6 movies to pair with Kevin Andrew Prchal’s album ‘New World Rhythm’
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Kevin Andrew Prchal is a Chicagoland singer-songwriter who also happens to be co-founder and editor-in-chief of Cinema Sugar. In honor of his fifth album New World Rhythm (out on June 6!), we asked Kevin to pick the movies that best pair with the album.
1. Stop Making Sense
New World Rhythm wouldn’t exist without the brilliant, playful energy of David Byrne and Talking Heads. Directed by the great Jonathan Demme and filmed at the height of the band’s powers in 1983 Los Angeles, Stop Making Sense is an electrifying snapshot of a band in complete control of its iconography and sound. A sound that echoes through every song on my album.
2. Dreams
I watched Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams early in the COVID-19 pandemic and it lit a creative fire in me. A series of short films recreating Kurosawa’s dreams, it’s a vivid, beautiful, and surreal portrait of one’s inner life—a goal I hoped to achieve both lyrically and sonically on New World Rhythm.
3. Eephus
When it comes to writing and recording music, there is honestly very little in it for me beyond the personal enjoyment and fulfillment it provides. It’s simply my favorite way to pass the time, and no other movie in recent years honors the art of passing time quite like Carson Lund’s charming and hilarious Eephus. Even in the face of their ailing bodies, the confoundment of family and strangers, and the demolition of their beloved baseball field—they play on. And that’s a spirit that’s deeply embedded in my work.
4. Poltergeist (1982)
There’s nothing I love more than VHS-era horror and Tobe Hooper’s Poltergeist endures. Navigating a world possessed by technology is something my anxious mind (and by extension these songs) knows a thing or two about. When I sing “Damn I can’t lie, I don’t know why I’m kneeling” in the song “Dreamland” I’m acknowledging the grip technology has on me. As a society, we’re yet to be literally trapped inside our devices, but we might as well be.
5. A Complete Unknown
While still rooted in my folk-rock origins, New World Rhythm is very much a creative departure for me. So it’s natural that James Mangold’s portrait of an artist who made history by defying expectations resonated with me in a big way. What can I say? After four albums, I too got tired of working on Maggie’s farm.
6. My Neighbor Totoro
I started writing this album about a year into the pandemic. Not only was Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro one of the most-watched movies in my house during that time, it accurately reflected the magic my daughter saw and showed me in a world that was otherwise pretty grim. And that magic is arguably the greatest influence and animating force behind this album over anything else. We’re still looking for our Totoro though.