InDreama plays Friday night at Reverb Lounge.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The InDreama show at Reverb isn’t until Friday night but Nik Fackler let me know the band just dropped its first single in forever, called “Poison House.” Check it out. It’s four minutes of bouncy psych-rock candy with a drop of madness in the middle.

The band features Fackler on guitar and vocals, Aaron Gum, Dereck Higgins and new members Ryan Menchaca and super-guitarist Jacob Cubby Phillips.

“We (Aaron Gum and Higgins) enjoyed doing the one-show-a-year thing over the last five years,” Fackler said, “but over the last few year we really started to accumulate a lot of new songs. Then with the recent addition of Ryan Menchaca and Cubby, things really felt solid as a live band.”

For Fackler, whose known as much as a filmmaker as a musician, InDreama has become a creative escape. “It is nice to have a project that can be any genre and just be there for you when you want to just sit down one night and write a weird song without any mold it’s trying to fit in,” he said.

The itch to make new music began to build over the last few years of writing screenplays and preparing to shoot a new feature film. “I currently have three film projects in development (one finished, one in rewrites, and one still writing),” Fackler said. “The process of writing is so incredibly time consuming and you never really feel complete until the film is released, which could take years and years.”

He said he started getting depressed, feeling he hadn’t completed anything in a long time. His last finished project was a video for The Faint’s single “Child Asleep.”

“I needed to create something that I could finish and put out quickly to fill that hole,” Fackler said. “Then InDreama played our annual show and I thought., ‘This is it, it’s time to record an album.’ Music will always have that immediate quality about it.”

So the band spent a day at ARC Studio and is in the process of mixing tracks. “We are shooting for a full-length album,” Fackler said. “We are gonna record a few more tracks next week.  Some late blooms. The idea is to finish the album and release it, while slowly putting out a few singles here and there as we progress.”

All the while, the band will continue to do live shows.

“We are playing more shows to experiment with new ideas as we record and mix,” Fackler said.  “It’s also just great to be on the stage again and embracing the abandonment of reality.”

While I had Fackler’s attention, I asked about the future of his other band, Icky Blossoms. Their last album was 2015’s Mask, released on Saddle Creek Records. Vocalist/instrumentalist Sarah Bohling recently moved to Atlanta. So is the band on permanent hiatus?

“Icky, like Indreama, is hard to ever see ending,” Fackler said. “Derek (Pressnall), Sarah and I are so close that it is hard not to imagine us always working together.”

I asked Nik if Friday’s show is going to be a multi-media experience. “We plan to just rock out on Friday,” he said. “There is a good chance that I will bring in some LED lights. But, in all honesty, if you are on enough mind altering substances – when you see us, the likelihood of seeing things goes way up.”

Ah, Nik, some of us are just high on life.

InDreama plays with Minne Lussa and Glow in the Dark Friday, Jan. 31, at Reverb Lounge. $8, 9 p.m.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2020 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Reality Tbd. runs this Friday and Saturday at Kaneko.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

This Friday and Saturday at Kaneko filmmaker/rock star Nik Fackler (Icky Blossoms, InDreama) and tbd. dance collective are trying out a new way to experience film.

Or maybe I should say “a more immersive way.” You’ve heard about breaking the fourth wall? Fackler wants to crush it.

The project is called Reality Tbd. and marks the world premiere of Nik’s new film Waiting for Reality. It’s going to work like this: The audience will be seated inside Kaneko’s auditorium, which will be separated into four spaces. Nik’s film will be projected on one wall, and at some point in the film, the other walls will come to life with light and dance.

Fackler has created a unique, synchronized lighting experience that augments the film., while the tbd. collective will literally jump off the screen. If that wasn’t enough, the soundtrack is provided by Graham Ulciny (Thick Paint, Icky Blossoms, The Faint), who’s produced five original pieces for the performance.

