About this project

What’s it about?

Pass the Music is a feature length documentary about the Los Angeles indie rock music scene. 

Film Synopsis:

The east and northeast areas (aka “the eastside”) of Los Angeles has become an indie rock hub drawing musicians, venues, labels, studios, and fans to the area of Silver Lake, Echo Park, Highland Park and Eagle Rock. With the incredible number of bands playing and emerging from this area, Pass the Music explores the concept of “making it” and what it means to bands today.

The film takes a look at several bands at key parts in the their careers – from those starting out to those reaching an end. For many bands the pressure of success is intense and whether it’s selling enough records to tour the world or simply making enough to quit their day job, the risk and reward these bands face are very real. Shot over nearly 3 years, Pass the Music captures the people and bands that make up this thriving music scene circa 2008 – 2010.  Pass the Music is a window into why LA has one of the greatest indie rock scenes in the world today.

Featuring: 

The Happy Hollows  / The Henry Clay People / The Movies
Radars to the Sky / Seasons

With Additional Interviews/Performances by: 

The Airborne Toxic Event / The Deadly Syndrome / Death to Anders / Division Day / Downtown/Union / Earlimart / Everest / The Health Club / The Hectors / Le Switch / Manhattan Murder Mystery / Mezzanine Owls / The Monolators / One Trick Pony / Radar Bros. / The Transmissions / Kevin Bronson (Buzzbands LA) / Jax (Rock Insider) / Kat Corbett (KROQ) / Ben “Mouse” McShane (Classical Geek Theatre) / Joe Fielder (Radio Free Silver Lake) / Mr. Shovel (Indie 103.1) / and many others...

The Current Status & Why We Need You

We have been working on this project for over 3 years now - we are done filming and have a very solid cut ready to go, but we need help for the finishing funds of the film. These funds will help make the film the best possible and bring it to a professional level. The finishing funds would be allotted for: Post-Sound Mix, Motion Graphics, Color Correction and festival submission fees. Any funding we reach over the goal would be directed to help cover additional mastering, screener duplication, score composition, graphic art for posters, promo materials, etc – all going directly into the film. We’re placing a tight deadline on this because our goal is the submit Pass the Music to several film festivals by the end of summer and get it out there to as many people as possible.

The film started out as a small project with Ryan Maples and Jason Tovar (co-directors/producers) being fans of the Los Angeles music scene. Once we started going to shows we were truly amazed by the quality of the music available every night of the week. We were hooked on the music and were inspired to start documenting it. Once we started filming, we started meeting new bands and people who in turn would recommend us to another band or another person. Before we knew it, we had countless hours of video documenting behind the scenes with bands, interviews and performances, and we knew we had the makings of a great movie. Throughout the three years of the project, we never had any financial backing whatsoever, the entire project has been funded by ourselves, our credit cards and has been possible by the donation of time by many talented crew members serving as camera ops, sound ops, p.a’s, additional editors, etc. Byron Tejada, has been on since the very start as a soundman and now is an associate producer on the project. Many people have been passionate about the film from the get-go and donated time along the way. Now as we are nearing completion, we feel very proud of the film we put together and want to get out the word on these talented bands and their intriguing stories. With your help we can finally, once and for all, make this film a reality.

About Kickstarter

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