Introducing 'Backyards'
Paul Covington Discusses His New LA Teen Rock Documentary
As a teen, I decided that one key to a happy life was to surround yourself with people doing cool stuff.
I’m happy to report that’s mostly held true, and my longtime friend Paul Covington is a great example. While I was still off chasing rock and roll dreams throughout my 20s, Paul was already building an impressive film editing career. Check out his IMDB page, or take my word for it that his credits include everything from Waiting For Guffman to The Rookie and 30 Days of Night.
More recently, he published his 2021 debut novel, Last Song of the Death Birds, and produced/edited the 2023 Jack Grisham documentary Ignore Heroes: The True Sounds of Liberty. Paul’s a multi-talented guy, an old school SoCal punker, and one of the first people I call when I want to see a random LA club show these days.
So, I wasn’t totally surprised when he told me about his latest project, a documentary capturing LA’s vibrant grassroots teen rock circuit. The first trailer for Backyards: LA’s Gen Z Music Scene arrived last week as part of a modest Seed & Spark fundraising campaign and it looks amazing. (Contribute a little if you can, I did!)
He first found out about this teen scene from his music-loving high schooler…who later joined the film crew.
“I began toying with the idea of learning about these young bands and their fans in documentary form in summer 2024. I am the parent of a high school senior, and she was asking permission to attend these shows in far-flung places like Mount Washington, Hidden Ranch, and Altadena,” he told me for the interview below.
“My daughter, Ainslie, conducted several of the interviews and wrote the questions. She’s been sort of a stalking horse, sending her in to soften up the bands so that we old crusties can then go in and get some good footage.”
I caught up with Paul by email to find out more about Backyards, who else is involved with this rock doc, what inspired the film, when it will be completed, and what he and the team hopes to do with it.
Paul Covington Interview
The trailer for Backyards looks amazing!
Paul Covington: We are pretty happy with the trailer, and thank you for the compliment. Both songs in the trailer are from artists in the movie: one is by While We Sleep, from La Canada, and the second is by Forsythia, from Eagle Rock. I wanted the trailer to present visually what an incredible scene this is, hoping for people to be as surprised as I was to see a hundred high schoolers creating a dozen micro Gilmans.
What inspired you to make this documentary?
Paul Covington: Having some experience with DIY shows myself, I was naturally apprehensive. Ainslie would come home saying there were people moshing (I term I loathe), it was all high school kids, no one was drinking, smoking, or taking drugs, and the host’s parents were home. She was having a grand old time.
I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Then in June of ’24, one of these shows was taking place at my/our friend Marko’s house, in Altadena, because his daughter Sienna was the show promoter/organizer/host, and I decided to stick around for a few minutes and watch the bands after dropping off Ainslie and her friend.
It must have been pretty eye-opening since it inspired a full documentary about the area’s backyard music scene.
Paul Covington: I was very surprised by what I saw. I went to college at UCSB and there were several bands playing free shows every night of the week there, and almost all of them were just people blowing off steam, getting wasted, and having a laugh. So I didn’t expect much from high school bands. And I was blown away, frankly. That first show was Forsythia, While We Sleep, Missing Wiba, and Lena Joy & Tetra, all of whom we are covering in the movie.
Ainslie and I shot some video that night, but what I didn’t have was a hook. Yes, these are young people creating a music scene out of thin air, but it wasn’t until January of this year when the Eaton Fire destroyed Altadena that I realized the fleeting nature of beauty and youth would be the hook. Like Joan Jett and Jawbreaker said, ‘you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone.’
I’m a firm believer that music changes people’s lives. If it hasn’t, you haven’t listened to the right music yet.
In my day, music was something that allowed us to divide into factions, and allowed you to be able to tell from a distance if someone was going to be interesting to talk to and be a potential friend. Today’s kids don’t organize the same way. They also have to do very little work in order to hear great music, as it’s served up as a Smorgasbord for them on Spotify. One thing that surprised me is how so many of the artists I love are also adored by these teens: Joni Mitchell, Blur, The Smiths, The Sundays, My Bloody Valentine, but the north star for most of them is Elliott Smith. The guys in Birdhouse were talking to us about Lou Reed and Patti Smith! It blew my mind. The only artist who is on a different planet in terms of musical touchstones, is Finn from Persona Non Grata, who is something of a prodigy. He talks about transposing free jazz trumpet solos to play on guitar. You have to see him!
How and when did you personally get into music?
Paul Covington: I went to my first concert when I was in 5th grade. There were huge crowds, huge stage productions, VIP areas, backstage, and all the rest. It wasn’t until my first couple of punk rock shows, in 10th grade, that I saw a different way of doing things. The Vandals, Circle Jerks, Youth Brigade, Mad Parade, Tales Of Terror, Detox. Casey Royer said he liked my shirt. The guys in Plain Wrap bought me a beer (I was 15). The guys in Channel 3 showed up and looked extremely cool but were friendly. There were no backstage areas, there were no VIP sections. There was no separation between audience and performer: we were all on the same level.
