Justin Curfman
Encyclopedia
Justin Curfman is an award-winning animator
/filmmaker, musician
, author and artist who is, perhaps, best known for being the frontman for the band, Feeding Fingers
. Curfman was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia
. In 2010, Curfman relocated to Germany
.
At the age of 16, no longer satisfied by writing or recording sounds or music, Curfman began experimenting with stop-motion animation, in an attempt to recreate the events of an imaginary world of his creation, which he calls "Tephra".
Curfman worked in the stop-motion animation medium almost exclusively until 2005. He did, however, author and release two books during this period as well.
, horror
, or pornography
, with its unusual amalgamation of insect and masturbatory puppet
imagery within a miniature, dream-inspired, claustrophobic environment.
Curfman's artistic work is often categorized as neo-expressionism
, sharing similarities to fellow neo-expressionists Tim Burton
and The Brothers Quay.
His second, and most well-known film, Tephrasect (2004), won Curfman his first award for Best Animated Film at the Atlanta Underground Film Festival, Best Animated Film at the Muuuvi Film Festival in Lazarea, Romania
, among others, and continues to be screened in festivals and cult communities all over the USA and Europe. The creation of Tephrasect occupied nine obsessed, non-stop months of Curfman's life, where he lived on a strict diet of pasta, baked potatoes, and water once a day for the duration of the production. Curfman slept for four hours per night and worked exclusively in his squalid childhood home - a dilapidated bungalow in a suburb of Atlanta, which has since been demolished.
His third film, Platelets: Lepidopteraphage (2006), which combined stop-motion puppet animation into computer-generated environments, netted him The David Lynch
Award at Cinerama 2006 in Florida
. The film also introduced Curfman's assisted-eating device, The Lepidopteraphiator - a cervical collar with a light bulb at the end of an adjustable metal arm which can be attached to one's neck and used to lure insects into one's mouth for nourishment. Curfman directed a two-minute commercial to advertise the device in 2009, which featured Jewish cultural commentator, Patrick A. from PunkTorah and Can Can, Melissa Butzer (wife of multi-instrumentalist Jeffrey Butzer), Sharron Scott-Von Hoene (vocalist for Cinetrope), Stephanie Roman and Devon Stawkowski.
' debut album, Wound in Wall
(2007). With the album finished, Curfman felt a need to play the songs live. His idea came into fruition as the formation of the band, with Danny Hunt on drums and Todd Caras (formerly of Entertainment
) on bass, Justin Curfman led the band on guitar, keys and vocals.
Feeding Fingers' debut album became a sleeper hit amongst goth crowds, receiving rave reviews, where they noted Curfman's vocal likeness to Robert Smith
of The Cure. The most attention came from Europe
, where post-punk
and gothic rock
maintain their relevance. Eventually, the band released their second album, Baby Teeth
(2008). This album was more of collaborative effort, than the Curfman-centric Wound in Wall. This album also helped the band succeed where the other album failed. It managed to bring in a much-needed American audience, as college radio stations began playing Baby Teeth.
In March 2010, Curfman and Feeding Fingers made their first tour of Europe, playing in The Netherlands, Italy (sharing a show bill with Nitzer Ebb), Romania and Poland. The tour was well-attended, well-received and extremely successful.
Curfman returned to the USA after the Feeding Fingers tour of Europe of 2010. Soon thereafter, Curfman moved to Germany in an effort to be closer to his fan-base. Before his departure in May 2010, the band released their first live album, Anything But Water
. Also before his departure, Curfman finished recording the band's third studio album, Detach Me From My Head
which was released September 28, 2010 - a critical success.
It is rumored that Curfman is currently working on a solo album and another Feeding Fingers release.
Animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...
/filmmaker, musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, author and artist who is, perhaps, best known for being the frontman for the band, Feeding Fingers
Feeding Fingers
Feeding Fingers is a music trio founded by award-winning multimedia artist, musician, author, animator and artist, Justin Curfman. The band was founded in 2006 in Atlanta, Georgia, but has since relocated to Germany.-Formation :...
. Curfman was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
. In 2010, Curfman relocated to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
Early life
At the age of 14, Curfman was involved in a serious automobile accident, which left part of his face prominently scarred. Using the money awarded to him from the case settlement, Curfman purchased a four-track analog recorder, which he used to record random sounds and mix them into what he recalls as a "sound-salad." Eventually, his interest in recording equipment led him to experiment with musical instruments and arrangements. He taught himself, with some assistance from his grandmother, jacqueline Gann-Curfman (a veteran country-western musician and casual performer at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, TN) how to play piano, violin, guitar, bass and drums.At the age of 16, no longer satisfied by writing or recording sounds or music, Curfman began experimenting with stop-motion animation, in an attempt to recreate the events of an imaginary world of his creation, which he calls "Tephra".
Curfman worked in the stop-motion animation medium almost exclusively until 2005. He did, however, author and release two books during this period as well.
as an animator
Curfman's professional creative career began when he released his first film, Zugskin (2003). The short film was received with a bit of confusion by the art, animation and avant-garde film societies Curfman had associated himself with at the time - not knowing if the film should be considered a piece of artArt
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
, or pornography
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
, with its unusual amalgamation of insect and masturbatory puppet
Puppet
A puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by an entertainer, who is called a puppeteer. It is used in puppetry, a play or a presentation that is a very ancient form of theatre....
imagery within a miniature, dream-inspired, claustrophobic environment.
