Spike Jonze is now artistic director of VBS TV, funded by MTV. Jonze’s music videos were also unique and pleasing to watch; Buddy Holly by Weezer being the one that comes to mind instantly. His collaborations with Charlie Kauffman; twin surreal composition with chopped up narratives resulting in two of Jonze’s most critically acclaimed films; “Adaptation” (2002) and “Being John Malkovich” (1999).

After spending five years adapting Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things (released late last year), a difficult project in which Jonze kept surprisingly true to the children’s book whilst creating a unique, vivid aesthetic but still capturing the innocence of the book, Jonze has collaborated with ABSOLUT to direct short film “I’m’ Here”.

“I’m Here” is a 30-minute love story about the relationship between two robots living in L.A. Andrew Garfield and Sienna Guillory are in the lead roles, and the soundtrack includes original music by Sam Spiegel and original songs by L.A. based art musician Aska Matsumiya and other emerging musicians. The independent film showcases up and coming actors and musicians, the whole project is very culturally and creatively progressive.

ABSOLUT have previously collaborated with Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Helmut Newton. This current collaboration came about when ABSOLUT reached out to Jonze to make a film, and gave him the creative control that allowed him to create the film he wanted. On the official website for I’m Here, Anna Malmhake, Vice President Global Marketing at Absolut says “Spike Jonze is one of the most important influencers of modern popular culture, and this 30-minute film subtly and artfully expresses our enduring commitment to collaborations and creativity.”

I’m Here was originally shown at the Sundance Film Festival as part of the first-ever Opening Night’s Shorts Program at the festival. It was also screened at the Berlin Film Festival on the 20th of February, and Squidge have managed to score tickets to the London screening on the 25th of this month, whoop! The global release will be online in March. To find out more about the film check out the official website.

Jesse Thorn hosts The Sound of Young America, a radio show and podcast which covers comedy, film, music and other pop culture in the States.  Amongst his guests over the years have been Bill Withers, Jeffrey Tambor, Graham Linehan, Jimmy Carr, Jane Lynch and Rob Halford.  He also appears in Jordan, Jesse, Go! alongside Jordan Morris, and organises the now annual Maxfuncon festival.  I caught up with Jesse as he had just returned from the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.

How did Sundance go for you?

Sundance was great.  It was our first time, and I’m a native Californian, so one thing that was wonderful was the snow – it snowed heavily the first two days we were there.  We also got to talk to some amazing people.  Our last interview was with Kevin Kline, and he was every bit as funny and charming as you’d hope.  My only disappointment was that I forgot to ask him to sing the “Hail to the Chief” song from Dave with me.

Everyone knows that the main point of Sundance, apart from rubber necking at Spike Lee, is getting promotional tat.  Did you get any decent loot?

I was too busy working, though I did get a patch for the “gang” that’s at the center of Taika Waititi’s excellent “Boy.”  Probably my favorite film at the festival – a big step up from Waititi’s first film, “Eagle v. Shark.”

A lot of people are looking forward to the new Chris Morris film Four Lions that was screened at Sundance, how did that go down?

I was at the premiere, and people seemed to like it.  Despite the subject matter, it’s surprisingly non-outrageous.  Certainly not as in-your-face as Brass Eye.  I certainly enjoyed it.

Do you want to explain a little about how you got started?

I started The Sound of Young America about ten years ago with my friends Jordan and Gene.  It was a college radio show – initially it aired at 7:30 in the morning.  That was before the campus shuttles at our college started running, so we had to walk a mile through the low fog in the dark to get to the station.  There used to be a fair amount of comedy on the show, but when Jordan and Gene graduated and headed to LA to work in entertainment, I refocused the show on interviews.

How has TSOYA built up over the years since you started it at college?  Where there any significant points where you thought ‘actually, this is going to work’?

My first balls-to-the-wall pledge drive was just short of two years ago now.  With the money we generated, I was able to hire my editor, Nick, one day a week, and pay myself a reasonable wage for the first time ever.  That was about seven years in, and probably the first time I actually felt secure in the show and in the idea that this was my job.

Can you explain how public radio works in the States?

Public radio stations are prohibited from carrying advertising, and primarily funded by listener donations.  They produce their own shows, and carry shows from three big distributors – National Public Radio, which is also a member organization of stations, American Public Media and Public Radio International.  I’m with PRI.  Stations that choose to carry my show pay PRI for it, and I get a cut of that money.  It’s a significant amount of money, but nowhere near enough to fund the show.  Most of my funding comes from other sources – especially donations from people who listen to the podcast, read the blog, and listen to our podcast-only shows.

