Band Aid was one of the crowd-pleasing films that played at the Seattle International Film Festival last month. It was a very funny movie where married couple Anna and Ben (Zoe Lister-Jones and Adam Palley) find that starting a band together is the best way to process their differences was through writing and performing songs together. Fred Armisen completes the band as the weird neighbor Dave, who also happens to play drums and is a recovering sex addict.
What I loved about the movie that it was very much a movie of 2017, where a couple faces the tensions that come from managing a marriage and a career in the arts in a time when the gig economy is what provides the best means of supporting yourself. It’s also both fun and funny. Fun because it is a movie that it looked like everyone involved enjoyed every moment they were working on the movie, and funny because, well, I found myself laughing out loud numerous times in the theater.
Zoe Lister-Jones wrote, directed and starred in this very, very funny movie. When she was in Seattle for her SIFF screenings, she carved out a few minutes in her busy schedule to talk with me. I’ve been holding on to this interview until the day that Band Aid would play again in Seattle theaters. That day has arrived, and Band Aid is beginning a proper, theatrical run at SIFF Cinema Uptown starting this Friday.
Can you talk about how the idea for the movie came about?
Sure. I was interested in exploring the inner workings of a long term relationship, specifically the ways in which couples fight. I also, simultaneously, was interested in getting into music again. I’d been writing lyrics for a long time, and collaborating with friends on music. I had so much fun doing it. I had lost that part of my life. I wanted to incorporate music into the story somehow, and it converged so that I wrote a story about a couple who fights through songs.
I think it’s really great. There were a couple things, I thought, that really stood out to me. One was that you made yourself an Uber driver in the film. I thought that a lot of the movie you wrote revolved around the gig economy, with Anna and Ben both having freelance or gig job. I think that’s something that’s really relevant right now.
Yeah. I think especially for people who are pursuing careers in art … It’s such an impossible lifestyle, and it’s so rare that one can actually make a living from their art. I think that was both the characters in the film. Anna and Ben are forced to take jobs that can help them pay the bills but then ultimately distract them from what they really, truly, want to be doing.
What, is being a musician something you’ve always wanted to do? Because it seemed like it was so natural for you, with you and your character.
Thanks. No, I’ve never wanted to be a musician I guess. I’ve always really liked writing. My entry point was writing lyrics. I was in a band in high school, and into college, where I was a back up singer. It was a performance art band. It didn’t require real singing chops, because I don’t have those, but I had a lot of fun being in that band. It definitely taught me a lot about finding my voice as a singer. I never played an instrument. I learned bass for this movie, which was really fun.
How did you learn to play bass?
I took lessons. I just learned the songs themselves, because I had a very little amount of time. I think it was five months from the day that I brought it to my producer to the day that we started production. I really had to learn bass quickly in addition to all the other things that I had to do for the movie. I learned the songs. I had a great teacher, and have since continued to take lessons.
The cast is really, really great. I love seeing Chris D’Elia and Brooklyn Decker and Colin Hanks in cameos. How did you get a lot of very funny people like them and Fred Armisen to come aboard?
Many of the people in the film that have made cameos were my friends. Chris D’Elia and I worked together on a show called Whitney that I was on years ago. Colin Hanks is on the show that I’m on now, “Life in Pieces.” Brooklyn Decker and Majandra Delfino were on a show that I was on previously. Hannah Simone is on “New Girl,” which I was on. It’s a lot of people that I’ve met over the years. I’ve maintained friendships with people who did me a solid and showed up for me. With Fred, I had never met him before, I went through more proper channels through his reps.
The other day I saw you on the “Tonight Show” telling Jimmy Fallon about the story of how you end up with your name in one of Fred’s notes years ago. It’s a weird synchronicity but I’m glad it worked out because there are only so many funny people that can play also drums.
Yeah, I know. I, in retrospect, don’t know who else could have ever played that part. It does require, not only a really amazing comedian and actor, but also someone who can play drums really well. We played all the music live in the film. The drummer’s really the backbone of the band. He was a dream come true. Because Adam and I aren’t professional musicians by any means, Fred really saved us.
His part just cracks me up, with the plot line of him being a recovering sex addict. How did you write that character?
I don’t know how I came up with that character. I guess I just had a vision of this really off, kilter neighbor who had a lot of skeletons in his closet. He had a lot of surprising turns throughout the film of unexpected qualities and characteristics that would keep rearing their heads. That just unfolded naturally in the screenwriting process.
When I my girlfriend and I were watching on “The Tonight Show” and they showed the clip of when you first meet him and she was like, “wow that is so creepy.” She was like, “did they think that he was gonna kill them?” I think that’s literally what they said-
The next line. I wish we had included that last line in the clip. It was on set that day, that Fred and I came up with the quality that Dave has throughout the film, which was that he stares for too long. That became his signature. It’s really creepy, but I find it so funny.
What’s coming up for the movie?
It will be on VOD starting June 9th. The Dirty Dishes, the band in the movie, has an album that’s gonna come out June 2nd on iTunes. You can actually buy the music.
That was gonna be one of my questions, was ask if you were gonna do anything with the songs?
Yeah, we ran and re-recorded them also as we played them live in the film. We’re coming out with an album, and we just shot a music video for one of the tracks. We’ve played a couple live gigs. It’s been really fun.
Did you expect to do all that when you were writing this?
No. I had no idea, I really didn’t. This movie, in so many ways, has exceeded my expectations.
Did you write all the songs yourself too?
I wrote all the lyrics, and then I collaborated on the music with a friend of mine named Kyle Forrester.
What do you want people to take away from the movie when they see it?
I think if people can get lost in a film and get … Really root for its protagonists, then I think it’s done its job. I hope that people just enjoy themselves and go on a ride.
I probably have taken up quite a bit of your time. Is there anything that you want people to know that I didn’t ask about?
The only thing is that I hired an all female crew. I don’t know if that’s relevant to the story but it’s worth mentioning. I think I was very aware having been both in front of the camera and behind it, of the under representation of women on film and TV-crews. I really wanted to see what it would feel like to make a movie with all women. It was really awesome. It was not only really fun and nurturing, but incredibly productive and efficient. I highly recommend it.
