Remember the good ol’ days where you’d get your functioning dysfunctional family together to go down to the local Country Western bar to listen to your dad sing about shooting himself in the head? Yeah, me neither. Till now! Last week I teamed up with fellow film maker Habib Awan, a rising local DC industry talent, to produce a performance video for another rising talent from Florida- my dad, David Hintz.
Visiting up here in Maryland, David arranged to play at an open mic night at the Outta the Way Cafe in Derwood. He performed five songs, including two of his own original tracks, “Bullet in my Brain” and “Restless Winter Days”. He also did a couple of John Prine covers, similar to his last performance I posted about a few months ago. Click the link above to see the event for yourself! (Photos Courtesy of Habib Awan).
It was a bold set, with dark, honest songs that said some gruesome, some funny, and had some blatantly out there lyrics. When your opening lines following up a John Mellencamp cover band is “You make me wanna put a bullet in my head, you make me wish one day I’d wake up dead” you know you have something either completely insane, or very brave and unique!
Considering it’s my dad and I know how our family seems to operate, I’ll go with 90% latter but definitely at least 10% former. David was deeply involved in all of the songs- even the covers- making him a real blast to watch and listen to. My younger brother, Taylor, accompanied on the drum. That’s right- drum. Singular. Deal with the greatness! David’s friend Adelita Nelson provided duet vocals on one of the other John Prine covers, which added another great layer to the show.
It was a rousing set that outperformed the 6 piece band that came before and after them. The flavor was original honky tonk at it’s best, and showed that David has made a commitment to his music. I wish him the best of luck with it and hope that Habib and I can reteam to film some more events, and maybe even music videos, in the future. It was a fun, quick shoot, as described by Habib “Armed with only our two cameras, one boom mic, and about two minutes of setup time, we churned this out.” I certainly enjoyed getting a chance to film my father doing something he loves, and am more than happy to share it with you.
Habib Awan’s work can be found on Vimeo and Youtube. I even star in one of his demo reels with my performance from the still-gestating “THE GRAVEYARD” by Now It’s Dark Films. He will next be collaborating with Strike a Pose!!! Films on the upcoming short, Bite the Hand, written by Tom Murphy, star of System Shock 2: The First Encounter.