“¿Qué pasa, New York?” A Dialog with Sam Rice-Edwards on John & Yoko’s ‘One to One’

A CONVERSATION WITH SAM RICE-EDWARDS

Atwood Journal: Thanks a lot for chatting! So that you’re in New York for press proper now?

Sam Rice-Edwards: Yeah, precisely. I’m slightly bit jet lagged, really, simply arrived final evening however hanging in there.

I traveled to London for 5 days final summer time and was not absolutely awake your entire time!

Sam Rice-Edwards: Yeah, it’s arduous! The place are you primarily based?

So proper now I am in Philadelphia, which was good as a result of they simply held the press screening final Thursday.I used to be capable of Amtrak there in a short time. I’ve now seen ‘One to One’ 3 times as a result of I acquired the press screener, watched it once more with a bandmate of mine, and my girlfriend and I simply went to the New York press premiere.

Sam Rice-Edwards: Ooh, wonderful.

[An action figure of John Lennon falls over in the Zoom background].

That was the Ghost of John.

Sam Rice-Edwards: Oh, have a look at that, there you go! He’s simply so impressed that you just’ve seen the movie so many occasions. That’s what it was.

My first query is an modifying query. There’s a lot narrative heft to the whole lot that is occurring in Vietnam with Nixon, we see flashes of Angela Davis and stuff, however within the edit there’s numerous humor. The second that I laughed out loud is when Lennon’s at a rally and says, ‘we have to deliver the machines house.’ After which we reduce to an advert for a washer. Lennon’s operating by means of “Hound Canine” and we reduce to Nixon tickling the ivories. Yoko mentioned she was upgraded ‘from being a bitch to being a witch.’ How did you toe that line in maintaining the narrative grounded, however preserving the humor that was fairly quintessential to the Ono Lennons?

Sam Rice-Edwards: Yeah. I feel you mentioned it there, one thing that we actually needed to precise, actually, for 2 causes. As a result of one is, as you simply mentioned, they have been so playful as a pair, and as people as effectively. And so humor and playfulness and creativeness was an enormous a part of who and what Yoko is, and who they have been as a pair. But additionally, we have been attempting to current life in 1972, and the fact of life is that you’ve got one thing very critical subsequent to one thing very humorous. In life, we stumble upon all these various things and truly if issues are one tone, it really turns into much less actual in a method and a bit monotonous.So we have been actually attempting to combine issues up, and when it comes to how we discovered that line, it’s actually only a type of ‘suck and see’ type of scenario the place you attempt stuff out and you’re feeling like, “oh, that goes a bit too far”, or “that comes throughout as actually disrespectful,” so it’s simply actually feeling your method ahead. And never shying away from issues that shock, as a result of really typically you do need issues to be stunning or very stunning. Generally whenever you really feel that, you’re like, “oh, let’s go together with that. Let’s make a courageous resolution right here”.

Yeah. The second with George Wallace, the third time I nonetheless jumped slightly bit.
I cherished the framing of flicking by means of the tv channels! I feel there’s a sure tendency to mythologize Lennon and Ono. They have been sofa potatoes! They cherished channel browsing. And what I actually appreciated is how naive Lennon was allowed to look right here. There’s audio the place Allen Klein is on the cellphone and John’s saying “why cannot I sing a tune a couple of jail riot”? And you then hear the breath being held over the cellphone. “Oh, positive. I will write a tune for the IRA,” identical to McCartney did across the similar time. There was that very gung-ho “Let’s dive proper in after which fear concerning the penalties later.” Had been there any mandates about audio that may have been slightly bit too ‘sticky’? And what was the intent with permitting John particularly to look so wide-eyed and so naive with a number of the causes he was diving into in ‘72?

