Whaaaa??
I mean, "Billie Jean is not my lover." :-)
Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" provided Liz and me with endless amounts of fun. I know, I know; it sounds like a terrible idea on paper -- "Billie Jean" for a classical piano duo?!? My older brother suggested the idea in 2007, and I tossed it around for a few years before deciding to give it a go. I knew a direct transcription of the original would almost be disrespectful... nothing could ever fully recreate Michael Jackson's legendary performance. Instead, we decided to follow our own artistic path, using Jackson's wonderfully fertile musical material as inspiration.
I'm quite thrilled with the result! It's at once modernist, rhythmic, offbeat, and "classical."
We had a blast conceiving and producing the music video. Anna Whistler, our incomparable camerawoman and friend, turned the stage into a dance floor, and before we knew it, we had fantastic footage of our dancing shadows to splice into the final cut. Ultimately, however, we decided on a more understated tone for the video (in contrast to some of our others)... keeping it classy for MJ. Also, a special shout out to Smith College and Yale alumniVentures for helping to make the music video possible.