Shimon Moore (Former Sick Puppies frontman), Chris Clemence (bassist of Rap Scallions), and Russell Ali have formed a band called Screaming at Demons. Their first single will be an AMAZING uptempo hard rocking track called “Rockstar”. Nigel Skeet is a longtime friend of Shimon’s and asked him to put together the song and a video for the Homeless Rockstars movement. I have personally seen the video and it is nothing short of perfection. If you remember the “FREE HUGS” video from a while ago then you’ll know what I’m talking about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4
Shimon also directed that video for his former band “Sick Puppies”. It was one of the first viral videos ever and at 77,000,000 views, is still one of the most successful in Youtube’s history. More importantly though, it made everyone feel good, which is exactly what this video does. And it’s set to blow Homeless Rockstars and Screaming at Demons even bigger. The song and video are set for release on October 6th, 2015.
Homeless Rockstars was started by Rock Star photographer Nigel Skeet who started photographing the homeless in hopes of restoring their self-esteem. It caught on worldwide. You may have already heard about the great things that are coming from the movement since it has gone viral as reported by Mike Mangas here:
http://m.krcrtv.com/homeless-rockstar-photos-going-viral/32391940
– Pavement Entertainment
Shimon Moore
(Former Sick Puppies frontman, Screaming At Demons)
Photo by: Nigel Skeet
1. Please discuss the formation of Screaming at Demons and its connection to the Homeless Rockstars, portraiture and interview project, by celebrity, Rockstar photographer Nigel Skeet.
Shimon: “So what happened is…. Screaming At Demons is made up of me, Russel Ali, and Chris Clemence. I’ve known Russel for about ten years. I met him the first week I got to L.A. Russel took me out to a club, we saw a band, and we hung out. He hadn’t heard me sing and I hadn’t heard him play. He said, we’re going to do something one day I can feel it. I was like, “Yeah, ok, whatever.” We kept in touch and we became very good friends. We lost touch while I was on tour for a few years and then we ended up bumping into each other at guitar center at the beginning of last year. He’s a full fledged, successful producer now. He and I produce all the Screaming at Demons tunes. He said, “Come down and check out the studio.” We wrote a song and then we wrote another song and then we sort of kept hanging out and writing. We didn’t know what it would turn into, we were really just writing songs and having fun.”
“When Sick Puppies split, I booked a couple of solo shows and I asked Russel to come and play with me. I called these shows Screaming At Demons. I don’t know why, I just ended up calling it that name and it worked out. In the shows we played a couple of the original songs he and I had done. This was sort of like the first Screaming At Demons show, but it didn’t mean to be. Everyone afterwords, online and in the socials, was like, “Where do I get more Screaming At Demons music? When is the next Screaming At Demons concert?” So, the band name kind of just happened and it was all very organic.”
“I went home to Australia for a little while and Nigel called me while I was on downtime and said, “Hey, I think I found something.” He told me the story about Homeless Rock Stars.”
“What Nigel had done was move up to Redding, California, four or five years ago. He used to work in L.A. for quite a while on Skid Row with the L.A. Council. He was at ground zero for homelessness. He knew it back and front. He opened up a photo studio in redding and they said to him, “You’ve got to watch out for the homeless people. You have to be careful.” Nigel looked around and saw nothing, no problems. It just felt like bully tactics on the part of the community where they were creating these unnecessary and huge barriers. So, Nigel being a rock n’ roll photographer with a rock n’ roll mentality, decided to give them the middle finger, figuratively. He called me and said, “Homeless Rock Stars has taken on a life of it’s own. He was sort of like, “Do you want to do this with me, bringing in the rock and rock star part of the equation?” I asked him what he needed. Nigel told me, “I need a theme song. I want to sort of make a rock n’ roll theme song, can you write a theme song?” I asked him, “What sort of song do you want?” He said, “I just want a song that says, “I’m a Rock Star.”” So, I said, “Ok, cool.” We talked about the movement and the mentality of what he was trying to achieve, which was basically breaking down the barriers and using the rock n’ roll experience to extract these people’s self expression. In addition, this was aimed at giving them their confidence back and getting them in touch with what their passion is for what they really want to do. The same thing as what they do in rock n’ roll, follow their passion. Rock n’ roll guys are the underdogs. They’re always misunderstood. People don’t want to hear their story until after they become successful. It’s the same thing with homeless people. You don’t really want to give them the time of day, literally. So, to me, the correlation made perfect sense. So, I wrote the song and I was like, “This feels really good.” I asked Nigel, “If I drive up to Redding, can I shoot the video and I’ll put together a thing similar to what I did with the “Free Hugs” video?” Then, it all organically turned into this thing where it was like, “Ok, “Rock Star” is going to be the first single for Screaming At Demons.” I wanted this song to launch the band because I’m going to make a Homeless Rock Stars video. The band is in it, but it is really the Homeless Rock Stars’ story.”
