Jamie Catto and Duncan Bridgeman
Is the second album by UK duo Jamie Catto and Duncan Bridgeman under the name 1 Giant Leap. The duo travelled around the world recording vocals and music by artists of various genres.
- It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.
Philip K. Dick, Valis
When we travelled through all five continents to make our new 1 Giant leap film and album What About Me? All we took with us was our little laptop studio and a digital film camera.
Our mission was to get our favourite musicians from around the world to sing along or play along with our music. With Duncan’s customised rig we could set up and record without any electricity in as diverse locations as rural villages of Africa, mountaintops in China and even the roof of Michael Stipe’s apartment in New York City.
All the musicians could hear our music as they played and sang and jammed along with musicians in faraway countries they’d never been to. Without the scary red light of the normal recording studio and with the intimacy of hanging out in their village or home as we worked, it created such a chilled out atmosphere that the musicians gave us immediate, fresh performances and firm friendships were formed even though we often didn’t even speak the same language.
As we travelled, we interviewed the most inspiring thinkers and talkers we could find to chat to us about the big subjects of life. The music had taught us that despite our surface-level differences, no matter where you’re from, there is so much more that unites us than divides us, and the profound conversations we enjoyed about Sex, God, Money, Death, Love proved that – there really is Unity in All That Diversity.
Manifesto
We want to put our own selves into the work. We want to create a movement of introspection and self-inquiry where the viewer becomes the subject of the piece. It’s about you. If we dare to show ourselves in all our raw glory, and really express what’s going on in the chaos and the shadows, then we have a chance to connect to something real in our audience. Because when I talk about me, you’ll hear about you.
We need to collectively admit that we’re not fine. We’re not confident and balanced and good. We turn up to work every day pretending we’re not neurotic and obsessed and insatiable and full of doubt. And we waste so much energy keeping up this mutual pretence for each other because we think if people saw the truth, if people really knew what was going on in your head, all the crazy truth of your dark appetites and self-loathing, then you’d get rejected.
But, in fact, the opposite is true. It’s when we dare to reveal the truth that we unwittingly give everyone else permission to do the same. To stop holding their breath for a moment and actually come into the room. To be here, present, vulnerable and authentic.
We’re on a mission to make selfreflection hip for just a moment, just long enough to save us. If we can all collectively acknowledge our insanity, shrug and roll our eyes at each other at how nuts it is being a human, let alone having to pretend every day that we’re ‘normal’, the amount of energy we’ll inherit that has been wasted on the mask will be enough to creatively solve any global crisis”.
1 Giant Leap
