Stop me if you you’ve heard this one before. A young band starts making waves locally for their unique sound and crazy performances. They record an album for a hot label and stand poised to break out. Then, while on tour, they experience a horrible car accident that leaves members hospitalized. They pull through, but undergo a startling metamorphosis. Three members become Orthodox priests and then seemingly disappear from music for ten years before suddenly re-emerging with their finest album yet.
Luxury’s story isn’t necessarily your typical rock n’ roll epic, what with the priesthood and all, but it is a fascinating one, and now it’s going to come fully to light via guitarist Matt Hinton’s upcoming documentary, Biography / Autobiography: A Story of a Band Called Luxury.
Follow the story of Luxury, a band who, on the cusp of success suffer a devastating wreck. In the intervening years, they continue to make records and three members of the band become Eastern Orthodox priests. Through interviews and archival footage, Biography / Autobiography will tell the gripping and poignant story of Luxury and will follow the making of a new record, now as priests.
Matt Hinton would have begun this film years ago had he not been struck with the nagging thought that it is hopelessly lame to make a film about the band one plays in. And yet, it is such a thoroughly compelling story with layer upon layer of additionally rich storylines (e.g. Drummer Glenn Black spent a portion of his childhood in a traveling carnival. Bassist Chris Foley was in a breakdancing crew in his youth before he found punk rock. He and his wife are now raising four sons, the oldest of whom has nonverbal autism) that, in the absence of anyone else making the film, he feels more or less obliged. This feeling is heightened by the fact that Hinton has hours of video footage of the band, both from before he joined and after, which includes live performances, recording sessions and even footage of the band in the hospital, when even their hope of survival after the wreck was in question. The working title of the film, Biography / Autobiography (also the name of a track on the 4th Luxury record Health & Sport) gets at the tension inherent in this project. This film is not being made by Luxury, but by Matt Hinton with the cooperation of Luxury.
Most of the film has already been shot, but there are still some outstanding expenses, including travel costs for a few more interviews, post-production (e.g., editing, color grading), and marketing and publicity. To help fund the film, Hinton — who previously directed the acclaimed Awake, My Soul documentary — is hoping to raise $40,000 by April 13.
There are, of course, plenty of awards for helping out, including a copies of Trophies (Luxury’s latest album) and the film, copies of Awake, My Soul, shirts and posters, producer credits, and even a gift package from Hinton’s acclaimed burrito restaurant.