Shawn Stern was selling Youth Brigade shirts for $7 but I only had $5, and he sold one to me anyway. There was a spirit of community, that we were all on the same team, and it was a scene full of energy and excitement and possibility, and when I went into the massive pit at the Olympic Auditorium and survived, I felt like I had completed an initiation ritual into a secret club. There were also people like Jack Grisham of T.S.O.L. who were always ready to answer a fan letter, and who personified this idea of us all being in this together.
All that is to say that I wanted to encourage, support, promote, and glorify this DIY backyard scene in any way I could. As a filmmaker, I felt that making a film that would hopefully inspire kids who aren’t lucky enough to live in LA would be worthwhile.
Who else is involved in the film? How did you collect the footage?
Paul Covington: We are a small but dedicated crew. My two main co-conspirators are my daughter Ainslie, and my friend Keith Myers. Without Ainslie’s involvement, I don’t think I would have been able to get these bands to open up the way they did.
Keith has brought his passion (and I do mean passion!) for cameras and photography to this project, but it’s not only gear but his creativity that complements my narrow focus. Keith is an absolute riot, full of energy, full of life, ready for anything. Fortunately he’s got a great eye and is an amazing DP.
We have also been supported on occasion by my son Cian, who is in college, and Ainslie’s friend Chloe Tubbs. They have helped with photography, slating, carrying gear, a whole number of things.
There seem to be a lot of indie teen bands popping up in LA. How did you select only a handful to focus on for the doc?
Paul Covington: There really are a ton of teen bands, something I didn’t think was possible, but was glad to see was true. The interconnectivity of this scene means any one band is only one or two degrees of separation away from any other band. So for instance, the bands I saw at Sienna’s house play shows all the time with a rotating list of compatriots, and I simply found the flyers for past shows, then looked up those bands on Instagram to find out if I liked their music.
I wanted there to be a wide variation in sound in this movie, and there is. There’s pretty much something for almost everybody. Word of mouth and reputation also came into it. When we talked to the first couple of bands—Missing Wiba, Persona Non Grata, Buglikehug—they were referencing a bunch of the other bands and insisting we should go talk to them.
In that sense it’s very much like the old punk rock days. The creeps get weeded out pretty fast because nobody wants to work with them.
In speaking with the bands, were you able to pinpoint any of the factors that have led to this latest underground rock resurgence?
Paul Covington: In broad strokes, what has led to this indie rock youthquake is the same thing responsible for most crimes: opportunity and boredom. The opportunity came into play by many of these teens attending performing arts high schools, such as CS Arts, Sequoyah, etc.
These teens also had parental support, which is vastly underrated. One of our acts, Mae Mae, was 15 when we interviewed her and already out playing shows. That doesn’t happen without having cool parents. Unlike some of the bands I like, these kids didn’t have to go steal their instruments or rob churches to get their sound systems: their parents paid for top end gear.
The boredom side of it comes into it because these teens, like all teens before them, want to have fun. This particular Gen Z subset differs from those that came before in a couple of notable ways, including COVID robbing them of a year of social interaction, their general lack of interest in doing adult things early (like dating, drinking alcohol, taking risks), and their own caution due to having every waking moment documented on social media.
Gen Z in LA needed a place to go let loose, and so they created it. One of our artists, Charlotte Door, was very frank in saying that COVID was absolutely the worst for her because she loves being around people, and I think that was common to many of them.
Did you speak with any of the parents who own these homes?
Paul Covington: I spoke with one mom at a Glendale show, but other than that, nope. We are sort of like those Peanuts cartoons where there are no adults seen. I didn’t want any of the parents to spoil the magic I was seeing by mentioning something mundane and quotidian that I was viewing as exceptional. Like, when I see two high schoolers in a band called Dot Org performing music that sounds like a cross between Suicide and Sonic Boom, I am amazed; I don’t want a parent telling me it’s because they force-fed their kids a diet of those bands.
When do you expect Backyards to debut?
Paul Covington: We should have principal photography wrapped by midsummer, and the editing done by October. It will be ready to be viewed hopefully by the end of the year, but a lot of finishing work (like sound design, color grading, etc.) has to be done before that can happen.
Will you submit Backyards to film festivals?
Paul Covington: We 100% plan on taking a swing at all the big festivals. I have had some experience with festivals and they can be not only a great way to get exposure but also just a lot of fun to get out and show your movie.
We are aiming to take this as big as possible because I firmly believe the bands we feature are future stars, and this moment in time when they are still their pure selves, without having evolved into their final forms, will be truly compelling viewing.
And hopefully it is also wildly inspirational for any teens who get to see it. Just like the punk bands that would finish their sets and say, “Now go start your own band”…that’s what I hope this film accomplishes.
Any plans to release a compilation of all the featured bands?
Paul Covington: I love limited edition colored vinyl, so of course I’ve been toying with the idea of an album release featuring these bands. I think it would be a pretty great collection.
This is amazing. I love everything about this. Fantastic shit. Great work, y'all.
Paul is a badass! This is a fantastic project! Who needs a backyard to play in? Hit me up.