A film I really dug

A San Diegan for 20 years, Jason Blackmore (White Mule, Molly McGuire) plowed his way through the music scene, then decided to direct films. His Records Collecting Dust documentary focused on the vinyl collections and passions of musicians from SD and elsewhere on the west coast; his new one Records Collecting Dust II, moves out east. He took some questions over email.

Which San Diego bands have you played in?

Since moving to San Diego I’ve played in Black Bunny, Cinnamon Star, the Incredible Moses Leroy, Kingdom Of Snakes, Sirhan Sirhan, Rats Eyes, Otro, and Death Eyes. I think that’s it?

Which movies made you want to make movies?

I’ve always loved music-related documentary films. Anything related to rock music, punk or hip-hop. I was obsessed with the Woodstock film as a young kid. Well, I was completely obsessed with anything that Jimi Hendrix was a part of.

Then I heard about the Sex Pistols and Sid Vicious and my attention shifted to them at a certain point. I was also a Kiss kid. You have to keep in mind that I was born in 1970. Anyhow, I basically came up with the idea to do a film because I didn’t want to start yet another band. Ha! But I wanted to do something different. I thought, “Hey, making a film about music could be cool!” And here we are.

Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park. Decline of Western Civilization. Spinal Tap. And then seeing American Hardcore. That was a film that I really dug and that I related to. I remember watching it and thinking to myself “I can do that!”

How did you go about making the first film?

Justin Pearson was the very first interview. I basically just hit these dudes up and explained the concept to them, and everyone was pretty much down to do it. I more or less knew these people before interviewing them. Whether I had casually met them at a local bar, or one of my bands maybe had played with one of their bands. Or maybe I had kicked them out of the Turf Club at some point. All super rad people.