When the lights went out on the world last year, the boyband like progressive metallers FilmsCrewBand shut off the web, sort of. The website for ShawnZone, Aaron H. James and Levi D Wall’s FilmsCrewBand Collective seemed unreachable, not entirely the case for members. The booked tour for the 2020 European Festival circuit, as well as Japan and Australia cancelled beforehand, as every other tour was, but unlike others who clamored for attention online, ShawnZone and Aaron James only let us know they were quarantined together high atop Gotham, resuming their position as an NYC power couple. Full stop, sort of.
Last week one of the spokespersons for FilmsCrewBand did an invite only livestream where so tea was spilled. The band had been on track to release a fourth full length with another cryptic Greek title after the then cancelled 2020 tour, the way this works is even more cryptic. The album already recorded is not the one that will be released. Their spokesperson let us in on their work cycle. They will record an album or more worth of material, rehearse it, tour on in it, and then finally after they feel the material has reached its potential make a final recording, and then promptly move on from it. Spokesperson Tom Morris casually mentioned that three such full length albums had been recorded and a fourth will likely be recorded before they tour again. Not so fast Mr.Morris, Films Crew did a livestream for a Swedish Audience with all new material, and it will never be heard again? Spokesperson Tom Morris says that is probably correct, if it didn’t work out to their standards. He did hint at the possibility of a very limited vinyl EP release to “Close that chapter of Films Crew”.
Let’s do a cut away in time to make some sense of this. Also occurring last week, Films Crew’s Aaron didn’t know their website was live when making a test post from London, which gives us some more insight. FilmsCrewBand hadn’t felt satisfied with their output and seems to want to move in more of an experimental direction, which is welcomed, although some of the European audience garnered from the still streaming two songs from the last limited vinyl only release might be caught off guard. It’s good to have Aaron back and writing again.
Cutting back to their spokesperson Mr. Morris, he made reference of a new project known as Method Method which ShawnZone and Aaron had been quietly working on. A snippet of sound of that has been making the rounds, it’s a big deal. It doesn’t seem like a full step away from FilmsCrew. A soundbite of a track called Produce The Body appeared and disappeared from a leak site, it’s monstrous, chilling, and there’s nothing like it. Spokesperson Tom Morris said that Method Method wouldn’t be taking any time away from FilmsCrew because Method Method has been a “Background process” for a few years. Morris noted that besides the world crisis, it was post-graduate degrees competing for the band’s attention in their schedules. In this brief we learned that Sony International hired them away from Warner Chappell UK in 2020 and that many changes were afoot. Two new Brits have been working with The Collective, (as they would like to be referred to), with Levi putting his attentions elsewhere in how they are presented. Zac Malone seemed to have been picked up for Method Method, yet performed with Films Crew in the recent livestream, having a history with them since their last tour. All in all this makes Films Crew Collective mostly European.
FilmsCrewBand didn’t completely go silent until Aaron’s last Tweet, proclaiming ShawnZone was no longer grounded. Spokesperson Tom Morris mentioned a situation had occurred on livestream which Shawn had been a guest on, in which Tom made a point of Shawn was cancelled for simply being a part of a livestream where nothing took place, he also cautioned that they weren’t “Going to get in a situation with sociopathic Boomer, when the host of the livestream had thrown Shawn under the bus”. This is why we can’t have nice things. Mr. Morris did ask me to make a few adjustments, which I will, however history is something that happened.
FilmsCrewBand, ShawnZone and Aaron’s website is slowly coming back online, with an intro from one of Sweden’s premier drummers and a post from Aaron. A members only site has always been there. Something tells me it will be more intense than the last outing. Their spokesperson said it was a soft relaunch.
ShawnZone Tribute 