“¿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 night time 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 onerous! The place are you based mostly?

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’ thrice as a result of I bought 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, superb.

[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 simply’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 every little thing that is occurring in Vietnam with Nixon, we see flashes of Angela Davis and stuff, however within the edit there’s a number of humor. The second that I laughed out loud is when Lennon’s at a rally and says, ‘we have to convey the machines dwelling.’ After which we lower to an advert for a washer. Lennon’s working via “Hound Canine” and we lower 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 retaining 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 had been so playful as a pair, and as people as properly. And so humor and playfulness and creativeness was an enormous a part of who and what Yoko is, and who they had been as a pair. But additionally, we had been making an attempt to current life in 1972, and the truth 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 really if issues are one tone, it really turns into much less actual in a means and a bit monotonous.So we had been actually making an attempt to combine issues up, and when it comes to how we discovered that line, it’s actually only a form of ‘suck and see’ form of state of affairs the place you strive 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 means ahead. And never shying away from issues that shock, as a result of really generally you do need issues to be surprising or very stunning. Generally if you really feel that, you’re like, “oh, let’s go along with that. Let’s make a courageous choice right here”.

Yeah. The second with George Wallace, the third time I nonetheless jumped slightly bit.
I cherished the framing of flicking via the tv channels! I feel there’s a sure tendency to mythologize Lennon and Ono. They had 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 telephone and John’s saying “why cannot I sing a track a few jail riot”? And you then hear the breath being held over the telephone. “Oh, certain. I will write a track for the IRA,” similar 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 which 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: By way of 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 had 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 movie. So that they had been nice in that respect and in plenty of respects they had 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 folks to actually get to know John and Yoko in a means 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, at all times making an attempt new issues. And there was a aspect [where he] allowed himself to dive into issues, and I feel to have that it’s important to have a component of naivety. And I feel within the movie, what we had been making an attempt 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 had been very a lot influenced by the folks round them, Jerry Rubin and that kind of gang had a way that they may change the world. They turned fairly political, John, particularly, and thru the course of the movie, they got here to appreciate “possibly we will’t change the world on an enormous scale. We are able to possibly 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 telephone, extraordinarily tactful mitigating a number of enterprise stuff, mending fences. The pull quote for Atwood’s evaluate, 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 a number of child boomer readers won’t 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 suppose she has, I don’t really know for certain. However she’s stepped again from coping with the Lennon property and Sean Lennon has actually stepped into that function. I wish to suppose she has, however actually Sean was the one that we had been related to.

Great! It is a large job to contextualize two of the biggest artists of the 20^th Century and share their final title, and deal with the audio remixing and a number of PR, they’re large 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 implausible job with the audio. The live performance was superb, however there have been a number of issues in the best way it was recorded and shot and so forth. And so there was a number of work to be achieved. And he actually purchased the sound to life

Did I see Paul Hicks’s title there as properly within the audio combine?

Sam Rice-Edwards: Presumably, I’m undecided. 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 title 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. “Instantaneous 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 dwell 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 bought 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 an important cinematic expertise, I feel, to look at the movie since you actually, within the moments the place we delve into the live performance, you’re feeling like you might be 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 larger than a live performance movie in a means. It’s extra concerning the time and about John and Yoko, who they had been as folks and what was taking place in 1972 and the way that weirdly parallels to now. So I feel that could be a greater movie than simply the live performance.

(Be aware: 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 track 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 12 months in the past, a 12 months and a half in the past, or possibly slightly longer, we may see the kind of fractures in society had been comparable. The polarization of proper and left and the identical points had been on the fore, gender politics, race, surroundings. So, we may see the parallel right away, and it’s one thing that we needed to replicate, however we didn’t actually, it solely turned clear how massively parallel it was turning into as we had been modifying the movie. And after the movie was completed, as Nixon and George Wallace one way or the other 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 purported 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 will 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 affix the one-to-one live performance. Timeline smart, was that materials one thing you had been conscious of or did that come to mild after modifying was already underway?

