From Jersey to LA with David Chase

Published by The Editor at April 25, 2013

David Chase is a director, a producer, and a writer but he is best known as the creator, showrunner and head writer for HBO’s The Sopranos. Chase recently stopped by the SiriusXM studios to sit down with Ron Bennington and talk about his new film “Not Fade Away,” which he wrote and directed. Excerpts of the interview appear below.

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David Chase on Why The Concept of ‘Hip’ is Over

Ron Bennington: I really enjoyed your film and love the fact of being able to take this step back and look at that one period in the 1960s when everything changed. Did anybody see that coming? Was anybody aware that suddenly this giant wave was about to break?

David Chase: No. As I recall it, no. No one was aware of it. Just like something’s probably coming right now and we’re not aware of it.

Ron Bennington: But I don’t know whether we can be surprised like that again.

David Chase: Culturally, you mean?

Ron Bennington: Yeah, culturally. Because I think it’s like this. If you look back and you see the parents in this film – of how confused they were to suddenly see their children change like that. I don’t think parents today…I think they’ve seen enough not to be surprised no matter what comes along anymore.

David Chase: Yeah. I think you’re right. I mean I can be proven wrong, but I don’t think there’s any place else to go. It feels like it’s all been done. And I don’t mean in that in some kind of cynical like – I’ve seen them come and seen them go. But for one thing, I think the whole concept of hip is over.

Ron Bennington: It’s done, isn’t it?

David Chase: Everybody’s got tattoos and piercings.

Ron Bennington: And whatever happens, the kind of blowback is within seconds now too. So if something gets like…if something comes across as hip for even a little bit, in no time at all, it’s started to be mocked. (David laughs) It’s almost like the worst thing you could say about kids today is when they get called hipsters.

David Chase: Right, exactly.

Ron Bennington: And I think the other thing that happens is if you see people today and they’re in their 40’s, 50’s and 60’s and a new album comes out and the kids are listening – they’ll put it on and listen to it. They’re not going to see it as foreign or they’ll even go – what’s this called? Ecstasy? Maybe I’ll try it. (David laughs) It’s not that thing where I think you look back and the parents in this film – they thought life was going to be a certain way. They thought they knew what the rest of their life was going to be like and everything changed.

David Chase: I think a lot of what happened was is that America’s racial thing finally got out of the box. Because that’s where hip always came from. It always came from the black part of our society. Upward and outward and sideways. But it always came from there. Whatever a black guy was doing that’s what you want to be doing. You want a stingy brim hat or boots with heels. And I think that the last time that happened was with rap. And that seems to be kind of over now. And I don’t see anybody reacting, there’s no sense of outrage. Not that there should be, but it’s really hard to shock people again.

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David Chase Talks About Change in the 60’s

Ron Bennington: There’s a lot of times, I think that we don’t understand how important the audience plays to every thing. So the fact that the Beatles, the Stones, the Who, the Kinks – all those bands had an American audience, is what changed the world more than maybe even the music.

David Chase: How do you mean it changed it more than the music?

Ron Bennington: Well, because somebody had to be there to go – yes, we’re ready to do this. So, if you take the audience out of the picture, who would Springsteen be? And who would Bob Dylan be? At some point, you have to have people that are ready to accept it. And I think the interesting part of this film is that you saw that the world was somewhat ready to change.

David Chase: Yeah. Well, what I wanted to portray in the movie, which was a surprise to me – I mean I lived through those times – that I didn’t remember that the Beatles were played on American radio only 3 weeks after the death of Kennedy.

Ron Bennington: It’s stunning.

David Chase: I would have…my recollection of it is a year between them or two years. In my mind, they are two different eras, but it was only 3 weeks separation. And that’s what I tried to put in the movie. And some people said – oh well, it was cliche with the Kennedy assassination, but it was a surprise to me. I mean the world and America was in a turmoil and then 3 weeks later come these 4 guys who kind of remake it.

Ron Bennington: And they looked different. They sounded different. And all those kids are watching this same show at the same time. Which is another thing that we can’t do today. There’s another thing that we can’t do today – is be changed by something. And I think the other interesting thing is to have enough time to let that change sink in. If a band shows up now, you could go on Wikipedia, YouTube, you could find out everything that there was to know about them, but when those kids showed up on the Sullivan show that night, everybody looked at them as if they landed from Mars or something.

David Chase: That’s exactly correct. Not that they looked like they came from Mars, but you felt that they came from some other dimension. Some other place. And your curiosity was engaged. Who are they? Like just pick one. The Rascals, when they appeared on the Sullivan show. Who were they? Why are they wearing those ties? And what is all that about? And there was no way to find out about it. I mean you couldn’t go on Wikipedia. You couldn’t. And so, it drove your curiosity and you actually learned from it.

Ron Bennington: Yeah. I was even telling my kids that there were bands that I never even got to hear – I would like see pictures of them in magazines. It could be like the New York Dolls or Iggy Pop, somebody who didn’t get the air play where you would go – damn, what the hell? It might take you forever to find one of those albums.

David Chase: Yeah, exactly. And to find out who they were and where they came from if you were interested in all that. Now it’s all over the place. It’s readily available.

Ron Bennington: And you can get overly saturated and used to it and move on to the next thing. And then the other interesting thing about that, you know you had the Beatles coming over, but right after, the Stones, the Animals, the Kinks – your head has to be just spinning in that part of the 60’s.

