Drama, Horror | 19 April 2022

Conner O'Malley

In celebration/memory of Negativland co-founder Richard Lyons' April 19th birthday/death anniversary, here is a new short film made for the Negativland track "I Didn't Know I Was Dead." It stars Conner O’Malley and Robby Rackleff, and was produced by James Trevor. The vocals for this track were recorded by Lyons as he was dying from nodular melanoma, and were discovered posthumously by his bandmates. Since the cancer affected his ability to speak, there was take after take of him reading his text as he tried to get through each sentence without slurring the words. The vocals were edited together by Negativland after his death, and blended with their electronic sounds and The Weatherman's stomach noises. The words are from the point of view of a frightened Christian boy having a terrible dream, and reflect both Richard's own upbringing, his typically darker than dark sense of humor, and that he knew that he didn't have much longer to live. He died on his birthday, April 19, 2016.