“So, I went and I shot the video. I told the story of Jessie Valley, who was basically rock star number one. She was in the first fifty and she was the first homeless girl to come full circle in her life. After she had her photos taken and got involved with Homeless Rock Stars, they helped her reconnect with her family back in Washington state. She traveled home and they got to know her and they found out she wanted to be involved in the culinary arts and that she had graduated from culinary school. So we said, “Ok, come cater the Homeless Rock Star events, you can be the in-house caterer.” This, in turn, led to her being apprentice to a five star sous chef. Now she’s off and running. She has her life back and she’s flourishing. So, the video tells her particular story, but also is the beginning of what Homeless Rock Stars will eventually become. It will be a grass roots, one-on-one, interactive experience.”
2. Was there ever a time in your life that you’ve felt how these homeless people feel when they are on the street or in a shelter? What part of your life has brought you closest to a low point of this nature? There is a fine line between being protected and safe and not being in a protected position.
Shimon: “I moved out of my home when I was fourteen in Sydney, Australia. Up until I was sixteen I couched surfed. I wasn’t homeless, per se, I was out there for many nights over the course of a couple years; however, I would couch surf. Which is not much different. There is still a roof over your head when you can find it. That feeling of feeling lost and not feeling safe or secure was a part of it. However, the part that’s the hardest thing to break is the cycle and the shame. It’s the shame that comes up when you feel as though you have failed. You’ve tried and for whatever reason didn’t succeed. I was fourteen, I had family shit, which I won’t get into. I had to move out. I had to finish school and take control of all of my stuff. I was writing music and I was trying to be a rock star and I was going to be in a band and I was building all that stuff. I was writing music and recording while I was finishing school. However, the thing that comes up the most is the shame in the form of, “Why don’t I have a home? What’s wrong with me?” That’s the thing that’s a psychological mindset that’s very difficult to break. This mindset leads to depression, it leads to alcoholism, which ultimately leads to greater issues. This is not to say that all homeless people are that way, however I guarantee you that every homeless person has that layer of shame.”
“You can’t be expected to achieve things in general, when you have no motivation and the moral is low. If you’re like, “Art is my passion and I’m a photographer, I’m a musician,” that’ll keep you going for a while. However, it won’t keep you going for years. If you aren’t heard. If no one wants to look at your pictures and doesn’t care, or no one listens to your music and no one cares, and you keep pushing it and no one cares, after a while you’ll feel it. If you are in the position where you are trying to make ends meet and you’re trying to make your mortgage payments, and then you can’t and you loose your house, and you’re at the mission, and you’re trying to get your shit together, and you can’t get a job, and no one’s giving you a chance, then you wind up with the label of a homeless person. You have slowly become one of those people and you’re out there and eventually months go by and there is a loss of moral. Your moral is important. You can’t be expected to achieve things if you have no moral or if you have no hope. The process of the Homeless Rock Stars is amazing because it’s such a simple process. When your sitting in a chair and you’re getting your hair and makeup done, and the makeup lady’s talking to you and gossiping about movies and you’re being heard, it’s like sitting down to have a coffee with a friend. It makes you feel good, you feel connected. It’s very simple. You feel like they are actually looking at you and talking to you. You feel like they are paying attention. This is coupled with the fact that they are doating on you and they are doing your makeup. When you look at yourself in the mirror, suddenly you’re “pretty.” Especially for women. A lot of these women haven’t had makeup on their faces for years. It makes a big difference. I can feel it.”
