Starring:
Damian DiGulian (guitar & vocals)
Jacobo “Jake” Gonzales (bass & vocals)
Kenny “Keys” Rosenfelt (keys)
Elijah Wheeler (drums)
INT. DAMIAN’S BEDROOM – DAY
Love me two times by the Doors starts from beginning. (Introduction tune).
Alternative looking room, posters of rock bands, guitars on the walls, a skateboard in the corner, a nightstand with a bottle of whisky on it, a clothing rack with several leather jackets and sun-glasses. Alarm rings to 1300 hours, Damian rolls over in his bed, slams the alarm button, reaches for a pack of lucky strikes and Zippo lighter, and without opening his eyes he routinely lights the cigarette and inhales.
Next to Damian in the bed lies a naked girl, asleep, facing away from him.
Damian exhales the smoke and opens his eyes. He gets up and gets dressed, combs his hair, grabs a jacket from the rack, all the while never putting down his cigarette. He tries to sneak out of the doorway. Naked girl wakes up, turns towards Damian and sits up.
Girl
Where the hell do you think you’re going?
Damian
Practice baby, rock and roll hall of fame awaits.
Girl
And you don’t have the decency to bang me before you leave?
Damian
No-go sugar. My band mates will eat me alive if I am late. Why don’t you just close your eyes again and revisit some of that mind blowing sweetness I laid upon you last night, huh?
Girl
You are an animal! If you leave me like this, don’t expect me to ever come home with you again!
Damian stops in the doorway, hesitant, then slowly turns around and reluctantly looks the girls in the eyes. He sighs.
Damian
That would seriously, seriously hurt my feelings. Alright sweetheart, I will stay for a little bit.
The girl lights up with a smile.
Girl
Really?
Damian
No, not really.
Damian, quickly turns around, rushes out of the room and pulls the door shut behind him.
Girl
Asshole!
She throws a pillow against the already closed door.
EXT. DRIVEWAY DAMIAN’S HOUSE– DAY
Love me two times by the Doors still playing.
Damian steps outside of his house typical suburban house. It is summer-time. He looks up at the sky, blinks his eyes at the bright sunlight and seamlessly grabs a pair of sunglasses out of the inner pocket of his black leather jacket. He slides them on and walks along the driveway where perfectly timed a beat-up convertible pickup truck parks in front of the house. Damian nonchalant jumps over the door, into the passenger seat. Behind the wheel sits Jake. Jake is big, has long dark bushy dreadlocks tied together in a massive bundle. He also wears sunglasses. They give each other a fist bump, Damian leans back and the car drives off. Damian turns the radio volume louder (which is still the intro song), lights up a cigarette and the car drives off.
INT. ELIJAH’S LIVING ROOM
Elijah’s alarm goes off on his phone. He wakes up from a couch still wearing his clothes. The room looks like a bomb went off; disastrous mess, rubbish, empty cans everywhere, complete mayhem. Elijah is a black man, trimmed hair and a slick black beard. Wears a tank-top shirt showing off his muscular arms. He slowly rises, then looks for his beat up sneakers, finds them , grabs a bike helmet that’s lying on the floor. Rushes in the direction of the exit.
EXT. EMPTY PARKING LOT NEXT TO WHAT SEEMS TO BE A VACANT WAREHOUSE
Elijah walks over to the Harley Davidson that is parked in front of the condemned building. Before putting on his helmet, grabs his sunglasses which were hanging from the collar of his tanktop and puts them on. Helmet on, bike in gear, and blasts off the parking lot.
INT. KENNY “KEYS” ROSENFELT LIVING ROOM
We see the a young-looking skinny kid sitting in a wide basement bedroom behind the computer with three monitor screens. The room is OCD-clean and organized. The center-piece of the room is beautiful white grand piano. Kenny is wearing headphones and is looking intently at one of the screens which displays sound recordings. He looks proper nerdy, wears glasses with a thick frame, wears a t-shirt with a print of some computer game. He then looks up at a digital clock hanging on the wall, disconnects several cables from his laptop, puts it in his backpack and grabs his long-board which hangs neatly in a rack next to the door. He rushes up the stairs and exits the front door of the narrow apartment block. He swings his backpack on and sets off on his long board, cruising through the street.
