The Nobody Hole cover art, by Jared Rogness
I’m releasing my sci-fi Halloween opera, The Nobody Hole, for download this year….but I don’t see it as an official album release so much as a graduation to the next step in this project’s evolution.
Year One: Beginnings
In July of 2005, I moved back to New York after an extended stay in the Bay Area. Everything was great, I was moving into Badtouch’s basement apartment, my job was cool, I was eating pumpkin seeds, seahorses and egg whites. Life was awesome. But for some reason I started writing this dark ass material. I felt like writing stories and tragic yarns. Songs were coming to me about wax museums, abused beauty queens and panda masks. Something was happening, and I just kinda rolled with it. I think it was a combination of working the graveyard shift, Doug’s artwork hanging everywhere and hanging out at Irish Pubs til six in the morning. I’m still trying to figure out where this all came from. With the help of Badtouch and his amazing production, I spent the next year weaving those stories and yarns together . Eventually The Nobody Hole took on a life of it’s own. And Doug produced an amazing full-color painting, which you can see below.
"The Nobody Hole, Act I" - sketch, by Doug Hoffman
Year Two: Birth of The Nobody Ball
The album was recorded in the Summer of 2006 as the last songs were being written (“The Tale of The Nobody Hole”, “Sunflower Grenade”, etc). Since Doug’s artwork helped inspire the writing, I thought it only right to see what the writing inspired him to draw. We tossed around the idea of doing character sketches, and whenever the inspiration hit him, he’d spit out a gnarly sketch. Something weirdly organic, way to the left and very dark. It was a perfect exchange of creative energy. He did tons of sketches. Eventually, I figured since I want it to become an animated feature one day anyway, it would be dope to match the sketches to the music and show it in a theater for the hell of it. Thus, The Nobody Ball was born on October 31st, 2006. We held the First Annual Nobody Ball in the Tribeca Grand Hotel’s screening room. 100 people came out, showed it lots of love….I’m still humbled when I think about it. A magnificent week, indeed. When I got back to L.A., I set out to get this thing animated before I die.
"The Nobody Hole" Painting, by Doug Hoffman
Year Three: First Live Performance
I had been a Los Angeles resident for a full year when 2007 came around. I didn’t have a firm enough foothold in the L.A. music scene to pull off The Nobody Ball yet, so I flew back to New York for Halloween. The Second Annual Nobody Ball was a live performance in the basement of The Knitting Factory, with Badtouch helping on narration and other vocals. Conscious and Doug Hoffman were doing live art pieces on stage during the performance. The night was opened up by LoDeck (with a violinist) and Conscious, and there were carnival snacks provided by YumYum Chefs. That night, I made the official public announcement that I had begun writing for a sequel. The Nobody Hole was given away exclusively to subscribers of TheGoodLook.Net later that year to celebrate the site’s launch.
Year Four: Jared Rogness
"Lord Paul & The Castle of Bones", Original illustration by Jared Rogness
I’ve met alot of artists and animators that get real excited about The Nobody Hole for a few months and then end up falling off the face of the earth. I call this “The Nobody Curse”. It’s weird. But I met a ninja named Jared Rogness at the beginning of 2008. Purely by chance (?), we ended up talking over a beer. I told him about The Nobody Hole, and he was immediately interested in helping me out. The Curse makes me dubious, but it never stops me from pitching and sharing. I needed someone to create character art and designs here in L.A. so that I could start working on the pitchbook for The Nobody Hole movie. He said he needed something to balance out the madness of his pet project, “Sins of The Father”, and a task to sharpen his blades on. The Nobody Hole was that for him. And man, did he sharpen his blades. It was a perfect exchange and creative meshing. The night I met him, he listened to The Nobody Hole. The next morning, I had a sketch of Manda in my inbox. That was the beginning of an epic exchange. After over a year of the heaviest brainstorming sessions and some of the most meaningful conversations I’ve ever had with another human, Jared turned my imagination into detailed professional level character art. Along the way, he challenged me to think about what The Nobody Hole was, like no one had before. Nzinga and I got married that year, and I was super broke, so there was no Nobody Ball.
Year Five: The Nobody Ball Goes Hollywood
"Ransom Concept Sketch" by Jeff Hurst
I met two artists by the names of Jeffery Hurst and Jerome Lewis early in 2009. It was a brief exchange we had, but very productive. They took some of Jared’s ideas, but mostly went into their own direction from scratch with the main characters. Life entered the building and made it difficult for us to keep on pushing….but as soon as there’s a budget and I can pay them for their time, I look forward to working with those guys again. That Halloween, The Nobody Ball was resurrected at El Cid on Sunset Blvd….with a brand new animatic (edited by yours truly), fresh art from Jeff and Jerome and a wide cast of characters on the bill: FeastOfFetus, Computer Jay and The Milky Way. Insurgency was a great ally and sponsor for that event and we worked with a dick of a promoter named Seattle Bob. Don’t ask. Other than that, it was a hell of a night. Malkovich was hosting, there were dancers in antlers, and a live performance of The Nobody Hole with it’s original narrator…Nzinga Kadalie.
Year Six: The Release of The Nobody Hole
"Pygmy Paul Character Art" (while in The Nobody Hole), by Jared Rogness
As I enter the sixth year of The Nobody Hole’s life, I’m even more excited about it than I was in 2005 when it all began. It just keeps getting better with age. I keep learning more about why I wrote it, what it represents and who the characters really are. And every year Fall rolls around, The Nobody Hole starts awakening from it’s hibernation….I’ll look at one of the old animatics one day in September after not touching it for a year. By October, I’m listening the whole album in my MP3 player a few times a week. By the time Halloween rolls around, I’m listening to it in full at least once a day every day, imagining where it can go next….
As my gears turn on what may happen this year, and I continue my quest to animate the project, I will hold true to my tradition of annually celebrating The Nobody Hole’s evolution. Even if there’s no Nobody Ball, which may very well be the case this year.
To this date, The Nobody Hole has never been available for purchase. I’ve given it away to a select group of people and close friends. This Halloween, I celebrate The Nobody Hole’s sixth anniversary by finally releasing it from the vault and making it available for the whole entire Universe to own.
Stay tuned for details on how and where to get it…..thanks to all the folks who’ve supported The Nobody Hole over the years. Keep on telling your friends about The Tale of Pygmy Paul.