Nik said the idea was born out of exploring the use of lighting at Icky Blossoms shows. “I asked myself, ‘How do I bring this into film making and cinema?’ It’s an experiment for sure,” he said.

Kat Lessor, Nik’s wife and a member of the tbd. collective, developed the structure of the choreography with fellow dancer Stephanie Huettner. “Nik wrote the script and Steph and I figured out how to create scenes and emotion through movement,” Kat said. “There’s no dialogue.”

Ultimately, the audience will help fill in the story’s blanks. “We wanted it to be vague enough where the audience can project their own storyline by taking what’s going on in their lives and projecting it onto the characters” Nik said.

He said the project began with a script in June. The four-day film shoot took place at five or six locations. The finished film is about a half-hour long, but the entire performance runs from 45 minutes to an hour. Ultimately, the audience (limited to 100 per performance) will have a unique experience from their specific quadrant.

“The experience will be different depending on where you’re seated,” Nik said. “We hope people will come back and see it again to experience from a different perspective.”

This is the first time Fackler has tried this bold experiment, and he’s already talked about trying the screening/performance in other cities after this limited 4-performance engagement at Kaneko ends.

There are two performances of Reality Tbd. Friday and Saturday. Tix are $10. Go to tbddancecollective.org for details. Read more about Fackler and a past Kaneko project here.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

A screen cap from The Faint’s new video for “ESP.” The band plays tonight at Sokol Auditorium.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Halloween on a Monday night is kind of weird. Actually, any holiday on a Monday kind of sucks because you have to go to work (or school) the next morning.

It’s the same problem with great shows on work nights. Like tonight, when The Faint close out their month-long tour with Gang of Four at Sokol Auditorium. Faint shows are always spectacular, and judging by the reviews and photos that have been posted throughout this tour (like this Westword review of Saturday’s show) tonight’s will be no exception.

There are those who pointed out that Gang of Four’s only original member is guitarist/vocalist Andy Gill, and thus discount this as not a true Gang of Four show. More like Gang of One. Regardless, it sounds like they’re as brittle and off-kilter as ever. Do not miss if you can avoid it. Tickets are $28. Pictureplane opens at 8 p.m.

To help you get psyched for tonight’s show, The Faint released a new video for “ESP,” directed by Omaha filmmaker (and member of Icky Blossoms and InDreama) Nik Fackler. This one features choreography by Nik’s wife, Kat. Check it out at Stereogum.

Have a good Halloween…

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2016 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The Faint released what I believe is the third new song off their upcoming CAPSULE:1999-2016 album, out Oct. 28 on Saddle Creek. Consequence of Sound got the honors. This one might be my favorite. The tour kicks off tomorrow in Minneapolis, headed to Omaha and Sokol Auditorium on Halloween.

And yesterday SPIN debuted the video for “Young and Realistic,” the second new song off the new record, directed by Faint frontman Todd Fink and Nik Fackler of Icky Blossoms. It’s creepy.

Feels like old times…

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2016 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Kat and Nik Fackler

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Omaha filmmaker/musician Nik Fackler has been putting his nose to the grindstone working on a number of new film projects. He just finished a script about the music industry, which is in the hands of his agent at William Morris as well as iconic actor Martin Landau, who starred in Fackler’s first feature film, Lovely, Still.

In this month’s Over the Edge column, Nik talks about his film projects, his music (with Icky Blossoms) and working with his wife, Kat, who will be performing this Saturday night at Kaneko (where Nik also will be debuting yet another new film project). The column is in the new  issue of The Reader, on newsstands now, and online right here. Check it out.

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I’m rolling around in my head whether I should buy tickets to tomorrow night’s God Speed You! Black Emperor show at Slowdown. One Percent Productions just posted a “low ticket warning,” saying only 15 percent of tickets remain before it sells out. Here’s the deal: Advance tickets are $22 plus $4.15 service fee for a total of $26.15 right now; or I can wait until tomorrow and get tickets for $25 at the box office.  Do I roll the dice?

