This past weekend the Hopscotch Music Festival took place in downtown Raleigh. Approximately 120 bands covering a variety of music genres hit the numerous festival venues to perform concerts every evening, while special events and activities took place during the day. One such event was a screening of ODDSAC, a new film directed by Danny Perez with the collaboration of the band Animal Collective. Described as a "visual album," the film is an experimental mindbender with a combination of live-action vignettes and digital pattern and light manipulation. Let me put it this way: by the time it was over, I felt like I had done a few hits of LSD and my spirit-being was occupying the dimensional space between my chair and the Twilight Zone.
After the screening, I got a chance to sit down with Perez one-on-one to discuss the film. We were joined by one of the founding members of Animal Collective, Noah Lennox, who goes by the stage name Panda Bear. Danny was out-going and very open to talking about the movie. Noah, in contrast, was a bit quieter and seemed shy. But once we started talking it was obvious they both had a lot to say about the project and what went into making such a trippy film.