EVEN MORE ACCESS Anthony DeCurtis

Even More Access

Anthony DeCurtis - All Access Interviews, Production Consultant (also: Contributing Editor at Rolling Stone and author of “Rocking My Life Away: Writing About Music And Other Matters”)

MODE: Beyond what actually happens in the film, what is this movie really about, do you think?

Anthony DeCurtis: For me, in terms of what the movie is about, in interviewing these folks, I wanted to try to get them to recover some of the exact feelings that I wanted the audience to be feeling. So in other words, I wanted these musicians to become fans, to talk about other artists and other musicians, to emphasize that this is a common emotion that people share. Even though they’re like 70 feet tall, or however big an IMAX screen is, I wanted to emphasize a sense that there is a community that music creates. When you listen to Carlos Santana, he’s as much a fan of music as anybody who is sitting in that audience.

MODE: If you had to sell somebody on the film, what would you say?

Anthony DeCurtis: I would say, “It will surprise you.” Personally I’m not that good at selling. I like to think that stuff I get involved in or that I do, and this might sound arrogant or something, but it kind of speaks for itself. And if somebody doesn’t get it, they don’t get it. They don’t care or they’re not interested. But if somebody came to me and they were saying like, “I’m curious about this movie. I know you worked on it. Should I go, or should I do something else that might be more fun?” I would literally say, Look, you’re going to be surprised at how strong these performances are.” That is the one thing that the movie gets. I mean each one of these people brings it. Nobody is walking through their performance and you might find yourself feeling something for maybe an artist that you didn’t care that much about. It’s a nice overview of a spectrum of contemporary music. And I think each person represents themselves really well.

I don’t think anybody’s going to necessarily walk out liking every one of these performances, but I don’t think anybody can walk out and say that wasn’t a strong version of whatever, or that person didn’t really perform. Every one of those performances hits very hard. So that, I think, recommends it.

And the other recommendation would be, you know, you should see it just from the standpoint of Rock n’ Roll and IMAX. There’s a lot more to be done because the format brings the music across very well. And we’ve all seen a million rock and roll movies, some of which were great and some of which were terrible, but I really think something special happens with the IMAX format. And if people haven’t experienced it, they definitely should, because that will surprise them. I think most people think it’s kind of hokey. It’s not. It is really not.

Pete Shapiro - Producer, Music Director (also: owner of legendary live music venue The Wetlands Preserve in NYC; film credits include Tie-Died and American Road)

MODE: How did you go about getting the performers for the film?

Pete Shapiro: It’s quite a bit of a challenge to get Carlos Santana and Sting to be in your movie. We got a good break when Carlos Santana was the first artist to come on board. We got him right after his album Supernatural came out but before it blew up. And he stayed on board the whole time. Once we got Carlos and B.B. King and George Clinton — we got the legends first, then we went for some of the younger acts. But we also had to convince the managers and the agents who surround these artists whose job it is to usually say “no.” (Unless you have a million dollars for them, which we did not have.) And we convinced them that this format was so powerful that we were going to make a document of live music that would be around for many years and that would be unlike any other concert film that has been made to date. And again it’s about the format.

MODE: What was your favorite experience throughout the whole project?

Pete Shapiro: Just because I was a big fan of Phish, and it was my idea to put together the Roots, with [Phish’s] Trey Anastasio and BB King … I’ve seen the Roots at Wetlands, and I’ve seen Phish over the years, and a lot of people — even B.B.’s manager and the people at IMAX — were like, “Is this going to work?”

I picked a song, “Rock Me Baby,” and I sent a copy of it to Trey and to the Roots to listen to and it was a big question mark. A lot of people were like “What are you thinking here?” And to see how it came off, it was a pretty big highlight. Also, after years of seeing Phish play, to get to all the sudden be standing on stage with Trey and talking with him about how we wanted to do the song and the arrangement — talking to him on a musical level — was pretty cool.

Then doing that same thing with Carlos Santana. The day after he won the eight Grammys last year was the day we filmed that scene. So while the whole world was talking about Carlos, he was doing the movie with us, and it was working with him, being on stage with him, talking it out with him … it was pretty cool.