Musician gets a kick from playing to Norsewood audiences

Jeremy Fitzsimons with the set-up for the movies. Photo / Supplied

Percussionist Jeremy Fitzsimons enjoys playing for silent movie audiences.

"It's a real buzz playing for the audience.

"They react to the screen live and we feed off that laughter.

"We feed off the audience reaction with our music as well."

Fitzsimons will be playing in the Silent Movie Festival at the Old Dairy Factory in Norsewood from January 13 to 16.

There will be two movies in the festival, both starring Charlie Chaplin: A Dog's Life and The Kid.

Fitzsimons says he'll be putting in a bit of percussion that coincides with punches and various sound effects.

The music and accompanying sound effects won't be exactly as they were played in the 1920s, but they will still be live.

"Traditionally they had these silent movie pianos and organs and they'd have a whole lot of levers and stuff."

The musician would play on the piano, using the levers to trigger drums and sound effects, "which is quite a skill".

Charlie Chaplin in A Dog's Life. Photo / Supplied

Festival organiser David Selfe, who has written the music, decided to use two players for the same kind of effect, but very true to the style of the era.

Playing live to a silent movie is not as easy as it sounds, Fitzsimons says.

"You've got to have one eye on the screen, one eye on your music, and one eye on David because he's cueing me as well.

"I need three eyes and about five hands. But we get there."

Fitzsimons says there's also a lot of improvisation in performing in live events like this.

"There's no conductor so we're really following what's happening on the screen."

One thing he loves about it is the way the audience reacts to it.

"We'll start playing and people will be looking at what we're doing. Then five minutes in, they've forgotten we're there.

"They're just focused on the movie.

"That's what we're all about, really. We're adding to the movie.

"It's not really about us but it also does add a live element."

He says people often come up to him afterwards to see what he did during the movie and to see the instruments up close.

"It's great."

Performing to live audiences is nothing new to the Wellington-based musician, who began learning the drums when he was young.

He came from a musical family and his brother, who played bass, needed a drummer.

When he began studying at Victoria University, he branched out into the more classical side of things.

Graduating from the university in 1995, he went on to study for his masters at Northwestern University in Chicago.

When he returned to New Zealand, he played with a local orchestra, as well as with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Since then, he's also been doing "lots of diverse and interesting gigs on the side", including the Pink Floyd Experience.

He's worked as a freelance percussionist for the last 25 years.

He met David in Auckland when they did Les Miserables together.

"He just called me up out of the blue really and suggested we do this."

Fitzsimons says the two movies chosen for the festival are good ones.

"They totally stand the test of time. They're still as funny as they were."

He says there were some things that didn't date well, but they were generally good.

"I've always loved silent movies, and hopefully in the future we'll do a few more. Not just Chaplin, but really good Buster Keaton movies."

Tickets for the Silent Movie Festival are $10 and are on sale now through eventfinda https://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2022/silent-movies-live-2022/norsewood.