In 2007, the girl in the video gave me permission to use her cosplay footage and I forgot all about it. I produced the music/beat/instrumental while squatting in Pasadena rapper Foci’s garage. I loved this beat from the bat. I wish “The Prequel” had a better release, there’s a lot of songs on there I like a lot.
Here’s a new hip-hop video filmed & edited by my friend Jason Clark in Los Angeles and produced by Jbts (www.lunaishoney.com) in 2009. He gave me a CDR at work (we’re both ex-American Apparel employees) with a bunch of beats and this loop stuck out to me. I loved it immediately, but it would be years before it seen light of day. I added the stuff at the end and recorded the vocals in 2010.
Cast:
Michael Nhat
ALONE (Sean Pineda & Elizabeth Ann aka Liz Bomb)
Nima Kazerouni (So Many Wizards/Crowne Plaza)
I wrote the lyrics in 2003, recorded them to an entirely different production. I exploited a few classical songs I don’t know the name of and put an old dusty drum to it with a sample of the horror film “Henry” at the end. I released it on a demo in 2005 called “Bad Moon for The Werewolf to Kill You” and called it “I Thought You Said You Stabbed Her?”. It was a lot darker than this version 8 years later.
Winter of 2012 I recorded the beat you hear now, and for some reason singer/songwriter Nite Jewel came into my head. I started thinking about how she’d sound singing on it. Then I wondered if she would like it, if she ever heard it. Fast forward to February 22, 2013 I record the lyrics and name it “Jewel”.
lyrics
Dead toxic like laying in the food
talking to a poltergeist that will do
anything that makes them laugh
so confused and words of
have you know when born again
pee kung koi it scares some friends
clouds of fog the world is filled
darkness in the air you hear
city of the living dead
something on the news had read
I hear that revenge is sweet
this is where they finally meet
Falling down a 1000 steps
as some kind of pre-planned death
everyone is someone’s child
somehow we can not forget
knowing that your god itself
and crying because you hate yourself
looking in the mirror for
anything that’s not yourself
and it sounded something like
and it sounded something like
something like something like
haunted souls and words I sing
You’re probably sick of seeing me perform the same 10 songs the past 5 years, so I will try to learn some new songs since my transition on 12/12/12 away from avant garde hip-hop and into singing/songwriting.
New Music Video – There’s Death in Tomorrow
Starring Isaac Takeuchi
From “Just Plain Dying” cassette tape on I Had An Accident Records
Hello,
I was hanging out at the Vermont House in 2008 when Isaac told me he had a panty collection of girls he slept with. At that time, I was jotting ideas for an experimental art film I wanted to shoot and I thought this might be a good scene. 2 years later, Isaac and I got together at my place in Silverlake (Where Shaddy from Home Room lives now) and we shot a music video with his collection. I didn’t have a computer newer than 2002, so editing this HD footage was impossible without bugging friends to let me sit on their computers. For the next 3 years, I managed to get a few videos edited and published on a shoestring, while still shooting more footage than I could release, thus I have a lot of unseen, unedited, unused footage just accumulating from 2007 – present (half of it became DISHES).
In 2013, my fiance’ discovered she has Windows Movie Maker on her work computer. I know you’re all like, “Big deal who doesn’t?” … well, me. I don’t and I have been desperate to edit footage before I get killed in a bicycle/car accident or die from a premature stroke thanks to my high salt intake. So, even though I shoot my stuff with an AVCHD camera, lately, I’ve chose to compromise that quality just so I can get these music videos finished by editing with an inferior video editing software program.
So, if I’m putting too many emails with things I made in your inbox these next few months, forgive me, I’m trying to play catch-up with my vids. Now go click on the photo or here for the music video.
Sincerely, Michael
