When Hole drummer Patty Schemel brought a hand-held video camera on a world tour, she "never thought that it would go beyond a living room". It's gone much further than that, she tells TONY CLAYTON-LEA
WE CAN THANK our lucky stars that Hole’s drummer Patty Schemel was given a hand-held video camera just as the band embarked on their world tour in support of their album Live through This. Cinema verité has rarely been so emotive through shakily shot footage of intra-band shenanigans, Kurt’n’Courtney’s loved-upness, and Schemel’s own dabblings in drug use.
Now approaching her late 40s, self-professed feminist lesbian mother Schemel first got the idea for making a movie about her days in Hole when, five years ago, a friend advised her to get the stored analogue footage digitised before it disintegrated. The initial goal of shooting the footage, stresses Schemel, was that she would have something which preserved the experience, and that she would watch when she arrived home after months of touring. “I never thought that it would go beyond a living room.”
And so we have tremendous archive footage of an über-cool rock band on stage (if there’s a more exciting sight than Courtney Love performing in full fuck-you mode, then we have yet to see it) and rather more solemn off-stage moments (the doubts, deceits and dysfunctions of a rock band travelling from indie cool to major-label clamour) blending with current-day interviews with Love (slurring) and other Hole members Eric Erlandson (Zen-like) and Melissa Auf Der Maur (charming).
“I look at me back then and I think about so many things,” says Schemel. “Like, why did I make this decision; why did I do that? Sometimes, when we were reviewing the footage, I just wanted to shake the younger me and say ‘don’t do it!’ or ‘make a better choice!’, but of course it’s impossible to change the past. Could I have done things differently? Oh, sure. Youth is wasted on the young? Maybe, but I wasn’t thinking much beyond the moment back then.”
The moment, as Schemel sees it, wasn’t necessarily about making any statements as a woman, feminist or lesbian, but as a musician. “I felt the struggle of being a female drummer since the day I chose to play the drums,” she admits. “I felt, always, that I had something to prove in playing a male-dominated instrument in a male-dominated industry, and that pushed me. So yeah, there was a lot to prove; not through strength, but in attitude – certainly in the beginning. Oh, and being confident in my style of playing, because I’m not necessarily a technically amazing player.”
Punk rock saved Schemel from feeling like a freak. As soon as she discovered it, she felt comfortable about being precisely who and what she was. “Punk was all about being different, talking about things that you just couldn’t talk about in my small town – like politics, being gay, art, and so on.”
Not all of Hit so Hard is pretty. Watching someone’s self-respect fragment is never good, and the treatment of Schemel by Love around the time of the recording of Hole’s Celebrity Skin album is, frankly, nauseating. It’s happy days now, though (everyone is on chatty terms), but back in the day, following her ignominious departure, Schemel’s resentment bubbled then blistered.
“Seeing the interviews with Eric, Courtney and Melissa, which were all done by the director and producer – and then seeing the first cut of the movie and hearing what their respective views were – was the first time I started to really let go of all of the resentment I felt around that time. I just needed to hear stuff like ‘we made a mistake’ and ‘we’re sorry’.
Did she make the classic error of thinking the band was all for one and one for all rather than, quite simply, Courtney Love’s band? So it would seem.
“Naïve? Definitely, but Hole built itself on being a feminist band, founded on the principles of DIY ideals. That’s the way we were early on, but then it just turned itself inside out. I guess that made me angry as well, but, yes, I was pretty naïve.”
And today? Schemel is married (to Hit so Hard’s producer Christina Soletti) and is a mother. “I didn’t see that coming! Ten years ago, I was so wrapped up in the identity of being a rocker and of being in a rock’n’roll band. Now, I’m grateful that I’ve found there’s so much more than just that. Being of service to other people is so important – sharing my addiction story, teaching drums to kids. Yes, I like where I’m at today.”
See Hear Now: OneTwoOneTwo’s must-sees and hidden gems
In Bed With Madonna (1991, Alek Keshishian):This sees Madge at the top of her game, as it charts her 1990 Blonde Ambition world tour. Keep your eyes peeled for appearances from Al Pacino, Warren Beatty (her squeeze at the time, failing to hide his irritation at the ever-present cameras) and, especially, Kevin Costner.
Stop Making Sense (1984, Jonathan Demme):The concert movie to end all concert movies? One of the greatest, most innovative music films ever made? Yes and yes. The gradual build-up from David Byrne solo to a full band is riveting, and when Byrne dons an oversized suit – well, you just gotta see it . . .
The Devil and Daniel Johnston (2005, Jeff Feuerzeig):The life of manic-depressive underground singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston is respectfully presented – although we love the quote from the editor of The Austin Chronicle (which named Johnston Folk Artist of the Year), who says that the award created unhappiness "in a town where a lot of people can play the guitar".
Sound It Out (2011, Jeanne Finlay):Director Finlay documents the last weeks of a vinyl record shop in Stockton-on-Tees, England. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll damn digital downloading as the work of the Devil.
Jason Becker – Not Dead Yet (2012, Jesse Vile):Oh, crikey, this is AMAZING – the story of rock guitar prodigy Jason Becker, who in his early 20s contracted Lou Gehrig's Disease, a paralysing, untreatable and terminal illness, yet who still manages to make music using eye communication only.
* OneTwoOneTwo runs at Light House Cinema, Dublin, October 19th-21st.
For more, see lighthousecinema.ie; facebook.com/onetwoonetwodublin; onetwoonetwodublin.tumblr.com