3. When you were given the challenge to write “Rock Star,” the song representing the Homeless Rock Stars Project, what ideas whent through your mind or what pressures did you feel?
Shimon: “I didn’t feel challenged at all, not in the slightest. I spoke to Nigel in-depth about it. I got my head around what the project wanted, what it’s trying to do, and what it’s trying to say. I thought the song was written really in an interesting way. When you’re called to something, when you know it and you feel it, and you’re like, “Ok, I’m just going to do something because it’s the right thing to do.” You’re not doing it to make money. You’re not doing it to be rock star. You’re just like, “Ok, I’m going to help out.” Through making the song was helping out. I remember I had the chorus already written in my head. I sort of took the beginning of an idea I had sort of done with Russel, and I was like, “Ok, I’m going to change the lyrics here, I’ll change the melodies there, and I’ll make the words say this, and I’ll set up the chorus.” It was literally the morning before the song was needed, I was going to go and record the song and I didn’t have a verse for the chorus. However, I ended up coming up with it in about twenty minutes. I came up with all the lyrics and it goes straight into the chorus. It’s a two and a half minute song, it’s straight to the point, and it’s powerful and up-lifting. I didn’t even concern myself with it. I didn’t get to the morning it was needed and say, “I don’t have the verse.” I just was like, “Alright, time to finish the song because this is one part of what it’s going to be.” It just didn’t occur to me to worry about it. It all sort of fell into place. I thought, “It’s going to happen, it’s going to come, and it is will be right. Whatever it is will be right.” And it was! I’m telling you when you hear the song you will recognize this.”
“We’re not showing the video to anyone and we’re not showing the song really to anyone except family and friends until October 6th, when it drops. This is because we want to promote it before we release it and make it as popular as well can. Those who have heard it, love the song. I really thought it was going to be that the song would drive the video but really they’re like, “No, I just want to hear the song again. The video is great, but can I have it on the phone and all that stuff?” So, it’s really cool, it’s really cool.”
“Coming around to the band. What the band has done on this particular song and project at Homeless Rock Stars… I’m trying to think about the most distinct way to do put this. When you watch the video, at the end there is a final slate that tells you, “You won’t be able to purchase the song on iTunes. You won’t be able to stream it on Spotify or any other outlets. The only way you get a copy of the song is by donating to Homeless Rock Stars.” The process is that you text “Rock Star” to the number provided at the end of the video and we’re going to send you back a link donate. As soon as the donation goes through, we email you a copy of the song.”
4. What is in hopes of being done with the money donated to the Homeless Rock Stars project?
Shimon: “The donation money is for Homeless Rock Star events. So, at the moment, everyone, including people from Canada and Europe, are calling Nigel saying, “We’ve heard about Homeless Rock Star events.” Their missions, they’re homeless missions. They are very simples places where you can get shelter, food, and shower for thirty days while you try and get things organized. These missions are always struggling and they’re always looking for a way to do more to help more. So the missions are more than we can even keep up with. They ask us to come do Homeless Rock Star events to come and help bring these people back to life. We say, “Yes, we would love to but we can’t afford it right now.” So, the plan is, instead of doing some sort of thing where we have to align ourselves with the sponsor, or do anything that can possibly risk the integrity of Homeless Rock Stars, we want to self fund Homeless Rock Stars to the point where we can go wherever we want and do any of these events where we’re going to be able to help. Each event will hopefully generate more donations. The start up money is to do more events, just so you can reach more people.”
5. How does the reaction to being photographed in the studio differ between each of the homeless people you’ve worked with?
