I first met L’Orange at a summer camp when I was about 14 years old. He was one of the strangest people I’d ever met. He was morose, and misanthropic, but so funny. I became fascinated by the way he saw the world. His views on his own mental illness, music, and life itself were so different than anyone else I knew. We became fast friends and that friendship continues 20 years later.

Over the years I watched as his career as a musician really took off. The dichotomy of his expanding fame, and his unique personality, were really interesting to me. I started bugging him about the idea of making a documentary about his life in early 2014. He thought it was a very stupid idea and wasn’t shy about telling me that. However, after a year, I wore him down. His only request was that he have no creative involvement. He didn’t want to see the film until I was finished with it.

Then, a few weeks later, I gave him a call and immediately could sense that something was wrong. He told me earlier that day, he had started bleeding out of his ear and it wouldn’t stop. It was a scary moment. But once he confirmed that he would allow me to continue on with the project, I realized that it would allow me to reframe the film. Instead of feeling like I had to make a comprehensive biopic that covered L’Orange’s entire life story, the film could instead, be a portrait of an artist during a very specific window of time. A period of intense change in his life. I think the film became more complex and interesting because of the adversity that he was going through at the time. And I’m really grateful for the vulnerability and openness that L’Orange displayed while we were shooting him.