David Chase: And they sort of…what’s the word? Developed or morphed so quickly. I mean every time a Beatles album came out, it was another thing. It was a whole new thing. The next one’s a whole new thing. Look what they’re doing now. Same goes for the Stones. Same goes for Dylan. These were like real demarcations. Bob Dylan would change so much within a year. I mean I don’t know the man. I don’t know whether he really changed or not. All I’m saying is – what he did and how he looked and how he sounded in a year’s time, it was like a whole other person.

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David Chase Talks About the Impact of the Nuclear Threat on 60’s Culture

Ron Bennington: Civil rights is going on at this time. Vietnam is starting to escalate, so the kids are just trying to figure out that the ground is moving underneath them wherever they’re going. It’s almost one of those deals where you can say – best of times, worst of times is taking place.

David Chase: I don’t think you can underestimate the effect of the nuclear shadow in all that. The ground was moving. And you knew it could move a lot more. (laughs) And I think that affected people a great deal. Even those who didn’t pay attention to it or maybe didn’t even realize it was affecting them. The whole question of human existence was up for grabs. I don’t think that had ever happened before. In fact, it hadn’t.

Ron Bennington: No, it hadn’t happened before. And I was just looking at this thing with Richard Feynman who was one of the people who worked on the bomb. He said that when he came back to New York, he would look at people building bridges and go – why are they doing it? This is going to be done, tomorrow. So, you’ve got these kids now and they’re hearing this music and they feel like they have to live an entire lifetime in a couple of years. They have to get every experience in because the world is going to be gone.

David Chase: Not only that, I think it was a way…I don’t want to use the word “tranquilize”. Obviously, there was a lot of energy. It’s called nuclear energy. Atomic energy. And in some way, I think rock and roll was trying to either top that or match it. And that atomic energy is evil and bad and scary and rock and roll is not. Rock and roll is a blessing and a joy.

Ron Bennington: So all this, you think is going on almost on our subconscious. Almost like in the zeitgeist.

David Chase: Well for me, when I was a kid back then, I was always scared of nuclear weapons. I was always worried about it. But I don’t think a lot of people were, I mean a lot of people were, but I think maybe not to the extent that I was. But it was a strange time. It was very portentous a lot. These international crises and which…and it wasn’t…what’s the word I’m looking for? It wasn’t exaggeration to think that the world, all of us, every human being could be gone by tomorrow.

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David Chase Talks About How Music Responded to Global Conditions in the 60’s

Ron Bennington: You had just lost your President. So I mean that had to be almost like the country feels the same way.

David Chase: This was even starting before he got shot, but I think all these things were building together.

Ron Bennington: Yeah, and once that happened, it just has to feel like the writing is on the wall. It’s all coming down.

David Chase: And I think the artists began to address that directly and indirectly. I think that’s what rock and roll music became. It was about those feelings, about…I think it’s about mortality. What differentiated rock and roll from pre-British invasion, pre-Dylan to post – I think is the whole idea of mortality and death and aging and time passing. That’s not what Elvis was singing about. Well, he was in a way, I guess.

Ron Bennington: …the generation break had to do with where the kids were furious with the parents for having the bomb, furious with the parents for creating this?

David Chase: Yes, that’s what I was trying to say. I think there was anger about it. I think there was anger about it. I think we were thinking – what the fuck? What are you telling me? And I’m suppose to go to college? Why? (laughs) I’ve got to get an “A”? What? Are you out of your mind?

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David Chase Talks About Moving to California

Ron Bennington: The film is “Not Fade Away” – comes out on DVD and Blu-ray next Tuesday, April 30th. Some of this you said was from your experiences and some of it, of course, is your writing, but you did make the same trip as the kid in the movie where you left the East coast and headed out to California.

David Chase: I did, yeah. I went to film school in California.

Ron Bennington: And that again, the country was like a bigger place. When you went to L.A. then from New York, it was a lot further away than it is now.

David Chase: Unbelievable. Well to begin with, there was no JetBlue. (laughs) It cost you a lot of money to get to California. To come back, was almost impossible.

Ron Bennington: Also, it cost a lot of money to make a phone call. Just to check in.

David Chase: It cost a huge amount of money. It was hard to find a phone. I mean you had to have all those payphones. It was really difficult. And you’re absolutely right about that. It’s a really good point. It was a lot further away. And California was unbelievable at that time. And I remember even up until the 80’s, there was something like…I forget…like 10 million people a week were arriving in California or something. California was the real cauldron.

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David Chase Talks About Choices the Characters Make in “Not Fade Away”

Ron Bennington: I think the beauty of this film too and I think people who want to look back at the 60’s. Middle aged people will enjoy this, but I also think that kids are going to enjoy this film for the possibilities. And I think that the character does make some brave brave choices.

David Chase: He does. Here’s what he doesn’t do….He doesn’t get rich. In the movie, he does not get rich. But he does make a lot of choices and he does arrive somewhere.

Ron Bennington: The film is “Not Fade Away”. It’s on DVD and Blu-ray. That’s available next Tuesday, April 30th. David Chase, thanks so much for stopping by, man. And I hope to see you next time coming through.

David Chase: Thank you very much.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w_uqflpCcU]

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