Shimon: “It definitely differs to an extent. The initial reaction differs, the outcome is predominantly the same. There are shy people and stuff like that however, by the end of their session they usually open up. The shoots have a two pronged affect:
1. The hair and makeup and the rock star treatment really tackles a lot of that. It really brings you out of your shell. Just putting a camera in front of you, if you haven’t already been sort of brought into that feeling of confidence, is a little bit nerving. If someone throws a camera on you, you’re not just going to instantly come to life necessarily all the time.
2. The second prong, is that I was there, as I plan to be at every Homeless Rock Star event and continue to make videos and promote it. The band’s going to be involved in the first song and that sort of thing, and then we have a bunch of music coming out and all that sort of stuff. With Homeless Rock Stars, we’re trying to involve as many other people and rock stars and celebrities as we can. People want to be involved. I was next to Nigel filming what you’re going to see in the video. If someone was ever shy, Nigel would say, “Come on, do this, or do that, or point your finger at the camera.” If the subject didn’t really feel like it, Nigel would just give me a look and I would just jump in with him and lean forward and do the rock star sign and stick my tongue out and be like, “Come on, this is how you do it.” They’d laugh and it would break the tension. As soon as they’d see me acting like an idiot, they’d open up a bit and be more relaxed and play up to the camera. I put some of those photographs in the video so you can see the energy. It’s an interesting affect because, for example, you have a mother of two kids and the kids are shy and literally ten seconds later, I’ve got them hanging off my hip leaning into the camera with me with their tongues out going, “AHHHHH!” It’s awesome.”
6. Do you ever feel pressure to uphold the relationships you make with the particular individuals you are photographing? How does the process work with seeing their reform through?
Simon: “Here’s the thing. That’s a very good question, I know what you’re saying. This is another difference with Homeless Rock Stars. I don’t know the correct word to use for this but it’s not a hand off and it’s not a hand out, it’s a partnership. We don’t turn to these guys and say, “We are going to make you win The Voice.” There was this girl and she was a singer and we got her an audition on The Voice. We didn’t turn to her and say, “We’ll get you an audition on the voice, and then we’ll manage you, and we’ll get you a record contract, and we’ll make a video,” no, we didn’t say this. All we said was, “Here is your opportunity.” We asked her what she really wanted and she said, “I would love an audition on The Voice, that’d be a dream come true.” Cool. We got her an audition on The Voice. The partnership is you have to earn it. You don’t just get to walk on the voice and succeed, you have to work for it. To do this, you have to practice the singing, get the songs down, show up, take it as far as you can, and you don’t get to cop out. The bottom line is, if you quit, that’s on you after that.”
“Everyone needs responsibility to take opportunity for their lives. The satisfaction you get, after having achieved with the responsibility you are given, is a snow ball affect. For example, Jessie doesn’t need our help anymore. We don’t owe her anything. We gave her an opportunity to have a voice and support and she took that and rand with it. She brought herself back to life. No one’s responsible for anyone except themselves, not you, or me, or them. We’re all people. We’re responsible for our lives. All you are doing is basically a rock n’ roll version of what you were talking about before where you sit there, you have a cup of coffee, and you listen. It’s not some make a wish, or God complex, or parental guidance, it’s a partnership.”
7. How would you say Screaming At Demons allows people do get their primal scream out?
Simon: “I remember when I thought of it, it didn’t really occur to me to think too much about it. My internal dialogue is usually screaming at the person from the past, because the person in the “now” has to deal with his mistakes. You want to look back and talk to the inner child saying, “Don’t fuck it up again. Learn from this. I don’t want to deal with this again.” That’s the only way you develop and you evolve. The idea of forgiving yourself, that one way to do it, but not everyone’s inclined to do that. Sometimes you need to kick your own ass. Sometimes you need to get angry at the situation. The idea that people say they’re not angry at themselves is a lie. Everyone has something. Usually, you’re more angry at yourself then you are at anyone in your life. You project it onto other people but, basically, you’re in charge of how you feel and how you react. So, it is much more of an internal dialogue. That’s why the original artwork for the solo shows I did a year ago was a picture of me screaming down into Hell. I was at a museum and that was the image that came up in my head, it was like screaming into yourself. It’s truly amazing what you can accomplish once you take responsibility for yourself and for your life.”