How are you finding the difference between being a broadcaster via podcast rather than radio?

In radio, you’re targeting people who happen to be listening.  In podcasting, your audience is people who have chosen to listen – or people who might choose to listen.  The former is wonderful – it’s always nice to hear from someone who happened upon the show on their car radio.  The latter, though, is more rewarding.  On Jordan, Jesse, Go!, which is podcast-only, we can go a deeper into our, uhm, distinctive aesthetic.  By which I mean we can act like idiots, and everybody’s on board.

Where do you think podcasting stands in terms of being part of this new way where you can pick and choose your own entertainment?

I think there are still technical hurdles.  It’s still too much of a hassle to listen to podcasts for many people.  That said – I’m really happy to live in an entertainment world where people can choose what they want, rather than tolerating what they don’t not want.

What’s the state of comedy in the US like at the moment?  Has it all fallen apart since they’ve no longer got Bush to have a go at?

Not at all.  I think we’re in a golden age of comedy in the US.  There are certainly hacks out there making a lot of money – people like Carlos Mencia or Jeff Dunham — but there’s also more great stuff than ever before.  I think 30 Rock might be the funniest show of all time.  On cable, you’ve got It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Trailer Park Boys, [adult swim], The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and a pile of others.  In theaters, people like Zach Galifianakis and Michael Cera are getting to make movies.

TSOYA seems to glue a lot of US culture together in one convenient spot, and makes it appeal to people who are outside that circle.  What do you think the knack of it is?

It’s sort of like being the editor of Vogue or something – I know what I like.  That’s my main criterion, frankly.  Do I think it’s great?  If I do, I can find room for it on the show.  I work hard to make sure that those amazing things are accessible to people who don’t know about them already, and to find insight for people who do know about them already.

Do you think recording the show in your apartment gives interviews a different dynamic?  Didn’t someone get stuck in your lift?

A hip-hop group called the Lifesavas got stuck in my elevator, yes.  We had to take the doors off their hinges and hand them down a dining room chair to climb out.  They were exceedingly gracious about it.  Nice guys.

I generally get very positive reactions to the show being in my apartment, and I think it gives things a bit of intimacy they wouldn’t otherwise have.  My guests really are my guests.

Any particular favourites/hard interviews?  That Miss Piggy interview sounded like a bit of a struggle.

It was – I think the guy who does Ms. Piggy is a lot more comfortable doing the Miss Piggy voice than improvising as Miss Piggy.  Probably the toughest was Betty Davis, the funk legend who was once the wife of Miles Davis.  She was a very kind lady, but is not very social – she’s been a bit of a recluse for the last 20 years or so.  I posted the raw interview on the site so people could suffer along with me during the long, awkward silences.

How is Maxfuncon shaping up for this year?

Amazing!  Lots of my favourite people are coming.  Marc Maron, Maria Bamford, Jimmy Pardo, Al Madrigal… people who just warm the cockles of my heart.  Not to mention a chance to see all the great MaxFunsters who really made it a community last year.  I couldn’t be more excited.  And Andrew WK!  So delighted.

What’s the aim of TSOYA in the next couple of years?  Any progress on the TV show?

There’s always the possibility of a new TV show.  We’ll see if it ever happens.  We’re working on some other TV and video projects, but who knows if anyone will ever see them.  I think we’re just continuing to grow at our own modest pace.

Is there any particular podcasts that you listen to?

For comedy, I love Never Not Funny and You Look Nice Today.  Those are the shows that I get excited to see on my iPod.  Outside of comedy, I’m a huge fan of Radiolab (in fact, I invited Jad Abumrad to MaxFunCon this year) and of On the Media.  And of course This American Life, though I can’t imagine anyone’s not on board with that yet.

Subscribe to The Sound of Young America here.

Hear Jesse and Jordan Morris curse like well dressed sailors on Jordan, Jesse, Go! here.

MaximumFunCon is being held at Lake Arrowhead, California on 7^th-9^th May, more details here.

How did Tomahawk start off?

Tomahawk Press started up because there are just too many really interesting subjects for a book, which mainstream publishers won’t touch.  They focus on popular stuff – we go for quality.  Sort of like the Morgan car of publishing.  Each project is lovingly managed.  Our first book, Greasepaint and Gore is a wonderful book to study – filled with never-before-seen makeup designs and test shots from Hammer horror films.  No publisher wanted to touch it.  It was the actress Barbara Shelley who suggested going it alone.  “How?” I said.  “Learn”, she said.  I did.  Everything else followed.