Sam Rice-Edwards: I feel, I can’t keep 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 a number of different information 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 actually give folks 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’ve 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 had been attention-grabbing to know but it surely didn’t work within the format of the movie.

Completely. By way of utilizing all obtainable audio and video, there are some great cameos. I knew that Stevie Surprise had been on the live performance, however the best way he simply slides into body and completely rips “Give Peace a Probability” is great. I wasn’t shocked per se, but it surely was attention-grabbing to listen to Might Pang’s voice. She put out her personal doc final 12 months. Then, Phil Spector pops into body fairly a bit… and Alan Ginsberg has his share of retroactive controversies as properly. Was there any thought paid to how any of the gamers look looking back, or was all of it a diary of what was taking place within the second, and also you forged to at least one aspect ‘what was to be’?

Sam Rice-Edwards: Yeah, I feel it’s a extremely 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 mild and that’s undoubtedly crucial stuff to speak about and course of, however that’s not the movie that we had been making really. We had been making a movie that was within the second, on the time. And what folks knew then. Even to the purpose the place we didn’t title folks, folks popped up on display screen. Angela Davis, she’s simply not titled in any respect. If know who she is, you then get it. When you don’t know who she is, you simply get a sense for that kind of factor taking place at the moment. We had been making an attempt to create the world that John and Yoko noticed at the moment, and so they didn’t see title titles, they didn’t know any of the stuff that we all know possibly now about Ginsberg or whoever, looking back. So, we had been actually making an attempt to color an image of that second.

Consistent with that, the top of the primary narrative pans out from the TV in Bang Avenue and sirens move by. And Jim Kelner alludes to, “We’re not making an attempt to get ourselves shot right here.”

Sam Rice-Edwards: Yeah.

Is though this can be a narrative time capsule, had been the sirens deliberate and an allusion to the place the story is heading? I am interested by that selection, the sirens on the window on the finish.

Sam Rice-Edwards: Yeah, it’s a kind of movie which you could pick what you need from it, not in a foul means, in a great way. It’s all there and you may 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 need to rehash stuff about John’s deaths, which has been so properly 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 basic 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 observe from ‘73. After which every little thing 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 a number of the songs had 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 track within the time interval, but it surely got here out later. And in addition the track simply earlier than it was simply one thing I forgot the title of [“Mind Games”], so these two on the finish, they arrive out after our time interval, however they had been written through the time interval. So we felt that they had been apt for the ending. And in addition they’d the precise kind of ‘feeling’ and, “Freda Peeple” in a means was like wanting again on the movie and summarizing John and Yoko’s feeling of what they had been making an attempt to say via the movie.

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

Sam Rice-Edwards: It’s humorous that lots of people love that observe, I imply, it’s clearly a extremely well-known observe, but it surely’s not one which’s you consider right away if you say, “What’s your favourite. Lennon solo observe?” However we saved on assembly individuals who had been like, “I like that observe.” So that you’ve bought some mates on the market!

Sure, wonderful! Being conscious of time, that is my final query. I jumped out of my chair after I noticed a number of the dwelling video footage within the doc. As nice because the live performance was, the shaky seventies video digicam 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 mission 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 outdated format known as Portapak. There’s clearly extra tapes of that, we had a number of that footage, however really it’s all the identical stuff with them driving round and so forth. So actually I feel, we instructed the story and what we felt was the easiest way from that footage.

It’s not 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 bought within the vaults. However I don’t know, I feel all the most effective stuff that we had is within the movie. Of that point and, possibly that there’s not that a lot stuff that truly exists of [the Ono-Lennons] at the moment. We had 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 extremely dangerous reply there.

No, by no means!

Sam Rice-Edwards: So one thing that occurred two or three months into the edit was any person 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 bought one thing you is perhaps eager about.” And it turned out that it was all of the telephone 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 extremely form of magical second. As soon as we obtained these, we immediately knew that they had 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 an important second to obtain that archive.

That is stunning. Born in paranoia, however was 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 all places.” Thanks a lot for taking the time to speak concerning the doc, I’ll in all probability 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 simply 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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