In Austin, it seems like everyone's a musician and there’s live music every night. But between that dynamic of stage and crowd, there’s a cast of characters: including band managers, doormen and promoters.
The film “Thank You A Lot” premiered at SXSW Film. It explores some of these characters – particularly a father-son pair caught in the middle of all the bustle.
KUT sat down with Austin-based writer/director Matt Muir:
On Father-Son Relationships:
"It's kind of a weird thing whenever you become an adult to think about your parents in a more mature way. And you all of a sudden start really realize that you don't know what kind of people your parents are– or at least you didn't think about it when you were growing up."
On Casting Real-Life Musician James Hand:
“He was so engaging right away that I became a little bit obsessed with him. And I started kind of researching him and ingratiated myself into his life and learned as much as I could about him all while I was writing this script for him.”
On Recording Live Music for the Film:
“I feel like sometimes when you watch movies about live music its kind of like pre-recorded music or it’s an actor who’s singing to tape or an actor that’s just lip-synching in the moment. And it was really important to us to capture live performances by live musicians."
On Premiering the Film at SXSW:
"It's great. Living here for so many years I've gone to the festival so many times, I've had a short in the festival before and I'm just a big fan of South by... And the fact that South by's attributes kind of align with ours and their sensibilities align with ours and of course it's nice to premiere it here in Austin so all of the cast and crew and fans of the film can see it so we just feel really lucky to have the opportunity."