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Last week Live @ O’Leaver’s released a handful of new sessions on their illustrious website. Links to these quality recordings are below. Consider them a precursor to what I’ve been told will be three new mammoth sessions to be uploaded to the L@O site this week. Is O’Leaver’s trying to break the Internet?

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2016 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Orenda Fink yesterday released a new video for the song “Ace of Cups” from upcoming album Blue Dream, which comes out on Saddle Creek Records Aug. 19. The video (below) was directed by Nik Fackler (the director of feature films Lovely Still and Sick Birds Die Easy as well as a member of Icky Blossoms and InDreama) and Aaron Gum (also in InDreama). It’s a head trip. Look for cameos by The Faint’s Todd Fink and InDreama’s Dereck Higgins.

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Some Big Star news…. A band is being pulled together to play Big Star’s Third in concert that includes original member Jody Stephens on drums. Joining him are Mike Mills, Mitch Easter (Let’s Active), Chris Stamey (The dB’s) and “guest musicians from each city.” The band will be backed by a chamber orchestra and sets also will include songs from #1 Record. Cities are Carrboro, NC; Washington, DC; Seattle and LA. More info at ardentmusic.com. Ardent recently announced that #1 Record and Radio City are being remastered and rereleased by Stax, with a drop date of Sept. 2. I do love Big Star…

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When in ROAM: Audio Postcards from the Four Corners of the Globe

David Matysiak (Coyote Bones) posted the next installment of his ROAM audio series. This time it’s audio postcards from around the globe. Contributors include Sarah Bohling (Icky Blossoms), Sam Martin (Capgun Coup), Mike Albanese (Maserati), Graham Patrick Ulicny (Reptar), among others.

Check it out via SoundCloud here.

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In this week’s column, random notes on Mula (delicious), zucchini (big), Maha (soon), Guardians (awesome) and cyclists (chubby) . You can read it in this week’s issue of The Reader or online right here.

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Speaking of Maha, the Maha Team announced yesterday that the festival is getting a Ferris wheel for the Aug. 16 concert at Stinson Park. “We are also introducing a game truck to the entertainment lineup in the early part of the day,” Maha said in a press release. “This truck will be stocked with a variety of XBOX, Nintendo Wii, and PlayStation 3 games.”

Ironically, I jokingly called their $50 ticket an “all-day ride pass” in my column this week not knowing about the impending Ferris wheel addition, which is bound to cause some confusion with someone.

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Couple shows to consider tonight:

At The Waiting Room indie/country blues band Bazile Mills headlines with Burkum Boys (the bros from Skypiper). $7, 9 p.m.

At The Barley Street, it’s The Talbott Brothers Band w/ Maxwell Hughes (former Lumineers guitarist, yes those Lumineers) and John Larsen. 9 p.m. $5.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Ross Brockley from a scene from Sick Birds Die Easy.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

In this week’s column, an interview with the Nik Fackler, Sam Martin and Ross Brockley, the stars of Fackler’s new film, Sick Birds Die Easy. Fackler separates the real from the unreal, the fact from fiction in this documentary that isn’t a documentary but kind of is. You can read it in the current issue of The Reader, or online right here. Go ahead and read it now and come on back, we’ll wait for you…

With the column being more of a review and description than a Q&A, there was a lot of leftover interview content that didn’t make into the 1,000-word news hole. Hopefully much of what I missed was covered in a story that (I was told) was being written by Leo Adam Biga, The Reader‘s cover story writer. That said, here are a few details:

— Sam Martin’s soundtrack is as central to the film as the visual footage. Martin seamlessly combines the style of music he’s known for with a sublime score that perfectly accentuates the mirth and madness of every frame. “All the score work was done after a (mostly) final cut was done,” Martin said, “but while Nik was editing I gave him a hard drive of everything I recorded in the last two years so he picked (music) out of that hard drive. After that I tracked all the score work.”

