LA Font presents the debut of the short film companion piece for their title single, "Diving Man" off their recent album from New Professor Music. Directed by Brad Bores, the video was made with frontman Danny Bobbe as originally part of a larger independent film entitled, Wishful, Sinful. Ripped straight from the fringes of Southern California, rural desert settings combined with sequences of being down and out in LA create a sweeping look at the wild frontiers set to a celebratory song of embracing the transgressive doldrums of modern day survival.
Opening with the fist pumping chorus, "Diving Man" jumps off the deep end into the dusty desert beginning with dueling dudes. Pickup truck travels kick up the dust, cuing inquisitive moments of under-the-head examinations, work out routines, pool matches, and scenes littered with beer and cigarettes. Hilarity ensues, as Danny and Brad get themselves cleaned up, fitted into suits in well-intentioned attempts to make something resembling a living wage as represented in the following lyrical passage: "I've got a job that pays me if I show up clean shaven, with two strong hands, and a thoroughly bitten tongue". As the song "Diving Man" combines fiction and reality into semi-autobiographical stew; watch as things get out of hand as these quarterless men attempt to play the field in their new duds, only to be met with further adversity, antics and obstacles, in a sideways song and tale that jumps off a metaphorical diving board called Los Angeles.
LA Font frontman Danny Bobbe talked to us a bit about the song's real life inspirations, notes from LA, notes on their name, other bands of interest, and the best memories of 2013.
The album and title track "Diving Man" feels like a song about moving to LA and trying to survive in LA. What was your inspiration behind this rolling riot of song and album making process?
I just picked up the things around me to write the 'Diving Man' track. The line about waking up on a second hand twin bed, for example, was written while sitting on said bed. The whole album is like that.
How did you go about interpreting such a wry song into a Vegas vacation/season in hell video full of sparring and just try to get by in life?
My friend Brad and I made a mumblecore movie called, Wishful, Sinful a few summers ago. We had a loose plot structure but no script. Although our characters in the movie were exaggerated, essentially they were us: loser alcoholics.
We sent it out to all the indie film festivals but it was rejected across the board. It lived in obscurity on Vimeo somewhere. We re-chopped it to the 'Diving Man' track and liked how it fit. So that's the 'Diving Man' video, it's essentially the movie condensed into three minutes.
I had always wondered about how you chose the name LA Font. Is it an homage to a particular, Los Angeles based style of topography?
I was new in town and walked past the Department of Water and Power building in Atwater and liked the typeface on the building exterior. I thought to myself, 'oh, that must be the L.A. font', and for some reason I liked the ring of those words together so I put it down in my notebook and later gave my bedroom music project that title. Two weeks later I discovered it sounded like elephant when you said it aloud.
LA and the SoCal scenes always have so much going on. Who are some of your favorite locals as of late?
We played with a band Heathers last night and the were great. Kinda some Smiths vibes there. Also, The Withers are perennial favorites. They put out the scuzziest EP a few years back called "Pleas, please me" highly recommend that.
What are you excited for this winter and with the coming new year?
I'm excited for Christmas presents for sure. And drinking a ton of champagne around New Years. 2014 will see us on the road. Full U.S. tour in June, so that's something to look forward to.
What's on your stereo right now?
Colleen Green's Sock It To Me. Got everyone in the office singing to that.
Best 2013 memories?
I married my beautiful wife in 2013 so that takes the top spot, for sure. There's also this memory of pulling off the highway somewhere between Montana and Idaho during our west coast tour and hiking down to the river. We all appreciated the beauty in our own way, I stuck my head in it, and it was sublime.
LA Font's Diving Man is available now from New Professor Music.
