There are a lot of misconceptions about the life of a musician. Most musicians have day jobs – and not just to pay the bills. Jobs provide new challenges, personal fulfillment and, yes, some rent or gas money. And usually when somebody is writing a new record or scheduling a tour, they have to balance that with their job.
How an artist spends their time by day will influence the creative process at night. In Don’t Quit Your Day Job, Scene Point Blank looks at how musicians split their time, and how their careers influence their music or – sometimes – how their music provides escape.
In this edition, we chat with Travis Bacon of Contracult, who also recently formed Slashtag Cinema, to talk about the film world -- plus how and when the music and film worlds intersect.
Contracult released The New Torment in late 2022.
Scene Point Blank: You recently started Slashtag Cinema? Is that your primary day job and what is your official job title and role with the company?
Travis Bacon: I am a co-creator, partial owner and official film composer of Slashtag Cinemas. No, it is not currently mine or any of our day jobs.
Scene Point Blank: Your family features a number of established actors, which undoubtedly made you familiar with the industry from a young age. (Parents Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick are both actors, as is sister Sosie Bacon.)
What about production and horror appeals to you?
Travis Bacon: To me, horror is really the most expansive genre when it comes to human emotions. These films don’t just show someone feeling scared: they show rage, vulnerability, sadness, relief, disparity and even some of the most comical moments ever captured on film. When an actor, an edit, a score, [or] a look can really channel so many of these primary emotions, it turns into the most power piece of cinema you’ve ever witnessed.
Scene Point Blank: Building off that last question, you’re focusing on a unique universe and shorts. The internet has clearly given room for that format more than in generations past, but why did you choose shorts, specifically?
Travis Bacon: We just felt it was a good place to start. For one thing, it was our first time making films so we wanted and start small with something none of us had seen before. Micro-horror for a scrolling culture.
Scene Point Blank: Slashtag produced a Contracult video. Is that likely to be the case going forward? Will you work with other bands too, or due to the ensemble cast, will you stick to videos “within universe” as compared to collaborating with other bands?
Travis Bacon: Actually, Slashtag was born out of a previous Contracult video for another song called “Plunge” which features our character “The Scorned One” for the first time. It’s me in a dress stalking a closeted evangelical who just walked out on me from a one night stand, inspired by Glen Close in one of my favorite films, Fatal Attraction.
We don’t have any plans to collaborate with other bands currently. but maybe someday as we move forward.
Scene Point Blank: Do you do other film industry work, outside of Slashtag?
Travis Bacon: Yes. In the past year or so I’ve been fortunate enough to move my career primarily into film composition.
Scene Point Blank: When did you start making music, and how did that overlap with your work in film? (In other words, give us a look at your timeline of education and career vs. being a musician. Were you doing one long before the other and was it a challenge to fit both projects into your life?)
Travis Bacon: I started playing guitar when I was nine. I really had no plans to work within film my entire life, so music always felt like my own thing. However, being a film fanatic and watching film composition really take new shape a direction over the last few years started triggering some interest. I got the opportunity to score my first film, Story of a Girl and completely fell in love with the process. I realized I enjoyed it just as much, if not more, than recording a band (my primary day job at the time) so I kept rolling with it.
Scene Point Blank: What’s the biggest challenge in balancing Slashtag with your music?
Travis Bacon: I think the biggest challenge is same challenge you face with any passion that’s not “raking it in” just yet. It can take hours, even a full day to compose a really solid piece of film music, even if it’s just a minute long. However, one of the greatest things about Slashtag is none of us carry all the weight and steer the ship. I feel we all put in just as much time and energy into the project. We motivate each other, we meet deadlines, we get it fucking done!
Scene Point Blank: Dylan Garret Smith also has a background in the music industry. Is that how you met? How do you feel music and horror films overlap, whether that means on the production side of things, art, or culture?
Travis Bacon: Although Dylan and I are from the East Coast and lived in Brooklyn at one point in our lives, we didn’t meet until he moved out to LA. We became instagram friends with loose plans to hang out; however I didn’t actually meet the man, in person, until my girlfriend invited him to my birthday party a few years ago. It’s been a great friendship and partnership ever since.
I’ve always felt horror and music overlap a ton, both on a technical level and as a community. A horror film’s score is about 80 percent of what makes it horrifying to begin with. When John Carpenter first showed Halloween, sans score, he had almost zero reaction from the audience. Once he added the music, the theater was filled with shrieks and trembles.
As a culture, horror are undoubtably the punks, goths and metal heads of the industry. We’re not taken seriously by the suites and the Academy, but the tribe is strong and it stays forever. There’s a level of intense fandom that exists in no other film genre. Have you ever heard of a romantic comedy convention where they sell action figures and shirts of the characters of You’ve Got Mail? I don’t think so. We are a mainstream genre so get with it.
Scene Point Blank: Have your experiences from making music or touring influenced the Slashtag universe in any surprising ways?
Travis Bacon: The character “The Scorned One” was created out of my disappointments and feelings of abandonment by the industry. The character is obsessed with any amount of attention or admiration they’ve felt with past partners or celebrities, resulting in self-mutilation and a murderous rage. I hope to expand on the character and relate him more specifically to a failed business endeavor, such as a dropped record contract.
You meet many characters and can visit some pretty dark places on tour. I think some of that has filtered into the film making a bit. But all of our content and characters revolves around Los Angeles. I still feel this may be the darkest place I’ve ever visited or lived in. It’s a city of lost hope, broken dreams and sheer entitlement. Despite these harsh realities, I’ve never felt more inspired anywhere else.
Scene Point Blank: Does the job affect how or when you write, play live shows, practice or tour? How so?
Travis Bacon: I’ve had to make some real adjustments in my life as a result of this job. I played with a band for a few years called Black Anvil. I did a lot of great touring and festivals with such an array of great bands. It was an incredible experience but I never wrote anything and it really wasn’t mine. When I started getting busy with film stuff work and schedules began colliding I realized I needed to let it go. I really only had the time for creative experiences in my life and this, truthfully, wasn’t one of them. Between my composition work and Contracult it was too much to sacrifice months out of my year for this. Recently, I went to see them on this killer tour with Cannibal Corpse, Dark Funeral and Immolation. They absolutely smashed and it meant the world to reconnect with my brothers again, but I realized there really wasn’t any part of me that had a desire to jump into that van for the next show. What I was looking forward to, was waking up at 7AM the next day to keep grinding on a project I’m currently on. You have to make these sacrifices when music becomes your full-time job.
Scene Point Blank: What advice would you give to others who might be interested in pursuing film production?
Travis Bacon: Get up and do it and be willing to do it for free at least in the beginning. We’re completely past this age of needing to sweep the floor at a rental warehouse for years until they let you touch a camera or camping outside a producer’s office until they agree to meet with you. There’s too many inexpensive resources or free programs and resources not to take advantage of. You want to direct? Write a script and film a scene. You wanna score movies? Throw stuff over some stock footage for your reel. You want to act? Look at craigslist, there’s always people making films and need bodies. It won’t pay dick but your reel is just as valuable as a check at that point.
Check out previous entries in the Don’t Quit Your Day Job series.