“It was like a treasure chest hard drive of amazing music,” Fackler added. As I mentioned in the column, the DVD version of the film comes with a separate copy of the soundtrack.

— Fackler said the film’s budget was a little less than $100,000. His producer was Steve Hays of 120 dB Films, who Fackler had met when his film Lovely, Still premiered in Toronto. “(Hays) whole concept was ‘Let’s make a film that’s kind of like this new genre that’s popping up that’s a hybrid, kind of like Paranormal Activity.’ Initially I wasn’t interested in doing it, but then sent him a one-page concept.”

Hays gave the green light and Fackler proceeded to shoot more than 500 hours of footage that took a year and a half to edit between tours with Icky Blossoms and Tilly and the Wall. The entire time Hays was breathing down his neck for a print to hand over to various festival committees.

“It was good having that pressure to get the film edited,” Fackler said, but added. “I’m really burnt out on editing. Editing this film really took a lot out of me. I’m ready to put that hat away.”

— I’ve been a fan of Ross Brockley since he played the slacker son in the series of commercials with the pitch phrase: “What do you think this is, a Holiday Inn?” Brockley becomes the central figure in this film — you love him, you hate him. I asked why he doesn’t do more work and Brockley said his main focus these days is his organic farm operation located south of Lincoln called Brockley Farmaceuticals that he’s operated for the past 14 years. The farm was partially paid for by his Holiday Inn work. Still, Brockley hasn’t turned his back on acting. “It’s not like I”m passing up roles and offers all over the place,” he said.

— Dana Altman of North Sea Films, who is seen running a camera in the movie and plays a minor role, is said by narrator Fackler to be giving up film making to buy a farm of his own. “He did buy a farm,” Fackler said during the interview. “It’s so beautiful, I think if Dana had his choice, he would be there full time, but you can’t take the film maker out of him. He’ll always love film.”

— As for Fackler’s future: “I don’t know what I’m going to do next,” he said. “I like to have small goals and work real intensely one thing at a time. I don’t like to have all my eggs in one medium. Right now the focus is releasing Sick Birds and then music full-time. I’ve started writing a new script. Film will always be a part of my life. I don’t see being a musician and touring into my 40s and 50s.”

If you don’t have tickets to next Tuesday’s screening of Sick Birds at Film Streams and you want to go, you better get them soon. Fackler implied sales have been brisk. I wouldn’t be surprised if it sells out. And though it will be available on DVD and Video on Demand, it’s worth seeing on the big screen. Details/tickets are available here, and the after-party at The Slowdown should be (as the kids say) off the hook.

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A couple shows on the radar tonight.

New band Long Low Signal headlines at The Waiting Room with The Love Technicians, The Sub Vectors and Let Alone. Interestingly, LLS plays tomorrow night at Slowdown, apparently prepping to go into the studio. I have no idea what they sound like. $5, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, tonight at Slowdown Jr., Betty Jean of The Betties is hosting a CD release show. Joining her is Travelling Mercies and Matt Cox. $5, 9 p.m.

And in Lincoln, it’s night two of Lincoln Exposed. Get the deets here.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Son, Ambulance at The Waiting Room, Jan. 16, 2014.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Saddle Creek tweeted last night that Son, Ambulance hasn’t performed in five years and “sounds like they’ve been practicing the whole time.” The sentiment was spot on. Joe Knapp stood proudly center stage backed by a four-piece band that included his brother on keyboards. He sounded like he never went on hiatus, his voice a Midwestern cross between Art Garfunkel and Elvis Costello, confidently pounding an electric guitar, shaking blood back into his hands between songs.

They opened with “Paper Snowflakes” off Key, and played a handful of favorites including “Juliet’s Son” off Someone Else’s Deju Vu and oldie “Katie Come True” off the Oh Holy Fools split. Hearing those tunes again was like slipping on a pair of well-worn shoes, comfortable and familiar, then looking at them in a mirror and marveling at how good they still look. Son, Ambulance music has indeed aged well and would fit in with the current mode o’ day of indie music.

