Out L.A.-based musician Jesse Thomas has a new side project, Prep School, that was inspired by (who else?) Nirvana.
“Prep School is a project I started with my friend Jeremy Silver, “Jesse said. “Nirvana songs are known to be pretty impossible to get approved for licensing, so we were just making [“Come As You Are”] for fun. We sent it around to a few people, and it wasn’t long after that we heard from XBOX that they wanted to use it for their Quantum Break trailer. We knew that would be a great platform for us to jump off, so here we are with a shiny new video to share.”
And what a video it is. The sexy cinematic take on the song stars Teela Cull and Jesse Sullivan and is directed by Emmanuelle Pickett, who Jesse discovered after watching her short film Hard Pack starring out model Madison Paige.
“When conceptualizing the video I envisioned a cross between Black Swan and Requiem for a Dream, two films I find incredibly pleasing in the visual sense, “Jesse said. “The video is abstract, so rather than explain what each shot means to me, I’d rather people just make of it what they may.”
Prep School will release a full EP later this year, but you can download “Come As You Are” from iTunes in the meantime.
“Prep School is a much different approach to music for me. For starters, Jeremy makes a beat, and I write over top of that, which is a much different approach than me strumming my guitar. The songs sonically have a much different sound as they are more electronic and beat heavy rather than stripped and organic. It’s much sexier.”
The trailer for Quantum Break will release today, with the game coming out April 5th which, Jesse notes, is “coincidentally, the anniversary of Kurt Cobain‘s death.”
Follow Prep School on Twitter and visit their website for updates on shows and the EP.
