Stuart Murdoch – the primary songwriter and singer of ultra-fey chamber pop ensemble Belle & Sebastian – has written an original film that is being planned as a musical scheduled for production in 2009 according to the British music rag, NME.
Titled, “God Help The Girl,” Murdoch is currently working on demos for the soundtrack with members of B&S, but the twee-pop singer is also looking for other vocalists to contribute to the project. Guest singers so far include Catherine Ireton (the female on the cover of the “White Collar Boy” single), Celia Garcia, Gary Olsen and Alex Klobouk (the star of the B&S “Wrapped Up In Books” video and a The Life Pursuit cover girl).
Three demos can be heard on the film’s myspace page including a reworked version of The Life Pursuit’s “Funny Little Frog,” sung by Ireton (or you can hear two cuts below).
As part of Murdoch’s search for vocalists, winners from a recent ‘God Help The Girl’ singing competition at Imeem will be flying to Glasgow to do some rehearsing and recording in early 2008. Males are being sought as well, but the results are on hold for now (the females winner were Brittany Stallings and Dina Bankole and you can see/hear their auditions on these links).
Once the singers are in place Murdoch hopes to start recording in Spring of 2008 and says the film will start production in 2009 (wait, what if he doesn’t find any other good singers?). Let’s just hope it’s better than “Once” (overrated, sorry) and far far more tolerable than “Dream Girls.” More information on the film is expected to be delivered on the Belle & Sebastian website in the upcoming months. [via Paste]