The band’s overall sound seemed more straight-forward and less… ghostly than I remember from the old days. Listening to Deju Vu again after the show, I was surprised how much echo and delay they used in the studio on songs like the title track. Last night when Joe and Co. ripped into one of their more upbeat numbers they sounded like early, no-nonsense Marshall Crenshall; the sonic weight of the band felt stripped down and obvious. Nice.

While there might have been more than one new one (certainly there was more than one I was unfamiliar with) Joe introduced the set closer as a new song dedicated to last night’s birthday boy and his mother, the tune a gritty rocker about being a bad seed, a bad boy, a bad man. Sorry ma. Fantastic stuff. Hopefully Joe and Co. have more where that came from and we’ll be seeing a new Son, Ambulance record out on the Creek in the near future.

InDreama at The Waiting Room, Jan 16, 2014.

Prior to Son, Ambulance, InDreama lit the stage on fire with a ferocious performance that saw frontman Nik Fackler crush through the songs off the band’s debut LP. InDreama music dances between personal, quiet love songs and strange other-worldly bombastic head trips, a welcome extreme in contrasts few other bands local or otherwise seem to grasp. Ain’t nothing wrong with dynamics, folks.

I recognized one new song — or at least I haven’t heard it before — it came right after crowd-raver “Reprogram” and was straight-up big-rhythm rock. At their most enjoyable, InDreama strives for pop; at their most ambitious, they reach for epic. Great songs and great performances transport you. Set-closer “Exodus” conjured memories of standing along the Rio Grande River on the Laredo side and looking over at twilight, watching the neon and digital signage in the distance glow through the dust haze like staring at a futuristic third world, new and dangerous. With it’s huge, ominous duo synth tones growling like fog horns and Fackler’s feral yelps “Exodus” sounded like something off the Bladerunner soundtrack, like Vangelis on acid. Epic indeed.

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Onto the weekend.

Tonight’s feature show is at fabulous O’Leaver’s where Pro-Magnum headlines a bill that includes Dumb Beach, Fire Retarded and Coaxed. What’s better than a night of garage punk and mai thia’s? $5, 9:30 p.m.

Tomorrow night (Saturday) it’s the Battle of the Cover shows as two Benson venues host dueling covers nights.

At The Waiting Room, Hear Nebraska presents Take Cover Omaha, their annual fund raiser where a dozen or so Nebraska musicians cover a song by another Nebraska musician of their choice plus perform one of their own. The lineup includes Ted Stevens, Simon Joyner, Landon Hedges, Matt Whipkey, Darren Keen, Dan McCarthy, Sara Bertuldo, Ian Aeillo, Becky Lowry, Vic Padios, John Klemmensen, Rachel Tomlinson, Max Holmquist, Dan Scheuerman and John Larsen. I wonder how many will be doing Bright Eyes covers? $7, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, down the street at The Barley Street Tavern, it’s Lou Reed Tribute night where (you guessed it) local musicians cover a Reed classic. Performers include Mitch Gettman, John Klemmenson, Ben Sieff and Scott Severin. $5, 8 p.m. Wonder how many are covering “Sweet Jane”?

Also Saturday night, Rainy Road Records is hosting a label showcase at O’Leaver’s with performances by Touch People, Worried Mothers, and Cooper Lakota Moon. $5, 9:30 p.m.

That’s what I know. If I missed anything, put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend….

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

With nothing indie musicwise to write about this week (though my column, which goes online tomorrow, is about the Women Who Rock exhibit) I thought I’d take this moment to point out another in a series of flaws and apologize in advance…

I keep finding instances where I either spelled someone’s name or project wrong in a past article or blog post and the person who I was writing about (who must have known I blew it) said nothing. First, sorry for the f-ups. It’s happening more often lately, moreso (I think) out of work stress than age. Second, tell me when I got it wrong, please.

