Musician, filmmaker and copywriter Nick Kelly has worn many hats over the years. He played alongside Iggy Pop and Blur at the Reading Festival in 1991, with The Fat Lady Sings. He’s the man behind several iconic Guinness adverts, including Michael Fassbender’s 2005 jaunt to New York via the Atlantic Ocean.
Nick joined Ryan Tubridy on The Ryan Tubridy Show to tell him about his film, The Drummer and The Keeper.
While the writer and director of several short films, The Drummer and The Keeper marks Nick’s feature film debut. He describes it as "a buddy movie about an unlikely friendship". The inspiration for the film came from a phenomenon he has observed in his own life:
"At moments of huge crisis, the people who are supposed to be useful to you, like your family and your best friends, are – through no fault of their own – useless. And the weirdest people come out of the woodwork and are helpful to you."
The Drummer and The Keeper depicts a friendship between two teenagers. One is "a wild and crazy young rock drummer" who has Bipolar Disorder. The other is a goal-keeper with Asperger’s Syndrome. The pair meet at a mixed-ability football game.
Nick described to Ryan how his experience raising a child on the Autism spectrum informed aspects of the film. While insisting that "all parenthood is a learning curve", he told Ryan that part of the challenge in raising a child on the autism spectrum is helping your child understand an "illogical" world and, in turn, helping the world understand your child.
Listen back here to the wide-ranging interview which touches on Nick’s career as a musician, his time as a Copywriter for Guinness, the "wide bandwidth" of acceptable behaviour in the world of rock music and how we should all be invested in mental health.
