Daniel Roher and Once were brothers - the story of The Band

A new film, Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band, is a highlight of the New Zealand International Film Festival this year

The effect of The Band's first two albums on the Woodstock generation was momentous.

At a time when everyone was turning up the volume, and heading into the psychedelic future, these four Canadians – Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson and Richard Manuel - and an Arkansas drummer, Levon Helm, did the opposite.

They turned right down and looked back into America's musical past.  At times they seemed more at home in the 1870s than the 1970s.   

Once Were Brothers director Daniel Roher told Simon Morris the film looks at The Band primarily through the eyes of principal songwriter Robbie Robertson.

“My film is specifically through the lens and the view of their guitar player and principal song writer Robbie Robertson.

“The film tells the story of this young man growing up in Toronto who dreamed of having this big life and finding a stage for himself and playing his music all over the world.

“And it’s the tale of how he hooked up with these four random musicians and went on the ride of a lifetime backing up some of the most incredible musicians in history and making their own musical mark that will live on forever.”

The film is a love story, Roher says.

“It’s about these five young men who forged a loving friendship bond and the music that they made together as a result of that.

“But like any good love story I guess this one is a tragedy in so far as their greater collaboration ultimately was impossible.”

The Band were a road-hardened outfit when they teamed up with Bob Dylan in the mid-1960s.

They had cut their teeth playing with Rockabilly artist Ronnie Hawkins as The Hawks in Canada, and when their paths crossed with Dylan they were the perfect outfit to take his music in the harder rock direction he was planning.

They backed him on an infamous world tour when Dylan “went electric” – alienating some of his purist folk fans.

When the tour was over, The Band holed up with Dylan in Woodstock, New York State.

“And so they go up there, they rent this ugly pink house and every afternoon for three or four hours Bob comes over and they’re just jamming and playing and making music without a care in the world.

“The guys in The Band were on a stipend, they got a little bit of money from Bob’s manager Albert Grossman. enough to live off of, and they were just playing music as if no one was listening.”

From those sessions came the famous Basement Tapes.

“There was the expectation that no one would ever hear these songs, and it was only later that they became this epic, magical, incredible thing.”

Robertson had been playing close attention to how Dylan worked during those sessions, Roher says.

“Robbie Robertson’s genius is he was able to absorb a little bit of that Bob Dylan magic whereas the other guys would go and party and go sight-seeing.

“Robbie was next to Dylan - watching Dylan write songs he was paying attention to how Dylan thinks, and I think some of that genius rubbed off on him a little bit I don’t think Robbie becomes the songwriter he did without Dylan’s influence.”

While Dylan goes off to record Nashville Skyline The Band start work on what would become Music From Big Pink.

“This sound that seemed to come out of nowhere, this unique approach to music as the world was embracing psychedelic sounds and guitar solos that went off into space, The Band was doing something that was a little bit more home-spun that maybe would make you want to step up onto the front porch and start whittling a piece of wood or play the fiddle.

“It was new and fresh yet sounded like it had always been there, and it had this really antiquated beautiful quality.”

All five members of the group brought something to the sound.

“It speaks to musical education of each one of the guys. Robbie Robertson grew up playing country songs on his mum’s indigenous reserve. Robbie’s mother was Mohawk first nations.

“Garth Hudson grew up as a choir boy singing gospel and then he got into jazz and was into middle eastern music. Richard Manuel’s idol was Ray Charles.

“And then of course Levon was from the heart of it all from the Mississippi delta in Arkansas and he grew up going to these minstrel shows and listening to Sonny Boy Williams on the radio.

“And all of these interests and tastes mix together in this pot of gumbo that was like nothing anyone had ever heard before.”

The relationship between Helm, who Roher says was "the soul" of The Band, and Robertson is at the heart of the film. It was a troubled relationship, and after The Band split in 1976, Helm was publicly critical of Robertson for stealing the limelight.

“Robbie only ever had love and respect for Levon and I think Robbie understood where some of Levon’s frustration and anger came from.

In Robbie’s mind that was just Levon being Levon the same grudges that Levon used to hold towards promoters and other musicians in the early 60s is the same energy that Robbie picked up on later in life.

“When Levon was passing away he made the trip to go see Levon and to me that was a very profound gesture that really speaks to the love and devotion he had towards Levon and really.”

The Band’s five members all brought something unique to the mix, he says.

“Here was a group that was greater than the sum of its parts if you take one guy out of this group you don’t have the group anymore.

“They weren’t really rock stars, they didn’t aspire to be rock stars they were musicians - the noblest of professions.”