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Today, I had a real blast talking to Michael Panik the creator of Thrift Store Symphony.
Thrift Store Symphony is a feature-length, non-profit documentary film about thrift stores and thrift store culture. It’s the story of us, the way our consumer-culture world drives us to buy the things we don’t need, and get rid of what we have, even when it’s perfectly functional. We believe that you alone give value to an object, and truly, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Simply put, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. And we like to think of ourselves as treasure hunters.
Beyond that, we want to remind people that you don’t need lots of money to have the things you want, just a little know-how, a little cash, some spirit, and a day at a few thrift stores.
To explore these ideas about thrifting and thrift store culture, we will be interviewing those who run, shop at, work at, and own thrift stores, to get to the very heart of non-profit retailers.
Additionally, we’re taking a (roughly) two-week road trip in the summer of 2015 to nine different major cities in the Southern and Mid-Western United States, and visiting the thrift stores there. At each store we visit, we will find all the second-hand instruments, noisemakers, toys, pots and pans, etc. that we can use. Coupled with one instrument each of our choosing, a mobile recording rig, and a small bag of drum sticks, shakers, mouthpieces, and more, we will record one song at each store we visit. The result will be an album of pop-centric, fun music that upholds our ideals of junk and beauty.
