For three years he did not leave, although substantial documentation suggests that he somehow managed to move to England and Germany during the period in question. When asked about the physical impossibility of said events, he only grins a silent and somewhat infuriating grin; and so we shall not press the issue. It remains, in any case, that three years later he emerged from his room with a guitar, a microphone, (a few used, transcontinental ticket-stubs) and a glint in his eye. He said, to no one in particular, “I have a story in my head. Let’s make a record.” His younger siblings, who weren’t doing anything in particular at the moment, said, “ Ok.”

And thus was born The Cinematic Underground, whose colourful cast of international characters included a film composer, a classically-trained piano instructor, a log-cabin builder, a high-school student, a dancer, a grade-school teacher, a reluctant actor, an architect, a failed novelist, an illustrator and a landscape gardener.

All of whom were also multi-instrumentalists.

After recording the concept-narrative Annasthesia, the band promptly spread itself across New York, Boston, the Rocky Mountains and England (where Mr. Johnson had this time incontestably moved). The Cinematic Underground then passed their collective time writing, recording, painting, designing a fashion boutique and composing the original score for the award-winning Sundance film, Brick.

Everyone was moderately happy for two years. Some failed in romantic relationships, some grew weary in vocations, and then the log-cabin builder married the piano instructor, which seemed to make them both happier.

After developing the live show in the U.K. all the members of The
Cinematic Underground stopped whatever they were doing and relocated to Boston in order to finally bring the epic stage-production of their critically-acclaimed debut to life. Drawing inspiration from the theatre, architectural theory, archaic literary structure, and children’s book illustrations, they set out to present the story of Annasthesia live: a precise tragedy of the recent past told through the combination of many artistic disciplines; a concert resembling a novel; a nerve-touching autopsy of existence:

a story of love and escape