One guy who I’ve been mentioning in the blog for years recently pointed out (very subtly, very nicely) that I consistently spell his last name wrong. In addition to being a cardinal sin in journalism, I’m more than familiar with this sort of mistake as people always spell my name as if I were the lost son of Ed McMahon (there’s no f-ing “o” in my name).

And then yesterday in Facebook I noticed that the trailer for Nik Fackler’s documentary, Sick Birds Die Easy, was finally uploaded to YouTube. I was trying to figure out when I first wrote about Nik’s new movie, so I did a search in Lazy-i and discovered that I referred to the film as Sick Birds Die Young. What a massive f-up. And it appeared that way in print, too. Nik must have saw the error, but being the charming lad that he is, said nothing to me about it. If it appears only online, I can at least try to fix it (that’s the miracle of the Internet). If it’s in print, well, I can’t do anything about that as The Reader typically doesn’t publish corrections.

Anyway… Here’s the trailer to Nik’s new film. Looks like a drug-filled adventure featuring some familiar faces from the Omaha music scene. And tell me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that the guy from the “What do you think this is, a Holiday Inn?” commercials?

Here’s a classic Holiday Inn spot featuring above-mentioned actor. That series of commercials was better than 90 percent of the sitcoms aired on network television over the past 10 years:

That’s not the only project Nik has been busy with. There’s this little ol’ band called Icky Blossoms that just happens to have dropped a new video this week for the song “VIllage,” directed by and featuring the folks in Church of Tomorrow. As George Takei would say, “Oh my….”

One more thing…

As mentioned last week, the comments section of this website has been busted for who knows how long. It’s fixed, so you can now conveniently report my mistakes 24 hours a day…

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Nik Fackler

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

As mentioned before, I typically point you to my weekly column in The Reader on Thursdays because the topics generally aren’t music related, but when I do write music-related column, like this week’s interview with Nik Fackler, I’ll go ahead and include it here (as well as point you to The Reader‘s website). So here you go:

The filmmaker and musician is about to take another turn.

by Tim McMahan

Who exactly is Nik Fackler?

He used to be known as a filmmaker who wrote and directed Lovely, Still, the independent feature film starring none other than Martin Landau, Ellen Burstyn and Elizabeth Banks. If you haven’t seen it, you’re not alone.

But after the film failed to garner national distribution, Fackler changed careers. These days, he’s a rock star (whatever that means in the post-music industry era). In fact, this column was targeted to support the debut vinyl release by his band InDreama, which takes place this Saturday at The Slowdown in what surely will be an orgy of weirdness and delight performed (and viewed) through sweaty Halloween masks. Fackler would have it no other way.

But InDreama is just one slice of this musician’s life. Our interview for this column took place less than 24 hours after Fackler returned from a two-week tour playing bass with nationally known indie pop band Tilly and the Wall. Fackler talked via cell phone while driving from band practice with InDreama and heading to another band practice for dance/grind/vibe rock band Icky Blossoms, where he plays guitar. For those of you keeping count, that’s three bands, simultaneously.

So I guess Fackler is committed to being a musician, right?

Well, no. While all this was going on, Fackler completed his second feature film, the documentary Sick Birds Die Easy, and submitted it for consideration to the Sundance Film Festival. He’s keeping his fingers crossed that the movie will have its world premier there in January.

And then… what?

“Right now I feel overwhelmed,” Fackler said. “I would hope that I can do music for awhile, and if none of it succeeds, I’ll always have filmmaking waiting for me. It’s mostly filmmaking and storytelling that’s calling me, but music is a much easier way to express yourself. It’s more fun and it’s cooler than filmmaking, even though I think I’m better at filmmaking…”

Such is his conundrum. It’s not that Fackler is confused as much as exasperated. He says making films is really more about the business of selling a project. “You have to make the most beautiful package possible — here’s a great script, great actors, great music — it has to be something they can’t say ‘no’ to.”