Sam Rice-Edwards: When it comes to the Lennon property, they actually stood again. It is a movie made by Kim McDonald and the producers, and Peter Wesley and Mercury Studios. They have been clearly concerned, however they very a lot revered Kevin as a filmmaker and allowed him to do what all of us needed to do to make a superb movie. In order that they have been nice in that respect and in a number of respects they have been very useful. And I feel when it comes to Lennon coming throughout as kind of wide-eyed, we needed this movie to be an opportunity for individuals to essentially get to know John and Yoko in a method that they’re once they’re away from public view, and to spend time with them. [John] was somebody who was extraordinarily curious and adventurous, all the time attempting new issues. And there was a aspect [where he] allowed himself to dive into issues, and I feel to have that you must have a component of naivety. And I feel within the movie, what we have been attempting to point out is that they got here to New York escaping the UK and the kind of vilification of Yoko and the breakup of the Beatles. They fell right into a world that they cherished and have been very a lot influenced by the individuals round them, Jerry Rubin and that kind of gang had a way that they might change the world. They turned fairly political, John, particularly, and thru the course of the movie, they got here to comprehend “perhaps we are able to’t change the world on a giant scale. We will perhaps do some smaller issues, some extra human issues,” such because the live performance.

On the inverse of how Lennon walks again a number of the “Black Panthers, White Panthers and all that jazz,” there’s that picture of Yoko within the bag doing efficiency artwork items, et cetera, this extra mercurial spirit. And you then hear her on the cellphone, extraordinarily tactful mitigating numerous enterprise stuff, mending fences. The pull quote for Atwood’s overview, the ballot quote was Yoko’s, “Have you ever ever heard both of the three Beatles make a remark about me? It’s chauvinism.” And I might think about numerous child boomer readers is not going to be thrilled that is the pull quote, however that is the one which caught out to me. Has Yoko seen this documentary?

Sam Rice-Edwards: I prefer to assume she has, I don’t really know for positive. However she’s stepped again from coping with the Lennon property and Sean Lennon has actually stepped into that function. I wish to assume she has, however actually Sean was the one who we have been linked to.

Great! It is a huge job to contextualize two of the biggest artists of the 20^th Century and share their final identify, and deal with the audio remixing and numerous PR, they’re enormous sneakers to fill.

Sam Rice-Edwards: Yeah, Sean was nice, I’ve to say. He was very supportive of the movie.I used to be in a screening the place we performed it for him for the primary time, and it was really fairly shifting watching it with him as a result of clearly it’s so extremely private for him. He did a incredible job with the audio. The live performance was wonderful, however there have been numerous issues in the best way it was recorded and shot and so forth. And so there was numerous work to be accomplished. And he actually purchased the sound to life

Did I see Paul Hicks’s identify there as effectively within the audio combine?

Sam Rice-Edwards: Probably, I’m unsure. Paul Hicks, what was he doing. with Sean, you imply?

I feel it was one thing with the audio. I do know that Dhani Harrison works loads with Paul Hicks, and I flagged the identify within the credit.

Sam Rice-Edwards: Sure.

Yeah, it is such an apparent factor to say, however what a voice. Lennon simply had that like pure, ripping rock vocal. “Prompt Karma” has not been outta my head, the Wurlitzer piano has simply been on loop. Is there going to be an audio tie in a ‘Stay in New York’ companion to the movie? Or is it, will the audio simply stay because the soundtrack?

Sam Rice-Edwards: Do you imply ‘will there be a launch of the live performance’? Sure. I feel sure, that there’ll really be a launch of a live performance movie. However I dunno when that’s popping out. Clearly we haven’t acquired the entire live performance within the movie, the live performance is on the coronary heart of our movie but it surely’s not a ‘live performance movie’ as such. You go there and it’s a terrific cinematic expertise, I feel, to observe the movie since you actually, within the moments the place we delve into the live performance, you are feeling like you’re on the solely live performance that John did after leaving The Beatles, ever.And so it’s that have, however the movie that we made, hopefully, everybody feels is greater than a live performance movie in a method. It’s extra concerning the time and about John and Yoko, who they have been as individuals and what was occurring in 1972 and the way that weirdly parallels to now. So I feel that could be a larger movie than simply the live performance.

(Notice: A four-track EP for File Retailer Day was adopted by an August twelfth teaser for the ‘Residents of Nutopia’ that the live performance’s audio launch is forthcoming).

Oh, talking of parallels to now, what luck – not luck, obviously- however the live performance that the choir gave to Nixon the place they held up the ‘Cease The Killing’ banner. And what was it, 4 or 5 weeks in the past {that a} choir went to the White Home and sang the tune from Les Miserables (“Do You Hear The Folks Sing?”) That’s so eerie, how pertinent the entire “Free the Folks, Cease The Killing” is, it is about ‘Nam, but it surely’s additionally about now.

