Inteview with an INDIE ROCK filmmaker - Meet the man behind Cold War Kids and Irving's greatest videos!
Meet Josh Forbes,
Los Angeles filmmaker.
Josh directs music videos for independent music artists.
He is one-half of the force behind the Winch and Pulley production Co.
COLD WAR KIDS
Ryan (RSL): Wow. That's a tremendous video! How did you get involved with the Cold War Kids?
Josh Forbes: Thanks. I went to college for a couple years with Matt Maust (the bassist and graphic design guru for the band). We were never really friends, and to be honest he kind of scared me. He was super punk rock.
Josh Forbes: Thanks. I went to college for a couple years with Matt Maust (the bassist and graphic design guru for the band). We were never really friends, and to be honest he kind of scared me. He was super punk rock.
MM: CWK Bassist, Graphic Artist, Intimidator.
Carl Ernst photo for the Cold War Kids webpage
JF: I was friends with Matt's older brother Dave, who's in the band Havalina ( link ), and I had Dave star in the first video I directed for the band Thee Spivies ( link ). At some point along the way I got to know Matt and started bugging him to do some design stuff for me, back when his design company was called Cold War Kids. When the band started up, I started bugging him to let me do a video for him... Basically the best things in my life started with me bugging someone.
RSL: Haha - Josh, that's great. I can see what you mean. Matt is certainly intense. He's probably my favorite Cold War Kid. Very talented. Tell me about the conversation; the "bugging" as you called it. Specifically - How did you convince the band to do the video?
JF: Basically whenever I meet someone who's in a band that I like, I ask them if I can do a video. Most of the time they smile and say"yeahhhh" and then you never hear from them again. I hired Matt to do some design stuff for Winch and Pulley (dot) com and I asked him about a video and he said sure. The only down side was that they had no money, but we worked around that. You usually can.
RSL: Now that you've told us about your involvement with CWK, how about Irving, how did you meet them? I like their music but don’t know much about them, Where are they from?
JF: They're a Silverlake band. Again, it all comes back to bugging. I was doing a write up on them and had emailed them for a CD. It's one of the perks of being a music journalist, as I'm sure you know! Alex, their bass player wrote me back and we sort of hit it off. I asked if they wanted a video, he said yes and we went from there. I've always wanted to do an After Effect-sy animated video with my friends Max Miceli( maxmiceli.com ), and PJ ( pjfidler.com ). Everybody pitched in and I'm really happy with the result. So was the band. I guess it's been on MTV2, Fuse and even in Nordstroms, which was pretty wild.
IRVING
RSL: Cool. I know that song! I really dig that. How did you get into doing this? Being a filmmaker for music videos?
JF: I love music. I've written about music for over a decade, and recently was a Contributing Editor at Flavorpill (link). I have alot of contacts at different labels and it's sort of grown from there. Plus you're able to do cool stuff that other people pay for. Winch+Pulley is essentially myself and my producer Jeff Edwards. We've worked together for over 10 years. We wrote a couple scripts, one about magicians the other about midgets.
JF: I love music. I've written about music for over a decade, and recently was a Contributing Editor at Flavorpill (link). I have alot of contacts at different labels and it's sort of grown from there. Plus you're able to do cool stuff that other people pay for. Winch+Pulley is essentially myself and my producer Jeff Edwards. We've worked together for over 10 years. We wrote a couple scripts, one about magicians the other about midgets.
RSL: Did you go to school for film? Or study film in college?
JF: I started in film, but my school's program sucked so I studied theatre for 2 years. I left that school and after I did my time in a handful of community colleges, I ended up home at the University of Colorado. Their film school was an old abandoned Air Force base.
JF: I started in film, but my school's program sucked so I studied theatre for 2 years. I left that school and after I did my time in a handful of community colleges, I ended up home at the University of Colorado. Their film school was an old abandoned Air Force base.
RSL: What are you new projects?
JF: Just wrapped a Barenaked Ladies video. Have a video for a new band called Acute that's really great (link). I'm flying out to Seattle to do a video with Damien Jurado. So a lot of stuff. Hopefully more stuff with the Cold War Kids.
RSL: Based on what I have seen, I hope so too. What video project are you the most proud of?
JSF: I'm really happy about my video for the Submarines - video
RSL: What services can you and Winch and Pulley offer small independent bands? Perhaps my page and maybe this video will help steer some bands your way.
JF: It all depends on the budget and the band. A band like the Cold War Kids is so rough and rugged that a video like our works. I once was asked to make a low budget video for a Vietnamese Pop Star and I had to pass because they wanted Britney Spears-glossy.
RSL: Thanks for visiting with me Josh. We will be watching. Best of luck.
mp3 files from the interview:
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