Q&A: Dejima Captures the Complexities of Brotherhood in New Short Film ‘Swollen’
DRAWING HIS BRIDGE DOWN — Dejima, the psychedelic indie-rock musician, released his third EP, Swollen, back in April. On the EP, Dejima, also known as Kaveh Hodjat, finds a perfect balance within the six tracks. The 20-year-old musician sonically locks you in while leaving you on the edge of your seat, curious to discover where the story takes you next. But music isn’t the only skill you’ll find on his resume. Directing and writing is also on that list and he’s utilizing these skills to create a more ambitious project.
The accompanying short film for Swollen features five live performances and explores the relationship between two brothers and the complexities that accompany the dynamic.
“I think in this film, a big conflict is that one person is approaching this relationship with their bridge drawn down and the other one has theirs up,” Dejima explains. “So anything that this bridge brings, all their things are just falling down into the river because there's nothing for it to connect with. A relationship doesn't work if the two people aren't able to let go and become vulnerable with each other. Because with that, vulnerability creates a sense of trust and then … those two come together.”
Read below to learn more about the short film with Dejima.
LUNA: Congrats on the release of the short film! How are you feeling now that it’s out?
DEJIMA: I feel great that it's finally out there. I think we've been holding on to it for so long. When it came out, obviously, it's like the normal, anxious … “What are people gonna think?” but that's with every release. And then it came out and … so much was built inside me in terms of how much this project holds that for, like, four hours after it was released I was really sad for no reason. I don't know why exactly, and then I thought about it later and I was like, “Oh, it's because it's like this whole part of me was just taken out and now given to everyone else. I don't have control over it anymore.”
This phase is over and I need to move on to the next thing. But that was, like, four hours, and then it ended and I was like, “Okay, I grieved it.” But yeah, it's just very cathartic. It just feels good to have one of these ideas that me, Luke [my manager], and all our friends are always talking about and actually following through, executing, finishing, and putting out there. It seems like people are enjoying it, which is cool.
LUNA: How long was the production period?
DEJIMA: If you think of Swollen as a whole thing, it's been three or so years in the making. But the film itself, I think we conceived that idea around a year ago, last summer… But the songs of the EP I've been writing since 2021, 2020 — around there.
LUNA: During the pandemic?
DEJIMA: Yeah, which is when I really learned how to make music and dive into that. “It Was Nice To Have Met You,” for example, the second song on the project, was one of the first full songs I ever wrote on guitar, and it's very full-circle for it to release and come out now.
LUNA: During the process of creating the EP for Swollen, did you know that you wanted to create an accompanying short film? Or was that an idea that came to you later on?
DEJIMA: Yeah, it came after. I didn't know it was even an EP for a long time — I was just working on songs and then they kind of just happened to fit together really nicely. I kind of put together these six songs on intuition, like, “Oh, these work together really nicely,” and then me and Luke started talking about the tracklist. I don't know if you can see the Post-Its on his wall but we had a whole wall [of] Post-Its … breaking down the tracklist and being like, “Oh my god, there's like a crazy story here. There's a narrative, lyrically and thematically throughout the entire kind of EP.”
LUNA: That’s insane! I love how it’s also color-coordinated.
DEJIMA: Yeah, each color represented something else, and then simultaneously, throughout that happening we got the idea … “We should start exploring live music on film,” because a lot of psychedelic rock acts, people I look up to, have a lot of cool videos where they're playing their live sets, but it's filmed professionally and recorded professionally. I always love watching stuff like that. So we had an EP, a storyline, and a narrative, and then we also wanted to pursue live music in film. So we kind of just combined all those together and then that film was the product of that.
LUNA: Aside from music, you also have a passion for filmmaking. You not only had a hand in directing the short film but writing it as well. What was it like to bring these two art forms together? Was it your first time doing that? Any difficulty?
DEJIMA: I don't think it was the first time doing that… We’ve made so many music videos, and I think that was really good practice. But I guess we've never done something to this extent, where it's such narrative filmmaking mixed with music… Music videos can be a lot more abstract, and it's kind of vibe-based, the aesthetic. With Swollen, there was a clear narrative, an actual story, and matching that with the lyrics was tough at times, but it was really nice because the lyrics were the roadmap. Anytime we were stuck, we'd be like, “Okay, let's go back to the music,” and then we would listen back to the lyrics. The hero's journey was all right there, throughout the EP.
But yeah, me and Luke have a lot of experience working together, especially on the creative, producing side of things, and that was really nice. Also, my good friend John Kim, shot the film. It was a good process with us three involved in the story [together]. Once me and Luke had a basic structure of the story, I brought it to John and then we went into script format and started writing it together. John's also really into music videos but also narrative filmmaking, and we've been working together for a while. But yeah, filming it was a whole thing. And then editing it was a whole thing. But the whole thing was a whole thing.
LUNA: How long would you say it took you to write the script?
DEJIMA: I don't know how long it took, actually. I want to say it took maybe four to six months, four to five months, maybe, because I think we started in September and then we finished the script in December. But it was interesting because the whole time — starting [in] September, once we figured out what the emotional arc was throughout the EP — it was … so clear that that was there, but the difficult part was finding a narrative situation that we could plop these characters into [so it] would make sense that they would go into that emotional arc in the film world. So we just had to sculpt this world to be like, “Okay, this is how this character would follow the same path. As if the person making the EP was like a character.” And that was the toughest part, but we did it, though.
LUNA: The film revolves around the relationship between two brothers and the complications that come with that. Was this always the initial idea that you wanted to explore?