8. Why is music important?
Simon: “What it really boils down to is that there are so many people now and yet we have so much trouble communication with each other. In this modern time, there’s all of these phones and all of this shit, but music is what makes us feel less alone. That’s why we need it.”
Nigel Skeet
(Celebrity, Rock Star Photographer)
1. Describe the organic process of how Homeless Rockstars began.
Nigel: “I’ve been a rock photographer even since I was fourteen. I spent twenty-five years in L.A. photographing bands, movie stars, and all that kind of stuff. No big deal, that’s just what you do when you’re in L.A. So, after that I moved up to Redding, California to raise my twin daughters, who are now five and a half. I decided to open up a photography studio in Redding. One of the first things somebody said to me was, “You have to be careful of the homeless problem around there.” This kind of struck me as a bulling statement. I’ve worked with the L.A. City’s Attorney’s Office, and the District Attorney’s Office, and one of the things they were taking on was Skid Row Homeless Shelter. To me, that was a homeless problem. When you’ve got people killing each other, blood runners, cartels, human trafficking, and a place for hospitals dumping patients, that’s a problem. I didn’t see all that here in Redding. So I decided, and at first it was just an idea, I was going to take a few homeless people from around the park, bring them into the studio, photograph them like I would a rock star, and interview them like I would a rock star. That was my initial idea.”
“I had a conversation of one of the editors of the news paper of one of the major newspapers here about something completely different. I had one of those “open mouth, insert foot moments” when I said, “Oh, by the way, I’m going to do this idea I had for a project working with the homeless.” The next day I get a call from the newspaper saying, “We want to do a story on you doing your homeless project.” However, at this point, I hadn’t even finalized it yet, but I said, “Ok, fine.” So, Jonas came and interviewed me and I had another one of those “open mouth, insert foot moments” when she said how many people are you going to work with and I said, “fifty.” I saw the words come out of my head and plant in her brain and next thing you know I was on the hook for photographs. Anyway, the next day, I was on the front page of the newspaper with the description, “Celebrity, Rock Star Photographer, Nigel Skeet is going to be photographing fifty homeless people.” I got kind of freaked out because I hadn’t organized it yet, but now I was on the hook for it.”
“As a result, I hooked up with the local rescue mission department and asked them how they could help. I asked them, “Are you able to send fifty homeless people for me to work with?” They said, “We can send you three hundred.” I said, “Fifty’s fine.” So, we just sort of scrambled, got somebody to do hair and makeup, and over the course of three days I photographed fifty homeless people in the studio as well as interviewed them. The purpose was to simply create a way for the community at large to relate to these people as human beings. In order to do so, the questions had noting to do with why they were homeless. That’s not something many people can directly relate to. The questions are a simple inquiry as to who they are as human beings:
What’s your name?
What’s your favorite band?
What’s your favorite movie?
What’s your favorite food?
What’s your greatest accomplishment?
What’s your favorite place you’ve been to?
Do you have an interesting talent?
“We created a type of conversation that you or I would take for granted that they never have. After the shoot was completed, we had gallery exhibition of the pictures, which included the photographs, interviews, and some of the homeless rockstars showed up as well as some real rock stars. In addition, we had about three or four hundred people from the community show up. Everyone had a chance to view the images, hear the interviews, and then meet the homeless subjects. Seriously, I thought that was it, I’m done. However, in the aftermath, I started getting messages from the initial fifty people I photographed saying things like, “Wow that was amazing! Thank you, I got my life back together. I’m back where I used to live and doing great.” I also got messages from people reading the story as well. I also received a message from a mother in Washington state saying, “Thank you so much, you made our daughter feel like a rock star and she’s home now, we’ve got our daughter back.”