“They” are the money people who will finance it all. The plan was to ride the success of Lovely, Still to his next film project. “I didn’t touch a guitar for two and a half years during Lovely, Still,” he said. “I was ready to be a filmmaker. And then Lovely, Still wasn’t successful. I’m proud of it and hope over time more people get to see it, but it didn’t go anywhere. It came out in 2007 when every (film) distribution company was closing its doors. The film sat there and waited for the economy to pick up and was forgotten.”

Meanwhile, Fackler’s disillusionment about the filmmaking process only grew. “I got to the point where it was time to write a new script, and that time passed me by,” he said. “I felt constricted. I hoped Lovely, Still would blow up and I could make another film right away. When it didn’t, I had to start over. I knew it would take years to make another film, so I picked my guitar back up because I needed an immediate release of creativity. If I don’t have that, I feel like I’m being choked.”

InDreama, self-titled (Team Love, 2012)

Fackler became a wanderer. He didn’t have a job, he slept on couches, he traveled. “I fell off the grid,” he said. And all the while, he wrote songs and recorded them on his MacBook using GarageBand. After a year, he had completed 15 songs, which he played for Ashley Miler, a Kansas City music producer with a “far out psychedelic mind” who helped pull it all together into a cohesive package.

The final product is a very strange, very personal musical document of Fackler’s lost year that listeners will either “get” or won’t. He hopes it’s the former but is okay if it’s the latter. “If people like the music, that’s awesome. If not, I’m not paying attention.”

While all that was going on, Fackler finished his next script, tentatively titled We the Living, which he said combines mythology and religion with a science fiction aspect. But before he figures out how he’s going to make it, he has to go on tour with both InDreama and Icky Blossoms before (hopefully) heading to Sundance to screen and promote Sick Birds...

So who exactly is Nik Fackler?

To me, he’s the same 19-year-old mop of hair that I remember meeting at his parents’ diner back in 2005. Goofy, smiling, bleary eyed and happy. Now 28, he never seems to age, but he’ll tell you he has.

“It gets harder as you get older,” he said. “No one is expecting anything from me, but I’m expecting more from myself. As I get older, it gets weirder. I own a house and am in debt to banks and don’t have health insurance (and probably should). Should I be worried about this? I’ve got all sorts of lives to live beyond this one.

“I would love to say I have a direct vision to my path, but I don’t,” he said. “I’ve really let go as an artist. I jumped off the path and don’t see it anymore, and something inside me tells me that’s okay.”

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Join Fackler on his pathless journey this Saturday at The Slowdown for the Freaks of the Night: Halloween Costume and Dance Party a.k.a. the InDreama record release show. Also on the bill is Icky Blossoms, Lincoln freak show performer Plack Blague and Places We Slept. Tickets for the 9 p.m. performance are $6.66 in advance or $8 day of show.

Over The Edge is a weekly column by Reader senior contributing writer Tim McMahan focused on culture, society, the media and the arts. Email Tim at tim.mcmahan@gmail.com.

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I’ve been listening to Philly dreampop band Sun Airway most of the morning. The publicist describes their music as “Touches of ELO and New Order brush up against hints of modern sounds like M83 and Radio Dept., carried by the subtle breeze of Bjork’s Homogenic,” which  pretty much sums it up. There’s definitely a heavy M83 dreamgaze thing going on. Pitchfork gave their last record, Soft Fall (Deep Ocean), a dazzling 7.3 rating. Check out their video for “Close,” below. Opening is Kite Pilot, who is on a bit of a local tour with four show slated in as many weeks. $12, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, over at O’Leaver’s, those boot-scootin’ sumbitches The Filter Kings are headlining a show with Reno Divorce and Ground Tyrants. $5, 9:30 p.m. Don’t forget your cowboy hat!

Finally, down at The Slowdown, it’s the return of Jakob Dylan and The Wallflowers, with Trapper Schoepp and the Shades. $30, 8 p.m.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2012 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.