Watch Mobley's Collaborative Album A HOME UNFAMILIAR on YouTube Tonight

During the month of April, musician/multimedia artist Mobley conceived and directed A Home Unfamiliar, a collaborative visual album bringing together 30 musicians and filmmakers from in and around Austin, TX. The visual album premiered on Alamo Demand where it has already raised more than $20,000 for coronavirus relief efforts by the Central Texas Food Bank and The Dawa Fund, an organization providing direct aid for people of color serving as artists, social workers, teachers, healing practitioners and service industry workers.

Tune in below!

Today, A Home Unfamiliar will premiere on Youtube at 8:00pm CST. During the premiere, there will be a live chat portion with Mobley where all of the musicians and filmmakers involved in the film will be invited to interact. After the premiere, musicians Shakey Graves, Jim Eno (Spoon) and AJ Haynes (Seratones) and filmmakers Sarah Jones and Emily Basma will join Mobley for a virtual roundtable discussion to continue the conversation and answer questions from viewers. Watch / join the roundtable discussion HERE.

Inspired by the surrealist parlor game "Exquisite Corpse," each artist had two days to create their segment, having seen or heard only a small portion of the previous artist's contribution. The finished product is a single collective work that explores this unique moment of both profound isolation and interconnectedness.

The long list of collaborators highlights the depth of Texas's talented and thriving music and film scene. At the helm was Mobley, whose new EP was scheduled for release in May before the pandemic delayed those plans. Jim Eno shares his first solo work, despite decades behind the kit in legendary indie act Spoon. They are joined by Shakey Graves, members of Wild Child and Seratones and acclaimed composer Graham Reynolds, known for his work scoring Richard Linklater films. One of the filmmakers, Jonathan Horstmann, had to make a cross-country move and ended up creating his piece entirely from the passenger's seat, while another, Shannon Wiedemeyer, didn't have access to her professional gear in quarantine, so she shot hers on her childhood camcorder. See below for the full list.

On the idea behind creating A Home Unfamiliar, Mobley says "I came up with the project because, like so many, I felt bewildered and helpless in the face of the global pandemic. But I looked out and saw countless people working hard and braving incredible peril to get us all through this. The work I know best is music and filmmaking and I knew there must be a way to direct that work toward their crucial efforts. Pooling the talents of a bunch of musicians and filmmakers for a project like this seemed like a great way to raise some money for COVID-19 relief, but the radically collaborative nature of the project is also a compelling demonstration of the beauty and potential of collectivism. Virtually everyone involved has expressed how meaningful it's been to contribute to something greater than themselves at a time like this."

Generous charitable donations were provided by Alamo Drafthouse, Franchise Charities, Karbach Brewing Co., Last Gang Records, Lyft's LyftUp program and Ozarka® Brand Natural Spring Water. 101X, KUTX and Do512 added promotional support. All the artists donated their labor, with the goal of using their art to help those affected by the pandemic.

Photo Credit: Andrew Bennett.

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