Production Diaries:
June 2004
July 2004
August 2004
September 2004
October 2004
Recent Entries:
HUNDREDS GATHER TO PAY TRIBUTE TO THE LATE MAKO IWAMATSU IN CAGES!
Wed, 14 Nov 2007
A SPECIAL TRIBUTE SCREENING OF MAKO!
Tue, 16 Oct 2007
Perles Acquires Cages Distribution!
Wed, 01 Aug 2007
"CAGES" RUNS 4TH WEEK IN THEATRES!
Fri, 13 Apr 2007
IT'S MY TURN TO FLY!
Mon, 09 Apr 2007
"CAGES" SURPRISES MANY AS IT ENTERS THIRD WEEKEND IN THEATRES!
Fri, 06 Apr 2007
"CAGES" ENTERS THIRD WEEK IN THEATRES!
Tue, 03 Apr 2007
LOYAL FOLLOWING TO THANK, AS "CAGES" ENTERS THIRD WEEK IN THEATRES!
Mon, 02 Apr 2007
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Jessica Callahan speaks of Cages on SBTN TV
08/28/04
Back in the USA, Jessica Callahan is doing her part in spreading the word on CAGES. Saigon Broadcast Television Network (SBTN) is the only Vietnamese Cable Network in the USA and Canada that runs 24 hours/7 days a week. We were fortunate enough to have Victoria ToUen, the host of a television show that focuses major newsworthy events as well as covering the latest events in entertainment. Victoria interviews Jessica Callahan
Victoria: Thank you so much for being here today
Jessica: Thank you for having me.
Victoria: It’s my honor to have you here. I heard all of the songs on your CD and I really admire your voice. First of all, can you share with the viewers, how you fist started in music? …and at what age?
Jessica: I have been playing music pretty much all of my life, but started at a professional level at the age of 13. I wrote a song called “Believe In Me” and my parents presented the idea of taking me into a recording studio. After that I said I want to make and album and by the time I was 16, my first album was finished.
Victoria: Wow, so your parents have always supported you from day one? Since you’ve had a passion for music?
Jessica: Always! My whole life, my parents have ALWAYS been very supportive and encouraging, driving me to piano lessons and voice lessons…and all that great stuff.
Victoria: Wow, so growing up, did you have a lot of friends that you share the same passion with?
Jessica: Well, as I got older I acquired more friends that were into music. I was in a choral group for a while, called The Young Americans. That was where I found a lot of my musical friends who sang and played instruments. I was 16 at the time and it was really cool to find a lot of people who were interested in music. Before that, I had a lot of close friends but not many who were into music.
Victoria: So, tell me, who is your favorite singer? Who do you really respect and look up to and is a big influence in your life where music is concerned?
Jessica: I’ve been highly influenced by Tori Amos, but lately I’ve really been inspired by a musician named Gavin DeGraw, who’s relatively new on the music scene. His album hasn’t really left my CD player for a year. His music is so natural and…
Victoria: Is he from here?
Jessica: He’s from New York. But I’m totally into his lyrics and his musical style. He plays the guitar and he gives me a lot of inspiration.
Victoria: Wow, you know with such a busy schedule, because I know you compose and write your own music, did you find that difficult?
Jessica: My musical inspiration comes from a lot of things in life, so it wasn’t really hard to compose music…but to think of it, sometimes the inspiration itself is hard to come by. I couldn’t just write based on ordinary things…like, I can’t actually look at a coffee cup and write about it. I have to look at a story and create characters, and in that respect, it can be hard.
Victoria: What is the closest thing you’ve come to in terms of the perfect thing to write about?
Jessica: I’ve always said that, when I’m writing a song, if there’s something in the song that can make me cry…but just having a real emotional connection with the song is key.
Victoria: Well, this is off the subject, but what is your biggest pet peeves about people treat blind people?
Jessica: Some sited people tend to have the impression that blind people can’t hear. So when they talk they lean in really close and then talk SUPER LOUD! It’s so unnecessary…
Victoria: And you can feel them right?
Jessica: Yes, you can feel their over-bearing presence…
Victoria: Do you tell them that?
Jessica: Well (laugh), sometimes it really depends on the person. I mean, sometimes you just can’t be rude, to people with authority… but sometimes when I really feel like it, I’ll say “can you please back up maybe two feet and you can continue talking to me?”
Victoria: Don’t blame you one bit…
So, who’s your best friend?
Jessica: I have three best friends, really. One is blind, and I get a lot of inspiration from her because she’s so independent. She goes to school and is very motivated. And then my other friend I’d met from The Young Americans, but we don’t hang out often. Everytime we’re together, we have a really good time. And then I have a great friend from the high school – Mayfair High school, and she’s just amazing, I love her. She’s such a beautiful person.
Victoria: So what kind of things do you guys talk about when you get together? Things you share with each other that you don’t generally share with your parents?
Jessica: Boys!
Victoria: Ha! Ha!
Jessica: Boys, shopping, and clothes. Sometimes we talk about music. Some of my friends know more about music and my musical goals in life than others, but boys tend to always comes first.
Victoria: That seems to be the number one thing to talk about, isn’t it? (laugh)
Jessica: Yeah…ha ha.
Victoria: Once again, I know you work really hard with your music. And I’ve listened to all of the songs on your album. One of the songs is called Penny, can you tell the viewer what it’s about?
Jessica: Penny is about a woman who’s built a cage around herself. She’s really bitter about a lot of things and have lost compassion... and she wants to find it again… knowing it’s somewhere from within… hoping it would someday, emerge.
Victoria: Your voice is sooo…., I’m thinking of Nora Jones, but you have your own uniqueness. If anyone listens to your voice, they would definitely just say WOW! They would just say she is sooo talented. Are you planning any shows soon? Tell me about Singapore…
Jessica: Yes, I’m actually playing a benefit show in Singapore in September. It’s a show to raise money to refurbish a center for the blind. I’m so excited and I can’t wait!
Victoria: I understand that you’re performing a theme song in the movie called CAGES. Can you tell us a little bit about the film?
Jessica: PENNY is the theme-song on the album, which I’ve described earlier. But the film Cages is about a concept of how we all tend to build cages around ourselves, with issues that we don’t want to deal with, such as bitterness or anger towards another person or a particular events. The backdrop for CAGES is comprised of the Singaporean Songbird culture. In Singapore, they compete to see who has the best singing bird. The male lead actor in CAGES (the father) owns a bird-shop. And the story for CAGES deals with a single mother and her 8 year-old blind son, both practically thrown out on to the streets by her boyfriend, and she is forced to reunite with her father who abandoned her over 20 years ago. She and all of the other characters in the story must take down the cages of bitterness they’ve built around themselves. She has to resolve the issue with her father. Her boyfriend has to resolve the issues with his daughter. The blind child is in a sense kept in a cage because his mother keeps him sheltered, and doesn’t really know how to treat him because she’s overly concerned. Throughout the film, the little boy befriends her father (his grandfather) and he becomes fascinated by his grandfather’s bird-shop and that’s how he becomes free. His soul just flies.
Victoria: So that’s what the song Penny’s about. The theme is pretty much…
Jessica: Yeah, it’s pretty much taking down the cages you’ve built around yourself.
Victoria: Breaking down the walls that surrounds you right?
Jessica: Yes.
JESSICA PERFORMS “PENNY” as she plays her keyboard and sings LIVE PERFECTLY!
Victoria: Jessica! Amazing! Thank you so much Jessica! And good luck with everything!
Jessica: Kha Moung!
Both: HA HA HA
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