Nash the Slash Rises Again!

NASH THE SLASH RISES AGAIN! is a documentary feature film about the ground-breaking electronic music genius. We need your help getting it finished. Everyone who donates gets a small dopamine rush, a thanks on social media, and their name in the credits. You have a chance to make a real impact, and once the film is finished you can honestly say that it couldn't have happened without you.

You probably already know who Nash the Slash is. If you don't, Nash was a unique musician who straddled the worlds of punk rock, prog-rock, classical and industrial (before it had a name.) He is considered a groundbreaker in contemporary music circles. Nash passed away in 2014 after a 40 year+ career.

Debuting in 1975, Nash the Slash used (then unheard of) tape-loops, a drum machine run through fx pedals, a glockenspiel, and an electric violin and mandolin to create a live score for the legendary 1929 Salvador Dali/Luis Bunuel surrealist film, Un Chien Andalou.

Photo by Paul TIl

His mysterious persona intrigued audiences world-wide, an analog one-man band that proved his creativity. He had fearless integrity: when Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour offered to lay down a guitar track for Nash's 1980 release, Children of the Night, Nash's reponse was "No guitars!"

He loved collaborating with other artists. His Two Artist shows with painter Robert VanDerhorst drew thousands of people who watched Nash interpret the surreal paintings live; he inspired comic-book artist Matt Howarth's creation The Simultaneous Man ; Creem writer Jeffrey Morgan used artistic licence to help Nash spin his mythology; artist Jungle Ling always snuck an image of Nash into his public murals; and photographer Paul Till was Nash's personal photographer for his entire career. Toronto promoter Gary Topp was a creative partner who helped invent the mysterious persona, and visual artist Stephen Pollard designed his eye-opening sets and played a huge part in the look.

Nash the Slash was the first musician in Canada to create his own record company, self-manage and self-promote. He conjured up an allure of mystery by managing to keep his true identity a secret known only to a few trusted people from 1978 until the interent spoiled it in the '90's. He had others secrets that were more personal. He wowed influential musicians like Gary Numan and Iggy Pop, and toured the world.

He was a founding member of the influential prog-rock-electronic band FM, releasing Black Noise, an album Rolling Stone listed as one of the top fifty prog-rock records of all time. Infamous US music critic Lester Bangs has declared "Nash the Slash is the kind of opening act that makes the headliner work that much harder."

Photo of Lester Bang by Roberta Bailey

Executive Producer/co-writer Colin Brunton (Schitt's Creek, Cube, Highway 61) was a close friend of Nash: they met when Colin worked at Toronto's rep movie theatre, The Original 99 Cent Roxy. Nash lived in an apartment behind the projection booth. Colin hooked up with Side Three Media to bring Nash's story to light.

Production has been ongoing for six years. $50K from an original crowd-funding campaign and $25K from The Slaight Family Fund has got us to near completion. We need your help to finish it.

We need $75,000.00

This is how it breaks down:

Music rights $5,500.00

TV/Film licenses $34,621.00

Sound design $1000.00

Post picture lab/sound mix $17,125.00

Legals $6541.00

Publicity $3891.00

Insurance $4321.00

Accounting/audit $4200.00

As our campaign progresses, we'll update you on exactly how we're spending your donation. It pretty much goes in order of the list above: i.e. once we get $40K, we can finalize music rights and licensing agreements for footage; the next $18K would go towards the picture and sound mix, etc.

This campaign is just one way we're trying to get our completion funds. We’ve also applied to arts councils, but we're not banking on it.

Any donation you can make gets us closer to the finish line.

Please consider helping.

Sincerely,

Colin Brunton

Kevan Byrne

Leanne Davies

Tim Kowalski