While nearly 18 million viewers were tuned in to the Oscars Sunday night, Island Styles was performing on a stage in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Baltimore-born musician had just finished a set with the rock band Candlebox and was about to play another. Then he opened his phone to over 75 text messages, emails and calls.
That’s when he knew: He had won. “You know, 75 people aren’t texting you because you lost,” Styles says. The Singers, directed by Sam Davis, won Best Live Action Short Film at the Academy Awards. The documentary-musical centers a small group of talented buskers, street artists and viral personalities that connect over music in a seedy bar. Styles worked as the film’s composer, sound designer, and on-set music consultant, and he also made recordings of the singers featured in the film.
The picture also tied for first place with “Two People Exchanging Saliva,” marking only the seventh tie in Oscar history. “Ironic that the Short Film Oscars is going to take twice as long,” Kumail Nanjiani quipped while presenting the awards.
The reality of last weekend’s Academy Award win is still sinking in, Styles says. The 38-year-old got his start in the DC area singing in a church choir as a kid. He began playing at dive bars around the DC region with his father when he was 16, in venues not unlike those portrayed in The Singers. A few years later, while working at a Guitar Center, he met his schoolmate, the Maryland singer Niki Barr, and began touring internationally in Barr’s eponymous band. Back home, he grew his network, connecting with musicians in basements and bars around DC, including the Velvet Lounge, the Black Cat, and Fletcher’s in Baltimore…