Sam Rice-Edwards: It’s distressing. It was a really unusual factor as a result of, instantly. we noticed the parallels between then and now. I say now, a yr in the past, a yr and a half in the past, or perhaps slightly longer, we may see the kind of fractures in society have been comparable. The polarization of proper and left and the identical points have been on the fore, gender politics, race, setting. So, we may see the parallel immediately, and it’s one thing that we needed to mirror, however we didn’t actually, it solely turned clear how massively parallel it was turning into as we have been modifying the movie. And after the movie was completed, as Nixon and George Wallace in some way represented Donald Trump. After which, there was an assassination try, and the parallels went on and on. Nixon’s landslide victory and so forth. So, it turned fairly unusual, really.

So, a timeline query: Final summer time, there was a field set that was speculated to be for Thoughts Video games, however there was Some Time in New York Metropolis materials folded into it. And there is a letter from the time interval of this movie when Lennon was speaking about, “oh, we are able to get Dylan for a tour, and he met with McCartney at Financial institution Avenue.” There is a letter from across the time they wrote the songs about Eire inviting Wings to hitch the one-to-one live performance. Timeline clever, was that materials one thing you have been conscious of or did that come to gentle after modifying was already underway?

Sam Rice-Edwards: I feel, I can’t bear in mind particularly, however within the kind of recess of my thoughts, it rings a bell, and I really feel like we knew about that on the time. The factor is that, there are numerous different info on the market and letters and paperwork, however actually the movie that we got down to make was a visible cinematic movie, and we needed it to essentially give individuals a time capsule and a slice of John and Yoko at the moment with out delving into info and exhibiting stills of letters and that kind of factor. What we now have is all movie or video of the time. If there have been issues that we knew, however we didn’t have any materials that we may use, then actually we couldn’t get them into the movie. They have been fascinating to know but it surely didn’t work within the format of the movie.

Completely. When it comes to utilizing all out there audio and video, there are some fantastic cameos. I knew that Stevie Marvel had been on the live performance, however the best way he simply slides into body and completely rips “Give Peace a Probability” is fantastic. I wasn’t shocked per se, but it surely was fascinating to listen to Could Pang’s voice. She put out her personal doc final yr. Then, Phil Spector pops into body fairly a bit… and Alan Ginsberg has his share of retroactive controversies as effectively. Was there any thought paid to how any of the gamers look looking back, or was all of it a diary of what was occurring within the second, and also you forged to 1 aspect ‘what was to be’?

Sam Rice-Edwards: Yeah, I feel it’s a very good query and it’s one thing that we spoke about loads. It’s not a movie that appears looking back at what these characters did after, or what got here to gentle and that’s undoubtedly essential stuff to speak about and course of, however that’s not the movie that we have been making really. We have been making a movie that was within the second, on the time. And what individuals knew then. Even to the purpose the place we didn’t title individuals, individuals popped up on display screen. Angela Davis, she’s simply not titled in any respect. If know who she is, you then get it. In case you don’t know who she is, you simply get a sense for that kind of factor occurring at the moment. We have been attempting to create the world that John and Yoko noticed at the moment, and so they didn’t see identify titles, they didn’t know any of the stuff that we all know perhaps now about Ginsberg or whoever, looking back. So, we have been actually attempting to color an image of that second.

In step with that, the tip of the primary narrative pans out from the TV in Bang Avenue and sirens move by. And Jim Kelner alludes to, “We’re not attempting to get ourselves shot right here.”

Sam Rice-Edwards: Yeah.

Is regardless that it is a narrative time capsule, have been the sirens deliberate and an allusion to the place the story is heading? I am inquisitive about that alternative, the sirens on the window on the finish.

Sam Rice-Edwards: Yeah, it’s a kind of movie which you can select what you need from it, not in a foul method, in a great way. It’s all there and you can also make the connections and everybody will make completely different connections. We determined very a lot to be within the timeframe of them at Financial institution Avenue and that, that felt like a pure interval for the movie to be in. And we didn’t wish to rehash stuff about John’s deaths, which has been so effectively documented in lots of movies. However that’s to not say that it’s not alluded to in ways in which you talked about, the sirens not so instantly, however clearly Jim Kelner had a kind of foreboding feeling with that dialog that they’d. So it’s in there in essence, but it surely’s not a elementary a part of the narrative of the time, of the movie.

