Jena Malone’s LA-Based Musical Duo Debut a Hallucinogenic Woodland Tryst on Nowness.com
The Shoe: His Gorgeousness on Nowness.com
“We shot in Upstate New York at the peak of tick season,” says director Aliya Naumoff of filming Jena Malone for the new video for her musical project, The Shoe. “Jena was covered in bites and scratches, but kept performing nonetheless.” The Hunger Games actress started the duo with multi-instrumentalist Lem Jay Ignacio following an extended period of impromptu performances after the pair met at a party in 2008. They recorded their first album I’m Okay in California, distilling the sunshine of the Golden state into a series of intimate and improvisational indie tracks, with Malone creating the structure by tap dancing its beat with her feet. “I think music and my film work feed each other," says the Nevada-born Malone. “Learning how to improvise built up strengths in me as as an actor.” Naumoff cast choreographer Celia Rowlson-Hall as Malone’s co-star, who envisioned the video’s nymph-like movements. “She is somewhat of a Zen master and I knew she would kill it with the dance,” says the filmmaker. Inspired by the work of this year’s Deutsche Börse Photography Prize winner Richard Mosse, The New York Times contributor worked with a colorist to recreate the effect by keying green tones in the same way that infrared film would pickup chlorophyll: “When I saw his use of color, specifically with his work in the Congo, I was incredibly moved by the feeling it created.”
What inspired the track?
Jena Malone: I was driving north on the 395 to my childhood home of Lake Tahoe; I was only two weeks into writing and recording the album and had all these melodies swirling in my head. The sun was setting on the mountains and it was just so beautiful. Gorgeousness all around me. And I just started singing the main melody into my little voice memo on my iPhone. It quickly turned into a song about falling in love, looking for love, being happy for the search. I was also in the process of falling in love again, so I had a lot of beautiful things in my heart.
Do you remember your earliest experience of music?
JM: My mom was a singer and she would sing to me all the time. I think that's how I learned. I used to wander through the forest and build forts and just be alone with my imagination for hours when I must have only been six or seven, singing to myself the whole time.
What musicians or acts have had a strong impact on your own musical style?
JM: Nina Simone, Neil Young , Tom Waits, Daniel Johnston, PJ Harvey, Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton.
What's next for you, both acting and music-wise?
JM: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay films will start coming out this year. I also got to work with my favorite filmmaker of all time, Paul Thomas Anderson, on Inherent Vice, which should be coming out this Christmas. And we are touring this July with the band.
I'm Okay is out now on Community Music/There Was An Old Woman Records.