Fuzz Track City

Interview: FUZZ TRACK CITY director Steve Hicks

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FUZZ TRACK CITY

Here’s my interview with the writer-director of Fuzz Track City, Steve Hicks.

So many LA detective tales are set in art deco offices and Bel Air estates, but yours is set in the most ordinary neighborhoods and the seediest retail strips.  Why did you choose to feature the LA that movie audiences and tourists rarely see?

STEVE HICKS:  I live in the San Fernando Valley (area code 818) in Los Angeles County and I wanted to celebrate/exploit the valley’s locale.  Personally, I find so much solace and inspiration in The Valley and I wanted to add my cinematic two bits into the mix.  The Valley is a most wonderful place…come and see.

 

The movie’s MacGuffin is an obscure  B-side track – which you wrote yourself.  Tell me about writing the infectious lick for the rock song “Ricochet” and arranging it for the commercial jingles.

STEVE HICKS:  I’m a devout guitar god enthusiast; Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Eddie Van Halen…etc.  These artists transformed my life as an adolescent.  Truly.  I know riffs–I’ve researched and obsessed over guitar riffs note-for-note…However, as I discovered–I am not a natural guitar player.  I studied piano for many years when I was a kid, but that is the extent of my musical prowess…I wrote ‘Ricochet’ out of necessity when I could not find a guitarist that was willing to write riff after riff after riff for no money.  It should be noted, however, that I DID NOT perform the song, ‘Ricochet.’  I wrote what should be played, but it was performed with slick shredder excellence by NICK MAYBURY–a tried-and-true guitar master.

 

How did you select songs for the sound track?  It’s a remarkable compendium of pretty good but not popular rock songs.

STEVE HICKS:  I felt that the music in FUZZ TRACK CITY should be as a strong and prominent character as the protagonist…In the initial cuts of the film, I used tracks by Bob Seger, Led Zeppelin, Strawberry Alarm Clock–all the while knowing that one day I had to swap them out (for cost/licensing reasons–too much $$$).  However, two music libraries that I can’t say enough good things about (APERTURE MUSIC and DeWOLFE MUSIC) helped me find legitimate music tracks from the actual eras from their vaults to redo the film’s song soundtrack.  I was able to replace every ‘popular’ tune with songs from their libraries that–in almost every case–I liked better than my original choices.  And they could not have been more helpful or more “indie” friendly when it came to negotiate rates.  Thanks to APERTURE MUSIC and DeWOLFE MUSIC.

 

I think that people will note superficial similarities to THE BIG LEBOWSKI? Any thoughts?

STEVE HICKS:  I love ‘The Big Lebowski.’  And it definitely influenced me on some level.  When I was writing FUZZ TRACK CITY, I was drawn to a throwback and somewhat passive protagonist for whatever reason.  I certainly wasn’t trying to compete with the Coen Brothers.  Comparisons are inevitable, although I never intended to compete with The Dude.  Certainly not.  I just wanted to tell my own story in my own way.  FUZZ TRACK CITY abides…indeed.

 

Who decided that Josh Adell would spend the entire movie as Ziggy in his tidy whities? (I think you missed a product placement opportunity from Fruit of the Loom.)

STEVE HICKS:  The ‘undie concept’ was Josh’s…I’ve known Josh since we were 10 years old.  We met in sixth grade and bonded over our love for “Caddyshack” and “Stripes” and became inseparable friends. We were roommates at NYU for all four years–he was a drama major, I was in film.  I’ve made more projects with Josh than I can count.  I wrote the part of Ziggy specifically for him and he just ran with it.  He’s a very creative guy–kinda out there.  In a good way.  One night we went to discuss the role and he had only one thing to say: briefs.  Inherently, I understood.  And so it goes…

 

Is that you in the photo of the missing Mike Lockwood?

STEVE HICKS:  That is me, yes.  I was the cheapest and most accessible person to pose for the photo.  In fact, I took the photo myself…of myself.  And printed it, too.  Myself.  Low budget filmmaking at its most sincere.

 

What’s next for FUZZ TRACK CITY?  Will there be a wider release after the festival circuit?

STEVE HICKS:  We’ll know soon–working on all that.  I’ll will let you know!

 

What’s next for you?   Is there a new film project?

STEVE HICKS:  My next project is an adaptation of a memoir by author Peter Conners called GROWING UP DEAD.  It’s about a kid going through high school in the late 1980’s–coming of age by way of his love and passion for The Grateful Dead and their music/culture.  Fun, trippy stuff.  Further…

Fuzz Track City: I’ll have another Monte Cristo, please

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In the darkly comic Fuzz Track City, writer-director Steve Hicks riffs on the conventions of the detective genre to celebrate the most offbeat sides of LA.  Our hero could be a hard-boiled detective if he were more alert.  But Murphy Dunn (Todd Robert Anderson) is preoccupied with the death of his partner and the end of his marriage, two numbing losses that stem from betrayals.   It takes all of his remaining energy to order his daily Monte Cristo sandwich at the diner.

Look elsewhere for Hollywood gloss.  As Dunn searches for the MacGuffin, the B-side of a failed rock band’s long lost 45, he never enters a Bel Air estate.  Instead, he pads about the most ordinary neighborhoods of Burbank and Arcadia.  His office isn’t in an art deco office building – it’s in a strip on the run down Lankershim Boulevard.  Dunn doesn’t drive down storied Mulholland Drive or Sunset Boulevard; his bliss is cruising Ventura Boulevard.

Dunn is a lovable loser, still wearing his high school hair and driving his high school beater.  He’s so inexpert with his fists and gun that he needs to get bailed out of a bad situation by his extremely pregnant ex-wife (Tarina Pouncy).  The ex-wife witheringly says “take off those sunglasses – they don’t make you look cool” (and she’s right).     When he becomes the last LA resident to get a cell phone, he treats it as if it were about to explode.

Along the way Dunn encounters a series of oddballs.  One is an agoraphobic vinyl record collector (Josh Adell) who “hasn’t left Burbank in seven years or his house in three” and who scampers about in his tidy whities.  Another is a trailer-dwelling former musician (Dave Florek) whose idea of hospitality is to offer a choice of variously colored mouthwashes.  Abby Miller (Ellen Mae in Justified) brings some kooky originality to the role of the sad sack waitress.  And then there’s the object of Dunn’s schoolboy crush – his high school guidance counselor (Dee Wallace).

As he toys with the tropes of detective fiction, filmmaker Hicks takes us on a leisurely journey through the San Fernando Valley that finally crescendos into an uproarious climax.  It’s a fun ride.