“Freda Peeple,” which performs over the credit, that is the one choice that postdates the narrative, that is a monitor from ‘73. After which the whole lot else is Someday in New York Metropolis. I might be fallacious there, but-

Sam Rice-Edwards: It’s both “Some Time in New York Metropolis” or the live performance. As a result of clearly numerous the songs have been [older], “Come Collectively” and so forth. However when it comes to after the time interval [of the narrative], I feel that he wrote that tune within the time interval, but it surely got here out later. And likewise the tune simply earlier than it was simply one thing I forgot the identify of [“Mind Games”], so these two on the finish, they arrive out after our time interval, however they have been written in the course of the time interval. So we felt that they have been apt for the ending. And likewise they’d the best kind of ‘feeling’ and, “Freda Peeple” in a method was like trying again on the movie and summarizing John and Yoko’s feeling of what they have been attempting to say by means of the movie.

“Freda Peeple,” by coincidence, might be my favourite solo Lennon tune. I used to be very pleased that made it into the credit.

Sam Rice-Edwards: It’s humorous that lots of people love that monitor, I imply, it’s clearly a very well-known monitor, but it surely’s not one which’s you consider immediately whenever you say, “What’s your favourite. Lennon solo monitor?” However we saved on assembly individuals who have been like, “I like that monitor.” So that you’ve acquired some pals on the market!

Sure, wonderful! Being conscious of time, that is my final query. I jumped out of my chair once I noticed a number of the house video footage within the doc. As nice because the live performance was, the shaky seventies video digital camera of the Lennons in Cambridge on the feminist convention, and contained in the Dakota, it’s fairly jaw-dropping. Is there extra of that footage, and will that be a venture unto itself?

Sam Rice-Edwards: Clearly the stuff that, the Portapak stuff, that’s the format that the black and white stuff in Cambridge and on the feminist convention was shot on.It’s this previous format known as Portapak. There’s clearly extra tapes of that, we had numerous that footage, however really it’s all the identical stuff with them driving round and so forth. So actually I feel, we advised the story and what we felt was one of the best ways from that footage.

It isn’t actually a query for me. I feel it’s a query [where] you want to pay money for the Lennon Basis and see what else they’ve acquired within the vaults. However I don’t know, I feel all the perfect stuff that we had is within the movie. Of that point and, perhaps that there’s not that a lot stuff that truly exists of [the Ono-Lennons] at the moment. We have been actually happy to have discovered all of the stuff that we discovered that’s within the movie and that, and it feels very wealthy. There’s solely a finite quantity. I’m sorry. I really feel like I’ve given you a very unhealthy reply there.

No, under no circumstances!

Sam Rice-Edwards: So one thing that occurred two or three months into the edit was someone from the Lennon property known as up man known as Simon Hilton, who had been serving to us loads. And he had been out in New York on the Lennon Archive. He’d been strolling across the archive and located this field on a shelf, not labeled. And he seemed in it and located these tapes. Anyway, he gave us a name and he mentioned “I feel we’ve acquired one thing you is perhaps focused on.” And it turned out that it was all of the cellphone conversations they’d simply been sitting on, all this time for the final 40 or so years 50 years! And nobody had actually checked out them. In order that was a very type of magical second. As soon as we obtained these, we immediately knew that they have been one thing very particular. ‘Trigger you by no means hear John and Yoko speaking like that, the place they actually don’t really feel like they’re being listened to, they’re not that out of the general public eye. It was immediately very revealing about who they’re. It was a terrific second to obtain that archive.

That is lovely. Born in paranoia, however changed into one thing narrative and delightful all these years later!

Sam Rice-Edwards: Precisely. That’s a really John and Yoko factor to do, isn’t it?To show paranoia into one thing extra optimistic.

“Don’t despair, paranoia’s in every single place.” Thanks a lot for taking the time to speak concerning the doc, I’ll most likely see it a fourth and fifth time!

Sam Rice-Edwards: Look, thanks a lot. And yeah, it’s actually nice to listen to that you just loved the movie. Thanks, take care!

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One to One is now streaming on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Fandango at Dwelling and YouTube.

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