Jesse Vile – Director of ‘Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet’ – Uber Rock Interview Exclusive

Written by Mark Ashby
Saturday, 17 November 2012 00:03

In 1989, 20-year old guitarist JASON BECKER apparently had the world at his feet. Having exploded onto the global arena as one half (alongside then future Megadeth axeman Marty Friedman) of Cacophony, and followed this up with his own ‘Perpetual Burn’ solo effort, he was selected to replace the legendary Steve Vai in David Lee Roth’s solo band.

 

However, shortly after recording sessions for Diamond Dave’s third album, ‘A Little Ain’t Enough’, began, disaster struck the young virtuoso. At first it took the form of what he himself later described as a ‘lazy leg’: however, as his condition worsened, he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Although he struggled on and finished the album, he was too weak to embark on the subsequent tour, and was warned by his doctors that he would not see his 25th birthday – never mind ever make music again…

 

Now, more than 20 years later, Becker is, in the words of an inspirational new movie about his life, ‘Not Dead Yet’. In the first part of our special series of features to coincide with the movie’s UK release, Über Rock’s Mark Ashby talks to the director allowed unique access to Jason’s life and world, JESSE VILE.

 

The logical place to start is to ask him how he first came across Jason and his story…

 

“When I was 15, I had a guitar teacher who gave me a bunch of CDs:  he was very into neo-classical shred, and out of all the CDs he gave me, Jason’s was the only one I really liked – well, loved actually.  When he told me that he was only 17 when I wrote the album I was listening to, and that he now had ALS and was completely paralysed, but was still writing music with his eyes, I thought ‘this is an incredible guy, this is amazing’:  what struck me was, first of all, how was a 17-year old able to play like that, and to play with such emotion?  What kind of 17-year old has that emotional maturity in their music? So, I followed his story over the years:  it’s just one of the most incredible stories I ever heard, and it’s every documentary maker’s dream to tell a story like that…”

 

So that first CD obviously planted the seed for what would, almost a decade and a half later, become Vile’s first full-length documentary…

 

“Definitely. It’s not the reason I went on to become a documentary filmmaker: I didn’t really become a filmmaker until I had to choose what I wanted to do at university. But, it’s one of the greatest stories I’ve ever heard, so naturally it was always in my subconscious that when it came time to want to do something, then that is the story I wanted to tell.”

 

“I actually got in touch with [Jason’s family] back in film school. I was about 19. I tracked him down and spoke to Serrana [Jason’s girlfriend, about whom he wrote on his most famous and moving pieces, on the ‘Perpetual Burn’ album of 1989] on the ‘phone and they agreed to it – but nothing ever came of it… well, I was only 19 and really had no idea what I was doing! So, I got scared and didn’t do it, and I always regretted that…”

 

“Then, ten years later I thought ‘I’m ready to do this’, so I got back in touch, and luckily no one had done it yet! It took a bit of convincing, but eventually he let me do it…”

 

‘Not Dead Yet’ is Vile’s first full-length feature: does he think that this, the fact that he had no ‘prior’ or ‘baggage’, made it easier for them to listen to and then respond to his pitch, or does he think it was harder because he’s an unknown?

 

“I remember Jason wanting to see some of my work. I had made a couple of shorts when I was back in film school, and while they were good for what they were, they weren’t anything I was super proud of showing him now – so I was really nervous, and thought, because I didn’t really have anything to show him, he would tell me to away.”

 

“But, I think he was more interested in, and keen on, the ideas I was coming up with – and he liked the teaser trailer I had put together with footage I just ripped from his website: I think he and his family saw that I could put something together like that, and that if I could collect my own footage then I could do something that was much better…  It was a leap of faith [for the Beckers]: they took a lot of convincing – I had to convince them that I wasn’t going to quit and that I was actually going to follow through with it…”

 

I’m assuming that there would have been a fair degree of delicate negotiations before the project was fully ‘green-lighted’: without going into any real details, were there any restrictions placed upon Vile and his crew by the family?

 

“No, not really. I mean, there were a few things they didn’t want to talk about, but nothing that would have hurt the story anyway. They were some personal things: maybe some issues they had with some people in the past, and that was fine, because it didn’t have anything to do with the story I wanted to tell.”

