Liz Larin to Perform for D-PAN (Deaf Performing Artists Network) Sept 19th
Detroit Free Press
September 19th, 2008Royal Oak man's videos help deaf people connect to pop culture
BY BRIAN McCOLLUM • FREE PRESS POP MUSIC WRITER • September 16, 2008
The girls would smile, and ask for more, and that's when Sean Forbes realized he was on to something good.
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The 26-year-old Royal Oak resident, partially deaf since infancy, had a can't-miss party trick: interpreting hit songs for his friends, using sign language to convey lyrics in time to the beat.
They lapped it up. With his hands, Forbes was connecting them to the heart of youth culture, a world taken for granted by their hearing friends, where songs fill iPods and help stake out identities. This wasn't like reading the words on a sheet, or trying to follow a singer's lips. This was a performance. This was expression, personal and real.
This was music.
"They'd get so excited," he says. "They just kept asking me to sign more and more songs."
Today, Forbes' friendly shtick has grown into something far bigger. With an assist from some Detroit music industry veterans, he founded the nonprofit Deaf Performing Artists Network, or D-Pan, a Ferndale organization with an innovative mission: making music videos for deaf people -- and perhaps shaping a new art form along the way.
On Friday, D-Pan will celebrate the release of its debut DVD, featuring custom videos for songs by Christina Aguilera, John Mayer and Eminem, along with amateur clips for tunes by the Killers and others. At the Magic Bag theater, Forbes and fellow sign-language performers will take the stage backed by musicians such as Luis Resto and Sponge.
"It was always my dream to see deaf people involved in music," says Forbes. "All teenagers watch MTV. They all have their iPhones. They all want to be able to say, 'I enjoy the same things you do. I listen to the same music you do.' Everybody wants to feel like they belong."
D-Pan's videos, filmed at a small studio on 9 Mile, are polished productions, shot and edited with the finesse of a typical major-label clip. Most of the actors hail from metro Detroit, their performances guided with a light hand by Ronald Dans, an American Sign Language (ASL) specialist with the Michigan School for the Deaf.
You don't have to be deaf, or even versed in sign language, to appreciate the creative work. Onscreen, performers accentuate the fluid gestures of ASL with evocative facial expressions and other body language, illuminating the lyrics in a kind of visual poetry.
"Deaf people are very fascinated with all that action and motion," says Dans. "They love to see that movement while they feel the vibrations. They feel involved in the music that way."
ASL music videos aren't new, says D-Pan cofounder Joel Martin, a recording studio operator best known for his association with Eminem and George Clinton. But D-Pan represents a big leap forward, with high-quality, professionally produced videos featuring licensed tracks by popular artists.
More than anything, Martin says, they serve a growing appetite among deaf and hard-of-hearing people -- especially the estimated 2 million between ages 18 and 25 -- to connect with mainstream pop culture.
"There's a generational gap. The older deaf community didn't embrace music as much," says Martin. "Technology has changed that. The Internet has changed that. Music is pervasive now. The new generation of deaf kids wants to be absorbed in it."
At YouTube and D-Pan.com, the videos have racked up views by the hundreds of thousands -- and spawned a slew of user-created ASL music clips. Emotional e-mails have poured into the D-Pan office from places such as Thailand and India, describing tear-soaked viewings and a bolstered sense of opportunity. Some have pleaded, "Make an MTV for us."
"In the past there was no access," says Dans. "There was no means to connect with music."
Forbes knows. At 90% deaf, he figures he missed most of the household sounds growing up in Farmington Hills in a family where music reigned: His dad, Scott Forbes, is a guitarist and songwriter with the award-winning Forbes Brothers, a longtime fixture on the local country scene.
The young Forbes was cool with classic country, but it was hip-hop that truly sucked him in, thanks in part to its booming bass -- the sorts of low-end vibrations that can rattle your ribcage. And like so many teens at the turn of the decade, Forbes was drawn to one hip-hop artist above all: Eminem.
"Lose Yourself" quickly became a Forbes party favorite, its rapid-fire vocals ideal for a kinetic, even athletic sign language interpretation. It was during a road trip in 2005 -- after hours of fielding song requests from friends -- that the big idea clicked.
"This light bulb went off in my head," Forbes recalls. "Why not make videos where performers use sign language to cover these popular artists?"
Weeks later, with a home video camera, he shot his performance of "Lose Yourself," creating a rudimentary demo clip on his computer. Now, like every other ambitious musician on the planet, he just needed a hookup.
Through his father, he was introduced to Martin, who invited Forbes to his 54 Sound studio in Ferndale for a courtesy showing. As they headed into the studio's rec room to watch the homemade clip, Forbes realized they had a guest. A big guest. Eminem, on a session break, was hanging out.
Forbes nearly lost himself. The "Lose Yourself" rapper was going to see his video.
"We played it. I looked over and he was singing along," Forbes says. "It was kind of surreal. But I could tell he was enjoying it."
Most important, though, was the reaction of Martin, who realized that "if somebody could sign an Eminem song that fast, there really could be something to this."
He set about researching the world of ASL music. There wasn't much to learn. This was an untapped market, he quickly discovered, long stymied by film costs and the intricacies of song licensing -- Martin's specialty.
Martin was sold, D-Pan was born, and in early 2006 the fledgling team was under way with its first project, a shot-for-shot recreation of Fort Minor's hit video "Where'd You Go," with Forbes and a young Detroit actress in lead roles. But the lengthy, painstaking production had a letdown waiting: Fort Minor ultimately declined to authorize its commercial release.
It was a disguised blessing. As the video circulated among deaf people behind the scenes, a pair of crucial lessons emerged. First, nobody was insisting on a shot-for-shot imitation of established pop clips. D-Pan could cook up its own concepts and save thousands of dollars.
But more critical than anything: Many deaf viewers, it turns out, would not tolerate the use of SimCom, or Simultaneous Communication -- lip-synching the words while signing them. To them, it was a gimmicky clash of languages.
"We realized we'd fallen into a trap," says Martin. "It was very offensive to a lot of people. And we needed the deaf community to own this. These needed to be ASL videos."
D-Pan moved ahead with new clarity of purpose. Martin met with music executives in Los Angeles and New York, securing clearances for songs such as Mayer's "Waiting on the World to Change" and Aguilera's "Beautiful." The studio invested in high-tech gear that has allowed most shooting to take place in Ferndale, shaving the typical video cost in half to about $20,000, Martin says.
Today, Forbes acts mainly in a promotional role with D-Pan, serving as the group's public ambassador. Business operations are overseen by executive director Scott Guy, a major-label veteran, with the nuts and bolts of video production handled by directors who have worked with Eminem, Kid Rock and others.
D-Pan is aiming to produce one DVD annually, each with at least six clips, and expects to land an exclusive deal with a national retailer by Thanksgiving. (The DVD can also be purchased at D-Pan.com.)
"This experience has been extremely emotional for me," says Martin. "What started as a vehicle for Sean has been really embraced by the deaf community."
And by others. Kendra Rose, a 26-year-old profoundly deaf woman who performed in "Waiting on the World to Change," said some of the most satisfying feedback has come from her hearing friends and family.
"They've been so impressed. They think it's just the most amazing thing in the world that the deaf folks can do that," says Rose, a Michigan native who now lives in San Diego. "My hearing friends say it's the most beautiful signing they'd ever seen -- that they'd been moved to tears, it was so inspirational.
"The word is spreading like wildfire," she says. "I'm so proud of Sean. He made his dream come true. And it's a dream that a lot of deaf people can relate to."
Contact BRIAN McCOLLUM at 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com. |
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