EXT. DIFFERENT STREET SETTINGS
Split screens; shows the car, the motorcycle and the long-board on the move through the city. Finally a shot from above captures the three vehicles approaching a junction (each from a different direction, the pickup in the middle). Final shot is from above where we see the three of them meet at a junction. The four greet each other and all continue in the same direction.
EXT. OUTSIDE OLD CHURCH
Damian and Jake get out of the pick-up truck, carrying their guitar cases, Elijah jumps off his Harley, and Kenny carries his long-board along. The four of them walk towards each other and lock their fists in a four-way fist-bump. Then in a horizontal row they simultaneously ascent the staircase leading up to the church doors.
Love me two times by the Doors fades out.
INT. BASEMENT OF OLD CHURCH BUILDING (REHEARSAL SPACE)
Damian unlocks the door to the basement with a large key on a key-chain. The four guys walk into the rehearsal space. There are a couple of old sofas on the side, a smoky bar in the corner with several ash trays on it. In the middle of the room stands a drum kit with a rug with holes in it in front of it, a keyboard on a stand covered with a cloth and two mic-stands. Jake and Damian unpack their guitars, Keys walks up to the keyboard stand with a firm pull gets rid of the dusty cloth covering the keyboard. Elijah takes reaches for his drumsticks out of his back pockets and takes place behind the drum-kit. Everyone is preparing their instruments to start rehearsal.
Voice-over by Damian:
“I always knew I was different. I learned this a long time ago. Music to me, did not seem to mean the same as it did to everybody else. Where other kids would have favorite songs, and unimaginatively sang along, I would listen. Really listen. I submerged into sound. Beats, tones and lyrics stayed with me long after the music had stopped playing. Even if I’d hear something new for the very first time. Not everything made an impression though. Some stuff I’d loath, some stuff I’d love. But the stuff I’d love… I would devour.
I came across music that contained that ‘special something’. That something that makes you want to listen to a track over and over and over again. It resonated within, deeply. And very powerful. Mesmerizing. I started to learn that I was able to unravel songs. Obsessively I’d explore every aspect of a piece of music. To such an extend that it held no more secrets to me. My mind would reproduce every guitar lick, every distinctive hit of the snare drum and every bass-line. Like an audio engineer working the buttons on a mixing panel I’d distinguish each separate instrument used on a record and master it accordingly. I’d know the exact timing and number of breaths of leading vocalist, the lengths of pauses dropped by the keyboard, the duration and pitch of vibratos, bends and echoing feedback.
It didn’t end there. Not only did I feel immersed in the music. I felt it with other musicians as well. Like out-of-body experiences I’d feel the constrictions in the throat of the lead singer after hitting a grueling solo, the touch of the pick in of the bass-players sweaty hands.The steel strings cutting into the flesh of the guitarist calloused fingertips sliding up and down the frets. Or the resonating feeling in the soles drummers feet, pounding the bass drum.
An urging desire grew within me. A longing, a search, a hunt. To create music that would could affect people the way it could affect me. And so, for the last few years I have surrounded myself with musicians of all kinds. In search of that magical cocktail, the perfect combination, the ultimate mix of artists. A search to find musical Spartans of whom I believe that they can rise to the occasion, thrive on stage, and create something extraordinary.
And now, I believe I have found them.
However… Jake, Elijah and Keys are diamonds in the rough. They need shaping, polishing and a good splash of gasoline, to set the spark that resides within them ablaze. To unlock their true potential.
I am the gasoline.
It is my job to bring it all together. To bring it home.
Because my sole purpose in life is to create music that sends shivers along your spine. Music that make tears stream down your face, while you are still finding your voice to sing along. To have every single person in the crowd, regardless of background, belief, religion or culture, unite as one. To play you the greatest music you have ever heard.
My name is Damian.
This is my band.
And this is what I am born to do. ”
Damian plugs his cable into the amp and walks over the mic-stand in the middle of the room, and hits a searing guitar chord that fills up the room.
