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| Your band was formed in 1988. Six years later, you were cast in Blink, performing yourselves. How exactly did you get involved in this movie ? |
| Through an assistant producer on the Blink crew, Steve Andriewski. He knew they were looking for an Irish band for the picture and he knew us from working on Backdraft in 1991. |
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Did you immediately accept to play in the movie ? |
When they offered it yes. They didn't offer it immediately. Rather, Apted and Dave Blocker and Madeleine rented out a rehearsal studio and we auditioned for them. |
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| You played yourselves in the movie, but did you take acting lessons before the shooting ? |
| No we didn't. |
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| When did you learn that Madeleine Stowe was attached to the movie ? |
| I guess it was when Blocker called our agent. |
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| How was your first meeting with her ? Was it on the set ? What were your first impressions after the meeting ? |
| She was at the audition and seemed quiet but nice. |
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| Any fans of Madeleine Stowe in the band before this meeting ? And after ?? |
| Only one of us had heard of her. |
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| Madeleine Stowe plays the violonist of the band in Blink and she shares several scenes with you. How did you work with her before the shooting of the movie ? |
| She had violin lessons as a youth and our fiddler (who plays mandolin in the movie) schooled her for a couple of weeks on irish fiddle and taught her the tunes she would be playing. |
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| Did you enjoy working with her ? How was it ? |
| Yes. she was fun and we had a lot of laughs. She came out to see us play in Chicago and hung out with us at our house and then backstage. |
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| What is your most memorable experience on the set ? Any special anecdote related to Madeleine Stowe to tell us ? |
| We spent a day at CRC studios recording the music and we wanted her to sing along on the number we perform during the closing credits. So, she's not really a singer and she's the first person that will tell you this. But we cajoled her until she agreed to give it a try, and she was a little timid about it. It's supposed to be a sweaty, drunken song where we're all playing for our lives and she sounds like she's singing in a recording studio. So I tell her she should loosen up with a couple of drinks and she sends out for a six-pack of beer. I don't know how many she had, but the singing got worse that's for sure. She couldn't get through it without cracking up. It was pretty funny. We had to put our roadie, Chantal Wentworth, who is a trained singer, in front of the microphone and she performed an impersonation of Madeleine singing the song. |
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| Blink's soundtrack has four songs written by you. Did you compose these songs specially for the movie ? |
| We composed one of the songs for the movie, "The insulated man." that's the one we played at the end of the movie. |
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| What impact the movie Blink had on the career of The Drovers ? |
| Our fees went up after that and we were able to play across north America and sell records in Europe and Asia. People still write to me from places like Iran and South Africa who have just seen the movie. |
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| Did you saw the movie after the shooting ? Did you enjoy it ? |
| We watched the premiere in Chicago and it was a blast all right. |
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| What do you think of your performance in the movie ? |
| Personally, I'm such a lousy lip-synch, that's what Dante Spinotti told me, that the editor wound up hiding my face from the audience. You never actually see me sing on camera. I suppose everyone else looks OK, but I can tell you we don't actually perform like that in real shows. We're not so self-conscious when we play live. |
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| And what do you think of Madeleine Stowe's performance ? |
| She's an ace. no doubt. |
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| Did you meet Madeleine Stowe after the shooting of Blink ? |
| We saw her again when the picture opened in Los Angeles and we had a little after-party. Two weeks later, we went back to LA for a press junket and the golden globe awards, and she and Brian Benben took us to this terrific Italian place for dinner. I remember our guitarist Mike making a very dark joke at the table about River Phoenix, who had just died the week before. Brian, who is a really funny guy, just goes blank and stares at him and we're looking at each other like, 'Oh shit.' He pauses for dramatic effect and then tells Mike, 'River Phoenix was a very dear friend of mine,' spitting out the words "very" and "dear" nice and slow for emphasis. And Mike is just stunned and I'm staring holes in the floor, but Brian let us off the hook after watching us squirm for a few seconds. He actually never met River Phoenix. |
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| What is the actuality of The Drovers ? |
| We are an actual band. We haven't performed together in a while, but we also never dissolved our group so technically we are still an entity. But we have four albums and a website. It's http://www.thedrovers.com/ |
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Please visit The Drovers Official Website to find more info about the band.
Bengui
Interview published in February 2007. This is an exclusive interview for Madeleine Online. All rights reserved. Please read Disclaimer for information on copyright rules and contact me if you want more details about this interview.
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