It’s been a few years, but New Zealand-based filmmaker Nick Setteducato is back with a new episode of Dr. Gordz, a spoof of Comedy Central’s Dr. Katz “starring” Phish bassist Mike Gordon as Dr. Gordz. The new episode — “Page Side, Rage Side” — features the voice of Gordon’s Phish band mate, Page McConnell, via the keyboardist’s Rig Videos.
In the third episode, Dr. Gordz talks with Page about his very special keyboard. Watch the third installment of Dr. Gordz below and read on for a quick interview with Nick:
JamBase: What inspired the latest episode of Dr. Gordz?
Nick Setteducato: Well, the whole series was inspired by an animated series I used to watch called Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist. The first two episodes of Dr. Gordz [ed. note: watch both installments below] featured Fish and Trey, so I’ve always planned to do one with Page. I had a hard time finding some fun audio to play with, and then my old friend Mario sent me a YouTube video of Page talking about his stage gear. The ideas just kind of came from watching that a few times and imagining some fun visuals, like the “Song Remains the Same” bit.
JamBase: Can you tell us about the process of putting the video together?
Nick Setteducato: This came together really quickly. I’ve learned a lot about the different tools over the past few years by working on various freelance and personal animation projects, so I’m getting a bit faster at taking an idea from inception to final video- and let’s be honest, this isn’t exactly Pixar quality. More recently, I’ve been focused on a lot of digital collage. I’ve been sharing that work on my Instagram, collaborating with other artists like Zoe Wilder, and printing and framing them for sale here in NZ. So this animation was a fun little project and a nice change of pace to work on during lockdown.
JamBase: Do you have any other Phish-related videos in the works?
Nick Setteducato: I recently completed a video for the great Reed Mathis project, Reed Mathis and Electric Beethoven, which features Mike Gordon, but that video has kind of stalled reaching the public. I’m still hopeful it will get shared at some point. As for other Phish-related videos, I’ve got a few I’d like to tackle including a Nintendo-inspired idea I have for “Cars Trucks Buses” and another stop-motion project featuring “Dog Faced Boy.” However, I’m always mindful that these are fan videos, and even though I use them to raise awareness about the WaterWheel and Mockingbird Foundations, I would be using Phish music without their permission. That could get me into trouble, and it would suck to devote a lot of time to something that might not be seen or could be taken down. I still remain hopeful that Phish will ask me to do the next tour announcement video, whenever that happens, so if Trey is reading this…
JamBase: How has it been living in NZ during the pandemic?
We have been extremely fortunate, our government has shown some real decisive leadership from very early on. New Zealand is a tiny island nation, and by shutting and controlling our borders we have been able to practically eliminate the virus. Things are pretty much back to normal in terms of our day-to-day life. But the economic impact has been pretty devastating for a country that relies heavily on tourism. For me personally, I struggle with feeling really isolated and helpless when talking to my friends and family back home. At times I even feel guilty about it. But as my very thoughtful mother put it recently, our circumstances here “give her hope”. The whole experience has really helped me focus on what is important in this life — friends and family. Technology like Zoom and Whatsapp has made it all bearable, but I’m still looking forward to seeing everyone again in person again, either in the States or here in NZ (a lot of people making plans to emigrate to NZ at the moment!) Of course, my mom has dibs on our spare room.
Setteducato makes the videos out of a labor of love as they are not monetized and come in support of the Phish community. Nick asks that if viewers enjoy the clip they donate to The WaterWheel Foundation, Mockingbird Foundation or the Southern Poverty Law Center, the beneficiary of tonight’s Dinner And A Movie archival video broadcast.
Here’s the first two episodes of Dr. Gordz:
