Christian Hejnal
Encyclopedia
Christian Hejnal - Addams (born June 3, 1969) is an American visual effects
producer and the guitarist and occasional vocalist of the Los Angeles
-based rock band Scarling.
's "Queen of the Damned (film)
",
In 2001 Hejnal began work on a solo album. He invited singer Jessicka
, whom he had met some months before at a Los Angeles club through mutual friend Lisa Leveridge, to perform vocals on a track he had written; they began recording and rehearsing together and eventually recruited the musicians who would form Scarling. in 2002.
In the autumn of 2004, after releasing their first album Sweet Heart Dealer
, Scarling. was invited to join the lineup of the Robert Smith
-curated Curiosa
Festival, performing on select West Coast dates alongside Interpol
, The Rapture
, Mogwai
, and he and Jessicka's long-time favorite, The Cure
. Smith described the band's music as "dark, desperate, chaotic, gorgeous pop music, the sound of the end of the world" and "Sweet Heart Dealer" was nominated for the 2004 Shortlist Music Prize
.
After a series of 7" singles on Sympathy, Scarling. announced in early 2005 that their second album, So Long, Scarecrow
, would appear later that year; it was preceded by the single "We Are The Music Makers" and was released on August 23, 2005. Scarecrow was co-produced by Rob Campanella
and received several favorable reviews.
Alternative Press
gave the album a 5 out of 5 rating and described Hejnal as a, "guitar physicist who holds court over these atmospheric rockers’ second album, approximating everything from space-station climates to sperm whales rollin’ on E, all while delivering solid songs."
In 2006 Hejnal continued to tour in the US and Europe with Scarling. Along the way, touring with such bands as UK shoegaze outfit Amusement Parks on Fire
and opening for The Wedding Present
and Depeche Mode
. Scarling. are currently working on their new album.
, starting out as a production assistant on The Ninth Gate
and Hollow Man
. In 2000 he became a visual effects coordinator on the film Charlie's Angels
, and completed work as the visual effects plate coordinator on Spider-Man
, and as a Digital Production Manager for the films Spider-Man 2
, Darkness Falls
and The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
which stars Julianne Moore
and Woody Harrelson
. Currently, he is working as a digital
effects film producer
and is credited as such on the films Grandma's Boy, the Adam Sandler
film Click, Spider-Man 3
, Hancock
. Tim Burton
's Alice in Wonderland (2010 film)
, and 2011's The Green Hornet
.
) while on a break from touring, he and Jessicka were engaged. Their wedding took place on October 13, 2007 at the Oviatt Penthouse in Los Angeles and was attended by numerous celebrities. The couple took Addams as their new surname.
Visual effects
Visual effects are the various processes by which imagery is created and/or manipulated outside the context of a live action shoot. Visual effects involve the integration of live-action footage and generated imagery to create environments which look realistic, but would be dangerous, costly, or...
producer and the guitarist and occasional vocalist of the Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
-based rock band Scarling.
Scarling.
Scarling. is an American alternative rock band from Los Angeles, whose core members are Jessicka and Christian Hejnal-Addams. The band formed in 2002. They have released two albums, Sweet Heart Dealer and So Long, Scarecrow.-Name:...
Musical career
In the early 1990s, he played in bands such as Candyhateful (previously known as the Brats) and The Drummed. Candyhateful's song "Stay Down" was featured in the 2000 film adaptation of Anne RiceAnne Rice
Anne Rice is a best-selling Southern American author of metaphysical gothic fiction, Christian literature and erotica from New Orleans, Louisiana. Her books have sold nearly 100 million copies, making her one of the most widely read authors in modern history...
's "Queen of the Damned (film)
Queen of the Damned (film)
Queen of the Damned is a 2002 film adaptation of the third novel of Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series, The Queen of the Damned, although the film contains many plot elements from the latter novel's predecessor, The Vampire Lestat. It stars Aaliyah as the vampire queen Akasha, and Stuart...
",
In 2001 Hejnal began work on a solo album. He invited singer Jessicka
Jessicka
Jessicka Addams is an American singer and artist. Best known by her stage name Jessicka, she was the front woman of Florida based band Jack Off Jill and current front for the Los Angeles based band Scarling.-Early life:Jessicka grew up in the town of Sunrise, Florida...
, whom he had met some months before at a Los Angeles club through mutual friend Lisa Leveridge, to perform vocals on a track he had written; they began recording and rehearsing together and eventually recruited the musicians who would form Scarling. in 2002.
In the autumn of 2004, after releasing their first album Sweet Heart Dealer
Sweet Heart Dealer
Sweet Heart Dealer is the debut album by the rock band Scarling., released on February 17, 2004. Originally scheduled for release as Butcherbourne, the album was retitled at the last minute, and pared down from 11 tracks to seven during mixing at Old Blue Studios in Los Angeles...
, Scarling. was invited to join the lineup of the Robert Smith
Robert Smith (musician)
Robert James Smith is an English musician. He is the lead singer, guitar player and principal songwriter of the rock band The Cure, and its only constant member since its founding in 1976...
-curated Curiosa
Curiosa
Curiosa is the name of a 2004 concert tour in the United States and Toronto , organized by Robert Smith of The Cure. It began with a concert in West Palm Beach, Florida on July 24 and ended in Sacramento, California on August 29....
Festival, performing on select West Coast dates alongside Interpol
Interpol (band)
Interpol is an American indie rock and post-punk revival band from New York City. Formed in 1997, the band's original line-up consisted of Paul Banks , Daniel Kessler , Carlos Dengler and Greg Drudy . Drudy left the band in 2000 and was replaced by Sam Fogarino...
, The Rapture
The Rapture (band)
The Rapture is an Indie rock band based in New York City. The band mixes influences from many genres including post-punk, acid house, disco, electronica and rock, pioneering the post-punk revival genre...
, Mogwai
Mogwai
The word mogwai is the transliteration of the Cantonese word 魔怪 meaning "monster", "evil spirit", "devil" or "demon".-Mogwai/Mogui in Chinese culture:...
, and he and Jessicka's long-time favorite, The Cure
The Cure
The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member...
. Smith described the band's music as "dark, desperate, chaotic, gorgeous pop music, the sound of the end of the world" and "Sweet Heart Dealer" was nominated for the 2004 Shortlist Music Prize
Shortlist Music Prize
The Shortlist Music Prize, stylized as , was an annual music award for the best album released in the United States that had sold fewer than 500,000 copies at the time of nomination...
.
After a series of 7" singles on Sympathy, Scarling. announced in early 2005 that their second album, So Long, Scarecrow
So Long, Scarecrow
So Long, Scarecrow is the second album by the rock band Scarling. Written and recorded in early 2005, and released on October 25, 2005, it is the first Scarling. album to feature drummer Beth Gordon...
, would appear later that year; it was preceded by the single "We Are The Music Makers" and was released on August 23, 2005. Scarecrow was co-produced by Rob Campanella
Rob Campanella
Rob Campanella is a musician, best known as a Los Angeles producer, engineer, and member of The Quarter After.-Producer, Engineer:Rob has produced and engineered albums for his own band The Quarter After, and for clients including Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Tyde, Beachwood Sparks, Goldrush, ...
and received several favorable reviews.
Alternative Press
Alternative Press (music magazine)
Alternative Press is an American music magazine based in Cleveland, Ohio. It generally provides readers with band interviews, photos, information on upcoming releases, and music charts. It was founded in 1985 by Mike Shea, who is the current president....
gave the album a 5 out of 5 rating and described Hejnal as a, "guitar physicist who holds court over these atmospheric rockers’ second album, approximating everything from space-station climates to sperm whales rollin’ on E, all while delivering solid songs."
In 2006 Hejnal continued to tour in the US and Europe with Scarling. Along the way, touring with such bands as UK shoegaze outfit Amusement Parks on Fire
Amusement Parks on Fire
Amusement Parks on Fire are a shoegaze band from Nottingham, England.The band was formed by Michael Feerick in 2004, who wrote and performed all the instruments for the self-titled debut album...
and opening for The Wedding Present
The Wedding Present
The Wedding Present are a British indie rock group based in Leeds, England, formed in 1985 from the ashes of the Lost Pandas. The band's music has evolved from fast-paced indie rock in the vein of their most obvious influences The Fall, Buzzcocks and Gang of Four to more varied forms...
and Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan , Martin Gore , Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke...
. Scarling. are currently working on their new album.
Film career
In addition to his work with Scarling, since 1999, Hejnal has worked for Sony Pictures ImageworksSony Pictures Imageworks
Sony Pictures Imageworks, Inc. is a visual effects and character animation company headquartered in Culver City, California, USA. SPI is a division of Sony Pictures Digital Productions, which oversees the digital production and online entertainment assets of Sony Pictures Entertainment.The company...
, starting out as a production assistant on The Ninth Gate
The Ninth Gate
The Ninth Gate is a 1999 horror film directed, produced, and co-written by Roman Polanski. It is a neo-noir, occult mystery thriller involving the rare book business, wherein rare-book dealer Dean Corso is hired by bibliophile Boris Balkan to validate a seventeenth-century copy of The Nine Gates...
and Hollow Man
Hollow Man
Hollow Man is a 2000 American science fiction thriller film directed by Paul Verhoeven and starring Elisabeth Shue, Kevin Bacon, and Josh Brolin. The film is about a scientist who renders himself invisible, a story inspired by H. G. Wells' The Invisible Man. The film was nominated for an Academy...
. In 2000 he became a visual effects coordinator on the film Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels (film)
Charlie's Angels is a 2000 American action comedy film directed by McG, starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu as three women working for a private investigation agency...
, and completed work as the visual effects plate coordinator on Spider-Man
Spider-Man (film)
Spider-Man is a 2002 American superhero film, the first in the Spider-Man film series based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. It was directed by Sam Raimi and written by David Koepp...
, and as a Digital Production Manager for the films Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 2 is a 2004 American superhero film directed by Sam Raimi, written by Alvin Sargent and developed by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Michael Chabon. It is the second film in the Spider-Man film franchise based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man...
, Darkness Falls
Darkness Falls (2003 film)
Darkness Falls is a 2003 American horror film written by Joe Harris and John Fasano and directed by Jonathan Liebesman.-Plot:The story of the town Darkness Falls, begins with the legend of a widow, Matilda Dixon, who was adored by all the town's children...
and The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio is a 2005 film written and directed by Jane Anderson, based on the book by Terry "Tuff" Ryan. The DVD was released on March 14, 2006.-Plot:...
which stars Julianne Moore
Julianne Moore
Julianne Moore is an American actress and a children's book author. Throughout her career, she has been nominated for four Oscars, six Golden Globes, three BAFTAs and nine Screen Actors Guild Awards....
and Woody Harrelson
Woody Harrelson
Woodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson is an American actor.Harrelson's breakthrough role came in the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd...
. Currently, he is working as a digital
Digital
A digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...
effects film producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
and is credited as such on the films Grandma's Boy, the Adam Sandler
Adam Sandler
Adam Richard Sandler is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, musician, and film producer.After becoming a Saturday Night Live cast member, Sandler went on to star in several Hollywood feature films that grossed over $100 million at the box office...
film Click, Spider-Man 3
Spider-Man 3
Spider-Man 3 is a 2007 American superhero film written and directed by Sam Raimi, with a screenplay by Ivan Raimi and Alvin Sargent. It is the third film in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man...
, Hancock
Hancock (film)
Hancock is a 2008 American action-comedy superhero film directed by Peter Berg and starring Will Smith, Jason Bateman, and Charlize Theron. It tells the story of a vigilante superhero, John Hancock from Los Angeles whose reckless actions routinely cost the city millions of dollars...
. Tim Burton
Tim Burton
Timothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...
's Alice in Wonderland (2010 film)
Alice in Wonderland (2010 film)
Alice in Wonderland is a 2010 American computer-animated/live action fantasy adventure film directed by Tim Burton, written by Linda Woolverton, and released by Walt Disney Pictures...
, and 2011's The Green Hornet
The Green Hornet
The Green Hornet is an American radio and television masked vigilante created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, with input from radio director James Jewell, in 1936. Since his radio debut in the 1930s, the Green Hornet has appeared in numerous serialized dramas in a wide variety of media...
.
Personal life
On February 14, 2006, (Valentine's DayValentine's Day
Saint Valentine's Day, commonly shortened to Valentine's Day, is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496...
) while on a break from touring, he and Jessicka were engaged. Their wedding took place on October 13, 2007 at the Oviatt Penthouse in Los Angeles and was attended by numerous celebrities. The couple took Addams as their new surname.
Albums/CDs
- Scarling., Sweet Heart DealerSweet Heart DealerSweet Heart Dealer is the debut album by the rock band Scarling., released on February 17, 2004. Originally scheduled for release as Butcherbourne, the album was retitled at the last minute, and pared down from 11 tracks to seven during mixing at Old Blue Studios in Los Angeles...
, album (2004) — writer, guitar, bass, vocals - Scarling., So Long, ScarecrowSo Long, ScarecrowSo Long, Scarecrow is the second album by the rock band Scarling. Written and recorded in early 2005, and released on October 25, 2005, it is the first Scarling. album to feature drummer Beth Gordon...
, album (2005) — writer, producer, guitar, vocals
Singles and EPs
- Scarling., Band Aid Covers the Bullet HoleBand Aid Covers the Bullet Hole"Band Aid Covers the Bullet Hole" is the first single by Los Angeles, California rock band Scarling. It was released in the USA on 7" vinyl on March 19, 2003 on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label, and on compact disc on December 16....
(7", Sympathy for the Record IndustrySympathy for the Record IndustrySympathy for the Record Industry is a mainly independent garage rock and punk label formed in 1988 by record industry anti-mogul Long Gone John...
2003)— writer, vocals - Scarling., Band Aid Covers the Bullet Hole (CD, Sympathy for the Record Industry, 2003) — guitar, vocals
- Scarling., Crispin GloverCrispin Glover (single)"Crispin Glover" is the second single from Scarling.'s debut album, Sweet Heart Dealer. It was released in the USA on two separate 7" vinyl records on November 7, 2004 on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label...
(7", Sympathy for the Record Industry, 2004) — guitar, vocals - Scarling., Crispin Glover (7", Sympathy for the Record Industry, 2004) — guitar, vocals
- Scarling., Scarling. / The Willowz' (split 7", Sympathy for the Record Industry, 2005) — guitar, vocals
- Scarling., "Staring To The SunStaring to the Sun"Staring to the Sun" is the band Scarling.'s fourth single and it was released on June 6, 2006. "Staring to the Sun" seems to be a sister song to So Long, Scarecrow's title track as the two songs share multiple lines of lyrics....
" (CD, Sympathy for the Record Indus
External links
- Sony Picture Imageworks bio
- Scarling's MySpace
- Scarling. official website