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Roxy
Saint!
The Underground Personality Tapes is the debut DVD album from musician,
artist and guerilla filmmaker, Roxy Saint. It is a collection of 10 new songs
and digital videos connected by surreal interstitial segments that portray
character creations from Roxy's life and experiences living on the edge of
reality.
Straight off of Fairfax & Santa Monica Blvd, Roxy Saint is an un-deterred
creative energy navigating her star through the flourishing Los Angeles
underground scene. She is the salacious musical progeny of Iggy Pop, carried to
term in the womb of Marilyn Manson.
She's part Cindy Sherman, part Punk Rock Queen, and the rest sexual provocateur.
Surrounding herself with film kids, musicians, and at least 3 or 4 beautiful
girls, she acts as both catalyst and glue. When asked about the girls, Roxy
reasons, "Keith Richards always had beautiful women around him so, I
figured I'd get some too."
The DVD uses uncensored visual content attached to a strong lyrical, and
metaphorical subtext -which in itself is a seditious act of art against the
corporate constriction of creativity. For Roxy, the creation of a digital video
becomes a renegade act of outsider art. "There's never any money, and
usually no crew, I utilize anything or anyone that's readily available,"
she says. "It's guerilla meets dogma filmmaking." The upside is that
there are no rules, no asking permission, and no censorship.
The recordings are mere digital fragments, cheap and dirty polaroids of the
songs, not auto-tuned for radio but raw for your twisted mind. With a 3 chip
digital camera, a home computer, and a few light bulbs, you can now produce just
about any kind of TV you want. Different? Dangerous? Provocative?
Some of the footage was reality, and some is staged, but universally everything
is taken out of context and reassembled for the viewers titillation. To further
obfuscate the facts, the video footage is then warped again with editing and
digital processing, to make the news-feel turn surreal. "When Warhol was
asked why he stopped painting and started doing silk-screens," says Roxy,
"his answer was simple: 'Because they're cheap and I can make a lot of
them.' I apply that same idea to digital videos."
Roxy Saint is a shapeshifter, and defies conventional categorization. Just when
you feel as though you know her, she's changed. She is always working, always
creating: a song, a video, a wardrobe, a painting, anything that can be useful
to her artistic mission. Upon completion, the creations are then used to extend
and perpetuate the lifestyle. Categories are boundaries, so to defy them is to
push them out. Her DVD album combines three elements: music, picture and story,
and it portrays the underbelly of the Hollywood myth, it's dark, seedy, and
sexual, codified with the after-burn of the domination culture that we live in.
Inspired by Andy Warhol, David Lynch (Blue Velvet), Hazel O'Connor (Breaking
Glass), and the Harmony Korine film, Gummo. The project was produced
independently and on the fly, 100% guerilla street film 100% digital. The songs
were recorded in the bedroom, the videos were shot in the bathroom, and edited
on a borrowed first generation Apple G4 in the living room. Roxy's underground
style brings us full circle back to a time when the role of artists was to
challenge the norm by attaching ideas to actions and rising up from the street.
Roxy is currently developing new concepts, and songs for another DVD, having
"Spend The Night" parties with the girls and preparing for her US,
European, and Japanese tour dates. There will also be select film festival
appearances during the season. Dates will be posted on www.RoxyRoxy.com
as they are confirmed.
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