DEJIMA: There were a lot of different ideas. I knew it was a story between two people. I just didn't know what those two people were. It could have been a couple, could have been best friends, could have been strangers, could have been anything. But I think we just landed with brothers because there's something about a brother that I think is really interesting. Like, you always have them, you know, they're always there. So although the film's ending is kind of bleak, it’s kind of sad, but to me, because they're brothers, that's not the end of the story. I'm sure those characters will meet again and that storyline will continue, even if at that moment in the film it’s not the right time.
I also have an older brother and we’re really close. He’s actually an actor and he was going to be in it, actually. Both of my parents are in the film and we were both trying to have him come out to New Hampshire and film this because it’d be so cool, like, the whole family’s in the film. But he’s filming a show in Vancouver and is tied to that so… scheduling conflicts. But he helped with the scripts a lot. I kept sending drafts to him. He was the first person who saw the cut of the movie. He’s someone I always go back to and trust creatively so much, especially his feedback, and he loves the film so I’m super happy about that.
LUNA: Correct me if I’m wrong, but just as the EP touches on the theme of anxiety, so does the film. The way that the film visualizes anxiety is very creative. Is it a rash or this underlying bruise that your character is dealing with?
DEJIMA: Yeah, I think however you want to interpret it. I think an underlying bruise — I like the term, I think that's cool. It could be a rash. It could be hives. It could be anything. But it was a vessel to show the character's emotion throughout the film.
LUNA: You see it immediately when he goes back home and he sees his brother; when they’re sitting out on the porch and his leg is bouncing. It’s very creative and interesting how you’re depicting and visualizing that inner anxiety that he’s dealing with. It’s something that bleeds throughout the film, and halfway through that visualization it grows and explodes with your character tearing off bandages. Talk me through that scene and the decision behind that specific moment, red lighting and all.
DEJIMA: I think up until that moment in the film, the whole thing is boiling up. Like you said, the first moment, the first five seconds of the film, he gets to the house and it kind of starts. The character mentions that he hasn't had that problem in a while but now that he's back home it's starting to boil up again. As the interactions happen … the rash gets bigger and bigger. He asks for help, he tries to do things. I think “Tastemaker” is kind of the boiling point scene for the main character.
The whole concept of a bandage isn't something that is supposed to fix the issue — kind of just slap it on top, and you're like, “Oh, you're good for now. Just wait until it heals.” It's a much bigger issue than just something you could slap on, which I think in that case, emotionally for them it probably was. The main character kept asking for a band aid, and I think even though the other person wouldn't give it to him, he realized he needed to get it on his own, and once he did, he realized that didn't even help.
That scene where he's taking it [bandages] off, it’s a moment of frustration but also a moment of realization of how much he's gone through as well. Being able to take off the bandages, to look at his own bruises, and confront that to himself before he could approach someone else who is hurt. Like if two people are very hurt and are trying to talk to each other, it's usually not going to end up well. So yeah, that was kind of a boiling point scene, but also a self-confrontation scene.
LUNA: That visualization also returns for your character’s brother. He too has a moment where he unravels and tears bandages off of him. That moment gives viewers a look into that character’s mindset and shows that he is also battling with some anxiety. It further shows that even though there’s something complicated happening between these two brothers, they share something in common. Talk to me about that.
DEJIMA: I think with the flashback scene, that was just a glimpse of the conflict. That was something that we didn't want to fully dive into. We didn't want to go into the full substance of this history, but rather just the behavioral patterns of these two people. In a way, the way that they behave with each other is the conflict. That's shown through the dialogue and the body language. I feel like it's just a glimpse. Like you see someone with this shield or with this mask on, like they're impenetrable, and then for a glimpse, you see what they're going through and what's underneath that mask.
An analogy I kept saying throughout the writing process that helped me a lot was … two bridges. I feel like a functioning friendship, relationship, or anything between two people is like a drawbridge. Both of them have to be vulnerable and bring their bridges down. For trust to form and for things to get across each bridge, they need to connect so things can happen.
That's the tragedy of this brothership, and in that scene particularly, with their bridge drawn down, my character is able to peek and see what's beyond this wall. That’s what “Need” part two is and “Tastemaker” is — kind of my character now analyzing what’s behind my bridge, the things I need to deal with before I can draw it down and communicate with my brother. And I think the older brother isn’t quite able to do that or is still struggling in that area.
LUNA: In an interview with The Honey Pop, you talked a little bit about the filming process before the release of the short film. You mentioned how it was one the best experiences you’ve ever had but also one of the most intense. Take me back to those days when you were filming. You filmed in the dead of winter in New Hampshire. How many days did you spend filming?
DEJIMA: We filmed for six days. I think we were up there for seven or eight days for pre-production and breakdown. It was just insane. The fact that we pulled it off is crazy. We’re students, we’re all like 20–21 years old. None of us really knew what we were doing, and at the same time, we were able to string together 30 people and become very passionate about this weird, niche project, which I’m so grateful for.
Everyone there was just so into it, so willing to make this thing happen, and almost all Emerson students, so it was a great community thing to bring everyone in our school together especially because it was groups of people that I hadn’t worked with before.
LUNA: What’s next for you? Do you see yourself making a short film again for future projects?
DEJIMA: I’ve been making short films before Swollen and I’ll continue making them. Hopefully features — [that] would be awesome to get into at some point. They are a beast to tackle, though, so I’m working my way up there. I just love the intersection of film and music and both of them respectively. So however I can get my hands into them and continue making stuff, I’m going to keep doing that.
At the moment, I’ve been working on an album and that would be the biggest musical endeavor yet. I don’t know what will come with the album, if that’ll be like a film or an animation, I don’t know. I’m currently in LA right now and I have been writing the album and recording it every day, so that’s kind of where I’m at the moment, but yeah, something will develop though, I’m sure.
