Project 86 Subject To Change: The Making Of '...And The Rest Will Follow' DVD
Artist Info:Discography DVD length: 64+ minutes Street Date: September, 2005
Documentaries and behind-the-scenes features that delve deeper into the lives of the artists we love
seem to becoming more and more popular these days thanks to the DVD technology. More bands seem
to be jumping at the chance to document their album productions and the results vary.
Last year, Third Day created one of the more interesting behind-the-scenes looks at an album's production
with the supplemental DVD for their project Live Wire. Taking the fans into the room where the band
collaborated with the producer and discussed the progression of their songs was intriguing to say the least.
This Summer, on the DualDisc version of their new album, Switchfoot gave a brief but detailed look at the
grueling process the band went through to record Nothing Is Sound. Watching the songs come
to life and be nurtured by the band members to fruition was something seldom seen and exciting for fans to behold.
But to take it all further, hard rock band Project 86 gives a rare look into one of
the most detailed accounts of recording an album I've seen yet, in their debut DVD release
Subject To Change: The Making Of '...And The Rest Will Follow'.
Subject To Change is aptly titled as the raw and rough hour-long documentary gives fans a
front row seat for the production of the band's fifth album ...And The Rest Will Follow. Opening
with some jam session footage that showed three-fourths of the band inventing songs on the spot,
the feature takes a quick and dirty approach with its narrative. Choppy beyond belief, the film is artsy
in its direction but at times slightly hard to follow. There are times where the camera pauses for a few seconds
on a specific moment in the album's production process and you're interested to see what happens next, but
are whisked away quickly to another moment. While this may get frustrating at times, it's something that
is understandable due to time restraints on the project. After all, we are talking about a several week long
process being condensed into one hour of narrative.
From seeing the boys stranded on the side of the road the night before heading out to Canada to begin production
on the record, to watching their producer GGGarth vent frustration upon the band, the anti-glamour of
the musician's life is well-represented. We get a glimpse into the band's struggle with GGGarth's criticisms
and frontman Andrew Schwab's honest confession of his reliance on the Lord for guidance, as well as tasty
bits of the actual tracking process for the new songs. It's captivating to watch the evolution of the album and its songs.
And it helps to be familiar with these songs going in to watch the DVD (which thankfully I can say I was).
It helps to understand the development and metamorphosis the songs go through. Finally, we're treated to
snippets of the band performing new songs like "Sincerely, Ichabod" live for the first time at Spirit West Coast.
The only problem I had with the flow of the documentary is it seemed to be excessively choppy at times
to the point where some moments just felt too foreign for the viewer to feel included in. It also would have been cool to see
more live footage, or even a song or two of high quality live footage and sound. The special features are rather
slim, with just an ever-so-brief montage of fan footage from the Purple Door 2004 fiasco (a mud fight that
caused months of headache for the band to smooth over), over a hundred photos of the band including candid shots,
and the music video for "The Spy Hunter." It would have been nice if all of the band's music videos had
been included, but considering how Subject To Change's main focus is the making of their new record,
perhaps they're being held back for a future release.
Those concerned about the DVD's content due to the documentary style of the film,
should know that the extent of the language is just a couple uses of "suck" and "crap" and one "Oh my
God." It's an honest look into the album's conception and with that comes the humanity of the band's
frustration and trials. It's refreshing to find the band is level-headed in the end.
As a whole, Subject To Change: The Making Of '...And The Rest Will Follow' is a Project 86
fan's dream. The DVD is a backstage pass to the making of the band's strong fifth installment and a worthy
homage to its birth. I wouldn't recommend the release for casual fans, but those itching for ...And The Rest Will Follow's
street date will find solace in Subject To Change.
- Review date: 9/16/05, written by John DiBiase
Artist Info:Discography Record Label: Independent / Tooth & Nail Records
DVD length: 64+ minutes
Street Date: September, 2005
Features:
64+ minute documentary on making of ...And The Rest Will Follow
Artist Info: 
