For the next several years, they played together in different bands and recorded in the studio, depending on current projects and demands. In the summer of 2011, Cummings and Stein realized that their personal musical projects, tastes, and skills overlapped significantly. “We like the same kinds of music— everything from Rodgers and Hammerstein to the Beatles and Radiohead. And he plays well all the instruments that I don’t, so it seemed a logical fit,” says Stein.
review also praises Cummings’s “soaring falsetto” and calls the EP a “strong debut from a band who I confidently predict will go far.” Shortly after the EP’s release, Tony Gross again proved an important catalyst for Cummings and Stein’s career: Gross pitched My Plastic Sun to a couple of filmmakers interested in shooting a music video. The filmmakers, two-time Emmy Award-winning brothers Obin and Amariah Olson of The Forgery, wanted to work with a band that would let the brothers have complete creative control in order to showcase their skills and abilities. The Olsons heard My Plastic Sun’s EP, loved the sound, and decided to work with the band. “They debated between two of our songs for the video: House of Fun and Give It All Away,” explains Cummings. “Ultimately they chose Give It All Away, a big, romantic, epic song that they wanted to shoot like a movie. I think they made the right choice.” In October, Cummings and Stein flew to Mobile, Ala., for the six-day shoot. The Olsons scripted, storyboarded, designed, shot, and edited the video, which features elaborate cinematography, special effects, supermodels, and Cummings as the leading man (with Stein making an affecting cameo). The video was shot on location at Blacksher Hall, a mansion owned and operated by Janine Styer Stebbins in the Historic Garden District of Mobile. Stein, Cummings, and Stebbins were chatting in between takes when she revealed that she had spent a few years in the 1950s in Left: Stein and Johnny Cummings ’05 outside Blacksher Hall in Mobile, Ala., where the Rochester, N.Y., attending—of all places— band shot the music video. Nazareth College. Above: Cummings on the music video set, with the green screen installed as a backdrop Cummings and Stein occasionally record and for the video’s special effects. mix tracks on campus in Nazareth’s recording studio. And, according to Stein, there are some perks to sharing a space with top-notch musicians and instruThey formed a two-man band called My Plastic Sun. Cumments: “If we need a snare drum, we can get one down the hall mings and Stein are the band’s lyricists and musicians, collabofrom Kristen Shiner-McGuire; if we’d like a violinist, we can ask rating to create, record, and perform their original songs, which Nancy Strelau if she’s available.” combine a 1960s pop sensibility with ambient, modern sounds. Cummings enjoyed being back on campus and down the hall The duo incorporates a variety of instruments (including pianos, from many of the art studios where he took classes. organs, Mellotrons, guitars, and banjos) and samples to create “It’s such a good vibe, being here,” he says. “As a student, their unique sound. my art professors helped me grow as an artist and expand my In their early months together, the band compiled close to a boundaries. They continually pushed me to try to do something full-length CD’s worth of material. In September, the My Plastic different, something more with myself and my work. And now Sun EP became available for download. The buzz and reviews that’s what I’m doing everyday.” from the blogosphere were highly complimentary. A reviewer at Listen Before You Buy compared My Plastic Sun to the Beatles, For more information, visit http://myplasticsun.com Oasis, Blur, Broken Bells, and Deerhunter (among others). The Sofia Tokar is the assistant editor in Nazareth’s marketing department.
www.naz.edu
CONNECTIONS | Spring 2012 43