Say Zuzu’s rock and roll fairy tale inspires making of a documentary
Adventures With Bull [teaser] from Frameblender Films on Vimeo.
PORTSMOUTH — At 5 a.m. the day after Christmas, Kevin Guyer loaded cameras, lights, sound equipment and a few jars of his homemade jams and pickles into his Kia Niro and drove roughly 1,400 miles from Mississippi to New Hampshire, slept on a mattress on a friend’s floor for 10 days and battled a blizzard, all to chronicle a rock and roll fairy tale.
He traveled with Christian Harrison from Framblender films, a self-proclaimed Delta farm boy with 25 years of film and video production under his belt. For both, this was less a road trip and more a mission. They were making a documentary to tell the story of Say Zuzu, a New Hampshire band that got the record deal they’d always dreamed of — 20 years after they broke up.
In the early '90s Say Zuzu was an alt country/Americana band from Newmarket anchored by two skilled, charismatic singer/songwriters, Cliff Murphy and Jon Nolan, and rounded out with Jon’s brother James on bass and a rotating cast of drummers until Steve Ruhm joined in 1996.
The band members dedicated their lives to making music. They released multiple albums and toured the country in a retrofitted, white school bus named “Bull.” They played in Italy and Germany, where they’d amassed a following.
They got a record deal. It never came to fruition. The band broke up in 2003. The end.
And that’s where the story Guyer and Harrison want to tell begins.
Why Say Zuzu is getting its 'Rocky' moment now
In the years following Say Zuzu’s demise, George Fontaine Sr., who had signed Say Zuzu to its original contract with New West Records, says he had a recurring dream. In it, he’d walk into a venue and hear an incredible band — a band he loved. Then he’d realize who was performing and say, “Oh no! It’s Say Zuzu. We killed that band.”
Fontaine, who has had a lucrative career in the recording industry and was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Americana Music Association for nurturing new artists, wanted to make good on the offer he’d made to Say Zuzu two decades before. He found Jon Nolan via social media and offered Say Zuzu a contract with Strolling Bones Records in Athens, Georgia, an imprint label of New West Records, if they band would regroup.
Well into their careers, with kids in and soon-to-be-in college, Jon Nolan and Cliff Murphy did indeed get the band back together. They reached out to musicians who had played in Say Zuzu during its various iterations and landed Jon Pistey on bass, Tim Nylander on drums and keyboards and Ruhm back on drums and mandolin.
They wrote some songs, released a new album, made a music video and found themselves playing in Nashville, Tennessee, in Ashville, North Carolina, and on their home turf — the Seacoast of New Hampshire.
“This is the story of good things happening to good people,” says Guyer, who has close ties to the band. Before moving to Mississippi, he owned Rock Bottom Records, an iconic music store in downtown Portsmouth that was at the epicenter of a '90s local music explosion. He was friends with the members of Say Zuzu and had helped them professionally. When he heard about the new record deal, he told Harrison about it, and the two, after getting the band’s blessing, began making the documentary.
They hope to have it completed in time for the New Hampshire Film Festival in October.
“It’s the story of a dedicated band of young men who gave it their all for 12 years and almost had the brass ring,” Guyer says. “It went away, and they made the choice to give it up and figure out their adult lives. After getting married and raising their kids for 20 years, with the subject of Say Zuzu essentially dead for that period, they get a Facebook message out of the of blue from the record label guy who has felt bad for 20 years and wants to make it right. He offers them reissues, a new album, a video — all on their terms.”
“This is (the movie) “Rocky” for a New Hampshire band — without the punching,” adds Harrison. “I heard the story and my heart grew three times its size. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It gave me hope for humanity, and I thought, ‘We have to tell this.’ It’s unprecedented.”
'They never lost their faith in people'
With a working title, “Adventures with Bull,” Guyer and Harrison teamed up with fellow Mississippian Mitch Campbell, a retired banker who agreed to help find funding resources for what is currently a personally funded labor of love, and started filming. They took footage of the band playing in Nashville and Ashville, and went to Georgia to interview Fontaine.
On what they dubbed The Great Northern Road Trip leg of their odyssey, Guyer and Harrison spent 11 days in New Hampshire interviewing and filming members of Say Zuzu, their families, their friends and band associates.
They took outdoor footage in Durham, Newmarket, Concord and Portsmouth during a blistering cold snap. They did interviews in kitchens and living rooms, at Great Bay Guitars and The Stone Church in Newmarket and at the venerable Electric Cave recording studio and The Music Hall in Portsmouth.
“I was encouraged, having never been here, by how supportive, kind and helpful everyone has been, especially the people at The Music Hall and The Stone Church,” says Harrison. “When we needed something, they rose to the challenge every time, and that means the world to me.”
Harrison was also touched by how the band opened up to him and the idea of making the documentary.
“For the number of times they have had their teeth kicked in as musicians, they have never lost their faith in people,” he says. “They let me in right away, in part because Kevin is their friend. They trust Kevin and, by proxy, they trusted me. It immediately became a huge responsibility to me to be honest with their story and show their goodness, because that’s what attracted me from the start. The story started as a scenario Kevin told me at breakfast, and it was intriguing. But when I met the people involved, it became real to me. These musicians are amazing, not a lot of people know about them, and they should.”
As for the band, Jon Nolan says the experience of being filmed as the subject of a documentary was surreal and thought-provoking.
“Looking back made me think about our history as a band more deeply,” says Nolan. “Life is moving in real time with places to go, things to do, bills to pay, and kids to get off to college. This forced me to think about the rich experiences we all had and how those experiences still ripple through my life on a day-to-day basis. I have a much better sense of what’s important to me now. Will our story make a good movie or not? I don’t know, but it’s been an interesting experience.”
Though Harrison had Guyer as his native sherpa to prepare for the interviews in New Hampshire, he boned up on the Portsmouth music scene in the ‘90s. He says that while he found the level of talent impressive, the tenor of the music community was even more so.
“I wish I’d been here,” Harrison says. “It was really illuminating. Being an artist can be competitive and even cutthroat. I learned that this place was the polar opposite. It was heart-warming. There were people helping people, creatives helping creatives. I’m sure there was competition, but it was friendly competition, and everyone was rooting for everyone else. We should always be that way.”
Guyer and Harrison are looking for videos of Say Zuzu from back in the day. If you can help with that, want to donate to the project, or just follow along, they ask you to join or message the Say Zuzu Documentary Facebook page.
“We are also interested in a few great photos of shows, The Bull, or even off-stage everyday life,” Guyer says. “We'll get anything you give us digitized and safely back to you.”
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Say Zuzu’s rock and roll fairy tale inspires making of a documentary
