By Derek Roper

Staff Writer

Usually, when students finish with college, they have to start finding jobs in the ‘real-world.’ That expectation sounded too real for James Keenan, lead singer of A Life of Science, who was at the 10th Annual Baltimore Comic-Con during a tour to promote the band’s apocalyptic story project which will include their first album, comic, film, and novel all rolled into one.

Name: Jon Tate. Occupation: A genius in robotics —actually, his real occupation involves bringing an end to the world. But as of right now, he floats to the bottom of the sea and his life flashes before his eyes. This is the premise of The Apneist.

The story behind this story gets its start during an end (much like Jon’s). Keenan, the lead vocalist from ALS, was finished with his time at Northern Arizona University and came home to look for a job. “I had to leave a life of partying and girls to try to get a job in the real world. Music was my only escape from that reality,” Keenan said.

Keenan said that, in essence, the story reflects his own life story. It is “a story about being on top of the world one minute, and having that world come to an end the next minute. I just told my story through the eyes of Jon Tate and drew parallels between our worlds,” Keenan recalled. Both the character and the creator missed the lives they left behind and created “synthetic forms of happiness to replace our old realities,” Keenan added.

While in the story, Jon may have created a robot to satisfy his needs, James Keenan, his real counter-part decided to write an album. ALS continued to write, and as they did, the story progressed. Some of their friends became intrigued with the story and suggested that they put it into an art form other than music. At first, the members of ALS shrugged off this suggestion, but the deeper they got into the creation of album, the more they wished to tell the story through other media.

Keenan and the other members of ALS needed help in putting their story down on paper. “I sat down with an Arizona screenwriter (Nathan Blackwell) to put together a clear, concise story treatment. Once we were happy with that, we sent it off to our novelist (Josh Isaac), our comic artist (Will Torres) and our director (Joe Homokay),” Keenan added.

The band made the decision to turn it into a comic and more than 70 artists from across the country applied to be a part of the project. Penciler, Will Torres, was chosen for the project and became very enthusiastic, sometimes even hounding the band.

While The Apneist project is the first of its kind, the group has followed the example of bands Coheed and Cambria and Fall Out Boy to produce a tour with the comic as a backdrop. The album sounds like a combination of the electronic band, Daft Punk, and the new band, Owl City. The songs give off an aquatic feel and each song represents a memory that Jon manifests as he continues to sink to his doom. The tremolo vocals and underwater bubble samples are the product of producer Larry Elyea (Jimmy Eat World) who was told everything he needed to know about the story before assembling the album.

While in the story, the future for Jon Tate looks bleak, the future for the members of A Life of Science looks bright. A novel is currently in production and a whole new story is being created as well. Expect The Apneist to become mass-marketed in bookshops in the near future.

Visit theapneist.com for more information.

Comments may be sent to roderek1@umbc.edu