Tal Bachman was in his element Saturday night at the Spiral Café. It was no surprise, considering he’s the offspring of rock royalty.
Before the affable singer-songwriter’s own career took off with his 1999 power-pop megahit She’s So High, the son of Canadian rock legend Randy Bachman had become well-acquainted with the rarefied world of pampered rock stars.
No wonder he couldn’t resist making a cameo appearance during filming at the Spiral as Ian Starglow, a narcissistic British glam-rock star past his prime but still trying to live the dream in Bass Line, the pilot for a potential TV comedy series.
Directed by Michael Worth from a semi-autobiographical screenplay by UVic creative writing student and musician Tom Pogson, it focuses on Val Dennis, a shy, heartbroken janitor and bass guitarist who dreams of playing for an awesome band.
“I grew up surrounded by a variety of ‘limousine liberal’ rock stars,” Bachman, 44, recalled, affecting a fake, over-the-top British accent — think Russell Brand meets Robert Plant.
“It was always, ‘I’m concerned about the environment,’ but they’d hire Learjets to ferry themselves to the Cannes festival to deliver a lecture on how to reduce our carbon footprint. All you have to do is meet a rock star to be inundated with irony.”
It was over a pint at Logan’s that Worth, who met Bachman on the Vancouver Island Music Awards jury, offered him a role, not realizing how committed the Victoria musician and rugby player would become.
“He’s hilarious,” said Worth. “We just turned the camera on and let him go off.”
Describing Bachman as “very inspirational,” Worth admits he was nonplussed by the first words that came out of his star’s mouth when he showed up on set with an Arctic fox stole around his neck: “Oh, should I have memorized these lines?”
Considering Bachman wrote them himself, “I was like, ‘That’s pretty funny,’ ” Worth recalled.
The creative process was organic and free-wheeling, Bachman said.
“I started thinking maybe my character should be poncy, flashy, vacuous and maniacal,” said Bachman, who found the Arctic fox outfit and white crocodile boots at Vintage Funk and purple sunglasses at Pharmasave. “I went, ‘OK, this is a slam dunk.’ It took four and a half minutes to find this perfect outfit. I could have searched all over L.A. and not come up with this.”
Bachman loosely modelled his character on T. Rex frontman Marc Bolan.
“I’m sure he’s a lovely guy in real life, but he really pushes pretension,” he said. “He’s enchanted by the fact he’s a star. He keeps coming around to that. It’s like ‘Even I am in awe of myself,’ although he doesn’t actually say that.”
He described “diving into this little production” as “adrenalizing” — akin to when he guest-deejays live on radio stations.
“My brain is firing full guns. Nothing beats the rush of doing it live, and this was like that. I flew by the seat of my pants.”
Bachman even suggested recording a fake “T. Rexy-type, Gary Glitter-esque” glam-rock tune, just for fun.
The Saturday-night filming at Vic West’s Spiral Café, masquerading as the Dead Goat Café, marked the climax of a 24-hour shoot.
It began at 7 a.m. in a Belmont Avenue home and included a six-hour shoot in a limousine before the overnight action, which included a scene with Canadian College of Performing Arts students recruited by grad and castmate Vaughn Naylor.
“The CCPA kids were amazing and so patient,” recalled Worth. “We had an eight-minute dialogue scene at 5:30 a.m. and they ran through it three times perfectly. They’re so well trained — not only in their craft, but in etiquette.”
The marathon was necessary, Worth said, because his lead had to leave soon for Japan and they had time-limited access to equipment loaned by UVic, one of several sponsors, along with Long & McQuade and The Atrium.
“It was way too long,” laughed Amelia Scott, 37, an actress (In the Corner) who got her trial by fire as first assistant director. “It’s great to see the other side because you can become a diva, but you have no idea how much work is involved.”
Worth, a creative consultant on Jackhammer whose credits include several music videos and Checkmate, recently shown at L.A.’s International Festival of Cinematic Arts, said his cast and crew’s commitment was inspiring.
Award-winning violinist Kytami, Evan Laurier Michael Bourque, Stephanie Halber and Lucia Ribeiro head the cast of the film, which took shape after Pogson dropped by the Tillicum Centre kiosk where Worth sells his Artistic Bliss artworks. Worth’s former bandmate pitched his script about an aspiring musician answering newspaper ads in search of success.
When its crowd-funding campaign concludes, the plan is to pitch Bass Line to CBC and other networks, Scott said.