Zulu. Apparently, there were quite a few of them.

What’s the process of getting a book together, do you approach writers for commissions or do the manuscripts gravitate towards you?

We get more submissions than we could possibly publish.  I just go for what excites me most – no real rules here.  Even though we are niche, there still has to be some commercial worth to a project.  I do have some ideas that I would like to see someone develop, though.

Is there anything particularly surprising that you’ve come across whilst putting a book together?

Everything is surprising in putting a book together.  If I’m not surprised, I’m usually not interested.  We publish mostly things that no one knows about.  But what always does surprise me is how diverse people’s interests actually are.  Any one subject can attract individuals from all walks of life.  We seem to publish books on subjects about which many people are passionate.

The books you’ve released so far cover a specific time in film making, are there plans to release books covering different periods?

We’ve covered pre-war Gainsborough films through to films made in the ’80s in our books.  We like nostalgia though.  I never chose any particular time period – but these are the books that seem to flood my way.  I think our niche was created by the market – certainly not created by me.  I’d consider anything good for publication.  Even published a book on Thorntons chocolate this year! And it turned out to be a best seller!

Bruce and Handsome Dan from Wayne's World receive a Saxon Sandwich

Are there any particular areas or people who you’d like to release a book about?

We seem to have strayed into biographies/autobiographies.  I like these. People’s lives are always fascinating.  I’d like to do more books on rock music and jazz though – these are my passions.  I will be publishing a book on Saxon (and their relationship to Spinal Tap) very soon.  Maybe that will lead to other music projects.  My son works for a major music label – maybe I can get one of his famous clients to do something with us.

I am sometimes disappointed with the rich and famous always flocking to major pop publishers, who are into a quick buck.  Maybe a few of them are individualists who can help give a smaller publisher like me a break.  I can often do a better job with a book than a mainstream publisher, too – both with design and marketing.

I don’t view Thornton’s or Saxon to be a departure for us – as our milieu is the untold story.  Each of our books tells the reader something that most people don’t know.  And each of our books are on a subject about which some people at least are very passionate.  As I have already said – I am led by the nose by the market.  The market defines our niche.  And most importantly, I publish important, interesting books that tend to be ignored by the mainstream big business publishers.  As in the music industry, it isn’t healthy for several large multi-nationals to control what we read. This is the dawning of the age of the Indie publisher, and Tomahawk is at the cutting edge!

You recently had to publish a new edition of The Battle for Bond after legal wrangles over some of the material within it.  Can you explain a bit more your recent adventures with the Fleming Estate?

The Fleming estate were looking for any reason they could to ban The Battle for Bond, which is an entirely factual, well-researched book that argued that the screen version of Bond was not created by Fleming.  And not only that, Fleming then went on to plagiarise the character that others had created.  I found the Fleming family to be bullies and small-minded.  They gained nothing by trying to cause problems for us, and the book became more popular as a result.  In fact – soon to be made into a Hollywood film – but can’t say much more about that yet.  There are more detailed statements about us and the Fleming family on our website and also in the new edition of The Battle for Bond.

I recently read Shepperton Babylon by Matthew Sweet, which covers the period between the pre-war silent era to the early eighties.  From that I got the feeling these days that apart from Ealing comedies, Hammer horror, early Hitchcock and the odd Powell and Pressburger, there’s a vast amount of British film that either gets dismissed, unreferenced or unseen – there seems to be a set of chosen films and the rest just get dumped.  Where do you think that this attitude comes from?

That’s an interesting question.  Maybe because there is a lack of familiarity with much British film?  Little of it ever gets shown on TV.  Or maybe because of lot of it is in black and white, which many younger people don’t like.  Remember – Hammer was mostly in colour.

Within university academic departments, there’s loads of interest in British film, and many experts.  Film studies students certainly get exposed to many British films.  But they are far too academic in their approach. I think it might be the responsibility of the BFI (or should be) to promote British film heritage.  But they are rather bad at this, and for a national organisation certainly too much London-centred.  I would like to think that some of Tomahawk’s books are making a small contribution too.  We like out books to be academically competent, but also readable and interesting for a general audience.

But, I am no film expert.  I am sure that our authors would have more to say on this than I could.

Tomahawk will be releasing The Studio that Dripped Blood – Amicus Films by Phil Nutman and new biographies of Charles Hawtrey, James Caan and Jeff Bridges this year.  To find out more about Tomahawk Press and their catalogue, go to http://www.tomahawkpress.com.

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