The concept of musicians performing live scores for films dates almost to the advent of cinema itself, with house pianists commonly providing incidental music for movies during the silent movie era. With the advent of “talkies” in the late 1920s, however, the practice became obsolete, although it’s been resurrected over the decades; most visibly for novelty occasions with pianists nostalgically reenacting the ’20s format or large ensembles playing scores composed for more recent Hollywood blockbusters. But it’s long persisted in the sweet spot where the worlds of avant-garde film and music intersect, with improvising musicians reveling in being able to respond in real time to projected abstract, experimental moving images. And this approach will be the focus of “Drive-In 4×4,” an evening at the four-screen Hi-Way Drive-In that will feature Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio, Brian Chase of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Geologist of Animal Collective, Brendan Canty of Fugazi and the Messthetics, Leila Bordreuil, Evicshen X Anamorph, Gladsone Deluxe, and Victoria Keddie playing to silent selections from the EAI (Electronic Arts Intermix) Collection plus DJ sets by WGXC’s Theo Baker and Mayuko Fujino. In anticipation of the event, which is being copresented by the Wave Farm and New Ear organizations, Brian Chase answered the email Q&A below.
“Drive-In 4×4” will take place at the four-screen Hi-Way Drive-In in Coxsackie on August 23 at 5pm. Tickets are $57.10 early bird and $77.50 at the gate.
Peter Aaron: You’ve performed music along with film visuals in the past, most recently with multimedia artist Annie Albagli at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival last month. What is it that makes performing with film appeal to you? As a musician, what does it tap into for you that you don’t get from other types of musical performances?
Brian Chase: Performing music alongside film, especially abstract film, is appealing because it finds a partnership and dialogue across two different sensory mediums. Music and visual arts often use a similar language to describe details of their work: tone, texture, harmony, color, dimension, balance, etc., but the way each one manifests is entirely particular to its own medium. When I perform with film, I feel the invisible vibrations of the music finding a partner in that which is visible.
The Wave Farm 4×4 is being presented in collaboration with EAI, from whose catalog you selected Dara Birnbaum’s 1975 video Mirroring to perform with. Were you aware of Birnbaum’s art before you decided to work with this film for the show? What attracted you to it?
What attracted me to Dara Birnbaum’s video Mirroring was its conceptual process as well as a sense of rawness. It reminded me in some ways of how composer Alvin Lucier will focus on one element of acoustics and use the composition to methodically explore those sounds and what happens to them over time.
Besides performing with Yeah Yeah Yeahs and being a very active musician on the New York experimental music scene, you also run your own record label, Chaikin Records. How is that going, and what’s going on currently with the label?
The label is in a particularly busy phase. The latest release was this spring by composer Jon Catler, who has been La Monte Young’s guitarist for about the past 30 years. The album is a beautiful drone piece for eight layered guitars.
What’s next for Yeah Yeah Yeahs—and do you think you might play in the Hudson Valley at some point?
We spent much of 2025 preparing a special live set for a tour that happened over that spring and summer. The set featured a string quartet and reworked versions of selected songs from our catalog. Many of those concerts were recorded and this year we are putting out a live album. At this time there are no shows planned to support it, but I do hope that at some point we come to the Hudson Valley!
What is it that you most hope people get or feel while seeing your performance with Mirroring at the 4×4 event? What do you hope to get from doing it?
For the upcoming performance with Mirroring at 4×4, I hope people experience an appreciation for the video work: its process and images of the artist as she looks back at the camera. I hope to go through the same experience myself in performing with it.
