30 Days Of NYMF: Day 19 RAINBOW AROUND THE SUN

Rainbow Around the Sun
By Matthew Alvin Brown, music and lyrics

Why Are There So Many Songs About Rainbows???

A musical journey from album to screen to stage...

What is "Rainbow Around the Sun" about?

Um...well...

Let me start at the top. My name is Matthew Alvin Brown. I used to play guitar and sing in an indie band from Oklahoma City called, "The Fellowship Students". We were not a Christian band... We were a drinking band. We drank...A LOT. Also, we played really great tunes. It was fun while it lasted, but...it didn't last. I started trying to write a solo
album, but wasn't having much luck. Then, I got dumped... Then, my dad died... Sounds like a country song... Kinda is...

Suddenly, I didn't really have a problem finding something to write about...

So... I asked band mate Nathan Siler to help produce and arrange the album and got the rest of the fellows together to help track the record, originally titled "I'm Just Here To Drink." The album was kind of a love letter to my father who taught me a lot about really great music. It was also an album about losing everything and then picking yourself back up. Understanding that, yeah things might be pretty shitty right now, but they will get better...and then probably turn shitty again...but there's always the chance for things to turn around.

While the album was being mixed, two filmmaker friends of mine said, "Hey let's turn this into a movie!" I said, "Well, duh!"...So, Kevin Ely and Beau Leland wrote a screenplay based on my tunes, created a character named Zachary Blasto...and Ta Da! We had a rock opera that premiered at SXSW in 2008 and went on to screen at film festivals all over this big old ball of grass.

THEN, theatrical producer, director and friend Nick Demos said, "Hey let's turn this into a play!" I said, "Well, duh!"...So, we asked playwright, actor and friend Tom Stuart to write the libretto, which he did under an insanely short deadline, we submitted to NYMF...And here we are...

Yeah, so... what is "Rainbow Around the Sun" about? Well, the play is about a down and out musician, dealing with his personal demons...abusing substances, escaping into music, running away from his problems rather than confronting them. It's a feeling we all know...or most of us...or some of us...hell, I don't know... But, it's the realization that life, at times, can be scorching, painful and as intense as the heat of the sun, but just beyond the inferno, is the enchanting unicorn forest...or the chance for a new beginning...whatever.

All of us at team RATS hope you like our little rock show...It's a show that wears its heart on its sleeve, and hopefully will leave a few tunes stuck in your head.