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It’s not everyday that film producers sit down for interviews, but Danny Bramson is not just any producer. He was so passionate about his work on the Jimi Hendrix biopic All Is By My Side, he left his wife’s side to chat with us. You see, Danny’s wife – who is 15 years younger than him – fell off a horse and had to have 12-hour spinal cord surgery.

Let’s just say we were honored to speak with the filmmaker considering all that was going on in his life. You might not be familiar with his name, but Bramson’s list of film credits stretches from 1988 to now, with titles ranging from Executive Producer to Music Supervisor on films like The Nutty Professor, Ocean’s Eleven, and Jerry McGuire, just to name a few.

His latest title is Producer of the highly anticipated Jimi Hendrix biopic entitled Jimi: All Is By My Side.

Bramson invited GlobalGrind’s BlogXilla into his suite at the Four Seasons in Austin, Texas during the SXSW festival, during which they screened the film to a packed house.

During their chat, Danny dished on everything from his initial meeting with the film’s Jimi, Andre 3000to not being able to use the iconic rocker’s music while making this film.

On Andre 3000 as Jimi:

“He was so invested as Jimi. And his work ethic was not only impassioned, but relentless. Man, I have such respect and admiration for Andre as an actor with a capital A! His desire, his investment as an actor, his sense of musicology of all things is Jimi, which blew me away.”

On Adding Original Music By Andre 3000 To The Jimi Hendrix Biopic:

“When you say ‘asking him for original music,’ do you mean like Great Gatsby where you do a hip-hop version of some jazz thing? Isn’t that what other people might’ve expected? I didn’t want to play up on his celebrity. From the beginning, our view, we looked to Andre. I didn’t want to play off of Outkast and his obvious career. He was so invested as Jimi. And his work ethic was so not only impassioned, but relentless. This is a guy that I matched with an amazing guitar coach that would work with him 6 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

On Being Upset He Couldn’t Use Any Of Jimi’s Original Music:

“Upset – me? I’ve entertained the ability to have that luxury. I would’ve loved to have done where we have Jimi on an acoustic 12 string, playing “Bleeding Heart.” It’s well noted now that John’s (Ridley, the screenwriter) inspiration to do this was when he first heard Jimi’s acoustic 12 string of a song called “Saving My Love For Linda.”

Yeah, I pondered and would’ve probably cherished to get that one song. But that certainly wasn’t “Foxy Lady” or the big massive hits.”

On Meeting Andre 3000 And Big Boi:

“When I first met Andre, I had only spoken to him…in ‘92 or ’94?

I produced the music to John Singleton’s movie Higher Learning, John sat me down and turned me on to this whole Atlanta scene that was just developing and out of it came Outkast.

I can’t recall the specific thing I heard, because they had yet to release their first album. I just remember Singleton and myself listening to it, and everyone thought we’d do a full rap record or hip-hop record.”

On Working With John Singleton On The Film Higher Learning:

“The poetry of that picture, again, you go against the grain. I never like to go with the obvious, let alone the conventional. I produced the music to the movie and I was the color on that movie, other than Michael Rapaport that played the skinhead.

So imagine the responsibility of a ‘white boy.’ I’m proud of the musical design of that picture where we brought Zack De La Rocha and Rage Against The Machine [together]. They’re kind of political and metal; kind of rage and furor, with the poetry at the time of brand new artist Tori Amos.”

Jimi: All Is By My Side hits theaters on May 9th.

PHOTO CREDIT: Wenn

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