rite of Passage (Episode II) - Film Score Composer

September 1st, 2008 - +/- (positive/negative) Film Score - Contributor - Awarded three stars (***) in the 2008 IAC British International Amateur Film Festival. "Brave and Moving. A challenging and gripping film which arouses great emotion." -IAC Judge Jean McRonald

November 7th, 2008 - Renegotiations (rPlatform) - Film Score Composer - Starring: Alan Feinstein (Nip/Tuck, Law & Order), Emilio Borelli (Monk, NYPD Blue), Gino Dentie (Poolhall Junkies), Paul Caroul (Joan of Arcadia, Reno 911), etc.

Release TBA:
The Abbey of Thelema Feature-length film (Post Production) - Features nine songs from 'attempting emotion'

Heresy - Rite of Passage (Episode III) - Film Score - Release date: July 4th, 2009


Photos

Bio

Stand up and listen to your soul, it's waiting to be sold...

"the devil." An unconventional musician and vivid film score composer from Minneapolis, has begun to make his mark in the world of ambient soundscapes and instrumental oddities.

Established in 2005 and born out of an experiment with expression, the devil has created a sound that is pleasantly familiar to the ear. The devil combines a deep history of musical influence and an even deeper sense of the darker side of life's emotions to create intensely visual and textured compositions. The songs are reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails' "Ghosts I-IV" compilation, Ministry's darker instrumental music, and Dead Can Dance. While these artists can be named as musical influences, the music of the devil is not a directly descended product of said artists.

The devil continues to add both film score credits and traditional music credits to his growing resume. Please see the 'discography' section for an up-to-date list of credits and notable accomplishments.

After reading through this profile and listening to a song or two, please take a minute to contact the devil, he'd be more than happy to assist you.