“Most people start asking me if I was going to do it again and all of a sudden it started taking shape. I remember Jesse, one of the very first people I photographed, and her answer regarding what her favorite accomplishment was. Jesse was proud that she earned a full college scholarship for baking. So, I asked her if she ended following up with her achievements in culinary arts and she said, “Yes.” Taking her progression even further, she is now part of our crew and taking care of catering for all of our events. She’s also become the poster child for the Homeless Rockstars project! How cool is that!? She was actually one of the very first homeless people I photographed. She was nineteen at the time and now she’s our poster child and part of the crew.”
“Going back to the formation of my idea, once it had started to really take shape, I contacted Shimon Moore, frontman of the band Sick Puppies. He is also a good friend of mine, I’ve know him for ten years. He is by far one of the best frontmen in the business, as well as a great songwriter, and I asked him if he’d write a song. Shimon agreed and said, “Yep, I’m in.” I said, “It has to incorporate the idea of being a rock star and the ideas around the project.” The next thing you know these two entities are married together and it’s gone crazy.”
2. How do you maintain the positive energy created by the project in regard to the view of homeless people alive after the momentum of the project as died down? What can the Homeless Rockstars Project teach people? What have you personally learned from the project? What did you notice to be the patterns of human nature when dealing with homelessness?
Nigel: “So, when somebody becomes homeless they disconnect themselves from the community in a superficial or artificial manner, and that’s brick and mortar. The community disconnects them psychologically and emotionally, yet they expect the homeless people to earn back that connection. So, for that moment at our events, what we are doing is representing the community and we are rebuilding that connection on the spot. Psychologically and emotionally. We are doing that by having specific members of the community act as “inner-viewers” with these homeless people. We call it “inner-view,” not interview.”
“We literally do have members of city council and we are also making sure there are at least two people from all segments of society: church, family, business, government, education, arts & media, sports & entertainment. If you can cover an entire spectrum like that then yo can have a real impact. So, that’s what’s happening. Listen, making one homeless person’s life better is easy. Transforming the community as a whole, to interact with them differently, is what we are doing. This is the challenge we are taking on.”
3. What was the dialogue about what causes people to become homeless? Were there different answers?
Nigel: “I would say for every three hundred people that are homeless, there are three hundred different reasons. Everybody has their own journeys. It could be somebody who just missed out on one too many utility payments and the next thing you know they’re on the street. It could be somebody who’s the soul survivor of a family crash, where everyone else was killed and they are the last one standing. I may be someone who has retired, who has no family, and are trying to live off three hundred dollars a month. They just have no one.”
“What ends up happening at these homeless shelters is they become their own community. Just like anywhere. An example of this formation of community from our understanding is Facebook, that is why it’s so popular. Everybody wants community. There’s no difference.”
“There is also, definitely a metal health issue with all of them because something does happen chemically in the brain when somebody’s homeless. These people function from a purely survival standpoint. So, the very first thing that needs to be fixed is that mental health issue. That little switch of adrenaline back in brain. That’s exactly where we’re fitting in and we’re going to start building alliances with National Amnesty Mental Heath and a few other ones.”
“We’re changing the perception of homeless people, which is one thing. Then, at that very moment, we are encouraging action to actually get people out. We’ve done that. That’s the magic of the thing. We’ve actually had a good track record, so far, of actually being able to pull people out of the state of homelessness. If you just hand somebody money, or hand somebody a job, or hand somebody a house, there’s no self respect there. If their ready for it, and you make them work for it, and you do this tit-for-tat thing, it really can make a change. So, we’ve been able to work with a number of people. Another example is one of the eighteen year old kids from our last shoot was living at a shelter but now he has a full time job as a S.E.O. specialist and he’s my client. We have a few of those success stories. It’s great.”
4. Is there any organic statement one of your homeless rockstar subjects has made that sticks out in your mind? A statement that may have even been said personally between the two of you?
Nigel: “I consider myself pretty humble so hearing those thins are all kind of bizarre to me but a lot of these people come up to me and say, “You saved my life.” I think that’s the weird one.”
“We have a lot of people involved now who wanted to be involved and I’ve always said there are two rules: 1) It has to be authentic within the world of homelessness. 2) It has to be authentic in the world of rock n’ roll. When these two worlds mix, it’s awesome.”
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