Curfman's artistic work is often categorized as neo-expressionism
Neo-expressionism
Neo-expressionism is a style of modern painting and sculpture that emerged in the late 1970s and dominated the art market until the mid-1980s...
, sharing similarities to fellow neo-expressionists Tim Burton
Tim Burton
Timothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...
and The Brothers Quay.
His second, and most well-known film, Tephrasect (2004), won Curfman his first award for Best Animated Film at the Atlanta Underground Film Festival, Best Animated Film at the Muuuvi Film Festival in Lazarea, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, among others, and continues to be screened in festivals and cult communities all over the USA and Europe. The creation of Tephrasect occupied nine obsessed, non-stop months of Curfman's life, where he lived on a strict diet of pasta, baked potatoes, and water once a day for the duration of the production. Curfman slept for four hours per night and worked exclusively in his squalid childhood home - a dilapidated bungalow in a suburb of Atlanta, which has since been demolished.
His third film, Platelets: Lepidopteraphage (2006), which combined stop-motion puppet animation into computer-generated environments, netted him The David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
Award at Cinerama 2006 in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. The film also introduced Curfman's assisted-eating device, The Lepidopteraphiator - a cervical collar with a light bulb at the end of an adjustable metal arm which can be attached to one's neck and used to lure insects into one's mouth for nourishment. Curfman directed a two-minute commercial to advertise the device in 2009, which featured Jewish cultural commentator, Patrick A. from PunkTorah and Can Can, Melissa Butzer (wife of multi-instrumentalist Jeffrey Butzer), Sharron Scott-Von Hoene (vocalist for Cinetrope), Stephanie Roman and Devon Stawkowski.
as frontman of Feeding Fingers
Curfman also had a catalog of unused music that was left out of his films. Eventually, he decided to finish writing these songs and release them as an album. This album would become Feeding FingersFeeding Fingers
Feeding Fingers is a music trio founded by award-winning multimedia artist, musician, author, animator and artist, Justin Curfman. The band was founded in 2006 in Atlanta, Georgia, but has since relocated to Germany.-Formation :...
' debut album, Wound in Wall
Wound in Wall
Wound In Wall is the debut album of the dark wave/post-punk band Feeding Fingers, released . Wound In Wall was the result of the purging of a large back-catalog of music that was written by Justin Curfman from aged 16 onward from 1996 to 2005 that never found a home in any of his film projects...
(2007). With the album finished, Curfman felt a need to play the songs live. His idea came into fruition as the formation of the band, with Danny Hunt on drums and Todd Caras (formerly of Entertainment
Entertainment (band)
Entertainment is an American post-punk band founded in 2002 in Athens, Georgia.- Biography :Entertainment was formed in 2002 by Trey Ehart and Bari Donavan Watts after the two met and played together in the early Atlanta dark music scene...
) on bass, Justin Curfman led the band on guitar, keys and vocals.
Feeding Fingers' debut album became a sleeper hit amongst goth crowds, receiving rave reviews, where they noted Curfman's vocal likeness to Robert Smith
Robert Smith (musician)
Robert James Smith is an English musician. He is the lead singer, guitar player and principal songwriter of the rock band The Cure, and its only constant member since its founding in 1976...
of The Cure. The most attention came from Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, where post-punk
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
and gothic rock
Gothic rock
Gothic rock is a musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...
maintain their relevance. Eventually, the band released their second album, Baby Teeth
Baby Teeth (Feeding Fingers album)
Baby Teeth is the second album from the dark wave/post-punk band Feeding Fingers, released on . Because Wound In Wall was mostly composed by lead singer, Justin Curfman, in his mid-teens, he decided that Baby Teeth needed to be shorter, tighter, and more a Feeding Fingers album rather than a...
(2008). This album was more of collaborative effort, than the Curfman-centric Wound in Wall. This album also helped the band succeed where the other album failed. It managed to bring in a much-needed American audience, as college radio stations began playing Baby Teeth.
In March 2010, Curfman and Feeding Fingers made their first tour of Europe, playing in The Netherlands, Italy (sharing a show bill with Nitzer Ebb), Romania and Poland. The tour was well-attended, well-received and extremely successful.
Curfman returned to the USA after the Feeding Fingers tour of Europe of 2010. Soon thereafter, Curfman moved to Germany in an effort to be closer to his fan-base. Before his departure in May 2010, the band released their first live album, Anything But Water
Anything But Water
Anything But Water is Feeding Fingers' first live album. It was first announced during an interview with Justin Curfman on April 7, 2010. Curfman revealed that the live album was created simply because there was a huge back-catalog of live recordings from the previous 3 years just waiting for...
. Also before his departure, Curfman finished recording the band's third studio album, Detach Me From My Head
Detach Me From My Head
Detach Me From My Head is the third studio album from dark wave/post-punk band Feeding Fingers. It was released on . This is the band's first album since their move to Germany. On June 2, 2010, Feeding Fingers officially released the cover art, tracklisting and a sampler of the album...
which was released September 28, 2010 - a critical success.
It is rumored that Curfman is currently working on a solo album and another Feeding Fingers release.