 

“Jason was super-comfortable with everything – although he wasn’t so keen on us showing him in his most vulnerable state now, and that’s fine, because the film isn’t about that. The film shows him in his most vulnerable state already – back in the mid Nineties, when he was dying, and as we’ve already shown that, then it was fine not to do that. It’s not a film about the disease: it’s a film about his spirit.”

 

“But, for the most part, they were completely comfortable with everything.”

 

At this point, I have to admit to Jesse that I haven’t actually seen the finished film (my editor has been closely guarding the preview copy – and his review makes up the third part of this special feature edition of Über Rock), and as Jesse has said in his previous answers, he obviously received the full co-operation from the family, as they gave him access to a lot of unseen archive footage, as well as private family stuff: all of this was obviously important in helping shape the movie and Jason’s story…

 

“Absolutely. I mean, that stuff was just beautiful – especially the 8mm stuff. When you’re a telling a story where 85 per cent of it happens in retrospect, you need that kind of coverage to show the audience – film is a visual medium after all: you just can’t have talking head after talking head after talking head – that would have bored the audience to death!”

 

“I did want that kind of format for telling Jason’s story: I didn’t want to hear from him himself until the third act. I wanted his story to be kind of mythical, almost legendary, in the fact that others were telling it – and, also giving people the sense that they were talking about him in the past, as if he is dead.. even though you see him at the beginning of the film as he is now.”

 

“So, the archive is incredible. There is no better way to show somebody how great a musician or cool a kid he was except to show them, not tell them! I wanted more of it: in some ways, I wish the whole film could have been just archive stuff!”

 

Did he ever feel like he and the crew were intruding during the filming of Jason and his life today?

 

“Not intruding in a way. Maybe if it was late at night and we were still filming and the Beckers wanted to go to bed, maybe that was a little bit intruding – but they were totally fine with it! It was, like, ‘we’re doing this and it’s hard work’: they could really see how much hard work it was, and how much we put into it.”

 

“Some of the questions [we asked] weren’t intrusive, just more sensitive, and it was, like, how do I warm them up for the big stuff? You don’t want to dive right in – like ‘what was it like when you heard your son was dying?’ – so that was a challenge. But, in terms of being intrusive, I don’t think so: maybe there were some times where they felt uncomfortable, but they got over it…”

 

Are there any parts of the film where the director, looking back, catches himself going ‘wow’?

 

“The ending always gets me. Half of the festival screenings I go to, I’ll watch the film, to see how the audience respond to it. Or, I’ll watch the first 15-20 minutes, duck out, grab a pint or something to eat… but, I always make sure I come back for the last five minutes, because I just love the last five minutes… that always still gets me!”

 

“There are certain bits that are great. But, I’ve seen the film so many times – I know it inside out, every frame – so it doesn’t happen as much: it’s actually quite difficult to watch, as I know what’s coming next and so I don’t watch it as a whole film, but as pieces put together to make a whole.”

 

Is there anything about the film that, in retrospect, Vile might change – anything which has been left out, for one reason or another, which he feels maybe should have been left in the final edit – or even anything that he now feels shouldn’t have been left in?

 

“No. It’s the film that it is. There are definitely things I have learned from it, and from watching it. You know, ‘maybe next time I’ll do this a bit better’ or ‘I won’t do that’. But, it’s my first film and I guess most first time filmmakers make mistakes! As a whole, though, I’m really pleased with what we churned out.

 

What would he like people who see it to take away from ‘Not Dead Yet’?

 

“As a film, I would like them to go ‘wow, that isn’t at all what I thought it was going to be!’ I like documentaries like that – that seem to be about one thing but actually are about something totally different and the one thing that you thought it was going to be about is merely a vehicle or a platform for the real story to play out on…  So, from a film-making point of view, that would be cool.”

 

“The other thing (I would like) is for people to be moved by Jason’s story in some way – whether they are inspired by it, or they think about life a little bit differently, or they just know Jason and go out and buy his albums… I would just like it to affect people in a positive way.”

 

Finally, looking to the future, what’s Vile’s next project, or is there any other musician or act on his radar for a feature?

 

“I had quite a few ideas for my next film that involved musicians and rock stars, and there is something I am developing, but it’s not certain as I don’t have the rights to it yet, so I can’t really talk about it… but, then. I decided to not do anything about music. And maybe it’s time for a new challenge, to experience a different kind of world for the next two or three years…”